Tony D

After seeing what Willie Essing did at his diesel tuning shop in Holland I'd put a TDI 1.9 in something. Fueling alone does quite a bit, and when you start adding boost....look out! WOO HOO! 375 ft-lbs of torque and 40+ MPG to boot.

While the heads bolt on, the valves clearing the bores is a big issue. Unless by tax class or racing class you are restricted to 2.0L, I would not waste time on building the engine. "To be different" isn't enough justification for me with the costs involved. We run an L20A in the Bonneville car because we have to by engine displacement class. I think the MPG is a moot point. The L28ET should easily get as good if not better MPG due to far better torque and being able to run with a lower rpm, amongst other things. Just because an engine is smaller doesn't mean it automatically will return better MPG. In many cases (especially with domestic trucks in the USA) the larger engine will give superior fuel economy due to better torque production moving the same weight. GM's 3.8L GENIII will run in the mid 30's highway with a full bodied LeSabre Body hung on it full of passengers.... That is nothing short of amazing considering the load an L28 has to push around! There is much more than simply smaller displacement to fuel economy. Heck, I've made 28MPG with Triple Mikuinis on an L24 running a 4.11 rear end, on a car with a three-speed _automatic_!

To Bryan's list I will add on the N42 that at the same mid77 breakpoint that got the US the N47, most of the rest of the world got the N42 with the hardened seats. I know because I have one, and have seen several more, usually on JDM replacement engines. They ran an N42 all the way up to when the Fairlady 280Z got supplanted by the Z31. Same for Cedrics, Glorias, Leopards, etc. Japan Market Stuff all had N42's way later than we did, and they have the good later style hardened seats. They're out there! And in pretty good numbers as well, especially in the SoCal region where the JDM importers did lots of business.

KD Tools makes one for around $35 last I checked that is very similar to what Xander shows, and works fine on or off the car. As with anything on the head 'off the car' levering on it will make it want to move around. Sticking two dowels in your benchtop that correspond to your head bolt holes will remedy that handily.... It hooks over the cam, and you depress it over the spring retainer so you can remove the retainers. Pretty easy. The KD has several adjustable hand lever positions so you aren't right on top of the manifold when you are depressing the spring. I usually take the head off intake and all, so it's a feature that is critical for me, and for anyone working on the car in-frame. Apparently they are $46 nowadays from The Tool Source.

But that's also 2.5% error. With a cheap wrench that has 6% error your adding a crowsfoot just turned that wrench to something with almost 9% error (and depending on which way it's calibrated closer...) With that error in there, you are at 43.6 ft-lbs exceeding the upper level of the torque specification. In that case you should torque to 39 ft-lbs to negate the crowsfoot error. Then you are only left with wrench error which most forget about as well! On a smaller fastener it's not really a big deal. But on something like what was being mentioned with a 250 ft-lb torque spec, a 9% error can mean snapping a fastener or over stretching one that is already designed to be 75% of yield at working loads. My example of the crowsfoot was that it in the most BENIGN set of circumstances introduces an almost 3% error! It's something many people never realize. Imagine using a larger crowsfoot with a longer fulcrum! Or any number of circumstances that can introduce error into the equation.

The PMEL Schedule on all torque wrenches I used in the USAF was 90 Days or if dropped. You drop it, pack it up and drive it off to PMEL for recalibration. I actually have a Click-Type BEAM torque wrench! It's got an adjustable pointer under the main pointer that allows you to point it to the final torque, and when it deflects that amount the secondary needle trips a device that makes the handle 'click'. Never seen another like it before or since. I picked it up at a garage sale of a Tool and Die man in Pontiac back in the 80's. To go back to multipliers and VW Axle Nuts (And Flywheel Gland Nuts) they actually make low-cost torque multipliers for those applications as well. Basically a torque arm that has a gear that meshes with the flywheel teeth and allows you to put 1/4 the required torque on the drive to completely and fully torque the flywheel gland nut. For the axle nuts they have a punched out gear setup that you bolt to two of the lug bolt holes, and works similarly... Pretty Cool, Eh? Cheap as well. It only took 80 years after the application was put into production...

