BRAAP

The wheels are custom made Diamond Racing wheels. VERY lightweight steel wheels, not DOT approved. The tires are Formula Atlantic tires as used on the Toyota Formula Atlantic cars.

The rear flares are the ZG flares modified, i.e. cut and fiber-glassed so they cover the tires. That cross ram with dual S/C would be AWESOME. Getting that package under hood would require and miracle, though with that kind of power, who needs hood. Right?

Thank you. Very good point. This supercharger does rotate the correct direct for SBC. Though, as another solution for those who have acquired a super charger that rotates in the opposite direction of their power plant, you could flip the S/C end for end, i.e. the S/C would sit in front of the engine while still being driven from the serpentine belts, (as long as there is enough room in front of the engine that is), which would rotate the S/C in the proper direction to “fill” the cylinders, not evacuate them…

Yes. 3" is lots louder... Stock is 2" with a couple of sound attenuating devices added from the factory...

Mike, Thanks for the idea. That was actually one of our options, but being as FUZZY will need all chassis parts such as new wheel bearings, ball joints, struts, suspension bushings etc, and the fact that the race car currently has all those parts BRAND new with less than 6 hours time on the entire car, chassis and power train, It made sense to us to just transfer the sectioned struts with the Tokico 5ways w/rear disc conversion, Ground control camber plates, Ground control coil-overs, poly bushings, new wheel bearings front and rear, new ball joints, sway bars, etc, over to Fuzzy. The ’73 shell itself is in pert neer “perfect” condition with NO rust, all undercoating and sound deadening has been stripped and no structural damage. We are not sure if we will get rid of the shell or keep it at this point, though if an offer came by that was just too good to pass up, it would go.

Olie, Ok, being as I don’t need a “stalker” at the moment, you can have the intake pipe. Now we just need to settle on how much you are willing to pay for it? LOL.. Check your PM…

240hoke, Ok, I'm struggling with this one. Below is how I perceive both of these fuel supply scenarios. If I am missing something or completely off base, please let me know shoe me how and why so that I can get on track and not lead anyone else astray. Nice induction system by the ay. For starters, if the fuel pump is unable to keep up, it wouldn't matter what system you are using, flow through or a returnless fuel rail, there will be fuel starvation issues. Now if the fuel pump is up to the task, then I would think there should be no issue with using either system for the following reasons. If the ID of the fuel rail, (cross sectional area), is able to flow enough fuel at the given fuel pressure to keep up with the demands of the engine, (which is typically larger than the fuel line supplying the fuel), then it shouldn't matter if the fuel rail is a flow through or returnless style in regards to getting enough fuel to ALL of the injectors. Now if the if there is an issue with the returnless fuel rail not allowing fuel to get to the last injector, that would mean there is pressure drop because either the fuel pump can't keep up or the fuel rail ID is too small and if this same fuel rail was a flow through style, that same issue would still exist and there would be fuel starvation issues. Most fuel rails have way more cross-sectional area than the fuel line supplying it. Based on that, I would think fuel flow to all the injectors should be adequate. I.e. if the fuel system is sized appropriately for the application, and the fuel rail is at least, to some extent, larger in cross sectional area compared to the fuel lines supplying it, then all the injectors should receive adequate fuel qty/pressure whether it is flow through style or returnless style. FWIW, the current production GM Vette is using returnless fuel system which is a much more exaggerated returnless system than that depicted here. Am I missing anything here? Paul

Just out of curiosity, what is the diameter of the primaries and collectors of these headers? TIA.. Paul

Hmm.. Silent about summed up the “non-classified” reasons for his choosing the N-47 over all other available L-series heads. I’ll just leave it at that.. He heheh he…

Stunning, elegant, clean, just plain WOW!!! The beauty of your car is in the details such as decluttering, i.e. no marker lights, no body add-ons, simple engine bay, just clean and simple. Clutter free definitely makes a car look more elegant and exotic then one that is decorated like a Christmas tree. Very nice, good work. Thank you for sharing.

