BRAAP

Pete, This was one or the other deal. Either a race car or street car we couldn’t do both with our busy schedules, Rusch Motorsports, family, etc…. Being as this is a toy, seat time weighed heavily on which project was kept and which was scrapped. I can still autocross the street car, it just wont be as fast, but I get all the seat time I can stand… The details of why are in this post … http://forums.hybridz.org/showpost.php?p=691795&postcount=9

Good to hear that you were able to solve your smoking issues and misfire.

Wouldn’t want to give the competition the “how-to” till after the big event… Sounds awesome Austin Looking forward to reading the full SEZ report… Good luck guys and have fun…

Hopefully I’m not stepping on toes posting this here, but…. For those interested, our Z race icar shell is up for sale… Here are the details… http://classifieds.hybridz.org/showproduct.php?product=4064

Ok the last bit of the race car is finally listed for sale. The power train is all gone that leaves the shell and suspension up for grabs… Here are the details… http://classifieds.hybridz.org/showproduct.php?product=4064

I’ll outline two procedures for removing broken bolt/studs… The Drilling out procedure… 1) Center punch as dead nuts to the center of the steel bolt/stud as possible. 2) The reversing drill bits are great. Some times, just the reverse rotation of the bit alone will grab and extract the broken bolt/stud. Choose a small bit to pre-drill all the way through the broken bolt/stud, (this can be a standard drill bit). Be VERY careful not to let the bit wander or to drill at an angle. An extra pair of eyes at 90 degree angle to your own viewing angle is best. Also, be careful that you don’t drill through the aluminum head on the back side of the bolt. You’ll be able to “feel” when the drill bit passes through the broken bolt/stud. 3) Now using a reverser rotation bit, (a standard bit will also work if you don’t have the reverse bit,) that is a little smaller than the OD of the bolt/stud itself, (the bolt/stud should be a 8 x 1.25 mm thread size), drill “carefully” till either the broken bolt/stud backs out on its own or you end up drilling all the way through the broken bolt/stud again. 4) If your drill bit is at all close enough be touching the actual threads of the hole and it didn’t come out. Stop right there and take the head down to a machine shop and have them finish the repair. You might be able to save it on your own, but 9 chances out of ten, it’ll end up being an ugly mess that wasn’t worth the time and effort and it most likely wont be as good as a Machine shop could do, i.e. straight, aligned, and located in the right spot. I’ve repaired many of those “well if I just kept drilling…” mistakes… (see pic below…) The Easy-Out method… First off, just by saying the word Easy-out usually brings up firm bickering from both camps of they "DO" or "DON'T" work. I’ll give you my take. I have used Easy-Outs of many different styles and configurations and still use them from time to time, (situation dependant), and they do work, but not all the time. When the Easy-Out wont get the broken bolt/stud out, then it's time to just clamp the part down to the mill table and start to perform surgery. Here are few techniques I employ when using Easy outs… 1) If there is any portion of the broken bolt/stud protruding above the surface, smack it and smack it hard with a hammer. Now heat it up with a torch till it starts to glow, let it cool just for minute or so, the smack it again! Smack it HARD!!! The smacking will help to break free the corrosion. The heat will helpfully help break free any thread locker and the expansion difference between the head and bolt sometimes is enough to break the corrosion free as well. (this trick works wonders for removing those stubborn SBC oil galley plugs…) 2) If you can get a pair vice grips around the protruding portion, then by now, 75% of the time, it will turn right out, that is if you can get a good enough grip on it. 3) If you can’t get a grip on it, then center punchy the broken bolt/stud as dead nuts center as possible. Now predrill the bolt/stud all the way through as in the "drilling out procedure" above. Now use the recommend drill size for the Easy-Out you are using, (some Easy-outs are all-in-one affairs with the drill bit and extractor as one piece). 4) If you end up breaking the drill bit or easy-out in the hole, just swallow your pride and take the head to a machine shop and have them fix it before it turns into a butchered mess. If you try and save a broken Easy-Out on your own, you will end up with a butchered bolt/stud repair that would even make “bubba” cringe… Here is one such repair of a butchered exhaust manifold bolt/stud, (same location you are fighting on a P-90 casting). We just drilled it out a little bigger than the butcher hack job, tapped it and installed a large solid pipe plug, located the placement of the original bolt hole, drilled and tapped it on the mill, then resurfaced the intake/exhaust surface. Now it is good as new… (some of you guys might recognize this particular P-90 head…)

