Jolane

I am sorry, I did read that about drilling out the dowel hole. I was only thinking that you could plug the hole basically, and then redrill and retap for the dowel hole and bolt hole. Thought a keensert might get you close, so all you had to do was redrill for the dowel. Joshua

Propane torch, time, scrapper, time, safety glasses, time, gloves, time, lacquer thinner, time, and rags. That is how I have been doing it. I also work on it a little, then work on something else. The interior is much easier to get off with heat and a scrapper. Also, I tried paint stripper on the underside, it works well in place of heat, but makes a much larger mess! Just apply, wait 15-20 minutes, scrap. I want to try the pressure washer, but am afraid of making the other bare metal rust...boy it would easier that way though. Joshua

I am sorry to offend you Chaparral2F about the Harley's. Although I have not personally owned one, my dad has two, a custom and an 03 Road King. I have ridden both, and hate the feel of both. What I hated more though than the feel was giving my dad a ride home on the back of my bike so we could get the truck and load up his, TWICE! He maintains it, etc...but when the primary belt breaks and locks up in the primary cover, you aren't going anywhere. He had two primo belts break within a year, ~2K miles! His tanks cracked and leaked fuel all over. Everything seems to vibrate off his custom. Even with Loctite! His new Road King is nice to look at, but for the price, he should not have had some of the problems he has had...like leaking oil, popping and poor running EFI. Nothing some service at the local dealership couldn't solve. As for my FZ1, hasn't missed a beat, is comfortable to take 2-up day trips with, etc. That is my choice... It is smooth, quick, fast, handles well, light, reliable, great gas mileage, ... perfect for me in city or on highway. As for tools, sometimes it is hard to swallow the cost of quality tools, but when a HF tool snaps (if I used them that is), it would take ~1 1/2 hours to exchange it (drive across town, run in, drive home). For the gas and time, I figure why not buy quality tools... I also give myself a budget each month for tools, and I am not a mechanic by trade. Some people like beer, I like quality tools and unbusted knuckles! Joshua

2126, I have called a ton of 'shops' around here looking for someone who carries the seats I am interested in, and come up short. That was actualy the first thing I tried. Around here, our speed shops are more like 'I can order it' shops, and want money up front. After looking at the dimensions, I think the CR1's will fit okay since the back is the same as the A4 (dimension wise) and the bottom is wider. I just hate to commit without knowing for sure... Joshua

I would also suggest a Keensert. Basically, pull the locating dowel out first, install the keensert, then replace the dowel. Joshua

Wow, buying heads seems to be a big deal. Although I am not happy to hear all these problems, I guess I am glad I am not the only one. I felt bad about complaining about the heads, but after not getting any responses, I thought I should warn people of my experience. I personally would also take a risk with AFR's. It seems like a lot of people are using them. Too bad Summit does not carry them. BTW, summit has been really good to deal with. Holley shorted me the wideband o2 parts for my stealth ram kit, and summit had it to me very quickly. I will continue to by from them....well, except AFR heads. Joshua

Yeah, I understand that mtcookson. I guess what I should of said is american made tools, because you won't catch me buying a Harley any time soon either. My Yamaha and Kawasaki do just fine for me! I do like quality tools though, and for those I look to America still when I can afford them or they will be used a lot. Thanks, Joshua

Scumdog, Choosing seats, at least for me, has been very difficult. I have been reading as much as I can for the last few months about seats (when not researching TIG welders...). They are expensive enough to really warrant some research. As for the DAD seats, I am concerned about the quality, durability, safety and fitment. I know several other members have them, and from what I have read, they fit in the car fine. The comments also suggest that the quality is good, at least initially. As for durability though, both in day to day use and in long term, I think that is still an unknown. Same with safety, although there is no guarantee with any of these seats, I would hope that the name brands are better in terms of safety, such as the mechanism failiing in a rear end or something. I also want to be able to get leather, whether I get them up front or wait for a while. Please keep us posted on what you find out... Joshua

So Harbor Freight has their cheaper (1% duty cycle) stud welder on sale, so I picked one up to use in pulling some of the little dents on my 240. I had seen them in Eastwood starting at $400, so for $90 I thought I would try the HF version for my garage use. Heck, if I did not like it, I could always return it. The kit came with three different sized copper studs, 100EA. I believe they are 2, 3, and 4mm. I have been using the 2mm. It also included the appropriate nozzles, and a 2# slide hammer. The slide hammer has a 'special' end on it to put around the studs, not a general type of slide hammer. With anticipation I sanded a small dent down the bare stell, and welded on three studs, guessing where to put them. The welder worked GREAT! Much better than expected (have never used one before). I mean I was half expecting to have to weld on nails with my new TIG, and just return the stud welder, but no way. The slide hammer also works great, although I had read that some people did not like the hammer. I think it works great once you figure out how to use it (now too difficult). I would highly recommend this piece of equipment to anyone needing to pull small and large dents from areas where you can't get a hammer and dolly too. Heck, even with access, this makes short work of getting the metal at least close. Much better than any screw type slide hammer I have ever used before (where you drill a hole, and screw the slide hammer point into the metal). Joshua I normally try to buy American when I can (I actually feel bad about buying at Harbor Freight sometimes), but for the money and the use I will give it, this was a perfect case to buy an inexpensive special tool.

Scumdog, I have kind of done the same thing. I have put a lot of the body work on hold until I learn how to TIG as well. I did the drivers rear fender using my mig, as well as the floor pans, subframe connectors, and crossmember. I really would like to TIG the rest of the body work though, amoung other things. That is great that you got everything with it, good deal! I just got another bottle Friday for mine, so all I need is my torch kit. After reading about TIG welding on a number of forums (also including Shopfloortalk), it seems a lot of experienced welders recommend starting with gas welding, and talking a class. Personally I will try it on my own, I feel I should be able to pick it up fine with some practice. Please keep us up to date on the learning process.. Thanks, Joshua

Thanks again DaleMX, If you don't mind me asking, about the shoulder area being too narrow, do you think that it could be related to personal height? I am not sure how these seats are designed, as in how they are supposed to fit around shoulders, but since I am 6'2", I wonder if the should area will fit better or worse. Looking at the CR1's, the back seems to be identical measurements to the A4's, just with a bigger base at the bototom, that seems like it should fit fine in my 240. I guess maybe this is why Trucks had bench seats for so long, plus the ability to have a third passenger. Maybe I can get my suburban seat in there...maybe not! Thanks Again, Joshua

For injector plugs, I bought replacements at a local VW repair place (not a dealership). They were genuine Bosch I believe, and required crimping the pins on (not pig tails). They worked and looked great, and were much cheaper than I could find online. Just a thought. Joshua

Thanks DaleMX, I came across your post in searching about you opening the seat cover up and bending the support in to clear the door. I am not sure I want to offset the seat either, but it seems like that is the best solution, and probably not noticable. You say that they fit your seat, 32", but how well? I mean do they feel tight to you, or just right, loose? I sat in some Porsche seats the other day and felt like they were a little too narrow for me, thus the concern now bout finding comfortable seats. I also share the shoulder issue, I too have wide shoulders. I assume you have the regular A4's, not the wide models. What year is your car? I have read that the earlier cars have more clearance, but am not sure where that extra clearance is. I am not sure, but it seems like stuff is made for smaller than average guys, racing seats and the such that is. Either that, or they are made for late model stock cars... The interesting bit though is that, even with the dimensions of the DAD seats, I don't remember seeing anyone say anything about having problems with door clearance. Thanks Again! Joshua

A co-worker of mine had his motorcycle (with sidecar, pretty cool actually) become engulfed in flames when he was working on it recently. Apearantly he was removing the gas tank so he could get down to the alternator, and probably due to dry weather and static, a small explosion occurred, starting his bike on fire. It melted a number of things before he could step into the garage (working in his driveway) and grab a CO2 bottle (welding bottle actually, did great on the fire). Please BE CAREFUL! I to had a similar thing happen recently as 240Z2NV mentioned, although my car is stripped. I had some papers in my car, laying on the floorboards (a printout from the Sparco website with seat dimesions of all things) while I was welding in my tranny mount. I went inside to take a break, and when I went back out, there was a lot of smoke in the garage. Sure enough, the papers and a large piece of cardboard for making templates had burned to ash, including some tie downs and other plastic crap laying on the floorboard. It is so easy to forget about the other stuff on the other side of the piece of metal in the excitement of working on the car. I sympathize... Joshua

You may want to check out http://www.millermotorsports.com/mboard This topic was discussed the other day as well by a number of very experienced welders. Having welded on a tank before, filled with water, it is very nerve racking! Safety is the most important, or course! Good luck. Joshua

Wow! I guess I am glad I am not the only one, but this really makes me wonder. Actually, I did not mention that when I first received the heads, I too was missing some parts (some rocker studs and a guide plate). The heads were also very dirty in my opinion, with metal shavings all over. I realize that an engine builder should clean everything very well, especially cams, but how is someone supposed to clean everything when the valves have been lubed, etc. Seems like I would have washed the lube off in the process, possibly doing more harm than good. The chamber on one of the heads also did not fully cleanup after the CNC pass, so in one chamber there are rough spots from the casting left. Also, a lot of burrs were hanging on where the spark plugs were drill and tapped. Maybe this stuff is common, I would like to think though that companies out there DO CARE about there products and customers, unfortunately World Products is not one of them. So, if AFR is also not a great company to deal with, is there a consensus on who is good? I see AFR used a lot in magazine buildups, and their heads look nice, at least on their website. How about Holley, or Edelbrock? Dart? I am trying to think ahead about the next engine I want to build. I really want to use an Aluminum block, but may not if World is the manufacturer. Donovan also makes a SBC alum block I beleive, but who knows what the cost of that is. Heck, maybe an LS7 would be the best (in the 1-2 year time frame...). I just hope nobody else has to experience the problems I have with World Products... although some already have. Joshua

I would also mention Megasquirt, although I definitely appreciate the seemingly added complexity and tuning required to get it to work. On the other hand, at the price for the kit, it is by far cheaper, and as Tim said, many seem to be using it with the L6's. I have an assembled MS with stimulator and relay breakout sitting next to me, and yet I went and bought a Holley Stealth Ram full system with Wideband for my project. I will make the MS work someday on another vehicle (my Suburban), but it should be a lot easier to start with a kit. Now that I have a TIG, maybe this will change... Joshua

Okay, I just want to give a warning to people who are considering using World Products Heads. I purchased the aluminum Sportsman II's for my 383 two years ago, when I started the engine and finally got around to installing them ~3 months ago (I had moved, put he project on hold, etc...and also pocket ported them myself). I know they had been sitting a long time, but, here is the problem... I bolted one of the heads up for the final time with the head gasket in. Everything was torqued down correctly, ready for the guideplates and screw-in studs to be affixed. I sealed all the stud threads and started to put them in. I could not get one started to save my life, so upon further inspection I realized that the screw hole has NOT been tapped, it was only drilled! WTF! So after a long process of removing everything, I setup and tap the untapped hole. I reinstall everything again and soon realize that the other stud holes are tapped crooked and not deep enough, so the end of the stud is bottoming out before the guideplate is even clamped. They are also about 10 degrees crooked from normal, most of them. Again, WTF! I was pissed, so I contacted Summit about his problem (who I originally purchased them from). They give me World's phone #. I both left a message and emailed them without a response, ever! I gave them 3 months to respond (that is why this post is late), and nothing! I have since tapped the holes deeper and tried to straighten the holes slightly. I guess i will find out if they hold toegether. Once torqued to 55 ft-lbs, they did seem to straighten out correctly, but there must be a side load on the studs/head threads. I am going to run it as is for now, and probably buid another engine eventually anyways. My point of this long post is to say that I will NEVER buy another thing from World Products if I can help it at all. Horrible customer service (or maybe I should say NONE). I should have and will in the future go with AFR. Hopefully someone else does not have the experience I have had with this manufacturer. Joshua BTW- I also learned that I should mock up everything with both heads from now on. I only used one for all the mockup (checking the valve clearances, pushrod lengths, rocker ratios, etc). Check every screw hole from now on. I know manufacturing mistakes happen, but to never receive a response about a serious product problem is inexcusable!

Scumdog, Very Nice! A guy at work just got a new one a week ago, $1685 shipped with everything. You got a good deal! Did you get a flowmeter/regulator and foot control with it too? Did they by chance throw a bottle in? If you are not aware, there are some really good welding forums with many TA185 users (http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard and http://www.millermotorsports.com/mboard). there is one other but I can't remember the address. I really like the hobart site as it seems like most members are hobbists. One thing I have read over and over, make sure to read the manual front to back, and pay attention to the tungsten type and preparation with an inverter. Personally, I just received my Miller Dynasty 200DX this past Wednesday for my garage. Still waiting on the torch kit, should be here this coming week. I almost bought the TA 185, but choose to pay the extra arm for the Miller because of the problem Z-Tard mentioned, the D200DX will run off 110V if required, and it is American made. BTW Z-Tard, I am not sure where you live, but would assume that what you mean is that you don't have a 220V circuit setup for your welder? You should have 220V if in the US, since that is what Dryer's and Electric Stoves use (although maybe you have an old house, I don't know). Anyway, it is really easy to wire in a 220V circuit from the panel usually if you were so inclined, or to make an adapter extension to just use a dryer or stove outlet. Joshua

Hello. Okay, I have spent countless hours searching and have come to the conclusion that I will just have to ask. Sorry if this sounds redundant... I have replaced both floor pans, put the subframe connectors in, and am ready to buy some seats so I can put some mounts in for them. I will not be reusing the stock stamped steel mounts, so I can vary the height of the seat. Therefore, thicker seats are okay, I can lower the mounting points. I want something adjustable, with the ability to use 4/5 point harnesses. I am not putting a full cage in at this time (and may never in the future). I really like the Leather Sparco Milano's, but those are mucho dinero at ~$1600 each! On to plan B. I also like the Corbeau CR1's/A4's. I have looked at the dimensions of a number of seats trying to figure out whether the A4's would be comfortable, since a number of people have installed them in their cars (I know they fit). The dimensions, I assume, are the outside dimensions, not the seating area dimensions? How wide are the seating areas on the regular A4's? I am not really large, but on the cusp of the recommended waste measurements from what I have read (~33" - 34" waste). I measured my GF's Accord seats, my Maxima seats, and the old 240Z seats as a start. The old 240 seats are wider than all other seats, and the Maxima seats are the narrowest, but none of these have aggressive bolstering on the sides, and the backs are fairly straight up or taper in. I fit comfortably in the Maxima seats. I have also measured the inside of the car itself, without interior. It looks to me that the best choice for a wider seat would be the CR1 over the A4 wide, since the back is narrower, and the bottom is only 1/2" wider. I measured from metal to metal 21 1/2" wide clearance between the tranny tunnel and the inner rocker panel. So, is everyone who are using A4's using the regular version? How do they fit with what waste band, if you don't mind. How about door clearance, do you think that you could get the wide version (or the CR1's) to fit? CR1's: http://www.corbeau.com/products/cr1/cr1.shtml# A4's: http://www.corbeau.com/products/a4/a4.shtml# As another point of reference I noticed a lot of people are using DAD seats. Those seem to be wider than the rest of these seats from the listings I have seen. How well do they fit relative to the doors and "passenger floor tunnel". As for the CR1's, it appears that the bolsters are taller, and the covering maybe a little fancier, but otherwise they look very similar to the A4's. Any reason to choose one versus the other, considering I can set the height to my needs with the supports? Is the bolstering on the A4's enough on the bottom? Anybody have leather versions? What would you rate the quality of the materials and covering job? How is the lower lumber support? Anyone wish they had (if you don't already) the inflatable lumber option? I know this is a lot of questions, and I really appreciate any and all help I may receive. I wish I could sit in some before purchase, but nobody around here seems to stock any of these types of seats (except the crap at Pepboys). Since the car is down to the shell, I can't really test fit anything without ordering them myself. Thanks in advance! Joshua

Do the lower valance and two end 'valances' (below the turn signals on a 240Z) get reomved with these type of airdams? Mine are a little beat up from a previous owner, and I would love to not have to use them again. Thanks, Joshua

One more for the burnt coolant thought...I would pull the head and check things out personally... Joshua

Another paintbal person... What a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon. We, a large group of people, play very tactile type games, not the typical speedball of other short course. While the gun helps, even someone with the cheapest pump (yes, a very cheap talon or whatever), has a good chance of winning. BTW...nice gun! Joshua

That is along the same lines that I was planning on doing, replacing the steering column with something else. I don't like the feel of the stock switches basically, and the wiring probably could get easier. I would also like to have tilt. I was thinking of using a new Maxima or similar assembly though. A street rod assembly should also work well, I just have not gotten to the point where I have to choose yet. I do want something that looks 'right' though, not all shiny and out of place in my interior. As for changing just the switches, and reusing the steering column, I would think that with a little creativity and fabrication, it should not be that hard...famous last words I guess... Joshua

Hey Sparky, Of the bikes you listed, I would say the best dollar value would be the Specialized. They seem to have some higher quality bikes, even though the components are typically "Specialized" brand. The resale value should be good also if you want to sell it in the future, relatively speaking. I would also highly recommend the Jamis brand (http://www.jamisbikes.com). Personally I have a Dakar XLT 3.0, and I also bought my GF a Dakar Comp last year. I am very happy with the quality of both, especially considering the prices versus other brands. I will say that after riding both Hydraulic and Mechanical disks, I prefer the mechanicals for several reasons. They are just as good as hydraulic. Also, don't get too hung up on the component set (i.e. Shimano LX, XT, XTR). I prefer shimano stuff, and would stick with LX or better. For your budget, at least try to get LX stuff for the derailers and shifters. Finally, if you don't have expierence with clip-less pedals, see if you can demo both styles (SPD and TIME). They are very different. Maybe you don't want anything but flats, and that is fine too to get started. I hope this helps. The most important thing is to make sure the bike fits you, size wise. Have the shop fit the stem, bars, etc to you. Also, try to choose a well reputed bike shop, as service after the purchase is very important. Also, try to find lifetime adjustments included with the purchase, saves some money in the long run on tune-ups and the such. Good Luck, Joshua Oh, maybe look for a used bike also. You might be able to get a better used bike for the same price as a decent new one. That is hit and miss though, of course.