Mikelly

Oh Christ I hope no one complains about this one and makes me delete it! Aux! Mike

Send it to me...Or drive down and test fit it your danged self! Hit me offline... Mike

Just add shag carpet, a bed, a fridge and mood lighting! Pimp on wheels baby! My older brother had a 1966 Ford flat nose van that was pretty much as described above. It was a party on wheels 8 days per week. Mike

Well Jon, You know I ALWAYS find fault in your posts! Good post man! To add: Some guys slot the control arm holes that the TC Rod connects to, to allow the correct angle when adjusting the arm. This puts the TC Rod in a better angle without binding against the control arm... That tidbit was passed along to me by those using my control arm/ TC Rod setup in competition settings where LOTS (7 degrees) of caster was employed! Mike

I personally don't think it is going to matter. You're likely going to add caster to the mix, and I suppose you could use vairous thickness spacers to re-align that offset if you want. But those who tested and used my control arms never had issues with not getting the exact offset between them and the factory arms. Mike

It is a sticky in the list of threads above this one... "calling all Racers" is part of the title. Mike

That is still concidered a concealed weapon and can get you thrown in jail just as quickly. When I was in the federal police acadamy (many moons ago), the rule was inches of the blade dictated if it was a pocket knife and legal to conceal or if it was an illegal conealed weapon. Hiding it conceals it and an officer will draw his weapon on you just as quickly for having a knife as having a gun. Oh, and that length of blade issue is different state to state as well... Ain't law fun? Confused yet? I am! Mike

This gets into something each and everyone of you who own a gun should think seriously about. LEARN the LAWs as a law abiding citizen before you BREAK them. 240ZR, your previous issue being hijacked means nothing to a police officer who has you stopped on the side of the road while investigating the possible issuance of citation for traffic or other offense. You technically broke the law and could have (And likely would have) been arrested for possession of a loaded concealed handgun. Read the links John sent you... As usual, John provided excellent data for you to educate yourself. I believe you've got big plans in your near future, so don't do something like this to deraille them. Hell of a risk you're taking there. And honestly, If you get car jacked again, I bet dollars to donuts you will NOT get that gun out of a locked glove box before they grab the car you're driving. AND here's another twist. What happens if the car is STOLLEN with that gun in the glove box? Now you're in serious doo doo... Think before you act. And educate yourself to know you're thinking within the parameters of the law. And I don't care how tough it is to get a CCP. Keep applying. Eventually, you'll get one if you meet all the criteria. Mike

Oh don't get me wrong... I'd NEVER give concent to search. You do that and you're basically forfetting your civil right against search and siezure, and exclussion for fruits of the forbidden tree and all that jazz. Mike

240ZR, The 1st question I have is are you 21 years old? (Since he asked you about your gun, I'm assuming the answer is yes and that you may have a permit) Second question is did you have the concealed weapons permit with you? My guess is that if you had told him you had your weapon with you, he would have wanted to secure the scene for HIS and the PUBLIC's safety. That is exactly what he would have told a judge after you were arrested for not complying with his wishes and for obstructing his duties in investigation with whatever charge was pursueing against you. Before you or anyone else responds, I'm NOT saying I agree with this tactic. I'm saying that is one of the most likely scenarios to have played out. If you are legal to carry a loaded weapon, I'd ALWAYS offer it up to the officer. The approach would be to explain that your registration is in the glovebox with your LOADED hand gun that you have a permit for. You simply pull the keys out of the ignition and hand them to him, and then follow his direction on how to handle it. If you do NOT have a permit, I really don't recommend riding around with a loaded gun in your glove compartment. You will eventually run into some serious poo... Cops will FIND a reason to get a gun off the street. They'll use any reason they can to make themselves feel good... Mike

Well I do know that the Corvette crowd are installing tranny and differential coolers on C5s to combat this very issue. I know this is apples and oranges, but there have been some pretty high temps reported. The C5 ECU has built in codes for trans and differential over heating on the Z06 and trans overheating on the C5 & C6, so it is something to consider. I believe a good quality synthetic would combat a lot of this concern for the Z diffs... But it would be nice to tap in some temp sensors just to get an idea of how hot these components are truly getting. Until that is known, you simply won't know if you really need a cooler... Mike

Brett, I got your PM last night, but was busy putting out fires, so I didn't respond. The units I had in the ad are sold. Sorry. Mike

After thinking a bit about this issue with chassis flex, I've come back to the realization that everything is individual perspective and one's experiences in dealing with these cars. Everyone drives their car "hard", by their interpritation. However, there are different degrees of HARD. Clifford's got a track car and I assume does track days, so I can draw some assumptions that his street car, making big HP and torque numbers, isn't just a trailer queen. However, not seeing chassis flex is just strange, based on my personal experience. Maybe he doesn't drive it often? I don't know. Each of us obviously has opinions on what works, based on our own trial and error. My personal experience is that these cars are pretty flexy. We've had members in the past comment about doors coming unlatched partially during hard acceleration or hard cornering... Does it mean it was thick door gaskets or a poorly aligned door latch mechanism? I don't know. It hasn't happened to me. Then again, I've always had subframe connectors and a cage in ALL my cars since 1992, and I've owned and competed or tracked most of them... I don't know that NOT adding some chassis stiffening and bracing won't hurt the car. I do know that adding chassis stiffening will certainly help the car, based on my own experiences. YOUR mileage may vary, and try finding a car with the least rust possible... Hope that clears up the confusion in my previous posts. I'm not an engineering "Expert". I do go by my experiences, and what I observe. Mike

