jmortensen

Lots of people use poly on both sides and never have an issue, use of poly on both sides does not guarantee failure. Putting rubber on the backside still gives all of the advantages of poly on both sides (the bushing only gets loaded heavily under braking and heavy bumps, and only the front bushing takes the load) so it is a win/win to do poly front and rubber rear. It doesn't cost any more because you can use the worn rubber part in the rear with no detriment.

Does it have steel synchros? You might be able to pull a fill plug or a drain plug and see. If it does, and it is a close ratio transmission with OD, should be worth some coin. Even if it is the wide ratio bpx, there are still people looking for parts that would probably pay some good money for it.

I haven't used the Toy calipers with drum rear, but I did run it with early 280ZX rear disc and my problem was not enough rear braking. That is the safer way to have it set up, but you lose some ultimate braking potential. Eventually I went back to stock front calipers so that I could get the bias dialed in right.

I'm not much of a car show guy, and I don't have a Z to bring since mine is still on the rotisserie, so probably no.

Summit Racing had the best deal when I bought one a few years back. You have to call them though, they aren't on the website or in the catalog.

I've seen a HPDE accident that totalled a car, and my car was a near miss once! The accident was an MR2 at Buttonwillow which spun in Club Corner going into the bus stop clockwise. The guy caught the car going probably 85 mph backwards and just rolled along, and along, and along. Pretty soon we were all futilely yelling "BRAKE! BRAKE! BRAKE!" from the pit wall and he didn't. He eventually backed into a corner worker's stand at probably 40 mph. Could have stopped probably 3x in the distance he traveled to hit that stand. Both feet in would have saved his day. My friend was driving my Z at Streets of Willow and he downshifted to second and the transmission went into 2nd and 5th at the same time, locking the rear wheels and sending him sideways at a concrete block corner workers stand. Front end of the car cleared the stand by about 3'. I about crapped my pants, I think it's pretty safe to say that he did too. He played around with the shifter for a bit and all of a sudden it popped out of gear and we drove it for the rest of the day (and years afterwards) without incident.

Not junk.

I haven't used Blues, but I have used Porterfield R4 pads, and they don't stop for $^!# on the street. They have to get warmed up to do anything. Just a warning. I would suggest that if you run a real racing pad you switch them out at the track, and then change them back before you drive home. More good advice here: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?/topic/62468-track-etiquette/

Is it new? Can you exchange it for one that isn't warped?

If it's the white paper MSA header gasket that I had, it sucks. Get a graphite gasket, it's compressible and will seal better and won't crack and cause an exhaust leak like mine did a couple thousand miles after I installed it. That's my opinion anyway, others may differ.

I wouldn't be able to make a good assessment as to whether the wet spots indicate a leak. If it's a brand new TWM manifold I think a leak where the manifold bolts to the head is relatively unlikely, but if you stick a straight edge across the whole manifold you can look to see if there is a gap between the middle runners. If that's what you did and they varied just a hair, I doubt the problem is at the head. Using a graphite gasket, or a paper gasket? I had nothing but bad luck with the paper manifold gaskets.

The turns are nowhere near as sharp as they are at an autox, so I think it all works out pretty well. If your car understeers, it will still understeer, but it probably won't be as big a deal because the turns aren't as sharp. It's not as though it would understeer at an autox and then you get to the big track and suddenly it's loose in every corner. I doubt that you'll be very surprised by the car's behavior, I wasn't. One more tip though. If you go off, just go straight off (assuming that is safe and you aren't headed right at a corner workers' stand). Don't try to get back on the track at high speed. Just keep it going straight, slow down, then wait for the corner workers to tell you it's OK to get back on.

I would use ultra grey on the intake ports, copper on the exhaust ports if you need it. What I did with the copper was to put a really thin layer around the port and then hang the gasket up for an hour or two to dry and then bolt it up. Verify that your leak is really there first though with the carb cleaner.

Gasket is usually enough. I used silicone on the exhaust ports to seal a header. It would probably work on the intake side as well.

