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The Saga of my First Stroker -- and some restoration...


josh817

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My only doubt is that I won't have a head that flows nearly as well as a Rebello or Sun-whatever (brain fart) head since I'm doing it myself too.

 

I guess while I'm at it, are there any water jackets I have to worry about hitting when I port this thing out?

 

Thanks for the help Dragon Fly. If you have any other good advice please share so I don't hurt myself when its all up and running. XD

 

The porting and polishing on my head was done by a local race engine builder so I don't know about where you might strike water so be careful. I have no flow numbers on my head so again I can't help you much there. I have tons of information, comments and advice stuck in my head but you have to ask the questions otherwise I will be writing a book for a post, but anything you may want to do to your Z I have probably already done to mine so I can help you out if you ask before you jump in.

 

Dragonfly

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The list:

1. Can I use l24 crank pulley since I'm not using the ZXT's A/C side or anything. All I need is alternator and water pump.

 

2. Any advice on what to set the advance for? This is a touchy subject in other threads and I don't have the money to dyno the power differences. Dad has a timing light though.

 

3. Your 38mm venturis are working fine or would you suggest the bigger 45's? If you have to choke 45's to 36mm then run 40's, that was my general thought.

 

 

Thats all I have for right now. I'll probably hit you up with more in a PM as I go further along. Technically speaking I'm almost done. I have all my main pieces (besides bearings and gaskets and a head but I'm getting on that), now all I need to do is put it all together, a very exciting thought. The other doubt I have is if and only if the unlikely chance of me making a monster happens, a good clutch will be wasted. I'm not spending $400 for an ACT clutch so I'm going with some other brand which holds 350hp. After you lose power through the drive train, thats like 300-310 at the wheels. Highly doubt thats going to happen but if it does say goodbye to a $140 clutch. That would piss me off and ruin my day. :fmad:

 

Remember, budget. I'll give you my surprising total at the end of all this. :icon6:

 

 

 

The porting and polishing on my head was done by a local race engine builder so I don't know about where you might strike water so be careful. I have no flow numbers on my head so again I can't help you much there. I have tons of information, comments and advice stuck in my head but you have to ask the questions otherwise I will be writing a book for a post, but anything you may want to do to your Z I have probably already done to mine so I can help you out if you ask before you jump in.

 

Dragonfly

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The list:

1. Can I use l24 crank pulley since I'm not using the ZXT's A/C side or anything. All I need is alternator and water pump.

 

Yes, all the L series dampers are interchangable. I run an L24 damper on my F54/P90 combo.

S1010004-1.jpg

 

2. Any advice on what to set the advance for? This is a touchy subject in other threads and I don't have the money to dyno the power differences. Dad has a timing light though.

 

I phased my distributor (and locked it down) then set my timing at 15*btdc @ idle and 34*btdc @ 2500 rpm and up (cam I am running comes on at 3000 rpm so I am at full advance prior to cam coming on).

 

3. Your 38mm venturis are working fine or would you suggest the bigger 45's? If you have to choke 45's to 36mm then run 40's, that was my general thought.

 

The 38mm's are working fine for me and cost less money but the rest of your thoughts are a little off. The 45's may come with 36mm venturis but you can get larger venturis for them without reducing the venturi effect (Burnelli principle) by reducing the incoming and outgoing slopes of the venturi as done to create the 38mm venturi in a 40mm carb.

 

 

Thats all I have for right now. I'll probably hit you up with more in a PM as I go further along. Technically speaking I'm almost done. I have all my main pieces (besides bearings and gaskets and a head but I'm getting on that), now all I need to do is put it all together, a very exciting thought. The other doubt I have is if and only if the unlikely chance of me making a monster happens, a good clutch will be wasted. I'm not spending $400 for an ACT clutch so I'm going with some other brand which holds 350hp. After you lose power through the drive train, thats like 300-310 at the wheels. Highly doubt thats going to happen but if it does say goodbye to a $140 clutch. That would piss me off and ruin my day. :fmad:

 

Remember, budget. I'll give you my surprising total at the end of all this. :icon6:

 

Contact Southland Clutch http://www.southlandclutch.com/ and talk to Kim or Tom (Kim is a dude) and let them know that Miles from the Z Club of San Diego told you to call they can hook you up with a 6 puck sprung hub clutch and heavy duty pressure plate capable of holding 400 rwhp for around $300 plus shipping. I suspect a $140 clutch is not going to hold 300 hp but if you want to try it go for it but keep the link I posted above so when it dies an early death you can replace it with a good one.

