Tony D
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Posts posted by Tony D
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"Ive had a few requested and Ive been told that 200 was to high."
Those people will obviously have no problem paying you $10 an hour, either...
If you have more than 4 hours into your harness, and are selling them for $200, you are giving your expertise and labor away IMO.
People put a price on things becuase they are too lazy to do them on their own. Then they do it, and realize 'for $200, it was a bargian'...
Most Standalone EFI harnesses constructed of new materials and complete to the connectors will run in thearea of $200-400.
The Megasquirt harnesses I've seen for $65 are not 'complete' by a long shot, requiring field wiring and connectors for injectors which can easily double the price.
Stick to your price would be my suggestion. If people don't want to pay, then let em do it on their own. Don't give away your work, because damn skippy the FIRST bume in the road one of your customers hits they WILL blame your workmanship, or something YOU did, and expect you to come bail them out. More loss on an already loosing proposition. Even at $24 an hour, you only have $100 left to consider for parts and profit. One or two calls to the field will quickly eat up that kind of profit margin. Pricing sorts that out, to a degree...
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That would be 'Ceramics' and the search term is 'Adibiatic'...
Ceramic engines run with little to no coolant whatsoever, and heat lost is mainly through radiation from exposed surfaces.
Diesels are more suitable for this application since they use the heat of compression for ignition, so an adibiatic engine would ignite diesels efficiently, whereas the upper detonation limit for gasoline would quickly be reached.
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Steel Plugs, Good. I use Permatex and stake them in place out of habit.
The suggestion was made that you check with oldtimers...
But the glossing over of the most pertinent item from the first page is most relevant: Install a block coolant water pressure gauge. We have these on stationary engines and powerplants to tell if we have a cooling water pump problem, and without actually gauging the pressure present in your block (and the rate at which it rises) you won't know what is causing it. It doens't need to go into the core plug, there are other places to tap your block pressure from...but get a gauge in there so you can see what happens. You can see it when it happens. A gauge to 100psi should be more than enough. The bigger the better.
The characteristic rise will tell you if the pressure is seeping in, or BLOWING in...since it only happens on-boost my best bet is that it's either something lifting, or something fractured that only opens enough to cause a problem, and then closes back up under tension.
I have seen cracked cylinder liners act like this, as well as head gaskets.
If the block was cracked anywhere, a quick shot with cleaner and then Spot Chek will reveal it post haste....sometimes you won't see it with a naked eye, and with a rough casting even a relatively large crack can be camoflagued.
Core plugs can be incorrectly sized for an application as well---a core plug hole that has been made oversize by repeated pressing of the plugs into it may be prone to blow them out repeatedly---I'd stake them in at a minimum now, and measure the holes and plugs to ensure proper crush on installation.
My vote is to put the block pressure gauge on it. 40-60psi is what I recall at speed, 15-30 at idle depending on your pressure cap rating and what suction pressure you are running at the pump inlet.
Funny, I recall someone arguing with me that the water pump only causes flow, and the entire system has the same pressure (Cap Pressure) in it! I'm glad to see there are others who realize a thermostat restricts flow, and that the pump actually raises pressure in the block!
I will bet combustion pressure is the cluprit, though until the bores are measured an oversized hole could be a possibility. I believe they do make slightly oversized plugs for this situation as well....
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These people are making a conversion kit. They supposedly have a kit in works for the Hitachi SUs. You might want to check with them.
Actually, the question has come up on their forums and it's still open-ended if they will fit or not.
I have offered to send him 'one of each' so that they may check fittment on the Round-Top 46mm Hitachis, Flat Top 46mm Hitachis, and the smaller 38mm SSS/Roadster Hitachis.
No takers as of yet...
So if someone wants to actually BUY a set and try them... I would think offerring postage one way to try, and postage back to me would open up a whole new market stream to their product and they would jump at it...
Maybe during the winter he will get back to me on e-mail and do it then. Who knows.
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If you think Zcars had rust issues your in for an awakening with the baby vette. I dont think Ive seen a solid Opel GT ...OR ANY Opel GTon the road in years! They are great looking cars but knid of small. I prefer the Z.
Anyone know of any solid Opel GTs?
I have one in the back yard! Interesting Story, as well. I got it from the original owner who took it off the road in 1987. He loved the car, and 'intended' to restore it, but never got around to doing it. I get the car, along with the factory service manual and every scrap of registration and titling paperwork ever done on the car. Nice Provenance....
