jbc3

I'm glad someone is happy about my broken parts

Now that I dropped the rear I can see that the poly bushing on the passenger side of the front mount was crushed. It looked like it had 50K miles instead of a couple of hundred. I think that it was moving. The washer that capped the top of the bushing was bent. I will be replacing the bushings and I'll be using much larger heavier washers to sandwich the bushing. (Mustache bar washers look like they will be perfect) I also found another problem. The slip yoke in the transmission took a beating too. The inner splines twisted in the yoke. It was a MoFo to get it out! The transmission output shaft is fine. I will be replacing the slip yoke with a billet yoke. I thought that since the 280z is so much lighter than the Z28 I would be able to get away with a standard slip yoke... I was wrong. I trashed a slip yoke in my Z28 and replaced it with a billet yoke. Here are a couple of pictures of the inside of the slip yoke.

I pulled the cover off the R230 today and here are the pictures of the broken cover. The stud was also slightly bent. There was no other damage to the rear at all. Everything else is in great shape. I am planning on welding the cover back together and sealing the stud hole. Then I am working on making a mount that will use the cover bolts. The stud bolts were still tight so I am still not sure why the cover broke the way it did.

Still sounds like a possible vacuum leak. I had a car that acted the exact same way and it turned out to be a cracked intake manifold. I didn't find the problem until after I had replaced every gasket twice and bought a carb, returned it and got another because I thought it was bad. It was an 86 Jeep Wrangler. The idle was a little high in neutral when I got the engine back together, but I mistook it for a poorly adjusted throttle on the carb. So I adjusted the carb so it idled at ~800. Same symptoms you are having. Good luck, Jody

My association with Jeff Creech has moved me to NC??? No... Maryland... born and raised. Last week I managed to tear the rear cover of my R230 on a launch at the track. I need to pull it off, weld/repair the cover and fabricate a girdle to support the rear on those clutch dumps. The tear is above the left mount bolt about an inch and runs diagnal top right to bottom left. From feel only since it is behind the mustache bar mostly. The rear mount bolts are still tight so I still feel that the cover just was not up to the task. I hope to have it apart this weekend and start the repair process.

Mike, I'm game. Hopefully I'll have the car back together by the party. Jody

Those tires are killing your times. (and adding a passenger didn't help much either) 450HP with decent tires and a decent launch you should be in the mid 7's. But for your first time out, it wasn't bad.

I think you can make it work. You need to raise the rear by re-drilling the mustache bar with higher and wider holes. You will likely need to notch the frame above the rear so it will fit. I also trimmed the lower control arm and added gussets on the corners to add to strength. Where exactly are you saying the rear pictured is larger? The axle flanges look the same as the ones I have. Nevermind, I saw your picture post and the axle flanges are larger. I still think you can make it work, you may have to raise the rear 7/16" higher than I did, so you will need to notch the frame rail above to make it fit.

Gear marking compound is a white or yellow paste that you put on a few of the gear teeth and turn the pinion to rotate the ring a couple of times. Make sure you have someone creating pressure on the axle flange so the gears press tightly. The pattern can tell you if the set-up is correct. You can find the proper patterns on line. If the PO never fooled w/ the rear the bearings could cause the problem. Good luck, Jody

I'd love to see that car on the 1/4 mile track! WOW

Mr downshift and hard launch may have been a little hard on the rear. While you have the rear open, go ahead and put marking compound on the gears and see what type of pattern the gears give you. Hopefully the pattern matches the wear pattern. This should help you decide if the set-up is fine and the PO didn't perform an unsuccessful repair. If the patterns are good and the torque on the mains and pinion are fine, the bearings may need replacing. Replace them all.