 

S1010017.jpg

S1010018.jpg

 

Dragonfly

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You don't think there is an easy way out of a clutch? I think I'll buy this clutch, if it works like a champ then tell everyone about it. I've looked up some feedback reports and they're all great. The only bad thing I saw was some dude who had a Stage 3 on his car and it started slipping. He later said he was making 550hp and obviously a Stage 4 was needed for the job.

 

His ebay feedback is large and perfect, and its a company not some dude.

 

 

Now if I were smart I would have bought that ACT clutch that was on ebay a couple weeks ago. Had like 300 miles on it and was being sold off for $50, I suspected something was fishy though so I bailed.

 

 

Some stats on this one:

$150

350hp rating

6 puck

Ceramic disk

 

Looking into how many lb's the pressure plate is going to be rated at.

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Maybe a slightly odd request.. but this build thread has been fairly informative, especially regarding the rod lightening and polishing methods mentioned earlier this week.

 

Could you possibly use the thread to make any more brain-picking requests from Dragonfly, rather than private messages? That way the public gets to see any further enlightenment... The more widespread we make the good knowledge, the more powerful the search feature becomes. I am thinking to kind of counter the number of totally USELESS threads, yanno?

 

 

Since I am already posting my request, I might as well make a suggestion.. Have you considered picking up a cam more matched to your carbs (didn't re read to see if you already had purchased the cam you plan on using) and then having the cam and carbs to sell as a matched set later down the road when you pick up 44s?

 

IMHO, I've always preferred the look of triple Mikuni's to Webers or genuine solexes anyhow.. that is STRICTLY an aesthetic point, and it has everything to do with that logo in between the bodies... Silly, but I can't help it. Twin Mikuni 40's were offered as a performance option on the 2 liter roadsters, if I am not mistaken, so they've always seemed at home on a Z-car, where Webers are no more "at home" then they are on every other vehicle they fit so well on..... minimal difference, but hey, thats my two bits :D

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Some stats on this one:

$150

350hp rating

6 puck

Ceramic disk

 

Looking into how many lb's the pressure plate is going to be rated at.

 

It sounds like it will probably hold, but there are a couple of things you should look at and/or be aware of: First, is the clutch a sprung hub or not? Second, ceramic is harder than cast iron and most steels/alloys.

 

If the clutch is unsprung its going to make for some very hard shifts and difficult take offs from a stop, if it is sprung these issues will be reduced but not eleminated. Because of the hardness of the ceramic when it is time to change your clutch it is also time to change your flywheel. The other issue with ceramic is that it is brittle and has no elasticity without being specialy alloyed when manufactured (very expensive), what that means is that the ceramic is suseptable to damage by shock which is fairly easy to do when using it as a clutch puck. Disclaimer I have not personaly used or dealt with a ceramic clutch so I may be completely wrong about the brittleness/elasticity of them, I am basing what I say on my personal knowledge of ceramics as used in the aerospace industry and calibration specifications.

 

Dragonfly

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So basically, if I dump the clutch it may just shatter the pads? Well now. >_< Its sprung, wasn't going to even touch a hub clutch. I'm fine with the flywheel. If its something that can be refaced, cool, if not, I'll just get a new one I suppose.

 

 

 

 

I'll do it if Dragonfly feels like coming back each time. XD

 

Nah I'm not really one to match a cam to carbs. I'd rather have a motor put together and then mess with the induction rather than the other way around. I can just unbolt carbs in 5 minutes, yah know? I am set with this cam because I want the biggest for a street. Maybe I could have done a Stage V (.560/300) but I didn't want to push it really. Didn't want to turn out like the Vette guys at the shop where they have no brakes or anything else thats vacuum because of a huge cam.