So the car is sun-beat, but the body is ROCK SOLID. A little dinged here and there, but nothing but SoCal Surface Rust from being in the sun and oxidizing.
So I look through all the paper, and make my way through years and years of registrations till I get to a Buick-Oldsmobile Dealership Wroksheet. It was the original Salesman's Workup for the original sale deal.
Ready for this? The original owner, in November 1969, got a WHOLE $1500 trade in value on his shiny, new, white Opel GT...
What did he trade in, you ask?
A RED 1964 MUSTANG V8...
I could not believe what I was seeing, so I called the guy and asked him about it. Sho'nuff! The guy said "Oh, that Mustang got a lot of looks...but that V8 just SUCKED gas. And when I saw that little Opel on the lot, I said "Hey, that LOOKS like a Vette, but I won't have to take any sh*t from my Mustang Friends buying THAT! Besides, that thing got GREAT gas mileage!"
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
I can't recall, but the Stang may have been convertible. All I know for sure is the car was 'the first year' of the Mustang... Imagine which is worth more in the same condition today????
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You want it as hot as it can get, as quickly as it can get.
The standard bungs you can buy usually have a mix between "A" and "B" in your drawing. If it's a heated sensor, and it's placed reasonably close to the heat source (post turbine for that application) then you can get away with "B", and can monitor how much your heater comes on at idle and low speed to determine how well the exhaust stream is heating the sensor. The further away from the engine you put it, the more it has to be set up like "A" just to get it hot enough to run without the heater circuit on all the time.
Technically many of the WBO2 sensors heat themselves and that's all you need, but for the NBO2's you want it close so you can keep it out of the exhaust stream, with just the sensor tip inthe flow, and not the whole body.
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We all digress from the initial question at hand.
0.0001 (one tenthousandth) was what was supposed to have been posted. But nevertheless, the equipment to measure the Metric Equivalent of that hundred-thousandth is easier to read and morereadily available than stuff that will read the English Equivalent.
The significance of the statement was that buy foolishly trying to convert his METRIC specification cam into English Measurement the error was induced. As you can see, my conversion of the METRIC specification was correct. The 0.040" approximation was correct, but I didn't convert from metric to English using that 0.040" number, rather the 25.4 (or 24.5 in my case) standard conversion.
And I will disagree on Measuring in Metric not to be more accurate. I can use run of the mill dime store Harbor Freight indicators with METRIC graduations, and do an alignment on a geartrain that will STILL show misalignment when using the Metric Scale, but when the customer uses standard ENGLISH Dial Indicators, they don't even MOVE unless you use a last-word type of indicator (much higher in cost than HF Tooling I can tell you that!) It's a root of SPC that you must improve your measuring tools to improve your production process. The ability to read precise tolerances more accurately and quickly with tooling made for run-of-the-mill METRIC measurements will be FAR more precise than equivalent ENGLISH graduated measuring instruments.
Case in point: Your standard cheap ENGLISH Micrometer will read to 0.001", and may have a .0005 marking scale somewhere...how accurate who knows, but it's there. Really it's accurate to 0.001"+/-0.0005"
Standard cheap METRIC micrometer will read to what? 0.01mm? Accurately (not eyeballing or guessing). What is that, 0.0004" accuracy out of the box with a scale (as mentioned) base-10 for another decimal place? Add another zero in front of that for an 'eyeball equivalent' for measurement. It's an order of magnitude more accurate than the similar English Graduated Instrument.
I can remember when I had to do instruction in the field and our shaft displacements were set to 0.02mm. Try to find ANYBODY in the Millwright Field that has a last word they carry with them regularly---people could not BELIEVE that we were requiring measurment to 0.0008" (Eight-Tenthousandths of an inch) shaft displacement before installing our pinion gears. Most guys were 'just a hair below a thou'. Yeah, that's precision measurement for ya!
