BRAAP

Your source at Ross, being a sales rep/customer service rep, etc, for a custom piston manufacture, should know better than that. jmortensen summed it up rather well. If the Ross rep you are dealing with still insists such a thing is wrong, definitely ask for another rep/engineer that knows what he/she is talking about. Piston pop-up is fine so long as there are no mechanical compromises, i.e. rings getting to close to the deck etc. Every N/A L-28 built after, (I think it was 8 of 1980 or there abouts, someone else here will have the exact manufacture date the change was made), any how, the engines with the P-79 head and flat top pistons, the pistons pop up OUT of the bore between .020” and .025” from the factory. So long as the head gasket is thick enough that there is approx .016” clearance between the cylinder head and the piston, all is well and in fact, quite good. Here is an assembled short block with the OE flat top pistons, OE rods in an OE block, and the block was NOT decked. The piston pops up out of the bore .023"

Those "wrong wheel drive" gurus are on the ball… No, really. With all the seat time they have amassed in their "half motor pull-toys", their technological insight is, and I quote another HybridZ member, “unbelievable”. Their knowledge of the difference between Torque and HP and how those two terms are not but two parts of the same equation is pure genius. Just think about this from a HybridZ mind set for a moment. Some of the members here are quite savvy in Torque, while others are quiet savvy in sports car HP, put that group together in the same shop on the same engine and we can set the high-performance sports car world on its VTEC! We could build the best of both worlds. Build an engine with a long stroke for lots of torque to help with launches leaving the "Toys-R-Us" parking lot, and then also build it with a large bore so it will have high RPM sports car HP for high speed passes through the High School bus lane. Then, in true Hybrid fashion, have some flex-fuel-VTEC controller installed. This K7 engine, (7 cylinders in a “K” configuration) runs as a Diesel till 3500 RPM, then switches over to running as a gasoline engine. Could even have the transition from diesel to gasoline blended over a 1500 RPM spread for a seamless transition.

Having at least “some” shadow on both ends is a good sign and the cam should've gone on to live a long happy life. Sounds like a regound NISSAN cam might be in your future eh? Keep us posted on what MSA has to say.

Naviathan, The pictures aren’t really clear, but using Photoshop I was able to brighten this one up a little. I am not going to say that this is 100% the reason for your failure, but the pictures do suggest that improper wipe pattern is mostly responsible for your cam failure, though the soft cam core could also be partially to blame as well. Without seeing the entire head and all the parts in person to perform a formal failure analyses, the photos do strongly suggest that the wipe pattern is completely wrong with the cam wiping off the back side of the rockers which would cause the immediate failure. Your rockers have such a large shadow towards the tip with no shadow at the pivot end, indicating the installed lash pads are way to short. The shadow should be much smaller and be evident on both ends of the wiping surface like the picture below. A performance cam will have much less "shadowing" due to the more aggressive lobe profile. Your picture clearly shows the wipe pattern to be biased WAY too far back. Your wipe pattern; Proper wipe pattern from a stock cam… Proper wipe pattern, aggressive performance cam. As for the dual oiling, that is a totally acceptable mode of oiling the L-series cam. Generally, the oil restrictor in the block is opened to .100” and can be opened up as much as .125” MAX, along with a Turbo pump to help increases oil flow to the head without reducing pressure in the block. As TimZ stated, NEVER remove the oil restrictor in the block as that will starve the bottom end of adequate oil pressure. For those skeptics of the dual cam oiling method, measure the oil hole in the cam lobes of an internally oiled cam, calculate the open area of those 12 holes. Now calculate the oil restrictor hole in the block. Adding the spray bar isn’t going to reduce any appreciable oil flow to the rocker/lobe interface. If anything, it helps put the oil more precisely at that intersection between the cam lobe and rocker surface as some lobes, especially on the OE cams, have some lobes with the oil hole at the base of the closing ramp. Any how, sorry Naviathan, but the evidence thus far is weighting heavily towards improper wipe pattern, i.e. wrong lash pads.

OOhhhh.... Warn us next time...

