Xnke

After re-watching some of Mull's videos, I saw how the shop he used repaired this area, as mine was in similar condition to his. After spending some time with the welder, hammer, snips, and angle grinder, it's coming along nicely, and will turn out just fine, I believe. Still have to remake those dumb rear-disk brackets...Aluminum worked fine, I just made four passenger side brackets. Now I'm out of material. I'll use steel this time...easier to heat and bend, and it is easier to move holes over with a welder...

I'm sure you can probably find one in the local yards, I hear people all the time from that area going to the JY and finding what I would call a treasure trove of parts. Other than that, I would try to go Greyhound when you ship it, it cost me 50$ to get a fender from Phoenix AZ to Bowling Green KY. UPS wanted almost 200$ for the same trip, in the same box.

I noticed that too. Only very rarely do I see dyno charts that don't have a dip somewhere between 3500 an 4000.

Here in KY, it's not commonly known that tailgating will get you a ticket, and two tickets for tailgating and you WILL automatically lose your license for a month, plus driving school. Unlike most moving violations in the state, there are a few (like this) that DON'T come off your record in a year. Also on the list of seldom known tickets in KY: Driving too slow (holding up traffic) Driving too fast for conditions (I.E., it's pouring snow, and you're doing 45 in a 65 zone, you get a ticket for this.) Driving in the left lane (as in not for passing, but just driving in it) Driving in the turn lane (I think the rule is more than 300ft of yellow=ticket, if it's a solid white line, no ticket.) Unfortunately, none of these, much like the blinker laws, really ever get enforced. If they did, the roads would be so much safer it's not even funny.

WOW....that's a huge cam there. .690" lift would support some HUUUUGE duration numbers.

Great job! I'm still working on the casting patterns for this. I have the main "block" pattern nearly complete, the "combustion chamber" core box is almost done, as are the core boxes for the ports. Still got to work out the new timing cover stuff and, well, basically everything from the ports up. Maybe two more years and I'll be packing sand again. When I do, the first good casting is getting shipped out to Phoenix. I probably ought to do a cast valve cover, too...we'll see. Sparks, I'm sure you noted that the wording fits much better like it is, since there is more space on the "top" side of the valve cover, due to the oil filler cap. Let us know when you hit 800. Because you know that in Japan, 750 isn't total overkill for a street car...(/pokes TonyD in the ribs)

Ok, So I have the floors, seat mounts, and a lot of the sound deadening down. I figure i'll fix that rusty dogleg now, and get it out of the way. rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeee. (drilling out spot welds) CRREEEEEEAKK. (peeling back metal.) OH MY. (oh my.) There is not much left under the outer skin. Lots of custom fab gonna be happening here.

Delta Cam, Tacoma Washington. I think it was 4$ a rocker last I checked, and it would have taken about a week to ship them in, a day to get them done, and a week back to me. Or if you own a surface plate, you can do them yourself, like i did.

...except that many of our members here run 20PSI and the stock gasket. If you have the car tuned correctly, with no detonation, then the stock gasket is fine. Do some searching around here and you'll find reports of stock headgaskets doing just fine at 20PSI and more. A metal headgasket on a suboptimal tune is just a piston breaker/rod bender/main bearing masher. I'm not saying that a stocker is gonna last forever, you'll possibly blow several getting the tune right unless you are tuning on the dyno, in which you *might* still blow one. With a metal gasket, you'll be on the verge of piston damage or worse whereas the paper gasket will greatly lessen the chance of internal damage. If it was me, I'd get it tuned up on a stock gasket, then after I drove it for a while and did some datalogging, I'd turn the wick up some until I either got to my power goal, or blew that paper gasket out.

Man, they look positively HUGE on the back of a Z. Right now, I'm not a big fan of the look, but when it's finished, or when you get them both mounted up, we'll see what I think. (not that it matters what I think, it's your car, and I can seriously appreciate the work you are putting into it.) The roll pan looks pretty dang good though, especially if you lifted the fuel cell up and put a diffuser in the gap. Not that it would do much aerodynamic good, being that high off the ground, but it would look pretty sweet.

I appreciate the links Grumpy, but they are basically the same as what I have already. A lot of numbers, but no real meaning. I'd like to try to put the numbers to work, meaning I need to know what numbers are for show, and what numbers are for working.

As long as you keep engine killing detonation at bay, you won't need to change the headgasket. a stocker is fine, as long as you are tuned right.

Usually, the KA trans (FS5W71C) will hold approx. 350WHP, if what I can find on the SX forums is reliable. Note that this transmission, in various forms, is used in the Z31 non-turbo, the 200SX non turbo and turbo versions, anything with an RB20, and in some SR20 powered vehicles. I don't know anything about the T-5 transmission.

Anyone here able to make good sense of this cam card? Essentially, this is the card for Delta Camshaft's 270/280 split duration cam. I have the straight 280 duration cam. For my purposes, I am to ignore the intake numbers on this card, and "reverse the exhaust numbers to get the intake". Anyone else able to help me read this card?

The stock headgasket has an 88mm bore, you are find with a stock bore gasket.

Ok, so I talked to Scott at Delta Cam today, and they had no idea that the cam was that oversold. I sent him my data, and he ran it against his data and a fresh cam grind, and agreed wholeheartedly that the cam they have been grinding for 25 years as a .480" lift cam really could only even theoretically achieve 0.450" lift! After years of hearing nothing but great reports about this cam, this is the first time he's actually personally run the numbers to figure out the lift figures. He's going to set up the fresh regrind on the measuring machine, and make out a new cam card to go with the cam. I should be receiving it shortly, via email. I'll post it up here for all others to see, as I'm sure there are more than just the two of us running this cam. Also, he offered to grind a new cam to the true 480 lift and 280 duration for me in the future, when I have the engine running, for my personal evaluation of the new cam profile. I explained that the engine would not be running for several months, and he said that would not be an issue, just call up when the time came and we'd get the details worked out. For now, I'll be running stock springs, and will have the Schneider springs and retainers ready when I go to the dyno with this cam and the as-yet-undelivered true "480/280" grind. I'll post before and after graphs, making sure to make minimum changes to other factors (fueling, timing, ect.)

Also noted in "How To Modify", ford valve keepers will also allow for thicker lash pads, as well as increasing retainer to stem seal clearance by a small amount.

I had a perfectly fine wipe pattern with the stock 0.120" lash pad, but it was cheated to the lifter side. Still had about .7mm to go before the cam ran off the rocker. I turned up a 0.050" spacer to fit in the dish in the bottom of the stock lash pad, giving me a 0.170" lash pad, and had a perfectly centered wipe pattern for all the intake valves, I would need a 0.175" pad for the exhausts as they are currently. Since the head is getting the valve guides replaced, the seats need to be recut anyway, so all the lash pad measurements I make now will be subject to change, and hopefully my machinist will get the intakes and exhausts equal. (currently, all the intakes are the same, and all the exhausts are the same, but the intake is not the same as the exhaust.) Pending the response from Delta cams, I will probably run the cam anyway. If I need more, I'll get a cam ground to a true .480"/284*.

Ok, so I installed and set up the cam this evening, just one chamber with stock valve, valve springs, valve seal, and retainer/keeper. I used a stock lash pad because it was on hand. Delta Camshaft grind # 280/480 Measured valve lift: 0.447" Duration at 0.050: 233* (pretty close to the 234* they claim, I'll call it good.) LSA: 108* With the stock springs, I had 0.049" clearance between coils, so the springs are not coil bound. This is a plus. On the other hand, the misrepresentation kinda upsets me, but I guess I can get over it. I can always get another cam later, I will be using the Ford Fel-pro seals and since I have a new set of stock valve springs that I forgot completely about, (I found them in unopened Nissan boxes in the driver's side tool box/hidden compartment) I will use those for now. I don't plan to really be hammering on the car on the street, but I do plan to take it to the track for some test 'n tune sessions after it's broken in. If I go with a higher cam later, I'll swap the springs out for the Schneiders. Hopefully I'll find this cam agreeable. Zmanco, do you have your notes on the rest of your head setup? Assuming stock components, flat top pistons in 0.030 oversize, and a stock headgasket, this puts you at 9.2:1 compression. You say you still had ping at 4-5KRPM, and had to pull timing to get rid of it. If I run my head as is, no shave, I'll end up at 8.8:1 static compression ratio. (valve unshrouding produced a 46.6cc chamber) I wonder how much timing I'll have to pull to get it to run correctly? 10*? Less? More? Who knows. I'll just put it together and find out, I guess.

A stock "A grind" cam lift is .397". I wish that cam companies would at least measure the things something close to standard, not picking some exotic rocker arm ratio, or custom lifter, etc. Makes me wonder how the MSA cams are measured...if they are at least using stock nissan rocker arms, they would be better than this. EDIT: I went to Schneider Racing Cams website and apparently, the MSA camshafts are designed for a 1.48 rocker arm ratio. The closest Schneider cam grind is the 274F, with a 0.480" lift and 274 duration (215 duration at 0.050"), on a 107 degree lobe center. I emailed Delta Camshaft to confirm the lift and duration and get the right information as to rocker ratio that they use. If they are really designing for a 1.6 ratio rocker, then they need to say so, and we as possible customers need to know such. I'll probably call all the other common cam regrinders that get talked up on HybridZ and get that information as well, this kind of stuff can make or break a purchase desicion.

If you can handle the mechanics of a swap, you could fix the internals. it's just having the room to lay it all out when you need to, and making sure it's all CLEAN.

Yes, ideally you would. At the time, I was dead set on a shaved P79 with 1mm over flat top pistons, until my P79 head was declared trash by inspection and my block needed a 2mm bore to clean out the rust that the PO had allowed to collect in the bores. (I bought it understanding that it had been recently bored and honed to 87mm, but never had been used. I didn't know it was bored probably two years prior, and never oiled.) After that, finding a piston that wasn't 600$ for a set and a head that didn't have the water jackets so badly eaten up that the jacket leaked into the ports or didn't seal to the block was so hard I said screw it, put the cam back on the shelf, bought a set of ITM 1mm oversize Z22S pistons, used a set of L24 rods and a lightened and balanced L28 crank, and bought a running condition N42 head off a local to me member here. I'm just trying to get this engine back together with a minimum of problems and a maximum of fun-daily-driver. Zmanco, is it really that over-sold? I bought it because of the .480" lift! I figured the extra lift would help it breath while keeping the duration short enough that I wouldn't have too many idle problems. On the other hand, will it work with the stock springs and retainers? I have the Fel-pro Ford valvle seals, so really I'm asking about coil bind issues. I suppose I could set up the head with the cam in it and check, but if it doesn't work with the stock springs, and it's oversold by .080", I'll send it back and they will either refund my money or regrind it to a true .480" lift. Looks like I'll be setting up for a 9.7:1 compression ratio, and since I'm using Megajolt and EDIS6 for timing control, I'll just deal with any detonation as I get there.

Yeah, premium fuel here is 93 octane, and even that is not always available. The car is to be a daily driver, at least for a while. The relatively large camshaft is due to it already being on hand, although I have several A stamp cams and one F stamp stock cam available as well. I'm wondering if 9.7:1 should be a decent stopping point, I can always shave the head again later but it's much harder to put metal back on...doable, and I have done it, but it's much harder...

Great information guys, this was exactly what i was looking for. I was thinking 9.7:1 compression as a target, as I'll get this with a 40cc chamber and a Fel-pro gasket. Will 10:1 be controllable since I have zero quench in my piston/head configuration? I like to run 87 or 89 around here, because the corvette crowd (made over on the other side of town from me, so there are LOTS here) runs the price for 93 octane waaaaay up in the summer. it's 60-80 cents more a gallon than 89, and they run out of 93 here a lot too in the summer. I have an EDIS setup going in with Megajolt controlling it, and will be running a pair of modified SU carbs. (8mm flatted throttle shafts, instead of 10mm rounds, and eventually custom needles.) I figure that should get me good fueling and ignition timing control, so hopefully the PING with my NO QUENCH setup can be handled. I was wanting to go with an MN47 head with custom dished pistons, but just could not find a set of cast pistons with the right pin configureation, diameter, and a flat top to start out with.

Ok, so it's time to get my head milled down to the chamber size I need. All the port work is done, and My N42 now has 46.5cc chambers. My pistons are 88mm diameter and have a 9.32cc dish. I have a stock L28 stroke, and L24 rods. I have a Delta .480" lift 284* duration camshaft. I do not offhand know the lobe separation angle, or lift at 0.050". My cam did NOT come with a cam card, oddly enough. Now, I know from reading here that the stock N42/F54 block combinations run at about 10.3:1 compression, and ping on 93 octane. I also know that a big cam bleeds off static compression untill higher in the rev range, and needs a higher static ratio to keep the low end around. How do I determine the compression ratio needed for the camshaft and piston/head configuration I have? Is there a magic constant that is used, say, for 260* duration, 9:1 is ok, for 270* duration, you need 9.5:1 or higher, for 280* duration you gotta have 10:1 or higher, etc?