pparaska

Be aware that for the GM T-5, the number of splines where the 5th gear installs is different, so you can't use their 9310 5th gears. I kept the stock gears there, Not a big deal since they are both a decent size and you usually don't go putting huge torque through 5th anyway. The total bill for my tranny to be rebuilt with their rebuild kit ($250), labor ($250), new gears 1-4 and counter shaft ($1095), and 9310 mainshaft ($335) and Cluster support plate ($56), plus shipping to me ($140!!!!!) was $2126. I also got a Pro 5.0 shfter from them ($190) The guy I mentioned that just had his Ford T-5 for his road race 5.0 mustang said it whines pretty loud, especially in 3rd. Oh well, without a sound system in my Z still, the exhaust, solid roller cam, and gear noise will make a nice symphony

I admit with the JTR mounts and tall covers, it's pretty tight, with an HEI distrib. To run a small distributor and move the engine back more, the hoses would be really hitting the valve covers. But I used the stock location of the heater hoses. I found a really long heater hose that has a tight 90 deg turn on one end and a few more inches of hose after the bend. Info from my web page: http://alteredz.com/cooling.htm "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."

RacerX, Got out of my 3rd hospital stay in as many months 5 July. I'm a skeleton of my old self, low energy, but looking forward and working on gaining stamina to get back to work 1 Aug. Thanks for asking!

It arrived the other day at my dad's - don't ask . I haven't seen the tranny yet, and there's a 406 to put together yet before the T-5 goes in so it will be a while. A very good friend is buying the Tremec for his Cobra Daytona Coupe , once he buttons up his 383. That car HAD a 383 and an AUTO which was the only way he could get it on the road quick, but now he's doing the right thing - putting a manual trans in it!

wayne, very sorry to hear about Carl. I had not heard. 54 is way too young. The kidney poisoning was due to using Vancomycin twice daily for a week at home without having interim blood work done (should have been done like the 3rd day) to see if it was having adverse effects on things like the kidneys,etc. The surgeon is probably most at fault there, as he wrote the order to do it after a week. I know, people start screaming malpractice, but that's not my way. I'm on a different at-home IV drip now, and they WILL be doing frequent blood tests! All, thanks for all the well wishes, and yes Scottie, a new outlook on life. The immediate one is one of depression, unfortunatrely, due to this and other things going on in my life - but I'll go see a shrink and get some treatment for that. But a new outlook for sure will come out of that. Right now my efforts are to get back some strength (lost 30 lbs, probably 15 of it muscle mass), stamina. Mike, I think a good part of my recovery would be to attend your birthday bash. I will definitely try to get into shape to be able to attend.

2nd surgery I had back in June was to remove a suspicious looking bubble of fluid near the surgery sight (it was beqnign), do some more discectomy (some more had protruded out) and to trim away and biopsy some inflamed L4/L5 disc material. First culture on that showed some slightly positive results but all cultures after that were negative. So they put my on twice daily home IV treatments for and possible infection. They SHOULD have been doing some blood testing during the week too. By 4 or 5 days I was having cold sweats and fevers. Doc put me in hospitial right away. Turns out it was Kidney shutdown that was causing these symptoms. They nursed me back to relative health and sent me home today, an YES they will be doing blood tests every other day this time. I am SO ready to recover from this. Your health is so important.

Jon, if the above 2 posts by IdahoZ seem correct to the experts here, mind adding them in some what to the original FAQ, then we'll delete them from here. You might attribute who wrote the stuff if I'm going to delete it from the lower part of the thread. Thanks, Pete

One racer on the east coast without realizing I had the subframe connectors in commented on how tight the chassis was compared to the hundreds he'd driven. Then I showed him the subframe connectors. My rocker ends (inner and outer) were GONE. I had to hand fabricate them out of sometihng like 1/16" steel, with all the little beads and evertthing. I even replaced the doubler plate that goes between the inner and outer panel. Of course new outers went on. Someone else said why not just use 1x3 tubing - because the stiffness of tubing in the direction you're trying to bend it is dependent on the THIRD power of the height (1 inch vs 2 inch). So quit whining and just cut the floor! Actially if you neeed floors, do the rails first (on side at a time) and cut the new custom floors from Zedfindings to fit either side, with a little 45 degree bend up to meet the rail and seam weld. Forget sealer! All my floor and subframe stuff is seamwelded.

Bill, my G-Force is your typical V8 WC T5 with the 26 splined shaft. I have another Monza V8 T5 that is 14 spline Don't think there were ever any 14 spline WC trannies. Not sure how to tell, but it's on the net someplace, I'm sure. Glad to hear it's all in the car! The hassle of the manual is SO worth it! Pete

John, I always felt the .68 in the Tremec was a bit "high". But that was with the 327 and the lumpy cam. So I ended up with the stock .75:1 5th . Bubba, who built the trans (Mark doesn't actually do any from what I can tell) said that the .75 overdrive gears are pretty large and he''s never seen them break. Added bonus: The G-Force gears (synchro type are cut at less of a helical angle and whine compared to T-5, so my 5th gear should be quiet. .75 is good for me to since I love to be cruising in 5th at 65-70, have some mustang, or ricer come up and stomp it. I ususally leave it 5th and .75 will be pretty well into my 406's torque curve Usua;y, in mear 1 or 2 seconds I've caught them and they are getting smaller in my rear view mirror. Hopefully 5th doesn't break, but 5th gears are easy to change, relatively.