Naviathan, Sorry to hear of your cam failure. Definitely sucks, big time. Now some of what I’m about to say, you probably aren’t wanting to hear/read, I’m only posting this as it may help out when you go to reinstall your replacement cam and it may help others from experiencing this same fate. First off, those worn off lobes are now in the bottom of your oil pan and in your oil filter as fine metal particles so you will want to remove the pan to fully clean out the debris and also be sure to remove and flush the oil pickup as the screen will catch the larger particles. Depending on how much of the particle laden oil was slung against the pistons and cylinder walls, some slight cylinder wall scoring is common in such instances as well, but generally not severe. Also, the oil pump will be scored as it pumps unfiltered oil. Generally, the pump will still function just fine, but you will want to remove the oil pump and disassemble it including the bypass plunger as metal shavings will be lodged between the plunger and pump body. Again, I’m sorry this isn’t what you wanted to hear, but the pan, pump, and pickup need to be cleaned to reduce any further damage when you run the engine with your new cam. The first thing that comes to mind, especially being as you have the “dual” oiling system, (internal gun drilled AND spray bar), is cam wipe pattern, i.e., wrong lash pads for that head and cam combo. Has this head been overhauled in the past, i.e. surfaced on the top and bottom, valve grind etc? When you installed the cam did you verify the cam wipe pattern on each of the rockers? Did you install new lash pads, other than stock? Schneider cams have been known to be soft which can be the cause for this failure. With both internal and external oiling as you have, the wrong lash pads are the usual cause for premature cam failure which I feel the cam manufactures are at least partially to blame for cam failures due to improper lash pads. MSA/Schneider, and a few other cam manufactures have their “recommendation” for a specific lash pad for each of their cams. I whole heartedly disagree with that practice. The cam wipe pattern needs to be verified for every valve and the appropriate lash ordered and installed for that valve to attain the proper wipe pattern. This should be done for every new cam and after every valve job and/or top surface/cam tower shims being added. There is absolutely NO way those cam manufactures can know if a customers head was overhauled back “to” factory specs or any “specs”. More often than not, when someone takes their overheated or tired L-series head to a machine shop for an overhaul/valve grind/surface, they end up with a basic valve job and surfacing just to get it back on the road. Items such as cam tower shims, valve stem heights, etc, will be ignored, (and people wonder why we charge so darn much just for a basic head overhaul?). It takes time which cost substantially more to “properly” set up the valve train after a valve grind and surfacing. With the typical slam bam head overhaul, the valve stem heights are usually all different, let alone near factory specs, and as such, will require different lash pads to bring the cam wiping pattern where it should be, (in the middle of the rocker), for a long lasting happy camshaft. As long as the wipe pattern is verified and the appropriate lash pads installed that produces that proper cam wipe pattern, then all should be well for 100,000+ miles, barring a soft cam core of course. Again, I’m sorry to hear of your cam failure. I hope you are able to get it back up and running soon.

Yeup. That could be the issue, (whatever that exact issue is other than crappy boost and high vacuum!?!?!?!?) and approx 100-1000 other items may be just as likely. When posting a technical diagnostic question, please don’t be so vague. We could start listing everything that could be causing your issue starting with the air cleaner and ending at the tail pipe including EVERY part in between that the air passes through, in and around, including the battery, EFI, etc… Here are a few questions to give you an idea of what we need to help. 1) Did this issue just arise instantly one day, or was this engine just swapped in and has always been this way since installation? 2) Is the engine stock, modified, if modded, what mods, i.e. OE or aftermarket EFI, turbo, etc? 3) Have you verified fuel pressure? 4) Have you verified ignition timing? 5) Have you verified your ignition coil is not dieing? 6) What do you mean by High vacuum? 7) When you swapped out the cam, are you positive the cam is still timed correctly with the crank, i.e. not one tooth off? 8) Anything else you may have already looked at, diagnosed etc that would help rule out or point to other possible issues…

Way cool. Thank you for sharing…

The EDIS module handles the dwell, NOT mega squirt. Nothing to set "dwell" wise in MS when using EDIS. Mega squirt only sends a pulse signal to the EDIS module which the EDIS module interprets as the desired amount of ignition advance, which the EDIS module then delivers. The only control you have or need over EDIS when using Mega Squirt is the timing advance table. That’s it.

