Mikelly

Got my rear stub axles from Zbarn yesterday, along withe the rear rotors from Mike/SCCA. Gonna drop the stub axles off at the machine shop today to get them Shotpeened and magnafluxed, and holes for fivelug drilled. I should have the rear of the car buttoned up by the weekend if I can get the Axle nuts in by Friday! Next week I'll be in St. Louis all week, so I'll have to wait until I get back that following weekend to finish up the floor pans and roll cage.. Had a problem with my gun feeding and the gas mix is wrong, regulator to a sh*t, so this evening I'll be at the ARCET Supply store getting different gas mix and a good regulator. Also ordering the front clip from MAS when I get back from St. Louis. Car should be able to be started by the end of March, and hopefully driven by the end of April...Still on schedule! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

I got the front wheel/tire combo straightened out Yesterday and the front of the car is back on the ground. coil overs are lowest setting and I think I'll have plenty of travel. Jim, I'm gonna take a stock fender and hang it back on the car to see if it will clear the wheel as I think it will. I was running zero offset on an 8in wide 15 inch wheel before. Now i'm running almost 6 full inches inboard, of the 9 inch wide wheel. I have less wheel sticking out now than I did before, so I'm pretty sure the wheel will fit under a stock fender... Also, the Outlaw stuff should work. I'm told the specs between them and my billet wilwoods are the same dimensions. The wilwood units I'm using are very nice! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk [This message has been edited by Mikelly (edited February 21, 2001).]

No way, no how. I'm gonna have to cut one corner of the spring seat (Ground Control unit) off just so my 17X9 wont rub. You must use coil overs. Without them you would have to get lond wheel studs and use one hell of a wheel spacer, like 2inches... Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

I've had their popular integrated bumper and spoiler facia and rockers on a Z in the past and they were nice. I currently have their flares and narrow style bumpers on my white late model 260z. Quality is pretty much like anyone elses fiberglass. Not bad, not perfect. Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Al, Here is what I would recommend: A: Don't get gucci stuff. I shopped 'till I dropped, and as Chris is finding out, a lot of the high end forged stuff is not recommended for anything BUT drag racing. My builder new I was spending a bunch of money and he steered me away from things like a forged crank, rods and pistons...Why? Because of my plan and intended use. B: Do as Jim recommended and check the GM parts catalog. I'm using the GM PM rods that have been bushed and race prepped, and they were sooo inexpensive. I also have spoken to a Dyno Operator for KB Pistons (He lurks on this Board!) and there are some well known 1/4 mile racers using Hypereutectic pistons on Alcohal! Don't be scared off by the hype against Hyper pistons. They are an excellent alternative to Forged pistons. C: One big mistake I made and will correct when the motor is torn down next winter... Balance the assembly internally. My motor is currently externally balanced. I don't currently shift above 6000RPMs, but the cam makes useable power all the way to 7200. I'll have everything balanced before I ever try and rev it to that range. D: ARP ARP ARP. Use a good "NEW" bolt kit for the engine. more rods fail and cranks wear do to inferior or stretched bolts. Don't take the risk with questionable bolts and studs. E: 4 bolt or 2? doesn't matter really. I have a 4 bolt only because the deal was to good to pass up. But a two bolt block with spayed caps is a good way to go as well... F: Use good zero gap rings. Get a good molley ring set with no gap and get your leak down numbers to increadible percentages! That is exaclty what I would recommend. If you plan to squeeze it or SC this powerplant ALL of this changes. Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Kevin, Just pickin' man. I have checked into mini tunnels and into a couple other ways to get aerodata and best thing I could get from anyone was the real deal. Unless you park that puppy in a tunnel ya just can't get true and accurate data. If I can't get the backing, I'll be doing this on the "FEEL" of the car. My plan is to take the car to Atlanta Raceway to do some lap days on their oval and also to get out to a couple other oval tracks (Possibly Talledaga!) and do some testing at speed. We'll see. What I would like to do is capture was much data on the car at speeds from 125mph on up to the 180s and go form there. The front nose is made by MAS and I plan to tweek it whe it arrives. Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Welcome Loyd and I'm glad you found us! I have friends in Memphis... Virginia & Clifford Simmons. Tell them I said hi if you know, or meet them. Almost married their daughter once! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Damn, Kevin Sure is curious! All good questions. I'm ordering up a one piece front end made of fiberglass, so modifying it won't be an issue. I'm already looking at puttung a naca duct in the center to feed the intake ALA a VIPER GTS, and putting in vents for the fenders up front to reduce the turbulance at the wheels is something I'm already looking into. One thing of interest is that the way most of the NASCAR and open road racer crews deal with this is to actually get the wheel/tire combo out flush with the fender and tighten up the gap in the fender to wheel. That helps as much as venting. The other hot ticket is running (I'm working on the design for this as well!) a combination Chin Spliter and front Belly pan to aid in defusing the entry air on the front of the car. As for the rear wing, I'm still undesided on it. I took the car up to 155mph and the down force on the rear spoiler caused the spoiler to body seam to crack the length of the left side base. I'm actually thinking about a aluminum or sheet steel rear wing. They work wonders on providing rear downforce, but can actually rob the car of some HP. I love the look of mine, but it may have to go! I'm already searching for a clean rear hatch to modify! FYI, I know where a wind tunnel is. I just don't know that they will let me use it, and at what cost. Last info I got from someone else who did it was $10,000 for two days!!! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Guys, we should have pics of the TC rods up by ealry next week. I'm in the middle of setting up the AFCO Account and getting the business license needed to open the account so we can buy bulk at a reduced price. I'm told by Chris that his dad is almost done with the rear jig, so I would anticipate a March timeframe on the rear control arms! "CK Suspensions" or "CK Fabrications" will officially be the business name! Mike Kelly ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

