johnc

I just use RTV.

The wonderful thing about Ferrari's are their engines. Yes, they are temperamental and break down more then a Camry but the sound and feel is far beyond most anything else. Putting a POS Chevy 60 degree V6 (Citation, S10 engine) in the car is like cutting off Sophia Loren's head and replacing it with Rodney Dangerfield's.

In the context of today's cars, yes. In the context of 1970's era crapwagons, the Ferrari's were head and shoulders above most everything except Porsche, Lambo, and Maserati. There are also two very special versions of the basic GTB chassis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_288_GTO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_F40

Again...

http://jalopnik.com/5542526/the-worlds-first-reverse-fauxrarri

Over time corrosion makes the parts stick together. Soak it in penetrating oil, clamp the rotor in a vice, and the try tapping the hub off with a hammer and a pin punch. You may have to upgrade from tapping to hammering.

I've built a couple trailer hitches for 240Zs. You basically need to do the following: 1. Build a square tube or angle iron bar that mounts across the back of the car behind the rear bumper. It needs to tie into the bumper mounts. 2. Re-inforce (box) the lateral rear transverse link brace. 3. Bend up a 3" wide x 3/8" thick piece of flat steel to go from the lateral transverse link brace (weld a tab onto the brace and use a rear LCA bolt to attach the flat steel piece to the tab), back and up (following the contours of the fuel tank) to the bar that you added behind the rear bumper. 4. Continue this piece of flat steel out the back as the mount for the hitch ball with correct size hole drilled. This hitch can handle a tongue weight of about 150 lbs. and a trailer weight of about 1,000 lbs. One thing you have not mentioned is the brakes on your car. That is far more important them how much power the engine makes.

Panda: http://ic2.pbase.com/u44/patarix/upload/28469729.166DSCN0092Panda4x4Trip04.2004.JPG http://img2.netcarshow.com/Fiat-Panda_1991_800x600_wallpaper_01.jpg Last two web sites don't allow hot links to pics.

Then there's something wrong. Again, check the pushrod length. It might need to be shortened just a tiny bit.

I remember that "road test" and it proved to me how much BS road test magazines throw out.

That's the most ambitious rear suspension I've ever seen built for the S30. Great effort and I hope it works.

No modern brake system that I know of maintains pressure to the rear brakes. Your issue might be the pushrod length from the booster to the MC. Generally it needs to be adjusted to make sure the MC pistons are fully retracted when there's no pressure on the brake pedal. Search this site using "pushrod length."

That is true at most race tracks. That 180 turn is not as important as the following right hand turn leading onto the front straight. Slow down a little more on corner entry to the 180 turn and focus on exit speed from that corner. Giving up a little at the start of the 180 may make you faster at the next right hander and onto the front straight. All the driving suggestions above are good ones.

Posts in the Vendor forum don't count towards the post count total since they are often non-tech in nature. Yours are so I bumped your post count.

You just need the rest of the car, the uniform, and a .38 revolver with your one bullet in your pocket.

With an oil to water heat exchanger you don't need a thermostat for the oil side. The thermostat on the coolant side will help warm the oil up quickly. I ran a Niagra oil to water heat exchanger (built into the radiator) in the racing 240Z and it worked very well.

Here's the Oly Charger web site: http://www.olympia-charger.com/

At turn-in are you popping off the brake pedal or slowly coming off the brake pedal? I have (had?) a tendency to pop off the brake pedal at turn-in after getting the downshifts done which quickly transferred weight off the front and made the car push through the first part of the turn. I worked hard to calm myself down coming into a comer (started braking a bit earlier, slowed my feet down) and that solved the problem - when I remember to do that. Problem always comes back when I get in a hurry or sloppy.

The best way to help your front brakes is to get your rear brakes to do more. If you're running the stock rear brakes, before each autocross, manually adjust the shoes so they are lightly contacting the drums. You also need to upgrade to good DOT4 race brake fluid and bleed you brakes after every event. Porterfield makes a good street/autocross pad that will fit the stock front calipers and they can also make shoes out of the same material. Ask for the R4S compound. www.porterfield-brakes.com

I fitted that exact seat into a 240Z for a customer (standard width). We had to cut a notch on the upper part of the inner door sheet metal to get the door to close and the roll up windows didn't anymore. Luckily it was a race car and we planned on removing the windows and all internal mechanisms as part of a a double door bar install. As with Tom's post above, I had to build seat mounts the were flush with the top of the floor pan. The owner didn't need sliders so we saved an inch of headroom and he actually fit pretty well. One of the big issue with race seats is the trans tunnel shape. It flares out wider at the front edge of most race seat installs which makes it appear that you have more room then you really do. Measured across where your butt sits there's 21.5" of room on the floor. But up near the front of the seat base, where the trans tunnel gets wider, you have about 19" of floor space - so that's the real, practical number regarding seat base width unless you're willing to clock the seat about 7 degrees to the left (that makes for an odd driving position). The door panel is an additional 1.50" out from the vertical plane of the inner rocker so the total, non-interfering shoulder width of the seat is about 22". Any additional seat width above the shoulders runs into the narrowing tumblehome of the roof. Floor pan to roof, again where your butt sits, is about 43" at a 10 degree recline. Typical race seat thickness is about 2" with your butt compressing the padding. If your seat bottom touches the floor (not a good idea from a safety standpoint) you're got 41" for your torso, head, and helmet. For me, I'm 69" tall with a 31" inseam. That gives about 38" of torso, head, etc. Add in 2" for helmet thickness and I've got 1" clearance to the roof.

Or the driver is pretty heavy and loads the left side front wheel more then the right.

I'll help you on your way.

A couple issues with using these types of foams on our 40 year old cars: 1. To be effective the cavity to be foamed must be clean, dry, and free of rust. The foam needs to stick well to the inner surface of the cavity. 2. It makes repairs very difficult. The foam or its residue just screws up welds - it must be completely removed before welding a panel. 3. In some cases it can trap water and create a rusty area.

Cutting springs is not "bad." Its done lots of times and I recommend it for those that want to run the Tokico 280Z springs in their 240Z here: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?/topic/88025-installing-tokico-280z-hp-springs-in-a-240z/. The number of free coils in a spinrg is part of the spring rate calculation. Cutting 1 to 1.5 coils (typical) only increases the spring rate by 10 to 12% in a 10 free coil spring. Again, a lot of you guys in this thread are posting stuff you've just read on other forums and you're mistaken. Until you have hands on, practical experience with this, please be careful with spreading mis-information.

Exhaust systems are a necessary evil for all cars. The exhaust gasses and noise need to be directed away from the driver if the driver is to perform at an optimum level for any length of time. In a properly designed racing exhaust system the most evil part of their installation is the additional weight.