BRAAP

Pete, Just a quick update on the race car progress Nothing new on the EDIS, yet, I’ll get to that when the relay board arrives. I did however finally machine the intake manifold to accept the new injectors, cut off the rest of the crap I wont be using from the manifold, i.e. throttle shaft towers, etc. Machined the injector bosses in the new fuel rail and fabbed up some spiffy mounts for the fuel rail. Then bead blasted the manifold to remove the old gray paint. Next I’ll massage the manifold a little more over the weekend before final paint. Over all I am pretty happy with it thus far. Here is the blasted/rough carved intake with the finished and painted fuel rail and mounts. The mounts were hard to get a good clean discerning picture of, (black amounts and flash photography), any how, this is the best shots I got…

2 speed slip & slide eh... That would be cool. How many V-8 Z guys here using a Glide in their street cars? Some of these cars have so much torque available over such a broad RPM range that a Glide with tall butt gears, say 2.53, actually makes some sense and it would be “light weight” as well…

That’s funny you mention that. No matter how much power you have, it won’t be long till you start saying, “I could use a couple hundred more Horse Power”… Every one of my V-8 Z friends and good friend Dave Lum with his VG30DETT Datsun 510 all have said it… We have all ran deep into the 12’s with our street cars and all of us still want MORE!!!!!

Are you using a World Class T-5 or a Non W/C T-5? The World Class T-5 uses ATF for gear oil, the Non W/C T-5 uses regular gear oil. The non world class T-5 is rated for 225 lbs of torque. The World Class T-5 is rated for 325 Lbs of torque. These rating given by the manufacture takes into account the very likely event of customer abuse, i.e. these trannies were installed in 3500 lb Camaros and the engineers knew it would be inevitable that some young teenagers will try to impress his buddies in the high school parking lot with foggy burnouts. Being as the Z car is lighter than the cars those T-5 came in, this puts a little less stress on the tranny under acceleration. Now add sticky tires and “stomp & dump” launches, and yes, the W/C T-5 will go BOOM, even with mild 300 ft/lbs torque from a lowly 305. Here is my personal experience with the world Class T-5. I put approx 340 HP, 380+ lbs of torque through my World Class T-5 in my V-8 Z and abused it terribly for over 15,000 miles. My T-5 came from a ’91 Firebird. My Z ran consistent 12.3 @ 113 MPH, 0-60 MPH in 4.2 seconds launching in 2nd gear, all day with 60 foot times right at 2.0 seconds and with the welded diff would do burn outs from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and then 4th, gear leaving over 100 yard long black stripes from both rear tires in 4th GEAR!!! That W/C T-5 tranny never gave me any trouble other than a broken 3-4 shift fork, not power related. Jim Biondo also ran a World Class T-5 in his monster V-8 Z, though his was modified with some Ford cluster gear etc, and he ran consistent 11’s in the ¼ @ 128 MPH with the A/C ON!!! Power on over steer ROCKS!!!!!

My personal V-8 Z ran the ¼ mile in 12.3 @ 113 MPH, did 0-60 MPH in 4.2 seconds, dead even with the late 90’s Vipers. I have been in a full road race prepped Viper around the track, (14” WIDE slicks on all 4 corners, YEE HAA), felt just like being in my Z car, only LARGER, and the Viper was able to put the power down better than the Z on Corner exit. The V-8 Z was completely drivable, even my wife drove it back and forth to work. In the hands of an inexperienced driver, yes this kind of power to weight ratio is a handful, in the hands of a capable and experienced driver, the car never got out of shape unless the driver wanted to. As for Z cars handling that kind of power, you should read the thread linked below. This guy has a Z car with STOCK suspension and differential, Blower and Nitrous est 700+ HP, does HUGE wheel stands. He runs 9.6 seconds at 143 MPH in the ¼ mile…Sure this car is an EXTREME Z, but I think it brings home the point that the Viper engine in the engine bay of a street Z is NO more crazy or unruly to drive than any other 500 HP engine in the engine bay of the Z car. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=104179 Here is the Video of this came car doing a HUGE wheel stand… http://www.jnjdragracing.com/ourcar.htm Yours truly showing off for the camera, (everyone has pics of themselves drifting in their V-8 Z or even their V-10 Z right?) Power on over steer ROCKS!!!!!

