johnc

That is a factory Nissan part number 99990-00182 and referred to as the "Competition Hood Vent." It was issued by Nissan on 12/13/1974 as a fix to reduce underhood heat on late 1973 240Zs and 1974 260Zs. A vent hole was supposed to be cut in the driver's side of the hood bulge.

That diff is your basic upside down long nose R200.

I have used that exact HF TIG welder when doing a trackside repair at Thunderhill. It worked fine for repairing a broken CroMo suspension arm once I figured out how to work with the machine and not expect too much. As a tool to learn how to TIG and for welding steel parts in your garage, its fine and a cheap way to figure out if TIG welding is your thing. Its also something you can stash in the race trailer along with a small bottle of Argon for emergency repairs.

I ran Hawk Blacks for the short sessions I raced the ROD. If I was running longer track sessions I would probably have run Blues or HT10s. Right now I had Porterfield cut me a custom set of Hawk HT10 pads for my 350Z. This compund has a good bite with excellent modualtion and release. I ran them on a 1992 LT1 Corvette for a little while. HT10s are is a bit much for a street car.

Yes and no. For inspection purposes no welding inspector will certify a weld that has been touched by a grinder. For our purposes, if the weld is "under" the threaded collar when installed, some grinding might be needed to get the collar to slip over the weld. I do it a little bit and am not worried about a failure. As long as the tube ends are beveled and there's good penetration, it should be fine.

Personally and for most of my club racing customers, a stainless exhaust is overkill unless they are taking advantage of the heat strength advantage stainless has over regular steel. That allows a thinner wall which gives a slight weight savings. An .049" wall mild steel exhaust will weigh less then a .049" stainless steel exhuast, but with stainless you can use .035" wall exhaust tubing without heat related problems. So far, the first 3" OD .049" wall racing exhaust I did is working like a champ 5 years after I made it. The customer pulls it off the car at the end of each racing season and wipes it down with WD 40. It has some surface rust but nothing serious. FYI... this is a car that's raced all across California, Nevada, and Arizona. Use 309L filler to weld stainless to mild steel and 100% argon. Purge the tubing or use a flux like Solar Flux B.

It looks like they are still in business, just requiring a deposit when an order is placed. I require the same when someone purchases composite parts from me.

Javier Gutierrez is the "JG" in JG Engine Dynamics (now JG/Edelbrock). Also, Sunbelt is pretty much done building L6 engines and are focusing on their Spec Miata, BMW Motorsports, and Nissan Motorsports build contracts.

On a number of cars, where the ruels have allowed it, I've added gussets and tabs to connect parts of the cage to areas of the chassis to help stiffen the chassis. With a properly designed caged the gussets are not needed to increase the strenght and safety of the cage itself. These extra tabs and gussets are used as chassis stiffeners and that's why, in many cases, they are not allowed or are counted as an attachment point by sanctioning bodies. Another place to use gussets is to help strengthen the tube to plate junction when the roll cage tube is not normal to the plate surface. The gusset should not extend beyond the plate and typically is no more the 3" or 4" on a side. Here's an example of chassis stiffening via tabs on a vintage 240Z (I just added some bracing to a customer built cage to get it past the tech guys):