josh817

Tony, I want to know how successful these tractor pull guys are. It seems like a lot of motors blow themselves to bits through a single pull. Is there ever a time where they last several pulls?! I've seen some monster ones like 5 V8's somehow all linked to the back wheels, radial engines, etc. Its insane. It stayed together!

I know you guys will enjoy this one. :]

Yah. He was actually there for a long time but the video is sped up by like 2^5 or 2^6 times. Windows movie maker, you can add "double speed" several times so its like going 2x2x2x2x2 hahaha. And, he pisses me off. I don't tell Dad this but my opinion only, he doesn't need to be at the shop. Not only does he beg for attention, he also gets into trouble if you aren't watching. We can't get ♥♥♥♥ done... You may be saying "yah thats a typical 5-6 year old", personally I think its much worse, but even then, a 5-6 year old child doesn't need to be at a shop where old vintage race cars are being worked on. The liability is too great. Of course if I had my way, I wouldn't have a step anyone, brother or mother, but you can't control that. There is an internal conflict, for me, and the whole "family" situation.

You can see the parts where Dad and I are arguing, I mean, "discussing" how to appropriately address the valve timing of an unknown cam profile. Things worked out, now we're waiting on a back plate before we can stab the motor into the car. Watch it before Youtube feels the need to take the video down for its music (which is ridiculous at best because I show where to buy the album, so its like a sales pitch) My editing skills are not up to par, be nice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z8bGtvXJlk

Thats good for smoothing and polishing however it takes a while to take off a substantial amount of material. Sanding rolls are fun for ports but using them on rods, no fun. When they break apart, they fly in your face. Ah!

Lol brought back from the dead.

Haha good point. I'm surprised Sears and Craftsman bits are just as inexpensive as Harbor Freight. Thats wickedly cool, I think I may go pick some up, preferably Craftsman. Hopefully they lifetime warranty them. I was using one of our bits and it broke in half. :/ It was like a $30 bit too.

DEFINITELY agree! I used a carbide tip to rough up my ports (it wasn't as aggressive as Skib was showing) and it clogged every couple of seconds. I added some oil... well not some, A LOT of oil and it didn't clog at all. At the end of the day I'd take the tip over to the wire brush wheel and clean it out. Also if you want consistency, get a valve from your machine shop with diameter you want. Slide the valve down the port, if there are any hang ups, grind there. I used an old 280 intake valve (or maybe it was exhaust, I can't remember). My dad uses a whole set of valves because the heads he ports like to be tapered. Of course it takes practice to make every port the same, and make sure they stay circular.

We checked our valves an nothing was hitting... :/ What sort of cam lift/duration were you running? Ours isn't too radical, at all. One thing to note is that I HATE how the book has us time this cam. It says it wants 38 links between the mark on the cam sprocket to the mark on the jackshaft sprocket. The book also says it wants the bolt holes and dowel on the cam sprocket to be horizontal and perpendicular to the motor axis. Multiple ways you can check this. On the cam towers (bearing cap in this case) they have arrows to tell you which way is the front on the very top of them. The first tower is close enough to the sprocket that it should point, aiming out, into the dowel hole of the sprocket. Second way, the one that makes you cringe, is to get a level and rest it on the valve cover surface. Make sure its level first of all. See if the dowel hole centerline is even with the levels edge. Alternatively you can use the two cam bolt centerlines too. But of course, this is all assuming stock cam. Picture I am talking about: The chains we bought didn't have any discolored links or any marks on them. The only discolored piece we saw was the "connector" end if you could call it that. Also, we shined a light into a spark plug hole and use a contraption of mirrors to look inside the cylinder, without a head gasket, loosely torqued, and turned the motor. The report was "they're not close at all to the piston". I guess we'll find out. If something happens, as usual, we'll fix it before the owner shows up to take it home. Everything we do, besides race motors, are 1 year warranty, at least thats what I hear from Dad. Our race motors, depending on where the event is, we go with the owner and help him test and tune, etc. EDIT: Also I note, the edge of the piston, was sitting about 2-4 millimeters below the deck with the dome of the piston poking above deck, but only by a smidgen. Kind of hard to eyeball but I'd say maybe 1-2 millimeters. Add that to what looked to be a pretty hardy headgasket. After we break the motor in, we'll wind it up a little to see if we have unfortunate luck. From the looks of things, the oil gauge is mechanical. I hated cranking my Z motor over with my stock gauge. Takes like an hour to register. Haha Not so haha when you're cranking it though. :[

That would be pirating... I'm not an admin but keep HybridZ clean of any legal matters. Even though, I would love to see the video. I'd buy it, depending on how many volumes... it said volume 1 there.