Bill, Sorry to hear about all your trouble. I have one of those Monza V8 T-5s (don't think it's WC, with a 14 spline shaft. Also have a new RAM clutch disc. Cheers, Pete

John - the nurses in this hospitals are nazis about drugs. IF you doc writes "1 to 2" as needed for pain, you wiill NEVER get two. I wanted to get out of bed and wring some freaking necks, I tell ya. They had the pain med buttun but not hooked up for me. The next time I go into the hospital I will make it abundantly clear that the doc should put done the MAX dose only, and make it a decenton. Some of those nurses could see the seathing hate in my eyes for them, as I lay there in pretty bad pain and they wanted to then give the MIN DOSE. IF I protested, I'd get, 'no it makes you to drowsy. What, you have me in the bed with I've, foley catheter, and you feel like be drowsy is detrimental? Everytime I'd wake up to a tech taking vitals or even blood, I'd say no problem - Ill be back asleep after you leave the door! Everyone - thanks for the well wishes' - I still have the typical, sorenesses from surgeriy. I got out Wed evening. Looks like it MAY have bee an infected disc, but hard to tell - they first day showed infection, but none since. They are going to treat me with Vancomicin with Home IV twice daily. Still using 2mg Dilaudid and 2 mg Valium every 6 hours and Protonix once a day to try to relieve constant hickups, etc. They gave me all kinds of old people tools = tongs to grap stuff off the floor. sock installers, elastic shoe laces and a bigh long shoe horn. Also had to go buy a 5" extender for the toilet - raise lid and seat, put in place and now us old guys don't have to bend down so far. : the joys! Getting around the house. I may actually take a ride out to see the Z tomorrow to see how the work looks and the bumper turned out. This Sunday I WILL make the decision to go on that planned Shelby/Cobra/Convention at VIR. Wether I can storm the drive is probably the biggest worry - then can I handle the activity level. Let's just say this old dad will do his best to see if he can recover enough by sunday to make it a go - my 10 yr old daughter is REALLY looking forward to it, as am I!

David, that has got to be the nicest thing anyone has said to me in memory! But remember. I have synthetic heroine (dilaudid) if I really need it. I tell you, I would not wish a severe back spasm like I had on my worst enemy - it was a 10 out of 10 pain, and nothing you can do but scream and pray for it to go away. Pete

Actually, I'm thinking if they find infection and get rid of it, or the herniation is pressing right on the nerves that are causing the spasms (small chance I think), this could be a good thing. I don't mind going under the knife. Hey, when I woke up in the recovery room the last time the most beautiful woman was my nurse. I told her something like it was nice to see such beauty after waking from surgery, but she tried to blow it off as the drugs I was on. I made it clear it was NOT the drugs. Real sweet heart too. And works out everyday (was talking to the other hot nurse about her new equipment while they were wheeling me up to my room.) Sometimes my luck is just so good . Seriously though, this should fix things and get me on a quick road to recovery. Thanks for the concern!

My phys therapist isn't happy with results, wants a doc to look at me to see what structurally could be wrong to keep me from progressing as she thinks I should (wow, like I want to stop visiting HER! ) Go to my osteopathic doc, he gives a million possible reasons, a script for a contrast MRI, and blood workup. Go to my Orthopedic surgeon and he says, yeah, could be infection, let's get those MRIs w and w/o contrast ASAP. I go immediately and they squeeze me in. I take about 3 short naps during the tests ). Surgeon gets report back and has me come back in the next day (today) to discuss, I bring the MRI films. Disc has re-herniated some, not alot, but there's liquid filled bubble in front of the spine that can sometimes occur after surgury, but might be infected. Also the disc (L4/5) is inflammed and could be infected. So tomorrow I go it for surgery AGAIN, where he will clean out the "bubble" and take a biopsy, do the partial discectomy to remove the herniation, and take a biopsy of the L4/5 disc to look for an infection. He feels that the extended length of time I've been in pain is due to the disc inflamation. They will then treat that with 6 weeks of drugs, no matter what, because many times the disc infection test get a false negative. He said recovery should be quicker this time, so maybe 2 weeks. Looks like I'll miss my trip to the Shelby Convention!!!!! Damn! Z is done except for a few stone chips they are taking care of for me. I've been laying on my back for most of the last 6 weeks and have lost 30 pounds. Down to 180. Mostly muscle mass loss. Damn - as soon as I get clearance I'm hitting the gym - I look like a little girly girl! My wife left an advert for a bowflex in my drawer says she wants me to get back in shape and like that guy in the picture would be fine. I didn't DARE say, "hey and you need to look like the Bowflex lady in the ads!!!" So I go in for surgery tomorrow (17 Sunday) 9am and probably won't get out until some time Sunday. Father's day will consist of laying around with cocktails of heavy drugs like dilaudid (synthethic heiroine). Guys, be careful with your backs!!!

