wheelman

Freedom, You know instead of telling us all how stupid we are for being concerned about the state of the economy and the federal budget why don't you explain to all of us why the deficit and large national debt are nothing to worry about. Maybe they aren't the highest ever in inflation adjusted dollars but they are very large and getting larger. I for one would like to see some changes made that will streamline the tax system and provide more funds to the government at the same time. I think a flat consumption tax would go a long way toward this goal. As for not needing social security because you are well off, thats cool, I wish all of us could be in that position but it just aint so, although I'm working toward that goal myself with several investment properties. I also think it's a little short sighted on your part to think that just because you won't need it that the problems with it won't affect you. The economy affects all of us no matter how well off we are. I'm guessing that you own a business of some kind and you have employees. How would your business be affected if the employer portion of the SSI with-holding was increased 25% to help cover a social security system shortfall? Would that affect your bottom line? What about your personal take home? Something to think about. What if most of the retiring baby boomers decided to withdraw their 401K moneys faster to make up for a smaller social security payment, wouldn't that have an affect on the stock market? Would that in turn affect you? What about the rest of the economy? Did all the money lost when the tech bubble burst affect the economy? Seems to me there is a potential for the retiring baby boomers to have a large downward impact on the stock market when they start withdrawing funds from their 401k plans (selling stocks), or am I wrong in this? Wheelman

Kevin, Here is a quote from the April 8th Sierra Times web news paper regarding the sunset clause of the Patriot Act. It is talking about a proposal to make the portions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire in 2005 permanent. I didn't research the whole subject, please forgive me, but it is mentioned that the provisions that will expire are directly related to the expand wire-tapping and servellience powers. I believe Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) had proposed a bill that would make the provisions permanent and it was to have been introduced to congress on Sept 11th. Now either it was not introduced or the media didn't cover it because I don't remember hearing anything about it. Just goes to show that you can't always believe everything you hear on the radio or TV or read. Now that I've read this article it leads me to believe this thread has been a lot of noise about nothing. It appears the parts of the Act that are most objectionable will expire soon unless congress renews them. My guess is that a sunset clause will be inserted into any legislation that modifies or extends the original law. Who'd of thunk it, a built in self-destruct to a law that curtails some of our rights! Wheelman

Pics of the engine mounts and tranny crossmember are what I'm interested in. I don't have an S32 but I've always liked that body style and who knows maybe I'll do an LS1 swap into one in the future. All the info I can get will help with that and I'm sure there are others here would also like to see how you did it. Wheelman

Z-rific, Bush and his administration have never stated that Saddam was directly involved in 9-11. What they have said is that he was a supporter of international islamic terrorism and that, along with all the other reasons stated (ignoring UN resolutions , firing on our jets, invading neighboring countries, using WMD on his own people, etc...) is why we went in there. It's also mighty convenient that it will place a democratic progressive country in a strategically important location, hopefully. As for Allawi being guarded like fort knox, no place in Iraq is truely safe period. This guy is putting his life, along with the lives of all his family members at risk in an effort to improve the plight of his people. Is he trying to put the best face on the situation in Iraq, Yes. Why? So our liberal do nothing politicians, left leaning media and fickle American public will support him in what he's doing. Are any of you who are bitching about the war going to say that what he's doing is wrong and needs to be stopped?? I thought not, so think about it a second, ask yourself how you wouold handle it and don't be so quick to jump on the band wagon of nay sayers and bad mouth the guy for being optimistic about his country. I'm sure the statements are for public consumption and he knows full well exactly what's going on in his country. Now ask yourself what would happen if he was completely upfront about the state of affairs over there. How would the liberla media and American people handle the truth? We would hear a huge cry to bring the troops home because see, even the Iraqi president thinks things are bad. GIVE ME A BREAK!! Wheelman

You could replace the radiator hose with 2 90 degree sections spliced together with some stainless steel pipe. Nice looking setup. Do you have any pictures of how you handled the motor and tranny mounts? Wheelman

Geez Dan, why don't you tell us how you really feel. Wheelman

Jon, You know it's people who view the Patriot Act as you do that make me a little more comfortable with it. Please don't let us sway you to change your view. I believe there are enough of us Americans that are not overly fond of the government watching us to force the overturn of the Patriot Act as soon as possible. When it will happen is anyone's guess and what will trigger it remains to be seen but it will happen. That's why I don't get as spun-up about it as others, I know it has a limited lifetime. I have enough items in my life that I get spun-up about to keep me going for years so I won't add the Patriot Act to that list until the abuses cross a threshold line. Can't tell you where that line is yet but I'll know when it's crossed and it won't take much to push it there. Wheelman

