BRAAP

Thanks guys. There are NO plans in the immediate future of molesting this car in any way. The only mods I see in its future is a more performance oriented set of tires, (probably Kumho ECSTA MX or ECSTA Supra), Porterfield brake pads, some strategic suspension bushings, (I don’t want to compromise the cars “quiet” and pleasant driving attributes, but I do want a more aggressive feel seat of the pants,) shocks, and that is about it. I already have the brand new Valentine 1 which I will be hardwiring this weekend. It does have a little troubling issue with the climate control. It doesn’t want to blow hot air. It seems as though the doors, fan, etc are all operating, just the temp of the air coming out of the vents is cold, even with the climate control set on 90, econ on, and recirc, blows cold. For a brief couple minutes on this mornings commute, it did blow HOT, (and it was cold outside), but the rest of the 70 mile trek was a pretty cold drive, (wearing a sweatshirt I was shivering). I’m SERIOUSLY considering the CONSULT off eBay. Anyone else playing this set up? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NISSAN-Consult-90-96-300ZX-Z32-Fairlady-VG30DETT_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6755QQihZ002QQitemZ120090641670 Thanks again guys.

Yasin, Sounds like your engine build is coming along nicely. Can’t wait to read your post when it is built, running, and dialed in… YEE HAAA…. For the newbie’s that will inevitably read this thread, for clarification sake, the term “Pressed pin” is just that, a press fit piston pin, i.e. an interference fit between the piston pin and the small end of the con rod. When it is a “Floating pin” it is no longer referred to as a “pressed pin”., i.e. there is a clearance between the piston pin and the rod small end and most of time a bushing is used, but not always. As Tony D. stated, you don’t have to use a bushing. The bushing is merely a replaceable “consumable” as it WILL wear over time. Even if you don’t use a bronze bushing but still utilize a floating piston pin, the small end of the rod will still wear over time and during its subsequent overhaul, will then need to be bushed at that time, i.e. just like sleeving a worn piston bore. Personally, if I have the choice between pressed pins or floating pins with a set of pistons, for a street engine, even hot street engines that will hopefully run 100,000 miles before its next overhaul, I much prefer to press fit the pins. For a race engine that will get regular overhauls like every season due to the high demands and stresses imposed during a season of full tilt racing in a high output race engine, floating piston pins definitely have their place. For you guys with mega boost Turbo street engines, I feel the use of floating piston pins is a matter of personal preference as those mega boost turbo engines are in essence, street driven race engines. i.e. they tend to get rebuilt frequently, (more frequently than the owners originally intended), due to the extremely high demands, heat/forces placed on/in that little engine. For those interested, here is BRAAP’s not so complete “pros and cons” list for pressed pins vs Floating pins… Cons for Floating piston pins… 1) Bushed pistons pins require some sort of “pin lock”, whether it be cir-clips, snap rings, etc. to keep the pisot0n pin from walking over to the cylinder bore and tearing it to shreds. These removable pin locks are just another part attached to an already stressed component that is being yanked an yarded at very high velocity and G-forces and those “pin locks” are not fail safe, they do on occasion come loose which, even when installed properly, will allow the piston pin to “walk, and when that happens, SEVERE cylinder scoring does take place. Proper pin lock installation is also VERY critical. Pin Buttons are nice, but they do add wear to that portion of the cylinder wall that they come in contact with over time and buttons are pretty much an aviation engine thing any way… 2) I already covered the small end wear. Pros for Floating piston pins… 1) Ease of overhaul for engines that are to be frequently overhauled, i.e. full tilt hard core VERY high output race engines, (very high output boosted street engines do fall into this category… ). 2) Pistons are not destroyed when they are separated from the rod, i.e. they don’t need to be pressed off, so they can be reused if they were not damaged while in operation. Con’s for pressed piston pins… 1) Pistons usually are damaged/destroyed when pressed off the rod. Though the pistons are typically not reusable if they need to be removed the rods any how, so for a street engine, this doesn’t really apply. Pro’s for pressed piston pins… 1) The interference fit of the piston pint to small end of the rod, HOLDS the piston pin from ever walking over to the cylinder bore and scoring it… 2) Small end of the rod don’t “wear” so they don’t need constant attention during subsequent rebuilds. 3) Once the pistons are on the rod, getting the pistons “clocked” on the rod in the correct orientation is one less thing you have to deal with during assembly. 4) No cir-clips, snap rings, etc to loose or improperly install…. Ok, that’s my basic $.02 on the pressed vs Floating pin debate…