He was looking to flip it, and nobody seemed to care. I could not bring myself to ask him how much it cost at the Swap Meet. He was looking to make coin on the deal, and you know the deal on the Z-Car Community. They're not big on buying memoriabelia at four digit prices, regardless of the 'Cool Factor'... Myself included at that point. Those photos were taken sometime between 1999 and 2003, so who knows what happened to it. He had my home phone number, and all I can remember was he said his name was "Richard" and he spoke with something like a light German Accent. Oh, yeah, I have seen these photos linked all over, and nobody gives credit for the source of the Photos. Call me "Alan" on that one, I figured the least someone could do is say "Tony Took Em"... They were stolen off this site from a post I responded to regarding DOHC Heads. Drax was nice enough to host them for me at the time so I could get 'em out and people could see it. I took em because trying to tell someone about that head and it's mere existence is almost insurmountable when people don't believe you in the first place! I ended up pulling down the photos at several places due to idiots.

Yeah, that which was available in the beginning is now becoming available to the masses. (Group 4 FIA Homogolated S30's were running true CV's almost from the start!) We are considering it for the Bonneville car simply for the transmission efficiency. On a car going max out, 2-3% would be considerable for the investment.

The mystery head is the 'Paeco-Goerz' head bought in SanDiego at a swap meet complete with tooling for machining and full size hand drawn blueprints. Those photos were taken in the back of the new owner's truck at a Group Z meeting by ME! Intake and Exhaust ports are symmetrical, so the option for either side being either function is open. Note the plug holes are not complete. Somewhere I have the photos of the combustion chambers which are hemispherical in conformation.

The stock air cleaner (if you have it, or can fit it in a LHD car) works pretty well, and K&N does have a filter to use with it. Also, using a stock 240/260Z replacement K&N filter sandwiched between a couple of aluminum plates makes for a NICE SSS SU Aircleaner Setup. (Think like the early roadster air cleaners. A beadroller and sheetmetal can look damn stock sometimes!) I'm helping my son put the very same setup on his 70 510 Wagon, and this is the same spot we are at...which aircleaner do we want to run? I don't like the small units either, and having to remove the entire intake to access the aircleaner element is a royal PITA. If I wasn't so hardheaded on making the boy live with points and carburettors for a couple of years before moving into EFI this would be SOOOOO much easier!

I downloaded it pretty quickly, the film is 32 minutes long. Think back (if you are old enough) to school when guys in Horn Rimmed Glasses with white short-sleeved shirts sporting the latest in pocket protection and a sliderule lectured you on the way the natural world was! LOL

Welding the BOV on at the front of the plenum above the inlet piping, parallell to it should give you plenty of area to play with, especially if you angle it toward where the distributor 'was'....

That's a good film. Anybody remember pencils? LOL Seriously, though, I hope those who told me I was wrong about water pump damage from cavitation see this film and pay particular attention to the discussion about 7 and 17 minutes into the playing. That is exactly what happens in high temperatures within the water pump, especially if the pressure cap is somewhat defficient. And that results in not only pumping loss, but errosion of the impeller and casing. Very good film! Thanks for finding that! Cool!

Plenty of engine strut ties you can use. MONZTER made a nice set of engine mounts using Moustache Bar urethane mountings. Many use a tie to the upper starter bolt and make a reinforcement to the fram rail where you place the bracket. Others simply put a lock-bolt through the engine mount so it can not fail and catastrophically separate. The tie bars link the engine's torque to the chassis so your throttle inputs are more immediate from what I have felt. On and off throttle response becomes more pronounced so a smooth driving style is rewarded. I have even seen heim jointed linkages to the K-Member (crossmember) from the engine mounting brackets, keeping the stock rubber mounts. This keeps the isolation and vibration down, and still ties the engine to the chassis more positively with no give/compliance windup on/off throttle. Note on the ZX's they have 'snubbers' on the engine mounts as well? That engine moves axially within the chassis under some conditions...just something to keep in mind! FWIW, if you aren't in it all that much, solid mounts do solve it. But you get a lot of vibration and bolt checking becomes critical from the increased vibration transferred to the chassis.

