blueovalz

Hey guys, I've got an issue with my power assisted steering that I need advice on. I've re-installed the OEM (longer) steering arms in an attempt to increase the Lock-to-Lock steering ratio (to slow down the steering). What I want to avoid is replacing the rack with one of a larger ratio due the work involved. If I could just increase the effort or feedback into the steering wheel a bit, then I'd be happier. My question is: Have any of you experimented with, or have experience in placing a "bypass" tube between the high and low pressure hoses of the power steering system (with an adjustable valve in-line with this tube), so that a portion of the steering fluid, being pushed to the rack by the pump, is simply re-routed (bypassed) around the rack, thus diminishing the amount of "assist" this fluid provides? I'm looking for ways to "load" the steering a bit.

Try narrowing the seach key words to focus on a Ford (or Mustang) rack or even RX7 and Miata racks. These are the ones that have been used by the members here with good info in them. It should narrow the returns.

I believe your reasoning is correct IF the dimensions of the insert are close to ideal for your particular application. For example: You've just lowered your car 1.5"; and for example the OEM compliance is 6" (just throwing out a number here, which may not be correct, but it will illustrate my point). This means that instead of having the OEM 3" up and down movement over static ride height, you now have 1.5" of compression, and 4.5" of rebound. This means you'll most likely bottom out on the strut housing periodically. To fix this problem, your replacement insert is needing to be 1.5" shorter (on the housing only, not the "rod") than the OEM size would be, which would necessitate the shortening of the housing by said amount, and everything would be hunky-dory. But suppose the closest thing to your needed dampening requirements necessitated the purchase of a replacement insert that was 3" shorter than the OEM size (or instead of the 1.5" shorter one). Then if I cut the strut tube to match this much shorter insert, then the center of compliance is no longer in the middle of the operating window of the insert. Now with this much more shorter insert, the compression length (again, with the same lowered car of 1.5") would be 4.5" and rebound would be 1.5" (now the problem is in jerking the insert out of the housing whenever the suspension goes to full droop). To fix this and get the travel back to the middle of the strut, I would need to add a 1.5" spacer in the bottom (which gets the top of the housing back to the level of being 1.5" lower than OEM) of the housing to get the static ride height back into the center of the insert's movement window (which means the strut tube length must now be a bit longer to compensate for the additional spacer under the insert). Basically, if you lower the car by 1.5", then you need the top of the strut housing to be lowered by 1.5". This example still leaves other factors out (e.g. different insert operating lengths or windows, spring rates, swaybar sizes, etc), but it was simply to illustrate a reason why a spacer is sometimes needed.

Yeah, this was the reason I went 360 degrees all the way around the car with the plastic sheeting so that the floor (and it's dust) was separated from the paint environment. A note on the PVC type of tube I used. After I started building the booth, I found the schedule 40 pipe (the thick-wall tube) to be of no advantage in stiffness over the thin-walled (and cheaper) tube. I attribute this to two things. 1) Most of the tubes rigidity comes from the outer circumference, in; 2) the extra weight of the thicker tube caused it to bow under it's own weight more than the thin-walled tube did. In the end, I replace all the sch 40 tubes with the thinner tubes before finishing the booth.

I'm thinking the same thing. I believe the holes will need to be re-chamfered if too much material has been removed. I'm not well versed in this, but I believe the chamfering reduces the chances of cracks starting a the holes?

This is almost exactly the way I recently painted my Z, except I used 3/4" thin-walled PVC pipe as the framing: The paint fumes were not an issue inside the house, but I took a few extra steps to insure the paint went outside the garage. I used 6-mil plastic sheet that was duct-taped at ALL seams to make it airtight. Then I sealed a fan at one end with two allergen grade central A/C type of filters, sealed on the intake side of the fan (I used two large filters oriented into a large "V" in front of the fan so as to double the area of the filter element, making the airflow more efficient. Then I installed a fan on the other side as well to draw the air out. A brush-less motor was used for this to prevent ignition of fumes as they passed through the exhaust fan. It all worked well EXCEPT for one major issue (which was resolved by being very careful), which was the plastic sheeting. I seems that the plastic has a Teflon or silicon based residue on it. Get this on your hands, and then touch the part(s) being painted, and it's fisheye city. I used (can't remember if it was acetone or lacquer thinner) a solvent to remove this residue on the edges where tape was used to seal the plastic, otherwise the tape basically just fell off (did not stick at all until the residue was removed). Now with all this said, and hopefully Ernie will add his expertise in here soon, the fumes inside the booth were deadly, and required a fresh air hood, and not simply a filtered mask. The fumes could probably be lessened with the fans on during the spraying, but I hate spraying with the air "on" unless it's a "whole car" job.

