panchovisa

I've gutted a 240 before (every sheet metal tab and bracket). I've also repaced an entire interior on a gutted race car. My best guess is you will only save 25 lbs on the carpet/jute/plastic panels. Not much of a savings on a daily driver. I would recommend that you replace all the glass with lexan. You will save probably 80 lbs, and your car won't look "stripped". Plus the glass sits higher in the car than the carpets, so you will lower the center of gravity more with the glass to plastic switch. Sell the glass (make paper templates first) and use the money to buy the lexan. Pancho

Kool! I wonder if they have a deluxe version with "Turbo" stickers? After all, why count on people to hear the turbo sound, play it safe and let them read it also. Might be fun to put on a buddy's car and then keep asking to see his turbo upgrade.

I had similar noise from an old Scrirroco (can't rember how to spell it anymore) for about two weeks until the lower ball joint came apart, and the wheel went to the top of the fender. I was lucky it happened in a gas station parking lot at 5 MPH and not 10 minutes earlier at 70 MPH on the freeway.

owenk, A 2.4liter Z engine is 158 cubic inches. At 7,000 RPM it fills that volume every four revs (4 cycle engine), or 1750 times. In five minutes thats 8,750 times, or 1,386,000 cubic inches(802 CUBIC FEET). MY friend(crew chief of Lemans 24 hours winner, 26 national SCCA championships, IMSA GTU champion, collector of royalities from Ford, Mazda & Lotus, and alround brilliant race mechanic) says that was enough (ok, 10 minutes) to lean out a fully trick engine enough to stall. I didn't see it happen, I just belive the numbers.

Maulder, Good question. It is first necessary to understnd the difference between "cold air" iduction and "ram air" induction. Cold air iduction is not ram air induction, BUT ram air induction IS cold air induction. Ram air induction only works when the inlet (cold, fresh air) pressure is higher than the oulet (air sucking, fire-breathing engine) pressure. Ram air is a prinicple that scientificly works! After all, what do turbos and superchargers do? The ram air effect increases with road speed, BUT decreases with engine RPM. The faster the car moves the more air RAMMED into the engine, but the faster the engine turns the MORE AIR IT REQUIRES (increased outlet pressure) for a net pressure drop from inlet to outlet. I was once at a freiends race shop (he now designs for John Caldwell Engines) while they dyno'ed a formula super-vee 1600 cc race engine. It was necessary to open the front door of the shop while making a dyno run. If they didn't, after 5 minutes the engine stalled from sucking all the air from a 8,000 square foot shop (the exhaust went into a refridgerator, used as a muffler, outside) I don't want to give away all my ideas, but if you are interested (and are not affraid to spend money!) I have plans for a cold/ram air set-up for SU and Mikuni Z cars. I'm not going to get to it until fall or next winter though. It deffinately won't look cheesy. Pancho

Bump stops are rubber or urethane cylinders that go underneath the upper spring seat and surround the shock shaft. They keep the spring rate from going to infinite (solid, no suspension, very bad thing!) if all shock travel is used up. It's been a very long time since I've seen a stock upper spring seat, but I believe the bump stops are built in. If you have coilovers they would need the addition of a bump stop.

I recall an "old rule of thumb" about the relation of weight vs hp. It goes something like this: for every 4 lbs additional weight you need an extra hp to maintain the same acceleration. A Z with 200hp at 2,000 lbs will accelerate as quickly (same tire dia., gear ratios, etc.) as a 3,000 lb Camaro with 450 hp. The 1,000 lb difference divided by 4= 250 additional hp plus the Z's 200 hp equals the 450 hp. I know that the Z example figures out to 10 lbs/hp and the Camaro example figures out to 6.67 lbs/hp. But, we are talking acceleration in which the inertia of the "mass" needs to be overcome by greater than a linear function. Take a look at any car magazine test results for 0-60 mph and you will see that heavier cars need a much lower lbs/hp ratio to achieve slightly quicker acceleration. Conversely, if you remove 4 lbs from yor car you have effectively gained one hp (even though a dyno would not show any change) worth of acceleration. Tese examples are for "dead weight" (body panels, etc), rotating weight (wheels, tires, brake rotors) have an even greater effect on acceleration because two different inertia's must be overcome (rotational inertia, and vehicle inertia). If you want to go faster for less money than that "new nitrous oxide set-up" costs, than put your car on a diet.

SledZ, You said you changed one wheel cylinder 1st. Then Master, and finally 2nd wheel cylinder. My quess is that you re-assembled the first rear brake with the "star" adjuster backwards. The adjuster works to adjust the shoes when you apply the brakes moving in reverse. If it were installed backwards it would adjust the shoes tighter every time you use the brakes normally. Eventually the one rear brake would lock up before any of the other functioned at all. Just a guess because the problem started with your origional repair. Pancho

I belive that for your new Mikunis you will want an electric pump with built in by-pass (Holley has it) then filter, then regulator, then fuelrail with three outlets (or plumb carbs in series). You could also tee the pressure line out of the regulator and run the fuel through a loop to the carbs connected in series. The regulaters (Holley) have three ports: line in/ regulated pressure out/ and addition port for mechanical (plumbed) fuel pressure gage, or electric gage sender. If you are using a fuel cell with two pickups/outlets you must put a pump on each outlet. After pumps you may tee lines into one filter. If you don't want the expense of two pumps then use only one pickup and cap the other. Pancho

If you can't rotate the car where it is, then move some krap out of the way. If it is just too heavy then hook a cable come-along from right front corner cart to something substantial in right front corner in garage (box of old porn magazines?). Hook left rear cart to friends car parked towards left side of driveway (or second box of old porn magazines?) with second come-along. By tightening cables it should straighten out in the garage. Then reposition the come-alongs to pull it to one side. When done, give the old porn collection to the guy that gripes about the snow. Should keep him busy till spring.