Tony D

I was very happy with my L20ET turbocharger and exhaust manifold on my N/A L28 conversion...

The chassis I ship to Europe are bought with a specific criteria: If at all possible get cars that have not been worked on or restored. They just don't want surprises when they come out of the acid dip. Many times the body work put into these cars, being 'cheap jap crap' just wasn't up to par, and for someone competition prepping the bodies, it all ends up usually needing to be done over. I have gotten cars that looked like the front half was run over by a semi because they wanted spares for some of the stuff they previously prepped and was involved in shunts at the track. When you buy a 'desert car' like in the photo, where you can see the body is all original, the paint having simply erroded off over time and exposure... You have all the ills revealed. There should be no surprises. You know what you got and it's an acid dip away from starting prep for paint. Now you got one all shiny and painted up...you NEVER KNOW what is under there. It may LOOK great... I remember a Box Skyline I worked on in Japan. The ENTIRE rear of the car had bondo on it---from the paint job on it you could never tell. Nice job, but instead of clipping the car or putting new quarters on it, they simply banged it all out close and skim coated everything with polyfill. Some places like the "Godzilla Arch" were almost entirely constructed out of bondo---close to 10mm thick! Car LOOKED GREAT. Buyer paid a premium over other cars that were 'tired looking' with faded paint and good interiors because car buyers are like crows: "They like shiny things" Me, I'm no crow. I'm more like a racoon, I'll take my catch down to the river and wash it before I get too involved with it! Maybe bring a bag of tools and a tasty beverage with me and make a day of it!

Chris' setup goes like the Trust Exhaust from Japan, as well as the stock Z432 Setup---those pipes should utilize the 'double bumps' inthe diffy x member to tuck up tighter, and then exit on either side of the diffy. That MSA ran them under I guess makes sense for someone doing a 280 witout the cutouts. But I like Chris' exhaust much better. I gotta check that out further!

Im not flaming by any means but it's been my experience that people GROSSLY overbuild turbo motors for the HP they expect. Like forged pistons on a 300HP L28. Foolish waste of money IMO. Same for balancing the bottom end, it's a turbo and won't exceed stock rpm limits so with parts simply weight matched, stock balance will be intact. Frankly IMO for 200HP on an L20A, you could keep everything longblock stock, and slap the RB25 turbo on there with an IC and some fuel control. That would do it. A gas flowed head would make more power at lower boost, but if it's cheap you want, and you have a decently performing N/A L20...don't screw up the mix! My L28 came from a corporate Cedric, and I boosted it with uncracked head gasket to 350HP and have run well over 40K miles yet with nary a complaint. And I'm not running the best petrol either, I keep waiting for it to die in some unexpected manner, but it just keeps going and going and going like the energizer bunny. My opinion on building the L is that most people shortcut components and end up with less of an engine than before the y started! Yeah, doing it 'right' is expensive, but for 200HP on an L20A, stock bottom end is more than adequate.

"I figure weight is the biggest performance booster and plan on going with fiberglass fenders, bumpers and hood." You figured wrong, take the L28, turbo it to 300HP, and leave your expensive fiberglass parts at their vendor. The performance 'increase' you will see compared to the crash integrity, and simple creature comforts you dispense with will make for a miserable car to drive compared to the Mustang GT. My 73 240Z ran well enough with 350HP at the rear wheels, with a full interior and a tuck-n-roll headliner to boot. You can turbo the L26 as well, but you got the L28 why not use it nobody will know the difference.

Just found this photo on my cousin's facebook page. Apparently she shares the same sense of irony that I do:

Oh, I missed that... Michigan won't renew your license if you get one in CA. But you simply go in and renew at the SS office. Same in CA. Having to work outside the USA for 247 days last year, 'residency' gets sketchy. In the end, having an address in Michigan, and a driver's license in California can lead to a 'Garaging Address'...

"People don't rebuild a car from the ground up to turn a profit, they just do it because they love to." Some do it to turn a profit, and that they love to do it is an aside. If you have the right business head about it, you can do that. Most guys have too much 'love' and not enough business sense. Much as everybody would love to restore a Z, the costs will be higher than the sale price. Now, my 62 Microbus? I could pay someone to do it ground-up first class and still sell it at a profit given their selling price now. Sitting next to it a 1970 Opel GT---love the car, but face it...anything I put into it will be a hole, no payback whatsoever. Similarly Corvairs (which sit nearby)--- most you will spend on a pristine resto will likely be under $20K, and you can easily spend that on a resto. Likely a looser no matter which way you do it. But a Bel Air, like a VW Microbus, or some other 'icon' vehicles can sell for stupid money. If you are a business minded individual, and pick the cars based on their selling price when completed, you can make money at it. The guy who painted the ZZ Top Eliminator while working at Boyd's shop (the late Dennis Graham) went on his own and worked ONLY on pre 65 vehicles. He would routinely flip Belairs and 210's that were picked up in the local desert for $2500-3000 and sell them off in the $25K range. He had a formula that worked, the market was stable, steady. Someone ALWAYS wanted one. So no matter what was in his shop that was on 'piecework', there was always the bread and butter box somewhere on it's way to a custom-resto to be sat in a parking lot somewhere and sold for anywhere between $25 and 30K. It was a done deal, they never sat around long. Now $25K S30? It's gonna sit for a while. Someone eventually may come along and want it for that price... but not with the frequency of a Belair. And a Z31? Hell I wouldn't give you scrap value for that hulk. Paying money to tow it from the yard will put you in a hole deeper than you will climb out of, much less if you tried to restore it! No matter how muh Kiwi you put on that one, everybody is still going to smell it... And know it's still a polished turd!

Why when I look at that, I see him asking "That got a Hemi?" I just see him in an old Dodge...

"The inattentive driver would be rewarded with a subpoena to appear in court instead of a manslaughter charge...." That is not what the article says, and goes right along with the existing stopping of the 2 or 3 second red light runner. It's not the guys that come through right when the light changes... it's the guys that boil through with cars in the intersection. Neither of these systems stop that. Neither will the countdown timer. Inattentive drivers are one thing. The countdown timer will help those, and that is the largest margin out there. Going after frsctions is diminishing returns. Hate to say it but 'not every life is sacred'... There are accidents that you should not try to preent, it becomes unreasonable to try and do so, and there is nothing you can do change those outcomes. It's random variation, special circumstances. The real answer is better driver education, and stricter licensing of drivers. Not dumbing down everything to the nth degree. I can go with giving people the information on how much time they have. But changing the light pattern...in conjunction without letting other drivers know the light timing has changed? Don't like that idea at all. I think 'the other countries' where it's been tested have far higher standards for getting a license than here, and therefore the experience will be vastly different than what we would get here in the USA. Think of it as giving a lit match to an EOD Tech in front of a Dynamite Bunker, and giving one to Beavis and Butthead. Both guys have the same lit match, what the results will be 30 seconds later will be vastly different! "huh huh huh, hey butthead, the light changed colors." "Cool!" Vroooom! I mean, these people are out there!

There you have it, 200HP Turbo makes for a long running engine. A 200HP turbo 2 liter is pretty common as you know. Now I do have a 205 rwhp L20A in an S30... But it makes that power at 8750 rpms. Not exactly streetable. Similarly our L28 makes 320 to the rear wheels, and thats at 8250 rpms. Kind of down on power on our two-liter, but that's due to low compression. If you can't get an L28 to make the 200HP,an L26 will get you close N/A, but it's crankshaft HP. With a turbo (use some of that stock RB Cast-Off Stuff like turbo...) and you can make that 200 to the rear wheels with a little boost and not fuss a lot with the L20 you can get easily enough. Though like you said, RB20DE's are all over the place!

That's a production variance, for sure. This is one of those things you look for when building a performance engine. The closer you look, the more suprised you will be!

Actually for that price that is not bad. The car will be worth far more than the restoration costs. Chevy stuff is cheap.Most every panel on that car is available. Then again, it was also THICK metal, and you can acid dip it and still have more than enough metal to fillcoat and smooth and it will look just fine. That looks like many a 'desert car' here in SoCal, and they go for anywhere between 1500 and 3000 depending on if they run or not. A Chevy Belair 210 is a bit different than a rusted S30 in Jersey. You would be better with this car from the desert than one with no rockers and frame rust from Jersey. Same thing applies: start with the best you can find. They aren't making them any more, and that one looks relatively solid. It's a project. Some rattle can black primer and it's a rat rod runabout...

UNfortunately that is not the reality cygnus. It's a very small portion of a fraction, of a percentage. If that. Nobody is going off the road because of this. If you want the REALITY (and here comes the political) you get tagged for going 'through an intersection' 0.4 seconds after a light turned red. And on their photos they got you dead to rights. It's only on the VIDEO (that they encourage you to view) do you realize they are full of BS, you DID stop like you recalled. You were stopped when the light turned red. Then you proceeded, but the guy in the lane next to you ran the red light like a big dog. So you send in the extortion money ($386) and protest not guilty. They promise the adjudication will be in less than 90 days. SIX MONTHS LATER you get your money back telling you, indeed you never should have been cited in the first place. You then go on a guerilla campaign where you paintball the traffic cams, put matte black lettering on posts that say 'Fight your Bullsh*t Ticket' so it's visible in EVERY ticket they issue at that same intersection, and then spend late evenings in a 'sanitized' vehicle wearing a Ron Regan mask running red lights near your house to gauge what the camera does. And then you realize they shut off after about 2 seconds of Red. I thought it was a 'red light camera' --- Aren't people running STALE RED LIGHTS (like 3 seconds after the light turns red) the PROBLEM more than a guy that stops and enters a clear intersection 0.4 seconds after a light turns red? Or even less time after it turns red? WHY NOT give the drivers a visual cue what time remains on the green light? FAR more productive than altering a already bullsh*t system that contravenes the constitution---you know, that little section about 'innocent until PROVEN guilty in a court of law'? Where's my use of the $386 for those 6 months? Why do I have to pay to contest the ticket? Subpoonea? How about this: I see one, I shoot it with a paintball late at night and screw up their bullsh*t games? Sounds about as fair as getting tagged by bullsh*t tickets THREE TIMES in one year, and EVERY TIME GETTING FOUND INNOCENT. At one time, I had ALL THREE TICKETS up in the air. The last one at 0.4 seconds was the last straw. The government had the use of over $1100 of my money THAT I HAD TO PAY TO KEEP DRIVING and in EVERY case I was found NOT GUILTY. How about they think there is a problem, they put a cop there, and he writes you a ticket. This automated Orwellian 1984 Crap doesn't work. Not in my experience. I feel really sorry for the poor sheeple who think this is a GOOD idea, or worse yet, can't afford to take the day off and pay the MBA-Derived EXTORTION FEE of $386 just to be done with it, and perhaps pay another fee for 'traffic school' so they can keep their insurance rates down. Yeah, I got a problem with automated traffic cams. I think I have good reason to be upset. I don't like people taking my money and keeping me from having access to it on a roll of the dice that I won't protest it. Traffic Cams Bad? ABSOLUTELY!

Again, Scott Burkhards, 192 to the rear wheels. Cast piston L28 with a worked head and cam running stock SU's. 192 at the rear wheels. Where do you want the 200 and why 200? If you want power, wheezing through normally aspirated engines is a waste of time. An L20ET makes what, 145? and from there to 200 is a twist of the wick and maybe an intercooler...

I find it interesting they put a timer on the CROSSWALK and not the lights which controll three-ton metal missiles that require some advance warning to stop. I love it when the light at the crosswalk is at "10" and counting down across six lanes of traffic and granny decides that she can make it and steps out into the crosswalk at "7"... Doesn't even make the center island before the "Dont Walk" sign comes on...but it's only flashing, so there she goes across the second three lanes. So all the people that left the light to turn left are hung in the intersection now... Elevated crosswalks, or UNDERGROUND crossings make more sense to keep pedestrians from impeding traffic flow. I just find it interesting the people who have the easiest decision to make get the most information, and those with the most complex stopping parameters are kept in the dark till the last second. Does that seem ironic (or is that 'moronic'?) to anybody else?

You need a catalyst IF THE CAR HAD ONE. Federal Cars didn't have a catalyst until 81 (?) In the door sticker on S30's the Federal Cars have a sticker that says in big letters "NON CATALYST"... Now, if you swapped an L28ET into the car it becomes a grey area, as Randy stated you have to utilize all the components for emissions that came with the car. The strangest thing is that a catalyst is considered a 'chassis' component and technically you don't have to retrofit one to a 'non catalyst' vehicle. In a 280 that becomes strange as they actually all had the same chassis with the wider tunnel, and since some models were avaible with catalyst, they may make the assumption all are capable of the retrofit and force compliance with install of a catalyst. As for '500 car exemption' dream on, those are gone in minutes after the new years opening of the first DMV in the state.... There is a tailpipe-only criterion on some vehicles, but it only applies to 1977-older vehicles currently.Come Jan 2012, it will apply to 78's as well. Passing on a well-tuned car is not that difficult, but not as easy as it once was mainly due to the 'moving targets' Randy mentioned. The advice about pretest, and 'gross polluter' is advie well heeded. Then again, if you still have an address in Michigan a license registration, and insurance there isn't that big of a stretch. It only matters if you blab about it when you get stopped. And then, they really only can nail you the second time as without your spontaneous admission of the car entering the state, they have no useable proof to enforce the '10 day rule' for registration in California. They can't prove you were here longer... I can think of two other possible routes, but the Michigan Plate seems the most practical. It this a daily driver? Weekend racer? What?

Giving drivers information is not a bad thing. Making the roads 'automatic' to reward those inattentive drivers feeds upon itself IMO. I hear about 'collision avoidance' systems in new cars that automatically apply the brakes if you get too close to another car. That watch lane position and 'correct' the driver. Seems to me those people shouldn't be driving, not catered to in a vehicle. Seems almost anti-evolutionary. Eliminates Darwins theory... I just happen to have spent most of the last month watching lights count down and it makes so much more sense than a dumb light that you have no clue when it will change. And when it turns red and you see "199" you know you may as well put it in "N" set the parking brake, or hell turn the engine off...you ain't going anywhere fast! Another way to illustrate it is ask how many times you have watched a light turn green from some distance away, and continued on only to see maybe a 4 second green and then yellow and red and then have to brake instead of coast up to the intersection? Some lights ALREADY alter their timing based on traffic patterns so that leads to more uncertianty and consequently more incidences of 'running' a light.

Get another mechanic. The thermal siphon from the pump inlet, through the turbocharger, and into the thermostat housing after shutdown will cool the turbo without 'forced' circulation. Any mechanic that says water cooled center sections perform better without the water is...uh...'misinformed'...

Yes, the original AIR was in the head almost. Tubes injected it almost at the back of the exhaust valve. Some people cut them off and injected it in the manifold through tubes that did not protrude in the exhaust stream and picked up some incremental HP without emissions penalty, so moving them back 2" didn't make an appreciable effect. Like I mentioned, I was shocked to find that the combustion seemed to still happen in an extractor (header) when I injected ALL the AIR Pumps output into the #1 primary tube, about halfway between head and collector. There must have been enough heat to start combustion and carry over to the rest of the cylinders when they all merged in the collector. I did not get 'dilution' issues, the balance of the gasses on the old BAR90 machine read correctly. I had something else to say, but at 450AM, I've lost it in groggy haze...

" If at some point in that run I open the throttle all the way it starts to miss. I have checked fuel pressure and it is steady at 4lb. any ideas" ONE OF YOUR JETS IS STUCK DOWN PARTIALLY! My 260 did the same thing, returned terrible fuel economy, and felt like an 'ignition cut' right at 5500. Lift the throttle incrementally (anything but WOT) and it seemed to pull to 7000. Drove me nuts looking for electrical issues. One day was under the carb and saw the jet stuck down on the rear carb. Repaired that condition, and my mileage went from 19 to 24, the car pulled stronger all around. AIR does burn the HC's. Almost all the Emissions Devices of the day were centered around keeping the throttles open so enough O2 was in the exhaust to 'afterburn' as much HC as possible. If Toyotas with Dual Mikuinis could pass injecting air via gulp-valve with an idle setting of 3%CO, then so can our cars. AIR isn't in play at idle, but off-idle and really when you drop throttle it makes a big difference in the emissions out the tailpipe. The issue in the exhaust manifold is that on drop-throttle it goes "Real Rich" with fuel as there isn't any air from the carburettors. AIR was a solution that allowed the carbs to stay closed to provide the fuel economy on coast. EFI used 'decel fuel cut' to perform similar action, TPS<X% and the injectors are cut off completely. It's one of the reasons the EFI cars seem to be so much cleaner. Guys "ripped all that emissions crap" off their carbs, then wonder why they get gassed on decel. No combusion happening and way rich HC on drop throttle and cruise-coast. Keep in mind cruise/coast also had big advance numbers because of the EGR and the more advanced you are, generally the more complete the combustion as it all has time to burn. Retard the timing and watch that exhaust manifold glow! It's still burning coming out the exhaust valve. The emissions engines were up on advance (with some retarded settings at given times) so by the time the exhaust valve opened there wasn't a lot of 'fire' left to continue combustion, but plenty of heat. Flash O2 in there in the form of fresh air, and POOF! The HC in the exhaust stream reignited and burned off. You can see this on a five gas analysis. The key is the O2 percentage of the exhaust flow (Rayaap can probably give more detailed numbers.) I think you are normally around a balanced 8% O2, with CO2 in some ratio corresponding. If you 'dilute' the exhaust stream with over-injection, your O2 percentage goes way up. It was this cross check on the old BAR90 that triggered the 'dilution' fail and made everyone look for the obligatory 1/4" hole drilled in the headpipe to dilute the exhaust stream! No, AIR was a combustion solution for excess HC, not a dilution solution. Wow, I've inadvertently just coined a phrase for the current administrations plans for the money in my retirement accounts: "The Dilution Solution, we just print more!" Where do I get a pig, on which I may rest my feet?

Wow, as in 'pick any two lines'? Sure, pick a couple and see what happens. If it burns up, then try the other two. You got a 50/50 chance! I wouldn't do it, personally, because I'm boring and don't gamble that much. But if it's your thing, how exciting! I don't have a clue on the MSD Box, maybe someone here has hooked one up before...

No, I think YOU are missing the point: you don't know how much time is left on a green or yellow in the USA. THAT leads to running of the lights. "I can make it..." Put the countdown timer visible like in numerous other countries, and YOU KNOW what is left. Moving the time of the light is a far more expensive way to combat the uncertianty of not knowing how long the light will remain green, and running it either accidentally or on purpose. Timers exist in the light system already, letting people know what is left is simply a matter of displaying that light timer in the light itself instead of a 'dumb light' where there is no knowing how long you have left. When you see 90 seconds, there is no incentive to slow down, or to speed up when you are third back from the intersection. Conversely, when you are going 60Kph and are 100m back from the light and you look up at that green and see "3, 2, 1..." you know there is no way to make it, and slow before they fixed time yellow (which then becomes your hold and intersection clear light, instead of an ersatz green to 'make it through' because you weren't paying attention driving up to the light to begin with. Be honest, how many times have you looked up at a green light, and didn't have a CLUE how long it has been on, or how long you had till it turned to yellow? Hell, in california the only light you KNOW is a set time is a yellow, as it's legislated to be on for one second for every 10mph of legal posted speed limit. And that only works if you see it turn yellow and start counting. Showing the timer is the next logical step. Legnthening a light which nobody knows the time of to begin with seems to me to incentivize redlight running. Dumbing down the driving task for those not paying attention and never knowing how long they have on a green---just give them more time that they never knew about to begin with. Posting the timer would seem to have the opposite effect. BTW, current redlight cameras generally stop working after a second or so of red light. Run the red 3 seconds after it's red...and they don't snap your photo. Kind of defeats the purpose of a stated 'red light camera'---seems to me THOSE are the guys you want to nail for running the light...not a guy who enters the intersection 0.4 second after an interminate timed length light turned red. At least with a countdown timer the existing cameras then have a valid footing to stand on: it's not longer an inadvertent light runner you get, it's a clear cut "you knew how much time you had and chose to ignore it" ticket. Moving the light time...just another LCD solution to the dumbed-down driving public that isn't paying attention already. I'd rather know EXACTLY what time was left and make an informed decision to stop or continue on, rather than hoping I catch they yellow light so I can then start counting on my own...

There are people here who argued with me extensively on why you should spend huge dollars repairing rust instead of taking a California/Arizona Vacation and picking up a rust-free shell... Same mentality figures it's worth 'saving'....

Some countries use timers on the lights that count down so you know EXACTLY how much longer you have on the green or red, and the yellows are the 'clear the intersection' time. A heluva lot cheaper. Gives us guys with a christmas tree outlook on a red light something to look forward to as well: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....GO!!!!