Tony D

"'TKS 33 SA 4150' - which now lives in Nissan's 'DNA Garage' at Zama )was a replica. " Thanks for that bit Alan, I was comparing some shots I had of the car and some historical stuff I had and was having a hell of a time reconciling amongst other things lack of damage in some areas, and what appeared to be a 'mobile' decal for the number! It makes a lot more sense now.

I often found after balling paint the cleanup was excessive. I chose to stick with sheep afterwards.

Do you believe I carry two spare batteries in my backpack? Usually if I'm not with my backpack, there is at least one spare battery in my pocket! Nothing sucks more than running out of batteries!

Our company charges $2,500 for a "check and balance" on a rotating assembly when we do a cleaning and inspection in the factory. If a customer installs that assembly WITHOUT using our "check and balance" service, they're on their own. We will not take responsibility for rotating assemblies that leave our factory without our balancing being done. They wreck it, we get $30,000 to sell them a new rotating assembly. Plus the other wrecked parts. They have us balance and it wrecks, we are on the hook for the repair. Our stuff only turns 17-54,000 RPMs, you think one turning 120,000 doesn't need it? Compare the costs above...my bet is the ratios are similar. Would you spend 2,500 to protect 30,000? Drop a couple of zeros and the same question remains...

Disagree, there is a net BENEFIT to the rebuilder balancing them. They don't make money on the balancing, but they avoid massive warranty liability exposure down the road from vibration related failures from the products they put out with their name and warranty on...

I can give an example: partial throttle high speed cruise on drop- throttle with 19" Vacuum under the throttle plate, but 8psi (even for a second)---your compressor stage discharge temperature will quickly spike from the. 5:1+ compression ratio across the stage. Without the modern bypass valves it becomes easy to understand why "wet" blowers have explosions...your outlet temp spikes to 500F+!!! this is universally most of these kits use bypasses on long term kits...the decrease in parasitic losses is great..but the avoidance of that potential ignition source makes for far less litigation! LOL

Not to beg the seemingly obvious, but custom Ford 9" setups and weld-in four-link universal back-half setups are available through the major vendors. If you want to run steamroller tires, converting to a dedicated dragrace rearend won't really make you suffer too much on the short trips to and from the track (or on and off the trailer!) Compare the prices of this route compared to the other routes... Especially when F9" stuff shows on EBay regularly, and your ratios are cheap and virtually unlimited! Just a thought. Unless you're limited to the the 'stock' rearend by some rule requirement, why reinvent the wheel?

Now on my computer I can see the #46 car you had seems to have the external jacking points, while both of the others have unsullied rockers definitely meaning 'replica'! Never get too excited, always focus on getting photos. My prime sin is forgetting to turn the overall shots to 'high megapixel' when shooting stuff I will need to refer to later. I was literally laying on my back at the edge of the ropes straining to lay my camera on "10MP" under the car and snapping shots of the undercarrige and stuff like the bumper brackets from the backside. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO close to me reaching in, opening the unlocked door, and going to town on the interior until someone came up and "Escorted" me out of the HQ... It crossed my mind, and I was getting frustrated at the glare on the perspex when a Japanese guy walked up to me and kind of understatedly said "You Like Fairrady Z? I have a Bruebird Coupe..." Were it not for him interrupting my concentration...I was to the point of "When will I get this opportunity again?" Rationalizing! Of course having unfettered access to the real thing in the Pig Barn is different. This is one unchanged and unaltered... MAN I wanted those interior shots! For nothing else, to assist in the repositioning of the internals correctly in the secreted Pig Barn version!

"I once saw a rotary turbo 510 that could run 200mph." By whose documentation and claim. I'd call B.S. on that one. "Could Run" is not a valid claim. My 73 240 'could' run the same speed as our Bonneville car with the turbo engine in it...but it won't. Ever run a 510 at 150mph? Much less 200... Bummer on the head gasket. As stated above, a compressed gasket that was used in a running engine is best kept on the wall for pre-final assembly mockup and checking of clearances. Having it precompressed and lightly assembling the head to the known distance is a proven technique. Good Luck with the machinist. I know Norm did his piston clearancing on the concrete driveway using sandpaper!

LOL, yep..."that would explain it!"

If the car won't start without the CSV you got FAR more problems than wet plugs! It should start with a tad bit more of cranking, at most, without a CSV. After it starts, operation without a CSV is exactly the same. All the CSV does is provide a 'priming pulse' akin to squirting fuel down the stacks on a mechanical Hillborn or Enderle system. After the intital firing, atomization at the injectors sustains all fueling needs. Actually, there are some EFI Datsun/Nissans that did not come with a CSV if you look. It is not necessary for starting the car. At all. Ever. It really is an 'insurance holdover' from Gen1 Bosch Systems with the smaller EPROM. There is sufficient processor and memory in our Gen2 Licensed units to accomodate 'priming pulse' from the injectors, and it was incorporated in some vehicles (with no CSV Present!) The Gen3 did away with it forevermore. It was eliminated due to extended cranking causing hard starting and wet fouling issues in temperate climates when battery voltage was low, or other ignition issues caused extended cranking and flooded the intake with CSV-Supplied fuel.

Less words, more photos. "Pin" could be almost anything in the context you described.

"Ain't nothin' broke you can't fix, just a matter 'how much you wanna pay." Harold Steiffel, Bayport Machine LaPorte Texas 1992 I have found over the years Harold was right.

How long do you crank it to get it started? The longer you crank, the more the CSV pumps in. Unless they are dried put like I suggested, it could NE three or more days till they dry out to jump spark to the electrode. What you have now is wet fouled plugs. They WILL NOT fire the engine, so either dry them, or replace them and start checking from there.

I'd buy any old 40s or 50s era cast iron American Made Machine Tool used in most cases... Before buying most of the newer stuff. CNC's retrofit with amazing ease!

345/45-15's on 15X13's in the back, 295/575R-14's on 14X10's in the front... "Stance"? That was what my car was rolling on in 1985!

I would HIGHLY recommend the spark module upgrade in that case! The assumption on optical triggering is also correct. It will trigger on first light consistently, while a hall effect or reluctor magnet based system has to have a consistent rise to trigger point...and depending on RPM it doesn't. There are also RPM limitations on magnetic pickups which is why most are monuted on the flywheel and or crank pulley. The resolution afforded by the physical limitations of the triggering 'spike' to pass the coil pickup will loose resolution after about 4000 distributor RPMS and start having errant triggering issues. In comparison, the STOCK NISSAN Z32 optical trigger showed absolutely rock solid triggering to 12,000 DISTRIBUTOR RPMS! (that's to 24,000 engine RPMS!!!) Optical is really the way to go for consistent triggering in a distributor-sized package. Magnets work fine on the pulley or flywheel, but they will have limitations in the smaller diameter distributor housing. More useless knowledge from yours-truly!

Keep in mind if the engine is cold, the COLD START INJECTOR will spray as long as the car is in the 'crank' position. You can easily flood the hell out of the engine to the point of wet plugs like this. Same goes for the loose thermal sensor for the ECU in the thermostat housing (or CHT depending on model/year...) REpair or check those items (I remove/clamp off the fuel to the cold start and disconnect the plug.), then crank over the engine with the plugs out---I tend to stick a propane torch flame in there and BOOM it out individually... then heat each plug till the electrode time glows red and the orange flame stops coming off it. Install quickly and try again. 9 times out of 10 the engine will then fire off and you can 'clean it out' by some judicious throttle work. If the manifold is particulary gunked up with PCV residue from 176,000+ miles of deposition then being solvent washed by a lot of gasoline, this process may take a while...and it's a prime time to clean the intake with Seafoam and then do an oil change! Good Luck!

Relays take care of all that business. The only thing running through the whole system then is the amperage of the RELAY and not the lights!

Modern-Schmodern! The Chrysler "Lean Burn" emissions engines of the 70's were running 19:1 and higher with heavy catalyst work to scrub the leftovers... I would only Parrot what Leon had to say otherwise... In response to the 'fix the NOx' issue, that is if you are compliant with Emissions. Actually the graph was posted by Rayaap on the relationship between the exhaust gasses. The leanest burn with the highest NOx is very close to the lowest point for HC/CO... This is how you can lean out the SU's to pass to catalyzed standards save for NOx. With modern EGR theories, cooling that EGR allows for MUCH heavier recycling of the gas to allow the engines to run in this AFR region for naturally low emissions (as opposed to running closer to Stoch--in essence WASTING FUEL in order to leave enough to support catalytic action combustion!) and then just pump EGR to lower the combustion temp and drop NOx to a catalyst capable level. Water injection works to do this, but the effect is also do to some cracking of the steam vapor into H2 and CO. "Fixing" NOx really has been the job of the catalyst as the tradeoffs are pretty complex interactions. If they do it pre-catalyst, it usually involves HEAVY EGR usage. And that in the past has heated everything up causing other problems. Now with those coolers pirated from a Diesel...you could probably recirc a WHOLE LOT MORE EGR and drop that NOx quite low without that problem. Of course, you then have to amply modify your coolant system to handle the rejection of the EGR cooler running all the time.

Mine was a mechanical failure, to this day I have never had any aftermarket optical pickup units I've installed fail.I have had one reflector-based system fail. That puts me squarely in the optical trigger camp, The caveat tells me the Unilite is a 6V component-the resistor limits current in the switching module NOT the coil, universal application over all years. Every other one I've installed either works off 12V, or has a special part number for 6V application. For this reason, that would make two strikes AGAINST using the Unilite... Really, buying the advance kit is the only thing that is easy about this distributor. Using a stock dizzy with a standard optical trigger to a MS triggering MS-n-S is the way I would do it now, the advance curve will fo things you only DREAMED it could do with weights and springs...

The Mallory can be altered with the centrifugal weights somewhat easier than the Hitachi unit in there stock. Mine took a dump fairly quickly, and I've been Hitachi or distributorless since. I was going to ask if the instructions came with the dizzy, it was a complete breeze when I did my swap back when this was basically the only alternative... Looks like the same instructions, too. The wiring is exactly like most other aftermarket ignition triggers: RED=12V Ignition on, Coil + (CURRENT LIMITED WITH RESISTOR on this unit-a weakpoint IMO) GREEN= Coil - BROWN= Block/Chassis Ground That hasn't changed in 27 years...

I peg that photo circa 1976, definitely post-75 from the styling queues present! I remember that... Mesh shirts... Late 70's for sure!!!

I'll get around to scanning my negatives someday... Someday... There's over 15,000 of them, some have to be of cars.

That is a replica. Current registration car, the number plate is TKS 330 (not 33) and has NO as the prefix, instead of SA to the plate tag number 4150. If it was REALLY stored and registered in Japan, the plate would be unchanged in regards to the 330/33 Tax Class. Likely this is an unknown car tagged appropriately. The 330 was not incorporated until the 90's. Could be a rally car from another venue, the VIN would tell, all the competitors were registered with FIA and it's a simple matter of accessing the records online to determine if it was ever raced under FIA jurisdiction. And yeah, I'm the guy snapping VIN numbers on cars like this!!! If the hood is open, HELL YES!!!