johnc

Take the cover off and use a flashlight to look inside the diff via one of the round holes. You should see some clutch packs and steel shims in there. Expect to have to rebuild it (they all need rebuilding every 30 to 50,000 miles).

Are you talking about the 3" diameter holes on the sides of the core support?

10W and leave the hole open. It allows pressure venting as things heat up.

1. Triple whatever amount you think you need to survive the first two years. No one can think of all contingencies in their bplan. 2. Be very, very, very careful and only hire the most intelligent and enthusiastic people. Its orders of magnitude better to delay a good hire than make a quick bad hire. 3. Spend more than you plan on marketing and sales but don't spend much money on advertising. Word of mouth, refrrals, and return customers are what you have to rely on for the first two years. 4. Be ruthlessly honest with yourself, your investors, your employees, your vendors, and your customers. Be willing to NOT start this company or end it at any time. Everyone and their mother-in-law has a got a great idea, very, very, very, few can excute. 5. Expect and demand that your business savvy investors participate in the business. Their savvy has to transfer to you or you will fail.

Sounds like you have the 280ZX rear rotors.

> Several of them have been accused of tayloring > test drives to favor HMS products... Ya think?! Anyone who thinks any automotive magazine test is objective or fair needs to spend a lot of time on this site educating themselves: Autoextremsit

Go to the handy dandy NASA Technical Reports Server and do a search on the term "submerged duct" and check both NACA Reports options. You'll get links to the original research reports on submerged ducts. BTW... submerged ducts work no better than a square hole in the surface for air extraction.

Page 6, April 8, 2002 issue of Autoweek...

I hope you and your son will have a lot of stories to tell your son's children.

I took a couple quick shots of the ZG flares on my car. I used Volkswagon fender welting to clean up the seam between the flare and the fender. Rivnuts and stainless button head bolts hold the flares on the car. Here's the front, notice the trimmed front spoiler. I'm going to clean that up a bit and then later replace the spoiler with a carbon fiber splitter. And here's the rear. I don't have any long shots yet. I'm in the middle of the Thrash to get the car done for the MSA autocross and the OTC.

I hope your wife is ok. Don't worry about the job thing. If you get let go, for whatever reason, you've got a new business you can focus on. Sometimes people need a kick in the butt to go out and do what they really want.

Update: Well... I ended up having to do some significant flaring to the car (ZG flares) and I've decided to go with 16 x 10" wide custom BBS wheels and 275/45-16 Hoosiers. Its a long story and it involves a Viper and a wager. Anyway, the brand new wheels you see up above are for sale, with or without the brand new Hoosiers (245/45-16 R3S03). Look for an ad in the For Sale section tomorrow.

You can find similar 100K running engines for $250 to $500. Rebuildable transmisions are about $75. Completely rebuilt transmisisons are $250 to $400.

> The more caster you can get, the less CAMBER > you will need in most street/ autocross > situations. Well... assuming you haven't done anything (like bumpsteer spacers) to screw up the standard camber gain curve then yes, you can reduce the amount of static negative camber. But you still want about 3.5 degrees of negative camber at full bump on the outside tire. Running less static camber does help the car brake better and it can help it turn in better, assuming correct spring and anti-roll bar rates. Increasing caster will reduce steering sensitivity, increase the amount of road shock transmitted through the wheel, and (if taken to extremes) will cause the inside tire to be drug across the road surface increasing wear and inside half tire temps. 6 to 7 degrees of positive caster is about the limit on a 240Z for track events. I have seen (and run) up to 10 degrees for really tight autocrosses but that was very course dependent and my arms were like noodles at the end.

Open it up. That's the only way to know for sure and if the guy is a dumbass you'll want to check over every inch of the car to make sure you don't get killed driving it.

Geo Metro. A friend just bought a 1996 with 80,000 miles on it for $750. If he drives like a sane man he gets 56 mpg. If he drives it like a looney (85 mph all the time on the freeway - in a Geo) he gets 42 mpg. We're seriously thinking about entering that car in GRM's 2003 Challenge. We've got a line on a wrecked Hayabusa and we did some measurements on the Metro engine bay. We also corner weighed the Metro and the cross weights are almost perfect at 49.9 and 50.1 with driver. Total vehicle weight with driver is 1770 lbs.

Last Thursday I called Sunbelt. Lee answered the phone. I asked how things were going and his reply, "Well, I have one of your pistons in my hand, but, other than that, things are going great!" "Oh God..." was my response. Turns out cam design #3 had the valves a bit too close to the pistons - more from valve timing changes than lift. Dale has to machine a bit more relief in the top of the JE pistons. Talked with Jim early yesterday morning and the engine's back together, on the dyno, and he promises that it will be on the truck first of next week (April Fool's Day.) C&R is building the radiator as I type, ATL is building the fuel cell, scca Mike just got me my rear calipers, and BBS is building me two sets of wheels (whole 'nuther story aobut the Monocoques I had built.) The Thrash has started.

If its posted here or any of us non-engine builders know about it, its not a secret.

It should work itself out (as you can see by the burping.)

Actually, he got rear wheel spin at over 215 mph when the engine came on the turbo again in 5th gear and then he lifted off the throttle too much. One of the big issues with going fast on the salt is traction. A couple years ago there was a Extreme Machines show on TLC that focused on fast vehicles. One segment had a blue Dodge Viper racing Don Vesco's Turbinator at El Mirage Dry Lake. That Viper was(is) Erik Messley's and he got severe wheel spin at 220mph. FYI... the Viper would smoke the Turbinator from a standing start through the entire length of the 6 mile course. But from a rolling start at 180mph the Turbinator would walk the Viper all the way to its 300+ mph course limited top speed. Some photos are here if you're interested: Viper vs. Turbinator

Unfortunately, not true: http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/bricks.htm This story actually dates back to a 1937 Laurel and Hardy short film.

A very hard pedal makes brake modulation difficult. As I posted earlier in another thread you might try removing the porportioning valve in the back and replace it with a short length of braided brake line. And then test it very carefully.

The stock valve is not adjustable. I suggest you remove it and replace it with a short length of braided brake line as a test. Then find a nice, safe road and try braking hard from 40 then 60 then 80 mph. Caution: you might flat spot a set of tires doing this so start slow and if you get severe rear wheel lockup then its back to the drawing board.

Check the ground from the engine to the chassis (near the starter) and you'll have to go through and start checking all the other grounds on the engine and dash wiring harness. If the battery was hooked up wrong there's a good chance one of the other grounds got cooked before the fusible links blew. Also look for old wiring that has that green/white corrosion at any junction.

More... Hennessey Customer Arrested? Possible article in AutoWeek later this year?