zeiss150

If you're going to build a N/A L28 with SU's and you don't want it to be a dog the I would suggest the following build up... F54 block which you have, over bore 20 thousands of an inch New FLAT TOP pistons and rings. p-79 head with a mild cam 460 lift 270 duration new nissian rocker arms and performance springs to prevent valve float. Use the flepro 1mm head gasket. Flywheel from a 2+2 for the 240mm contact surface and a 780lb pressure plate. Headers and at least 2.5 inch exaust (or 3 inch). turbo oil pump distributor from a 79-80 zx distributor with E12-80 ignition module plus the coil from the any ZX since you're using the great SU's you need to get some new needles known as "SM" needles. New timing chain set new main and rod bearings altinator should be from a turbo ZX (70 amp) or from a maxima ( I think its 120amp). With that setup you should be able to get about 170 to 190 RWHP with the 1mm head gasket and the 20thou over bore should get you to 8.8:1 CR compaired to the stock 8.52:1 not much of a difference but unless you are planing to shave that head or use a N42 head it will be hard to get that CR up to a bad a$$ 10:1 or higher. if you want crazy HP (250 and higher) then turbo that sucker... and thats a whole differnt list of stuff to build. Good luck P.S. I have an L28 NA with almost that exact build up (n42 head instead)

Good news! You can rebuild it yourself. If you've rebuilt a turbo or two and changed out a timing belt you should be able to do an L28 turbo build no problem. I rebuilt my L28 without picking up a mic. just get the block "hot tanked" or the Norway equivilant, then get it bored .20 thousands over, get it honed, and your almost done. Stuff you'll need to buy... .20 thou over pistons and rings (flat top or dished depending on the CR you want) rod bearings crank bearings rear main seal piston ring compressor ($10 tool for putting pistons into cylinder with rings on) assembly lube If you wanna get crazy you can buy new rod bolts (I didn't) timing set that should be all of the parts you'll need If you wanna do it right I would get the flywheel resurfaced and then I would get the crank, rods, flywheel, pistons, rings, front pully, all ballenced (thats what I did) Then just follow your "how to rebuild your datsun nissan L engine" book except for the stuff with a mic and feeler gauges. and pow! you'll have a "professional" short block for a lot cheaper than what you would pay them for it. Good luck and let us know how it turns out Matt-

try to run a putty knife around the gasket. If you missed a bolt you'll find it that way. if the putty knife wont work I would use a big flat head screwdriver and try to pry that sucker off. the block is not gonna bend and if the pan bends that should break the gasket seal... just makes sure you bend it back befor you put it back on. good luck Matt-

turbo con rods are the same length as N/A rods (they are probably the same exact rods) the turbo pistons have the same CC's (10.9) as regular L28 stock N/A pistons. long story short ... it's the same CR as before 8.29:1 (or there abouts)

If you stroke a 2.4 liter with an L28 crank you get a 2.6 liter engine. Thats what the 260Z was. the 280Z was a bored 260Z. If you take the L28D crank and put it in the 2.4 block it makes a 2.7liter engine but then you get wacky CR and messed up deck heights unless you change out the pistons and if your gonna do all that work... 3.1! "there's no replacement for displacement" I think I read that on this site. The Lengine calculator is a bitch'n toy. You can, just use the Ld28 crank but the you'll only be makeing a 2.9 liter engine Once you start changing out the rods the piston deck height gets all out of wack and you have to change the pistons then you need to over bore the block so that the pistons will fit thats how you get up to 3.1 ... but you can make a 2.9 or a 3.0 engine if you want you just need the right piston crank and rod combination with out making your CR to heigh. "the more you read, the more you know" , G.I. Joe

the easy answer is... if it's stock 8.29:1 CR Your welcome.

Just a word about Z car specialests... I took my 240 to a "specialest" to try to figure out how to convert from a 40 amp externally regulated altinator to a 60 amp ZX altinator. Well, he told me that it couldn't be done ... he'd been working on that convertion for years and couldn't do it with out going to a custom wireing harnes?... Now I don't consider myself an expert by any streach of the imagination... but I knew that couldn't be right... So ... I went online and what do you know! I found the SIMPLE convertion in great detail on Z garage (awesome site by the way). and the moral to this story is ... you're your own best mechanic. At least educate yourself with enough info so that you can smell the bull$hit from down the block. If a mechanic can learn how to do it ... so can you.

