Tony D

Egads...PIR! You ever remember a guy back in 94 or 95 that got to the final 16's in Bracket Eliminations running an Oldsmobile with Avis Rent-a-Car Plate Surrounds? Got eliminated when he went way too slow due to a tranny letting go? No? Good. That means there's no way to trace it back to anybody. Same as the Nissan Sentra at Farmington N.C. two years ago.... Muahahahaha! Nice photos and vids!!!

Don't adjust your weight to make the darned thing read what you expect you're making! That defeats the WHOLE purpose of an objective piece of test equipment. Go to a gravel yard, or other truck scale and WEIGH your car. My 75 2+2 weighed 2695#, ran a 15.50 1/4 mile, and my G-Tech said I had 147HP. Curiously the Dynojet showed very similar results, and consistent with the times so did some of the 1/4 mile calculators I used. But I actually WEIGHED my car. The whole premise of the device is that you need to know the mass you are accelerating, and then back calculate from the known time of acceleration and g-loading. Simple physics and in my case very accurate. BUT you HAVE to follow the directions on the first generation boxes (don't know about the new ones) to make SURE the thing is level, reading the proper acceleration plane, that your weight is correct and verified as you will be testing, and that you do the tests according to the directions (both directions, on as level a piece of ground as you can find, etc etc etc) Using their directions, I was spot on with not only the actual 1/4 mile results (I have run from 15.30 to 15.60 in the car, G-Tech was in the 15.20 to 15.50 region) and the horsepower numbers (depending on the pull it was no more than 5hp off, to spot on with the Dynojet I used). But like mentioned above, the big thing is comparable loss or gain after an adjustment. I was curious, and spent the $75 for the dyno pulls since the shop is relatively close, and I said "whow, I can't have that much, I'm diriving over to the shop to see how f'd this thing really is!" After that, I was a believer. Once I got it dialed in at a consistent place to do the testing, I have a very high confidence in the results of the testing. The numbers are not all that important, but the relative change is... To trust the numbers, you gotta follow the directions. Guessing to make the HP suit your expectations is akin to passing the dyno operator some $ to change a constant on the machine and bump your dynoqueen numbers up so you have a nice sheet to show your friends. I know of plenty of 250HP N/A 2110cc VW's running around Orange County...because that is what the guys showed me on their dyno charts. You would'nt think a 2.1 Litre four banger with dual 40's would make 250HP @ 6200 rpms would you? It will if you tweak the dyno constants...

Somebody never did an Otto Parts Corv-8 conversion if he thinks a fiberglass integral engine cover/driver seat is something out of the ordinary. "Can't Happen"? I have put a whole Oldsmobile Toronado FWD Engine Cradle Assembly in the back of a VW Beetle. There's plenty of room for a lot more than you're crediting the chassis with, nobody said it would be a 'drop in' prospect, but to say it "Can't Happen" without a stretch is just plain foolish. I have seen Datsun Cherry's (I think those are the B210 here in the States) with an L28ET in it, and there is scant little more room in the B210's firewall-to-radiator space than you would have in a transaxle-inverted bug. If you can do a mid engine 13B Turbo that fits under the rear seat (faux Fiberglass seat albiet...) putting an L28 back there isn't out of the question. It's not appreciably longer than an L-4, and that conversion is a piece of cake! PLENTY of room behind the seats for a proper cover and accessories.

If you don't admit it... You're in denial! LOL

A metal backed, ceramic mat covered shield will work well. That's what's on the bottom of the 73/74 Carbs as heat shielding, and on the original SU heat shields as well. Though that was blown-on asbestos, or woven asbestos, the ability to stop heat transfer is what you want. A nice mirror polished piece of stainless steel (not aluminim!) is what you want. Mirror finish faces the heat source, with the blanket over it (covering it up, alas...) That will be about the best you will do with common materials. Attach with some monel or stainless safety wire through the shield holding the blanket in place like a quilt. You don't want aluminum as it absorbs heat. Stainless is much better at preventing heat transfer, doesn't corrode as much, either...

I probably should have taken the time to pull that thing off just so I could say I had one! It sat relatively close to the head, and the dual-plane setup was more akin to using the four barrel as two progressive two-barrels very close together each half of the carb supplying three cylinders. Probably something engineered off the dual-two-barrel setup. Less parts, less complexity. The runnners were somewhat longish, and snaked about a bit---largely I suspect because of the packaging requirements of the engine bay. Sorry I can't remember more...I took some time to look at it, but the yard was closing, and it was a 'Huh, lookit that!' kind of moment. When I went back, the engine was gone. I've seen others show up from time to time, usually sans the carb---which showed me the runner parsing and balance slots cut between primary and secondary barrels and planes in the manifold side. I got called "B.S." for my comments on what we saw on our Bonneville Car Testing, I'm glad to see someone else had similar results or at least took the time to quantify them! I'm not digging out all those old dyno sheets...if I could even find them now! LOL

They Have. It Is. None Whatsoever.

