Zeddophile

Wow - one of three things going on here: Gas has really dropped in price over the last year, There is a bigger price difference between pure Argon and MIG blends than I thought, Or your local Supagas is really cheap on the fills! Suppose I'll find out when I run out of gas again....

I honestly can't remember which it is, but I'm reasonably sure its an E. (too dark out in the garage to see whats stamped on it, but the sticker with 4.8m3 is easy to read!) I got mine from Supagas, at the time they were cheaper than BOC, and they're 5 mins away from work. The prices I quoted are off the original invoice from July last year when I got the first bottle, total cost of $292. That was 12 months bottle rental, and the first fill. When I need another one, I just dump my old bottle, hand over some cash and bugger off again with a prefilled bottle. I'd suggest ringing around a few places and see what they quote. For your use, given it is likely to be low volume, you'd probably rather a low monthly rental with a more expensive refill, whereas I tend to the other way round, due to the amount I use. Try BOC and Supagas, but also check out your local industrial estate for industrial supplies shops. I know in Bayswater there are Waughs and AA Industrial Supplies just for a start. I won't use Waughs due to their $20 minimum charge, but AA are fantastic, and someone recently told me they'd bought gas there for a ridiculously cheap price. Which reminds me, I need to go investigate that, given that my rental is due soon.... On gas selection: Argon with about 20-25% carbon dioxide is the best general purpose gas for MIG welding, and pure argon the best for general purpose TIG. If you are doing some more specialised jobs, you can use (or may need) different blends to do the job, but the above should cover everything the average backyarder will encounter.

Just the thing for precision work.... Scary pieces of shit them.

I thought the body of the text was a bit strange in context of the heading...

Flow rates sound about right. Flowmeters for a TIG have a lower scale on them than ones for a MIG (1-15L scale for TIG, 10-40L for MIG in the Weldmaster range anyway), and I run around 5l/min on my TIG.... As far as the 60L bottles go - I have a D or E size bottle on the TIG, which is 4.8m3. Apparently that works out to 4800 litres. Rental is about $14 a month, and the refills are $124. If i use one bottle a year, it'll cost me 6 cents per litre, while the 60L bottles cost 58 cents per litre if you're paying $35 a bottle. If I use one bottle in 10 years, it'll cost me 37.5 cents per litre. Got me convinced. Not to mention, thats pure Argon I'm using, which is normally more expensive than the CO2 blends used for MIG welding (which the small bottle costing is worked out from). Obviously, my vote is for the real bottle. Otherwise switch to gasless wire if the welder can use it?

What you mean is, the 'monster project' in your sig is probably going to use all the GTR running gear?

Nope. Thats the stuff you learn in the trade from the guy in the corner who's been doing the job for 30 years. And its a brilliant trick that works really well in this case, can also be used to cut through silicone/sikaflex etc....

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Nissan-Datsun-260C-wagon-7-seater-auto-/330445572225?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_Cars&hash=item4cf0174881 Not exactly a zed, but might appeal to some. It kind of does to me, is that sad?

R200 longnose LSD - 4.1. Bit pricey for some probably, but they ARE getting hard to find... http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Nissan-R200-4-1-LSD-longnose-diff-Datsun-1600-240z-260z-/230489627535?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35aa409b8f

Cool. Should be good fun! I'd suggest though, that you hang on to that other set of wheels you have on the car there if you have room, as you may decide to use them for race wheels after a while. (Mainly when the R888s get down a bit, and start to be really noisy and dart all over the place!) That way you can have the Rotas on with road tyres for day to day, and quickly chuck the other wheels on at the track... Of course, if you're not going to drive it that regularly anyway, you'll probably be able to put up with worn R's on the road!

I'd say he means the whole floor - from entry into the head all the way to the valve seat. Quite common for lowering the floor of the port to cause a reduction in flow, it's to do with the turn down into the cylinder from memory. Alfa twincam heads actually flow better when you ADD metal to the bottom of the intake ports.... Of course, every head is different, and whether this applies to Zed heads, I would have absolutely no idea. That's what research is for... or alternatively, a scrap head and a flowbench.

