bjhines

Corrosion has always worried me. I have suffered many engine failures due to corrosion. Exhaust ports on E31s blow through, freeze plugs pinhole, general failures of the metal plumbing in a "free" Mk1 MR2. I think I even suffered a headgasket failure due to corrosion once. I use Redline's Water Wetter in the dosage recommended on the bottle. If I recall correctly... I only used part of a bottle with a complete fill of the cooling system. The Redline/water got dirty much faster than usual. I have always had a slight water discoloration with this engine due it being drained(partially) and stored for years. This may be due to Water Wetter's surfectant properties, but it does not discolor as badly when I use 25% Antifreeze with the redline water mixture. I have also tried using the Cooling system flush treatment to clean the cooling system. It made little difference. I change the coolant as soon as it begins to get really dirty, At least once a year. It seems that the buffering agents in Antifreeze are consumed after a realatively short time in my engine. I run this car on track most of it's milage, so I expect more wear and tear. I change my oil before every event. I change my brake fluid every 3 months. Tranny and diff every few events. I am concerned that the Water Wetter does not properly protect the engine from corrosion no matter how fresh it is.

SHO-Z, There is going to be a pan from the bottom of the aircleaner baseplate to meet the hood plate. In my opinion the carby does not flow enough air for any of this to act like a free-flowing duct. You can't really think of that NACA-style front duct as anything but a hole with stalled(high pressure) air in front of it. Air will not flow through the 2 ducts from front to rear as it would seem. There is a LOT of pressure over a large inlet area at the rear that is stopping flow through. The windshield stagnation point(high pressure) will still be as effective as ever. The additional front facing NACA-style inlet will also have a stagnation point(high pressure) at the inlet. The front inlet is smaller than the rear. The pressure should be similar at each inlet. If anything... I would guess that air will actually be forced OUT of the front inlet. In any case they are BOTH high pressure zones. They will only add to the positive pressure until one or the other is overcome. There will be a rain/gravel shield inside the front inlet(shaped like a V). There are also going to be rain drains in the carby pan with restricted drain grommets. Keep in mind that water/stuff has a lot of mass. It's own inertia will keep it out of the rear inlet. The front inlet will get it's inlet area's worth of oncomming debris.

I have been prepping the fiberglass SS scooped hood for modifications to make it a true cowl induction system. This is keeping in mind that allowing air into the engine compartment will cause cooling problems with the radiator(as well as aerodynamic problems). The hood has a plate mounted to provide a flat sealing surface. the aircleaner's base-plate will be extended(like a tray) to seal against the bottom of the hood plate. The aircleaner sticks up through a hole in the hood plate to allow high pressure/fresh air to enter the carby but not the underhood area. The aircleaner of choice. I can get shorter 14" elements if I want. 14" Edlebrock drop base, ~$30 from AutoZone. This is the flat plate made of Alumalite sign board material. Available from most any sign shop in multiple colors(on one side) Here is how they interface. This is without the lower tray mounted to the aircleaner baseplate. Pass-Thru... Not really due to high pressure at the rear inlet and insignificant airflow into the carby for a true "duct" rear inlet... The plate is nearly level with the aircleaner. The aircleaner is 14" the plate opening is 18". You can see the passenger side offset of the engine from the offset hole. I also filled the rear hood stiffening channel with thin guage aluminum sheet for a cleaner rear inlet. I will screen the inlets to block the view inside(and keep vermin from nesting in there). The tray is not done yet. I could just make a boxed tray.... or I could make a round fiberglass tray from the bottom of a plastic container. I intend to use foam or a bulb seal to allow for engine movement.

The rear diffuser was not tested in the wind tunnel. There was not time for that kind of testing. Mayolives should chime in on his experience with that device on his car. I know that there were some teething issues that required it's removal. We tested only one version of a front splitter. It was tested with a host of other modifications on the SDI car. As far as underbody modifications go. The Z-car has top-side problems that would need to be addressed first. Stability in traffic and under braking are possible issues with aggressive underbody modifications.