 

General concensus for me was, I wanted a power band in the higher rpm's so that it would almost replicate turbo lag on the part of I didn't have power when just cruising. The times I want power, I will be above 3k anyways so get a cam that comes in at 3k and lasts a while. I also wanted a noticeable idle. A stroker with a 10lb flywheel has a good lump to it but now throw in a cam with those rpm ranges and you should be set. I didn't want so lumpy that I would have to set the idle at 1500 or something.

 

Honestly, if prices don't get any better for carbs I'll either just bite it and keep 40's, probably get those 38mm venturis, or get the money and do ITB's or motorcycle Mikuni's. I REALLY have to set a limit for myself though. This is only a car and I still have education to take care of. If I'm begging for book money and playing the boss daddy role in a porn flick to pay for my groceries, that isn't going to work.

 

Not to mention my Catholic Queen of a mother would die if I did that. XD

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Read a little more, its copper ceramic material. "MIBA" in the industry or something.

 

I don't mind helping out when I feel it is doing some good. The copper ceramic should grab very well and since you said above that it is sprung you should be ok. The ceramic is still going to be hard on your flywheel but as long as you don't do a lot of clutch slipping you should be fine with a light resurfacing of the flywheel when it is time for clutch replacement. The materials in the clutch sound to me like they make the pressure plate the limiting factor for hp.

 

Make sure also to follow the manufacturers recomendations on clutch break in or slippage will be a constant problem.

 

Dragonfly

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I just read over my post and I wanted to make sure that didn't come off as like a rude statement... When I said "read a little more" I meant like I read a little more in their description, not like hey why don't you read a little better.

 

>_< Just saw that.

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Alright dudes heres some more of the rod action. These are the final steps in rod prep. so next up is porting and polishing the head, along with unshrouding the valves blah blah blah. This is where the fun and interesting stuff starts in my opinion. Once I have all my pieces together I can start putting it all back into recognizable form! Saved big on a P90A head which is really exciting. It has been pressure tested, cleaned, new hardware, and a new Stage IV (.490/290) cam all for $300 since it was bulk. I have no problem buying a P90A, if my luck keeps going the way it is maybe this head or my other P90A will have solid lifters already in them, if not than the money I saved can go to threaded inserts so I can use the solids from my E88 head. I'm pumped up now! The only downside for today is that I only finished 2 rods. Had a late start, showed up at 12, helped Dad finish putting a motor together. Then while Dad was showing me how to polish he had some customers come in and knowing Dad... he talks a lot and the customers respond with questions a lot... and then Dad has to talk a lot more and go into details about vintage racing. Its never ending. So half way through his speech I decided just to go on with polishing since I was pretty sure there wasn't much more to it than what he showed me. Before I got started though I wrote down the initial mass from each rod (remember the mass isn't the REAL mass since I had to put the scale off balance from the rods being so heavy. This is ok though because balancing mass is relative anyways.) Like I said not the real mass but I had figures all within a gram so I felt pretty good about it. Still need to steal the digital scale from my buddy, he wasn't home today. Ok so after you jot down the masses, get the lighted rod and start your work. This won't necesarily be your base mass because you polish more on others sometimes. That was my problem today. Out of the 2 rods I have done, they are now a gram off of each other (571.2g - 572.6g), this doesn't satisfy me so I will take a little off the bottom of the cap BUT not just yet! Do all the rods first, jot down their new masses, then set them all to the lightest rod. THEN you are done. :]

 

Pictures:

cimg0649ta8.jpg

This is what I had done last time on the grinding wheel. Even though you took out the seams, now you left a bunch of scratches in the rod. As Dragonfly stated, I did them wrong, you should grind longitudinal on the rod. Cracks and breaks will form horizontally, and I have a bunch of scratches (ultimately tiny ridges and valleys) posing as stress points for more cracks to occur. The polishing fixes this, thus the reason I didn't feel guilty about grinding in the wrong direction. Also note the rust which formed, it has only been a week and you have surface rust due to bare metal. If/when you do this job, you don't finish it half way and set it down for a year.

cimg0650ve3.jpg

cimg0651cl7.jpg

cimg0652uf0.jpg

Sorry some of them are blurry... This is a polished rod. Its a dull mirror face finish but I oiled them to keep rust away so they look brilliant right now. They are smooth to the touch and all those scratches are gone now. The mass difference from the ground down rod and this rod is roughly 3 grams so you aren't taking a lot off the rod itself. Note, I opened the oil holes back up on the rod, they closed off when I used the grinding wheel.