Hey Paul, I did some searching and I couldn't find anyone that had been running a P79 head with turbo but I did find a thread that was talking about the performance benifits of the p79 cam over the p90a cam for turbo aplications. I just wanna hear from someone that has or is running a P79 turbo? Anyone? Matt-

Hey Paul, Why would the exaust liners come apart? is turbo exaust that much hotter? if so couldn't one just cut the liners out. Also is the stock turbo p90 cam different from the stock N/A p79 cam It would be awesome if we could use the P79 for turbo application they're a dime a dozen at the bone yard? Has anyone done it? Matt-

My L engine crank pully never needed a puller... once you remove the bolt it should just slide off. There is no taper in the crank it's held on with the bolt and a "key". Just try to tap on it with a malet or something... I think I used a 2x4 and a hamer? Your also going to buy some cover gaskets and an oil pan gasket which means you'll need to take the oil pan off. I almost forgot about the front oil seal you'll need to replace that too. Good luck! let us know how it goes. Matt- P.S. the above info is based on an L28 not a skyline engine so... P.P.S. While your at it pull your block replace the main and rod bearings bore the cylinders and replace the rings and ballance the rotating mass ... how much more work could it be

Well if you have a toyota carolla ... no But if you have a 60's cadillac... maybe? now that im done being a smart A$$ ... I measured a short block I have on my patio the widest part is "about" 15 inches at the tranny. if you keep the motor mounts on it's about 19 inches at the motor mounts The length of the block is "about 30 inches I don't have the head and oil pan on so I dont know what the lenth is from valve cover to drain plug... but I would guess about 30 inches? Good luck man, I hope this helped Matt-

Just an update... I got the E12-80 out of the junk yard and put it on my dizzy. My rebuilt distributor is running great. I suggest that every one do this rebuild. If you have no idea what you're doing it should only take you half of a day. Thanks again for everyones input. Matt-

What I do to find TDC of the #1 cylinder on the compression stroke is ... 1. remove the spark plug on #1 cylinder 2. put your thumb (any finger really) over the hole and keep it there 3. hand turn the crank shaft don't use the starter motor (use the 27mm socket). Also if you want to make it a little easyer to turn the crank take out all of the spark plugs. 4. as you turn the crank shaft you should feel "air pressure" on your thumb. 5. If you don't feel pressure one of two things is happening 1. you're on the exaust stroke 2. you're turning the crank way to slow to build pressure. 6. once you feel pressure on your thumb look for 0 on your timing marks 7. DONE I hope this works for you ... it always works for me Rock on Z people

I don't have a picture of it but all I did was trace the "top plate" on the vacume advance and cut the plastic to that shape ... then I drilled 3 holes where the bearings sit and thats about it. I'll check ebay for thoes modules. If you really need a picture of it let me know I'll se what I can do. Rock on Z people

You guy rock! This has been a great wealth of info for me. Let me clear up a few things... my original idea behind this post was to find someone that had done an N42 "high" CR turbo car. what I fould was no one has done it ... and for what seem like a good reason... it's a bad idea! The only reason I was considering it was because I alread have an N42 9.2:1 CR with cam N/A SU'd, header, 21/2 in exaust motor. Here is what i've decided to do ... Switch to a P90 head which will drop my CR to 8.07:1 use the stock Z31 water cooled T3 that I already bought and reabuilt myself for a little over $200 (long live Ebay) use a bitch'n IC Use megasquirt 380 injectors with N42 intake (already have it) 60mm throttle body (I already have it) custome down pipe 2 1/2 in exause (I allready have it on the car so...) Some kind of a BOV and Im sure a bunch of other stuff that im forgetting right now. As far as RWHP I would love to get 300 but if its only 225, bitch'n ... if it's more ... more bitch'n! A lot of you have suggested water and alchohal injection ... I didn't even know you could do that, so thats pretty much out of the question, but it was neet to learn about. I'm really trying to build a 0-60 between 4.3 and 5.3 sec car that will make a great daily driver on crapy california 91 oct. I've been reading my a$$ off, corky bells book, about a million threads on hybrid Z, and anything eles I can find. I don't need a 10 second car or hell even 12 sec or 13 for that matter. So I think that should clear up what kind of power and performance that im looking for. So how does my plan look? Rock on Z people