I'm PROUD to say, I have yet to watch one of these stupid "fast and furious" movies

With a manual trans and a light Z - DUMP the vac secondary carb! I learned the hard way. I'd go for a 750 DP, an HP series if you can afford it.

Glenn McCoy had exactly what I needed - an MSD plug and play distributor - even had the cap on it to take the HEI style wires! I'll trade him straight up for my totally gone through HEI soon!

It took G-Force MONTHS to get the heat treatment on the main shafts done. I just got a call today that mine is finally going together. Turns out they don't make the other 5th gear options for GM T-5s, since the spline count/size is different than the FURD. So I'm stuck with a 0.75 stock set of gears which they say are very strong anyway. Saved $300. Also, the tapered roller bearing input shaft retainer is a Furd only part, so my regular radial + thrust bearing retainer which was in fine shape will stay. More money saved. It should be finished Monday. I asked them to set it up tight so when it's hot there's minimal play. Coming with a Pro-5.0 shifter. The Spec Stage 2+ clutch is ordered, need to turn the flywheel, and the new smaller blowproof bellhousing and hydraulic TO bearing are waiting. I'll need a new yoke and maybe a driveshaft.

Funny thing is people on here were saying Keisler Engineering was selling Sachs clutchs for their TKO600 s behind big blocks. When I told them my application, he said he thought it was on the edge of the Sachs 600 ft-lb clutch (10.5") and suggested a SPEC 2+. He said they've been selling the SPEC clutches for 9 months without ONE problem or comeback. I ordered the Speck Stage 2+, as it's good for 650+ lbft. My theory is that the Datsun disc is so small in diameter it's being much mre stressed than many of these musclecar clutches and that's why they are failing.

I know it was dumb, but I had been walkng miles like the doc said to do so I figured a bit of pushing a lawn mower wasn't much different. The more I talk to the PT, the more it seems this is an OLD problem that showed up first with the disc operation and now my spine needs major re alignment which she is working on - doing wonders actually. My spine is all crooked down there and I've been compensating for years using the lower back muscles. She's slowly bringing the vertibrae and discs back into line and it's amazing - I will hurt for a few hours afterwards, but then be 20% better after that. Finally, someone that undstands the body. Doesn't hurt that she's a sweetheart Out-of-network, so $100/visit is killing me for the 1st 5 visits, the insurance covers 70%. I hope to be able to stand and walk long enough in a week to be able to do some light Z work - measure bearings in block, rods, grind rings. But I'm taking it easy. All the docs think I just aggravated a situation that would have popped up sooner or later anyway. Doesn't make it feel much better!

Not really - major relapse, something to do with long term problems cropping up. I can barely walk now. Ought to be easier to find and old one - hopefully in good condition, and do the Pertronix conversion on it. That was the original plan, but I wanted to do it stealthily, and 4 injectors would have to be out side the manifold. I still may have to do that if mixture distriibution becomes and issue. I can see I may be running 8 WBO2s to sort this out, but I hope not. Supposedly, GM got the distribution problems figured out and the offenhauser manifold copied them well. I may go ahead and weld 8 bungs in the headers just to see how the variance is. The other reason for using the TBIs: evaporative cooling as the fuel shears off the throttle plates. They are shorter than carbs and give the required hood room. I'll proably start out with 2 8" cleaners but want to move to ducting each one to the cowl or radiator support with cone filters.

I feel really strange doing this, but maybe someone has something I can buy cheap. I don't want to buy new, because I plan on going to crank trigger with MS, but want to go in steps. Reason - the 700 cfm 4bbl TBI I was using I believe is too small to flow enough to power the 406. As soon as I get back on my feet, I'll be putting the 406 back together and want to put another manifold on it: [/url] Along with TWO 670 cfm TBIs: 2" throttle bores baby, and 85 pph injectors. Put on at 45 degrees to how a 4bbl will fit, the bores just fit. I need to make simple adapters and some linkage. An injector wiring change, use one of the IAC, and one Throttle switch. I'll tie the vacuum ports together one to one as well. My HEI won't fit. I need a small distributor, good working used hopefully electronic distributor for a SBC. Some I was looking at: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=MSD%2D8360 http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=PNX%2DD100700R http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=PNX%2DD100700 http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=PNX%2DD100701 I guess if it was a point's distributor, I'd go for it cheap, but I really want a magnetic trigger. Unilite's seem to be unreliable. Let me know what you have, what you want for it, whether you just want to lend it for 6 months or so until I get the MSnS ignition running. Thanks for any help!