The acronym was "ROMAFLOL" Not "ROMA,F,LOL" That would require a partner or friend of some sort....

Oy! I went to Essing Diesel Tuning with Frank 280ZX and watched them tweak his M3 to 188HP and 325ft-lbs (2L Turbodiesel) and that thing got BETTER fuel economy on the way back to Utrecht that we did going out. Something in excess of 40mpg as I could best figure. The BMW has a little 'fuel economy' meter that displays the fuel consumption rate, and at 253 kph it was registering something equivalent to roughly 36.4mpg! I took a snappy while hurtling along at over 2X the maximum speed limit here stateside thinkging "he's getting great gas mileage for cutting the travel time in half" and realizing if I could do it in the USA my travel time cross country would be cut massively! And so would my fuel consumption! "But diesels are bad" in CA...so is speed.... I digress...

ROMAFLOL As opposed to ROMFAFLOL Rolling on my A$$ F-ing Laughing Out Loud. Rolling on my Fat A$$ F-ing Laughing Out Loud. Not standard acronymisims, but you get the idea, eh?

In my knockoff plenum, I used a simple flat deflector that was bent over at the bottom with holes is it to further 'diffuse' and 'break up' the airflow. It came into the plenum, hit the diffuser and had to go down towards the bottom of the plenum, through the holes before entering the bigger area. In retrospect, my design thoughts on my knockoff almost exactly replicated what SK did in their turbo plenums, which is similar to what you propose Tim. SK's plenum had a vertical plate diffuser plate which the incoming air hit, then was forced around all four sides to enter the larger portion of the plenum to the rear of the box nearer the ITB inlets. SK's is a 2mm thick plate of steel bolted to standoffs cast into the rear of the plenum. Mine was bolted to the roof of the plenum. Both had removable fronts. My 'holes' were 2X the area of the pipe feeding the plenum IF I recall correctly (this was 1985/86 after all...)

Both the HKS and SK have their BOV mounted to the front portion of their plenum. Both HKS versions have the plenum blowing off at the front portion...on Jeff's it would be above his inlet pipe, where the pressure looks to be relatively low. I'd not put it at back simply due to packaging issues. Ideally you're venting the plenum first, but tapping the manifold downstream of the ITB's is going to give a vacuum signal to pop it open relatively quickly anyway (it does on my HKS!) on any sort of lift-throttle. That negative pressure bias on the diaphragm / spring balance will make it relieve quickly. I'm figuring the distributor won't be in the way, so putting it toward the front of the plenum and letting it occupy the former position of the distributor might make a lot of sense. (Jeff P was looking at his setup on Thursday and said similar things, as he now has no dizzy there, and his blowoff is soooo close to there already...only minor piping and it opens up more real estate underneath!) The Wiggins Clamps will expand slightly,you can always use limiting straps, but I don't think you will need to do it---some nice bails and snick snick snick and the plenum is ready to come off. I like it! As for mounting of the BOV, the SK plenum mounts the BOV similarly to the HKS, and to describe it roughly: Take the bottom half of your BOV in the above photos, and incorporate the entire lower body into the plenum. The SK uses the valve seat which is integral to the plenum, the HKS has a flat flange that the BOV sliding valve seals against, with the body bolting directly to the plenum. Integrate the lower valve seat into the plenum, and those vents, and you seriously reduce the mounting area you end up needing. Curiously, the SK valve looks almost identical to the one they used on their EFI conversions...on that one they had a cast J-Pipe, with the lower seat integrated into it. When I built my original HKS "Knockoff" box, I used one of the SK BOV's mounted directly to a machined flat spot on my plenum box. Towards the front face, near the distributor...