It's not as bad when you get older. I can remember getting pulled over for xyz reasons when I was younger. Now that I have grey hair they don't look twice. The fact is that young people DO need to be reminded that they are being watched from time to time. I see a lot of stupid moves on the part of sub 25yo. people all the time. Just last week I had a high school girl all over my ass trying to race me with her Tubo SRT4. I smiled and waved her off. She still tried to get me to race for several minutes after that. It is really a pain in my ass to get all the attention from younglings on the road. I cannot drive around town without some youngster blipping their throttle and weaving around me in traffic... every damn time. I tend to give them the finger to get them to blast off away from me.

Well there ya go. No rain then no problemo. I have driven them on ice and sleet in Feb. at VIR. They don't stick at all without the rain treads. They don't resist hydroplaning very well in a downpour with full tread. Nothing like a passenger car tire.

I would think a straight, rust-free shell with nothing in it... is worth $1000.

The rain tread is gone long before the wear-bars are surfaced. The rain tread is also worn off MUCH more quickly than the meat of the slick tire surface. You are gonna end up paying a premium for a tire that wears quickly and ends up a slick LONG before they are truly worn out. I can wear the rain tread off these tires in a few hours.

NOT!^^^ Toyo RA1s are NOT just like any other performance tire. Have you ever even seen an RA1 in person and up close? This is a prime example of someone becomming an "expert" after reading the description on the side of the cereal box. Toyo RA1s have 8/32 TOTAL tread depth. HALF of that tread depth is left after the "rain tread" is gone. The RAIN tread is only 4/32 deep. Most people cord the sides of the tires before they are able to wear them to their full 8/32 depth. Pics are worth a thousand words. read em carefully. This shows ~3/32 rain tread depth at this particular point on the tire. This shows ~7/32 of total tread depth at this point This shows ~4/32 left after shaving this tire for maximum grip. Here is a corded TOYO RA1 with ~2/32 of "tread" left in the middle. stock pics. ...

I weld both sides to ensure maximum leverage on the joint. You obviously cannot get to both sides of every joint. You should pay attention to water retention problems when seam welding areas low in the car. There should be gaps in the bottom seams to allow moisture to escape. The job of picking and cleaning the seams and then welding everything up tight was the biggest job I have ever done on a car... Ever!....

I think the RA-1s have ~reasonable rain characteristics. But there is not much tread depth even raw/unshaved. There will be a lot of tire life left once the tread is worn off, but the tires will become useless in rain conditions long before the "meat" of the tire is worn away. Those are competition tires. They are usually run WITHOUT the tread as a semi slick tire. Most racers like the extra grip right as the last remnants of the tread pattern are worn off.

I picked up a set of old wheels for the track car. They are Eagle Alloys style 189 they are 15x7 http://www.aewheel.com/eagle_alloy_wheels.cfm?id=19 ...

I would not worry about the welds breaking as much as I would worry about some of the "poop" falling off and jamming your ring and pinion. The idea behind the "careful" welding of the spider gears is to weld them solidly and in such a way that nothing can fall out of the welds and destroy the entire rear end.

You can get a good Idea of seam strengthening on an old chassis... Forget about the rivets. Cut out 2 spot welded sections. "seam weld" one section and leave the other stock. Mount them in a vice and bend the weld joints like you were trying to tear them apart. The spot welded joint will have quite a bit of give in the joint. You can easily fatigue the welds and tear them apart without having to fold or crease the metal. The seam welded joint will not flex. It is harder than the surrounding metal. The parts will have to be creased and folded(away from the joint) to get them to crack apart. The seam welded joint itself will not fold at all.

You say "COWLED HOOD"... This is a KEY PROBLEM! Please describe the hood for us in more detail.

What kind of hood do you have on the car. Have you added vents or a cowl indution modification? Did you seal the radiator to the core support? Improper underhood airflow is known to cause cooling problems at highway speeds. If aiflow can get into the engine compartment without going through the radiator it will overpressurize the engine compartment and stall airflow through the radiator.