Depends on your tranny... auto or manual. Auto's can launch fine at 15+ (high HP launches) but the shock of a manual needs a lower pressure. So I'd adjust accordingly. Good luck, and get a good burn out. Jody

DoTheDrew888, I live in Maryland. Not a member of the Triangle Z club. The track I'm talking about is 75 & 80 Dragaway that is closing and Pinks was filmed at MIR (Maryland International Raceway). I have known Jeff for many years, he's a good guy. Hopefully he see's a bump in business from sponsoring a car on Pinks. Jody

A friend of mine took a short vid of the launch and e-mailed the link to me. http://para.noid.org/~wayne/280-launch.mpg Jody

My front mount is poly bushings and the mount for the bushings is a brace that is both mounted to a bar that runs from the front crossmember mount to the rear as well as to the stock strap mounts on either side of the tunnel. I won't defend my design since I have not pulled it apart yet. Who knows, it may be a contributor. The front mounts still seem straight and solid. The rear is being held If I had not seen the problems the Cobras have been having personally, I would not have figured it into the picture. A rear girdle would likely have prevented the rear cover from breaking. The rear cover is not the strongest thing The fluid is coming from a break/tear in the rear cover just around the rear mount studs for the mustache bar. There could be more damage, but I "think" the cover is the only place it is coming from. I did get under it and feel for any other obvious problems, but it all seemed fine. I have not had the car on a dyno yet but the motor should be making at least in the 500hp/450tq range. One thing that may be contributing to the problem is I am running the McLeod steel flywheel street twin clutch. The clutch drop is bruital. One more thing, I think the back of the rear is being held down on the driver side by the cover. It is still attached to the mustache bar and the cover sort of tore but did not break off. By putting a jack under the rear it seemed to move up and stay. I don't want to force it around until I get it apart and see what the deal is.

Well a couple of weeks ago I mentioned in one of Jamie T's threads (below after the pictures is the thread and my response that I am referring to) that the R230 may need an additional IRS brace similar to the ones that are being made for the 03 and 04 Cobras. I should have taken my own advice before I went back to the track! I took the car to the track today and on my first run the rear cover split at the mustache bar mount bolts, twisted and the drivers side CV was grinding on the lower control arm. I "think" that the rear is OK. The under side and rear of the car was totally covered in rear fluid It may have been stressed from previous launches and today was the final straw. I was able to drive the car onto the trailer and under light load there is no noise. The clunking I was hearing seems to be just the CV hitting the lower control arm (seen in picture 3) I'll need a new rear cover and I will be making a rear girdle to support the diff housing as well as the cover. Unfortunately the pics don't show the cover damage, but it can be felt if you feel behind the mustache bar. It will be a couple of weeks before I have time to pull it apart and look more closely. I'll post the whole damage then. Yes the rear is hanging a little low on the driver side. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=104649 Another comment on the high HP launch problem with the R230, maybe something to add to your rear brace. Something that I have noticed after racing the car both times, I was leaking a little rear end fluid. When I drive the car normally there are no rear leaks at all. This weekend I had the car out and had an opportinity to really hit it hard, no tire slip in first, second and third and damn if I didn't have another few drops of fluid leaking out the cover of the rear. I know that some of the late model Mustang Cobras with IRS rears had similar problems and if not corrected with an IRS brace, the rear supports were breaking off. Take a look at this page... http://www.billetflow.com/irs_brace.htm or look at this page http://www.steeda.com/store/-catalog/555-8118.htm Their rear brace is shaped differently, but the brace is actually part of the cover also. We had to put one of these on my neighbor's Cobra to keep him from tearing up his rear. As soon as the brace was installed, there are no more leakage issues from the high launch stresses. I am thinking that I may try and do something like this brace. At least try and get a couple of the rear perimeter bolts on each side into a brace to help the rear from distorting the cover and causing a potential problem.