Might ask Tony Fall...I'm sure they have driving a Datsun in the Snow down! Now, just a bit of history: What you see in the above photo is what Datsun's Documentary Film on the Monte Carlo Rally described as "a display of Dynamic Cornering". Dynamic Cornering. 1970, 71, 72....et al Today the 'newest thing on the block of motorsports' is "Drifting"... Not that Rally Car Driver's haven't been doing it since the beginning of time. Watch these old films and see them twitch that car sideways well before the corner for exit setup. But I digress...

I have to go with Dragonfly on this one: Adding Length. (Though a 250 ft-lb 1/2" drive Torque Wrench is a kind of standard.) If you use a "Crowsfoot" and are simply setting your torque on the wrench to specification, you are overtorquing your fastener! The difference between the crowsfoot drive center, and the effective center of the fastener is an increase in torque-arm length and will skew the torquewrench high in comparison to the set reading (it will click at the setting applied to the crowsfoot, but in reality is applying that to the lever arm of the crowsfoot to bolt centerline---in some cases 1/2") This is common application in larger fasteners: a speciality wrench or 'extender' with a socket on one end, and a finite 6" distance between that socket centerline and the drive centerline. Many times it's simply a piece of 1/2" plate with a drive hole broached out and a socket welded on---this will give you a longer effective arm, and you must decrease the setting on the torquewrench accordingly or you will overtorque your fastener. Same goes for a crowsfoot. Spending time working on Aerospace Structures and you realize how you grip your wrench and what you put on the end of the wrench makes a difference in the torque applied to the fastener! There are crowsfeet wrenches made (like shown in the Nissan FSM for tightening the L-Head Ballstuds) that place the open-end directly under the square drive of the tool, and they don't require the torque arm recalculation. But standard crowsfeet do! 1%? Start checking what even 1/2" of center distance will do to your readings! A prime example of 'get length' is the tool made for VW Axle nuts. They need 280 to 340 ft-lbs of torque. But EVERYBODY has a 250 ft-lb 1/2" drive wrench. You don't want to go out to buy a 3/4" drive just for the nuts. So they make a tool that is cut out of 3/8" plate, kind of 'egg shaped' with a 1 7/16" hex on one end, and a 1/2" drive square drive on the other end. Center to center distance on the holes is some predetermined distance...what it is allows you to set your torque wrench to 250 ft-lbs, but in reality you are actually applying 280 (or 340) ft-lbs on the fastener through the action of the legnthened torque arm. Cheaper than buying the new wrench! And on large fasteners this is very common. Not everybody wants to buck up for the 3/4" drive 600 ft-lb Snap-On Torque Monster. Now, anybody want to play with planetary gear driven reaction bar torque multipliers? 4:1 is good enough eh? 200 ft-lbs in, 800 ft-lbs out. Makes for airfreight of your tools much easier! LOL

Dalton or "Darton"?

Our Mileage Competition VW Ghia got 52mpg. The Corvair was in the high 40's... I wasn't being sarcastic, I was curious what it was on the dash...it looked like it may have been the Megaview Electronic Dashoboard and the display was unfamiliar to me, so I thought it may have been a new format I was unfamiliar with (and which I wanted!) So it's a different gadget altogether. Hmmm, something else to investigate. LOL Ask anybody here.../sarcasam on/ I'm never sarcastic! /sarcasam off/ LOL At least not in this instance! ROMAFLOL "I digress..."