YEAH!!! Like some of these… Especially the ADMIN smileys… http://www.infohub.com/forums/misc.php?do=showsmilies Here are some pretty good ones here… http://mescal.pixelized.ch/smilies/

When you installed the rings, generally speaking most top rings are barrel faced so they can be installed either way. The second rings are generally a scraper ring and as such are VERY specific as to how they are installed, (the ring just under the top ring). If you install the second rings upside down, the engine essentially becomes an “oil pump” and will burn oil. Without any more specifics, there could be several other things causing this such as bad PCV valve, scored cylinder walls, improper ring end gaps, valve stem seals worn, improperly installed stem seals or one or more of the valve stem seals popped off the guide, etc… Just swapping in a cam shouldn’t cause the oil burning problem. Let us know if you find the issue…

Being as your head wasn’t cleaned thoroughly previously, i.e. the presence of media blast, (don’t use the machine shop that did this EVER), that head needs to be completely and totally stripped down to just the bare casting and thoroughly cleaned, (you can leave the valve guides and valve seats in place), i.e. every removable part that can be removed with ordinary hand tools, including the rocker pivot bushings needs to be removed. If the head has not been ran, i.e. not oily, then skip to #2. 1) If the head has been ran, i.e. oily, after disassembly take it down to any local automotive machine shop and have them “jet wash” the head. When you get it back , go on to step #2. 2) Now with a fresh water source and an air nozzle, (hose bib on the side of your house/garage/shop is just perfect), spend at least 30 minutes rinsing, blowing out, rinsing, blowing out, rerinsing, more blowing out, and keep doing that for that at least 30mintues. While rinsing, turn and place the head in every conceivable position and angle to get the water into every crevice to help release the media blast. The idea is to release ALL of the bead blast media from every nook and cranny within the head including the water ports, bolt holes, etc. Do NOT use solvent! Solvent will just ball up the media. Water and compressed air are the best agents for releasing the media blast. You will also want to due the same with cam shaft as it has in internal oil passage. Don’t forget the cam towers. Speaking of oil passages, the oil passage in the head itself needs a thorough cleaning as well. Best way to do this is to remove the pressed on galley plugs, (drill out the plug, but don’t drill it oversize unless you plan to install larger NPT plugs), and perform the whole water-air clenaing procedure there, don’t forget the 2 oil feed holes on the deck surface, one in the middle of the head passenger side, and the front of the head. Oh, and the cam tower feeders. For plugging those galleys when you are finished, you can purchase those OE press plugs, but we always drill and tap them for NPT plugs and for added safety, we use our die grinder with the long bit to ensure that the oil passage that goes the deck surface at the front of the head, receives unobstructed flow as the NPT plug gets right close to blocking that port. Also, the front galley plug has to be flush with the cast surface, i.e. not protruding out, in order to clear the slack side of the timing chain as it runs across that plug. 3) Now is also good time to chase “all” the treads in the head. 6 x 1.0 mm for the valve cover and timing chain inspection cover. 8 x 1.25 mm for the cam tower bolts, fuel pump block off, fuel rail mount, cyl head lifting tab, thermostat housing, all the exhaust mount holes and carb intake mount holes. 10 x 1.25 mm for the four EFI manifold holes. And 14 x 1.25 mm for the spark plug threads. When you’re done with that, compressed air, then one more thorough rinsing and you’re ready for assembly. Don’t forget to “immediately” spray the valve guides and valve seats with some sort of water displacer/rust inhibitor such as WD/40 after the final rinsing and blow down to keep those parts from rusting. Proper head assembly details are also just as involved, being as I’ve already jacked this thread to far off topic, I’ll just leave it at that… I’ve covered some of those assembly details in other posts… Hope this helps, Paul Ruschman Rusch Motorsports

Glad that helped. Keep saving up. Standalone EFI allows so much flexibility in what you can do with the engine in regards to cams, intake and exhaust manifolds, manifold design, boost of any sort, injector choices, etc. Also, it is pretty fun to play with… Keep us posted on your progress towards getting your standalone EMS….

