josh817

The rubber cap may be best so you can keep the thermostat bypass line on the pump intake. Should have the big hose from the radiator, big hose from the heater core, and then a little hose from under the thermostat (as shown in the ebay auction). Although, I am unaware why some intakes only have a place for a heater core and a radiator, without the thermostat bypass, as shown on post #14 by Beermanpete. Perhaps some engine blocks had an internal bypass and some didn't? I don't know. Better go read all 10 million pages of the coolant FAQ on this board. For what its worth, I just looped the back of the head around to the intake of the water pump, without the heater core. I didn't run the thermostat bypass. That is apparently the wrong way to do it, and I wouldn't do it that way again. Regardless, the motor ran fine as a daily driver for years.

It is all contained in the cylinder. You set the pressure using air pressure. It has an air valve (like on a tire) where you can fill it up, and a gauge to tell you the pressure. If you set it to 50PSI on the air side, that means it will fill up with oil when pressure is above 50PSI and when your block pressure drops below 50PSI it dumps the oil. Accusump is good for top end lube as well for prestart. They make the mechanical flip open valve that you can do by hand and they also make an electric valve that you can flip with a switch. Before you start the engine you can open the valve (provided its filled up) and it will dump, you can see the pressure reading on a gauge while its dumping. Before you shut down, rev the motor so you can get the oil pressure up while you shut the valve, then shut the motor off. Don't have your accusump dump straight into an oil cooler. I guess pick a size that will suit your track purposes and space constraints. 10 seconds is a long time, for tracks around here, to be in an oil starving situation. Like this, sir

Played with some breast implants, found out my manifold still doesn't fit, sent bell housings off to get milled to fit onto a S13 gearbox.

2 inch spacers, yowza

That's suppose to happen, its a factory quick change for when you're racing and you come in for new tires. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX82xKLZ2JE

I believe RockAuto has them. I know I used one of theirs for my transmission output flange. We have a bearing/sprocket/gear place here locally where we can walk in with our part, they will measure it and have a custom sleeve made. It's about twice as much ($40 instead of $20) but you can get it don't for anything you need. Your machine shop doesn't have to do it, you can do it yourself if you have a hammer and a drift, or something of the same circular size like a coffee can. Tap it on. Worst case you could pop the speedi sleeve in the oven and put it on to a room temp crank with ease. The groove may not leak, but if the crank isn't in the motor yet, it can still be fixed. Good luck,

I don't know what application it went on 40.5mm valve as a port guide Good luck on the motor. I try to keep notes of all the things people advise to do but it's blowing my mind how many little things to remember.... Didn't even know about the LS1 valves. I bought an E88 head on here for $100 and it too has 38mm ports, shortened guides, etc. It can take bigger valves but I really don't want to mess a good thing up! When I spoke with Don Potters widow, she said the same thing Tony did, never really went past 36mm. I'm sure it will be great fun either way.

There is a separate thread for that. I have done business with him and it seemed alright. I've changed everything since then, there were certain things going on with my setup that could have been my fault or his so I don't blame anyone. As Tony said, body work labor is $$$$$ and he has a lot of nice stuff underneath too. It's definitely a pretty car.

:[ Wish I had magazines like that. THey seem way better than Road and Track, even though I can't read them.... Just like looking at all the tech stuff.

Keep an eye on that groove on the rear flywheel flange. If you can catch your fingernail on it, order a speedy-sleeve and install it before you put the crank in. Otherwise, you will have an oil drip from your rear main seal. Same goes for the snout of the crank where the front seal rides.... and the output flange on the tranny. And.... if you break down a tranny, the input shaft. And.... the input flange for the diff if you break that down too. If they aren't leaking then don't worry about it.

