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Let me add a little more here. I am running a Mcleod street twin clutch with a steel flywheel. The steel flywheel is HEAVY. This clutch is awsome, but harsh. It simply does not slip. As far as running an automatic transmission, if it was set-up like a soft street transmission the axles may last a whole lot longer.... maybe forever. But if the transmission has a brake, manual valve body and shifts like a sledge hammer, they, or some other parts in the driveline, are going to give eventually. Drive it hard and breakage is going to happen. The axles are undergoing an autopsy at this point, hopefully giving up some clues to help everyone out. I am waiting for the UPS man to deliver a new set of the same axles from Ross, so I can get back on the road. I built this car to be driven hard, raced at the track on slicks and have fun. I'll be out doing the same thing again soon, can't wait. Jody

Here is a picture of both the broken stub axle and the "good" one together. It will help show exactly where the break occurred.

Wow, I will thank Ross publicly and appoligize also. I sent him an e-mail yesterday and should have waited for a response. I fat fingered the address. I re-sent an e-mail through HybridZ this time. I have no ill feelings about the axles and hopefully none of my posts sounded like I had a bad attitiude. Parts break.... period! I was hoping that these wouldn't be the weak point, but as I said several times, I was not gentle. Everything has it's breaking point and maybe this will help get a stronger piece out there. Jody

BLKMGK, I was on the street, no nitrous when it broke. I have run a few (maybe 10-12) tanks of the spray through it over the past couple of years, both on the track and the street. As far as spline engagement, I am running the MM companion flanges (CF) and there was full spline engagement in the CF. The break occurred just inside the CF, right at the edge of the CF splines. The CF is fine and no damage to the splines. I'll go back and label the pics to help you get a better idea. Jody

This broken axle was on the passenger side. I am running an R230 rear with Moser axles (Modern Motorsport supplied also)... you know, what is listed in my sig . I have not pulled the CV's apart, but they are tight and have no obvious backlash.

Yes, another consumable item... that's a good way to look at it. Fortunately the 4th gen f-body rear brake set-up will retain the broken stub in the bearings, unless I am doing some crazy sideways stunt. I will surely be pulling the other axle at some point soon, and inspecting it for any obvious stress. Jody

I am not trying to trash Ross or the stub axles... I think that I am the first to break one of these... I was also one of the first to buy them. Yes I did see that the axle was broken, not the CV joint. I am uploading the pictures and will edit them into my first post. As far as the 296/50/16's, I believe that they did significantly contribute to the failure. They hook like slicks on the street. When you consider that before my head cam swap, I was making 589 foot pounds of torque and these heads flow between 45 and 50 cfm better and the intake was cut, welded and ported, I am expecting an easy 75 hp gain. I just have not gotten to the dyno to get a number yet. Jody

The car never even moved an inch... 3 grand and as I let the clutch out (not side stepped) Boom it went. I actually first thought it popped out of gear. Now, the car has been to the track a hand full of times on slicks with a bunch of 10 second passes and several 1.47 60' times and I have indeed smoked the tires a time or twenty , but as a general rule, driving the car to work or around town, it's just cruising. The set-up on this car has been great, it never wheel hops at all and the tires I run are huge (285/50/16). They suprisingly hook extremely well on the street. Unless I really try to spin the tires, it dead hooks... even on the spray! I am not trying to say that I am gentle on the car, but I bought these thinking they were not going to be a problem... I took a quick look under the car and pulled the axle down after pulling it up my friend's 800' driveway. The CV joint and companion flange appear to be fine. The stub axle looks like it broke flush with the end of the companion flange. Unless someone has a better option... I will likely be buying another set billet stubs. Up to now they have been great... and it would cost ALOT more to change direction and go with a different set-up. Jody

This afternoon I was out on a cruise and stopped by a friends house. Of course he egged me on to stripe the road in front of his house. All I heard was BOOM! The MM billet stub axle broke clean on the passenger side. I'm going back tomorrow with the trailer to get the car and I'll post a few pics. I was running street tires too. Fortunately I was some place where I had help and I could leave the car, and not out in the middle of nowhere. (got to look for something positive) Jody Pictures added looking at the bearing race, broken axle inside Looking at the companion flange, still bolted to the CV. Broken end of axle inside. Close up of above pic cleaned up straight on of above pic. End of broken axle in the companion flange. Broken end of stub axle, after knocking it out of the companion flange. Bolt and washer still attached. Stub axle. Close up of break. Shered off and twisted the splines. Looking at the splines of the companion flange, where the break occurred. No significant damage. I set the broken piece back on the axle.

Congrats Dale! Sounds great. Jody

The fans turn on because the SES light is on. The computer throws a code, it turns on the fans. Get Datamaster, Diacom, Autotap... and read the code. Check the throttle position sensor and make sure it is right. Check all of your vacuum lines to make sure all are connected. Something is not connected right or your throttle cable is not letting the throttle body close. As far as the knock sensor, you need to make sure you have the correct resistance sensor for the year PCM. I don't know about the caprice set-ups, so I can't shed any light on which one to use, but I suspect the one you are using is right because if it was wrong, the SES light would set immediately and the fans would turn on right away, not 30 seconds later. Get something to monitor the computer. It will save you from guessing.

