blueovalz

The red Ferrari has passed the 240Z (many times) in this 1972 documentary about Sebring showing as I speak.

Very nice Z. I'd have to place it in my personal "top 5" in regards to powerplant and bodywork.

Not what you want to hear, but what if the old man has a valid point?There are two sides to every argument, and experience is hard to debate. Looking back at my life when I was your age, I was still struggling to decide what I wanted to do to earn a living for the rest of my life. A living that would allow me to pay someone to make my " ultimate" car if I chose that route. The goal of having this car can be had tomorrow, or 20 years from now (as in my case), or anytime in between. I never regret not having that 1st hybrid when I left home at age 19, and enjoy my current hybrid more than ever at age 47. What you do in the next 5 years will determine what the rest of your life will be like. Develope yourself, and if the car must be in the immediate future, then use it to your advantage as a tool to learn, and not as a consumer of your limited resources. I think you should take the time to really listen to your Dad and have him explain in detail what he thinks and why he thinks what he does about this matter. You may be surprised in your own response to this.

Like my wife always says, "it was meant to be." Enjoy the site, use the search as much as posible, and most importantly, have fun.

I was not attending anyway, but on behalf of all those who will, I send my regards Sorry to hear this.

From what I gathered by the recent posts, the rod snapped at the bushing end (where the step in rod diameter is), which tells me the rod has some degree of flexibility throughout its length (preventing failure) but that the bushings focus the stresses into such a small area that cannot handle these movements without overstressing the material. Ideally, the less resistance to radial movement the T/C bushing has, the better, as in any suspension pivot point. The purpose of these poly bushings is to resist compression under heavy braking, and the only economical way to do this is a stiffer bushing, but a price is paid in resisting this compression. The old ball & socket (the G machine ones?) modification was IMHO a better way to do it. Then you ideally have only a compressive load on the rod, and not a combination of compression and shear as with the bushings (though, I wonder about the rear half of this modification being it's a normal bushing, which does not assist the front half's pivoting action). What are the pitfalls of this modification (ball & socket) in the long run? I've got a kit that I've never used, but am considering its installment. Any comments from current or past users?

I found the "wet pavement" test to be the best as this was when the bias problems seemed worse.

I'd tell ya, but then I'd haf to kill ya I played with this angle, by instead, turning them 90 degrees and having them run vertical and slant backward as the grill went outward on either side, but that looked too contemporary for the Z so I went back to the above look. The grill for these and the rear brake scoops (below) came from a Pontiac Grand Am grill. Here's a picture of the rear scoop's grill with a picture of the donor grill for both before hacking it to pieces.

I'm assumining he's using a one-man brake bleed like I've got, that has a check valve (ball and spring) that keeps the fluid from backing up through the discharge tube attached to the bleed screw. I had a similar problem in that my rear brakes were not adjusting (turbo ZX calipers) resulting in a mushy pedal. This was because all the braking was being done by the front brakes and none by the rear. I wish I could offer some advice here, but I've just about forgotten all I knew about drum brakes.

This block, like the 4.6L is very wide and heavier than one would expect. I believe the engine will fit between the towers, but a fabricated exhaust is probably a must, especially on the drivers side (steering shaft).

Great link.

Thanks Van. I'll take you to task on this...........one of these days.

Are you using OEM brakes on front? What are you using for the rear?

I'm no expert at this, but what I consider key factors in chosing and matching parts between front and rear are diameter of rotor and piston cross section area. Then I go more deeply into the combinations and look at pad size, tire staggering, and weight distribution. If you were to use the same sized calipers (piston size), then I'd suggest a much larger rotor up front than in back. Or if using the same size rotor, a smaller caliper (piston) in back than in front. IMHO, thickness of the rotor on a street car is of much less importance than on a race car. This basically boils down to heat dissipation problems, which I've rarely encountered in street use.

Well, I was going to say the same thing but was wondering what I was missing or miss-read. All things being equal between the front brakes and the rear brakes, the caliper piston (bore) diameter differences will be the sole determinate of the pressure differential applied to the pads between the front and the rear brakes. Brake line size or length has no impact upon the pressure applied to the pads (unless they are kinked or broken). Then you start modifying this by changing rotor size (increasing or decreasing the leverage) or adding a proportioning valve (limiting max pressue to the rear). I don't even want to get into heat dissapation or pad compound, venting, etc.

This looks pretty good. What are you using for tie-rod ends at the steering knuckle?.