Great ideas guys, thanks and keep em coming. The Twin S/C idea is quite tempting…. Ok, on to the update… After talking it over with my lovely wife of 18 years, and over much deliberation on our part with several options at hand, we have decided that we can’t have two project Z cars in the family at the same time. Currently we have the L-series powered 240-Z race car (F-prepared SOLO-II and track day car), which is pretty much race ready right now, and I just recently committed myself to building a street V-8 Z project as posted above. Seat time was really the determining factor in deciding which project stayed and which one went. With the street car, I could have as much seat time as I can stand, but with the race car, seat time would be limited and with all the preparation required for each time I do get to drive it, yada yada yada... So in short, the Super charged V-8 Z, aka project “FUZZY” is in full swing so that means the race car is coming apart. Most of the suspension parts will transfer right over to the V-8 project so I’m keeping that, but the L-series power train goes up for sale, including the custom Rusch Motorsports built L-28, 5 speed and LSD 3.90 R-160. I will be selling off most of my other L-series goodies in inventory as well including another N-42 intake, a slick ITB FI intake, an F-54 block, etc… I’ll be posting this stuff for sale as I get the time to catalog the goodies and take some pics. I’ve been looking forward to another V-8 Z for a LONG long time… Here are some recent pics of the race car... The engine… The dash…

Yeup. That is exactly what I have seen as well. That roll pin either falls out or sheers, then the cross pin works itself back and forth and breaks into 2 pieces and then literally slots the carrier which I the clunking that you hear. I’ve got a couple R-200 with 3.54 gears here in Oregon if you get desperate and don’t find one locally, (shipping costs will be way high…)

Ditto everything that zeiss150 said. Your P-79 is one of the more ideal heads for the L-series with flat top pistons. (FWIW, here at Rusch Motorsports, we feel that the P-79 is on the top of the list of ideal heads for mild to fairly hot N/A street L-28’s). As zeiss150 said, head work alone wont gain you a ton of power. On a bone stock L-6, head work might not gain you much of anything, but custom head work does compliment many other mods such as big cam, free flowing induction and exhaust etc, it is at that point that you will see and feel realistic performance gains from custom cylinder head work. Depending on your budget and how you approach satisfying your quest for more power, you could build the power train all at once, or just do minor changes here and there as your budget allows till you get it where you want. If you are new to the Z, I strongly recommend the latter route, and enjoy the ride… (pun intended…) First off, get rid of those down draft carbs and if carbs are what turn your crank, (again, pun intended), the early SU’s that zeiss150 mentioned are readily available and capable of great performance AND economy or for that ultimate in exotic carburetion, a set of triple carbs. Aftermarket EFI with a custom intake is also an option. Also, something that you can get started on right now is to get your ignition system up to snuff. Make sure it is at least electronic from a later 280 Z or ZX, good quality wires such as Magnecor or Nology, don’t buy wires because the color is just right, i.e. Taylor, Accell, MSD, wires are merely a mediocre wire, not a true performance wire. Also, use a quality coil. Now for the easiest and least expensive mod you can perform right now, and this sometimes results in the single biggest gains, play with your ignition timing, (this applies to bone stockers with factory or worse settings). You’d be amazed at how much more power is available just by advancing the ignition timing over the stock settings. A good starting point for unmolested dizzys, (this is for the guys that don’t have a dial back to zero timing light), set your initial ignition timing between 15-22 degrees. If the engine rattles like Detroit diesel, you went too far for the fuel grade you are using so back it down till the rattling goes away. If you must take your car through a DEQ smog check, be sure to turn your distributor timing back to stock when the time comes…. Hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress…. Paul Ruschman

Justin Olson summed it up best. The VLSD is fine for straight-line, but not worth a crap if you want to drive spiritedly in the corners. (I apologize to Justin for twisting his words around, but that is exactly how I see it.) Anyone wanting a VLSD that does intend to use the car for spirited cornering or aggressive cornering, please do yourself a big favor. Go drive a 240SX, a Z-32, or a Q-45 with the VLSD and toss it around a few corners spiritedly, not 10 tenths, just 5-7 tenths or so and try to put some power down. The inside tire WILL spin! My first hand experience with this is my Q-45. For straight line only, it keeps both tires spinning just fine, but in a mild corner, it acts like a peg leg and will spin the inside tire, especially the first couple of corners in a series of corners, it acts just like an open diff. It does tighten up a “little” as it heats up, but it never really gets to the point I would call truly acceptable or worthy for a performance application. This attribute of the VLSD tightening up as it heats up is an attribute that you do NOT want in a limited slip diff. The Nissan VLSD is VERY sensitive to heat. It works marginally ok when it is heated up, but who is going to drive around with one tire in the dirt and the other on pavement to “warm up” their diff before they want to drive spiritedly. If you want a limited slip for improved traction exiting a corner, it really needs to be somewhat consistent from the first corner to the last corner during that drive session or track session. For straight-line at the strip, the VLSD is just fine, but for a street car that turns left and right with authority, either go Quaife or at least a clutch pack LSD. Now my rant on this whole R-230 Love affair… Yes, the R-230 is pretty much bullet proof, but so is the R-200. I have seen a LOT of enthusiasm lately for wanting to install the R-230 in 11 and 12 second street Z cars. JNJ has proven time and again that the R-200 in a full race application, doing huge wheel stands with 1.3 second 60 foot times, low 9’s in the ¼ ,(that means it is hooking up and loading the diff WAY more than any street tire shod street driven Z EVER will), the R-200 can take a lot of abuse. Why add the extra weight of the R230 when its extra girth really isn’t needed in a street car to begin with? If the street car will do wheel stands and you want to keep “Datsun IRS”, that makes sense. But not for 12 or even a low 11 second street car. Sorry, I haven’t seen any evidence proving that the R-200 is NOT up to that task. I’ve only seen evidence showing that the R-200 is tough enough for any street car that can not lift its front tires at launch. That’s my $.02 Paul Ruschman

Welcome aboard.

Yes, you are absolutely correct. The finish is determined by the cutter and its speed. But also of importance is that the hole being bored is truly round, not oblong. The O-ring will conform to minor shape irregularities, but not always and in the situation of an L-series fuel injector, if it leaks, it will leak fuel onto a hot exhaust manifold. The spindle/quill in a drill press has slop radially, side to side, and even just a couple thousands of an inch slop in the spindle/quill/chuck could cause the hole that is bored, drilled, or reamed, to come out oblong. Generally speaking, this would not be the case if done on a mill. A drill press is engineered and built to drill holes, not perform precision boring. In the design and manufacture of drill presses, there is not as much consideration placed on its ability to keep the quill/chuck exactly true or take side loads, where as a mill, this is a very critical and important aspect of its design and function. In short, you can pretty much trust that a milling machine will deliver a quality hole that is not only smooth, but truly round and exactly where you want it. With a drill press, I personally wouldn't trust its more lax tolerances, though that is not to say it can't work, it's just not a chance I would be willing to take myself. I look at machining O-ring bores as requiring the same attention to detail as a valve seat in a cylinder head would require. I apologize if I went too far off on a tangent there¦

The R-200 “should” be stout enough for Garrets ride, (AWESOME time slips and dyno chart BTW, good work.) Testimony to the toughness of the R-200… JnJdragracing is running 9.2 @ 153 MPH in the ¼, full on wheel stands in an early Z car with a 1.36 second 60’ time. Over 700+ HP from a blown N2O fed V-8 using the STOCK Datsun rear end and suspension, R-200 diff, U-joint half shafts, Energy suspension bushing of the control arms and mustache bar, etc. They recently switched over to the 300ZX CV’s…. http://www.jnjdragracing.com/ourcar.htm http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=112868 There are times when an R-200 will just fail, though not related to HP. I’ve broken an R-200 with my stock cammed N/A L-28, though the engine didn’t break the diff. The roll pint hat holds the shaft that the spiders rotate around fell out,, the shaft then “slotted” the spider cage, lots of shavings in the oil, clunked pretty bad till finally the shaft broke in half and part of it flung out and lodged in the case while backing up. I’ve sent that happen to a couple other early R-200’s as well.

Are you talking about exhaust or intake? If you are asking about Exhaust system size, 2 ½” is more than adequate even for mild race engines. If the engine is stock or slightly modified, 2 ¼” is just fine, unless you like it loud, than just go for the 3”.