My next door neighbor has an 03 Cobra. He has changed the pulleys, cold air intake, predator tune, x pipe, Borla exhaust and a couple of other odds and ends including installing an oversized intercooler heat exchanger. He is at about 485 rwhp and about the same torque. He has a Stegmeyer ported blower in his garage that he is about to install, and he is hoping for another 40 - 50 rwhp. The Cobras are Dyno queens. They lay down nice dyno numers but they are heavy pigs. Yes there are some fast ones, but they usually have ditched the Eaton superchargers and gone with a KB. My neighbor's best time has only been an 11.85 1/4 mile time. I have been to many local Cobra events. I love smoking them They always try to get me to race them from a roll. where they are just at the sweet spot in the torque range for the gear. That is the only time they can hang with me. (doesn't last long though ) Jody

Was it a Melling pump? Do a search on some of the issues that they have been having. I am glad I have an old style pump!!!! http://forums.godragracing.com/viewtopic.php?t=36095&highlight http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153113&highlight=melling http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152830 http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=674672&highlight=melling http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=495340&highlight=melling

Looks like plenty except for the area where the reverse switch sticks out on the passenger side of the tranny. Nothing a quick BFH mod can't take care of. Looks good, Jody

The motor is a 385 stroker motor, .040 over -15cc Ross pistons, Lunati pro mod rods and Lunati 3.75 stroke crank. The set-up with my stock ported LT1 heads, 1.6RR and a GM847 cam made 404 RWHP. I expect when I get this set-up with the Trick flow ported heads, welded and raised runner LT4 intake and a much bigger cam will make a few more. Jody

The flares on my car are the MAS flares. They actually turned out to be stronger than I thought they would be after they were mounted and a lip was added to the opening to give it depth. I also have a set of the front (more narrow) flares at the house that I will not be installing. Someone buy them from me.

I personally like the flares blended into the body.

The car is still quite loud, but the resonance was reduced alot. I still have a 1800-1900 rpm spot that under certian load conditions is tough, but overall it is much better. Now I have never run real mufflers on the car. Before, I had 2 2 1/2" Dynomax mufflers along the sides of the transmission (where I have the cats now) then they Y together and another 3" Dynomax muffler out the back. When it was like that, it was harsh in the car most of the time.

I am running a set of cats that came off of a friend's ZO6 Corvette. He pulled them off with about 2K miles. The price was right, the size was right and I saw little power loss. So far I am happy.

Even at idle, the car is significantly louder with this cam over the last one I had in, which was a GM 847 234/242-112. The new cam is a Bullet billet asemetrical lobe 25x/25x-108 with 612 lift. Last night doing a few test rides, my son easily heard it and I was close to a mile away. OK, maybe I was opening it up a little I tried to get 280z28 tags and the state said that the combination was too close to the issued combination, so it was denied.

Here are a bunch of pictures of my Z28 fan installation on the JTR radiator. I hope this shows you how I managed to get them to fit. They are actually over an inch away from the radiator (a little further than I originally remembered) These fans pull a ton of air and without a shroud, the distance away and the overhang on the side of the radiator, they cool the motor just fine.... even with the AC on.

The seats are out of the 95 Z28 donor car. My exhaust is 2 1/2 out of the headers, thru 2 cats and then it combines to a 3" out the back. Yes I am running cats, I got sick of the exhaust smell. I figured I could afford to give up a few HP. I am thinking of making a 3" dual- out the side, open header pipe for the race track. Jody

I just upgraded my LT-1 heads,cam and intake in my 280Z. Here is a little video of the car idling in the driveway. I think my days of sneaking up on anyone is probably gone Unfortunately the camera mic makes the motor sound like it is clattering, but I think it is picking up the header noise. Now I just need a little tuning time. http://videos.streetfire.net/video/4a862a58-3d0f-41d6-9758-98f000d404cd.htm Jody

Maybe I can take a picture of the fans and send it to you, but they sit about 1/2" off the surface of the radiator and they are partially offset. I took 4 steel strips and bolted them to the top and bottom radiator mounts. I drilled holes in the radiator mount brackets, tapped them, and ran bolts from the inside, sticking out, making it easy to put the straps on and get them off. Then the fans bolt to the steel strips. They actually overhang the outside edge of the radiator a little and I shaved a little off of the outside of one of the lips of the fan outer shell to make them fit. They are TIGHT. When I pulled the radiator to do the cam swap last week, I just unbolted the bottom of the fan mounts and left the fans attached to the mounts and left the mounts attached to the upper radiator mounting bracket, then after unbolting the 2 upper radiator mount bolts, I lifted the whole assembly out easily. Jody

Dale, With headers it is tough to get the wires to run under the headers without subjecting them to burning. Over the valve cover wires are a great solution. I have been running mne over the valve covers for 8 or 9 years and have never had a wire probem since. Cut to fit wires are expensive, but necessary. I do like the clean look of no wires on top, but if a wire burns, the under routing is a major pain to deal with. Jody