Mike, Jeff will give you the details and be sure to take a look at the bumper on his wall Have him give you one of the T-shirts we all wore at the race. Street racing is one of the most twisted trickery I have ever seen. There are teams of people that will "perform" races to sucker someone into a high dollar race. I have seen this first hand and I am talking about incidents that occured over 25 years ago. (used to be $25 to $50, now it's $500 to $1000 and up for some races) There are a couple of places close to my house that are still used on a regular basis. The thing that I am worried about is the local track is probably closing this year. The owner has a buyer for the property and has announced the closing. There is a small possibility (rumor) that the new owner may run the track for a couple of years before the homes are built. I think it is doubtful. The other tracks around are both far away and crowded already, so the street racing around here is growing. It is very sad. The closing track is not the track that Pinks was filmed, that track is 95 miles from my house and it takes ~2 to 2 1/2 hrs to get to. Jody

I much prefer to "row" also and there was no question as to which tranny I went with. I disagree that first is useless. The gear ratios are great and having 2 overdrives can make a ride down the highway nice. As far a clutch fabrication, there were little issues also. A Tildon MC and I had a local hydraulic line shop crimp an adaptor on the stock clutch line. Jody

There is no question that this show brings out alot of opinions about what should be won or lost or who lied etc... The show is supposed to air in February as the premier show of next season. No guarantees, but that is what we were told. I am sure that one of my buddies will be putting it on disk, so I hope to have a copy at some point. The TA ran 10.06 before the upgrades for the show, bigger cam and more boost and alchohol injection. It's probably able to run mid 9's or lower. 396 LT4, 20+ lbs of boost, 100HP shot of nitrous, and alchohol injection. It's a fun ride off the trans brake Jody

The show pays the owners nothing to be on the show. The "team" gets into the track for free and anyone who wants to watch pays to get in. As far as the end result of the cars... you decide what you want to do. The titles of the cars are signed before the race and held by Pinks. They are then given to the winner ...the winner can decide what he wants to do. You will see companies (speed shops usually) sponsoring the drivers and some are building cars just to be on the show. Think about it as advertising money. Our car had 2 shops names on it. Yesterday Pinks shot the next 3 or so races at Atco in New Jersey and they tried to get us to run the Honda that was won at Atco. Jeff, the owner of the Trans Am had been in North Carolina alot and totally there over the past week getting the car ready at Carolina Auto Masters and his wife was already not real happy with him. We all have jobs and it would have been tough to make that happen on the spur of the moment. On a personal note and some info on the Honda, there is no way I'd run a car that can do 140+ in the 1/4 that was in the condition that that car was in. It was stripped with nothing but the basic structure left, 1 seat, a steering wheel, a dash shell and a basic roll bar.. There were alot of bolts and things like tie downs for the brake lines missing on the car. I guess every nut and bolt adds to the weight. They ran it with stock axles and it was a gamble every run if the axles even lasted. The bumpers were held on by 2 little bolts and were removed by their team after the second race. We all signed the front bumper and it will be on the wall at Carolina Auto Masters. Also here's a picture of the engine. I should have taken a picture of the huge turbo with just bent screen over the intake. Can you imagine trying to run a HybridZ with the 12" square by 1" thick radiator with 35 lbs of boost? There was no disclosure contract and there were a ton of spectators. We did sign papers allowing Pinks to use the images filmed for the show or comercials with no pay etc...

If anyone has ever participated in true street racing for big money, you will find that there are no tree starts, no electronic timing and alot of BS talk. The show is trying to get that feel. I think they would have a tough legal issue if they ran these races on the streets instead of the track. As far as knowing the detail of the times and accuracy of the runs, that would ruin the edge that people get by sandbagging (running the car slower to either loose on purpose of barely win). If speed or times were given, it would change the entire show. Just like I said in the beginning, I am not a huge fan of the show, but to have a chance to participate (with no real risk to me because the car was not mine) was fun. We had a plan and certian things were done to try and give us an edge. We truely had some things break and there were some stressful moments. I can say for sure that my participation has confirmed my original feelings about the BS that is involved in true street racing. When we had to unhook certian things, like the nitrous, we fumbled like it was a hard thing to do.... but when we negotiated it back after "loosing" a couple of races, we all of a suddenly had all the right tools and it only took seconds to connect. I have no idea how our team is going to be presented in the final editing cut of the show. There were a ton of cameras around filming everything you did and there is no doubt that they can make your team look any way they choose (as far as attitude/cheating/manipulating). I can't wait to see the show. Here are a couple more pictures. One of the starts in the second show and the Honda loaded on our spare trailer, getting ready to take it home.