Are you running Mega Squirt? (You posted in the MegaSquirt forum, but your post eludes me to thinking that you are using the OE Datsun ECU...) If you are running Mega Squirt, then you can easily adjust your required fuel map to compensate for the injectors. Problem solved. If this is the OE Hitachi EFI, then no, you will need the OE N/A injectors. (If this is the case, this post should’ve been posted in either the “L-6” or “Fuel Delivery” section. )

NCchris, Just curious, is this head supposed to be a freshly remanufactured head ,i.e. machined and assembled ready to run, and has not been on an engine yet, or is this a head that was removed from a running engine? I’ll address the bead blast media issue in a little bit…

It is savable… You are NOT SOL. That can be welded up, and then using a head gasket as your template, just redrill the hole to the same size as the head gasket,, also run a drill bit down the head bolt hole to clear it out for the head bolt, then have the head resurfaced and it will be good to go. If the head is currently warped, the cam, valves, springs, rocker pivots, etc will all need to be removed and the top surfaced as well. Any automotive machine shop can tell you if it is warped. Any shop that can weld aluminum with even minimal skill can weld up the corroded/eroded port. It appears that someone took one of those scotch brite buffer discs to the deck surface, so not mater what, especially in a boosted application, that head needs to be resurfaced. Don’t get me started on mechanics or garage engine builders using buffer wheels for gasket prep… I see that port corroded/eroded like that all the time on L-series heads, but I have never seen one that bad. Good luck, Paul Ruschman Rusch Motorsports

’79 Honda ATC 110. It is in good condition, recently the carb is flooding the engine, (acts like the float bowl needle and seat aren’t seating or float is sinking.). Wanna buy it? It is the WHEELY king… We ride it once in a while, but we ride the ‘82 Honda MB-5 way more often, (the MB-5 is AWESOME, 5 speed manual clutch gear box, tops out at 45-48 on level ground, WAY fun…) so the ATC 110 is on the chopping block. The MB-5 is a 50CC two stroke street bike that looks like a Korean sport bike knock off. We have two of them, one is a complete excellent condition runner, the other is its twin, serial numbers are one after the other, the second bike is 95% complete… I think it needs a 350 CC Yamaha Banshee engine swap… but that is just me….) http://www.thecreeper.net/mymb5.htm

Well our new “puppy”, Vivian has been a good dog since we brought her home, quiet and pleasant to drive etc. I built a permanent mount for the V-1 radar/laser locator and hard wired it, acquired a set of 4 TT rear wheels for my Khumo Victo-racers, (265-45ZR-16”) for this seasons OSPO racing till Project Fuzzy becomes road worthy. Well she piddled in the house!… I’m not sure if I should take a rolled up newspaper to her hinny or just rub her nose in the mess and put her outside.. The water pump was replaced exactly 6k miles ago with an aftermarket one and I have been told by a reliable source that none of the aftermarket water pumps make it pas the 5-6k point. The VG30DE eats those water pumps for lunch. Only NISSAN water pumps should be used… The valve cover gaskets are also leaking. DRAT!! This is my only daily driver right now…

The new Ruschman Z dog has a name. "Vivian!” Our middle daughter Lelaina aka the Animal, Fuzzy, Super fuzz, etc, has a quite a sense of humor and also has a knack for naming cars. She looked over my new car, went for a few rides and promptly declared it as “Vivian”! I asked her why Vivian of all names as all the other names she has come up with for cars, especially for Rons cars, have been side splitting funny. She said the cars lines with the stock wheels and stock ride height is border line feminine and then there is the color. Definitely a feminine color. No, really, how many “men” would consciously choose and pay money to have their “sports car” repainted in this soft pearlescent light green? This is a car that a single, professional secretary would buy. Ok I can kinda see what she is getting at. Even some of my construction friends have called it a girls car… I have always been of the mindset that sports cars should be painted bright and flashy colors, you know, Guards RED, bright Yellow, Viper Blue, etc… but as I age, I am appreciating the more subtle elegant colors and I still really like this color on the car even if the color isn’t aggressive… wait a tick… So just what are my daughter and other friends really trying to say here? …. Let me tell you, "I am NOT loosing my man-hood because I bought and drive a sport cars that is a soft non aggressive color!" Now I’m feeling deeply hurt. I’ll just go inside, bake a chocolate cake and eat the entire thing watching Oprah and Sally Jessy… sniff.. sniff....

This is “good” that you guys are thinking of new and alternative ways to integrate the EDIS trigger to the Datsun L-series. Please keep sharing your thoughts. One persons concept could spring board another’s idea an so forth, hopefully leading to an easy inexpensive, universal EDIS trigger set up. (i./e. this is how Mega Squirt came about in the first place. Bruce Bowling and Al Grippo’s open sharing of a DIY EFI concept that so many others contributed to for many years that is now what you see and use as “Mega Squirt”…) In our efforts to adapt the 36-1 to the Datsun L-series, our goal is find/desing/fab a general universal 36-1 trigger that it will work with at least 90% of the L-series applications, from a bare bones 240-Z to a Power steering, A/C, equipped 280-ZX with 3 pulleys and all 3 pulleys being used by accessories. At this point, we haven’t been able to find that “one” solution that will work on most applications. So for now, we have just been custom building them to the specific application. As for the dizzy mounted double 36-1 wheel, (aka 72-2 with the 2 teeth 180 degrees apart), Yes, the 72-2 wheel in the dizzy could work, but the VR sensor is too large to be able to read a 72-2 toothed that would be small enough to fit within the dizzy housing. For the VR sensor to be able to “pick-up” those teeth, the wheel will have to be so large to accommodate those 72 teeth. It would be a close fit in order to clear the cylinder head/thermostat housing, let alone leave you enough room to build a shroud around it to keep fingers out if. That is a GREAT idea, if there is a VR sensor available that could read those small teeth to keep the 72-2 wheel within the OE dizzy housing, then this would be ean xcellent option. FWIW, We have tossed around the idea of mounting a 72-2 wheel on the cam gear itself and utilizing a “wet” VR sensor mounted through the timing chain inspection cover or fuel pump block off. (For the later heads the fuel pump block is cast shut so it would have to be carved out.) There doesn’t appear to enough room to mount one to the back of the cam. I also had thoroughly looked into, and was making an effort to utilize the Turbo crank-damper mounted CAS. What I found is that a new 36-1 wheel could be fabricated to fit and work for the EDIS, though because it has be dished in shape to clear the pulley and front cover, it isn’t just a simple flat disc. The OE crank wheel won’t work as you have to turn the existing teeth off, (see pic below, pink dot in green circle would be the new OD), then carve in the 36-1 tooth pattern which now leaves the diameter of the wheel so small that the VR senor will end up rubbing the rear accessory belt, every time you have to remove that accessory V-belt you will have to remove and reinstall, set clearance, etc of the VR sensor, and if that belt does “let go” at any point for what ever reason, (how many of you have thrown a V-belt at some point?). I think it can be done if someone took the time/expense to have a custom 36-1 wheel built to replace the OE CAS trigger wheel. That would clean up the engine bay and be a nice tidy package. Another Idea I would like to pursue is to utilize the flywheel for the 36-1 pattern. Either have the 36-1 pattern machined into the back side of the fly wheel itself with the VR sensor mounted in the engine/tranny separating/backing plate like the European Ford using EDIS-4 pictured below, or machine the 36-1 tooth pattern in the perimeter of the flywheel and have the VR sensor mounted in the bell housing. Much of these alternatives have been discussed here on Hybrid and on Mega Squirts EDIS section…

Mark, You've got mail....