 

Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera to the shop today so I didn't get a picture of the tools used but next time I will.

 

 

 

FINAL NOTES:

- I have officially 30 days left to get this thing in and running!

- It would be neat to have a website which is organized by progress rather than a forum thread.

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Here is another question for Dragonfly, maybe it will help some other people too.

 

Because I will be running a P90A head, will the injector notches FUBR the flow, especially if you're using carbs? I'm hoping the gasket will cover them up or maybe the intake mani.

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Here is another question for Dragonfly, maybe it will help some other people too.

 

Because I will be running a P90A head, will the injector notches FUBR the flow, especially if you're using carbs? I'm hoping the gasket will cover them up or maybe the intake mani.

 

When I had my head ported and polished it was done by the owner of a local race only machine shop. He was semi conservative with it but also he did manage to increase the ports by about 10 to 15% (by my estimate). I run carbs on mine and they have the injector notches in them but when ported my machinist put so much of a radius into the injector notches that they look more like a shallow oval at the top of the port, he only did this as deep into the port as the notches go to insure not striking water.

 

I did my own work on the gasket matching and intake porting. The first thing to do is put the gasket you are going to use on the head, then bolt the intake onto it. Now find an easy to reach location on the underside of the intake manifold and drill a 1/8†hole into the webbing portion of the intake where you know the drill will go through the gasket and into the head, IMPORTANT make sure you do not drill any deeper than 1/8†into the head (do this by measuring the thickness of the webbing and the gasket then add 1/8†to it and mark your drill bit with tape at that point). After you have drilled this hole remove the intake from the head, use a piece of 1/8†dowel rod that is about 1†longer than the point you put the tape on your drill bit. Place the dowel through the hole in the gasket and make sure the gasket is flush against the surface of the head. Now take an Xacto blade and cut the gasket to the exact size of the intake ports (and exhaust ports). Now remove the dowel and gasket from the head and place the gasket on the intake manifold, insert the dowel to line the gasket up and use at least two bolts with nuts on them through the stock bolt holes to hold the gasket onto the manifold. Using a marker color in all the metal you can see inside the gasket, remove the bolts, gasket and dowel. Now you can port the intake by removing all the inked portion of the manifold and tapering the runners as deep as you can go with your tools in order to create a smooth transition.

 

When all the above is done and you are ready to assemble the intake and exhaust to the head use your dowel again to line everything up then tighten your bolts/nuts. The reason you do not port your exhaust is because most of you will have a header and there is not enough material there to remove. Don’t forget to remove the dowel after everything is tightened down.

 

Dragonfly

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I don't understand then... How is the porting on the head effective if you only opened up the front of the port and not the whole thing. Thats like me running a 4" exhaust pipe under a car but then have a 2.5" inlet hole on the muffler so it gets all backed up when it has to squeeze through the smaller area. Is this to increase the velocity or what? I plan on taking the head studs from my E88 and putting them in the P90A so this whole 1/8" dowel thing can be discarded in my case because I'm assuming it was only used to center the gasket.

 

Also, if I'm porting up to the gasket, I won't really have this problem yah? I'm essentially just going to set the gasket down and mark the area of metal which is showing, then take all that metal off. Doing that should match the gasket to the head anyways. Matching the intake, well I'd have to think since it seems like I'm going a way different route than you are.

 

Lastly, do I use a gasket from like a L24 motor (e88) or something? If there are injector notches in these heads, I'm guessing the gaskets will also have a notch too? Maybe you can tell me what year of a car I need to buy for the intake gasket, I'm worried each year gasket may have different port hole sizes so if I get a small gasket I wind up with a mild port job...