These wheels came from American Eagle Alloy, but I'm not kidding, I took the Cobra center out of the other wheel yesterday and snapped it into my wheel. Also, on the back of both wheels (FOMOCO & THe AEA) they had the same identical stampings... I suspect they came from the same plant. Bottom line is they look good, are reasonably light, and very durable. Price was exceptional!!! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Lets just say my Neighbores think Im nuts and the local car guys generally don't believe me when talking about my car unless it is with me or they have experienced the tail lites. As for difusers, I'm working on making the bottom of the car flat in the center section, including a trans tunnel pan fitted with DZEUS fittings. I'm trying to Sink the frame rail into the interior of the car, so all you see on the bottom is a flat surface from the rocker to the frame rail, flat across the frame rail, and then flat to the trans tunnels upright. From there I'll have to weld in the DZEUS brackets for the trans tunnel pan. I'm also welding up my drive shaft loop while I'm at it. If I can get enough support financially I am going to try to get the car to a wind tunnel in North Carolina. Goal is to get some real numbers on it and then correct some things, and go back in for re-test. I'm shooting for a couple of high dollar sponsores, but the bottom could fall out in a hurry and I'll be going solo to the desert without data and without support. Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Yup...3.75 is the bolt pattern! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

I have some 18 gage in stock but I dont have enough to do the job completely. Maybe I'll check out the 14 gage stuff. It isn't load bearing as I'm running some 1/8inch flat to tie on the roll cage to the subframes and trans tunnel and the trans mount to the subframe! I'll let you know. Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Not quite. I got my wheels at Summit racing from a "Source". Mine are as good as the originals. As a matter of fact I bought some tires today from a local vendor who has a original Brand new FOMOCO Cobra R wheel I can buy from them for $100 that they ordered for a customer that never picked it up. I had a wheel with me, and they not only looked identical, they weighed the same, and other than the fact that the FOMOCO wheel was painted silver, you couldn't tell them appart... BTW, I bought two 255-40-17s and 2 275-40 17s for the Z!!! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