Norm, How the heck are ya ole buddy? Your car still comes up in discussion in our bench racing sessions. A 12 second N/A L-series Z car with SU’s…. good work. I think the last time we spoke was ’97-’98 or thereabouts. Saw the pics of your N-42 head. Nice work. Who does your machine work? Yeah, that spherical space ship crack was pretty good… LOL

I used to run a similar plug in my car back in the early to mid ‘90’s. It was a Mazda Rotary plug, 3 ground electrodes surrounding the center. That was back in the early to mid ‘90’s and if memory serves, I think it was an NGK-BP7ET. Heat range 6 was too hot for that engine as I tended to run a skosh lean. As you noted as well, I never “felt” any performance gains using that plug, but I used it any how as I felt it unshrouded the spark so the potential was there. It would’ve been nice to dyno the car back then… I still have one of those heat range 6 plugs from back then. NGK no longer produces it, NGK-BP6EQ13. It has the 4 ground electrodes surrounding the center. Here is a picture of that NGK-BP6EQ13 plug in a Maxima N-47 chamber that is currently at the rough-in stage… As for those style of plugs blowing a hole in the piston? I’ve heard that story as well and I don’t buy it for a minute. Well, I should say that I will continue to not believe it until I am shown actual test evidence that those plugs can cause the piston to melt or blow a hole in one..… If you blow a hole in a piston usually it from other issues creating that hole, like excess combustions temps and detonation. I have a hard time believing that a spark plug all by itself will blow a hole in the piston. The flame front will hit and run across the piston top no matter what style of plug lights off the mixture.

If you were to choose that “car” over the “head”, good choice. That car is worth WAY more than that head. You must have read my post wrong. That head is NOT worth more than “that” car. To put a dollar value on the car that head is in, let’s just say the owner of that car takes a lot of pride in his car. What I meant to say regarding the value of that cylinder head is that to duplicate it would cost more than some “other” Z cars that I’ve built. I did not build this particular car, only the engine. My intent on posting those pics was to share an example of what extremes others are taking their L-series too. That is a nice chamber you posted a pic of no doubt, with its beryllium copper seats, bronze guides, polished stainless valves, nice gradual radius port roof in the exhaust, etc. First class work throughout. Kudos to the craftsman/machinist who built that head, (seen that head on eBay recently, here is another pic of that same head). You’re right about posting pics of my chambers, it probably wont make any difference to anyone reading this thread, thank you for pointing that out. As for “angling” the spark plug towards the exhaust valve. Exactly what is angling the spark plug towards the exhaust valve really supposed to accomplish? We read about the spark plug angled towards the exhaust valve all the time in Hot-Rod Magazine, but that really has no merit in regards to L-series heads, let alone SBC heads. Under ideal and completely unrealistic circumstances, I would shape the combustion chamber as a perfect sphere, (including the piston dish in what I’m referring to as the combustion chamber), and I would NOT angle the spark plug towards the exhaust valve, but actually place the source of ignition so that the ignition source is at the DEAD center of this hypothetical spherical combustion chamber. Now back in the real world, since the ideal that I described isn’t financially achievable within the budgets of the typical, or even non typical, Datsun enthusiast, let alone realistic, with our lowly 2 valve L-series heads, we just reshape the chamber the best we can within reason, to the most efficient shape we deem acceptable. If, and only “if” we were to alter the spark plug location, (if I could relocate the spark plug to a location that would deliver an actual “measurable” gain in power for the amount of money it would take to do it, I would just recast the head as a 4 valve Hemi head, or better yet, why not just swap in an RB engine…) the plug location would be moved more towards the top and into the center of the combustion chamber, not just angled towards the exhaust valve. BTW, I’ve seen some of the Turbo projects @ http://www.speedshopthagard.com/ that you’ve been involved with. Very nice work on some very nice cars. Congrats.

