josh817

Rewire a whole harness yourself and leave out all the stupid sensors you don't need. Even though its down to original wiring, there is so much stuff that isn't necessary at all. Wire it up like a race car where you have only what you need. Simple, and effective. Dad makes it sound easy but he's an electrical engineer by heart so he blabs on and on and I just say ok when we hit a confusing spot. Most of it seems like logic and mind set rather than hard stuff. He shows me something and its the easiest concept ever, but I would never think of it myself. I've bitten way too many bullets today. First the car, now some valve cover and flywheel I shipped out in the same box arrived to the person, however the flywheel some how didn't make it. I find it hard to believe yet it was going to a very credible person so there isn't any other reason besides UPS did it again... The plan is to split the cost of the flywheel ($45) and just go on. Problem is, I don't have $20 eat... I'm in debt to Mom by $250 for parts and stuff which will be taken care of in a week or two from work. I don't want to think I'm in the hole by another $20 though...

Well there you go you guys... Here I am getting excited and pulling the car out ready to prime and fire and then I was pushed back into my place. Never get excited over this stuff, it will fail. Always happens to me. Absolutely no power to the fuse box, no ignition, no fuel pump, nothing. Now I don't want to talk bad about previous owners and what not but dude... some of this wiring even I would cringe at... We fiddle around and after several different languages of the same curse words were thrown around and the fifth time of saying "Dad, that really are for the lights" he finally stopped touching the white wire... So we see a lonely plug, its thick, its white, its suppose to be on the starter so I hook it up and it smoked violently... Now we're all throwing our hands in the air saying things about the previous owner and how persnickety this stuff is. Every wire outside of the harness, every relay (which by the way are the types that don't show whats what so you have to ohm out all the prongs), every crimped wire, is all his creation. He has made a big wiring monster which feeds of my moral. So... after studying the diagrams for an hour and going ok wtf is this, we finally figured out how it SHOULD be and now we are set back yet again to Sunday. :] Oh my life. It is funny. I would say lets pull this harness out and quickly make a very simple, very plain harness. However, write that down on my list of things to do and by the time the list is complete, I will have a brand new show car... H-heyyy! We all know how it is. The car will never be perfect. On the other hand my new task is to find where the white w/red stripes THICK wire leads to, and the white THICK wire leads to. It SHOULD go to the ammeter, however I never hooked it up because the PO said that when he switched to a stronger alternator, it melted the gauge *cough*he ****ed around with the wiring and didn't get it right, along with everything else*cough* Basically that white wire comes into the cabin, and from there it reads a dead short in the line, thus the smoke. Somewhere back behind the dash its getting screwed up. I'll find it, tell Dad, he'll fix it. If we can't find it then we will just run another big thick white wire to where it should be. Its not the right way to do it because if something else shorts out, it may lead to the original white wire we never found. After this I THINK.... THINK I may be free from technical difficulties. We will have ignition and carb tuning from there and thats it as far as major headaches are concerned.

I just hate that in between feeling. I want it either engaged or not. The old one was very nice and it had the lump sortah feeling in the pedal. Like you press down and its hard and then all of a sudden its easy. I can't really explain it other than a lump in the pedal. I know that in the lump area is where you can ride on it, any other area its either engaged or it isn't. With this pedal its nice and smooth all the ways through the length. so I'll have to find the sweet spot. I didn't take the slave cyl. off its line so everything SHOULD be air bubble free. I may bleed it and top it off just to be sure though. And Quin I should have satisfactory videos by the weekend. :] Well I hope. Can't say its easy breezy just yet knowing my luck in this thing... Oh also, anyone who wants to get an electric fan, off set it to one side because I almost made a mistake of centering mine, the water pump is very close and my fan is particularly thin. 3 1/4" at the electric motor I think.

Alright men, lets feast. Mom had the camera so the pictures weren't really note worthy... But hey, at least we have some. Tomorrow we start her up. Nothing to really hold us back for an entire day now. I do have some question about the clutch as the pedal is much softer than with the other clutch. Thats going to bother me, I like hard pedals with little slip. I find it strange because the other clutch was stock, this is stronger, and the pressure plate should have more... pressure... Maybe its just some sort of new material that wasn't used in the 80's. Still hate a soft pedal.