And as for what has a tolerance of 0.00001", check out the specifications for the mechanical seal assembly on a variable displacement hydrostatic pump. Their surface flatness is measured in helium light bands... a bit tighter than 0.00001"! It's all what you are used to...there is a reason Germans have Hydraulic Technique to the point they do: they have been dealing with a totally different measuring system that is far more precise and who's daily tolerances are less than what is normally even measured in an English System. What scares me the most is most of Eastern Europe can precision machine stuff because they are all set up with this kind of measuring system and tolerance requirements. We simply add more decimal places to keep up. Shouldn't we simply go that way as well, and get used to a more fine system of measurement? The more numbers you have, the greater chance for error. .5mm is less of a hassle than .020" (or .02" if you will...)
But again, we digress from the original topic too far, methinks!
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He took the initiation...
At least he recognized the mistake of hardmasking a repair area, FOG it in, never tape unless it's a whole panel stopped by a body line!
Good Advice on the post, you spelled it out politely and correctly.
At least he didn't stuff steel wool into the holes to 'hold up the bondo while it dries'...or even better: Crumpled up Newsprint!
Oh, the stuff I've seen over the years...
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uhhh.. aren't you a field engineer!!!!????
I guess you guys use the 'merican system in the field anyway.
Actually, I use the metric system. The English system is fraught with B.S. pitfalls like this. I can't remember the last time I used a fractional tape measure...
Matter of fact, when I do manual alignments on machine drivetrains, I use my METRIC Dial Indicators, METRIC Tape Measure, and METRIC everything else. When I'm done, even though I can still measure a misalignment, when the customer checks my work for acceptance, they can't measure ANY misalignment unless they use very 'high precision' dial indicators that measure to 0.00001".
English measurement are simply too imprecise for my work. It was fine 20 years ago, but today everything in my industry is metric for the most part (internally in the machine)---when you start dealing with forces and pressures, it's just too easy to do that.
The exception: Gauge Pressure. PSI is a better more precise gauge for the layman. Unless you get KpA, MpA etc.... Bar is simply not a good gauge unless you have digital instrumentation and several placeholders.
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Beware, the Opel was sold in Europe for some time, and those DOHC latemodel engines will push the GT body well into the speedranges that would scare many people.
Especially with that short wheelbase!
The Opel GT was the car referred to as 'The Poor-Man's Corvette' and also as "Baby Vette".
Incidentally, V8 swaps in Opels are not as uncommon as you might think, you just put it in from underneath...
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It's not 24.5? I thought it was 24.5? Now I got to go look again.
let's see.... 1mm = .040" right?
I'll be damned, it's 25.4.... now someplace else somebody reamed me for using 25.4.... CRAP! O.K. it's 25.4. I should use online converters, and not my memory.
Or we all should convert to the METRIC SYSTEM because english measurements SUCK! I guess if JPL can miss Mars, I can miscalculate a Cam Lift...
It's not rocket...er...yeh!
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well i live in the land of cheap machine work.
got mine whittled down for $60
Mine was $40 at Griffith's Machine in Paramount.
It was 5000 yen in Okinawa, they cut it to 7Kg, and would cut the smaller 4 cylinder flywheels down to 5Kg for the same price.
My 5000 yen flywheel revs considerably better than the one cut down in the USA. The Japanese Machine shop cut more out on the inertia ring, and did a nice overall finishing on the whole rear of the flywheel. And on a manual machine at that! Someone could NC my flywheel and turn them off on a CNC Machining center like nothing!
I just bought one of those 4.2Kg Kamaeri Chrome-Moly Flywheels. I'm incorrigable...
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0,496? Or 0,514"?
(8.4mm/24.5= 0,3428571)*1.5=0,5142857"
Metrically, you got it right, though...(8,4*1.5=12.6mm at the valve), which is over 1/2 and inch, not less than half...
But agreed, given this 8,4mm cam lift probably means the duration is probably lift to lift. You need to find out duration at 1mm lift (at the valve) for somewhat od a normal comparison of our ,050" duration ratings here in the US of A.
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will adding one of those afi race dampers help to make an even bigger difference over the current setup? i figured maybe just to go the extra mile with lightening the rotating mass. any of you have am aftermarket damper/harmonic balincer?
Don't make the mistake thinking that lightening the harmonic dampner will do anything to accelerate your engine faster! All you will do is induce a torsional imbalance into the crankshaft. The way they function is that a HEAVY ring dampens the power pulses. You get a lighter wheel, and the accelerative forces are not as well dampened. The reason it's so heavy is because it's so close to the centerline of the rotating mass, if you increase the diameter of the harmonic dampener, you can get by with a lighter ring for dampening. Same as the flywheel, nothing is free. Like on the flywheel you want your weight behind the clutch frictional area (ideally the 225mm, but I won't open that can of worms), and you want the inertia ring gone. As long as the weight of the flywheel at the frictional surface equals the weight of the dampener at it's outer diameter, you will have perfectly balanced torsionals on each end of the crankshaft.