Jon, I think you miss-understand my position on this. I don't like the Patriot Act any more than you and will pay very close attention (as much as I can) to how it is/might be abused. I fully agree with you regarding the Bill of Rights and why it was established (ratified). Government without limits tends to expand to the point it controls everything. I'm the last person to promote more intrusion into my private life by the government than is absolutely necessary. So I think we are closer in our opinions than may have been evident from my posts. But and I think this is a big BUT, I'm also a pragmatist. I don't think there was any way possible for the government to do a single thing about terrorist cells in our country with the system the way it was prior to the Patriot Act. Hell, the police have a hard time dealing with the local gang-bangers let alone trained mercenaries. Anyway, the last several posts by Tannji and 77vegasz have done a good job of summarizing how I feel. We needed some changes to give our enforcement and intelligence agencies the ability to do some what of a job in preventing as much terrorist activity as possible. As for the requirement for a warrant, I thought one was still required but the process for getting them had been greatly streamlined. Am I wrong here? If I'm wrong then I will have to re-evaluate my position and to say I would strongly desire to have that changed immediately. BlueOvalz, I believe part of the reason the data could not be handled before was the stove-pipe mentallity of the agencies involved. Although eliminating the compartmentalization of the data doesn't mean the analysts will be able to sort though it all, but at least they'll have access to everything that might be relevant. The point that they can't deal with the data has less to do with should they have it than with the analysis capabilities. Not directly related to whether we should strike down the Patriot Act. I really fall more in line with Mike's attitude, Nuke em all and get it over with so we can relegate the Patriot Act to the ash heap of history. That brings up an idea I had for dealing with Zarqauwi and his bunch. Announce to the entire islamic world that for every hostage executed or terrorist act we will blow up a mosque and each mosque destroyed will be more significant than the last. If they insist on continuing we will eventually take out the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and then Mecca and Medina. Of course then we would have to follow through on the threat. Wheelman

You know I've read through every post in this thread and heard (seen) the phrase "We've lost freedoms because of the Patriot Act." or something very similar many times. Would someone please list these freedoms we've lost!! I hardly think loss of a little privacy, and even then only when a pattern of behavior warrents it, is losing some major freedom that affects our daily lives. Yeah we all hear the "But they could do this or that" statements, but what has been done that is such an abuse? Or is the liberal media covering it all up? I also think that most of us here hold basically the same view point about this. The Patriot Act has the potential to be a huge disaster for this country if it's abused. Will it be abused and if it is will we sit back and take it? I have to answer No to the entire question. There are enough people in this country that would raise a huge ruckus should something really serious happen that I think the chances are very slim we'll slide down that "slippery slope" to a tyranny because of the Patriot Act. Just look at this thread. Nothing dramatic has happened yet, but many people are already spun-up about it, imagine the reaction should something serious come to light. Wheelman

If you're having problems with a 600 CFM then a 650 might help but leave little margin for improvement. I agree with the prior opinion, go with the Holley 750 CFM 3310 vacuum secondary carb. They are very good carbs, simple to tune with lots of parts availability and resonably priced. As stated prior I would also avoid the Edelbrock/Carter carbs. I used a 625 CFM (I think, to many years ago to remember clearly) on a Ford 302. At first I was happy with it, but over time it fell apart. Wheelman

Sorry I don't remember the guys name. When I first started researching my swap I planned on using a 302 and 5 speed. But before I found an acceptable engine I ran across a Caprice cop car with an LT1 and decided to go that way instead. I heard the same things about the cop cars being thrashed. The one I found did need tranny work but ran great so I grabbed the whole car for $1000.00. I'm not going to use the tranny so I don't care that it needs work. I found a GM world class T5 so I'm going to use it. I'm thinking your biggest challenge will be the oil pan. I'm not sure but I'd be real surprised if that engine doesn't have a front sump oil pan. Kinda hard to cut it down very much because the pump is in the front. You might be able to use a pan from a Mustang 5.0 but I'm not sure. If I were you I'd try to get the whole car for the price of the engine. That way you can be sure to get the entire harness uncut and plus be able to grab any other parts you might want to use before selling/giving the hulk to a junk yard. I still have the Caprice in my drive but have stripped almost all the parts I want. I even extracted the cruise control module just in case I want to try to get it to work in the Z. Good luck and try searching the Ford V8 Z forum for 351W posts, the one you're looking for might pop up. Wheelman

Brandon, As far as I know there aren't any prefabbed kits to install sub-frame connectors but if you do a search in the Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis forum for frame rail replacement you'll get some ideas. Wheelman