I thought it went this way: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Meanwhile, the once illegal activity of dumping hazardous chemicals next to the ant’s house has been recently lifted, resulting in many of the ant’s Aunts and Uncles untimely death. The ant, rather than deal with this issue, instead believes it was Farmer John and his Sevin dust in the barn that was the source of this tragedy, so the ant calls his buddies, the "termites", to destroy Farmer John’s house in a demonstration of “shock and aweâ€. Now Farmer John, and all his neighbors are pissed off at the ants and termites, and he decides to use the Sevin dust, leaving the ants to wonder why Farmer John should be pissed off in the first place, and promises revenge on Farmer John. The Grasshopper meanwhile, seeing the error of his ways, attempts to find food in the adjacent field where the winter wheat is growing, but finds out that this wheat is now being grown in India, Mexico, and China. Eventually the Grasshopper finds himself working for the ant in helping rebuild Farmer John’s home that the ants and termites destroyed. The ant, now in deteriorating health due to the now-legal toxic waste dumping taps into his long summer’s savings only to find Health care has gotten so expensive even his savings are no match for the cost of care. He then resorts to going across the street to get the drugs cheaper, but find this road is blocked by the Government as well. He then turns to Medicare, which he also paid for all through the long summer only to find it was not funded and has gone bankrupt, and his pension as well, has magically disappeared before his eyes. Fox News arrives to interview the Government about the effects of the toxins on the ants. Fox’s Doocy laughs at the ant’s preposterous contention that the toxins are having any ill effects while espousing the government’s claim that there is yet any empirical proven evidence that these chemicals cause any problems what-so-ever. Neither the ant, nor grasshopper, is interviewed. The Grasshopper overhears the ant saying the government’s position just “blows me away†and passes it on to the Government thinking the ant said he was going to “blow away†the government. Through the Patriot Act, the government throws the destitute ant in prison without access to an attorney. Tom DeLay proudly pats the government on the back claiming this is the best of times. Dick Cheney pats the government on the back claiming prosperity for all. And Ashcroft is confident that the ant got what he deserved. The story ends with the ant finally in a warm place (prison) for the winter, and is fed 3 squares a day. The Grasshopper’s job of rebuilding Farmer John’s house is finished and is left to freeze in the winter.

Unless it's on the car, it's hard to tell what shape the pieces will ultimately take as far as fitment goes. Regardless, I'd attempt some kind of wood framework in which weight is supported and distributed to keep anything that is sagging under it's own weight from becoming warped by the time it's put back onto the Z's unibody.

Thought I'd throw out a couple of pics of the front brake duct openings that I've covered with some grillwork being I've removed all the race ducting in preparation for street duty. When it was raced, the single square holes were open for ducting, but are now covered with a turn signal and a grill below the signal.

Fiberglass resin/catalyst reaction times vary with temperature. I can use the same ratio in the summer with a 10 minute hardening time, but using the same ratio during the winter time nets a 1 hour plus sometimes. Experience is a big help here, and once you do it enough times you get a feel for the correct amount of catalyst to mix into the resin. To make matters worse, the manufacturers produce a summer and winter "blend" that helps compensate for the temperature differences (actually, the manufacturer adds a very small amount of catalyst from the factory, which is why there is a limited shelf life for the resin in the first place). Good quality resin will be thinner than the stuff bought at Home Depot, and will thus require less resin because the "soak through" into the fiberglass cloth or mat is so much better than the thicker, more viscous resin. Unfortunately, I've had to use the thicker Home Depot stuff for most of the fiberglass work I've done the past 2 years, but it still will do the job well enough. You can modify your "kick" time by either pre-heating or pre-cooling the resin (cooling it also thickens it, and warming it thins it out). Getting a good 30 minute work time is not hard to do, just use a little less catalyst, or cooler temperatures. Also, thick and bulky parts hold the "reaction" heat better than thinner parts, and this internal heat then causes the part to harden faster (kind of a snowballing effect), so this should to be taken into consideration as well.

I agree with the "support our troops" comment(s). Unfortunately, there are too many narrow sighted citizens in this country that equate supporting the troops with supporting this political agenda (or personal, whichever you choose), and visa versa. If these two issues are not distinctly separated, then we (us) risk sending a very bad signal to Washington, and our troops, which tell neither one what is our truest feelings. Yes, I support the poor guy who is only following orders, but I cannot support the decision to send him over there and show the world that "might makes right". Isn't this what we are trying to defend against in the first place? How do we support the troops, but not the motive that sent them there? I wished I had the answer, because it challenged us in the '70s and is still an issue today.

Dang, that's hitting below the belt. Between you and Van, I've got to once again hang my head in shame that I can't make the event again (but thanks for taking me to task). One of these years I'll be off and can get there, with or without the Z.

Lets keep in mind that this is another country. We've not been invited over there by it's government, which WAS a dictatorship. But do we overthrow every dictatorship (even abusive ones) in the world simply because it's policy for governance is contrary to our own? We appear to be complaining because we get a black eye once in a while in a fight that we picked. We may indeed be in a world economy, but not a world government.