In using the returnless style depicted above, there really should be no added or induced pressure fluctuations above and beyond what would be present in the fuel system if it were a flow through style. This set up is currently running on my car and it runs great. Just make sure you have adequate fuel supply, i.e. as long as your fuel pump is capable of meeting the demands that your injectors are capable of flowing at the max fuel pressure you intend to run. HTH.

Thanks for the compliments guys. We are currently working on adding this service to our list of services, i.e. converting OE EFI intakes to accept the 14mm O-ring style injectors and including a matching 20" long fuel rail, (just like pictured). Nothing set in stone as of yet. Lots of details to work out first. As for doing this DIY, the clean up of the intake manifold itself is mostly time. LOTS of time with a die grinder. One could easily spend over 15-20 hours just cutting, grinding, carving, and sanding to get the intake to level worthy the effort put forth. To do the O-ring conversion, that operation is best left to a competent machinist/machine shop. Do not use a drill press. A drill press does NOT have the tolerances and/or accuracy to perform the O-ring conversion as the bore finish is very critical. The wall finish in the bore for the O-rings has to be perfectly round and with an almost mirror like finish or it WILL leak. A fuel leak at the rail is DANGEROUS as the fuel will drip onto the hot exhaust manifold, FIRE, and the manifold portion of the O-ring conversions has to seal against manifold vacuum or you will have a vacuum leak in that cylinder. Hope that helps.

While in the middle of building another custom N-42 intake, I thought I'd take a few pics and document some of the differences between injector styles when used on an OE L-series EFI intake manifold. The OE Datsun/Hitachi/Bosch barbed style injectors vs the 14mm O-ring style which seems to be the predominate aftermarket and OEM late model car/truck injector style available currently. These pictures are two NON EGR N-42 intakes, one that is totally stock/unmolested, and the other is in the rough-in stage of customization, (getting Lokar throttle cable actuation, 60mm throttle valve, O-ring style injectors, and ceramic coated). These 2 shots below show the intakes and injector mounting region. The O-ring style intake is still being massaged so I apologize for its very rough appearance. These two shots below show the injectors as installed. It is quite clear how much cleaner the overall appearance and mounting of the O ring style is vs. the OE Barbed style. Also, with the O-ring style injectors, there are WAY more options when considering other injectors. Pretty much any flow rate and flow style style can be had in the 14mm O-ring type injectors. My race car is using Pencil beam spray pattern 21 lb/hr injectors for a C-4 Vette. The yellow injectors in these pics are Ford 19 lb/hr fine mist cone pattern injectors, same flow rate as the OE N/A Datsun injectors. The mounts for this in process custom intake will look just like these as used on my personal N-42 intake. Instead of going up to catch and retain the fuel rail as would be needed for the Barbed style injectors, the mounts are flat and go forward towards the engine. One issue with the lower profile fuel rail is that the front of the rail itself will hit the thermostat housing if it is too long, i.e. more than 1 3/8" inch from the centerline of the #1 injector to the end of the fuel rail. If one is dead set on running the fuel rail as a flow through fuel rail design, attaching a fitting on the front of the fuel rail could be quite tricky due to the very limited space, but it probably could be done, though where to route the fuel line to clear the exhaust manifold, thermostat housing, throttle valve, etc and NOT look awkward is another trick. My solution was to use my Mallory Fuel Pressure regulator as a tee. Instead of running my fuel rail between the fuel pump and the fuel pressure regulator in flow through manner ads most of us have done in the past, I used my pressure regulator as a "T" utilizing one of the available ports in the regulator to feed the fuel rail with pressure regulated fuel, and I plugged the other end of the fuel rail. In essence, the fuel rail itself, is returnless. (see sketch below for a visual representation of this set up). I could've just as easily mounted the fuel pressure regulator right after the fuel pump in the back of the car so there would be only one fuel line running to the front of the car, but I'd would've also had to run the vacuum line back to the regulator for manifold pressure compensation, 6 one, half dozen the other.