The paragraph about the settlers taming the west reminds me of a history text I read that talked about how the Assyrians would deal with indigenous peoples from the territories they conquered. They would round up a large portion of the population, make sure they were disarmed and herd them to a different country and force them to live there. This might work with the peoples we're dealing with. Round them up, make sure there are no weapons and ship them to Europe, then round up a bunch of Europeans (French) and ship them to the middle east. I know, sounds pretty crazy but it just might cause enough disruption in the local terror networks to give the remaining population a chance to build a workable government. Especially with the French in the middle of things. Wheelman

Do you have more information on it? Exact year, miles, etc... Will you get the wriing harness and ECU? Is there any way you could hear/see it run? The price sounds reasonable to me if it includes the ECU. The deck height of the 351 is a little taller than a 302 so you might run into some hood clearance issues and possible header to steering rod interferance. I think I remember at least one other guy posting on here that did a 351 install, you might try searching for his posts to get an idea of the problems he ran into. Wheelman

Everything sounds reasonable to me, some comments: Go through that 240 with a fine toothed comb to make sure there is no rust. Check under the battery, the floor boards, the frame rails and the rocker panels specifically. A rust free 240 is rare and something to grab. You'll want to reinforce the unibody on the 240 by installing a cage and/or sub-frame connectors. Do sub-frame connectors at a minimum, if you're going to drag race then a cage is a good idea. Upgrade the brakes by replacing the front rotors with 300ZX vented and using the Toyota 4 piston calipers, or something similar and replace the rears with disks. Replace the R180 differential with an R200 and use CV joint half-shafts from a 300ZX turbo rather than the stock units. This will eliminate the u-joints in the half-shafts as a weak point. Wlecome to the board and enjoy your project, sounds like you've planned it out well. Wheelman

Terry, Go to this site http://www.heidts.com/heip27.htm. On the lower right of the page is an adjustable power steering valve. This may be exactly what you're looking for. Wheelman

Jon, I have to agree with your last post and the state of security on most home computers makes it a very trivial matter to hack in and plant files (thank you very much Micro$oft). I guess where we diverge is the idea that the Patriot Act has somehow made this EASIER or more likely to happen. I don't believe it has, although as I said in a prior post I don't trust the government with any more power than it absolutely needs. I hope that when the War on Terror winds down, if it ever does, the Patriot Act will be relegated to ash heap of history. Wheelman

Kevin, What you're saying is that it's not possible to reach a conclusion unless you have perfect knowledge. How do you ever make a decision about anything if you really believe that. Also wouldn't you agree that there is a difference between saying "I believe this conslusion to be the most accurate based on the facts I have" and "I can prove this is the absolute truth because I have complete knowledge"? All of us live in the first situation and make decisions based on what we "know" (perceive, deduce, or induce). To expect perfect knowledge before reaching a conclusion means you're always in a state of limbo waiting for the last fact. You also have no way of gauging when you've received the "last" fact. So where does that leave you. I don't understand how you make the leap from wanting complete knowledge and not having it to believing the world is run by some shadowy secret group. Is it that you think someone is purposely preventing you from attaining perfect knowledge and doing so for nefarious reasons? Jon, Regarding Carnivore. It's not possible that all email or internet traffic is monitored by carnivore unless every server owned and operated by every ISP and private company is running the carnivore program. My understanding is that carnivore tries to monitor international traffic and looks for certain key words that trigger further investigation. I don't think all international internet traffic is even routed through it, so the idea that Big Brother is watching us is laughable. As for should the government read our email? No. Unless we've already demonstrated through our behaviour patterns that we are a threat to the country. It would still require some sort of wire tap on my personal DSL line for them to get at it as my email isn't provided by my ISP. More effort than it's worth for email I send and receive, unless they want to read several hundred spam messages a week. Lots of things can be done, the real question is "Will the big bad government read me email"? Personally I'm more worried about viruses and hackers (criminals) breaking into my computer to steal credit card numbers and such than the government. Wheelman

