pparaska

FL327, I have heard that the use of an internal rail shifter type trans like the T5 or T56 (or Tremec 5spd) will in fact require the use of the setback engine location, aka JTR position. Otherwise, with the Scarab/John's Cars kit location, the shifter of the T5 and T56 will be quite forward and most likely require relocation of the fuse box, cutting out of the shifter hole in the tunnel and console, and of course, a bent back shift handle and possible the deletion of the radio in the stock location. While those mods may be called "creativity", I'd think that if one wants to use one of these internal rail shifter trannies, and they're starting from scratch, they'd do well to consider the setback/JTR position. Does your shifter on your Muncie bolt directly to the trans, or does it require a bracket to space it back and longer shifter rods?

Nice looking work! I wish I could weld like that!

Actually, I think it's entirely possible for you to have the same rate after the free length changes. The rate depends on the number of coils, the wire diameter, the overall (average) diameter of the spring, and the modulus of the material. If you plastically deform the spring (take it past yeild) it will shorten (in free length and compressed length at a given load) but the modulus will likely not be disturbed one bit.

There are a bunch of threads here that talk about this issue, the largest thread on this topic (and any) is: http://www.hybridz.org//ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=001259 I'd agree that if you like the way it handles, leave it. If you think it's nose heavy, relocate the battery to the rear if that hasn't been done (didn't look at the pics yet), use AL heads, radiator, water pump, etc. (not sure what you have now). After that, I can say that the difference in the Polar Moment of Inertia based on some quick calcs I did showed a 20% decrease for the JTR position over the Scarab. That's the PMOI of the engine alone, relative to the CG of the car. The PMOI is a measure of the resistance to change of the yaw attitude (turning) of a body. But this can be overridden by tire traction, etc., to some degree. If your engine is between the two positions, I doubt it'd be worth the trouble of moving it, but who knows, you'd have to change it by only moving the engine and making no other changes to really know the answer. Congrats on a nice ride!

Mike, I use: Burtonsville Performance Machine Services 5210 Minnick Rd LAUREL, MD 20707 301-490-3131 (They keep records for every crank/assembly they do - 10 years after mine was done they were able to rebalance another crank since they still had my bob weights for my 327 on file.) This place is also supposedly good: House Of Balance 6340 Howard Lane ELKRIDGE, MD 21075 410-379-8330

Yes, you can lower the entire assemble at once.

Tim, where can I buy these rods and what are they called? Thanks,

Ain't no way - a well respected street rod show car painter in my area wouldn't TOUCH a ricer, but loved my V8Z. Maybe because it was done in a SUBTLE fashion, tastefully, and not a bunch of fiberglass claptrap.

I bought a Z31 Haynes manual - full exploded diagram, etc.

I get a "restricted area" message

FWIW, I've removed the fender and bucket as an assembly - not much harder than separate. The only issue I see is that if the bucket get's tweaked in a minor accident (seems to happen often) you'd have to grind the weld to replace the bucket. Not a huge deal, just something to consider. I do like the seamless look though!

If you use 2" drop springs, you will most likely start getting into problems with hitting the bumpstops or bottoming the strut cartridges. You might be able to put those rubber inserts under the springs to keep away from this problem. They're about 1/2" thick. This may be enough to keep you out of the problem with bottoming the struts. This is why people section the struts and use shorter inserts. But you can lower the car with a camber plate setup as well. That might be a good alternative, but some of them make noise.

Just realize that if you go with an internal shifter manual trans (T5, T56, Tremec Tr-3550/TKO) you need to do a JTR/MSA swap. I think the MSA mounts may put the engine a bit forward of the JTR also (an inch, IIRC). The issue is that the Scarab position will not allow these internal rail trannys (T5, T56, Tremec Tr-3550/TKO) to have the shifter come up in the shifter hole, but they will be under the fusebox.

Ever since my local speed shops closed down (all saying that Summit Racing put them out of business), I've had a tough time finding good hi-po Chevy info. Sure, you can get on some chevy boards and get answers. But not until I found grumpyvette on http://www.chevytalk.com did I feel like I'd found: 1) Someone with the patience of a saint to explain to me where my errors in hi-po thinking were, 2) Someone with an incredible amount of experience with the SBC, and other Chevy performance topics, 3) Someone who will at the drop of a hat run off performance numbers, give results for 6 cams, 4 heads, he knows work well, etc. and give indepth info based on experience on the topic of WHAT WORKS AND WHY. Having him here at HybridZ.org is SUCH a huge benefit, and I'm glad that others are starting to recognize him with threads like this one. Grumpyvette, no, I'm not asking for anything this time - just voicing my feelings! There are others here as well that give much more than they receive. They know who they are. My hat's off to all of them!

quote: Originally posted by joeinCA: Oh and this is getting long... so, one last thing about the proper english topic, I personally use nearly proper english when i have something to say, people usually listen more intently when a person sounds educated. Wow, this has got to be the best advice I've heard on the use of any language. If I can't read it easily and make out what the gist of the question is, I'm not inclined to try to answer. Great advice! Great advice on putting off the project and getting some kind of education that will pull in the bucks - then later on you can build killer cars AND have money for other important things. It takes a bit of patience, but it always seems to work out much better in the end. These days if I were starting over, I'd probably look into getting an MCSE, etc. and flat raking in some nice bucks after that. That industry will only go under if we have armagedon (sp?).