Most OE filters are post pump, though the OE Datsun/Hitachi EFI pump does have an inlet “screen” to catch large particulate and old rusty tanks can and do regularly clog those inlet screens… I “sort of” like the idea of a pre pump filter for protecting the pump against the occasional debris, but the inlet side of the pump is sensitive to restriction and needs a steady consistent flow of fuel to operate at peak efficiency, so maybe it isn’t such a good idea. Also, keep in mind that many OE pumps last 100,000, 200,000+ miles without a pre pump filter, only an inlet “screen” and personally, by 100,000 miles, I feel the pump becomes a “consumable part” and probably should be replaced anyhow. … As for that chrome red topped filter, throw it away. I tried one on the race car, (I bought the same one through Summit Racing), and it leaked terribly as the chrome canister would not seal properly to the square rubber O-ring in the lid. I tried another O-ring, even tried to “clean up” the roughness at the sealing edge of the chrome canister, but could not get the “roughness” out and it still puked gas. After wasting more time on it that it was worth originally, I eventually threw it away and spent the money on a Mallory Billet Aluminum version and haven’t looked back. http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=MAA%2D3160&N=700+115&autoview=sku

Dribble dribble… (…wiping up the drool off my keyboard…) I love this picture! Awesome contrast… Z-32’s are so photogenic… Anyone know what the fascia and side skirts are? Possibly OE post ’96 JDM?... Very nicely understated…

The Q-ship was totaled by insurance and I did buy the car back. It is drivable, though the rear bumper drags the ground, LOL. What do you guys say to ONE more foggy photo shoot before the power train gets yanked out? BTW, anyone wanting ’96 Q-45 parts, let me know…

Thank you. As for future plans.. Hmmm.. Welll.. Maybe, maybe not… Depends.. . I do want a V-8 Z-32 in the worst way, but this car is sooo nice as is.. If it starts to give me fits, rest assured, the VG30DE will get yanked and a SBC will be under the hood in a hot minute… (hmmm.. C-5 engine, transaxle including front and rear suspension… .. Hmmm. Probably just be easier to buy a C-5… ) I’d like to find another Z-32, some ratty old beater needing an engine and then stuff my Supercharged V-8 under that hood. Of course, I would want it all under the stock hood, or if a bulge is needed, the hood bulge has to be so mild and subtle as to appear stock… This Supercharged SBC engine is currently slated for project Fuzzy, a ’75 factory A/C car. The '75 shell is straight, only rust is a couple surface spots on the roof, (of all places), and the battery tray. I’m still wavering back and forth as to what car, S-30 or Z-32, will receive the Super-charged 357 CID SBC V-8 and T-56 currently holding down the floor in the shop. I even have the JTR engine mounts, aluminum driveline already shortened for the S-30 JTR T-56 swap etc… Time will tell…. Project FUZZY…. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=115326

As many of you know, my Infiniti Q-45 was totaled early January when someone rear-ended me in down town Portland. (Mike, don’t even think of starting in with “butt” jokes… ). Details and pics here... http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=117998 Any how, My wife and I agreed that this is a great opportunity to acquire a nice Z-32, preferably a N/A 5 speed coupe. I found one early on, but it didn’t quite fill my needs. Last night, I was able to find one down in Eugene, (2 and half hour drive away). Found it on Autotrader.com. Any how, we drove down, looked it over test drove it, and promptly bought it. The car is all stock, mature adult owned, always garaged. Overall condition inside and out is a 9.5-9.8 out of a possible 10. The car used to be silver, now is that light metallic green found on the S-13 240-SX. I would’ve never guessed that color of green would look good on a Z-32, now after seeing it, I personally REALLY like the color on this car. It isn’t a flashy sports car color, more of an elegant refined color, especially for an N/A car with out the rear fin and with stock wheels. . Here she be.. ’93 N/A coupe,…. We are quite happy…

That book is fairly recent and a GREAT read. I highly recommend it… I agree, the WOLF is a robust feature packed unit. Bang for the buck and time invested in set up, (“time invested” is in reference to Mega Squirt which I just recently did on my L-28 race car), I personally felt that WOLF was the right choice for my application. I recently purchased the WOLF V500 to use on my Supercharged V-8 and plan to use its 8 cylinder distributorless ignition capability, (8 cylinder sequential and DIS is ONE feature that you have to pay LOTS more for to get with any other system…) Yes, all those features you mentioned do add up in price, but the price of all those extraneous goodies isn’t going to change if you use a different system. If you want all those goodies and sensors for tuning your Formula 1 or Indy car engine, and the system will support them, they will cost, period! If you don’t have the money for all those sensors, then don’t use them. The amount of input and output control available in today’s EMS is staggering and MORE than capable to get your AFR and ignition timing exactly where you want them under pretty much any condition that your engine will be subject to. Also, just because a system will support all those goodies, doesn’t mean that you have to use them. Back in the day, we used to tune withOUT O2 sensors, knock sensors, etc. We used seat of the pants tuning, (i.e. our BUTT DYNO), using a stop watch to record any improvements in how long it took the engine to accelerate the car between a set RPM range over the same section of road, etc. Now whether or not the installer/tuner is competent in interpreting what all those cool sensors are telling the ECU, that is the real trick. I refer you back to Ron Tyler’s statements above. It really boils down to how creative is the installer and his aptitude towards how why the internal combustion engine does its thing, you know, that whole “suck, squish, bang, blow” thing… Also, as Ron stated above, the aptitude of the installer and tuner will dictate just how quick it will be to tune the engine and also, a creative tuner will use as many of the options the system has available, but also keeping in mind the added cost those fancy tuning tools add to the project. Again, it boils down to the aptitude of the installer/tuner. If the installer/tuner doesn’t know what he/she is looking at in regards to the signals produced by all those cool sensors, then those sensors are pretty much worthless. As for individual cylinder knock sensing, this is currently available to the general public, not just F-1 technology any more. Individual cylinder knock sensing utilizes only one knock sensor, the ECU that is listening for that knock signal, (J&S Safe guard is one system that is AWESOME and also compatible and works very well with WOLF), quite EASILY knows when a particular cylinder rang the knock sensor. Next time that cylinder fires, the ECU backs off just that cylinder’s ignition timing. No need for multiple sensors. Also, Bernard, I urge you to pick up that book mentioned above, (linked again below…) written by Jeff Hartman. The information contained within is invaluable to newbie and even the amateurs in Engine Management Systems. http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0760315825/ref=sib_dp_pt/102-6333016-5650544#reader-link

Here is my contribution. I also added some Z-32’s as well. A few of these are Hybrid Members cars. Side note.. If the owners of these cars I posted are offended by me posting pics of their cars in this thread…. I say “get over it!”. This thread is “our favorite looking Z” and if your car is nice enough to make this thread, and you don’t like it, then you shouldn’t have built such a nice looking Z car.. LOL Z-32…. And my personal Z car, (just bought it last night. ‘93 N/A coupe… )

Please don’t take offense, but as a professional engine builder/machinist myself, there is a part of me that feels you may have misunderstood the machinist on some level and misinterpreted what he was saying in regards to the use of a torque plate?! You did make it clear to him that this is a performance engine build up, right? If my gut reaction is wrong and what you stated is indeed what the machinist told you for a performance engine build, my professional opinion is to find another machinist that specializes in performance orientated engine work. There are some instances that might not warrant torque plate honing, such as a bare bones budget overhaul for grannies daily driver that may only see 1000 miles a year and Granny is on fixed income. For a performance application, if the budget can afford it, then yes, using a torque plate does help make the cylinder walls more concentric for better ring seal. As for the head issue, what you are describing is in essence basic “pocket porting” and it will yield some degree of flow improvement. Pocket porting OE SBC heads, the gain is substantial. Pocket porting aftermarket heads, depending on the heads, casting quality, post processing machine work etc, the gain is generally smaller. If you do take the cutter to your heads, remember to keep ALL radiuses as gentle and as large as possible. Sharp corners and sharp transitions should be avoided, i.e. if removing material causes a sharp transition from one plane to another, then don’t carve, just lightly remove the ridges/high points to make the radius as clean and smooth as possible. Good luck, Paul Ruschman