I used pipe plug fittings for the holes that were direct access to oil ports. The one highest up looks like a boss for mounting a bracket for a slave cylinder. Just confirm that the hole bottoms out at the end and doesn't go into an oil passage. After running that motor, you will see places you need to plug. Mike

BJHines, Read your PM. Guys if this one continues down this path, I'll have to lock it... Be C-I-V-I-L of be GONE... Choice is yours... Day care is closed. Mike

BINGO... 9K hit it on the nose! Get the motor into the car and running first... That task will be big enough for starters... Don't get me wrong... It's very do-able. Just a pretty decent task in and of itself! You'd be surprised at how many of our friends get blown out of the water with less than 400WHP! Mike

Those TC Rods (and mine or any others for that matter) do you zero good without an adjustable control arm. The Heim joint used in the adjustable control arms that have been built ALLOW for the assembly to move forward without binding in the movement. The only issue to be concerned with is running out of Tie Rod adjustment when adjusting the suspension... Mike

That is good advice and should go without saying, but given the lack of good examples of rust free Zcars. Zero rust should always be the goal you shoot for whenever doing any project car. Many members on this site don't live in those locations where rust isn't an issue. My most recent project car was a relatively rust free car, except for the firewall rust and battery box rust that was removed. The frame rails were fine, but in my opinion to thin. So, the previous owner and I removed the old factory units and he made Pete's rails. Those rails alone go a long way to strengthening the whole chassis of the car. How many of you guys see those seams start to show in the A pillar and Hatch/ B pillar on cars with suspension and brake mods? I've seen quite a few of them over the last 20+ years. To me, that is a clear indicator of the flex that these chassis have in them from the factory. We're not talking about 500HP monsters either... Most of them have been mild L6 cars. Mike

That's cool! Nothing like taking it on the initial trips around the neighborhood to check everything out. Mike

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I've cut up and disposed of a number of Datsun Z cars as well, and I've owned 18 of them over the years. I know what I've personally seen, and I know what I'd personally recommend. I stand by my statement. JIm McNemar's original Scarab is an EXCELLENT example of an early 240Z that saw sustained abuse from V8 conversions, had exhibited a misaligned unibody and TC Rod/ frame rail cracks, as well as evidence of twisting in the trans tunnel area. Believe what you want, but these cars DO twist. Mike Kelly

It really depends on the cage design, how it is tied in, and all the material used for the footers, backing plates and such. If you go here: http://photos.yahoo.com/dat74z and click on the new Zcar project folder, you'll see the way the footers were tied into the rocker boxes on my Z. Also, I'd shoot for removing that rear storage box and moving the rear footers up there onto that shelf area... You can see how mine was done in the pics. I still say, even with a cage, subframes are a worthwhile investment in time and materials. Mike

Just go down to the autoparts store and get a hayden fan mounting kit. It comes with rubber isolators and their plastic Zip tie-like holders. I've used those on ALL my electric fans over the years with ZERO issues. Mike

I'm with Jon here... Something is amiss... Can you provide pics? Mike

Here's how to remember it... A PUSH type Hydraulic slave would mount to the motor side of the bell housing. A PULL type Slave would mount to the transmission side, behind the clutch fork. The problem I see with this Wilwood setup is the clutch fork itself. It would have to be a fork specific to the Slave cylinder in question. You could use a T56 clutch fork, since (i believe) they are a pull type design. Also, That Ebay unit might require a rebuild, based on the description. I'd just buy one brand new. That unit will cost you about $55-60 by the time you get it shipped, and then get the rebuild kit and have IT shipped too. Mike

We've had members here with LESS HP who twisted their unibody chassis to the point that the doors would OPEN UP under hard acceleration. Remember, these cars weren't built with the intention of the torque loads being currently applied by higher HP #s seen in some of these Zcars. BY tying the front and rear subframes together, you seriously reduce the twisting effect applied to the unibody. Short of doing a serious cage in the car, framework Like Pete's (the alteredZ.com blueprints) will net you the absolute best tie in between the two ends of the plane that twist under hard torque loads. Add sticky tires to the 300+torque loads most of these turbo and V8 cars are now putting down and you'll accelerate the damage done to the unibody. You'll see the seams in the roofline at the a and b pillar (Rear hatch) start to spread as the body starts to twist. Anyone who does all this work to their cars to get the increase in HP, then stiffer suspensions and bigger brakes, but without the proper attention to the chassis, will certainly regret that oversite. Mike