Thanks! I was thinking the timing could be the reason for the lack of power so far, the tune as well obviously! Should be around 33-36º full advance and that is with vacuum advance. You will see that if you want to get that type of advance you are going to have to run high advance at idle unless you find a vacuum port in the correct location. Lets just say you can adjust the advance infinitely by twisting the dizzy, then lets say mechanical advance increases that number by 10º, then lets say another 10º for vacuum advance. Traditionally I would twist the dizzy to either set my idle, or set my total advance. Usually I would go for total advance and whatever the idle is just accept it. So lets say I set it so idle is 12º, thats strictly twist on the dizzy and some mechanical. Off idle, you get full mechanical so you're now at 22º. Above 3000 RPM you should be getting all your vacuum advance putting you at 32º. For this example we say we wanted our max to be 32º. Now if I don't hook up advance, the only way I can get my 32º total is to twist the dizzy and set my idle at 22º, which then the mechanical takes up the last 10º. If I hook up the vacuum directly to the manifold so I am getting max vacuum at idle, well... I get 10º right away from vacuum, I could twist the dizzy to get another 2º so I have my 12º at idle, and then get another 10º from mechanical but that's only 22º total. The only way to get 32º in this case is to run 12º by twisting the dizzy and then you automatically get another 10º. Either way you are getting too much advance at idle however without it, you don't get full advance and advance timing has a lot of power potential in it! My Z reaped the consequences of having more advance at idle, so I could get my full 36º that I wanted. With the idle screws fully backed off the stops on the carbs, I still only idled at 12-1400. Setting the timing, I think factory calls for 12º at idle and makes no mention of max advance. I cranked mine up more to get the max I want but you can test your limits by twisting the dizzy, giving it more advance; the idle will keep going up until it peaks and drops back down. At that point, back the dizzy off a little. Go for a drive, load the engine down, listen for pinging. Do it again when its real hot outside, listen for pinging, and when you shut her down make sure it doesn't run on/diesel. If it does, back the timing off until it doesn't occur. I think you will find that you will be around what the factory calls for anyway. For my truck it calls for 12º but in the Texas summer it tends to diesel when I shut her down so really I'm only running like 15º at idle even though I could crank it further before the idle drops off. I'm sure you already know this.... I typed all this because its late and I can.... For what it's worth, at the track most of the dudes don't run vacuum advance, subsequently the advance is cranked so high the motor is hard to start (you know when you crank it over, only cranks over once and won't go anymore, that's too much advance) so they have the 12v to the coil on a toggle switch. This way they can get the motor spinning up and then flip the ignition.

MY DCOE's don't have vacuum ports just above/in front of the throttle plates. This meant in order to run the advance I wanted past 3000 RPM I had to mechanically crank the dizzy or run full vacuum advance at idle. The dizzy has two advance mechanisms, one mechanical where it flings out weights as it spins faster, and one vacuum so with more vacuum you get more advance. Some emissions dizzies are the other way where they retard with more vacuum. Nissan might not have done this but I know some British companies did. Here is what I am getting at; I could never get my idle below 1200 because I had to run so much advance. If your dizzy is the type that advances with more vacuum, you need to hook up somewhere between the throttle plate and the air horns. This way when you crack the throttle, that vacuum port will start to see a vacuum signal. If you hook it up to the manifold like your brake booster, you see vacuum all the time and actually at 100% throttle, might not see any vacuum at all. With that being said, if you find (again I don't know if Nissan did this) a dizzy that retards with more vacuum, then perhaps you try to hook that up to the manifold directly. I honestly can't remember if the manifold vacuum drops with increased RPM's. I may play around with that on my truck, you can just use a regular vacuum gauge. PCV and brake booster go to manifold, dizzy needs to go to carb. Though, like I said before, I haven't seen any way to do this on DCOE's. On my truck I run a DGV (downdraft weber) and it specifically has a port just ahead of the throttle plate so it reads 0 at idle and as the plate cracks open you get vacuum. Double check your vacuum signal... When timing, you can test your dizzy by pinching the vacuum hose. If you disconnect it and don't plug he port on the manifold the RPM will just increase due to the vacuum leak. Can also plug that port temporarily and while the motor is running at idle, suck on the hose to the dizzy. Granted, it'll make you blue in the face but it should change enough to see. I've always had this problem with my DCOE's: Had an exhaust leak on EVERY port which is way it ticks and pops so bad. I never fixed my vacuum/dizzy thing I just explained either. The car ran, left it at that. In freezing conditions I never need a choke hook up either. Pump the pedal, Weber's have accelerator jets. Do it like 3 full times before you start and it should do just fine! Goodluck

California sounds horrific for vehicles. RIP :[

I think another point of contention, mind you I'm strictly playing devils advocate so far, is that in the case of Speedhunters and car shows the context is different. Instead of saying this is a Rocky Auto vehicle when someone comes to buy one, and standing behind your Rocky Auto name which is perfectly fine, they say they are the creators at a car show. Even worse if the Speedhunters editor or anyone else questions them about the car and they start answering "Oh yah, I made it all [insert japanese style], this that the other" and they know they didn't jack to the vehicle. A car show is to show off your craftsmanship, in this case they don't have any of it in the particular vehicle but they claimed they pieced it together. That wasn't for business "standing behind your name", that was a white lie because they KNOW they didn't piece together anything, they didn't wrench any bolts, do any painting, etc, they put a sticker and license plate on it. Who knows how far they took it, maybe when asked "where did you get those heads from, they're awesome" they said they ported it themselves in shop.

