Z-Gad

Just had to vent huh Rick?

Having converted a hydraulic to mechanical, I say do the mechanical head. You'll come out way ahead in the long run. I had porting and other head work done to mine and that is the reason I went for it. The hydraulic lifters aren't really BAD, but I swapped for a number of reasons, like the cam I chose was reground and the lifters would not extend fully to where they needed to be. It cost me ~$250 to have the 12 mechanical base pieces made...

Thanks DAW, I'll keep the rpm's somewhat down...even in my turbo stroker I don't take it much past 6k rpm.

Nope Jeff, it was of my own accord. I had the bearing a little caddy-wampus and tightened down the rod bolts, scoring the crankshaft. Another expensive lesson courtesy of the school of Mike

DAW, I have followed your previous posts regarding the LD28 n/a engine you have built and I am impressed with the undertaking you made. Although I may be better off w/ another set-up, I am this far in now and have to kinda follow through w/ what I started here. I really did not ntend to do this build as it is turning out, but it kinda drifted this way as I gathered parts and the next thing I know, I am right in the middle where I can't really turn back as the parts I have will now be of no use to anyone else. I realize the rod stroke ratio I will use is far from ideal, but I have my turbo stroker to drive when I really need a kick in the pants

Thanks Norm!! I knew you would have been the one to ask, and I was going to email you and I actually did do a search on this site as well as the Zcar site hoping to find something out regarding the L28 rods w/ the LD28 crank before I began, but came up empty... Oh well, live and learn. thanks for the helpful hints on the build. Mike

I am doing an n/a stroker for my daily driver. I am using a shaved N42, LD28 crank, L28 rods, .030 over L28 dished pistons (shaved 1mm), and a 2mm head gasket, yielding a little over 10:1 compression. Just a quick note to anyone else going to try the "budget" stroker route... When I assembled the shortblock, the crankshaft counterweights would hit the piston skirt, so the rotating assembly would not turn. I am not sure whether the same problem would be had using the stock pistons, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I ended up scoring a rod journal (unrelated the crankshaft not turning) so I took my goodies back to the machine shop. Now they are shaving the counterweights to clear the piston skirt and will be rebalancing the crankshaft, along with fixing my boogered rod journal. Just once I'd like for everything to work out nicely the first time

I used a stock 280zx turbo oil cooler adaptor out of an automatic. I had it tapped for 1/2 npt and then ran braided hose to a large B&M oil cooler in between the intercooler and radiator. You would only have to unscrew the oil filter stud from the block to put it on.

Oh no, My Altezza's!!!

79 280zx 4-speed That is why they are so hard to find. I have never seen such an animal...

I swapped in a set of rear calipers from an 83zxt parts car w/ the maxima brackets into my 77 and no problems yet... knock on wood

Drop me a line when you need a hand...

Kool, a local gathering seems to be in order!! If all goes well, I will be at the track Wednesday night, but I may see a few of you Sunday on our trip to Gainesville

Gotta convince him to let you take it to the track...maybe the both of you should do it one night...good bonding stuff

hehe ... A hole ...

mom's or dad's car?

I am interested as well. What is the expected timeframe as I will be out of the country and away from any computer for a couple of months leaving in the beginning of June... Will the ends be threaded for NPT fittings?

Yo adjust from under the cam and it should be a snug fit to press your feeler gauge between the cam and rockers when you are done.

You may want to run a leak down check on the motor...may not be the SDS at all...

Very nice LJ ...and on pump gas too!! detail...60', 1/8, etc

I ran the early 77 stock 5-speed w/ 3.70 LSD in the turbo Z until it "gave up the farm" a month or so ago. I felt that the RPM's were too high cruising on the interstate and first gear was extremely short, but had no quams regarding the performance of the car using this tranny as seen in my sig. I now have the later zx tranny in the car, like the highway cruise, but have not been able to get it to the track to see if there is any improvement over the early tranny. I have an extra early tranny in the garage, just in case I like it better...

Meeeeeeee toooooooo, I wanna see!!

Hmmmm... How would "rough pathway" aid in an intake charge. I would think ideally that the smooth intake runner would be beneficial in all cases, but significantly better at higher rpm's where the turbulence in the rough casting would be much greater. If a rough casting would be better for low end torque, then noone would ever polish the intake ports on a cylinder head on a "street" car. I believe the reason people don't polish the intake runners is that normally it would be too difficult to get the complete intake (Efi applications). <shrug>

All of the E-series intakes are the same. I have an E-46 as well. I believe it was a shorter run of the casting as they seem to not be as numerous.. The N-series intakes from the 260's are said to allow for a slight performance increase, but I have never seen any flow numbers to substantiate that claim. If you have your intake apart, you might as well do yourself a favor and smooth out the inside of them. That will give you a little better performance by reducing turbulence and drag w/in the intake.

pick up a new set of lash pads, readjust the valves and it should go away. It worked for me before