Dave, Yes, we are indeed on the same page, and yes, camshaft advertised duration is given at differing points of actual valve lift depending on manufacturer. Here are a few sources which will shed a little more light on the non standard “advertised” duration issue… http://www.summitracing.com/streetandstrip/dictionary/dictionary.asp http://www.harveycrane.com/duration.htm http://www.dynospotracing.com/cams.htm Hope that helps… “May the Torque be with you….”

Dave, If I understand where Tony D. was coming from in that post, (Tony, don’t hesitate to correct me if my assumption is wrong), you pretty much summed up what he was alluding to, in that what we are really concerned with is the lift area under the curve, not just duration at one lift point. Comparing duration specs at .050” only, without any other info, whether the cams are symmetrical or asymmetrical, is barely marginally useful info. With Datsun cams, we are lucky to get advertised duration and duration at .050”, and lobe separation information, (for the domestic V-8 cam market, you can find graphically plotted cam profiles from many manufactures, as well as lift, jerk, acceleration graphs, and that is much better way to compare one cam to another. The BEST way is through actual dyno testing in the engine you are building). I would agree that the .050” duration spec makes it easier to compare one cam grind against another, but it really doesn’t give you any idea as to how “aggressive” the cam grind is, i.e. lift area under the curve. For example, (this is a very broad general example so don’t pick it apart , it is merely used to express a the concept), lets say you find 2 cams with similar .050” duration specs, similar lift figures and similar lobe separation, but one cam makes a lot more power EVERYwhere in the rpm range compared to the other. The camshaft that produced more power had the same duration at .050", but it had more duration at say .100” and .250”, but LESS advertised duration!!!…. That cam was ground with a more aggressive profile which allowed it to make more power, though at the expense of accelerated valve train wear. Keep in mind that everything is a compromise, whether you are building an engine for max power or building a suspension for max lateral acceleration. From this you can see that the .050” duration spec really didn’t help much. So we take ALL the info we can get on the cams and use that to make our comparisons. This is where it gets goofy. Cam manufactures don’t use a common lift value for their “advertised” duration specs. Some use .002” valve lift, some will use .012” valve lift and everything in between. At that low of valve lift, just .002” of valve lift change will show a HUGE difference in duration due to the slope of the opening and closing ramps. But when comparing cam specs just from one manufacturer, you can use the relationship between the advertised AND .050” duration specs to get a relative indication of the ramp rates, i.e. the aggressiveness of the cam profile. Also keep in mind, the more aggressive the cam profile, the more exacting you need to be with lash pad selection. If the cam has a pretty aggressive profile, it will use the majority of the rocker arm wiping surface. The less aggressive cams will use a narrow portion of the rocker wiping surface. Schneider cams are an example of smallish wiping patterns so there is quite a bit of fudge room for lash pads that will “work”. The .520” hot street cam we have ground by Rebello has a wide wiping pattern and as such, will only allow two maybe three lash pads to be used before the wiping pattern is close to running off either end of the rocker. Stock cams can get away with as much as 5-7 different lash pad thicknesses before the wiping pattern becomes compromised.

I wanted to thank you for asking our opinion and also for taking our opinions into consideration with your new signature pic. Thank you. Paul Ruschman