 

 

dfgndgjp7jb2.jpg

^ My general idea. I'll ask Zredbaron about water jackets, made this picture for him and we started talking so maybe he will know. The plan is to measure the port opening on the gasket, grab a valve and have our machinist cut it to whatever size I need, and then when I port I can check my progress my sliding the valve into the port. Any nicks or rises in the port which I probably won't be able to see will be struck by the valve when I pass it through the port. Obviously you will either feel resistance or the valve won't pass through at all in that area, thus you grind a little more.

 

I will be unshrouding the valves while I'm at it too and the process of using the gasket will be the same. Lay the head gasket on the head, mark the cumbustion chamber walls to show what metal you have to work with when grinding, and start your work. Don't go past your markings though or else it will undercut the gasket. I'm staying pretty settle with this idea because its in the How To Modify A Datsun OHC Motor. By the way my porting techniques were also written about in the book too. I started porting before I even had the book but when I received it I was surprised I had done it the way they said to (except for what Dragonfly said about grinding length wise... my bad). Are they looking a little better now Dragonfly or do they not pass inspection? :[

 

 

More on the rods though!

Rod Mass

1 710g

2 709g

3 710g

4 704g (polished)

5 703g (polished)

6 710g

 

So as you can see I still have some balancing to do and I was wrong about polishing taking off so and so grams, sorry about that. This digital scale doesn't read decimal places but comparing the triple beam and this, the triple beam seems just as accurate and it has fractions of a gram. I want these within .5g.

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Since I have never done any head porting myself I can't say much about that part of your build, as far as the intake porting the idea behind it (since most people are modifying a stock intake) is not to necisarily increase velocity or volume so much as to create a smooth transition from the source (in this case the entrance to the carbs) to the intake port of the head. If you do not match the gasket and the intake ports to the ports on the head then you have a restriction or a rough area of some sort either of which will cause disruption of flow beyond the amount wanted in order to keep fuel atomized and in suspension.

 

As far as the rods go they look much better in the latest pictures but I am going to give you a little bit of a hard time again... the original pictures you posted showed what looked to me like uneveness in the removal of material from the rod, now that the rod(s) are polished they look much better but they are probably still uneven just not nearly as noticeable. If you happen to have access to an optical comparitor ( http://www.msi-viking.com/optical_comparator/ ) then I would recomend you check each one of them for eveness. Again they look much better but I still have some concerns.

 

Dragonfly

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Yah right along this area it has some small lumps in it but I'm hoping because there aren't any edges on these lumps it won't cause problems. I'm figuring that if the whole rod has rounded corners and edges, it will make it much better. Do you think this bump will matter? I'm going to get these things shot peened but I've never seen a rod which has had that done before. I'm expecting to get a rod back with a bunch of little indentations and if thats the case then a little uneven lump on the rod doesn't seem too bad. Then again I could be all wrong.

54832395ed6.jpg

 

Bad news is I still have $700 waiting to come in from the guy that bought my turbo stuff. I told him to have the money in by May 16, and look what day it is now... I still have to purchase a head gasket and a clutch and I have 26 days to get that **** in. No money, time limit, and parts that still need buying, I'm getting really pissed and worried. I'm going to sell all my paintball stuff since I don't use it and then after that I'm stuck with borrowing money from Mom... I don't like doing that, especially with amounts like these.

 

Everything with shipping here:

Clutch - $140

Head Gasket - $150

Gaskets - lets just say $100

Bearings - $80

Pay Rick the Machine shop guy - I'm hoping nothing above $300...

 

All he did was bore job, vat, turn the crank, press piston pins in and out. We gave him a box of other stuff to throw in the vat too but he doesn't charge extra since it just goes in with the motor. I will have him disassemble, clean any shavings, and reassemble the head after I'm done with it.... Can't be too much.

 

Sucky part is that I can't go without any of these pieces. I need bearings to assemble the bottom end, the head gasket to unshroud the valves, and the gasket set (intake gasket) to do the porting! The clutch can come in last I don't care. I highly doubt the dude will take 4 weeks to ship from ebay. Luckily Courtesy Nissan is in Dallas so shipping it will only be like a day. I would go pick it up but... well gas prices will rip me a new one.