John has brought up another interesting tidbit that confirms my thoughts on the Aisian car industry. They built truly amazing cars with an attitude towards dominating the world market. There were some early flaws, but unlike American car companies, the Japanese put considerable effort into improving their designs. My Chevy Z71 Tow vehicle is a prime example of HOW TO SCREW YOUR CUSTOMER. There are things wrong with that truck that are SOO wrong that I have lost all confidence in their design and quality control system. Chevy and Dodge( I have a family member who manages a large dealership chain. Their dealership began picking up more and more Japanese cars as they phased out their traditional American brands. He commented that they had received entire shipments of Odlsmobiles that needed entire drivetrain replacements before they could be sold. The factory knew they had problems but they shipped them anyway and forced the dealerships to perform the repairs. They picked up Honda and Mazda years ago and he was AMAZED that they no longer spent ANY time and effort testing and rebuilding vehicles before they could be sold. They practically had to rebuild the American cars as a regular expense. He remembers when Cadillac tried to rebadge the Cavalier and sell it for TWICE the price. That went over about as well as a screen door on a submarine. It is not just the customers who get screwed, Dealerships are dropping American brands as they realize they are also getting a raw deal. The quality dealerships are switching over to imports while the Domestic brands are left to the poorer quality dealers who cannot compete in the import market shares.

Thanks for going to this trouble. I realize you are weighing what you have on hand. But there are still a LOT of considerations that have to be made to make these numbers meaningful to everyone. For instance; Manual vs Automatic includes a lot of other pieces besides the trannys themselves. Most of us building up the older SBC engines are using a lot of lightweight components.The ancillary systems for carbed hot-rod engines are simple and lightweight. These may not compare easily to the more complex late model LSx engines. You would need to set them all up in running condition to get more useful weights.

Here is a similar set of Altstat Grans 2 piece wheels. http://www.globalautoshop.com/wheels/altstadt.htm They come in a relatively low offset in 17x9.5" with a variety of lug patterns.

I was going to ask how this project was comming along. I had to leave the keyboard in a hurry and I accidentally hit the POST button. Have you gotten this thing into paint yet?

cc

WOW!... Luckily you kept the shiney side up!!! I can go over a few things that I would be looking at very carefully. Obviously front framerail alignment, Check the position of the center of TC bucket as well. check the steering rack, replace tie rods, replace the front crossmember, Rear end: Check the upper rear frame that spans between the strut towers. It may have been moved over. The vertical suspension brackets may have bent their mounting points at an angle frmo vertical. This will be a frame shop repair just like the front. The rest of the rear end is obvious. Get replacement parts in hand and take it to a frame shop. They can get the framerails squared with the tops of the strut towers. I would figure on replacing the entire suspension on the right side. You may need the rear suspension vertical brackets, the rear lower bracket(with bushing clamps), and the differential crossmember.

Is the spindle damaged? Is the end dinged.

You say the crankshaft won't turn the oil/timing shaft. The gear is not meshed. The shaft is not all the way in the hole. Therefore the oil pump will not go all the way in the hole. Leaving the distributor and drive gear in the front cover is not such a great idea. The drivegear and shaft can fall out when you least expect it and get damaged. It is not clear from your description what you actually did in the first place. It sounds like you tried to remove only the pump. The drive shaft has shifted or the distributor is still in place and blocking things. You need to start over with the procedure in the manual. It usually takes longer to shift the sway bar out of the way than it does to change the oil pump it's self. This is a 5 minute job once you can get to it. There are not very many teeth on the gear. It is pretty easy to get it aligned right. The Distributor is a No-brainer. It only fits ONE-WAY

setting engine to TDC and aligning little marks aside.... Ahem... You need to set your engine to TDC firstly! Remove the dastardly distributor! make sure you remove the dastardly little shaft with the drive gear on it, you need that piece in hand to align everything properly. Wasn't there a Manual written about this.