I’ve been privy to some pretty neat and wild L-series engines. Even discussed and almost started a custom built/welded/machined aluminum L-28 block, but that project obviously never materialized as there are many other alternative power plants with Lots of “WOW” factor available for far less $$,$$$.$$

One of our customers, Clint Barnts, showed up Saturday at our shop here in Sandy OR for a little EFI tech info. He is looking into upgrading his car for the show circuit so I took the opportunity to snap a few shots of the one of a kind cylinder head we built for him. Originally we started out with a nice mild short block that I machined/built some 6 years ago. 2 years ago he wanted more so I replaced his cylinder head with a one of a kind 1975 N-42 “special” that I had sitting around. This special consists of Rusch Motorsports port work, mild race/wild street chamber reshape/valve unshroud, 4 and 5 angle valve work on the all new seats, 30 degree back cut on all 12 valves, fuel pump boss and inspection cover machined off and welded shut, and the entire exterior of the head itself polished to a mirror finish. This cylinder ahead alone, is worth more than some entire Z cars I have built. Below is similar to what the chambers looked like after they were “roughed in”, so to speak. Of course I didn’t show “detail” pics of the valve unshrouding/chamber reconfiguration that we perform… Can’t give away all our secrets now… Hopefully I will be able to post some pics of a full tilt road race welded chamber N-42 that we are currently working for a customer in the mid-west, pending his approval of posting such pics of course… All of the port work and custom machining done in house to accommodate his monster .580” lift cam. We are also working on a nice MN-47 head concurrently for a Flat top L-28 street engine that will run race gas, (some street engine eh?). The owner of this project has given us permission to post pics of the port work and machine work as it progresses so stay tuned…

The engine that makes the MOST torque at the highest RPM WINS!!!! That's my $.02

Phil, do you really want one of those Elephant caps? I'll send one with your super-whiz-bang-fire-snortin cyl head. It’s got a little bit dirt stain on it, but hey, it’s free, right? Looks pretty good on your valve cover as well.

I purchased 8 feet of extruded aluminum fuel rail that I will machine myself to accept the Corvette injectors for my L-28. Here is where I bought my fuel rail. http://www.rossmachineracing.com/extrusion.html

As for plenum design, a larger plenum is actually “more” desirable from a performance standpoint, not a smaller plenum. To be perfectly honest, in Tony D’s defense, on the dyno for an engine built to mild or even semi wild pump gas specs, it wouldn’t make much difference in the power developed when comparing the necked down plenum intakes vs the larger plenum. They both will deliver pretty much equivalent power, and if there is a difference as measured on the dyno, not even the most discerning driver would be able to feel the difference. By looking at the evolution of the intake plenum for MPFI engines, the trend in automotive intake building has been larger plenums rather than smaller i.e. look at the modern Nissans, SR-20, KA24, VQ35, VG30DE, or even the domestic offerings vs the EFI Datsun L-18 in Japan plenum, and even our L-28’s and L-24E in the early Maxima. The total plenum volume of modern MPFI engines has actually increased on intake manifolds compared to those of the late ‘70’s through the late ’80’s. Specific output and mileage is also WAY up and emission are also lower on today’s power plants vs those of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, (though intake plenum size isn’t what is responsible for that increase in performance, it is a very small part of the total equation). For those of you who are very much interested in intake design and building and engine management tuning, there is a GREAT book written by Jeff Hartman that you should look into. Great for the novice who is just getting his feet wet in automotive tuning and performance upgrades, to the gray haired gurus who are very well versed in the ways of extracting MAX potential from an engine. Jeff Hartmann takes you through the “whys” the mega tuners make the choices they make for a particular set up and how you can apply those same decision making process to your own application. Some very enlightening info within… Here is the book. It can also be found at your local “Barnes & Noble”, “Borders Books” etc. http://www.themotorbookstore.com/engine1.html

