pparaska

Brad, incredible times! Well until the reader see's it's an RB26 with some mods . WTG! Start saving for the 9 inch!

We don't want anyone looking for info feeling unwelcome. The only ones I want to feel unwelcome are those that troll only to try to start trouble, etc. Searching. Case in point. This weekend, I realized I needed to get new tires before I do a track event next week (thanks Mikelly for talking me into that!). So I searched HybridZ and didn't find much accept about drag radials. So I went to tirerack.com and read reviews. I went to http://www.corner-carvers.com. I went to google.com and tried probably 20 different searchs. In a nutshell, I did my homework, and then came here to ask here because I know there are people here like Jon Mortenson (sp?), John Coffey, and others that know the answers to my questions about racing tires. I saved them having to totally educate me on the topic. I didn't feel qualified to even ask the question until I'd done some homework.

WTG, Scott!

I've driven Miata's. Fun little go kart. But the lack of power was really obvious to me. I'd need at least twice the torque curve numbers to be even acceptable to me as a daily driver. Too bad Mazda never made a real "performance" version - I'd think people would pay thousands more for one with more guts under the hood. But I'd love to know what the weight and weight distro is in that LS V8 Miata.

Reed, Beautiful Falcon and nice wheels!

Wow, I just saw this thread! That's a horrible looking crash aftermath! Glad you weren't hurt. How fast do you think the car was going when it hit - oh, and what did it hit. Got another Z yet? Best Regards, Pete

Reed, I can't wait to see this assembled! Although I thing the GTO 250 is just a bit nicer, the Daytona Coupe is my second favorite body style - and I don't mean just to put on Zs - of all time! Colors you're going to paint it? Lexan windows? Wheels? Some old school racing wheels would look great, or maybe some Mustang Bullit wheels?

Dan and Terry - both of those look great! Terry - I really like the divider. Every time I looked at it before the divider, "sideways Ford Pickup taillights" popped into my head and "bothered" me . Dan - we need to see pics of the car in paint!!!!!!

Any form of killing that I can think of for somebody like that is too quick. IF he makes it to jail and gets at all in the general population, I give him 1 month before he's dead.

Jim is correct. Here's the flow of electrons: Ground to common of dimmer switch High and low wires off dimmer switch to both headlights (two wires to each, headlights in parallel in this side of the circuit) Common from each headlight to the fuse box - one fuse connected to each common on the headlight Opposite sides of both fuses tighed together and connected to the headlight on/off switch. Common on headlight on/off switch to un-fused 12V from the ammeter. Ammeter to alternator output and battery. The above is close if not absolutely correct. Not sure about the ammeter and battery connections - just can't remember.

Brad, Those look great! Nice workmanship. Just wondering what the weight of each is.

I've read SCC a few times in the past - mostly for mod info on my Eclipse GSX. I agree that I saw some good tech there. The Bling on the cover and sprinkled throughout is what turned me off. But I can get over that. I need to go get a copy of the one with Rick's car in it. Maybe even subscribe. Congrats again, Rick! Beautiful car and a beautiful piece of engineering! I especially appreciate the time it took to modify and tune that Holley. Using an WBO2 to get the data and then learning the carb enough to get an EFI like tune on it is commendable. I doubt many have done that!

Tim got my reason correct - you'll be changing your mind on the engine. Especially with the SBC. New stuff comes out all the time and a few years can make a difference in what you select due to new technology, designs, or even the wee-bit older stuff getting affordable enough for you to ebay it cheaply. That Z sounds like a basket case - even mine wasn't that bad, and I think I was nuts for rebuilding it! JMO,

Same gage. - It sounds like MSA is just selling the Autometer fuel level gage for the early 73 to 8-12 ohm Ford Fuel level gage. That won't give you a very good reading. Read this: http://home.comcast.net/~pparaska/gagecalibration.htm

Pete Paraska here. 1) The nice thing about the 2.5x2.5 engine rail is that it matches the old dimension nicely and makes it easy to just mock the OE rail. 0.093" wall is as thin as I would go. .125" thick would be fine - not that much weight difference. 2) If you go with the Griffin 19"Wx24"H radiator, you MAY not have to taper the engine rails in that area. 3) You could simply cut the wall out on that side, and part of the adjacent walls and weld the piece back using a "step" shape instead of my tapered shape. 4) I did close off the forward end of the frame rail, to keep water out. But not at the firewall - that got covered up by the gusset plates that connect it to the firewall, and "subframe connector" below it. 5) Yes, definitely! 6) One at a time. Measure several points on the OE frame rail and on the TC bucket, and the replacement, in all three up/down, for/aft, left/right directions. I used was a plumb bob, levels, carpenter's square, machinists sqaure, machinist's rule, string (for measuring left/right, for/aft, and diagonal distances), white tape on the floor, pen or marker, and took alot of notes and sketches with dimensions.

