johnc

Cut and weld assuming its weldable stainless. There are a few stainless steels in the 400 range that ar enot weldable, but they are pretty rare.

It would probably be in the after noon and my shop is about 18 miles from Erik Messley's shop in Huntington Beach. I'm trying to get him to come and talk about shocks and making a Z handle. Feb 29th is my birthday (yes, I'll be 11 this year). I have other plans for that day!

If we hold it at my shop I'm thinking 2/28 or 3/6. I might also be able to get a speaker in to talk for an hour about stuff.

Out of habit I tend to move over a lane when passing a vehicle stopped on the side of the road. I would think though that Texas HWP would do what the California HWP does, and that's approach the stopped vehicle from the passenger side. From the story above it looks like a classic speed trap with a twist. If I was ticked in that situation I would go to court and fight it. Also, passing a law doesn't save lives. Here in California we've passed laws requireing 55mph or less near construction sites, double fine zones, etc. and the number of Caltrans workers killed each year by motorists remains basically the same. The only result of these laws are increased revenue for the state.

Why? That just adds to the polar moment of the car. The one I just mounted in Amir's 240Z is as close to the rear diff as I could get it while still allowing room for the fuel lines and access to the diff mounting bolts. Also, the tank should be at least 6" from the ground when the car is at normal, static ride height. At least that's what SCCA and NASA say in their rules.

Present. FYI... depending on how things are at the shop, maybe we can have the gathering here at the world headquarters of betaMotorsports.

Koni 8610s if you're running springs over 200 lb. in.

Go here and order part 7.6104: http://www.energysuspension.com/sk_bsp1.html

The Tokicos should have come with a set of cone shaped bump stops. You can always purchase a set from any number of sources on the net.

Blackmail never works out the way the blackmailer intends. I would start having fun with this guy. 1. Using PC Anywhere or some other remote control software, I would wait until the guy's next session and then take over his computer while his one hand is occupied. Open a document in Notepad and start typing, "We see you, we know what you're doing, we will tell everyone very soon!" 2. Send him anonymous e-mails from any of the hundreds of re-mailers on the Internet (don't use your company e-mail for this). 3. Sign him up by name and work address to the porn sites he is visiting. There's lots of ways to exact revenge without identifying yourself.

Yeah, don't bang on the customer service rep. They often have no power to help you and are stuck on the phones listening to dozens of pissed off people all day. If you're polite, patient, and have a sense of humor you get them on your side. Often they will go out of their way to help and sometimes give you the names and extensions of people you should "really" be talking to. Also, many support centers are based in India. Remember, these people are 13 hours ahead of us here in PST so keep that in mind. When you think you're talking to a customer service rep located there, ask what their real names are. They are often required to use a psuedonym. By using their real name you might be able to develop a rapport and learn a bit more about how things really work. Use the customer service reps as internal informants on the company that's messing with you.

Had a similar problem in late 2002 with Verizon. Their billing department mistatekenly cancelled our DSL service after being with them (GTE prior) since the old ISDN days. When it went out, I called and they said that we had cancelled the acocunt. After further discussion they determined that we had not contacted them for 2 years and had no record of us calling to cancel. Unfortunately I was told (by the billing department manager) that we would have to re-establish service and it would take two weeks. We signed up with Earthlink and after a couple letters to the CPUC and the FCC I received a $250 credit from Verizon. FYI... never get angry or emotional while takling to vendors. It doesn't work. Just be calm, rational, and very insistent. Don't hang up, make them hang up on you.

I'm sticking with my original post. I'm also really confused by this statement on GrapeApe's web site regarding System Pressure: If their statement that system pressure is a result of the water pump backing up against a restriction (the thermostat) how come we don't instantly have 15psi in the system right after the car is started cold? How come system pressure isn't higher then 15psi until the thermostat opens?

