pparaska

My opinion is that the tire choices below 16s really blows. 17s and above are actually better in terms of tire choices. But with a 26" tall tire, a 17 will put you in 45 series territory which is too harsh for some people. 15s just aren't a good choice IMO, if you want a decent tire selection to choose from.

Thanks Tim. I may fashion something like that. Funny I was actually thinking of a centerfuge (sp?) that had a coiled up tub inside a drain cup, with the output at the top with a filter.

This is the way I see it, based on readign Puhn, Carroll Smith, etc. Please correct me if I don't understand this correctly: If you consider the available friction at the tire/road interface as a limiting braking point, then only so much braking torque is needed. A larger diameter disc with the center of the caliper piston at a larger diameter will need less piston force and pressure to obtain the same friction at the rotor/pad interface for the same rotor/pad friction coefficient. It's a little more detailed than that, but those are the primary effects. But 74_5.0L_Z is right about that linear relationship with rotor radius and speed, and the same holds for needed piston pressure. What this gives you is easier brake modulation and most notably, more brake rotor mass to increase fade resistance.

Scottie, on my Eclipse GSX, I tried the blow through trick on the old PCV, a non-Mitsu replacement, and a new Mitsu replacement. The difference is incredible. The new Mitsu leaked very little. The non-Mitsu new replacement (A/C Delco?) leaked more than the old cruddy Mitsu piece! The reason I was looking into this is because when the balance belt snapped and took out the timing belt, I pulled the head to see what the valve damage was (I was lucky - the valves hit, but didn't bend somehow!). Anyway, I found a TON of oil in the intake coming from the TB (due to the valve cover vent which now goes to the atmosphere) and a huge thick trail from the PCV hose connection inside. BTW, does anyone know of a good catch can to put in the PCV hose to separate out the oil? I wouldn't mind having to empty it every once and a while if it would keep oil out of the intake.

TBI. Did you guys see that Holley is offering a TBI system with the new 950 Commander computer? It's in the $1300 range I think. Slap it on a regular intake, wire up an O2 maybe a IAC motor, and you have computerized engine control. Looks tempting.

Oh yeah - if the block has been decked, the heads shaved, etc. the manifold can sit lower in relation to the cam and the distributor shaft inside can be "bottoming" on the bushings in the dizzy housing - causing it to not be able to sit all the way down on the manifold. Even if you have a gasket or o-ring it would still leak. BTW, I have a complete Mr. Gasket set of nylon? distributor shims for spacing the dizzy up a bit (you put the shim under the gasket). If you need them, just holler.

Scottie, after what you went through the first time on this, my hat is off to you on offering it again. I know this is a bunch of work to package and ship all those sets, etc. I think it was bubafet that was a little disappointed that he missed the first run. I have 1 set I don't have plans for already, but if you need to go from 9 to 10 at the end of this offer, I'll put another set on my shelf - someone will want/need them down the road. Thanks for offering this again!

As far as 17s go (16s will be a bit narrower, maybe 18s would be able to fit 10mm more, not sure), check out the "Wheels and Tires" section of my site (below). This is the absolute maximum you can fit in the rear fender and it probably involves some fender lip rolling on most Zs (240-280Z). Cheers,

Thanks for the pointer Davy. Look under "Structural Mods" on my site (below) for info on my design.

Stock Chevy "fuelie" heads (461 castings) straight plug Autolite 303s (I like 'em too Lone ) Hooker Block Hugger headers MSD 8.5 universal wires with 90 degree boots. The boots are about 3/8" from the header pipe on the closest ones when installed.

It's just a circular, flat piece of paper gasket material, with a concentric hole in the center - like a flatened donut .

http://www.worldcastings.com/engine1.shtml Check out the dyno video/audio clip too. Damn, that thing sounds awesome!

Thanks! But when I hit the lottery, I have a feeling it will be a Motown 427 small block with fuel injection and AL heads .

I have to disagree. If it's a single piston caliper, it's a sliding caliper and both sides of the rotor are going to see the same pressure, or darn close to it if the caliper is binding a bit. If it's binding more than just a bit, well, I can't imagine Terry's car doing that .

Looking Sweet! BTW, for anyone doing an old style Chevy V8 with the Camaro Rad, my site has hose numbers for molded hoses that fit, after trimming: HOSES: Top Hose: Dayco 71217 - This hose is very long and had close to a foot of extra length I didn't need. I used a 1-1/2" ID to 1-1/4" ID Hose adapter to connect it to the radiator, NAPA PN 900 "Hose Adapter" Bottom Hose: Dayco 71217 - Perfect fit with my custom low mouted alternator. Looks OE. Heater Hoses: Dayco 80407 - This is a long straight hose with a 90 degree bend at one end. I used one for each hose, with the 90 degree bend at the heater box/valve. Plenty of length to reach the front of the engine. HTH,

Yes, both the recent Chevy High Performance and Hot Rod mags have articles on this motor and the SB 427. I must say, $2000 for a finished machined block is not cheap, but you can have that big bore and throw a 3-7/8" crank in it with out problem to make insane torque and HP out of a NA streetable motor. I'm drooling over it. I couldn't find a price on their site or anyone that had a price listed. BTW, they have an upgrade available with AL versions of their heads. But you could also buy the short block as well.