Gene Berg started selling a 7# damper for VW's. Nobody thought it could be used without affecting the acceleration of the engine, considering they usually ran a 9# Flywheel. Yet cranks fitted with the Berg "Equalizer" lived longer without breaking, and accelerated just as fast as those without.
Underdrive your pulleys, but don't cut down your damper weight.
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Eventually with cam changes, that same engine was dynoed up as high as 315 to the rear wheels just below 8300rpms. Blowing by like an SOB with .080" scores in the cylinders. It was non-stroker. But it's not a streetable engine by any stretch. Though with the EFI it was a seriously low idler compared to carbs. That was L28 bored 0.040"...
The 2L is a bit disapointing, as it is only around 11:1, and is only making 195-205HP to the rear wheels....at 8780 rpm. Exact same head we used on the L28, huge combustion chambers hence the lower compression. The engine is pretty much useless below 6000 rpm. After that it pulls decently. We were hoping for 1/3 less HP from the engine, so the difference between 14.5:1 and roughly 11:1 is around 8% (if it was making power at the same rate as a 320HP engine, it should be around 211HP instead of 195...) So that could be attributed to the lower compression as everything else is the same. We were hoping for around 215HP, so we may do a head specific to the L20A in this off season, either E30 or E31 with welded chambers. Equivalent CR as the 2.8 engine, and maybe some other tricks thrown in for friction reduction in the smaller, higher-revving engine.
With the strokers, I makes sense to me that they will make more power at lower rpms, with more useable torque band. A turbo would really help in 'useable HP and torque'---it's interesting to watch the dyno numbers on JeffP's engine develop as any throttle opening at almost any rpm produces 2-3psi of 'scavenging' boost...and MAN does that bump the torque up! Even at 1700-2000 rpms.
Incidentally, the Mustang Dyno has some really nice documentation regarding back-calculating power read on their dyno to SAE specs. Their operations manual is available for download as a PDF online, and it really explains how their dyno works. Made interpreting what I was seeing during a run much more relevant. I could look for peaks in the performance, backcalculate where they occurred, and then to relay them to Jeff for AFR or other corrections. I have noticed the Dynojets differ significantly from what the Mustag gives as readings. And since we have background stored on both dynos, comparison seems to be closer on the Mustang with their software package as well.
Neither dyno particularly likes a waste-spark system either...
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Beware, those over 40 are not to be trusted, youngster!
LOL
You made it another year coser to the Reaper! WOO HOO!
Cheery Sod, ain't I? ;^P
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Just remember for that kind of setup to work, the throttle plates must be cracked open slightly just like on an early carburettor setup to allow air/fuel mix to make it to the intake tract...
Having them behind the butterflies allows idle air to be controlled by a single point screw...which is easier as then you only have to synch the multiple butterflies for mechanical phasing, as airflow should follow identically oriented throttle blades. Though aside from synching the idle airflow, an IAC can still be used for additional air for cold startup and A/C idle-up if needed.
On an aside though, if you have something like a Mikuini Manifold where the airflow is almost straight down after the throttle plates, many of the ITB setups with injectors after the throttle plates will be shooing 'down' the manifold instead of at the opposite wall at a 45 degree angle. Combine this with the high-velocity air coming across the throttle plates at partial throttle openings and you can see that right behind the plates can, depending on the manifold, not necessarily be all that bad.
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It would also be a good time to install an inertia switch or oil pressure cut-off switch for safety reasons. The original zcars did not have any accident safety devices for their electric pumps.
They ALL had fuel pump cutoff in case the engine stalled:
Earlier Versions had a set of contacts in the AFM that would enable/disable the fuel pump.
Later Versions had a contact inside the Oil Pressure Swtich that would enable/disable the fuel pump.
