dr_hunt

This is a funny story. I had a friend, girl from Montana, that went elk scouting with me. I bow hunt so it's in the rut, kinda hot but normal for august. She's an anti gun type so bow hunting is OK. We are sitting there on the top of the mountain, I have my pack and we are at the edge of a meadow. Really nice views and we are sitting there eating lunch and taking in the beauty of gods creations. I had my .45ACP colt 1911 in my pack down in the bottom and she had given me alot of crap for taking it along. But I said, you never know when you'll need it cause there's things in the woods that can and will kill you cause you look yummy! She says, "Yeah right!!!" So, she looks up and says "Oh, look here comes a cow." I look and say, honey that ain't a cow, that's a bear. Bears can't see well, so it sauntered right up to about 50 feet of us. All the while she's starting to panic. It got right up to us and stood up, which is a bad thing cause it knew we were there. She starts screaming, "shoot it", "shoot it". I was trying to dig out my .45, but her screaming scared it off. Later, on the way home she was real nervous, kept looking over her shoulder for that bear. We were walking along and got to a clearing and I just said "Oh ****" and hauled *** running. She panics and starts yelling "Shoot it you dumb ***", "Shoot it"!!! Anyway, I hope that isn't political, just funny.

I can tell you from experience that for your application you don't want to do that unless your experienced at it. I've done both automotive and truck driveshafts but I wouldn't even consider doing one for the z or any race car for that matter, too much at stake! They are relatively easy to do provided you have the right tube size and the correct yokes, flanges, etc. Balancing is a must for high rpm vehicles like cars. Big trucks rarely see over 2300 rpm at the drive shaft and don't need it although it makes a truck alot smoother to drive. If you do it yourself you'll need a pipe cutter to get the tube straight or use a lathe. Once you cut the tube you place one flange in the end of the tube, they have a machined weld joint. If your using an old flange, have it remachined as it makes it alot easier. you have to get it square or it's junk, this is the hard part. They press fit slightly into the tube so you tap on it with a hammer to get it true. Several ways of doing it, by bottom of the ujoint cup works about the best for me. Tack weld it on opposite sides and double check it for square, tack it again so you have 4 sides done and check it again, then weld it all around with a mig. Same for other end, measure bottom of ujoint cup to ujoint cup and make sure that they are phased correctly otherwise the ujoints won't last a week. Send it off to get balanced.

You guys are giving these ford boys a complex, you should be ashamed of yourselves for whipping up on them like that!

Well, your right about deburring, do it before you send it out as best you can. When they deck they'll have to chamfer the head bolt holes so don't waste time doing that. IMO your wrong about block fill though, it should be last, and when you fill it you intall the head and torque it to distort the block. Of couse the mains should also be torqued. I actually do it on final assembly with all the pistons and rods in it but that's my preference. It takes 28 days for it to cure so don't be in a rush. You can do one side and then the next day do the other. But I recommend waiting the 28 days befor eyou start it cause cement won't reach peak strength until then and you don't want to be flexing the cylinder walls too early.

Well, I've never had a welded diff, but we used to fill the teeth on the spider gears with brass and re-install them on circle track cars. The brass is soft and is easy to braze on the spider gears. Although I'm going to assume that this loads the cross pin alot and may be prone to breaking a cross pin. Welding is probably alot better if your going to be on pavement. I run detroit lockers in both the cars and personally wouldn't have anything else, cause if it's good enough for nascar, it's good enough for me.

Well, it's snowing for the first time here in NM, at least for me. Makes me wonder about the weather in Georgia. NM sucks, too far from SEZ so don't move here, besides, we like being alone here. Notice that all the replies are related to motorsports?!!! Silicone boy, since there is less air pressure up there then the boobies must be bigger in your neck of the woods? Well, at least they are when they leave your office huh! KC, MO. Humid, I don't like humidity, I don't like taking a shower and never getting dry. All my family is from that area, I can't say where cause you all would dog me to heck and gone about being a real redneck and having no family tree. Wherever you move, build your own track and we'll all move there so we have our own race facility. Now that's a good idea!

If my memory serves me correctly the PG takes at most 80 to 100HP, depending on how it's built and what pump you use, the th350 is about 125HP. I don't know about the 700R4 but the th400 is bout 135hp. The PG can be built with some lightweight parts for less rotating mass, looser reverse clutch clearance for less friction. I'm sure you could do the same with some of the other trans but the PG is king.