What Tim and 260DET said. Here's what it's like to live with a 5 point harness system: http://www.betamotorsports.com/benchracing/gridroutine.html

Grumpvette is right, you need about 25psi at each rod bearing journal at max rpm (which matches up with what Jim Thompsopn told me). Unfortunately, most of us have no way of measuring oil pressure at the bearing journals so we have to overpressure the oiling system. An old rule of thumb is 10 psi for each 1,000 rpm and that's a good rule for a street engine. L6 engines don't need a lot of oil pressure because they have a very well designed oiling system. Regarding oil viscocity for a street engine, 10W-30 or 10W-40 is plenty. Anythign more is just using horsepower. Racing engines that put a lot more heat into the oil will run a 20W-50 or a striaght 50W. Also remember that multigrade oils have as their base oil the lower of the viscosity numbers and then an additive package is mixed in that thickens the oil to the higher number as the oil heats up. For example: 10W-40 oil is made from 10 weight base stock. The additive package includes long chain polymer molecules that unravel as they are heated up. This unraveling causes the viscocity of the oil to increase. So, a straight 40W oil is thicker in the can then a 10W-40. At normal operating temps the 40W is still a 40W oil while the 10W-40 might be at 32W. The marketing term "oil breakdown" refers to the multi-grade oil's additive package being dilluted or affected by contaminates to the point that the long chain polymers come apart and the oil viscocity remains at some static number. A straight weight oil retains viscocity although it might still be contaminated to the degree that its not able to maintain a good wedge on the bearing surfaces.

Your temp guage might read cooler but the cylinder heads and engine itself will actually be hotter. Heat transfer takes time. The thermostat acts as a restriction that slows the coolant flow down enough to properly transfer heat from the block and heads into the coolant and transfer that heat from the coolant into the radiator and air.

Ultimately I think being successful in business comes down to two things: 1. Honesty - without this you'll eventually fail. 2. Hard work - without this you'll never succeed. Pick something you love to do, something you're willing and looking forward to spending 12 hours a day, 7 days a week doing. Pick something that you get all excited about when talking to your family and friends. Pick something your son will be proud of and tell his friends "You think that's cool? My Dad does..."

Maybe a little later in the year. All of a sudden I've got 5 cars waiting in line to get things done!

That's a good price!

I get e-mails all the time telling me how I can make $25,000 a month while working 4 hours a day at home. I'll start forwarding those to you Mike - I get about 50 a week...

Your choice of fuel cell depends on what you're planning to do with the car. If you're running with any road racing sanctioning body (SCCA, NASA, TCRA, etc.) then you'll need to get an approved cell. Buy something from ATL or Fuel Safe. Both are equally safe but I prefer ATL based on a couple things I've seen in Fuel Safe cells (letfover foam bits that clog fuel filters, dents in the can). If you're drag racing, then you can get by with something cheaper from Summit or Jegs. Just be sure to mount it correctly in a can. Don't just strap the plastic case to the car. For a street car I would go with ATL or Fuel Safe. A fire extinguishing system is a last resort. You want to do all you can to prevent fires in the first place. Probably happens a couple times a year in SCCA ITS racing. In 6 years of watching and sometimes participating in SCCA racing I've yet to see a car fire. It does happen, but its pretty rare considering there are wrecks at every race track probably every race weekend. Katman (Keith) would know better then I.

That's so funny that people keep showing that rear diffuser design as an example of something that works. It doesn't. Lots of testing with one on the back of Doug Hayashi's NSX showed that all it does is increase drag. If you look at the SOS link you'll see that they flat bottom the entire car and run side sills which gives them 95% of the downforce benfit. Just installing the rear diffuser doesn't do anything. Go to http://www.mulsannescorner.com and read up.

Group hug! Now, stop talking and get yer damn car done!

After all the people that got screwed with his "Series 1" why would anyone trust this man? - John

Its not a "bolt-in" swap right now. No one makes a kit and each installation is basically a custom job. Once Amir finishes his swap and gets some testing done on it I might offer a weld in kit that includes the motor and transmission mounts. You can use the stock engine mounts in the 240Z but that's a far from ideal place. Because of the alternator location on the SR20DET the engine has to be mounted up higher then it needs to.