I hope to make this my updated thread on my build log for my *choke* twin cam attempt(s). To Preface this, I fully understand the following before attacking this.
From 3 years of searching, aside from one machine shop, this seems like a hopeless, useless attempt.
This is not going to be quick, easy, cheap, or probably logical for that matter.
There is no reason what so ever to chose this over say, any choice of RB engines, or other 6/8 cylinder engines that actually make sense. However, I've got about a year and a half of solid research/drawings into this, so I'm in it for the long haul.
So here it goes.
As far as L series parts, it's going to be the block, crank, and rods, oil pan, oil pickup, and that's probably it. I've got an F54 block that saw about 10k miles before it sat in a field for 15 years, along with the crank and rods to go with it.
The Head: Currently the game plan is an RB head, as I really only need the bolt holes and cylinders to line up.
The front plate: This is the big killing point of the majority of these projects. So far I have drawn up a complete front plate, to block off all oil passages, re-route water lines, etc, and am mating the very bottom of the Stock L front cover so that the maximum number of stock parts from whatever engine can be used with a minimum of custom fabbed one-off parts. The plate I have drawn up will eventually be making it into CAD files fairly soon that I plan to make available to HybridZ members, for free, hopefully.
Block Modifications:
The big problem with this engine will be coolant, as external oil lines and oiling modifications have been beaten to death and tried and tried on hundreds of engine designs with success. That said, the problem with the RB and L series, is the direction of flow is essentially backwards, rotationally speaking. If this happened, there would be very little flow on the exhaust side of the engine, leading to a horrifically short engine life. The block will have to be filled with Devcon, or preferably welding on the intake side to rotate the direction of the water jacket, with new holes machined on the exhaust side of the block, along with being stabilized to allow correct flow throughout the cylinders.
There is a long list of modifications that I will be posting as I find time.
Moderators: I really wasn't sure an appropriate title for this, so change away.
I really don't expect this to be taken too seriously until I get some pics and dimensions up, but they should be coming soon.
~Bob