Wish I'd of known you were looking for one. My boy just sold his TMAXX with everything for $360. We had spent $280 for a .21 motor that we just broke in. Parts are way expensive. We had over a grand in that little toy and we only paid $1700 for the z. Personally, I'd rather have the z, but they are alot of fun to drive. Up here we use the 30% nitro mix, works better up here at altitude.

I can guarantee you that the PG is the most efficient of any automatic you listed. Then comes the 350 and then the 700 r4. It's simple, rotating mass and parasitic losses attributed to OD trannies. The PG has the minimum rotating mass and it's direct through in high. TH350 has an extra clutch pack to turn and more mass. 700r4 has the extra clutch pack and parasitic losses with the OD gearing.

What about the area under the valve, since that is where most of the improvement is usually found in airflow?

I just got notice that EBAY cancelled my 11,000 bid on that motor and trans because they just discovered that the account was stolen. Go figure.

Wow, that's impressive, a change to draglites dropped your quarter mile time by a whole second!

BTW, I doubt that's his problem cause it knocks like a jackass in a tin barn even when cranking and the ignition pulled. He's going to pull it this week, I'll pull the pan later this week and take a peek, then we'll go from there. It has eagle rods and aries pistons so hopefully a piston didn't contact the head, but I'm not too hopefull. Probably going to need a piston, rod, resize the remainder of rods, crank turned or replaced, balanced (since the original builder didn't balance it and he pulled the balance shafts out and it vibrated pretty bad in the upper rpm's) and we'll massage the cylinder head while we are there. He wants to upgrade the synchros in the 3 and 4 gears since he already did the 1 and 2 gears. He's got a badass GT42 on it now managed by AEM but it needs tuned, should be making some insano HP if he can get it to run. He's been getting ripped off by wannabe mechanics and tuners now for 2 years and I'm sick of it so I kind of bullied him into bringing it over. This is his 3rd motor in 2 years and has lasted about the longest, a whopping 1000 miles. This is a good kid and he doesn't have the money, so I'm going to do the work for free and see if I can make this whole thing work for him. Tuning ought to be fun the emanual for AEM is freakin huge. I downloaded all the manuals and it's quite detailed.

Ah, finally some AFR LS1 cylinder heads in actual use. WOW, 600HP with stock internals and a hydrauclic roller cam of .600 lift.

I think he meant to say the turbo oil return. It's a good question, but I think the oil return needs to be below the oil level, is that correct?

See, this is how it works. Tony, a buddy, now has a rod knock in his DSM AWD turbo car. It was a built motor with eagle rods, aries pistons, etc. 1000 miles on it. So, today he comes by tells me the news. Took him for a ride in the z and he left. We went to check out his car and the wind is blowing like 30 mph and he can't work on it in his driveway. So, I say, we'll move the z to the garage at the house, he can use my trailer and haul his dsm over and put it in the shop, pull the motor and I'll build the engine for free. That'll save him some bucks and he can upgrade other stuff. Besides, he can learn how to do it right this time. Friends, wish I had more and wish you all had the ones I do.

photo album is empty!

I guess I'm in the lucky category as well, I have 5 buddies that all share the same passion. And if it weren't for my boy, we wouldn't even have a z, well, maybe not anyway since my first encounter was with a scarab back in the 70's. You have to realize what your limitations are, some work is better farmed out for most people including myself. As you gain experience, capability and confidence, you'll get alot more done by yourself. Tools, Tools, Tools, he who has the most tools wins the war on cars. I have a lifetime of tools and I'd still like to have more. If you don't have the proper tool, your kind of pissing in the wind IMO. Shop or facilities to work in are about mandatory since we all work, most of this happens at night or on weekends. That is where buddies come in. Lastly I don't think a newbie should start out with a tubular frame all out race car. There is too much that you won't know and there is soo much to enjoy starting with a stocker and working your way up the ladder if you so choose. I think that if we all lived next door we'd have one hell of a z subdivision.

sand works, as does that new plastic media. I think that the better graded the sand is the more uniform the results are. Typically it's a silica sand, hard to find only several sources in the US. I think any sand will work as long as you don't try to re-use it without screening out the fines and paint/rust chips.

I would sum all the amperages of everything that gets power and use one switch that would equal that sum which assumes that all are on and drawing full power. You could factor in a safety factor as well. Typically a starter draws about 200 to 250 amps, so it would have to be rated for about that.

What motor?

There's a couple of aluminum sbc's on EBAY.

All aluminum rodeck or rocket block sbc with some bitchin 14 degree heads, full roller cam and go hillborn alky injected. You'll be the only one to have such and be in a leage of your own, not that you aren't already.

That little camera sucks and I don't have my good one until the weekend cause I loaned it out. It'll have to wait.