It is a FMVSS requirement. The inertia switch can be a PITA because it shuts off the engine on a bump and you have to reset it. Ford Tempos were notorious for getting bumped in parking lots and being rendered inoperable till someone came out to reset the switch (which was in the trunk!) The Rangers were mounted on the passengers floor under the carpet---really accessible places to have to go and reset your car. On the Tempos, you would play 'bumper cars' with Rentals: Bump the co-worker in front of you hard enough to stall him, but not hard enough to damage the 5mph bumpers permanently...which is all the bump you needed to disable the car.
I prefer the stalled engine shutoff, myself...
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Oh, the humanities!
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With a couple of Resistors you can 'dummy up' a signal to the ECU and run until you get the money for the replacement sensor.
Forget the curve, but you want resistance equal to a 180F temperature. The engine will be kind of hard to start and will run rough till it's warmed up, but in Puerto Rico, that shouldn't be too long!
I know during the summer my CLT on the Megasquirt will show 120 if I go to the car after it was sitting in the sun all day and I go out to take a run after work! Not much 'warmup enrichment' needed when the engine is 3/4 of the way warmed up just sitting in the sun!
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Niiiice! 'ONLY' 0.4 more to call it a 10 second car...LOL
That trap/time/weight combo when plugged into the online calculators comes up with right around the HP you were shooting for...congratulations!
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The only way to know is to install them, and then do a mockup where you rotate the cam through full lift and see if the valves hit the block...clay the area to see clearance. Don't need a crank in it, all you need is the assembled head and a block with your bore---look from underneath if you please!
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Are you guys SUUUUUURE?????
Take a look at the Dashpot Covers, Float Bowl Covers, Rubber Balance Line between the carbs, as well as the linkage between those carburettors.
Mayhaps they be SU HS-6's!
Methinks they are real SU's and not a Hitachi-Licensed copy from a Datsun!!!
Ethics vs Performance
in Nissan L6 Forum
Posted
I understand guys who do what the guy did to you. You make it sound rather impolite, but he gave you are reason he could not accomodate you, and then didn't want to waste any more time on the phone with you. How much of his time had you taken up to that point 'window shopping'? The guy told you he was looking for a reason not to do the work, as it's possible like some above have said the profit margin is on the low side for single-in-house machine rebuilds.
I always bring up Gene Berg in these instances. When you called for technical assistance, he immediately asked two things: What is your customer number, and what is the invoice number for the parts you are asking about? If you had neither, it was 'call back when you have them'.
Now, that sounds really harsh, but realize in cutthroat Orange County throughout the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's VW shops that provide performance engine work and parts came and went BIGTIME. There were places that were FAR cheaper. There were places that were FAR larger.
But they ALL are GONE now! Gene spent his time on HIS CUSTOMERS. One of the first things he did (and I find most of this is now on his website) is tell prospective customers to buy his 'instruction booklet' which had a LOT of specific information on his products. It cost $9 at the time. You bought it, and you got a customer number and an invoiice number which he made VERY CLEAR on his receipts that you should save.
Your next call would be of almost unlimited time...he would answer almost any question you had....but if you dared waste his time asking one of the questions that was covered in his instruction books he let you know it! Gene Berg was telling VW Noobs to "Search The Archives" 10+ Years before any of us were dialing in to a BBS with our Commodore PET's or Ataris...
There were a LOT of people who thought his temperment on the phone was how he was in person. It was not. It was business. He was in business to sell parts and attend to his customers. If you had bought an entire engine kit from him (and I can attest to this personally) there was UNLIMITED time he would spend on the phone, and in some cases you could bring the stuff in to the shop and he would go over it personally.
But for someone coming in off the street asking anything about cutting his prices on engine building or assembly costs....you got a VERY short call, usually ending with 'call me when you are serious about building an engine that will last, we don't do it like that here!'
I can attest with well over 150,000 miles on my Berg Sourced 2110cc Type 1 Engine (UNBELIEVABLE MILEAGE on a VW, stock much less performance making 3X the stock horsepower!!!) Everything he told me was true, and holds true to this day. His shop is still in business, well after his passing on several years ago. People who know what they are doing, aren't cheap. And I totally understand their stance when people compare apples and oranges. You shouldn't have wasted his time doing what you did. Especially with a lie, 'intentional' or not. That was ethically wrong to be sure. I have to agree with Mikes last line, don't expect to 'wheel and deal'---he has his price, it's HIS perogative to refuse service to whom he chooses. Don't be insulted or upset when he felt no compunction to play your games. He has better ways to spend his time.