1 fast z

You ALWAYS balence a pressure plate. I just balenced my new one this weekend. They are always out. Some more than others. BTW, RPM doenst have much to do with balence, its a harmonic issue. That harmonic can come at 2500, or 8500 and it will repeat itselft in some sort of sinusodal wave.

So did you give up on the redline setup Jeff?

Yep, just as I suspected. Pistons are very custom.

Wow, I would of never guessed that John!

I am very frequent on buicks.net, How did you know where to pull the info John?

This disscussion in this thread is pertaining to lash, not spring pressures, therefore that is all I am discussing in this thread. z4me brought up difference in retainers, makes a difference in wipe patterns, to where it does not.

Yes I did look at the pics. Let me state it once again. ALL PADS NEED/HAVE to be resting ON TOP of the actuall valve, therefore the difference in retainers has NOTHING to do with wipe patterns. You are bringing in spring assembled height to this sittuation, which has NOTHING at all to do with wipe patterns. You probably had a short valve stem to keeper groove dimension and had the lash pad sitting on the retainer rather than the valve. And if this is the case you will pop off the keepers and drop a valve.

The pad sits ON top of the valve. The retainer difference has NOTHING to do with wipe patterns. The height difference you are talking about is just circular support for the taller lash pads, so they do not spit out. A wipe pattern can actually be checked without a spring, retainer, etc even installed.

What we have done, on other top end motors, is actually bolt the head to the block, run 200 degree water through it and hone from the bottom of the block. Lots of work for little gain on 99.9% of motors.

I was mainly talking about this comment: I started with .240 pads with the Racer Brown retainers, and ended up down at .180 pads with the stock retainers - just to keep the wipe pattern even on the mating surfaces. Retainers will do nothing for wipe pattern. So this statement does not make sense.

Spring height has NOTHING to do with wipe patterns. The lash pad sits RIGHT on top of the valve, not the retainer. Spring height, matters for spring pressures and rates, but nothing with wipe patterns.

Minimum 2" thick steel, so it stays ridged. Also, it takes ALOT of time to make one correctly, has to be machined, then stress relieved, then surface gound on both faces. Just the steel would cost more than 200.00. Watch what you pay for.

Actually they are two barrell carbs. About 1050CFM worth of carberation.

Yes, I have. I have looked and talked to alot of very experienced people and for HP to HP a turbo will make more power. Sure you give up some low end to do it, but will make more power.

So as some of you know, Z cars are not the only cars I play with. Here is a picture of my Straight eight powered hot rod. Runs 12's in the 1/4 mile NA, at 3600 LBS. 357 CI, 3/16" over bore, 11-1 compression, etc. So After years of looking I finally found one of maybe ten ever made HOWARD 6 carb intake manifold. I rebuilt 6, 97 carbs and installed it on the buick. Runs pretty darn good too, and the AFR's are spot on, well as good as you can expect for carbs built in the early thirtys. Dont mind the flaky headers and dirty engine! Hey somethings gotta keep me busy while Im waiting on my clutch for the TT car right? I guess I could fix the bent valves in the other stroker motor though, haha.

If you take a turbo with 20lbs of boost, and a super with 20lbs of boost, the turbo motor will always make more power, if the turbo is sized correctly. You should look at some graphs of how much horsepower it takes to drive a supercharger, compared to the HP loss of a turbo. Supers can draw hundreds of HP in certain apps.

Work from the center out.

In my local area, a year ago, drifting was HUGE! Now, I honestly dont know anyone who goes to events or out on the streets doing it anymore. It is a fad, and is on its way out, FAST, atleast around here.

From my limited testing. I ran a 6-2-1 setup. NOT a cheapo MSA setup, but rather a long tube fairly tuned set, 1.625" Primarys, single 2.5" ex.. I ran 13.1 quarter mile time at 1300 feet elavation in my 280z. I then swapped a NISMO 1.875" setup, with a single 3" and gained 3 tenths in the quarter mile.

BTW, I do not think it was a bad deal to buy either. Modify those two pipes, and run two twins, then when you go to the local car hang out all the tuner guys can go oooooohhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhh, twin turbo! And how do I know this? .

What happened is whoever built the manifold, had them come straight out the head, and didnt make clearence for the intake runners, so then they smashed in the runners with a hammer. It should of been built to come out of the head, already at a downward angle. Basicly poor mockup and fabrication.

Sunk Valves?

With less timing, the motor WILL run hotter, and ALOT hotter. What it is, is that the charge is a couple hundred degrees hotter when the ex valve is open, and heats the head up, and thus the water.

I always have my doughts when someone says a gun is accurate like the guys who own XD's that were posting in here. I shoot tens of thousands of rounds each year through dozens of guns, and you get a feel for what is accurate and what isnt, just like you did during your testing. The xd is a great gun that wont jam, but is stops about there for me.