No one seems to be mentioning the key parts Tony was discussing, they are servicing the car for life which explain the price, but the price isn't the topic. Think about it like this, lets say they have quite a good rep for themselves (I don't know if they do or not), if they start listing cars "Bought from USA, built by [essentially some nameless guy]" I suspect that would reflect a sort of mentality that indicates "if it breaks, go talk to that dude, not us" which is the opposite of what they represent according to Tony. They put their name on it because if/when something goes wrong, the customer will come to them, not to "Plata" or the other dudes who are being scoped out on here. Part 2: What I find curious is why they don't stick to Z's on the mainland and avoid the shipping costs. Maybe it's only a fraction of their profits so it's not a big deal. Just thought it was weird, considering they have some pretty trick stuff over there that we sometimes don't have. Maybe the custom Z's sell cheap here compared to over here. Other thing I find curious about buying someone's project is the fact that its someones project. I loathe buying someone's old project, even if its beautiful, because I have no idea how they like to wire things, or mount things, or build their motors. In their case as a dealer, I don't know how they will guarantee the work/make sure the car doesn't come back for repairs all the time. That is of course, if they do their own little tweeks or whatever to ensure it stays running well and out of their shop; and in that case, is it really a shocker that they label it as theirs? Although, I do understand the other side of the argument, putting your name on someones work (even if you made a few changes to it). Tony shows no discretion for that saying once its sold they will do whatever, however if I were to do that with lets say a Datsun Spirit motor or a Kameri part.... that would be a sin punishable by death under his terms and the Japanese. If I spend the money to buy nice Japanese products and get them anodized (that was my contribution to the product), sell them as my design/creation/research, I would a Scum Bag Steve. Ok, but this is different, under Tony's terms, I must be able to service/actually have some knowledge on the equipment I sell in case if it breaks and returns to me. So maybe I do my own independent research about the product so I am prepared for that situation, it still doesn't make those many hours and money on research and development mine. Honestly though its a funny argument. We are getting both perspectives here and Tony, it does seem like you pound the Japanese way as the right way into our heads. Openly saying that there is a culture conflict, and then saying things like "unfortunately my boss doesn't see it that way" kind of implies that the Japanese culture is superior to our American culture and we should respect them. This topic comes up in many cases where at some point someone needs to jump in and say you know what, when I go over there I have to assimilate to your cultures or I get frowns and scoundrels, however when you come over here I still have to respect your cultural ways. At no point is there ever a neutrality or a... "Follow American culture" standpoint in your argument which I do sometimes resent. Double standards, they put their name on one of our items, they are protected due to their culture. We put our name on their item, they are still protected by their culture, "you broke the honor code how could you, that's so wrong in Japan", somehow that is a valid argument but not for us. I can see where the frustration would come from. It seems like most in this thread suggest poor business practices, claiming someones work as yours. Tony is the only one to speak otherwise so far and the logic is, as stated above, somewhat frustrating when the answer is "Your American culture is incorrect, they can do that because it's Japanese culture, so it's fine, don't whine". I would be surprised if that doesn't break an honor or integrity code in Japan. Tony if someone made these comments about your creation "Now working out of a brand new state-of-the-art workshop, Watanabe-san at Rocky Auto is able to churn out cool custom kyusha at an even faster pace than before! This USDM Datsun 240Z is something he pieced together in the last couple of months…and it’s probably one of the cleanest cars we have ever seen from the famed resto-mod specialist." Displaying positive remarks and all sorts of talk that would give the creator great pride, yet you're not the real creator, you're saying that's alright..... because it's their culture? I wouldn't believe it for a second, considering you get upset when someone makes a quote on here, or posts a picture, or information that you were the originator but weren't given credit; they usually don't even claim it as theirs either. That's small beans compared to this sort.

Oh damn I didn't catch that one. I like your idea better with an adjusting screw! Wanna PM me more pics? Trying to figure out why there is an adjusting screw, but then two lock screws, unless the adjusted isn't physically attached to the top idea (just pushing on the backside of it?) Nice thinking!

You didn't forget to install anything. The factory gives you two spares in case you need them. Obviously you didn't, you're wasting your time if you take it all apart to put them in. I have a whole bucket of spares; Thanks Nissan!

Curious if the pinhole leaks were after you used it. My stock radiator broke, like where the mounting tabs kinda wrap around the top corners of the radiator, they broke free from the radiator itself on one side. Best guess is body flex, using the rad like a strut bar, except not on the struts... Mounting on the sides has now been on my naughty list, won't be doing that again. I use angle iron on the top and bottom and it basically sits in place, no hard mounting. I think it would be even worse with plastic tanks.

Definitely strange, I don't have any type of driving record and I'm a better driver than you!!! What's the deal?!

I didn't know they had categories like that... I never told them that it was modified or anything, I adjusted the price accordingly though which was why I said $10k coverage. They're really dragging their feet now, saying it's going to take 2 weeks to assess it.... I've sent pictures of the car, of the garage its staying in, etc. "We're worried he will drive the car more than what he is suppose to since he already drives a vintage vehicle.... very lame. While they're at it, critiquing me, I might as well inform them that I don't live at the house which its being stored, and its registered as an antique so I can't daily drive it without getting in trouble. Just have to wait and see I guess..

I am having the same dilema as well, trying to find thread sizes and a spot to put two sensors (one for a gauge the other for MS). Then I realized.... what a dummy, can't I just connect two wires to the sensor and send them to whatever it is I need? Maybe not that easy, I haven't looked into it too hard.

Odd I had the same thing happen. I bought a new P90A head from him which I ported, came from him with Schneider "stage 3" kit for an awkwardly low price of like $300-$400, mind you the cam kit itself from MSA was $700. When I built the motor the cam specs came out correct, never had a problem with wipe pattern or eating a cam or rockers from perhaps used parts. I always questioned the springs because my motor did not like it above 6000RPM. I've never heard valve float before but this was basically good up to 6000RPM and then it sounded like a rev limiter, making the motor miss bad. Wouldn't go past it. One day I decided I was going to stay in 1st gear and slowly go through the RPM's. Started doing the missing at around 6000RPM and then I heard a metallic sound and all of a sudden I was on 5 cylinders. I stopped and noticed I flung an exhaust rocker. Lash pad was sitting down in the head with the rocker so I got lucky too. I've never solved that problem but my best bet is valve float.... and at that RPM it may suggest I didn't get the springs with the "kit". Other than that I had everything checked on the head before I built the motor and it came out clean as a whistle.

Haha Tony..... Figuring out insurance with Hagerty right now and it's as amusing as the first time we tried. Car is in mothers name, mother calls, the first time she mentioned me being part of this and they denied us on some bullshit reasoning. We're trying again now but there is some sort of thing set up between my regular insurance (All-State) and Hagerty., so we're using All-State as a middle man... I don't know why. Anyway, they're calling up Hagerty, they will insure for $10,000 @ $190/yr. We asked can it be for my mother and myself, or just myself, and they said.... are you ready? Because I drive a vintage car as my daily (1971 datto) they don't want to insure the Z knowing I am an authorized driver because they think I will use it every day... even though it's registered as an antique.... Lets give it to them, I'm going to be joy riding this thing, going on police chases, driving on the wrong side of the highway, smuggling drugs, with my antique registered (not allowed to drive it unless it's to the shop, show, parade, etc), Hagerty insured car. They won't even bother to entertain the idea that I want to be the only authorized driver because I'm 22; I doubt being 25 is any better. I think their magic age is 30.. Anyway that's my rant.

SD22's had piston oil coolers. http://nissandiesel.dyndns.org/viewtopic.php?t=495

Got a 1971 Datsun 521 as a daily driver. Built her to be a dog, thrash around and not even care. Most of her isn't Datsun anymore. That being said, she has some patina, some people like it, I don't. Never wanted to paint her because 1) The whole point of the build was to have something that I can have fun driving, not worry about dings or anything 2) She sleeps outside with the animals, hobo's, and crazy Texas weather such as hail and as stated above, I don't really care as long as the glass doesn't break 3) Because she stays outside in the sun and weather, I know any cheap paint job will fade quickly So I figured painting it with bed liner. Our shop neighbor has a spray gun that can handle the thick goo paint but I'd rather brush it on. I did the interior of the truck with it and its holding up great. I don't think it will look good if I use the type with the gritty rubber stuff in it but I don't know if they make it without the grit. It's tough stuff though and I can paint over less than perfect surfaces! It comes out looking like a really bad paint job however... Trying to look for colors other than black, honestly I think I'd rather do black or that military green, I'm open to other options. Thoughts?