The justification for many expensive parts...isn't justification, it's spendthrift gratification. Remember that when the salesman tells you what you 'need' to get to this HP level or that...

I had a bud scrap an 'l20' that was pulled out of his S30 on Kadena. I got there about the time he had pulled the head. No mistaking the big bores---it was a restamped L28 to L20. Pretty badly done, as well! I just wondered out loud what kind of idiot would actually think this engine was a small-displacement mill? The "N42" block and head kind of did it for me. I met up with the guy, and he swore the new L28 had GOBS more power than the 'old L20E' that was in the car before... Yep, another victim of the Butt Dyno's Unmistakable performance advantage! The L20A cams, especially the earlier ones are more agressive than the larger displacement engines, and it was common to recam the engines with them...if you didn't want to spend the $100 from Isky for a real good cam. I have 4 L20A's at the house now...one of them dynoed at 205HP to the rear wheels. Muahahahahha!

The TPS does not have to be on the throttle bodies. It can just as easily be mounted on the throttle pedal as long as you have adequate relative rotation for decent throttle resolution and a linkage without slop in it. Heim Jointing the stock ball-socket arrangement with oilite bushings works well, as does a throttle cable. Mounting it on the firewall on the back of the linkage that goes out to the carbs will work well also (get the idea someone has spent some time screwing aroudn with carb conversions?) Makes it stealthy, as well. Nobody looks at switches on the balance tube, or firewall, or under the dashboard...

Heat that kills pistons is from preignition and you will never hear it, the things just catastrophically fail. The pressure trace is completely different than that of detonation. Though pressures are just as high, if not higher. The pressure spikes of detonation are what breaks things, and I can't believe cast pistons withstood detonation or preignition that blew a head gasket unless something was improperly done in the head gasket application.

What is the downside of 'too much' zinc and phosphorous? I know it is an issue with current-generation catalytic converters and the 100K mileage requirement for emission compliance with EPA... But on our cars, what's the practical downside of 'too much'? Other than phosphorous will combat acids in engines that sit a long time, keeping the TAN lower...that's why is was added to sour gas ICE Prime Movers.

I had a regrind break earlier this year...damnit! We suspect a latent failure in the core we used since the cam towers were spot on, no galling, and the head was flat/flat top and bottom. Damnedest thing, Ive seen it happen on warped heads before, and where the cam towers seized for whatever reason... But this didn't have any of the 'normal' signs for something taking the cam out with it... When was the last time you heard of someone magnafluxing a cam? I will from now on, before putting a $100 Regrind into it! Damn, it ran well with that cam, too!

Anybody seen the conversion kits out there being marketed for E10/20/85? Appears to be a piggyback controller, additional injector, and an exhaust sensor. I ran across the advert briefly in a periodical last evening late, and as I recall it was pretty compatible with Ford Products, F150, etc... I will see if I can scramble it up this evening and repost tomorrow with more details. There was Gibley's Involved, and my memory is hazy of the details so I omit them at this point...

LOL! "Atlas Shrugs!" I would do that to transport A12 and A15 Engine/Trans assemblies. Having a small engine does have advantages! My wife would freak when she saw me do that. LOL No help, but it's funny, I couldn't resist!

Could be worse, they could have whined, protested you...then not paid the protest fees and basically bump you out of competition for a year while the competition board determines if The G-Nose was a factory option for any 240Z... And of course, get the determination two weeks after the last meet of the season...just as your driver gets a job with rotating shifts so there's no way in heck he can make any of the events in 2008. And to add insult to injury, watch from the sidelines as the bastards that unofficially protested you, and held you up for a year, bump the record on the third meet of 2008 while you have no driver and a car that runs great... It's all in the degrees... Like JohnC said, you just got to live with it. They protested us because they were upset that we had 17 records in 3.0 Liter class and then downsized our engine to run in 2.0 Liter. It was their way of bumping us out till they got their car sorted and their new killer engine built (which by that point had been 8 years...). I mean, when you are competing against a car running a DOHC COSWORTH engine (capable of over 345hp and 12K rpms), and the owner is upset a DATSUN SOHC has come into his class....c'mon! You just gotta run with what ya brung. I know I have a LOT of documentation on the factory availability of the G-Nose now...Much to my wife's chagrin (more crap to store aroudn the house---what did you need that for???)

Thermopolis...ahhh Thermopolis.... Lost a nose gear wheel there when landing, and grabbed the last Avis Car and drove the rest of the way to Worland with the two pilots...