I find my self becoming more and more conservative and mentally mature as I age and would prefer NOT to have purely sexually suggestive pictures or text shoved in my face without warning. Sure I can go to anther forum, but I when I signed up on this forum, I didn’t have to “check” a box agreeing that I was about to enter a site with sexual content and I prefer not see sexually suggestive pictures just by opening a thread about cylinder heads. Also, have you guys ever noticed how the colorful metaphors, (cussing), that gets posted gets automatically bleeped/altered? (hint hint…). The wife/girlfriend thread has gotten a bit racy for my taste, especially the comments posted of wanting to “sleep with” some of our other members significant others! Come on guys. That has taken that thread down to an unprofessional level that it shouldn’t have gone. I see it as being on par with the PINKS fiasco, yet another HYBRID Black eye… We are supposed to be mature professional adults here. Because I am aware of that thread, I can also choose not to view it, even though I feel it should be either cleaned up or deleted, but that is not my call. But to look through any other innocent thread and be bombarded with your current signature? It does offend me! My opinion about your signature is that if you want to post hot babes, then post ladies with more clothes and not performing or posing in purely sexually suggestive ways. Nice looking women next to a nice car is fine, if done tastefully, but purely sexually suggestive pictures? This a Z car forum, not Smut cars… I am personally asking you to please change your current signature to something less SEX oriented, PLEASE?.... My $.02 Thank you for listening, Paul Ruschman

Well, there is good news and bad news. First the good news. The square Nissan O-ring is 14mm. Now the bad news. That good news does you absolutely no good in regards to using the modern O-ring style injector, such as pictured. Sorry. I have modified a few N-42 manifolds and built fuel rails for use with those injectors, (gearheadstik has my personal custom N-42 intake and fuel rail which will accept those green injectors perfectly!) The counter bore in the stock intake manifold is not deep enough to allow the 14mm round O-ring to seal within the 14mm bore of the manifold. The injector bottoms out before the O-ring gets into the bore… In short, the manifold needs to be “machined”, (bored/reamed) for the 14mm O-ring style injectors. You can’t just “drill” them out as that O-ring has to make an air tight seal or you will have a vacuum/boost leak in that cylinder if that O-ring isn’t sealing. This thread covers what is involved in converting the manifold over to accept O-ring injectors with lots of pics as well, including pics of gearheadstiks nice N-42 intake. ... http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=115392 In this picture, you can sorta make out the difference in the injector holes.

Bryan, As always, very VERY nice work. Any chance you can divulge more details on the power plant that will adorn this gorgeous P-90 and what vehicle it will power? Thanks for sharing and again, very nice. Paul

Yasin, Being as it is seized, (for any number of reasons, rusted cylinders, broken rod wedged against the crank, etc) I’m sure you don’t plan to try and start it up, let alone run it before rebuilding it right, so why not just tear it down as it needs to be rebuilt anyway. In taking off the oil pan, valve cover, cylinder head, front cover etc, it will then become more evident as to your new engine wont rotate. Hopefully it doesn’t suffer from the broken rod scenario as you would’ve paid $50 more than the engine is worth, pending the P-90 head being a good rebuildable core… Hoping your seized engine is a good rebuildable core… Good luck, Paul

Affirmative. Just unplug it, or even remove those wires from the wiring harness altogether. Good luck, Paul

Isn’t anyone going to step up and take the “search bullet” for this guy?.... Well?.... Anyone?.... Ok, I’ll help him out and take the bullet this time around... You can pretty much get rid of everything, but you will need to keep the following… The Throttle position switch, the throttle valve itself, Air Flow meter, Fuel pressure regulator, and the injectors. With the throttle switch you can rotate it upside down so the wires come out the bottom, then add a custom fuel rail and then route your injector wires under that. With the custom fuel rail, you can relocate the fuel pressure regulator to the fire wall as well. If you remove the air flow regulator, depending on what part of the country you live in and how cold it gets in the mornings, you’ll have to set your idle speed such that it will at least idle on its own when it is cold, but that means your idle speed will be much higher when the engine gets to temp, say 1000-1200 RPM or so. TO keep a consistent idle for cold and warm operation, you could relocate the air flow regulator to the bottom side of the manifold or even the fender or firewall if you choose, you just need to make sure that one of the hoses connects to the manifold behind the throttle valve and the other in front of the throttle valve, but behind the Air Flow Meter. Also, if you do a search within the L-6 portion of this forum, you will find that this has been covered in MUCH depth… Good luck… Custom N-42 intake… This intake is currently for sale, (contact Ron Tyler for more info)..

