heavy85

What's the difference in spindle to tie rod length between the stock and 'quick' steering arms? I've thought the shorter ones would really help with a tight autocross but my tires already rub the swaybar so I'm wondering if maybe I already have a set of short ones? Thanks Cameron

If I remember right EK's Z was on ebay last year (or the year before that as they kind of blend together) with a very high reserve. Dont think it sold but can't remember for sure. Cameron

I've only sold off about $870 so far but that's only the wheels, rear axle&brakes, front spindle&brakes, nose, & battery mount. Needless to say I've got a LOT left. I guess I really need to find some local clubs (Central Illinois if anyone knows of some). I've only sold to two guys and both of them I race with. Cameron

Evil, I'm parting out my '02 Z28 ... been putting it off since Summer but now I need money to fund the swap but was looking at e-bay a week or two back and noticed that things dont seem to be selling well. Since you've done this a couple times any recommendation how to part this thing out and when the best time to sell is? I'm thinking I should wait until Spring since people are spending their $ on the holidays but really need the space and $. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Camero

If I see that right position A would stick down below the frame? Fuel pumps not something I would want to scrape if you ever have ground clearance issues. On position B why wont the pump pull a little uphill as I would think it should be able to pull a little vacuum - mine do? Cameron

I was thinking more of making the crossmember into a k-member by adding legs from near the center of the crossmember back to the TC buckets. Then attaching the mounts in a more vertical fashion to the legs but angled in some. This way the load is shared between the crossmember and the added legs back at the TC bucket. Sorry Peej but I'm not a fan of the cantilever design you got going there as it does not seem to be a very strong (unless your using some BEEFY stuff) or efficient load path IMHO. Thanks Cameron

Jon, This goes back to your recent thread on the LCA vs the strut taking the moment load but IMO the inner LCA pivot takes very little vertical load so I dont understand why you need to tie into there? The load path seems to be along the floor fore/aft and side to side. I'm thinking about puting a big X connecting the two subframe connectors together underneath and doubling as a trans mount to help distribute those loads assuming I have the load path correct. If your running any door bars and even if you are not I've alway thought it was a good idea to tie the kink in the main hoop into the rear tower to help distribute t-bone loads but that's just looking at the load path and no direct experience. Edit - I just saw 260DET reply while typing this and he's basically saying what I'm saying. Cameron

Thanks for the kind words. Now you say pull the collar back - mine is as far back as it goes so should I get a longer tip so that it extends out past the collar for this application or do they even make such a thing? My current tip is flush with the collar. Thanks guys for the tips on doing a more thorough job with cleaning as I was thinking cleaning with acetone to the new metal was good enough. Will try grinding the surface down a bit for the next piece. Thanks Cameron

Yes it is mig but when I pull the gun back it just 'misfires' and starts popping and just generally making a mess so maybe I just need to practice more. I do clean it with Acetone. The metal I'm using is very clean to start with - unlike the heavily scaled stuff you get at the hardware store. I'm also not going to stitch weld the whole chassis I was just playing with it up front. When I first tried the overhead weld I thought I would have to build a rotiserie because it just spattered everywhere but I'm getting the hang of it so I think I should be OK. The only other main thing to weld upside down is the subframes but I've found the the rounded edge of the tube makes a real nice place for the weld to hang out when your welding overhead to a flat plate such as I'm doing with the subframe. Since I dont want to cut-up my floors I'm just going with 1x3 tubing attached to the underside. It's the flat plate to flat plate that I'm still not consistent with but I'll get there. Thanks Cameron

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=TRD%2D4501&N=700+115&autoview=sku Making front crossmember into a K-member and was thinking this maybe an easy way to get from the k-member up to the LS1. Anyone got experience with similar mounts? Thanks Cameron

Learned a lot in the process. These (both sides) are the first things I've welded other than a whole bunch of practice scraps. Overall it turned out as I expected. Learing that you cant reach the inside edge of the miter since the gun can't fit so they will have to stay unwelded. On the same note need to be careful before you start that you can actually reach the areas needing to be welded as I had to make a few modifications from the initial design. Things like I ended up welding the lower back-up plate to the tube first since you can't get to it afterwords. Also find out real quickly that overhead sucks as it's much harder to get consistent welds - once you get some heat in it your good as long as you can see where your going it's mostly getting starting I still have a hard time with it spitting and popping. Also you'll notice when a little seam sealer / undercoating is between the panels if you stitch weld as it'll pop real good and smoke / burn / small flames. Last tip I found is that for some reason a brass wire wheel seems to work better than anything else I could find for getting to bare metal but you still have to scrape off the undercoating first for which I used a gasket scraper. Now on to the strut tower bars and removing the old framerails. Keep debating weather to stick or seam weld the back-up plates but for now I'm going with stitching them. Cameron