WOW!! Thanks for the GREAT link “jbk240z”. Great stuff there for sure… Mike is a true “hybrider” for sure… (is “hyrbrider” even a word? how bout Hybridist, Hybridtonian, Hybridanist?....) That twin Super Charged 351 V-8 Thunderbird is nothing short of spectacular in terms of performance. Utilizing 2 Eaton M-90 Super chargers, cam is a moderate 226/236 dur @ .050”, car weighs 3480 lbs with driver, running 10.3’s at 131+ MPH on 13 lbs of boost!!! YEE HAAA!!! VERY impressive for sure…. That got the gears turning…. Hmmm.. intercooling is starting to look better and better… …

Ok, here are the pics you all asked for, the “mother” of drive way burnouts, yours truly at the helm, Ron Tyler behind the lens… Another Mastercard moment….. Wife buys a nice Motor-home so the family can spend more “quality” time together, $$,$$$.$$... A set of four Motor home tires, $$$.$$ A 1 megabyte memory card for Nikon Digital SLR, $$.$$.... Wife found lots of little rubber globs stuck to garage wall behind the motor-home, priceless…. LMAO…

Sorry for the LONG post…. Well it’s time for yours truly to build another street daily driver V-8 Z This time, one that is positively atmospherically enhanced! Brian Bills came by the shop recently, (I hope I spelled your name right?), with his very quiet, very clean, smooth, quiet, V-8 Z, (did I mention that it is really quiet?), and that lit the fire. His car is a very nice example of a pleasant daily driver V-8 Z. For the past few years my daily driver has been a ’96 Infiniti Q-45. Nice car, acceptable power for the masses, VERY quiet, comfortable etc. Too bad it’s a 4000lb tank, (some of you have been to our place and know the road… 1’st and second gear corners all the way with over 200 feet elevation changes over a 4 mile course… YEE HAA). I NEED a sports car that can light up the rear tires at freeway speed! My first V-8 Z filled that need for torque quite well and would light up the tires at freeway speed just by mashing the loud pedal. It had a mild Chev 350 that idled glass smooth with NO lope at 700 RPM, World Class T-5. The car was docile enough that my wife would drive it around town quite often with no problems. It was my daily driver and it ran consentient 12.3 @ 113 on its really crappy every day 195 60 HR 14” all season Yokohama tires! The down side was the car was a bit loud and the interior was missing more and more pieces as time went on. Fast forward to mid 2006… The car…. I acquired a straight somewhat clean ’75 Z car with A/C, and NO sunroof, a couple years back as the price was right. My middle daughter being the comedian she is, promptly named the car “Fuzzy” and the name stuck! I sold the bone stock L-28 engine to a good friend so it has been sitting beside the shop engineless for some time now just begging for a new power plant. I was originally going to install a Yamaha 3.0 V-6 from a Taurus SHO, then lost interest in that. Now it’s a V-8 and most of the big pieces have been aquired…. The power plant… Good friend and partner Ron Tyler parted out his ’85 Vette. The Vette was in his family since day one and has spent most of its life starting from day one as a nationally campaigned Solo-II car, (and a very fast one at that). Then a few years back, Ron got tired of the 4+3 and did his own custom T-56 swap which worked out beautifully. The T-56 totally transformed the car. Anyhow, when he parted out the Vette, he kept the power train and then began to collect the necessary parts to install that power train into one of his 240-Z shells. In a round about way trading this and that and him loosing interest in wanting to start yet another V-8 Z project, I ended up with the complete 350 short block, T-56, billet flywheel, Centerforce clutch, aluminum driveshaft already shortened and balanced with new U-joints and R-200 adapter, complete JTR engine mounts, Fluid Damper street damper, and the list goes on… (He says were even, but trust me, I still owe him big time for all that). I bought a set of Trick Flow 195 CC Duttweiler signature aluminum heads and then all that was needed was headers, exhaust and induction. EFI is must this time around and will be a WOLF system from Prime EMS. Here is where it gets good. I just acquired an Eaton M-112 Super charger from a late model Jaguar, the same super charger as used on the Ford Lightning and Mustang Cobra’s but with a different inlet config and snout. The goal… To have a Street Z that is quiet, comfortable, pleasant to drive, (The Q-45 has me SPOILED), and it needs to be at least as quick as my first V-8Z, ideally I would like it to run mid 11’s at 120+, but as quick as my previous Z would be acceptable if its quiet…. The Super charger… This Eaton M112 