Mikelly

Ross, You would be very correct. I have it in the plans get the car to a very respectable tuner by spring. However, I'd also like to swap it to fuel injection if at all possible and make lots of HP in the process. I know, I know, I want it all, but thats me... Oh, and the shop I plan to take it to will be way more than $200... I plan to tune on the dyno to the toon of $150 an hour. My buddy with the 426 stroker Mustang had $540 in his tuning and 4 dyno pulls. I suspect that with all the variables I have, I'll have a $700 bill by the time I'm done. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Yea I lifted the front of Chris' car by myself. The front end is nothing.. the rear has all the weight to it.. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Tom, My setup doesn't have a vaccuum secondary. All my stuff is way tunable, which is why I'm having bunches of trouble. Anyway, I have a BG 750 double pumper with a MSD Billet mechanical distributor. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Chris and I picked up the rear of his shell (no interior, no body, No glass) and moved it, two average guys, no bulging muscles... I'd suspect that the whole shell is about 800# total weight. Thas' my best guess... Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Nope, I checked with Centerline and they will custom make bolt pattern and backspacing. This particular wheel is between 19 & 21# in a 17X9. http://www.centerlinewheels.com/w_catalog/billet.html That is the site with them... Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Yup,I have the lower adjustable control arms already on the front and would like to make some up for the rear, but I'd also use the camber plates on the rear in a pinch if they worked with coilovers! Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Priceless info ROSS! Thanks a lot! Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Curtis... I'm guessing they are 2.5 springs as well, but if they aren't please let us know.. that is the right price and I like using the existing bolt method. They would be great with a coilover kit and I'd be buying those for the rear ASAP! Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

I went over to Chris' house last night and took some pics of his existing old framerail on the drivers side and of the work he has don on the passenger side, the battery box, and the rotisary his dad built. I'll JPEG them and send them to Pete so he can put them up. Chris' dad and I talked for a few minutes while Chris was welding and his dad let it slip that Chirs has NEVER fabricated anything before, which will blow your mind when you see this work. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

DO any of you guys know if a GM style TB off a 454 would work on my 383? can it be modified for different injectors in the throttlebody? Can you bolt it to a Victor JR? It would be real nice to go scavage a FI wiring harness and DECU from a wrecked truck, and grab all related FI parts and swap it onto the motor... I know a lot of guys like multi point injection, and I think buying these kits is the absolute best way to go, due to the cost of all the associated parts. You simply will pay mor ein the long run. Keeping my intake makes a TB swap more attractive, which is why I want to know if this can be done... Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Chris has a nice Mig unit. I also have one at my brothers house, but need to get a larger circuit breaker wired into my garage before I bring it back to my place to weld anything. I'm gonna be buying my own unit over time, but we'll see. I'm currently looking for business partners to open a performance based shop in Fredericksburg, possibly with a Dyno installed... we'll see, but for right now I'm just gonna beg and borrow what I need to resolve my floorpan issue. They car won't see any serious use until I get the rust and damaged pans out of the chassis of mine, which will include removal of the interior and possibly the motor and transmission. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Yup, I would also suspect your camber is out of balance between the two front corners... That would definitely contribute to that "Hunting for line" feel in the front as well. Bet it is a handfull on the track if you run on less than optimum surfaces.. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk [This message has been edited by Mikelly (edited October 05, 2000).]

Well I've been giving it some serious thought as well and I'm right back to the Centerline brand of wheels. By the time I convert to 5 lug I'll have somewhere around $150-200 in parts... plus the cost of the wheels. Centerline makes a very nice euro looking wheel called the AZTEC and I can get it in a 17X9 for around $195 each. That falls within $100 of the Cobra R wheel in a polished finish. If you don't like the look of billet, Youmight consider getting them powder coated... I'm thinking of getting the spokes on the AZTEC powedercoated wither black to offset the whit on the car, or white to compliment the white paint of the car... I have a set of Centerline's on the car right now in a 15X8 and their finish and machine work on the wheel is impressive. Very nice product and super light for the money.. 16# for the 15X8 unit. I'm gonna go with the AZTEC for sure! Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