I must be an old fart - oh yeah, I am. But carbon fiber interior stuff generally doesn't do anything for me - it doesn't make the car any lighter, doesn't stiffen the car, and just makes me thing the owner wants to be part of the whole "look, I have a race car" scene that I am definitely not able to understand. To each his own. That said, putting SOMETHING over all those cracked up Z dashes that doesn't cost $400+ dollars (like Just Dashes wants) sounds like there'd be a market. I also think a dash pad should be that - a pad that gives. But I'd be willing to compromise on that. BTW, the way to get cloths like CF and fiberglass cloth to go around all the compound curves is to use REALLY lightweight weaves, pre-apply some resin, use a small roller on the cloth applied to the resined part, and use a vaccuum bag over the part to help get rid of the wrinkles. This helps get the air bubbles out as well. There are vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) techniques that use special wicking materials and/or textured bags to make the resin flow, but these are usually proprietary methods. Anyway, the curves of the Z dash are pretty severe, and I'm not sure that even with the REALLY FINE weaves, it'd be possible to get it to lay down well even with these techniques - at least without ALOT of trial and error. Unfortunately, you'd have to get the person to ship their dash, or do it on an exchange basis, with plenty of various dashes over the years of the 240-280Z (lots to keep in stock). Plus, even within a particular year of a Z production run the dashes were made at various factories and they are not exactly all the same shape - this is why the dash caps that are out there don't fit well all the time. Just my luck mine doesn't fit well at all.

Carbon fiber stuff doesn't have to be smooth and shiny. If you were to roll on some epoxy(I'd try to get some rubber-toughened stuff) on the old cracked dash, and then lay down a single layer of woven carbon fabric that was pre-impregnated with a compatible epoxy, the texture of the dash would no be smooth and would not be too shiny.

Looks great! I'm interested to see what the final header and snails look like on there!

The guy doing body work on my Z told me the paint wouldn't stick very well unless I got ALL the chrome off. I used a flapper wheel on my angle grinder. Lots of work. CHrome is hard and eats these things up. You can get it reverse plated at a plating shop, usually cheaply, I found out later.

I'm pretty good at talking out of that part of my anatomy also . I think the BRE and Z432 and the 3 piece "70s Camaro" spoiler all do two things: 1) possibly create a stagnant ciculation of air over the aft end of the hatch, allowing the flow to separate from the roof/hatch farther up the hatch than without it, reducing lift. I thank Michael Ol for explaining this to my aero-feeble mind. 2) Possibly, the Coanda effect creates a negative lift on the aft end of the car. The upward-curved (concave) spoiler entrains (these guys word for the "attached" flow - a tough concept for me te buy off on easily) the airflow to move upwards, and a force downward results (negative lift). The back edge of the spoiler moves away from the airflow too abruptly and no longer can follow the spoiler's downward slope. O.K., you real aero guys can at me up now .

In the US, I'd go with a GN motor first, then maybe the Supra. My preference would be the Buick GN. Just looking at what Scottie has done with slightly warmed over GN motor makes me think that's a proven reliable way to do it. Plus isn't that Supra motor pretty long? The handling with a GN motor set back ought to be great. To each his own, they all can make lots o power!

O.k. So I was reading the tech column in the back of the recent Road and Track, and came across a short bit on the Coanda effect, and was wondering what was in a recent SAE paper about it. I was intrigued by the picture about how a lip spoiler on the rear of the car can unpset the flow attachment, etc. maybe in a different context than had been explained to me previously (static vortex set up, and the flow separates above it). So I started up the Google.com engine and started reading. Henri Coanda did this stuff back in the 1910-30 time frame. But there's some interesting stuff going on - even a Electro Hydro Dynamic Coanda effect - for building flying saucers . Check out a search and start reading, if you're interested. Anyway, one site : http://www.jefraskin.com/forjef2/jefweb-compiled/published/coanda_effect.html starts going one about how people seem to get different theories about lift, physicists, soccer players, etc. Pretty wild, I thought this was all nailed down 50 years ago or more! Even Einstein goofed using only Bernoulli's equation to design an airfoil! Anyway, the Z content here is that the spoiler may have a larger effect than thought possible on separating the flow early to reduce lift. Michael (Ol), and other aero types, I'd love to hear some comments. I'm just dabbling here again. Pretty wild stuff! I also wonder how else this applies to the Z body. Anybody else intrigued?

I'm not positive, but I believe they were regulated to something like 5v, internally. same deal, a bimetal strip heating up, breaking the circuit, cooling, and over again, the "mean" value of the output being about 5V, as I recall.

A.G. I bought the 12 V version from radio shack, but ended up not using it. The sensitivity of the gage to a supply in the 13-14 volt range is low, so I left it alone - didn't want a chip going bad due to a short or jump start or something. Anyway, the stock 240Z gages are regulated just like the Mopar ones - there was an article in one of the Z mags about this.