I had rust in the back of the galleys in my block, that flaked and loosened up and go washed down to the bearings. That's what I get for building the motor and letting it set for years before I prelubed it. A bit of water or caustic hot tank solution must have been sitting back in those galleys and caused the rust. If I had just prelubed it on the stand after assembling it, it wouldn't have rusted. Lesson learned. I pulled the freeze plugs and oil plugs myself and took the block to get the cam bearings pulled and had it hot tanked. They put new bearings in and the oil plug down below the rear main cap (since they saw I left that one in, they probably figured they better replace it instead of me forgetting!). I did this for just the reason you mentioned - I was afraid crap would be trapped in the oil passage behind the cam bearings. For me it was a great reason to do a few upgrades at the same time. And this time I used a rod bolt stretch gage to do the rod bolts - very enlightening! Torque is not a good way to do those, as I had an 8 lbft variance to get the recommended rod bolt stretch on all the bolts. Maybe that's splitting hairs, but I want to rev this motor a bit over 6000rpm, and I wanted the insurance that they wouldn't loosen and cause a spun bearing. Chevsun, I'd take it back and have them remove the cam bearings and plugs, hot tank it, and put the cam bearings in. The rest of the plugs are easy to put in. I might but a cam bearing installer tool the next time. This way you can inspect their cleaning (and do your own after-cleaning anyway). They should know better than to do business that way.

Funny, I always thought it was the former - Jags that actually run (instead of not running at all) after the V8 install.

I just read about this guy, the Segway, and the IBOT (he hates people to call it a wheelchair) in the 10 Dec Time Magazine. This guy is basically a very smart, creative and rich dude. Got started building and selling medical pumps, etc. The Segway's technology is pretty cool, but I'm having a hard time seeing how anyone of typical financial means that doesn't live and work in the city and never needs a car will be spending $3K for the "consumer" version. The US DoD, USPS, and some other companies are buying (or looking to buy) the $8K industrial version.

Sorry, been away from here for a week or so. I use MIG as well, 110V Daytona MiniMig (not great, but it works), .023" wire, 75/25 Argon/CO2. The subframe connectors are notched on the end (see the drawing). This end is slid onto the unibody bracing that the diff fron crossmember bolts to.

Just in case anyone is looking for my write-up and circuit for this: http://members.home.net/pparaska/Headlight_Relay_pg1.htm

quote: Originally posted by scca: in hindsite i'm sure Pete would have tossed that chassis and bought another. but IMO he was in too deep to turn back at that point. ahh hindsite.. You're darned right, Mike! What I did was disobey the cardinal rule - start with a GOOD CAR! I did my subframe connectors while the car was on 8 jackstands.

quote: Originally posted by ellobo97: Well everyone, I found the problem. The timing mark is 60 degrees off. I went and got a piston stop, and set it in there. It stopped when the tape was reading around 60 Sean Sean, it sounds like you're not using the piston stop correctly. It will stop the piston BEFORE it reaches TDC. What you need to do is turn the crank in ONE DIRECTION (say counter clockwise) and bring the piston slowly up until it stops. Mark the balancer or degree wheel. Now turn the engine the other way until the piston stops again. Mark the balancer or degree wheel. Now, if you have degree marks at both places you marked, simply find the mark that's halfway between and that is your true TDC. If you don't have degree marks, you can take a flexible ruller, sewing tape, etc. and measure the distance around the outside of the balancer between the marks. Halfway between is true TDC. The way it sounds like you did it will give you a much advanced TDC mark, because the piston doesn't get to TDC with piston stop installed. Hope that helps,

Wow, this thread sure got off track My father-in-law has one of the second year Dodge Cummins Deisel's - man that thing has some torque! He pulls a 40 ft travel trailer with it - you forget it's back there! One thing you might want to consider if you get one of these is a jake-brake to help use the engine to slow you down. This has come in very handy for him. Unfortunately, the thing wears (errodes) from the heat (the flapper valve) so it's a long term maintanence item.

John, thumbs up on your idea. Makes sense to me.

I'm working on finding a replacement speedometer cable that will fit into my Tremec TR-3550 (same speedo fitting as a Toploader, I believe) and hook to my aftermarket (Autometer)speedo. I bought a speedo cable for a 69-73 Mustang with a C-4 (69inches long), but the speedo end doesn't work with the screw-on (13/16"?) fitting on the speedo. I hear that the 67-68 Mustang C-4 speedo cable has the screw on and the correct end on the tranny side. It's 76" long, which may be too long to fit nicely - still haven't really seen if that's true. Anyway, I think the availability of the old Mustang parts and the correct ends for the aftermarket speedo, etc. will make the 67-68 Mustang speedo cable the one to get. Best thing is they are less than $25 most Mustang places.