I saw Chris' wok on his frame last evening and he has become quite the fabricator. His work made such an impact that I got under my car last night to check a few things out.. It was already on jack stands since I was swapping my brakes out.. What I found made me want to throw up. I cannot impress the importance of trust when dealing with people in the car world. A former sponsor of mine had done the sub-frames and floor pans in my car while I was over seas defending god and country. What I found last night angered me. The guy had layed the floor pans in on the frame rail and then never welded them in... Moisture had gotten in between the frame rail and the floor pan, and my subsiquent V8 driving has caused the floor pans to tweek and twist, revealing rust and other problems within the structure. I'll be tearing this whole mess out over the winter. I am pissed... If you want it done right, do what Chris is doing... do it yourself. Welding isn't THAT hard... Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Absolutely how they do it... You guys are doing your homework. Problem with Lexan is that it is Noisy. Sharkman, this excludes you since you guys are making a drag only car. However, other than the rear hatch, I don't think I would use it anywhere else.. stuff is super noisy and hard to seal wind noise out of. Of course, if you are building a car strictly for speed.... Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Check the forsale section here... A guy contacted me a while back about buying his kit, and I would have, except it is on the left coast... California that is... You knw, where you live... E-mail him Sharkman.. Cut out Dave the middleman. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Hey Chris... Where the hell have you been??? Call me! Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

I saw one today at Va Beach... It was on a Blue 73 240Z and it was beautiful.. Car was sweet, straight and the nose looked right at home. I have to get one of these when I get my FI woes straightened out. Car was beautiful. Didn't look tacky at all. Car had 240 bumpers color matched and a rear BRE spoiler. No flares, just a G-nose and a spoiler at the bottom. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Don't worry Pete, I gotcha back man! We have both made "mistakes" as soem would claim, on our respective projects. But it was like my sweetheart and I were chatting tonight when we were struggling the last 30 miles to get home in the old technology Carb'ed motor I built... Great thing about building something like this.. She smiled and said that FI parts would be under the Xmass tree if she could help it! You can always improve as you go! It is yours, built by you, built for you. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Took the car to a cruise in tonight and it ran horrible. I retuned and jetted it, and it ran worse... nothing I could do mattered... I've had it. Seems every time I want to drive this Freaking car I have to tweek the carb. I'm done. Here is what I need from you guys... I'm gonna go with a TBI setup of some sort. I'd preffer to use a GM factory type setup that bolts onto my Victor Jr. Intake, but I'm also up for bolting on a Holley 4DI programmable unit. I need your collective brains and info to help me... What can I do to make my 383 stroker work with FI TBI? TBI is simple, which is one key factor for me... I'm not doing another thing to this car until I swap it to FI... I'm selling the carb, fuel cell and all related parts that will not swap to FI... I'm done this time, and if it takes me 6 months to get it done, I'll let the car sit for six months.... I'm sick of carbs and I'm sure by the tone of this note you guys can tell...I'm Pissed. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

BLKMGK, Order your coilovers and lets get this done... I really want to see how it goes. I'd run an 8 inch spring and see what we can get under that puppy! I'm gonna do a little more research, but for spring size availability it seems that 8inch springs give more of an option! Just say when! Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

Let me clarify why I'm gonna go with 17s... I've been looking into tire selection and in a 15 inch wheel, if you plan to go wider than a 225 inch in any Zrated tire... well goodluck finding a choice... Yokohamo makes a wide selection of 15s in their AVS intermediate, but that is about it. With my car flared, I can stuff way more tire under the back of the car, so I'd like to get a 275 or wider under the rear. 17s are the way I'm going because even 16s are limited. Believe me, I like my wheels, and have no need to follow fads or trends.. however, in searching for slicks (road race), it seems the trend there is to go 17s as well if you want as choice in sizes.. Back int he 90s when I weas really into the track scene 15s were abundant, but not today. I wish that were still the case! So I'm going with 17s and I'd like to go with 17X9 or 17X9.5 and I might go with the Cobra R wheel, and I might get another set of centerlines, not made up my mind yet, although I really like the Centerline AZTEC, maybe in a powder coated color.. leaving the outer rim polished and the spokes white or black... Who knows. If I do that, then I don't have to worry about any of this since Centerline will make any backsopacing I want and in any bolt pattern AND their wheels are 19# in a 17X 9.5 which is nicer on the brakes and acceleration department! Decissions decissions... Keep the comments coming.. very informative thread! Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