As an IT guy with 20 years experience I'd like to address what this guy is saying. 1. email has never been equivalent to mailing a letter in an envelope, it's status is the same as a post card, always has been, probably always will be. If you don't want someone else, not just carnivore but every server the mail passes through, to read it then encrypt it with PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) or something similar. The NSA has yet to crack data encrypted with PGP. The other data transmission protocols can also be encrypted, it takes more effort but it's possible if you are worried about it. 2. A 1X1 pixel jpeg would consist of nothing but several bytes of data describing the color for that pixel, nothing else. If you don't want web page graphics cached on your system then adjust your browser to delete them when it exits All browsers can do this. A more likely use of hidden pictures on a web-page would be to transmit messages between opperatives. It would be impossible to prove you were the intended recipient just because you have a piece of data on your computer along with everyone else who viewed that web-page. 3. What is described here makes no sense. Everyone in the world has received spam containing that crap, it would never stand up in court. How many poeple will be prosecuted for the same data delivered by the spam. If you are concerned about it use something like PGP again to do an encrypted wipe of the disk. No usable evidence is left once a procedure like this is performed. 4. This is the only item that sort of makes sense but terrorists would not use viruses and cracking (hacking) techniques to plant false evidence. They will use them to bring down systems that control key parts of our infrastructure. To much effort is required to hack someone just to plant false evidence unless its a very high profile target. These are the types of "Chicken Little" statements that get people with no knowledge of how it works all stirred up. They also show either this guy's bias against the Patriot Act or his own ignorance about how the systems work. Looking back at them it doesn't even require a high level of understanding to see that they all presume you're already under suspicion. Wheelman

Jon, We're not getting our panties in a wad as you say, I responded to Tannji's contention that there was a conspiracy involving FDR to get us into the war by letting Japan attack us at Pearl with our fleet in harbor. What I'm saying is, "That makes no sense!" unless you're precient and could see that the only way to get the Navy to let go of their vaunted Battleships was to let them be destroyed. We were forcing them into a position where war was inevitable and the Versailles treaty did virtually guarantee WWII but that doesn't mean that FDR knew the Japanese were going to hit us at Pearl and therefore left the fleet in harbor to force us into a war with Japan, that's just illogical reasoning to justify a conspiracy theory. Patterns with Patterns!! Now back to our regularly scheduled news broadcast. Kevin, Wow man way to read between the lines. When I said we take our rights for granted I meant that we don't appreciate them, not that the government grants them to us. I believe as you do on that one, God grants us our rights not the government. As for soverienty, sounds to me like you believe that you answer to no higher authority except your creator. Nice idea that has no practical application in reality except anarchy and/or pressumption that all men are men of integrity which is totally unrealistic! The statement about the 7th century islamic law also referred to the fact that our government protects our rights and if overturned the government that might replace it wouldn't necessarily, and we could end up under a system of law and enforcement there of based on the 7th century interpretation of the Koran. Not exactly what I want. Cry Havok! And let slip the Dogs of War! Wheelman

I test drove an SVO a few weeks ago, was thinking about buying it. Lots of fun to drive, felt like a healthy V8 under the hood. It had a pretty noticable vibration at idle but once reved up was smooth. I didn't buy it though, needed more TLC than I have time or money to give it. I think the turbo 2.3 would be a good match for the Opel. Wheelman

The ultimate in keeping up with the Jones. Pretty sad if you ask me. Wheelman

Amen!!!!

Tannji, Seems to me that whether the fleet was in Pearl or out at sea is irrelevant. The fact that Japan attacked us was what brought us into the war not that the fleet was destroyed, or is it your contention that Japan wouldn't have attacked if the fleet was at sea? Not to get to far off topic but these conspiracy theories crack me up. Stop and think a second about what you're saying and you'll realize the implications. Either our leaders are evil men with terrible designs on power or things happen that with hind-sight appear to be planned but really aren't. Patterns within Patterns (Dune Messiah, Children of Dune). Cry Havok! And let slip the Dogs of War. Wheelman

Kevin, Not to nit-pick but your definition of Republic is wrong. The technical definitions of Republic and Democracy are (in my own words): Republic: The populace elects representatives that form a government that enacts laws and administers the enforcement of such. Democracy: All entitled voters directly vote on enactment of all laws and take part in the enforcement of such. These may not be 100% accurate but the basic distinction between a democracy and a republic is that in a democracy you have mob rule because each person has a direct vote on every item brought up for a vote. As forms of government these definitions have little to no impact on the discussion in this thread as no matter it's form a government has the ability to turn into a tyranny. The tyranny of one, a few or the mob. This is really the question at hand, is our government turning into a tyranny? I don't know! I don't think so. I look at the developments over the last several years in the light of world history and it concerns me, but as a country we have curtailed and restored our rights several times as a result of entering a state of war (declared or not). In fact if you look at the overall history of this country we have granted more rights to more groups than we have lost. Do I totally trust our government? No. But we do have the ability to change it to prevent it from becoming a tyranny. We must remember that in light of the last few years. When we lose that ability we have truelly lost it all. Until then I believe the current administration is doing the right things and support it, in fact I thank God Bush was in office rather than AlGore. Like it or not, declared by congress or not we are at war and it wasn't one of our own making. If we don't do what it takes to win it then all the rights we've come to take for granted will disappear and we'll live under 7th century islamic law. Won't that be fun!! Wheelman