I bought off eBay came from a 01-05 Jaguar and is a “dry” super charger, i.e. no fuel “through” the super charger so no carb on top. The inlet is in the back. For fuel delivery I will be using WOLF stand alone Multi Port EFI and if the budget allows, WOLF will also control distributorLESS ignition. The Super Charger arrived this week, now I just need to figure out a way to install it on the SBC. I have a few ideas rolling around in my head, but I think I want to install it similar to the traditional Roots style blowers, atop the engine on its own dedicated intake manifold. I do have an old Offenhauser 360 low rise single plane carb intake manifold that I have been thinking about modifying to accept the blower and injector bosses. This will take some machining and welding and building an adaptor. That portion shouldn’t be to difficult as we are a custom Z shop with an in house machine shop. This Offy intake has a few things going for it like a pretty large plenum area, it is low profile intake which will help to keep it all under hood, (exaggerating the OE Z hood bulge is Ok, but NO holes in the hood), and it has VERY short intake runners, approx ½-1” in length. Using a cam with wide lobe separation, these short intake runners and a positive displacement super charger all add up to a flatter than flat torque curve. (That is exactly what I want…. Lots of torque EVERYWHERE!) I am fully aware that roots style positive displacement super chargers are not as efficient at delivering added power compared to centrifugal super chargers, Turbos etc, but they are simple, gorgeous when sitting atop a domestic V-8, and deliver incredibly FLAT torque curves. Besides, I’ve always wanted one. The short block will be rebuilt with new D dish pistons and a cam whose lobes are ground to take full advantage of the super charger, i.e. wider lobe separation. Dilemmas and possible dilemmas… 1) For the super charger to be driven directly from the crank, it will need to sit pretty far forward in relation the intake ports, quite a bit more so than in the pictures below. I could also build a jack shaft to allow the super charger to sit centrally in relation to the intake runners…. 2) I’m not sure if this is a realistic issue or not, but the outlet of the super charger is biased towards the front of its case and if the super charger is set forward to be directly driven from the crank without a jack shaft, I’m concerned that there is going to be issue with the forward cylinders receiving MORE air than the rear cylinders as the blower will be literally “blowing” at the forward cylinders. Maybe the cylinders take only what they need as the intake will be pressurized? Individual cylinder fuel trim won’t be an issue with WOLF EMS, but I do not want any one cylinder receiving more air than another, i.e. uneven power production from cylinder to cylinder. 3) The S/C could even be mounted off the engine, i.e. beside it, with intake plumbing to an intercooler, but then the visual appeal of a roots blower atop a V-8 would be lost. Having the blower on top of the engine is VERY attractive and carries a lot of weight in this decision. Also, being as the inlet of the super charger is in the rear, with it mounted on an intake manifold, I would like to pull the fresh cool air from the cowl region that houses the wiper motor. I know, having the air intake in that location would induce induction noise into the cabin, but I think the sound of a super charger at full song resonating from the cabin air inlet would be an acceptable noise to live to with. I’ll eave the unsightly mounting flanges/bosses on the S/C until the exact setup/installation is finalized. Well it’s getting late, so I’ll leave you with these pics for now. If anyone has ideas, concepts, or pictures for installing one of these Eaton M112 positive displacement atmospheric enhancers on a SBC, please share…..

Here is another custom L-series cylinder head build up. This one is an N-47 off of a ’77 280Z destined for Silents monster 3.1, unless he goes boost… I promised to posts these pictures some time ago, and only now have finally done so. Sorry about that Silent. The chambers are roughed in, exhaust ports are done, (the exhaust only requires blending the back side of the seat into the liner), the intake ports have a little bowl work done, there is still a little more left to do there. It is in my opinion that if he wants his radical Z car to be faster than his current 4 seat daily driver, he will need boost or big squeeze. I’m not sure N/A will take him that far… , BTW, last I heard, his FWD four seater is running in the 12’s!!!! DOH! Any how, here is a before and after type picture. Till the next update…