Here is our mostly stock “F” prepared 240-Z interior. I used an original very cracked 240 dash “frame”, folded some sheet metal over it, fabbed the center portion, painted the dash with wrinkle paint. That’s about it…

Before you know it, you will have built and will be driving that Supra you long for… Keep us posted on what you find in regards to the suspension...

Yeah, He'll always be known around here as "Viceroy Monkey Arse",

My knee jerk response is ignition timing or bad coil. If it is running smoothly on all 6 cylinders, not popping or sputtering, it is most likely ignition related, though it could be a plugged exhaust system as well. If it is ignition, it will mostly likely be very retarded ignition timing or a coil going bad. I’ve seen those exact symptoms with 2 separate L-6 powered Z cars and both ended up being bad coils, one was an MSD coil, (the MSD reliability issue is another thread already on this forum, so please don’t get on the MSD bash/support wagon in this tread…) Both of these cars ran smooth on all 6 cylinders, but ran as if the car was trying to tow around an apartment complex… Hope that helps… Paul

As you stated, if you do not “alter” or “modify” the donor suspension in any way, then what you said does hold true. As for what I stated in #5, I was spot on spot. What I stated was “modifying”, of the stock donor suspension so that it would fit “within” the stock Z body. I probably should have also stated, “not WIDENING” the NARROW Z cars body, which I did just now. In “altering” or “modifying” the donors suspension by shortening the control arms and/or sub frame, that WILL adversely alter its geometry.

Now with your detailed list, (good list by the way), this begs the question of why do you want to use an alternative suspension under the early Z? The point about beating the Cali smog check is definitely a big reason to use the early Z car’s “firewall” with its stamped VIN matching that on the vehicular title of a sports car that was produced pre ‘75, (Ah-hem.. wink…) But why would you want to swap in a totally different suspension under the Z car? Ok, here are the pros and cons as I see them. Feel free to view my opinions any way you want and also to add to this list of pros and cons… 1) Granted, the Z car suspension isn’t the best design out there. In fact, it has many weaknesses and issues that from a performance perspective, need a bit of attention for the car to perform well on the track and back roads. 2) BUT. (and this is big BUTT), the stock Z car suspension has proven to be VERY capable at autocross and many road courses around the country and world. At the national level, the fast guys are applying small, yet detailed adjustments and quality parts to the stock set up and still keeping up with, and in some instances, beating cars that are designed with FAR superior suspensions under them. For example, take a close hard look at the national level competition in SOLO-II, SOLO-I and the various road racing classes where the early Z cars compete. Compare the lap times of these Z cars to those of known superior sports cars. You would be amazed at well the lowly Datsun Z cars suspension will allow its driver to turn in FAST lap times, even by today’s standards. 3) WOW factor. Ok, the stock Datsun suspension really doesn’t generate much if any WOW factor at any car show or car guy gathering. The more exotic and different the important/visible parts are, the more attention it will gather, whether it truly made the car perform any better or not. That is WOW factor and it does have an influence on the choices we make, even with our suspension. (I’m currently struggling with that in regards to my Z-32). 4) After spending the time and money on the OE suspension of the Z car for maximum effort cornering performance, you will end up with a car that is not real pleasant for those long cruises through the back roads. The C-5 Vette is one of those cars that in stock trim, offers little compromise in ride quality vs maximum effort handling. For a world class sports car, overall it does a lot of things quite well, ride quality is plush, road noise isn’t obnoxious, handling is incredible off the show room floor and power is smooth and broad. 5) Adapting an existing OE suspension under the Z car, a suspension that would make the least compromises in handling and comfort, is going to be VERY difficult as the Z car has a very narrow track width and those cars that perform well with little compromise such as the C-5 Vette, have a very wide track, so altering its suspension to “fit” under the Z car will alter the geometry of that suspension to the point of.. well.. uhmm.. is it going to benefit the car other than adding WOW factor? I’d put money on that fact that it wouldn’t. At that point you’d be better off designing your own lightweight double A-arm suspension to fit within the Z cars dimensions from scratch. Not only would that allow the designer/builder to make only the compromises he/she deems worth making, but also it will have lots of that WOW factor. Any other pro’s and con’s?