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Stick it in 4th gear and set the hand-brake hard. No need to remove the Valve cover. IMHO, better than holding cam gear as load is going direct through the crank. Impact gun should buzz that puppy off no problem. I like using a weighted Hard Plastic mallet. If pulley is stubborn, go to Lordco or your favorite Auto supplier and get some " Freeze Spray ". Used for shrinking rusted bolts etc. Spray the center of the crank with the stuff, crank shrinks and off pops the Pulley. Safer and faster than heating the pulley. Loctite product. Freezes to -39F http://www.henkelna.com/industrial/product-search-1554.htm?nodeid=8797940809729 CRC product. Freezes to -60F: http://crc-canada.ca/industrial/products/specialty/freeze-spray-284-grams.html

Will you please call my Mom? I just spent 2 hours putting a $150 alternator on her American junk, Sunday 93 degrees to boot. But she's going to dog sit while I go to ZCON so I owe her, hell I owe her my life.

Today is interesting. I missed my ride to church this morning. And after calling all of my other friends I did not reach anyone. So! My only choice was to take RedBird. My church is about 3 miles from home. I figured that if she ran for 30 minutes before stopping yesterday, that maybe she would be ok. She did fine, I was grinning ear to ear both ways. There is a Mazda ad on tv. It is about a boy growing up with the cars involved. Starting with a roadster, then medium before marriage, finally a bigger car with wife and child. The last image was saying "something new "(as the garage door opened up to a new roadster) "for you to remember When You Were You!" Oh Boy that says it all, resonates with me totally with my RedBird. I feel like me when I was myself!!! Oh joy!

I used the Harbor Freight dual drum tumbler for 2-3 months. http://www.harborfreight.com/dual-drum-rotary-rock-tumbler-67632.html I used the green triangle "rust cutting" chips for the initial stage, 24-48 hours. Clean thoroughly, then I believe I used some kind of sand/glass from HF to polish for another 24-48 hours. For some reason the photos in my build thread aren't working. Also, I was even able to fit the largest radiator hose clamps, basically anything up to 3 inches in diameter. This dual drum unit actually has two 3 lb. drums, which equals a total of 6 pounds. It is fairly quiet--I stashed it under a cheap fold-up table and the noise never bothered me. I'd say it's no louder than a microwave--the only thing you hear are the two rubber-coated drums spinning. Someone mentioned paint/plating. I chose various colors of paint, which can be chipped off easily during assembly. It is a long, tedious process. Consider $55 for the tumbler, I spent $50 on chips/sand, $20-$100+ for paint/plating. Now your reaching the territory of some pre-assembled stainless steel kits. If you're going to use the tumbler for at least half of the car, I'd say it would be worth it. I used mine on my engine / engine bay two years ago, and now I see myself eye-balling some stainless kits.

I have the next-smaller size of the Eastwood series . It's loud. I put in in a separate room and close the door. These things aren't, '5 minutes and you're done'. More like several hours (of noise). I use the pyramid-shaped green media for the de-rusting step. I'm not sold on this design as a 'one stop solution' for de-rusting fasteners. I suspect that use of a powered brass wire wheel may still be a worthwhile pre-treatment (although I bought the Eastwood shaker to get away from that). Someone else in another thread has provided a lot of suggestions about adding detergents to the media. Check that out. In the end, I suppose these 'tumblers' have a place in the workshop, esp. if your budget doesn't permit buying all-new fasteners like some do. The idea of media-blasting fasteners seems a little silly, and chemical de-rust treatments leave a residue that isn't very attractive. The real issue is what to do after you've de-rusted the fasteners. Paint? Plating service? I'm playing with a DIY plating rig. Results are promising but the jury's still out. Not sure if I'm up to doing this with all of my de-rusted fasteners. Life is short.

That's interesting about the Oil slinger. Honsowetz gives no reason why. The only thing I can think of is that in the paragraph before, he mentions installing the " Bronze " oil pump/distributor drive gear. I wonder if the Bronze gears are slightly longer and do not use the slinger, Going to have to check into that.

Steve, I bet if you tilted the valve cover more then slanted the engine more, you could make that motor (with two parallel valve covers) look like a V12

I just was just backing off some of the timing for the fresh unknown motor. Little more compression and different cam, so I wanted to be safe. Haven't verified my timing with a light yet either. Mine stopped working I guess. The drive today felt pretty good. Just felt good to drive the Z again after a whole year off the road. Mikunis are not liking the fast hard tip in, don't think my account pumps are bled out yet. Good Ole torque, what a nice change after driving my ball less Chevy Sonic turbo. Still have a list and a couple of miles to feel confident.

No, I don't have a wideband at this time, but it's on my wish list. Several of us have arrived at the same conclusion. We've gotten there by systematically straightening out everything in the engine -- vacuum leaks, electrical, all of the EFI components checked per the bible, AFM, fuel pressure, injectors refurbed/flowed or new, timing, distributor advance, valve lash and timing (per the 1-2-3 hole positions). And then we still come up short of fuel. We richen the mixture, and then we're fine, give or take. ------------------------- Thank you Chickenman! (But no, I don't know the song... And google wasn't much help...) But tell me a few magic eye tubes wouldn't be part of an awesome vacuum tube ECU -- over the transmission tunnel, under the dash, in a plexiglass enclosure!

Ready to hit the road in the morning.

Today... mainly just unleashing profanities while trying to get the strut to fit between the spindle pin bushings.

Took her out for her maiden voyage with new hitch, trailer and engine. Made it around the block, and out for a 120km drive tomorrow to my friends where the swap will happen this weekend. Wish me luck. This picture makes me all tingly inside.

Also the exhaust fan switch for those Mexican restaurant nights.