Are you planning on racing the car Fu? Just wondering why you went for 'R' tyres, as personally for a road tyre I think there are better choices for a number of reasons. If you had bought the tyres in 2007, they'd likely be ok if you kept them in the dark and one or two other things I can't remember at the moment (covered up and off the ground I think)... They might lose half a second or so from age, but most people won't really notice the difference on the track (to much variance on driver line/braking etc on any given lap), and for road use they'd still be perfect (well, for 'R' tyres anyway). Just thought I'd mention it in case you end up needing to store the car for a while, to keep the tyres in better shape you can pull them off the car and store them in the dark and covered up...

Thats exactly what those carbide burrs with big scary looking teeth are for - aluminium! And for exactly the reason you mention - the smaller teeth burrs (which also have many more teeth) clog up badly, they're really designed for steel. If you're vigilant, when the burrs with smaller teeth start to clog, have a quick buzz on a piece of scrap steel, and you'll often find it'll unclog somewhat. The other trick, when doing almost ANYTHING with aluminium, is candles. Yes, candles - cut into the candle with whatever you're using (hacksaw, 1mm cut off wheel on the grinder, carbide burr) enough to get a bit of wax on the surfaces, then go at the aluminium. Repeat as necessary. Sounds silly, but just give it a go sometime - try without first, then with, and see the difference. And speaking of hacksaws - how's your arm after cutting that head up!!! I would have probably gotten about 1/4 of the way through the first cut, and gone bugger this, must be something more interesting to do. That, or found someone suitably stupid to finish the job for me...

As I said, that site I linked specifically mentions Australian customers and cheap shipping in the descriptions. Worth finding out...

Quick google turns up these guys, who reckon they've got cheap shipping to Australia (look at the bottom of the description of any of the flares). Worth seeing what it is, and whether you can get any kind of insurance on it? http://www.zccjdm.com/catalog.php/azcarbum/dt73726/Zcar___IMSA__Race_Body_Kit Dunno how the rears would fit on a 2+2 though (yours is a 2+2 isn't it, or did you get a 2 seater as well?)

LOL.

Needs more dish.....

This is actually pretty common, expecially if you have unifilter type foam socks with oil in them. Often they are supplied with way too much oil in the foam, which chokes the airflow a lot more than you'd think. If yours seem really oily, you can try washing the oil out of them, and re-oiling with just a very small amount of oil, and that should improve things a bit. Remember though, that a filter by its nature is a restriction, and you'll almost always gain a small amount of horsepower by removing it. I prefer having them though... I'm not on a racing budget, so prefer not to take the chance on something getting sucked in. Also interesting can be the effect of an airbox - I was running little motorcycle (paper element) air filters on my throttle bodies in the Alfa while I made the airboxes (V6, one either side). Before the airboxes, it tended to abruptly accelerate HARD from 3000 rpms, and keep pulling, but with the airbox it softened that feeling of 'coming on cam' and pushed it back maybe 500rpm? The flipside was it also seemed to increase the lowdown torque, which may have just given the illusion of less power at 3000.....

I don't have enough time to edit all the spelling mistakes you've been making lately....

Of all the stupid questions that get asked around here over and over again, this is one of the most annoying to me. Who are you, and how is your mechanical ability? How much space have you got to work in, how much time can you be without the car for? What tools do you own, and what tools do your mates own that you can borrow? Answer all of these questions, and maybe we can tell you how much of it we think you're capable of doing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37710921/ns/world_news-weird_news

Now that sound is why I always wanted to build a stroker when I still had my zed.... That user has some more videos up with awesome sounding L-series engines in various sizes... Only a couple scream like the one you posted though....

Dunno if anyone else is watching it at the moment, but if anyone has ever played the original version of the game Flatout (may be the same in sequels too), and remembers the modes where you crashed into massive bowling pins, and launched the car off jumps at bullseyes - I reckon thats what has inspired this show, because thats exactly what it is. Looks like fun.... For those who don't know the video game, think Wipeout but with cars. Currently they are driving onto a moving semi (and mostly locking up the brakes and sliding/rolling off the side into stuff). Show's called crash course...

Winner so far - although that may be a downgrade for this special vehicle?

'Tis why he has so much space and money - none wasted on buying and storing clothes!