How many of you have seen Pinks on the Speed channel... I have seen a few shows and thought how crazy you'd have to be to put the title of your car up for a race against someone you've never even met or seen..... Well a friend of mine called me a few weeks ago and told me that he contacted the people at Pinks when he heard that they were going to be at a local track to film several shows. After a bunch of interviews and screening he was selected. He asked me to help him and of course I did. Three shows were filmed this past Tuesday. We were the first show. We brought his supercharged Trans Am down and raced a Honda Civic. We also brought down a second trailer in the hopes that we would need it to bring home the competitor's car. Now you may say, no competition, but the Honda was stripped, probably weighed 1800 lbs (my guess) and the motor was turbocharged. Rumors were that the motor was making ~700HP to the wheels. We weighed our car and it weighed in at about 3800 lbs without a driver. Without getting into all of the details of the races that we had, the Honda driver was sandbagging some of the races and we had some parts break. It went 5 races. Bottom line.... we needed the second trailer and we took home the other guy's car . Another friend, who owns Carolina Auto Masters, was the "sponsor" of the car. Mike Kelly has met many of the guys on our team. Jeff Creech, owner of Carolina Auto Masters, tuned Mike's car and the shop where we dyno'd Mike's car, MSP Motor Sport Performance, also closed their shop and came down an helped. It was an INSANE day. The filming of our race is supposed to be the premier show of next year's season... I think in February. Is there any HybridZ content.... not really, but I was wearing my HybridZ hat during the race Here are a couple of pictures of the cars.

I'll give my .03... I drag raced my Camaro and had taken my front sway bar off. It allows the front to come up much faster, transfering weight. I had the QA1 12 way adjustable shocks and taking off the sway bar helped alot more. It improved my 60' times by >.1. The handling on the street was not great. Cruising on the highway was no big deal but the curvy back roads sucked. I'd say, try it on the drag strip... see if it's worth the trouble un-connecting and connecting it back up. You may see some improvement. I have an R230 rear and do not have a rear sway bar so you will not see me trying it, no sway bars at all really stinks. I tried it once in the Camaro, it was scary at the top end of the track, the car began to sway and every movement of the steering wheel as exagerated. Jody

Mike, It's great to hear that your boss is going to help you out. Always play your cards close.... I had a situation a couple of years ago when a position was being offered to me from another company. My boss found out and "eliminated" my job position. He always expected his *** to be kissed. I have never been happier since I left, but by eliminating my position when he did, he prevented me from collecting 4 weeks vacation pay (by 1 week). His lovely way of taking care of a 10 year dedicated employee (NOT) Hope your boss takes care of you better! Jody

Jamie, I moved my rear forward slightly with spacers between the rear and the mustache bar so my angle was straight. I have not done any measurements, but it looked straight to me. You could easily mount your rear support to get a straight angle. As far as a torque arm, I think that if it was connected to the body/frame it may work. The stock f-body torque arms go to the transmission and moves quite a bit. I don't think that would be a good idea with the diff held solid in the back of the rear. Now if you were able to do a tubular torque arm to a brace that was solidly mounted and there is little movement, it could work. There are some issues though. I have the stock cross member in the front of the rear a-arms and the R230 has the wide driveshaft flange... leaving very little space for a torque arm. I know with your new design, there may be a possibility. The torque arm will move the upward force of hard launches and lift the front of the car much more... you may be seeing some air under the front tires with one I was lifting my Camaro 12" or so on hard launches... it was fun. I have a really nice tubular torque arm in my garage if you want to see pics. Now the problem I see with a torque arm would be the mounts on the diff to hold the torque arm. They have to be 2 mounting points 6 to 8 inches forward of each other. I know you are creative, but building those mounts could be a problem. Also the pinion angle will change on launches. Even mounted to the frame with my torque arm, I was dialing in 4 degrees of negative DS angle so when the car launched and under hard acceleration it would come up to normal. Jody