Actually there is an ECU manufacturer out there now that has fuel temperature and fuel pressure sensors incorporated into the system, and it uses a PWM circuit in the ECU to control the system's fuel pump to allow a returnless fuel line setup to 500HP. Really, if the fuel comes from the tank and does not get heated it should stay cooler overall...longer than if it's recirculating. But once the thermal mass is heated you can't do anything about it. Nigel is spot-on regarding the rationale behind returnless fuel systems: it keeps EVAP Emissions lower because the heat is not vaporizing the fuel and making the emissions. These new systems do use a fuel pressure as well as fuel temperature compensation lookup table to trim pulsewidth to keep btu value delivered to the engine constant. Incidentally, this is how many race sanctioning bodies are monitoring horsepower compliance---when you know spec fuel BTU content, and temperature/pressure/pulsewidth you can by remote telemetry monitor the power the competitors are making...and spot rulebreakers. We are digressing. I'd check to see if boosting the surge tank pressure helps first before we start cooling fuel and going all out in another direction. The easiest way to combat cavitation is to increase suction head---and you can simply do that by pressurizing the inlet to the pump. Now, making a cooling jacket around your surge tank and packing it with dry ice would pay dividends for shorter track sessions.......

Yeeeeah.... Rick, buy a set and let us know if it works out for ya! LOL

Hmmmm, interesting. The first gen Toyota R-G Series cars had 8 blocks, but later in the emissions carburettors they have OA blocks. Weren't the last sets sold out of Northridge all OA blocked carbs? That would support 'max power' for the aftermarket scenario...but that makes a strange dichotomy that they would use those same blocks in emissions laden carburettors on the 40PHH's into the 80's on the 2t and 18R-G motors.

1/2" for the balance tube / plenum log should be more than adequate. Our Bonneville car has like 75KPA vacuum at idle, and a 1/2" pipe manifold with 1/8" taps to each runner gives more than enough vacuum for the brake function as well as a nice smooth MAP signal for the ECU. TEC2 system recomended 1/2" log, and that's what we ended up with. For older manifolds without such a plenum for the MAP and Vacuum Accessory taps, a piece of Fuel Rail Stock gives a nice compliment and can be piggybacked next to your fuel rail as a visually pleasing addition when you make the conversion to EFI (or to simply get someplace to take a vacuum reading that doesn't bang your gauge to death!) I previously ran my 240ZT with some 1/8" npt nipple barbs in each runner, to 1/4 tubing, which had 3/8"x1/4"x3/8" "T" fittings to manifold it all together and even that worked as a balance tube quite well with Mikuinis. The engine really smoothed out when it was put on compared to it's actions under boost before the balance tube was in place. I guess that would be equivalent to a 3/8" log, huh?

"I observe things that seemingly have little relevance to anybody but myself."

LOL "I am now officially happy!" ROMAFLOL

My wife would shoot me if she even knew I was looking at this thread! My dad saw a photo of one of these Patrols in my photo albums and said basically the same thing JohnC just did, prefaced by 'That looks just like the jeeps we had in Korea!'

Yes, the larger pilots will run the engine at partial throttle to 3000 rpms under normal conditions. The pilots on my car are 60.5 or possibly 63's if I recall. Another thing you 'might' be able to try is to use a slightly smaller 'booster venturi' in there---normally they are 12's, and if you change to 10's, you will get the main jet coming into the circuit earlier, allowing for smaller pilot jetting. These are not the main choke, these are the ones that are on the 'stalks'---and using them to trim at what RPM the main circuit comes in will sometimes help---though it will make the upper rpm ranges more enrichened as the velocity through the carb increases as well. They give an increased vacuum signal on the wells that draws up more mixture into the barrel. This bog is almost identical to the 'if you think carbs are easy' scenario I give for the reasons I ditched my mikuinis and went EFI. A few keystrokes and dyno pulls and you can experiment with stuff that will take you hours/days/weeks/seasons to sort out with jets tubes, etc... From my understanding of the Jet Block setups, the "OA" was the last one on the market, the other versions were 'earlier' and had less optimized fueling solutions. Looking at OEM applications almost all the Toyota applications retrofitted 'OA' blocked carbs into the field when they were available, rather than keeping the earlier blocks out there. The drivability of the later carbs is greatly increased at partial-throttle over the earlier emulsion tubes. I suspect at the cost of upper-end horsepower, but the partial throttle (as we are seeing here) is far more important on a road-course/autox car than terminal power. Maybe if you were running Bonneville there may be an advantage for the earlier block configurations, but I doubt the tradeoff would be worth the effort. Good Luck, man.