1. I guess you could say yes, but I personally wouldn't get this motor spinning up to any crazy RPM's. I did the rods more so to lighten and hopefully relieve the bottom end. Bearings take a beating on these things, so I'm trying to avoid that. The owner will be scooting this thing around a fair bit too. 2. We bought a gasket set from Dr. Dean, consequently, its just a set from Nissan. 3. Since we adopted the motor, I can't really say. The last time this car ran was more than 5 years ago. The owner had been waiting for it. I would guess it was detonating on that cylinder. 4. New pistons should get 10:1 compression. 5. No head work. I am not confident enough to port myself for others. With the budget we're working with, there isn't any money to have someone professional do it. 6.This U20 will run SU's however the owner it constantly asking what he can add onto the car. This car is his baby. He may want to switch over to DCOE's however I don't know if he can do that without going broke trying to find a manifold. I don't know how popular or rare they are. 7. This cam is a little bit bigger than stock. Don't ask me what brand or grind because I don't know. This is serving to be a problem when we are timing the motor... I'm still searching for possible answers but I think its a hopeless cause. For the amount of money the customer spent on this motor, its honestly not very special. A buzzy street motor out of a U20 these days will be financially painful. We were lucky enough to have a new oil pump and water pump on the motor already. Water pump isn't such a big deal but the oil pumps are going for $500. We new this motor had been rebuilt once before and didn't last long. When I clearanced the pump there was barely any wear at all! When we went to go get pistons, Dr. Dean said he was out of flat tops and we had bought the last domed set he had. There are other sources out there, but this stuff is getting ridiculous to find...

We basically did a mock build, and then built it for real the second time. Why? Because some of the gaskets and hardware go on in a certain order obviously. Being this isn't my own personal motor, I'd rather be cautious than to jump right in. I'll post a video or something when we start it up. It will still be another week or two because I have school too. I still have to detail the engine bay, make it look pretty.

Rods. They started out as 912 grams, finished at 840 grams. Had them line bored and new bushing put in.

Of all the engines you can choose from to "adopt" into your shop... There was a reason the last dude couldn't finish it. 1 cylinder had to be lined, wrong bearings sent to us, only domed pistons left or forged, 500000 zillion Deves rings to install, contorted and almost $%&@ing demonic engineering. I did however like the little bracket that holds your cam sprocket for you without having the head on the block. Too bad those brackets always break off bounce around in the front cover... Upon inspection of the old parts, the older upper guide have that happen. Enough talking, here you go. Before, dead piston, dead bearings, timing chain tensioner and guides are dead, etc:

http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/SMEC05F You're going to need the spring and the spring retainer. If you have hydraulic lifters I don't think you need the springs, if I remember correctly.

:lmao:

Over 1700 posts! I give up!

SuperDan is real?! This is the first time I've seen him post! :hail:

February 20, 2010 at 5:00 AM Goodluck boys. It looks like I will be homeless and hopeless for 12 hours. DFW guys, should we throw a party? These new changes sound exciting, if you're an admin... You know how your dad would ooo and aww over certain things, and you would be like "I don't see why its so cool, Dad. Maybe its just because you're old." This is how I feel. I thought I would write a poem for this historical moment: HybridZ oh how I love you You have never failed me, except for your unfunny LolCats We're just a bunch of dudes with super cool top hats (what rhymes with cats?) We have TonyD who likes his salt flats And Paul who runs around going Braap Braap RTz always has a sinister mood I personally prefer John's attitude (Please don't ban me Ron:lol:) I contributed to HybridZ only one time Now I just make up these stupid rhymes What would I do without you SuperDan I don't even know you but you sound like a cool man During the 12 hours without my intrawebs buds I'll probably sit in the bath tub admiring my fart bubble suds I know it sounds nasty but you have to admit I'm super cool I wish the best of luck to the admins so they can ban more fools Can the R200 handle the power of a V8 My guess is yes, now leave this @%&$ing place wut do i need to make mi z a strocker We have a search function isn't that a shocker So now that I've made this poem in the middle of my 7PM history class I will probably fail the test, my ass is grass. PS: I HATE POEMS. BARELY MADE IT THROUGH ENGLISH LITERATURE WHEN WE HIT THE POETRY SECTION. This is deemed unfunny, but I laugh. It may be an exception:

Yah I'm using a standard "stage IV" .495" 290º cam. Comes in around 3200 RPM. The duration is important because that is what affects the location of the power band. More duration, power at the higher RPM, lower duration, power is down low. Braap explains the reasoning behind this pretty well in the "Big nasty head work" thread. If I remember correctly, it widdled down to dynamic compression ratio/cylinder pressure. With high duration cams, you lose cylinder pressure at lower RPM due to the valves being open while the piston is coming onto its compression stroke, essentially dropping your power output. It isn't until you hit higher RPM where the valve timing works for you instead of against you because cylinder pressure is higher. I don't think the compression ratio changes though. I'd love to contact Moldex especially since our long L6 cranks like to break right before the flywheel. My dad was getting some cranks from them, but at a price. Like $2000... Group buys can save you a couple of hundred. Even without a Moldex crank, you can probably get away with a heat treated crank, very well balanced, and get your reciprocating masses to a minimum! I wouldn't hesitate to buy a $1200 clutch/flywheel setup that weighs like 10 pounds all together if you are going to be seeing more than 7000 RPM on a regular basis. I think I spent around $3000 on my motor but I did everything myself. Obviously the positive thing was that it cost quite a bit less, but you also have to make sure that you are a competent worker. I'll admit, I wasn't ready to do certain things like porting my head. I didn't know what I was doing really...