Here are a couple tips that seem somewhat intuitive, but if you really think about them and apply them you'll go faster. 1. The less you turn the wheel, the faster you can go. 2. You should turn the wheel ONCE to hit the apex, and then unwind it to hit the track out. #1 seems so obvious, but if you pay attention you may find that you can get through a series of esses for example with almost no steering input. Also applies to track out. For me when I started it was uncomfortable to unwind the steering wheel after the apex as fast as the instructors were telling me to, but it helps you to put the power down earlier. #2 is not an absolute, sometimes you have a double apex with a decreasing radius or increasing radius or something that requires two inputs, but if you can get through a turn or series of turns with only one real input on the wheel, that's USUALLY the fast way around, and if you find yourself steering once and then steering again, you're probably early apexing. Hardest part about the big track is the straightaway speeds and learning when to brake. Watch the brake markers and use them or anything else, a bush, a fence, the red and white curbs on the side of the track, change in pavement color, etc as a guide for when to start braking.

A friend of mine had a leak like that on 44 Mikunis, sounded like a mouse or a bird was under the hood. Turned out to be a leaky throttle shaft. He didn't care because his was a race car and it's WOT most of the time. If you're sure it's at the manifold, put a thin layer of silicone on each side of the insulators and that should prevent it. You could lay a straight edge on the manifold and see if it's warped, but the TWM stuff is usually pretty good from what I've seen.

Dual manual masters are fairly popular on this side of the pond, but I suppose either way works. You're obviously after a different end result than someone like me who is willing to cut up the pedal box and firewall to fit the duals.

How about because some dumbass modded his pedal box to 5:1 after looking at some of the aforementioned links... We'll see how it works out. If it's really horrible I'll just run a smaller master and have a squishier pedal I guess, or do it over...

Phil, I think it's pretty common to find manual brakes with a 5:1 ratio. Here is a Wilwood setup with a 6:1 or 5:1 ratio: http://www.wilwood.com/products/005-PedalAssemblies/003-RSMP/rsmdmcbp/index.asp Here is a Tilton with 5.5:1 or 6.2:1: http://www.tiltonracing.com/content.php?page=list2&id=13&m=b Here is another Wilwood with a 7:1 ratio: http://www.wilwood.com/products/005-PedalAssemblies/002-FSMP/clutch/index.asp

Engine braking literally happens when you let off the gas. That's it. If you run the car up to 6000 rpm and push in the clutch, the car will continue on slowly losing speed for a long time, just coasting. If you get the car to 6000 and just take your foot off the gas but don't touch the clutch, the car will slow down pretty rapidly. That is engine braking; that is using the engine's compression to assist in braking. I don't know what the name for what you're doing is, other than burning the $^!# out of the clutch. I would suggest that you find an autocross school near you and attend. It's cheap and they'll help with the rectal/cranial extraction then when you're comfortable there you might try an HPDE or two at a big track. Driving instruction, especially when you're driving and the instructor is sitting next to you pointing out what is going right and wrong, is amazingly helpful.

I'm not really following this, so just to be clear; you use the ENGINE to assist braking, not the clutch. Heel/toe matches the revs so that you can let the clutch out quickly without upsetting the chassis. If you're braking with the clutch, you're doing it wrong.

Agreed, and why would you be shifting to 3rd from the top of 4th? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. One slip and you'll over-rev the motor or destroy the clutch or both. You should spend the most time easing out the clutch pedal when you're starting from a stop. Once you're moving and shifting gears (up or down) you really shouldn't be spending a lot of time letting the clutch out. If you are, you're doing something wrong.

It probably wasn't clutch chatter. I suspect the front of the diff was lifting when you put power to it and the driveshaft U-joints were binding, creating the vibration you felt. Congrats on fixing it though.

I think that's a joke, but just in case, you need to pull the Jesus clip (so named because you inevitably drop it and can't find it and yell "Jesus Fing Christ!") Takes a pair of needle nose or a hook tool to pull it out.

That seal that goes across the bottom of the window clips onto the top of the door. Basically you just pull straight up on it and it will come off, but the clips are pretty tight so it might take a little luck to get it off without bending the chrome part.