For the L-series, that my friends is perfection… Very nice MONZTER. I am glad you found it in your heart to publicly post more info and pics of that sweetheart.

Yeepsie doodle. Dat be da one fer sure..

Schwiplarkin, There is a dedicated section of this forum JUST for testing pics, avatars, signatures etc. That is the ONLY place allowed to perform such tests so please do not use established threads for testing anymore. Here is a link to that section of the HybridZ forum; http://forums.hybridz.org/forumdisplay.php?f=77 Thank you

DOH!!! The front of that car is BENT and bent bad! It appears to be forward of the strut towers which doesn’t affect the suspension so much, but it definitely has an issue. Due to the severity of that damage, I’d be very much concerned about damage behind the strut towers as well. If damage is also behind the strut towers and you and have no plans to straighten the car and add chassis stiffening, I’d ditch that shell and transfer all your goodies over to a good straight shell. If that were my car and I was dead set on keeping that shell, I would take it down do a body shop and have the car checked thoroughly front to rear to make the rest of the car is square plumb. Even if the shop is able to “realign” the car, it wont be as rigid as it was prior to the accident. If you are discerning track driver, you will most l likely want to perform some chassis stiffening for the affected areas after the shell is realigned, i.e. firewall forward at least. Good luck, Paul

Using the Lokar throttle cable, just drill off the swage on the back side of the pivot ball that is on the end of the OE gas pedal. Then slightly round off the edges of the end of the pedal and the Lokar clevis fits PERFECTLY! I thought I posted pics of that exact set up in the past but can’t seem to find them, sorry. If you perform a search here on HybridZ, you’ll find more details on how others have attached various throttle cables to the OE pedal or used alternative pedals. It’s been done many times… Good luck, Paul

Ron Davis Radiator, captured full floating mount with 100% rubber isolation. Lower mounts are sandwiched between the frame-rail the OE tie down loops.

Tony, Great info as always, thank you. I have a quick stupid question that I should already know the answer to. Being as the OE EFI pump is designed to run under a load, i.e. 30+ PSI, is there an issue with running it at lower pressures say in the 1-3 PSI range for extended periods? My conventional wisdom says the pump should last longer as it isn’t working as hard, i.e. less current draw, building less heat internally, etc, but it will be spinning faster. Could the higher RPM be a long term issue? TIA, Paul

The wiring in the S-30 car is quite simple and easy to trace out, especially if something doesn’t work at all. With a decent wiring diagram, even the Haynes manual has a decent wiring diagram, trace the wiring from the battery to the lights, through the switches, relays, fuses, connectors and back to the body earth. Now, with that traced out, use your test light and verify power at various points along the wiring path in your car for those items. Find if they have common element such as fusible link, etc which could help narrow down your search. You should have power at the battery, so start tracing there and at various points till you get to he point there is NO more power and then you will know the ISSUE is between the last point you had power and the point you don’t have power. Unless there is more than one issue any how. Good luck.

Brian, Yeah, lately we have seen a rise in posts going to the tool shed for sure. Since we now have some affiliation to Google we are getting a LOT more traffic from random searches and more new people registering. These new drop-ins then just post without understanding what this forum is dedicated to, or is about, let alone reading the rules. I recall one recent new member thought it was an IROC-Z forum and another one was asking Jeep questions. Any how, there are quite a few newbie threads that are left alone, the blatant ones, well, they are given reason why their posts are being thrown in the shed, given a link to the rules an guidelines. In some instances, we’ll throw them a bone such as some search results, or what key words to search for.

Very cool indeed. Good Start Quincy, only 7 more to go…

WOW!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50YdifpOrPQ&mode=related&search=

DOH!! Caught, "white over white" on short final.. Nothing a little “slip” can’t take care of right? You a pilot Globe?

Well, you see, Ron, (aka "Slider"), is just jealous cause he knows he will never be as fast or as good of a driver, so he resorts to shameless name calling… “Slider?... (sniff… sniff…), you stink….”

WOWZERS!!! VERY nice.. Keep the pics coming...

I’m Guilty to Larry… In a few Z’s and an Infiniti.. DOH! YEUP! Know when to LIFT and how much!