This set up is an extreme example of what can be eliminated, and is totally duplicate able for any street driven Z from, bone stock to hot street and the it will run and function pretty much the same as it did with all that crap on top, just a lot easier on the eye, less maintenance as there are fewer hoses, and goodies to keep track of and it is MUCH easier to work on if you have to remove the intake manifold, head, etc for whatever reason. 1) No EGR 2) No more water lines running under the Air Flow Regulator and around the front of the engine. 3) Air Flow regulator can be relocated to under the manifold or even off the engine to say the fire wall or driver side fender, and if a standalone EFI is used, one less hose as you only need a filter on the inlet side of the air flow regulator for cold running idle compensation. (in all fairness, this system pictured doesn’t have the air flow regulator at all. The compromise in eliminating the Air Flow Regulator is that for cold engine operation, i.e. initial start up in the morning, idle speed approx 500 RPM, warm engine idle is now 1100 RPM. A compromise worth making for this application.) 4) Custom fuel rail, this particular one is dead end style, i.e the fuel pressure regulator is on the fire wall and one fuel hose fees the fuel rail. Also, this fuel rail is for the modern O-ring style injectors and the manifold was modified for the newer injectors as well. 5) Wiring. Even the OE wiring harness can be cleaned up a LOT! Reroute the main portion of the harness along the firewall instead of the fender, then have it go over to the engine right at the fuel rail and route it directly under the fuel rail. 6) For the factory A/C cars with the vacuum canister, you can easily relocate the vacuum canister under the dash and then also get rid of all those electrically controlled vacuum solenoids. You wont notice any change in how the A/C and blower doors function and it declutters the engine bay quite a bit. 7) Brake booster vacuum line was rerouted under the master cylinder instead of over it and the fitting was relocated to the bottom of the manifold. (see pic below of bottom of manifold) 8) Vacuum port of the fuel pressure regulator was also relocated to the bottom of the manifold. 9) Idle speed adjustment is now via the ‘81+ ZX idle speed valve, (instead of the integral throttle body bulging screw…) and mounted it to the bottom of the manifold and a port in the bottom of the manifold. With aftermarket EFI, all you need is a little filter on the inlet side of that idle speed adjuster. 10) Cable actuated throttle valve eliminates the towers and throttle shaft on the manifold itself. A nice upgrade for ALL Z cars. Smooth consistent throttle feel 11) This particular engine is running Mega Squirt EFI which eliminates the Air Flow Meter, (AFM) and I also set it up to control a distributor less ignition system, the FORD EDIS-6 ignition from an 4.0 Exploder, no distributor at all. Coils are on the passenger strut tower, (see pic below), the Mega Squirt EFI controls the ignition timing to whatever I choose. 12) The manifold itself is a stock early ’75-’76 N-42 federal (i.e. non California), intake that didn’t have the EGR in the first palce and I spent SEVERAL hours massaging it and plugging holes to get it to this condition. 13) Throttle valve is a late model factory NISSAN 60mm, (Sentra SE-R I think), the water ports were removed, and the exterior was massaged to visually match up to the Datsun manifold and throttle shaft profiled… I’m sure there is more, but I think you get the point… This pic is the bottom of that manifold which clearly shows the brake booster vacuum port with its 90 degree fitting the other vacuum ports, drilled and tapped for NPT fittings at the rear. This pic shows the coil pack and plug wires, NO distributor…

Hmmm… Considering hacking up the car now are you?… If you are going to run F prepared, do yourself a favor and run full tilt race tires. The DOT race tires are sticky but are also designed for street prepared and stock classes. If you are even remotely serious about running in a class that allows full tilt race tires, i.e. prepared or mod, then don’t use any tire unless it clearly sates on the sidewall, “not for highway use” Here is what the Formula Atlantic tires look like on an F prepared 240-Z… (this rolling shell, minus the power train is currently for sale…) Not only do the tires hook hard, the car takes on a very aggressive appearance…

The 280-Z even the factory A/C cars, don’t NEED all that vacuum hose to run and function as OE. A lot of that crap can be eliminated

OMG… This is the BEST EVER!!!! It will definitely go down in the hall of best threads on ANY car forum EVER!!!! I have NEVER laughed so hard reading anything on line EVER!!!! and I quote…… OMG, I can't believe I missed this thread until now! When the narps failed on my rotary, it was a disaster. First I lost a connecting rod which took out my subluxation valve which fucked up my turbine geometry. The worst thing was I was running 110 octane when this happened (that ♥♥♥♥ made the car CRAZY fast and I couldn't resist) and it actually created a void in the piston that was suspended only by the aftermarket Greddy front mount i had. Don't ask how much it cost to fix it... DINO is DA MAN!! Ricer: from the latin word Ricarius meaning to suck at everything you attempt. Originally Posted by NARP Tuner No blinkers dont have fluid, its headlights that do.

There is trend here in Oregon of using the Formula Atlantic tires for F prepared Z cars. The rears are 13” wide, fronts are 10” wide. As for the chassis setup, , Tube80Z, Rontyler, JohnC JMortensen etc all have invaluable info to share, so PAY close attention when they write. These guys are not only fast drivers, but also are quite knowledgeable on what does and does not work in regards to the S-30 chassis at the level you are planning to build to.

Did you mean to post this twice?

Ok. I was fortunate in that my EDIS-6 worked flawlessly from the get go, (other than my lack of verifying resistor spark plugs and using MS friendly plug wires on the out set). 1) Is it sparking at all? 2) If it is sparking, I am assuming that your engine does at least run, other than on the starter? 3) If it is sparking and running, is the timing stagnant, i.e. at the preset 10 Degrees BTDC?