Thanks guys! I hope you all had a great new years. So I looked at all the info posted and rebuilt my distributor. I even rebuilt the ball bearing cage out of a plastic "beware of dog" sign. I totally "magivered" it. Now the Dizzy is smooth as silk with working vacume advance. All I need now is the E12-80 module to replace the E12-92 that I currently have. Looks like I'll be cruzing the bone yard... unless someon has an extra one laying around ... anyone? Thanks again, once again all the members prooving why this is a great site. Rock on Z people

Hey there Z people, does anyone have experiance rebuilding ZX distributors? I just took mine apart and no wonder my car was running wierd ... I was all jacked up. the only thing that I need to fix now is that stupid ball bearing cage. does anyone have any tips on how to fix the dizzy with out that stupid piece of plastic. If you don't know what im talking about ... just take your dizzy apart and you'll see it's the broken piece of plastic along with the floating ball bearings that are now jamming up your vacum advance. Im sure that just about every single dizzy out there has this problem ... I was sort of suprised that there was nothing in the search about this at all. HELP! Rock on Z people

Hey basstad, I just did a ZX altinator swap into my 240 wireing harnes. It is a huge difference. befor my amp needle would jump around like crazy and my lights would dim and ... well it just sucked... there is a great swap guide online that made it super easy to do. The online guide also gave the amps for the different Z altinators... early Z 40amps... ZX 60 amps ... Turbo ZX 70 amps. great thread ... now I'll know what to look for when I go for a 90 amp upgrade Rock on Z people

Thanks Basstad, Great info. I can replace the head with out much trouble(I've got skills:lamo:). I just have a lot of money in my N42. I thought the T3 was up for the challenge... its nice to hear supporting info. Rock on Z people

Great info sho-Z ... I'm glad that this thread is interesting for you, I hope that it is interesting for a lot of members. Keep the posts comming ... still looking for the mithical N-42 turbo Z. Rock on Z people

Thanks GrayZee, See thats the Kind of Info I need a mentor for... When It comes to a N/A engine I do pretty good ... but I don't know $hit about ECU's and map and maf and cas and all of thoes other abriviations (I know what the abriviations are I just don't know how to apply them). So far you guys are really talking me into going with a P90:(. If I did switch over to a P90 I would be running it with a HKS 2mm head gasket and a 20thou over bore giving me a 8.07:1 CR... to low? If I use the stock head gasket then I get 8.61:1... to high?... The search for a 9.2:1 CR turbo Z daily dirver with 275rwhp on 91 oct goes on! Rock on Z people:rockon:

my goal for my turbo project is 275 -300 rwhp in a daily driver that wont blow up on 91 oct. If I could drive up to shell or mobil and get 115 oct for $2.25 a gallon... well then I'd be looking for 400hp. I know I can turbo the 9.2:1 CR that I have but, is ANYONE DOING IT OR DONE IT? Putting on A P 90 isn't out of the question its just sort of one more thing that I would have to do that I don't want to have to do. Thanks for all the great responces ... keep them comming Rock on Z people

Great info. Thanks Matt. I live in So Cal and all we have here is $hitty 91 oct so all of my power is gonna have to come from engine mangament and great IC. Im thinking 10:1 AFR. But that is why Im on a search for someone that has done it and what they had to do and weither or not it was worth it. should I just buy a P90 and drop down to 8.61:1 .... Anyone? ... Anyone? .... Buler... Buler? Rock on Z people

let me lay down what ive got planned and then everyone will know where im at. Ok ... from the top down schnider cam 270, 460, with performance springs new nissian rockers and lashpads N42 head N42 intake manifold with 380cc svo injectors 60mm TB (one inch spacer) custome fuel rai 2mm HKS head gasket F54 block with flat top pistons (ballanced rotating mass) stock exaust manifold Z31 rebuilt t3 turbo 21/2 in down pipe (o2 sensor) to 21/2 inch exaust ending in turbo exaust intercooler (a good one... not sure what kind just yet) megga squirt 280zx turbo dizzy with CAS Z31 maf Megasquirt and maybe some other stuff I'm forgetting Ok now you know what I have in the wings I already have the block and head running really well with SU's but now I wanna go turbo with out changing to a P 90 so Im looking for someone with a similar set up... anyone? rock on Z people

yeah I know 9.2:1 is high ... but it's what I've got ... so without putting on a P90 ...