My parts came in today and KVR recommends breaking in the pads and rotors like this: "5-6 40mph-5mph regular stops repeated in a very short period of time, then park the car and let it sit for an hour." I'll be installing the setup next week along with the front pads. I'll be sure to follow their advice on the break in. FYI, The rotors are Brembo units and look very nice... There are only 6 slots, so the surface area isn't impacted with loss of matterial. I need to have my cross drilled rears mic'ed to see if there is any life left on them if so, I'll be putting them on the forsale board cheap! Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

I've missed out on the fun here... This past summer I seriously suffered from exactly what you guys are experiencing... I have the Late model camaro starter, which runs about $300 retail. I cooked it, and its relay. I also have ceramic headers.. Also have a custom exhaust that runs within about 3 inches of the starter. I posted here months ago that I had WAYYY to much heat under hood... So much that I was melting wire loom. OK, what I started with was a remote solenoid from Summit and a "Hot Shot" voltage booster from painless wiring... No good.. Still got heat soak... I ran 1/0 wiring all the way back from the hatch... I also am running that gucci sealed battery that everyone raves about... So how did I fix it? Several things were done... but 1st, Pete touched on something I know to be true based on my problems.. Ceramic coated headers radiate WAY too much heat under hood in my opinion. I'm not only basing this on my car, but others have made comment that they noticed under hood heat rise as well in their corvettes, camaros, and pickup trucks.. Why does it impact us more? Close quarters for the motor to the fenderwells and firewall. Now you real smart guys are gonna say that thermodynamically it can't be so... I know, I know. I thought the same exact thing. however, one of the sharper guys I know has a 69 camaro with a big block in it and he had no issues with the car untill he shipped his existing headers out to be coated.. Within hours of installing the now coated headers, this guy experienced an under hood fire due to wires melting and grounding against each other. FYI, I wouldn't use that header wrao stuff on anything that will rust... It collects moisture that will allow those parts to rust when the car is sitting and cold...Read: over night during a heavy dew or frost...I rusted a motorsport header off a L28 motor in one season years ago thanks to header wrap... I still have excess heat underhood so much that my satin finished vacuum cannister is hot to the touch. I'm running the late model vented hood which does help when moving, but I'm still keeping an eye on the wiring harness next to the passenger side header... I wrapped all my wiring in the DEI heat tape that is designed to help with this problem. I also ran my fuel lines in the fenderwell so they stay cool as well. I now have condesation on my carburetor metering blocks at idle. I wouldn't recommend running your starter solenoid underhood unless you can run it in front of the strut tower, because the heat back behind the strut tower just takes to much of a toll on the unit. So is it the ceramic? Is it just my car? Is it the fact that the car was soooo poorly tuned? I know all these questions will be fired at me because you are a sharp bunch... I tuned the car before I did anything else... I leaned it out and got the timing up, which by the way found me a bunch of Hp!! I then bought the remote start solenoide since the tuning didn't help with the heatsoak on the starter. I relocated the starter solenoide to several different spots in the engine bay to no avail! I also installed the HotShot after the solenoide didn't work but I removed it after it to didn't work. I even installed a heat shield on the starter... Didn't work. Only after I moved the starter solenoide to the outside of the engine bay did my starter heat soak problem go away. After I fixed it, a hotrodder told me about the trick of spinning the starter button and then throwing the ignition switch. That supposedly saves the life of any starter...Oh well. That won't work for most of you guys, but when I moved the starter solenoid out of the engine bay all my heatsoak issue went away. Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk

ZDr. of Roanoke advised that I mount the perch above the rim/ tire combo and to use a 7 inch spring so I could get the type of tire clearance a 17X9 inch wheel will need. Thats why I asked for opinions form those who have odne it, because what you found is exactly what I found... I'll have to get the parts in hand and go from there maybe... Mike ------------------ "I will not be a spectator in the sport of life!" mjk