You're almost right on with that comment. I was a little taken back as well. I had no idea anybody in LR had one. I was told by this driver that his SL500 got rear-ended by a kid, was being repaired, and that the 360 was his daily driver until he gets the MB back. Man! What a life! Anyway, I walked out to the edge of the highway and requested he do a hard pull as he left just so I could listen to the "music" as he drove off. Really nice guy. I guess I need to hang out in West LR more often and see if I can find a Turbo Porsche next

Yep, and I didn't do half bad 8). I was heading out of town, and got behind him on the way out. As the traffic thinned out, he slowed down to about 35mph (on a four-lane highway). I slowed down with him, and downshifted to an "appropriate" gear. Just as I was about to change lanes toward the inside lane, I saw that he had nailed it (surprising amount of "light brown" exhaust gas when he pushed it to the floor) . Not to be outdone, I nailed it as well. I slowly crept up on him through the end of 2nd gear , held side by side in 3rd , and then he slowly gained the advantage midway through 4th gear . By then my gonads had shriveled up to nothing and felt it the better part of valor to slow back down below the triple digit speeds we had reached (I don't mind a 1-2 pull, but even on the open highway, a 3rd gear max starts getting to be a little over the edge). Anyway, this validated my 3 timed runs (last week) of 0-60, which averaged 4.11 seconds. After this incident, we both pulled over and reviewed each other's car. It was then that he claimed he had a "1 out of 150" special edition 360 Modena that had a factory installed 500hp (100 over the normal 360s) engine. He also claimed that he was not "in it all the way", but IMHO you don't get that much exhaust from anything other than WOT. Anyway, it was another "blue and white" (not Williams) attempt to beat the "red" team. BTW, this car (the Modena) is absolutely awesome, from it's brakes, to the under tray and diffuser, to......everything!

Those darned consequences that keep arising as a result of a job well-done.

Too funny!

As in the Phantom Grip?

Yeah, everybody got their flags out and waved them when the towers fell. And anybody who didn't was labeled a non-patriot. So when a bill titled "Patriot Act" was presented, what do you think would happen? What was the term.... "Sheepeople" ....as coining by another member??? Anyway, calling it the "Patriot Act" was as much of a crime as voting for it. The name in itself has politics written all over it.

And then graft a Z front clip onto it!

I like the drawing, and the concept. But in regards to BMW's Z3 M sports coupe is a very good example of what I think is a great "mix":

Amen to that. I've gotten more attention from middle-aged women (make note not to let spouse see this post) and hard core bikers. Two sectors of the driving public I would have guessed had no interest in the Z.

What was he thinking?

links don't work for me, but looking forward to seeing these photos, and more. If you get an opportunity to weigh the engine, please do.

Naw, that won't be happening. But something like this can be made separately from the car and attached later. The only issue I would have is that I don't want to put something on the car that represents something it's not (such as, the appearance of a working diffuser when it doesn't really do anything)

Is that galling on the side of the piston? Past experience indicates to me the engine was overheated (badly) at one time (perhaps before you became the owner?)

This question is exhaustingly vague . What characteristic of exhaust are you wanting to measure?

Ernie; Thanks from the rest of the Hybrids as well. I personally enjoyed the vintage stuff very much (but then, you already knew that)

When I see this I ask myself, "what could possibly keep the same thing from happening here in the US?" Then I listened to one of our administration's spokepersons patting himself on the back saying "proof of our success in the war on terrorism is the lack of any attack since 9/11." Yet I see how truely vulnerable we are in regards to this recent Soviet attack and think, "how arrogant can we possibly be?" I guess we thought we were pretty successful on 9/10 as well. For a species that considers itself "enlightened," I find the actions taking place over there by humans, upon humans (and many other locations), to be very depressing.

Looking good. Keep the photos coming on your progress. The flaring and tail ought to visually work well together.

If indeed it does work well, then perhaps with some proper underbody work and panels, I may be able to make a diffuser incorporating the rear underbelly tray on the BlueOvalZ as such:

The latest AW has a photo of the new Ferarri 430. The photo is a rear shot showing a diffuser, but this is an odd design in that my first impression is "rice". The reason I say this is that this externally viewed part follows the bottom of the car up and around the rear at a quite high angle (far beyond normally accepted angles and very short). I can't imagine the entire part of this to be functional, but at the same time, I can't imagine Ferrari sticking something on their car that is not "functional" through and through. Here it is: