Tony D

Thank gawd I'm not insane. Those are the lugs I'm talking about. Now, does CWC have the same style lugs. If it does, and they don't use a HEXAGONAL CASTING in that area, I'm ordering one of these cams, and going to try to get my interpreter (an MX5 guy who noticed my "MSA 2009" shirt right away in the airport...) to ask about information on cam core or blank sourcing. This indeed means someone in JAPAN is still making aftermarket blanks! I don't need to find one with a Hex, I found them...I just want to make 100% positive before I start asking for favors here that I'm barking up a worthy tree! I get woood. I get wooooood thinking of this stuff, it's so exciting! Where's my inflatable sheep? I need a release...

Use the Milwaukee "Rescue Blades" and you won't go throuh but maybe two. Knowing where to use what length blade is important. I wish sawzalls used a full-width clamping mechanisim, the necked-down one is prone to failure. BTW, you can easily cut down the broken blades and re-use them in the saw! I do it on my 6" grinder, and it works just fine. The teeth only wear in that stroke area, so you end up using all the blade up before you switch to antoher one. The 'rescue' blades are about 2X as thick, so you don't get a 'fine line' cut, but they are much more rigid and don't bend up when you punch the blade into something as easily.

You can add a GM 'slot style' TPS on the linkage shaft of the triples as well, and make it very unobtrusive. Just file the end of the shaft, or stick in a small flat adapter and then bolt the GM unit over the top of it. There's a million ways to do it. Kinsler makes a 'TPS Mount' that is actuated by a crank, so you simply hook up another arm to your linkage setup going to where you mounted the TPS Mount, and you're set. They have CW and CCW rotation models. Its for guys converting their Hillborn/Kinsler/Enderle MFI setups to EFI and need a way to mount the TPS without altering any of the bodies. Works if you attach it to the bellcrank on the firewall, as well!

yep, and they have 'children' in the general area that always seem to cavort back home regularly!

My cams have a set of two 'lugs'... Can you post a photo of your L6 "JAPAN" camshafts (or one at least). I'm sure the L6 cam has 'lugs' along its length between one set of the lobes. It's where I stick my big crescent wrench to turn the cam from time to time... What I'm looking for is what the CWC cams have shapewise in that same area, as I mentioned, here in Japan there is a "JAPAN" new blank with a HEX there, and I don't think they are Nissan OEM. If they are the OEM supplier, either we have all been lied to, or someone started up production again (more likely) for at least a limited production run, and changed the casting a bit for differentiation.

? I don't have the manual in front of me, but can't for the life of me figure out what you are adjusting. There is a large screw on the front carb which will adjust fuel mix for idle speed, and works in conjunction with the volume screw on the balance tube. They are not small, globbed in glue, or copper colored. Whatever they exposed, it's screwing up the works. The Factory Service Manual is available online, take a gander at it and see if you can get a reference for the screw that I can figure out. I don't know what screw they exposed, but it's one you don't mess with. The front carb controls fuel mix for both carbs at idle. The carbs off-idle mix is an internal set adjustment accessed by removing the float bowl, and is far richer than the normal SU setup, normally it needs no adjustment as all engine speeds up to 1500-2000 can be handled by the idle circuit alone. When they run rich, the power valve (like on a Holley) is usually shot from a backfire or something. The copper screw is a mystery to me. A celphone photo is worth a thousand words...

NONE of the lines are 'fresh air' they are ALL under pressure. The distinction is before throttle plate or on the engine side of the throttle plate. All what you are referring to as 'fresh air' are before throttle plate (after turbo). That is the source of the AAC and AAR's supply. IT can not be taken AFTER the throttle plate. There will be no 'bypass' for the valves to function! The only place for the source is the J-Pipe or off the scroll of the turbo on that small fitting. That is where the air bypass has to come from to work properly under boost without a leak to atmosphere.

The linkage on that manifold consisted of some drill rod (appropriate diameter, 8 or 10 mm I believe), three heim joints (Same hole diameter, with threads to mactch manifold) and jamb nuts, two stop collars (one with a hole for provisioning a return spring on it), and a few bellcranks for the rods to attach to... And cable throttle with quadrant is my preferred way of setting up the rod. Looks like you got a downrod in the 'one of these things is not like the others' catagory. All that stuff is available new TWM or any number of places sells linkage bits.

Yep... If you install GM style sensors, and a dual TPS from a KA engine that has both Switch and Sensor, you can dry run the whole system and datalog it while still running on the stock EFI system. On a carb system it would take some more setup, but it could be done as well.

Go to Thunderhill this past weekend. They ran the event Nov 21/22... Day late, dollar short. So you saved the price of spectator admission, like $40.

CWC Cam Inquiry for those that have them: There is a 'holding' area on the cam, on the stock Nissan (JAPAN) cores, this is two knobs protruding from the stick. Is the CWC the same two 'knobs'? Or is it another shape? The reason I'm asking is that I was lead to believe that CWC (the largest OEM supplier) was the ONLY place to get cam blanks, short of turning your own. I was told the original supplier in Japan had finished their run, and no more JAPAN cores were available. Well, now I'm in Japan. I'm seeing cams which are OBVIOUSLY not ground on a stock core...their 'holding lugs' are HEXAGONAL. Curiously these blanks have JAPAN on them, but they are NOT OEM Nissan Cams as they have 'the two knobs'... These cams do not have CWC on them, either. Maybe it's just me who is interested in this development, but if cams are available with the original process... I'm in for a gross! LOL So, CWC cam guys, what's your 'holding lug' configuration? Confirm my suspicions that, HUZZAH, us L-Guys have a possibility of TWO aftermarket cam blank supplies...

BPR(X)ES for the street or anything with electronics in it. That resistor plug is good for damping noise in the radio (especially AM) and keeps unshielded wires from picking up interference. Some systems (aftermarket) will pick up pulses on their TPS line making the engine think it's going WOT and screws the fueling all up. On sandblasting not being a 'viable long term alternative' --- why not? When leaded fuels fouled spark plugs and tune ups were every 3K miles, people didn't think anything of cleaning regapping and reinstalling the same plugs. I still don't. If the plug is working, it's working. If it's made of superior metals, and the edges stay sharp for good jumping off (no ground or center electrode errosion) why NOT re-use them. If you got a miss, chances are much higher there is a wire breaking down than a plug that has been rendered unuseable. Though fouling says you got some other serious issues to deal with like overfueling. You can run a hotter plug to keep them burned off, but the real solution is to make the fueling proper.

Ex.....cellent our plan is coming to fruition.

This may sound bizzare, but make the plan, and stick to it. You'll find you don't change parts hardly at all once the plan is made. And consistency of the goal means you don't have to worry about 'upgrades' later on. My MS1 car does everything my goals for the project require. Wants versus Needs. You simply and rationally need to put those down and confirm each part as to it's suitability to the build. A 'Pro and Con' column if you will. If the part being considered has too many cons, or can't rationally be justified then it's a 'Want' and not a 'need' for the build. Truthfully, EDIS on a N/A engine not turning above 7500 rpms is more of a 'want' than a 'need' from where I sit on the pro and con ledger. If you change your mind, it's not constancy of purpose. As some would say 'your water runs troubled'---get some piece of mind and settle your mind to think clearer about the goals you set for the car. If you can't you will be in a constant state of flux, confusion, and angst. Who needs that?

Profiling the intake and exhaust ports of a professionally ported engine would make a nice CNC program to have for a racer in case he needed to duplicate a build for consistency. CMM tracing is likely what he did to the head ports. I had access to one of those machines, then they closed the division and I wasn't allowed to bid on any of it... >:^(

Actually, it was a corner that was too fast to take flatfooted on-boost in 2nd because there was no traction from the 265's out back, and if you took it at the same speed in third you were below boost threshold lugging all the way through exiting. (Thanks for that gearspread, Nissan!) With the tail on it you could take it, under boost through the corner solidly planted and on the verge of pushing. Actually if you entered correctly, you could stay on it almost like a chicane, and the front would push to the outside with just enough track to spare. Actually accelerating through in 2nd. If it wasn't a mountianside course, and there was a longer runup to it I would probably stay in third, but...downshifting into second matched entrance and exit speed. You were in secone on boost hard before entering the turn. Before the tail, it was upshift to third to drop out of boost (or at least curtail the power) because you just couldn't keep standing on it or you would loose traction. Modulation in second really kept the engine at peak torque making it a bit slippery. Man, it's been a while thinking about that curve. I hvae to go watch some video to see what I was doing now. It was on boost second gear when I was done. Maybe it was on boost third gear... And second was too low. I know modulating just sucked because you couldn't do anythning after the turn. But with the tail, you could keep your foot in it. It was relatively a slow turn. In the higher gear, your exit speed just dropped so fast it wasn't funny. Speed through the corner before tail was maybe 45. After tail I could accelerate through it passing redline in second and shift into third for the straightaway just after the corner full on boost and pulling hard. It must have been secondand third, because top of third would have been 100, and this corner was half that speed. I suppose I could put 175# of ballast in the back to plant it, but I'm sure it would have affected me elsewhere. The whaletail was rated at 370# at 100 mph. Seemed that if it was linear, I had half that at 50-70 and allowed me to stick through that one. Actually 'higher speeds' and 100mph are not really someting to say these days. In most states you are doing 80% of that speed on the average interstate highway. The little Datsun Kick Tail was not helping it at all, I needed more, and got it with the wing.

So manually cutting a shim 0.005" thick out of stainless steel shim stock to make up that difference is impossible I guess?

Ever see it done to a school bus? I have seen guys do that to a surplus school bus and use the chassis for everything from hauling scrap, to making a camper/car hauler combination out of it!

Emmitt Otters Jug-Band Christmas. Found a DVD copy and bought it immediately. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I kind of like 'The Riverbottom Gang'... And their singing fish. (American Dad tie-in with Hantz?) I sent a link to my wife, I always forward "Chicken Humor" and the 'bok bok bok' at the beginning will remind her I am thinking of her nagging me, all these thousands of miles from home... (I always make chicken noises when she starts in... I know really mature and adult way of interpersonal communication.)

Ohhh... No, that's not who I'm discussing it with, but the lead proves intriguing. Having one of the completed engines to dissect would be most enlightening, if for no other reason than to see what went on, and then to ask 'why' on this or that... There have been impromptu conversations with DD, though. You know how it works, rats in the cellar feeding on a common bit of bread striking up conversations...finding common ground, sharing the cheese they squirreled away last evening. Typical shop talk and milking in the way least likely to make you look like you're not trying to grovel for even more, being the unworthy rat you are...

The first rule of any project is to have clear goals in mind and stick to them. If you have changed things several times, it's because you failed in the most basic stage of planning of the project: Clear Goals. Don't blame a product for not fullfilling every possible whim you may have down the line. If that is the case, I can call SDS a poor system because there is one sitting in my shed that is fuel only. I didn't buy it, it came in a box of other stuff. And there is sits until I figure out what it's good for, but for me... why bother with it? Does it make the SDS somehow bad? I don't think so. Just misapplied. And when something is misapplied, it's the engineer in charge of the product upgrade who's to blame, not what they chose. I get to ask that question, and point that finger a lot in my job...usually the project engineer comes back to the what the customer 'thought' he wanted. But you can't blame the customer. Yes, yes you can!

No, the wiring exits identically LHD or RHD, but the stuff under the dash in in another location (connectors on the RH side, with instruments on the RH side on an RHD Dash, while the LHD has the longer pigtails for instruments and starter all the way over to the other side of the dash from the under kick panel connection points) EFI harness still in same location, ECU in same location (and a royal beyotch if you have factory air in some of the Fairlady Models with the condenser on that side!!!) The biggest difference is the dash wiring and where the instruments are... depending on year you may have an internal reg alternator earlier than US models, flash-to-pass options in the harness for the headlights, etc... Fuse Box in the same place... Meh, nothing as difficult as say....swapping a firewall!

I was dumping them in the metal scrap bin behind work for a while, till the Shop Manager called the police and we had CostaMesa PD with most of a Z laid out on the macadam behind the shop one morning. He thought a chop shop was using our metal dumpster to dispose of stolen cars. "Sorry Mr. Riggs, without the VIN, we really have no way of knowing what this car was, or who it belonged to..." Whew (he he he he!) Imagine that, no VIN on any of the parts in the dumpster. Amazing. When he found out it was me, he was apologizing. He never figured out that the metal always arrived the NIGHT before a metal pickup, and always JUST filled the bin so there was never any extra haulage or transfer fees involved. You think a chop shop would have been that considerate? "Yeah, I guess I should have figured. I just coudn't figure out what car it was from, if I figured it was a Z, I would have thought of you first, and not a chop shop." Who says I'm not a chop shop Monty? We both laughed at that one!

Yep, 'anything they wanted' was what we have been told as well. The people we are talking to are interested in our approach as we are not looking for 'specific power secrets' but the ancillary endurance modifications they did to make the power last. Both parties recognize that what specific number you make is irrelevant if it blows up before the checkered flag drops. If you make it last, power is the least of your worries. We want longevity, we can make whatever horspower we need, as long as ancillary systems are capable. The biggest thing they kept stressing was cooling systems. They are very proud that they never had a DNF due to the cooling system, regardless of power level being used at the time. The point I was making is the untapped (or unknown previously tapped) potential of the L-Engine in SOHC Non-Crossflow form is FAR more than what has been proven to be available from many of the aftermarket dongle and gadget people. Note earlier where OSG will basically build the engine for their head as a condition of selling it... hmmmm wonder why? They want the quality control of the things that make it last perhaps? If you start looking at photos, you see things. Sorry to be nebulous, but it's as far as I can go till we get this stuff all sorted and proven in our own minds and on the dyno. I do know there will be another SoCal engine dyno with an L-Engine adapter setup soon... Retreading ground, what can I say, it's the price of step-by-step engine redevelopment! Paying dearly for one of those E-Motive engines would have made a lot of things evident. The guy that regreshes them is still active and just moved his shop. He was doing an F1 engine for vintage racing last visit. Cool stuff, cool guy!

Neither is overblowing difficulties. If you will note, I simply stated that EDIS was probably way overkill, and that MS-n-Se is all he really needs, and with that he can choose between fuel only, or fuel and spark at a later date. MS1 platform is pretty well debugged, there are not a lot of surprises. The EDIS and all this MS2 stuff is like a DOHC head for a Z: kids getting infatuated with technology because it's AVAILABLE. Because it's AVAILABLE doesn't immdeiately make it APPLICABLE. The 280ZXT worked FINE with a SINGLE coil, and conventional spark distribution. There are MS's out there now which have been daily driven without issue for YEARS. Some have gone through SEVERAL CA Smog Cycles as well without being detected, and compared to the OEM systems they REPLACED they are LESS TROBULESOME. Straight information is one thing, couching it in a negative manner is another. He doesn't NEED EDIS, he WANTS it. It's probably more constructive to educate him why it's not applicable (especially in his circumstance) than it is to make a mountian out of a molehill once he has the original unit's learning curve under his belt. MS was a SIMPLE SYSTEM, and it has strayed. Because they could. It doesn't change the original philosophy: Simple Straightforward Cheap. An MS1 with 8X8 tables runs the car in daily driver mode JUST FINE, you don't NEED anything more! It will outperform the stock box that is in there now. Add complexity, add problems. Keep it simple, and your troubles are FAR less. I'll add that in some cases you can actually have the entire system installed in the car and 'burning in' taking datalogs for quite some time before doing the conversion swapover (yes, with CARBS TOO! Patton Machine Adapters go in quite quickly...)