Tony D

My little box full of clocks may have just become interesting to me.... 5 years in Japan pulling clocks out of dashboards for 100Yen each along with the funky little silver box on the back... Hmmmm, even with the depressed yen rate (was 268 for most of that time, making those clocks .50 cents in 1985 dollars) that may look like a good payback...

Oh, this reminds me to go look and see what Andy has been doing with my donated H1 in the LSR Car... I will have to get one of these for my helmet to make manual-arts training videos. Great tool, our guy here in Australia has some awesome training videos doing it that way! And of course, the "Send me to Jail for videotaping my own stupidity" aspect is also just as appealing as ever!

There was a big national story on street racing and 31 cars being impounded and crushed for 'illegal engine swaps' over in the (ironic) old Riverside Raceway property which is now a mall. The guys were busted for racing, bad enough.... But most of the Honda Motorsport Enthusiasts at the time had illegally-swapped B-Series Engines in their vehicles. OOPS! Like John C says, don't do stupid stuff, and they largely ignore you. Put Antique Vehicle Plates on it and you are exempted from reporting engine swaps until such time as the vehicle is transferred (read the CVC guys....this isn't rocket science...) When you go in knowing what the laws are, and write the properly worded statement of fact, the Supervisor just looks sideways at you with an accusatory "This says everything it needs to say to exempt you from all those back fees..." and then they grudgingly erase those $700+ back fees and give you your plate and title. You've given us nothing to go on, what engine, what year car, and did you (as John suggests) do it in a BAR-Compliant way? If so, it doesn't MATTER what they find, if you're legal, you're legal. And it's FAR more satisfying to have them apologize than to be a dic and have your car impounded for attitude!

If you look at what Jenvey does now, they have basically replicated this kind of plenum/diffuser design for their 4 cylinder turbo plenum. What more do you want though, it's been made, done. Now maybe it will be cast instead of machined. Jenvy's is....

HAHAHAHA!! Gira is about 15 Minutes from my local Distributor in Bangkok, whenever I buy anything, I don't pay any shipping, they deliver it within the hour to the shop on a scooter! Now, when someone makes a trip out the construction site, they just take the stuff and throw it into "Kuhn Tony's Container" there!

Nice replica attempted to be shown here is 40,000 Yen from Car Shop Jalopy (Nisisan) He does nice GTR work as well! Nisisan and Okamurasan (my co-conspirator for 'convenient customer visits nearby')

The car is my buddy Jim's. I did the setup while he was in CA, before he moved to AZ. The kickdown modulator had a vacuum switch pot on it that delayed kickdown somewhat, and by adjusting the pedal height, it didn't kick down all the time. Little solace when the guys smogged it in Chandler and it jumped the rollers into the fan and doinked his hood.

The screw is Nissan, no screw like yours looks like Toyota. There ARE chrome/stainless OE Mirrors for the S30, and they were available in the Nissan Motorsports catalog at one time (they were actually cheaper than the black ones, then mysteriously they started costing more...) Ordering that P/N will get you stainless/chrome S30 mirrors. But those, a mix of chromed mirror section and black stalks? Not Nissan.

We all missed the fact that the G-Nose came with an undertray, streamlined the whole works back to behind the tranny! I'd seen sketches and knew there was a part number, saw my first one January of this year.... It would have made quite a difference, when you see the whole works together you realize how badly the reproduction G-Noses (one piece) handle airflow! Thanks for the ping and refresh Mike!

40phh's from LA to PHX in an Autobox 74 Fairlady Z running a 4.11 rear gear... Got 28mpg at a steady 55-65mph Only thing you want to do is get your throttle pedal positioned correctly with the linkage setup, if it's too low to the floor the kickdown will be activated quite a bit. Uh, that may not be a bad thing...

I'll add to this necropost that Nathan at BC Gerolamy has ceased doing L-Engine Heads. What Nathan couldn't get, his dad could. The last two heads done by them are in the possession of Mr. Priddy. The "Fat Old White Guys" are slowly petering out, or fading away. Someone with a 5Axis Profiler might be well advised to jig up someone's head to be able to reproduce this stuff some day in the future...

Cut your nipples off.

That is something I brought out to our Technical Manuals Section. They simply responded by deleting our traditional "Chapter 4 Maintenance and Inspection" in lieu of "Contact your local Authorized Service Representative" What does that mean? Now our Distributors call ME to get the skinny on how to do it, and train the new guys to do it. Mark up one for the Technical Writers, the successfully turfed it to Technical Services. We can't say "put it together the way you took it apart" ... especially after witnessing HOW some of these guys take stuff apart! To be honest, our older manuals were pretty good with at least someone taking the time to list in reverse order the disassembly procedure and telling you when you had to take clearance checks and stuff... But it was generic. There are tricks to getting a 4,500 HP bearing out that you don't need to know on an 800 HP bearing assembly (one being a crane isn't helpful on an 800 HP Bearing Set, but is a lifesaver on the 242# 4,500 HP unit!)

But the Icing Phenomenon IS.... Triples don't do it because the THIN CASTING of the carbs lets exhaust heat them almost instantly. SU's have an issue because of all the crap in the way that prevent it. That is a consolidation of my previous bug-fodder post. *Edit* actually, even in the EFI engine, Icing is a concern, as well as gumming of the throttle plate from PCV Residues---it's why the stock TB's have heat to them as well---keeps the JT-Effect at bay when at low-angle openings. (also from the prior bug-fodder post.)

2 Liter Turbo? 680HP... The L28 will require you to use pistons of appropriate pin height (or Rods) so the pistons don't "pop out" from the longer stroke. If you can get an L28 Crank, you can bore the block to use L24 pistons or possibly L28 pistons depending on the cores in your engine. It was common to do an internal parts swap in Japan to keep the Shaken-Sho inspectors off you---the engine SAYS it's an L20, that's good enough for them! With a 2 Liter, you don't want the .63 A/R, keep your .48 that is already on there, just have the housing cut for the new wheel you want to use. The stock L20ET is 145HP, you can get to the higher number easy enough, but you want a compressor that flows better, and a cam with larger lift to flow better under boost. That engine will turn to 7,000 all day long with that short stroke, get a higher lift low overlap cam....and a turbo that flows better with the smaller A/R. Maximise the rpm useable range and you will have a fun car to drive. The .48 A/R will have you spooling on the L20 by 2500, and if you cut with a different wheel for better flow only slightly higher. 1Bar at 2700rpms will pull nicely with a cam that 'comes on' at 3500-4000 and pulls to 6800, 7000 will be a blast and make the 250 if you do some pocket work on the head (gas flowing)...even with the smaller stock valves! But that cam needs more lift, and slightly different timing to move the operational band to the rev ability of the stock piston set. Cheers!

I have a second vote for OSPHO, on a red scotchbrite pad. THEN you can use red scotchbrite and lacquer thinner. Lacquer thinner will never get corrosion in scratches, OSPHO will leave truly bare metal with no corrosion. I prefer it over naval jelly which will also work, but IMO OSPHO cleans off easier/better. Good Luck! *Edit* Well, the three part series by my friend Pete... It's a nice idea, that Vinegar Water. I'll still ike OSPHO or going with dilute Phosphoric/Hydrochloric Acid. The difference between that Vinegar-Rust Conversion and OSPHO/Dilute HCL is that all the metal is that "clean sterilized white" color, there won't be any of that black "converted rust"... That is a nice series of videos, but I was a bit turned off at the negative marketing. I don't know how they do it in Texas, but using OSPHO is pretty standard stuff, I can't think of a shop that doesn't do it. So maybe it's a regional warning.

i had a nice long detailed response written, and the forum bug ate it. Not going through that again... My examples were just that, examples so you could see the dynamics at play. They are the same things happening in the L-Manifolds. Remove the heat, you run with the starter engaged for quite a bit longer than if it's working properly. Consequences of that are known to be negative. Don't take things too literally, but rather understand the forces at work. If it wasn't necessary for a majority of the vehicles, it wouldn't be there, it would be a field fit as-needed basis.

I've done that to VW's on engine stands mounted to benches. That nice rear pulley... You can always get the generator/fan belt on at idle simply enough...

This 'icing' thing IS an issue even when 'warm'... At 90 degrees and high humidity you run a BIG RISK of icing! My VW would ice like a GDMF with the single Solex 32 NDIX Carb on it--that plenum manifold beneath it would get a 5-10mm thick ICE BALL stuck on it (and this was inside the engine compartment of a VW!!!) The later Carbed cars had the thermostat that shut off the flow to the manifold, but maintained a smaller passage through the carburettors to the base of them where the fuel passes under the throttle plate. This will get very cold especially at high vacuum (low opening angle) operations. Remember, this is a COOLANT flow, and those carbs COOL that on the way back to the inlet (same as a heater does when running with the fan on!) The recirculation volume is insignificant as long as the matter reintroduced is COOL and doesn't up the inlet temperature to the water pump. Loop it directly and you lead to overheating issues. Start your car, open your heater to HOT all the way, and keep the fan OFF. Go blast down the road and watch how hot your car gets. In fact it can contribute to a thermostat sticking or sluggishly opening as so much water is shunted off the back of the engine back to the inlet the stagnant flow in the thermostat housing area (if your small external bypass is blocked off) that it stays cool and the thermostat doesn't open! Which gives ANOTHER reason to leave that incremental flow through the 8mm pipe: without it, before the car opens up the thermostat, there is no way for the hot water to GET TO the thermostat housing and the element to warm it and cause it to crack other than the 2mm bleed hole present in the stock thermostat. If you run a Chevy thermostat, without punching that hole? You may see symptoms that LOOK like a thermostat sticking, but in reality with no carb heat circuit, and no 2mm weep hole, you have set up a system with no flow other than convection to the thermostat sensing bulb! To prevent cavitation, the internal single bypass can handle the engine idling till warm. You just don't want to rev it very high. You will also note that on the later ZX's there is a shunt AROUND the heater core---that supplementary poppet valve? That will open if you start the car, and rush off to highway speed before attaining thermostat cracking temperature. Seems Nissan Engineers realized the two internal bypasses were NOT sufficient volume to allow for anti-cavitation action, and added that valve on the ZX series. I retrofit it to mine since I tend to start and blast off without waiting myself. I'm such an impatient American... "Ahh, screw it, just run without a thermostat, you don't need it!"

Don't try it drunk or with slippery oil coated leather soles! You need vibram or something grippy in good shape. I did it ONCE with a tennis shoe, but it almost tore the shoe off my foot! You slip with a leather sole, and your knee can come down pretty darned hard on that ring gear. And that can be a real pain if you managed to get it started at the same time. "THIS PROCEDURE NOT OSHA-COMPLIANT!"

Damn, I had the 240 into Long Beach last week for the D2P show at the convention center. And that one got my gas paid because it was 'company mileage' ... now I'm leaving on Sunday for points west and won't be back till December. I thought this was all taken care of and done! Then again, it's about 90 miles one-way... 4.5 one way, so 9 gallons of gas to get there and back, $5.50 a gallon before octane booster... $6.50 after...WOAH! That adds up quickly, don't it! Another excuse for Telecommuting this week! I actually have a 'dead' 240 in the back, but they would have to send a truck to get it, and then return it when done. I don't have the courtesy tow any longer otherwise that would be an easy task to accomplish!

Oh if only I could get one here... The article says VW is having issues... Another colossal blunder stopping production of the air-cooled beetle in 2003. A platform with tooling bought and paid for with infrastructure worldwide. They were selling in Mexico for $6,000 out the door then. I can only imagine the profit margin on each one sold! Move the production facility from Mexico to India, and they would DECIMATE the mini-car market. For the price and size, that would be a killer offering. For now, I guess I will have to just fantasize about a Chery QQ or PeroDua 850 Turbo....

Check the troubleshooting table in the FSM for 'low power output'... It's right above a 'troubleshooting' for "Excessive Power Output". I see one problem there that needs to be fixed, personally... not two!

EVERY CARB NEEDS IT'S INTERNAL RETURN SPRING! You pop off a linkage and have one or two carbs stick at WOT and you will see the importance of this! Lazeum is correct, your linkage from Nissan is an over-center design that uses weight to help return the pedal and linkage to the closed position. The springs in the carbs are your SECONDARY SAFETY to close the carbs should a linkage break. Adding a third spring may be required by some bodies in racing because they don't consider the carb springs adequate as a safety. Really all it does is make the pedal heavier. If you have it set up right, they close fine with just the internal springs, and possibly the crossbar on the linkage connected with the manifold. Internal, crossbar, and overcenter design should be more than enough. Remove one, and you're asking for tragedy IMO.

Someone else has done this I see!