"I've known plenty of YOUNG people able to make well over 70k here in CA with nothing more than a high school diploma, it's about finding the right company to hire you, and working your way up." Commission Based Sales. Fine if you can keep up that pace. I know plenty of line mechanics at dealerships in LA that make six figures, too! But it's line work, flatrated, plus parts commission. When you get to your 30's and your hands need to be soaked in icewater due to repetitive stress injuries, you reconsider your six figure salary and the toll it takes on your body. Sometimes it isn't all about the money. When you're young it's one thing. Sales takes it's toll in other ways, and education is always attractive. One thing I ALWAYS bargian for in lieu of salary is 'time off and paid schooling'...basically flex schedule to allow you to take continuing education and get your degree. It benefits both you and your employer to get more education, and when they are PAYING for it, it makes it a no-brainer for both entities. And later, when you jump ship for the next company offerring a 35% pay increase (I forecast in about 5 years...) you will have schooling to justify an even more exorbitant pay bump. And that degree? That will get you more. In technical trades, it can mean easily 30-40K per year more in base salary. You read it right. You are considering moving for a job that pays $40K...where likely if you had a Degree down the road, the difference in what you are paid will be $40K. Those high-school educated youngsters making $70K annually think they are doing well, and they are. But their counterparts with a degree in many cases are making $120K. It's just the way it is, not for everything but it is for many things... Just keep that in mind. Education pays in more ways than one!

You guys are comparing and contrasting a cam grind that is direct acting to one that is run through a ratio-rocer setup. See if you can find some of the grind profiles for VW Cams (or possibly Chevy Cams) where they are ground for 1.7 Ratio Rockers as compared to stock 1.25 or 1.5's. The ramp angles on ratio rocker cams are MUCH less agressive as the ratio rocker will increase valve acceleration by a factor. The grind on a cam with 310 duration and 620 lift for a 1.7 rocker will look MUCH LESS AGRESSIVE than one that is ground to the same specification if using 1.25 ratio rocker arms. When the cam is direct acting on a bucket, and the bucket on the valve the ram can 'look' agressive as hell, but in reality is very slow to open and close because you are not using a rocker to intensify both lift and duration. To try to explain this, think of an L-Cam with the same duration and lift. The nose on a direct acting cam would be 1.5X NARROWER and the ramp rates less steep by roughly the same ammount to get the same action as you would have on the L-Cam Grind. I have seen L-Cams with lobes that look like your finger bent over, big flat nose. Comparably specifications for a Toyota 18RG-R engine with similar .050" duration (around 304-310) looked positively 'peaked' by comparison. I hope what I'm saying makes sense. I have seen the different grinds on VW's and some Chevy cams, and when they are sitting right in front of you it all makes sense. One of the things in the VW world you never want to do is put the big rockers like 1.5 or 1.7 onto a HOT cam that was ground for 1.24 rockers. The acceleration on the valve and accompanying stresses will bend pushrods, make the valves float way early, etc. When you are direct acting, the width of the bucket also comes into play, as how wide a swath the thing is rubbing will increase with a longer duration (maybe this makes more sense, explaining it this way)---when your stock cam is wiping the bucket, you will have a wipe pattern say, .250" wide. THIS is your actual 'at full lift duration'. On the peaked cam you will have, you will find that your wipe pattern likely will be considerably WIDER, meaning more lift because of the difference in base circle, but also more duration because of the steeper angles on the sides of the cam. Look at the arc the 'peak' will have to travel as it wipes the head of your bucket, and you will see the narrower peak and steeper ramps actually contact the bucket longer in the 'full lift' position that it does stock with that 'rounded nose'. Additionally, when you indicate off the bucket with a dial gauge, you will be able to see this phenomenon directly, and it should make a lot more sense than my palaver here. From my experience with TRD cams for the 18RG and 2TG's of the 70's with 12mm lift and 310 duration (at 1mm lift) your cam looks about right. Hope this makes sense Bryan (all). Let us know how it indicates with a degree wheel on it, that will be your final test of wether someone screwed it up. Direct-Acting Cams are a different animal than Rocker-Actuated Systems, don't apply the looks of one to the other, it will get you in trouble.