I'm running 225/250 which is mostly driven to and from the autox with SA Koni's. I'ld have to say yeah the ride is tolerable but not exactly comfortable. It does handle very flat and I'm pretty happy with the results on the track but if your doing mostly street driving I would personally go down a couple steps in springrate and an accordingly 'softer' strut. Cameron

That's new as just last year this time discussions centered around Hoosier bias plies. Glad for the heads up but I just quickly internet searched and teh GY FA's are $300 a piece which is nearly double the Hooisers. Even if you can finds some used one's that's a lot. Yeah I found that out the hard way. With ambient temps mid 50's I lost at least 2 seconds a lap (~50 sec lap times) to where I had been relative to the DOT cars in the summer. Went from within 1 sec of FTD (to a SS Z06 who ALWAYS gets FTDI) or even FTD once to about 3 seconds back. Sorry to threadjack the WC/EC question but should be useful to the discussions none the less. Cameron

If you are going into E-mod anyway because of the engine just go full slicks. That's where I'll be next year with the LS1 from FP this year. You can buy used with basically full tread (take-offs from the nationals with one heat cycle) for about $70-75 a piece and mine could probably last two seasons if I push it. In the end you will be faster and save $$. I'm running Hoosiers 9.5x22.5(going from memory)x15 running on 15x10 rims in the R35 compound. R35 worked well in the spring and summer but really sucked this fall because they wouldn't build any heat. Cameron

What's up with the extra shock welded to the rear control arm? Cameron

I used to have an early '70s GT. It was kind of fun but is VERY small - like try a helmet on inside one. If you are going to restore yours you may want to consider spending a little up front and save a lot down the road because you can find restored ones for only a couple grand (at least you could 5 or 6 years ago) as they basically have no value and well worn ones are just about free. There are at least a couple places that specialize in them - OpelGTSource is one but that's going from memory there. As far as safety goes the only memorable thing is that the gas tank is basically inside the car. There is a package tray area behind the drivers seat which mine was missing (it's a bolt in). Directly beind that tray is the gas tank so in mine if I turned around I saw the gas tank. This kind of concerned me but I never has any specific problems. Other thing that I didn't realize until after I bought it was the fact that there is no hatch! Good luck as it could be a fun project. Cameron

The front and rears are different - the fronts have the needle bearings while the rear do not ... at least mine are that way. Cameron

Let me start by appologising for wasting bandwidth but I feel like I'm at work with the politics getting in the way of progress in reading this thread. I took the original post for what it's worth as it was presented. To me it was just to provoke a thought process that just because 'everyone' thinks something is true you should still validate it for yourself. Cameron

We used to use CF for our formula SAE cars (back in the late '90's not sure what they are using now) for the intake manifold and that was in a turbo application. Main reason was to achieve nice smooth transitions, tapered throat, etc. If vacuum bagged (as our was) it weighed virtually nothing. Only problem I recall was one flat spot in the roof area opposite the runners that would bow out when it got hot and under boost but it never failed. A simple rib fixed that. We made it by rapid prototyping a wax mold then melting the wax out later. You could always hand carve a mold out of a chunk of wax from the craft store. Cameron

I've used Fram filters (not saying I like endorse them but they are easy to get and used in the minivan) and Motorcraft and both had an orange looking anti-drainback valve. Cameron

I realize that just wasn't clear - the LCA as you say is meant to take F/A loads but it is not efficient at taking moments about the spindle pin. I'm still not convinced the toe link will realy take any moment loads about the spindle pin. Consider if you remove the spindle pin and pull up and down on the toe link you could deflect it faily easily with low loads. Now consider that any moment load is imediately felt by the strut - in other words I think the strut would have to deflect a lot before the toe link really started to take much load. I'm guessing it's more of a manufacturability issue to use a clevis on the inboard end but Cary would have to say for sure his intentions. Cameron

What BRAAP said - the LCA is not meant to take the F/A loads the strut is. Just like the strut is taking the side to side moment. I've never understood why everyone ties the toe link in solid to the A-arm as that technically makes it worthless for adjustability (without bending it) and if anything seems to weaken it since you are building in stress risers and preload. In my oppinion something like this is the better solution. http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=4667&cat=573&ppuser=9074 Thanks Cameron

I know how to explain it - you have to take the engine (LS) off the stand before you weight it. Duh .... and all that rust must have been worth 10 lb if you'ld just taken the time to clean it up first. We see where the bias lies here. Next your going to tell me a little ole L6 is heavier than a hefty SBC - oh wait .... Cameron

Looks like it was hit with a machine gun