The November 2003 Popular Hot Rodding magazine has another great article by David Vizard - "The Power Squeeze - Maximizing the compression ratio delivers more bang for the buck than you can imagine." Topics include: -Static compression ratio, -Expansion ratio, -Cylinder pressure vs piston position for high and low compression, -Static Compression Ratio Power gains as a function of original vs new CR -Dynamic Compression Ratio (yes johnc, he really uses that term - defines and explains it's importance ), (i.e., effect of Intake Valve Closing point on low rpm cylinder pressure) -Compression Pressure -Lowering Fuel/Air Charge Temperature for Detonation Resistance: --Reduced head water jacket temps through lower thermostat ratings, --Cool intake air to the TB/Carb, --Intake and Exhaust valve thermal barrier coatings, --Combustion Chamber polishing (or better yet, thermal barrier coating) --Intake manifold and cylinder head port thermal barrier coating --Exhaust port coating (to minimize heat transfer through the common Exhaust/Intake Port wall near the valve seats - especially on AL heads with no water between the Exh and Intake ports - and to keep heat in the exhaust and out of the water jacket. --Piston thermal barrier coating to keep hot spots at bay -Fast Burn Chambers (mixture motion/agitation) -Staying away form chamber cavities with the smallest dimension in the .06 to .012" range (e.g., proper quench height) -Minimum quench clearance and chamber volume to obtain desired compression ratio -Stay away from domes larger than 0.1" high (text says .001", but I believe he meant .1") -Ignition --Ideally burn the mixture from 5 deg BTDC to 15 deg ATDC --fast burn means less ignition advance needed - optimized advance means less advance than for slower burning chamber/port configurations. --Use "more than enough" ignition system energy to fire the higher pressures. --High current, multiple spark ignition may allow less advance and allow for more compression to be used. --An overkill ignition system allows colder plugs to be used, for better detonation resistance. --Plug Side electrode should cover only half of the center electrode looking straight down the center of the plug. --Round off end of Side electrode to remove this source of hot spots Vizard states you can run as much as 11.2:1 static compression ratio on 93-octane pump fuel, with a small safety margin - too small for hot, humid weather.

Color isn't everything for radiation heat transfer: Read this: http://www.electro-optical.com/bb_rad/emissivity/emisivty.htm It's really the emissivity of the surface. A glossy black surface is not that much different in emissivity than glossy white paint of the same surface texture/material: http://www.electro-optical.com/bb_rad/emissivity/matlemisivty.htm#Black%20Coatings Funny, I don't see the band/wavelength those emissivities are for, but I'd assume it's long wave infrared (8 to 12 micron) since that's the primary form of radiant heat rejection from surfaces. The numbers shown are probably averaged over the 8-12 micron band. Yeah, that science stuff can lead to better hot rodding .

Actually, Scottie-GNZ would be a great pick. He's done the L28ET to H and back, then had a V8Z, now the GN turbo V6.

Try googling on the rod/stroke ratio thing. Check out Isky's site (tech articles), http://www.chevytalk.org tech section, victorylibrary.com. R/S ratio is one of those things that seems real important at first, but after reading what really knowledgeable engine builders/racers say, it's not that big of a deal, IMO. The only really practical thing a larger R/S ratio seems to get you is less rod angularity which leads to less side loads on the pistons (among other things). As far as detonation resistance, it's hard to tell what that 352 build with the AFR heads really had that made it that way. Consider that if the deck height is optimized for excellent quench, and a great chamber like the the AFR is used with .04-ish quench height, it's not that incredible to me that a SBC with ANY reasonable R/S ratio could run at 11:1 on 92 octane. (I assumed the regular .041" 400 head gasket was used, and a zero deck with about 5cc of valve relief volume to get close to their 11:1 with the 56cc chamber 305 AFR heads.) Maybe I'm trying to make myself feel better that I'm going from a 1.75:1 R/S in my 327 to a 1.6:1 R/S in my 406. But actually, I've been reading alot about R/S being the end all and it seems like one of those Internet legends after reading some of the tech articles above. Here's a thought: Throw 26 (383) or 54 (406) more cubes at the motor and gain that typical 1.2:1 hp/ci that way, even lowering the compression ratio to 10:1 or 10.5:1 Sure, it'd be great to run on 87 octane, but gas is cheap compared to many things we have to buy.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2952207484&category=1

Mike would have NO trouble talking to the military guys. The way he presents himself and how he talks would make the military guys feel quite at ease.

Sounds like a great garage! About the clean room. Have a dirty room too. A room surrounded by walls or curtains for doing grinding and welding would be great. Spraying grinding wheel grit and hot metal onto your prized cars is not fun. Heating and cooling. If you are doing this large of an expansion on the house, spend the money on heating and cooling for the place. Maybe heat the slabs and route A/C into the spaces. I freeze in the Winter and sweat to death in the Summer. That's my next upgrade in the garage.

Mike, I'm really happy for you. Sorry to hear about the arm. But it sounds like you couldn't have it much better at work. Great pay, benefits, attitude, customer, boss! Much to be thankful for! Not to mention a great wife. Tell I said hi! I hope Izzy was good to you, Pete

Congrats, Bill! Well deserved!