Pete, Love the BRE scheme. Nice car. I have only one of these odd ball “NISSAN” valve covers, and three of the Turbo valve covers pictured. I also have a few of the ordinary generic L-6 valve covers as well. My early 240 “Nissan 2400 OHC” valve cover sold already. The odd ball NISSAN valve cover does have an issue. Across the back of the valve cover it has nice long dent. That dent is cracked all the way through, i.e. it will most likely leak if not taken care of. (see pic, dent/crack are circled) I would suspect that the dent can be “filled in” on the outside and sanded smooth for visual appearances with a 2 part epoxy and even sealed on the inside, for added security against leaking, with this 2 part epoxy. I can mill off any of the text from any of the valve covers if so desired. Let me know if you are still interested and which one/s. I’ll make you a GREAT deal on the cracked, er, imean "cream-puff" odd ball NISSAN valve cover… "one Meeelion dolla's".. LOL. PM me for more details and prices…

Pete, Yes, l always set my valve covers on the mill table and machine off the NISSAN logo just to be a little different. WOW!!! Your engine bay is gorgeous!!! Nice work my friend. Your plug wire routing is very nice as well, clean and uncluttered. Your fuel rail looks like the same stuff I recently purchased. I just happen to have a couple of TURBO valve covers that I’m trying to get rid of and one of those rare odd ball “NISSAN” valve covers that are cast identical to the TURBO valve cover but it only has the word NISSAN cast in the same size font as the TURBO, (Japanese domestic market possibly?) I could very easily machine off the “Nissan”, or “turbo”, or “both” from one of these valve covers if anyone is interested… BTW, do you have any shots of those MAZDA coil packs? Are they coils only, i.e. no controls or triggers built in?

Pete, Sorry I didn’t reply to this question sooner. Completely skipped my mind after I read it originally. I used the Chrysler bracket as it aimed the coil terminals more towards the middle of the engine for a slightly cleaner plug wire appearance, (yes I know, appearance isn’t THE reason to alter something when it comes to race cars, but …. you know… right?..... . LOL) Of course the down side to this bracket is it makes the coil pack stick out that much further into the engine bay itself. I’ll probably remount the coil pack the strut tower sometime this season, we’ll see.

Thanks for the tip. Just received 8 feet of extruded fuel rail for the SOLO-II car and the V-8 car. Those are some pretty BIG injectors. Coolio… I’m starting out with 19 lb/hr' date=' most likely going up to 21, maybe 24 lb/hr for this N/A SOLO-II L-28 project This particular manifold is for my personal “F”-Prepared SOLO-II 240 Z, L-28 w/flat tops, MN-47 head, very mild cam, etc. It is currently getting distributor-LESS ign and speed density stand alone EFI, (MSnS-E with EDIS-6. We now have an EDIS test bench up and running playing with different EDIS stuff. Got some GREAT pics of my EDIS-6 and EDIS-8 sparking the cheapo AC plugs, http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=103781 ). As for the mod on this N-42 intake, I plan to remove the injector “mounts” themselves to give it a little cleaner overall appearance. Being as this is going on my race car, I’m not going “all out” on it, only partially out. Ron Tyler received my most ALL out intake thus far, turned out really nice, IMnSHO, LOL Though, an IR set up just might be in the immediate future for this race car, I’ll know more hopefully in the next few days. If this pans out, this N-42 intake just might come up for sale… This picture is of my EDIS-8 distributor-LESS ign for my SBC V-8 Z project running on the test bench. For visual affect, we removed the ground electrodes on the cheapo AC spark plugs…. We are glad we did… [img']http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b81/BRAAPZ/EDIS/SparkyMedium.jpg[/img]

The intakes you seek that are cast with NO EGR, came on the ’75 and ’76, 48 state, or otherwise known as the “federal” cars. ALL California 280Z cars received the EGR manifold, including the N-42 of the ’75 and ’76. So if you are looking in California wrecking yards, the chances of finding one of these early intakes with-OUT the EGR is going to be pretty much nil unless the car was imported from out of sate, or someone transplanted the intake on that car. Hope that helps… This is just one of many N-42 intakes that I’ve cleanup to varying degrees of “uncluttered” over the years. This particular one is currently undergoing even further modification to accept modern O-ring injectors and removal of the throttle linkage towers in preparation for cable activation.