Yah my machine costs were low I figured. I got a shop rate since my dad owns a shop. Each shop rate will vary, and machine work is one of those things "you get what you paid for". So I'd pay a good amount for it....

You weren't, I am the betrothed. :] More incriminating evidence. I am the host of superior genes. If Paul accepts my proposal, a gene pool of biblical proportions could be had. And NO! I don't sound like Hitler! I rest my case.

I turned 19 in December, therefore closest to 17! Have to finish school first before I let women rape and pillage my mind. Besides, in this case it is better to be younger than to be old enough to buy booze. I doubt Paul wants some crazy 21 year old running around causing drunkard havoc, getting his daughter into unfavorable situations. I'm a genius! I'm sure all my uncles feel your pain Paul. I am the only male out of 8 cousins. Besides, I've seen your pictures of your land and its beautiful. I've always wanted to live or at least take a trip up to the north west. The north east compels my heart though... I guess I could go either direction, north east is more urbanized, I think that would get annoying. Anyway, I'd make a cool son in-law. Ron would hate me. I have a feeling by his online character, he would get fed up with me real fast! If my Dad visited you guys, I could watch all you... "older" gentlemen argue about cars!

Be very careful with adoption, Bob! If Paul has any daughters your age, they'll become your sister rather than the more opportune strategy of marrying her! Actually, ignore that. Go ahead and get adopted. There is a more favorable chance that Paul will have a daughter aged 17-20 rather than like... whatever your age is Bob. If you're adopted, I can marry, and then we can have a big Z car mess of a family. Paul, be my father in law.

I don't think the outlook is that grim if he builds it himself. A lot of money gets tossed into labor and if you have the tools, you might as well do it yourself. You are paying for the builders attention to detail more so than for him to turn a wrench. Making sure everything is clean, within spec, don't use towels with lint, etc. Little things that will make a difference in engine survival and power. Porting a head should be left to the experts, Braap (Paul), 1 fast Z (Bryan), Dave Rebello, those people are where you may want to go. The main things that you have to worry about are the large investments. I think I spent $2000-$3000 on my motor but if I had someone port my head, subsequently do a way better job than I did, you can add at least $1000. I think $1000-$2000 for a head would be typical after a port job, good springs, retainers, valves, and a select cam. You're expenses will be as follows: V07 crank: $450-$600 Pistons: -Ross custom 6 piston (tell them what specs you want): $613 -cast KA24 (ebay pistons): $120 for 8 Worked head with cam and everything: $2000 L24 rods: -stock rods: $200 -Corillo: $900 Block: $200 Intake: -45mm carbs with manifold: $1200 -40mm carbs with manifold: $600 -any of the stock EFI manifolds: lets just say $100 Tunable EFI management: $300 Exhaust: highly dependent on the headers but generally like $300 Machine work (turn crank, bore block, shot peen rods):$400 ARP hardware (head studs, main studs, rod bolts): $300 You are then left with the little things such as timing chain kit, bearings, oil, oil filter, just stupid ♥♥♥♥ to get started. Now don't hold me to these prices, I did my budget build 2 years ago. A LOT of this stuff you can have luck finding in junk yards and stuff! The intake, rods, a head to start with, a block, and a crank can be found if you try hard enough. If you want a killer motor, do forged pistons and ARP hardware and even if its not a really hot motor, run ARP rod bolts at least ($70). If you know how to tune, do EFI. As you can see, there are different paths you can take for almost all the parts. Be frugal when buying parts. When I did my build cranks could be found for $200-$400 and $500 on the pricey guys. I have now seen them go for $700. I bought mine at $350. L24 rods came from a spare block I had, the people that do own them are now asking more. The point is that you aren't stuck if you can't find the exact parts. Can't find L24 rods but you plan on using forged pistons? Maybe you wish to go with Corillo rods, even better, get L28 rods and since you can change the specs on your custom forged pistons, you can play with the pin height to get the right compression, maybe add domes. For headers, there are so many it just depends on which one you get. Generic ones, after shipping will run $300 at least. I bought multiple headers. Started with a 6-1 for like $90 shipped and then ceramic coated it. Then I did the 6-3-2 that I have now, for about the same. It wasn't as expensive as you would think because I would just resell the old header. Those are my thoughts. When I did my build, I focused on the big items I had to buy. Even though when we were ready to start the motor, water, antifreeze, oil, oil filter, fuel line, fuel filters, all that crap, came out to be a good amount of money too. However, it was a light load. I could use a months worth of pay to get all that, as compared to several months pay for just a crank. Yah Tom Thumb paid $7/hr.