I started removing the drivers side floor pan last night and found what I suspected I would find...Lots of rust. The complete pan is now gone and after removal I noticed once again just how half assed some folks do a job. Guy that did the pans never treated the metal used to replace the pan. As a matter of fact, he sandwhiched the old rusty pan with untreated metal... This trapped rust in, then he por15'd both sides of the two pieces of metal he sandwhiched the original pan with and sealed it with seamsealer... Effectively trapping rust inside the layers of metal. I'll remove the passenger side pan tonight and get the 18 gage steel sheet tomorrow to replace the pans with. I hope to have all the floor pans back in place by no later than next weekend. This does afford me the chance to better build the cage around the frame rails that currently exist and to tie the cage footers into the rockers and the subframe. I think the car will be much much stronger when I'm finished. I'll take lots of pics and post them on Yahoo. Goal is to have the car back on the ground and rolling around by March 1, so I can prepare for the 1 piece front end. Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Not entirely true on the "Factory Copy" issue... I'd give $100 to the person that could pick my lookalike wheel out of a mix of 10 Cobra Rs ... One thing to remember is that many of these wheels being manufactured now days are rolling out of the same plant and off the same assembly line. Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Well Chris Cloude Rode in my 500+HP z and I'll let him give a more unbiased opinion on how streetable the car was or wasn't. From my own perspective, I can tell you that if you build the motor to have a broad and flat torque curve, and have it tuned properly, put the right sticky rubber under it, and drive it reasonably, you can have a very streetable Z. The only time I ever got nervous driving my Z was if it had rained. The HP and torque would make breaking the rear tires loose so much easier in the wet. Now, I say this, having put fender flares and very wide and sticky tires on the car. That, and a bunch of suspension mods is the key in my opinion. If you run narrow and inferior tires (H or even V rated hard compound) on a poorly engineered chassis you will smoke tires at will without trying. I had no trouble in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic, and the car was VERY drivable in those conditions. Only mistake I made was in when the cam comes to life. My 6th gear is unusable below 2000RPMs, which means I need shorter tires or something gear wise in the 4.+ range as opposed to the 3.7s I'm running. That has nothing to do with my motor design, but more to do with the hydraulic roller cam I chose and that Ed Isky designed based on what I wanted to do with the car, which is run flat out in the desert some day. Again, it depends on your plan, and sticking to it. I'm trying to cruise my motor on the highway in 6th at 1700RPMs and it is bucking... because it wasn't built to do that... My fault, not the combo, because I now am using it in situations it wasn't designed for. Make a plan, and stick to it. As for forced induction, Seems that everyone is way impressed with Darius' car after seeing the video. That car is impressive, but I was more impressed with his bike handling skills. I believe you can get the same kind of performance out of the same type of package I have. A blower or turbo aren't necessary and add complexity and expense to it. True, the wow factor is cool, and I would take nothing away from Darius or his creation, as the car is a work of art, just not the only path to getting to 500 streetable HP. Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Yea, they make a 200mph mechanical unit, but only a 160mph electric unit... Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

OK< now I'm not laughing... they just called and left me a message that they had deleted my shipping and billing info before they contacted me. Anyone else have this type of trouble? I placed that order last Thursday and they are just now getting back to me??? I'm going by NTB this afternoon to see if they will mathc prices.... Food for thought for those owning businesses... Notice how easy Tire Rack JUST lost a several hundred dollar sale....HMMMM Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Bondobucket, Do a search on Roll cages and read the files on this topic. I had a street driven Solo2 racer that was the middle car of a three car sandwhich and the cage was what saved my life. It isn't inconveniant if you have it made by a race car fabricator and have them work with you closely. Biggest complaint you will get from anyone is climbing over door bars if you have them installed. I have a tubing bender, nother, and a mig welder and am in the process of upgrading my current cage. I highly recommend them, as they do several things to the car: they make it safer in collisions and they also add to the stiffness of the car and enhance the handling of the vehicle! mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk [This message has been edited by Mikelly (edited February 13, 2001).]

Just now got off the phone with tire rack and they wanted me to explain to them how I was going to fit a 17 inch tire on a 1974 Zcar... Guy about fell in the floor when I told him what I had done to the car and what happens currently when I shift from 3rd to 4th with the previous tire selection and setup on 15s!!! Guy was amazed at what I'm doing with the car! To to funny. Long and short of it...tires are being shipped today! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

I would like Autometer to make the 200mph unit in the Phantom series... I'll get the ultralight if I have to, but I'd rather have the tach and speedo match the rest of the gage bezels! I'm glad they do finally make a 200mph electric speedo though! Those will be bought next month, along with the 1piece front end from MAS! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

That particular car wouldn't be my 1st pick, although it had some tastey treats bolted on it. Check the 4sale section here as at least one other member is selling his V8Z and it is a nice Viper Blue with White Stripes and the porice is very modest for the package @ $4000! Mike

Sean, I think you will have to fabricaket brackets for it, buit it isn't a huge undertaking. Just make sure the aluminum doesn't make direct contact with any of the metal in the core support. You don't want to wear a hole in the new aluminum! ' I highlky recommend the 2 row 1inch or larger tubing radiator made by Griffin. I have the 1.25 inch tube unit and it is nice! However, mine is a 260Z, and I have no idea what size will fit a ZX! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Well Ellobo, that has been my beef with the auto industry for quite some time... What I consider a supercar and what they (Detroit and Japan) consider a supercar are worlds appart... My car will someday be one... hopefully in the year 2001! Congrats on your ride! Mike ------------------ http://hometown.aol.com/dat74z/myhomepage/auto.html "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk