Jolane

When converting from Drum to Disk, normally you have to remove the inline residual pressure valve (~10 psi). I am not familiar enough with the conversion, but is there anything that you are supposed to remove like this? My thought is that maybe the line lock cannot go down due to the residual pressure in the lines. Just a thought, Joshua

Why do you need a seal when you are welding it in? Am I misunderstanding? It seems like you would just seal it by welding it solid all around. What is to seal after this? Thanks, Joshua

The thing that pops out at me is that you do not have anything that limits the LCA from rotating fore and aft. Most T/C rods control this but rigidly attaching to the LCA. While there probably is not much force in this direction, it is important to limit the angle that the ball joint operates. I am sure someone else will rpvoide more info. I would look into using a a Ford T/C end commonly available. You could also use a clevis at the LCA end instead. Joshua EDIT: Now that I look at it, it is VERY important to have a rigid connection at the LCA. Otherwise, the LCA will rotate about the inner LCA rod end and the T/C rod end, effectively buckling backwards. I really don't think this method will work. To test or see what I am saying, push back on the spindle. The LCA and the T/C rod must make a rigid triangle.

I am not sure if you were asking what I wanted for my setup. I am not in this to sell assembled board for profit, instead, I was going to use it on my car. Just changed directions. I am not looking for any money for assembly, but would hope to get close to what I paid for the parts. I don't know what the price is from Glen's Garage. Make an offer. Joshua

If you end up needing some, or rod bolts or head studs, I have all three kits listed in the classified section. Joshua

I second 2126's comments! What a HASSLE! Joshua

Thank you, that is very helpful! Joshua

So when you test for spark after it dies, do you have any? I think it could be a few other things also. As I said, I think the coil is unlikely, but worth a try to change if you already have one. I would also pull the cap off and check for cracks. Di-electric grease is used for protecting the connection of the wires electrically, not thermally. Did the HEI module come with a little pack of thermal paste (usually white grease)? I am not sure where you mounted the HEI module. Just make sure though that the back of the module if flat against a piece of metal, not on a curved surface where you have only a small contact patch. Joshua

Ed, I am indeed in a garage, and never take the car outside in iffy weather. Low hummidity here also. You mean I can't glob on 1" thick of filler? Now I am going to have to beat the panels a little closer to the actual shape. J/K. Actually, the test I saw had only a thin layer of bondo on each test panel. The point of the test was to test the actual adhesion of the bondo to the panel. In both cases, it separated near the metal. This seems to mean that it shouldn't really matter what thickness the bondo was, just that the epoxy was weaker and sheared instead of the bondo. I am not a body work guy, I have only read and researched a ton. This is definitely a topic that has two viewpoints. I chose the bare metal route considering my workspace conditions. I would rather have a temp spray booth only set up for a week or two, instead of setting it up to spray the sealer, then working for half a year, then resetting it up. Joshua

That car certainly an inspiration. I have thought about cutting the front end of my car off of mine as well and doing a very similar thing (except use a SBC with vib mounts). I really like how you tied the rocker panel into the frame rail. I feel like that is a very large weak spot with the stock front end. Are you driving this car yet? If so, how has it held up? How about handling, any notable differences from the stock chassis? You have a detailed drawing of your main hoop. Is this the drawing that the main hoop was bent to? Where there any changes to these dimensions after this drawing? It looks to fit very close. I would very much a similar type of fit. Did you use the stock suspension mounting points (other than probably moving the LCA inner pivot up)? Did you use the stock rack and pinion? If so, what did you do for the oval looking crossmember mounts? Finally, I was considering using a Mustang II style front end if I went with this radical front end lop. Any thought about this, good or bad? Seems like a rather inexpensive and simple way to get power steering if desired. There are also good brake kits available that seem to be inexpensive. Heck, the front end with R&P, A-arms, crossmember, etc is rather cheap from Heidts. They list variable track widths also. Just curious. Thanks for any and all ideas/suggestions/answers. Joshua

Warning ***Shameless plug*** Do you have a Megasquirt yet? If not, I have the MS fully assembled and tested, Relay Board assembled, and Stimulator Board assembled and tested. I also bought the precut aluminum box for the MS and the Relay board. I have not gone further than full assembly and testing (and playing). No cables are made. I changed directions (using a Holley Commander 950 with Stealth Ram) and would like to sell this. I personally assembled and tested it. I have an electronics bench in my home office with full ESD protection and professional tools (PACE soldering iron, digital scope, etc). I have performed electronics assembly work on flight hardware spacecraft and have passed the soldering requirements and ESD training. I told you it was shameless, sorry. Joshua

The HEI module (is that what you are using?) is heat sunk to the distributor when installed in a Chevy distributor. You even have to use thermal grease under the pad (between the module and the distributor housing) to aide in cooling. If it was my car, I would mount the HEI module to a 1/4" thick aluminum plate ~2"x4", using thermal grease. The bigger the plate, the better. I would also figure out how to seal it from moisture, and mount it to the inner fender well, up front, by the MAF sensor (away from the exhaust manifold and radiator heat). A little airflow would not hurt. I had an 83 280ZX that ran after washing the engine bay. Yes, the injectors and wiring got wet. The only problem I had was that the engine would not rev past 2K until the MAF sensor dried out. I really don't think that your injectors are causing the problem, as the problem would probably manifest itself as a miss or rough idle first. If it runs fine, then dies all of a sudden, it seems to me something is overheating. Although seemingly unlikely, it could also be the coil (broken winding that separates after it warms up). My brother had a bad MSD Blaster coil (only a few months only) that would do this. Drove him nuts until he put the stock coil back in...no problems after that. Do you have good oil pressure? What happens when the engine dies? Does it just stop, or does it start sputtering, jerking, etc before dieing? Any visible "smoke" from the exhaust while running? If so, what color? Joshua

I didn't mean to imply that you didn't have a grounding strap, rather, just to double check the cleaniness and tightness of the cable. I am glad that you have it running. If you end up disposing of the dead starter, I would love to have it for mock up. Thanks, Joshua

Ryan Herco also has fittings similar to those. May want to check with a local seal house also. Ours (Southwest Seal) carries a lot of tube fittings also also, mostly the Parker line though. Finally, Swagelok may have something similar also, although their main line is for high pressure swage ferrule fittings. Just some ideas, Joshua

And a manual tranny, shifter, manual console. Is the driveshaft the same length? Spline count? Tranny mount? Joshua

A loose, weak or bad ground can definitely cause problems (read death to) with the starter and alt! Been there, done that. We killed both the starter and alt in a Ford truck by not having a secure ground (the bolt bottomed before the lug was tight to the surface, and we did not notice since it was under the headers in a rather tight space). Definitely add a grounding strap to your engine if you don't have one. Joshua

Oh, another thought about your problem. Did you end up using an HEI module instead of the black box? If so, it MUST be heat sunk into a piece of metal, preferably aluminum plate. Otehrwise, those will overheat during use, causing lose of spark, and possibly causing your problems. Joshua

Ed, That is consistent with what I have read. I came across a test where someone applied metal filler before and after epoxy sealer, and tested the adhesion. The filler was the waterproof variety. In short, applying the filler to the metal was stronger becuase the epoxy sealer was failing (shearing in thickness). I know that this is a highly debated topic on body work forums, and people do it both ways. Doesn't really seem to matter. It seems to depend much more on the environment and time it takes to complete the job. Joshua

Cary, That is a good point. I never thought about the whole engine issue in a head on. I wonder though if this is effective after a V8 install anyways, considering that: 1. The engine is wider than stock, so it is bound to go through the firewall with the heads, instead of down the tunnel. 2. With the method most use to mount the engine/tranny, I wonder if the tranny holds everything in place, or does the tranny mount shear. 3. Was the cross member ever really designed to drop out. I have not seen any serious Z car accidents that involved head on collisions. It seems to me that the reason it is mounted this way is: 1. for manufacturability, to raise the engine assembly through the bottom of the car (if that is really how they assembled it, assuming that is the easiest) 2. to transmit the load of the suspension/engine/etc into the body effectively. The frame rail box also seems weak and would probably collapse (parallelogram) with any significant load. At least the method puts a shear load into the inner fender. A real disadvantage to welding is that now I am stuck with whatever crossmember I use, unless I cut it out (a lot of work compared to unbolting). Thanks for the thought! Yet something else to ponder now.. Joshua

I guess I meant that any engine can test your patience...regardless of what and where. Joshua

Nismo, Why not put body filler on bare metal? What kind of body filler are you talking about, Bondo or Metal filled Epoxy? I have also heard not to put BONDO on, but that it is better to put the epoxy kind on before epoxy sealer. Just curious, Joshua

No Offense, but it seems easier to fix the L28 than swap a complete RB and get it running correctly. The L28 is a rather simple engine to work on despite that messly looking EFI. Your problem can't be that hard to fix either, although I do admit, it can test your patience sometimes. Good Luck, Joshua

I also meant to thank Tube280Z earlier for the Auto-ware link. There is a lot of good reading there! This has definitely turned into a good discussion. Thanks to everyone who listed info about RC's. The comparison that JohnC listed definitely helps in my situation since this will be a street car primarily. Maybe I am going overboard, but that is just what I do. This topic really stemmed from wanting to make my LCA's length adjustable with Heim joints. While I was over buying the Heim joints I noticed an oval track (dirt) car front suspension, which got the thought process working. I have been considering building my own front crossmember, and welding it onto the body. I need a R&P though, which is where the problem started. I like the Sweet/Appleton/Woodward R&P from the standpoints of mounting, cost, availability, and option of power (if needed in the future). They are rather short though at 18 1/4" pivot to pivot, where as the stock R&P is ~24". This is exactly where this all started. What happens if the LCA is longer...etc? This then snowballed into thinking about the T/C rod. What if it was flipped to the front, like a 280ZX? Now it creates clearance for the headers, and I can lengthen it/move the pivot to match the LCA length. It also could allow for more tire space during turning, if needed. Cost is rather low also using "stock car" parts. I guess maybe this is overboard, although I would like to build a new crossmember to better match the engine mounts. Problem is mounting the stock R&P, plus there is not a power option. I also feel (unproven) that the stock unibody chassis has some rather poorly designed areas. For instance, the method used to attach the crossmember doesn't make much sense. It seems that the two bolts on each side effectly act as hinges, not really contributing to the chassis torsional stiffness. Welding the crossmember in should add a good bit torsional stiffness to the assembly, turning the crossmember into a torque tube. I don't see a reason not to weld the crossmember in. Maybe the best thing to do is just use the stock crossmember. It just seems that a scratch built crossmember could be beneficial on other fronts. Thanks Again, Joshua

This is a great discussion! Thanks for everyones input! JohnM, I also thought about the RC much as you have replied here. That is what was confusing me, there seems to be two different sides of this. I always thought that the lower the RC, the worse, since the lever arm from the RC to the CG is longer. Also, from a load standpoint, as soon as the LCA goes up at the outer edge, the mass of the vehicle is working against the suspension also with a lateral force (force of tire horizontal holding friction) in addition to the rolling load. Thank you very much for raising these points. What it all means though from a driving and handling standpoint is still unknown to me. My original reason for asking these questions has to do with changing my front crossmember/front suspension arms/steering R&P. I believe I could get the LCA a few inches longer and move the pivot point up as well, if that is the right thing to do. I am considering some other changes though as well...that I will go into later if I pursue this major change. JohnC, Thank you for the book recommendation! I ordered two different books the other day (couldn't find anyone who stocked them). I will add this to the list also. That is the primary reason for not just reading the information, no book to read...wasn't even sure which one(s) to order. Certainly there is a lot of experience with MacPherson strut suspension here. I really do appreciate the help and insight. Joshua

I would check your thermostat housing, and see if it is leaking. If it is, maybe when the coolant gets hot, it starts flowing, and leaking. Just maybe this leak is getting your ignition module wet/hot, causing it to shut down and quit working. This seems like a long short, but you never know. Take a good look at all the connections around that area. I would get some engine degreaser and clean the whole engine well so you can see where you have a leak, if any. Joshua