Water wetter, its fairly cheap. I guess I would look at your collant mixture next. More antifreeze = less coolant effect. If you live somewhere hot like Texas, you only need 25% antifreeze which should protect you to 10º or something like that. Perhaps get a louvered hood, that does help. If you don't want to cut up the hood then louver the wheel wells. Figure out a way to direct more air through the radiator maybe. Also with the ceramic coat, it seems like a no brainer. Its the difference from 1500º to 300º. Lastly, is your fan a decent brand? There are a lot of inefficient brands out there. I would say a nice Spal fan maybe. I can't think of any way to tell how much air your fan is moving. I do know however that a lot of the companies make up fancy numbers for CFM rates...

Use water wetter, don't wrap headers because they'll collect moisture and then rust. Get them ceramic coated.

I know its taking forever... :[ All Z Car has my clip, Dad is getting it today or tomorrow, this gives me time to put in my fuel pump, filter, reg. and cut down the exhaust.

Yup... today was ruined. We didn't even unload everything and failure prevailed. Oh well. Already found another clip from a store. Lets see how long it takes them to ship it. I'm guessing 2 weeks. That leaves me with one week left until school starts. Lovely. :]

Retainer clip that holds throwout bearing carrier onto fork. I NEED ONE! MINE IS BROKEN!

Careless... It is, judgment day.

Guys, tomorrow is the day the beast will live. My tach hasn't worked ever since I got the car and I took out the turbo wiring harness and it appears that the old is still in the car. However... There is some stuff that I have no idea whats going on... A blue and a white wire from the coil, white goes into cabin for ignition, blue goes across the firewall to some connector, from the connector it goes to a relay, from there to a capped off connector, and then to the starter bolt.... I figure its just ground if power is from ignition but thats start, does power still come from there for run? Does the alt. run its power that way or what... I can't find any wire from the tach to go to the coil, its just a connector to the tach and thats it, no stray wires.... I have a feeling I am SCREWED on this because the previous owner is done talking to me about a car he sold last year but he did all the wiring so looking at schematics only helps to a point.... :[ I'll make a video to clarify.

Ask Dragonfly (I really need to learn peoples REAL names). He posted a picture of his on my stroker thread. My motor is meant for a hot street motor. Possibly a track day once and a while. I'm just trying to think of a poor mans way to run larger. Either way I'm sticking with these carbs for a very long time because I'm not dumping anymore money into the car just now. I'm just afraid I'm going to find like 34's in the carbs or something. >_

Ah ok so they only do maybe like the front half to open up, get a smooth transition from big to small and thats whats up. Before learning about carbs I always thought that engine vacuum sucks the fuel in and I wonder if thats just enough to draw in fuel and air. Whats the worst that can happen, no start? Rough running? I'll give it a shot later on once the motor is broken in.

I have a question that I can't seem to get over... I bought some 40mm carbs for my stroker. Did my own porting so I'm not sure if what I did was mild or hot. Took off about 3-4mm on the ports. Anyways, I always get mixed feelings with if I have the right size or not. Of course if I had the money to get 45mm I would and then if its too big I could just choke it down. However, I didn't go that route and I want to be able to change venturi size if needed. I am unaware of what is in the carb right now but if it doesn't work out and I need something bigger than 36mm, I'd rather not go out and have Rebello make me 38mm venturis. With that said I was looking in my "How to Modify Your Nissan/Datsun OHC Engine" book and it has this: Look at "SCCA GT-4 (formerly GT-3)" It says OR no venturis. So basically I ask myself, could I run 40mm straight through or does this just not work? The venturi is to speed up airflow as it goes into the carburetor correct? Is this only possible with race engines because maybe they have a ton of vacuum to draw air and fuel in? I wouldn't think so due to their cams and the lack of vacuum from overlap or something but I honestly have no idea. This is something I MAY try out since it won't cost a dime to do and if it doesn't work I'll just put back whatever size was already in it. I would like to know some of your opinions though before I dig in. EDIT: Alright I read through that chapter and it gave me a formula to figure out throttle-bore size and outer/main venturi size. Of course this is for a race motor and modifications will make these numbers vary but its used as a rough guide. I am only using a Stage IV cam so thats .495"/290º with a 3.1L stroker. Lets see if the picture turns out well so you can see the formula. Alright so there it is. Basically for a 3.1L RACE motor with max USABLE RPM @ 7000RPM I'd need a 50mm carb with 39mm venturi. If I don't run any venturi at all in my 40mm carb I can get close to that 39mm it gave me, but without the effect in which a venturi is suppose to give... Dragonfly on this board said Rebello can make 38mm venturis for people but I have a feeling it will be costly and only fix the problem of needing a larger carb partially. I would prefer not to invest largely on the wrong carbs when I could sell them and use the money meant for making the wrong ones less... wrong... and buy the proper ones.... If that makes any sense.

Thats a good point. I'm not so wise when I'm angry. But I have slept and things are better. !

I have most of the stuff Pyro listed if you are interested. High compression pistons and turbo pistons with rods, oil line and tee fitting, manifolds, and oil pan.

And some of my friends when we went to New Mexico for boyscouts. My favorite:

I heard the same thing from my dad but slightly different. I agree with you and not Dad so much because he said if you use the filter you can blow the oil seals due to pressure but I was thinking... its a filter, it can breathe through it... if there was pressure build up it would vent through the filter. So I ask the same thing, is it ok for me to put filters on both the crank case and the valve cover or should I have some sort of vacuum on it to suck it out. I really don't want to tap a hole in my manifold... :[

Well I do have the spare L24 that I would like to build for someone but I want to see how mine works out. I don't trust my work until it has proven itself to me by driving it and stressing it. If something breaks like a rod or whatever, I can go back and see what I need to do and fix it. Basically I don't want to build somebody a motor that blows up on them or that is a slug. After break in we'll take it to the dyno. Every last Saturday of the month its $30 for 3 runs or something like that. Anybody have any ideas on how much advance to run? I have stock KA24 pistons in there so they aren't forged or anything if that matters. I would guess it does as it may be easier to burn a hole through? Not sure. When I told Dad the advance some of you guys are running is 30º+ he was like o_O oh god.

Alright guys here we go, the motor is generally complete. Alternator and hoses need to be put on. Other than that my radiator is ready, fan is coming in this week, and the motor will be in and hopefully operational by next Sunday. :] Oh and there is a picture of the headers too. Chopped off the flange because it was 2.5" and I need 3" exhaust.

Ok this is really for Dragonfly but I'll take anyones answer. He was talking about his 38mm venturis and I was reading through my How to Modify blah blah blah book. In there it shows a chart about carbs and says what type of venturi to use. On the 40mm one it says run the biggest or no venturi and I'm wondering if I can just yank the venturis out of mine if they are the problem and just run it open... Part of me says no because there is nothing speeding up the air but the other part says well you have vacuum from the motor and the book says so... Also! To anyone with the F54 block, the 4 bolt holes around the filter area, what are those for?! I want to say oil cooler but Dad said those just screw onto the part that the filter goes onto...

The fan is connected to the water pump so I'm still using all the pulleys that were used before, the fan just isn't bolted on. That thing makes your car sound like a space ship when you're under the hood. Stupid fan. :[ My flywheel came in an it looks lovely. Now I can finish the motor, sort out wiring, and put motor in! Exciting! The last 2 or 3 pages on here hasn't been much work because I've been in a pickle for the longest time!

Well we came up with a different plan. While the lifters were out we put the valve pivot all the ways down, I think we can slide the rockers in nicely that way. Did my valve cover today and oh god I love it. Black with red stripes and letters. Matched my intake manifold which by the way really really really helps if you add a little oil to it. I use these mace/studded looking bits which are really for wood but they take nice bites out of the aluminum. Only problem is that they clog about every five seconds with the soft metal and you have to wire wheel them. I oiled up the air tool and a little oil dripped in the port, boy did it make a difference. I didn't make another visit to the wire brush afterwards and I finished the other 5 ports in an hour. The shavings to stick though... buy a can of carb cleaner and just spray it down all over. Also I found out some stuff with the distributors! The order in which it bolts is metal spacer to the block - metal plate to the spacer - dizzy to metal plate. The plate has one set screw to hold it on the spacer and the dizzy has a separate set screw to hold it to the plate. The plate has 2 grooves for these screws, this allows you to twist it and set the advance. Alright well the problem is that the old dizzy and the dizzy I bought have 2 different plates. The old one fits the metal spacer because the spacer belongs to the old dizzy, but you try and use the spacer with the new dizzy and its plate, won't work. Your dizzy to plate hole will fit but not the plate to spacer. What I wound up doing was filing out the groove and on the old plate only because the old plate needed less work to make it work. I will get pictures on Saturday I do believe. What I completed: Matching the intake manifold Painting valve cover Fixing oil pump/dizzy drive rod (although I have it 180º off, this is ok, #1 wire will just be at the 7 o'clock position rather than 1 o'clock) 50% done with valve adjustment due to me having to take apart half the head... Oil pan on What I have left: Finish valve adjustment Make gasket for oil cutoff block Mount alternator Install belt Install flywheel Install clutch Sort out the wiring in the engine bay Replace the steering rack boots while at the same time adjust the toe in because the car always steered to the right with no hands. Things I'm waiting for: Radiator is done and needs to be picked up Flywheel is coming in Electric fan is coming in

Even better news is that when they rebuilt my head they didn't torque the lifters down. I go to adjust the valves and the lifters keep turning when I try to turn the set nut. I need to figure out how much to torque these down because its an aluminum head. Anybody knows, do share. So basically what I'm stuck doing is taking all the rockers off, and the head bolts out on the rocker side, because the washers under the bolts prevent me from getting a socket on the lifter. I WOULD say take the cam towers out and pull the entire cam but the chain is already on! So now I'm at a point where I have to do things the wrong way. I took off half the rockers and I pray I can get them back on without having to lift the cam off... I don't think I will be able to though so I must find a chain holder. How do you guys suggest me putting the chain back on when there is tension in it? I'm pretty much ****ed at this point. ALSO! For the distributor and coil blah blah blah. I see that I have the ballast resistor under my coil but it isn't hooked up. I assume that because I am staying electric, I don't need this thing connected. I also assume that the tach will connect as usual. When you switch to MSD you have to get a different tach because the stock one reads pulses or something like that? I read about it in some other thread, all I know is that I want and need a tach for break in.

Lets talk distributors dudes. Because I'm not running a turbo I couldn't use the turbo distributor. I'm thinking it may have too much ignition retard for the boost. I didn't want to use my old distributor off the L24 spare because well... thats points... I see the E12-whatever type for all the guys that want to upgrade to electronic but I am still unaware of why it has to be that particular model, rather than some other electric one. I say this because earlier I had bought some other electric distributor which has the black module box on the inside rather than the outside like the E12 one. Problem though, which I should have remembered because I KNEW there was a catch to it. Back when I was selling my turbo setup someone had asked for the drive shaft thing from the oil pump to the dizzy. This is because there are 2 makes. 1 make for the non turbo's I'm guessing, which have just a straight key, the other one for the ZX and ZXT model I think which has a half moon shaped key, along with teeth to go into their respective grooves. Basically, I have to take my oil pump off and switch it out with the other shaft and hopefully it fits the pump. Another thing to note is that the turbo dizzy has a long snout at the bottom which compensates for a big metal spacer that the others need. Without the spacer the dizzy can't sit flush with the front timing cover. Here are some pictures of what I mean. Left: Electric dizzy from I don't know what car. Middle: '72 240z points dizzy (note the metal spacer at the bottom). Right: Turbo dizzy (note the long snout). Turbo Dizzy L24 dizzy with its respective shaft and the spacer bolted to the bottom. The dizzy bolts to the spacer, the spacer bolts to the block. To adjust the advance you turn the dizzy not the spacer. I'm sure you already knew this though. The dizzy I had bought. Hopefully it works well. It doesn't have the spacer on it so I will steal it from the L24. The end of the non turbo shaft. Bottom of the turbo dizzy (note the grooves for the teeth, and the half moon shaped key which is in the other motor). Turbo dizzy sits flush on the front cover. The other dizzy does not, this is why you need the block. So thats that... Apparently they couldn't order a new radiator like they said they could so we're going to go get it recored for less, which I'm not sure why we didn't do that in the first place. I ordered a nice 16" 2800cfm electric fan for $52 shipped and the correct flywheel. While I wait for them to arrive I need to open up the intake manifold to match ports, fix the oil pump shaft that I just talked about, finish painting my valve cover which looks good I must say. Wrinkle coated it black and I'll go back and paint the lines and letters red. OR I could spray the whole thing with a light coat of red and then make the lines and letters silver to match the blocks color scheme. Honestly, I don't care. I'm ready for this thing to be done.