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT:

Talk about strange. I was going through 1 fast Z's website. He has the stroked silver Z with the 2 black stripes on there and I looked at all the engine components and guess what I found. That clutch I was talking about. I forgot that I had never mentioned the company of the clutch and its XTD.

strokerparts003480x340cb5.jpg

Same clutch from the ebay listing. Hopefully 1 fast z doesn't get upset that I posted one of his pictures on here. :[ More on the car here http://www.bandmzcars.com/silverzpage.html

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Brian (1 fast z) is a pretty cool guy, I don't think he will get upset with you for posting the pic.

 

My rods were shot peened after I lightened, balanced and polished them, they came back with a dull appearance but not neccisarily with what I would call indentations, it was more of a texture. The area of the rod you have pointed out is not going to be a problem in my opinion, the area of concern is the beam. You should lay all the rods down side by side before they are shot peened and do a very close examination of the beams on them to make sure the shape and dimensions of them are the same, if you feel confident that they are then send them out for shot peening. When you send the rods out for shot peening make sure to use old rod bolts in them and if you can remove the rod bolts, grind the heads on them down enough that they are almost small enough to pull through the rod then put them back in. By doing that the person doing the shot peening will be able get more of the area around the bolt heads.

 

After installing new rod bolts use a Sunnen rod gage to test the roundness of the big end and hone them round again as indicated by the gage prior to installing the new bearings. That should allways be done when putting in new rod bolts after installation and checking bolt stretch.

 

Dragonfly

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After installing new rod bolts use a Sunnen rod gage to test the roundness of the big end and hone them round again as indicated by the gage prior to installing the new bearings. That should allways be done when putting in new rod bolts after installation and checking bolt stretch.

 

Dragonfly

Process clarification...

 

You take the rod, and the cap, and the new rod bolts, install the bolts, torque them to spec, check and hone the bore of the big end, remove the rod bolts, and install with the bearing on the crankshaft? Or is this usually done with the rod on the crankshaft, simply sans bearing?

 

 

Bonus Question (20 points): Was this a dumb question?? :)

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Hm I'm not using new rod bolts... I suspect these rods have 8mm but I have 2 other sets of L28et pistons, and those have 9mm. I'm hoping I don't have to drill the holes out... I must draw a line on what I am doing. With that said, this motor isn't to be blue printed or anything and unless if I have just never heard of checking the roundness, it sounds like its getting into the meticulous sort of stuff. I will ask my dad what he does for his motors, he may in fact have that done and just doesn't tell me until I ask.

 

I do hope those bolts aren't my weakest link... I'm getting this dark sad feeling that they will be unless if I get ARP...

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Well, my head came in along with some steering rack boots while the motor is out. I figured out how much I'll have left to spend and its roughly $1000 or so, which I can support. Not to shabby. Dad keeps saying I need to replace the oil pump and water pump but I'm still saying no, if it worked a month ago on the old dying motor, it will work now. This is not a British Triumph motor where everything is held together with balsa wood and it breaks a day later (sorry any British dudes but Jaguar really did use balsa wood on some of their internals). Watch him be right and I make an ass out of myself... XD Just my luck.

 

 

Anyways now that the head is in, I'll hit the machine shop tomorrow, pick up my awaiting beauties, start preparing a lower end while he is taking apart this head for me to port. I kept bugging people about how much material I have to work with because in the book they show my worst nightmare, hitting water. That would be a major road block... So after some searching and hearing that Brian (1 fast z) had some pictures, although he responded to my PM it must have messed up because it didn't show up as any text. Anyways I kept looking and became too impatient to search the many posts of Brian so I used the almighty search function "cutaway" and viola exactly what I need! As in... EXACTLY!

 

We can all thank James (240z Turbo) for these pictures. To make things better, go and read the topic he made for it. It really is a great source of information on how to get the most out of a P90. Its old but its good so go check it out.

 

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=85051&highlight=cutaway

 

Intake

ipmod.jpg

 

Exhaust

exhaustport.JPG

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