[Finished that stubby exhaust]

Normally 45 degree cuts are considered the minimum, with 30 degrees being more common for exit. If you calculate the cross-sectional area of the ellipse being formed by the angle cut, you can see there is a point where you really don't get a great increase in opening area for a more radical cut. I think it's slightly more than 30 degrees where it simply doesn't open up appreciably. You can see when you take a 2.5" round hole, and then compare it with the surface area available form the 45 Degree cut, you can see the area increased by the cut. Same for 30 degrees.

 

I'm curious, if I could get you a Db Meter, would you be interested in doing some runs and recording the sound pressure level inside the cabin.

 

Reason I'm asking, with the side exhaust, this would really throw a kink in the CHP Mandated Testing Parameter for Roadgoing Vehicles. Their tests require a Db Meter to be placed directly behind the vehicle at a specific distance with the engine at idle and some other throttle opening. I would think your exhaust exiting out the side of the car could be pretty noisy, and free flowing---yet STILL easily pass the CHP Testing standard. If you have ever noticed some of the aftermarket exhausts for the hondas have tailpipes that point up at a 45 degree angle...it's precisely because the sound is directed upwards a way from the CHP noise monitoring devices!

 

But an internal Db Level may be more quantifiable than those sound clips. To me it sounds pretty quiet. Then again, when my friend's mufflers rotted off on his Corvair I thought it 'sounded about right' when taking a ride, so maybe it's time for me to go to more empirical evidence than my own ears! LOL

[Vegetable Fuel Illegal..]

What is the cost of production of the vegetable oil.

I'm not arguing the fact that his cost is lower than commercially available Diesel fuel. That is probably true. Every Tuesday from 1980 to 1982 I would load up a salesman with a Diesel Rabbit with the cooking oil from the McDonald's I worked at...guy had a deal set up so his sales route was in conjunction with the three stores in Alpena Oscoda and Tawas so he could fill a large aluminum tank in his hatchback area, and basically the guy didn't shut off his engine from September to May (otherwise the heater coil in the tank would go cold, and the whole schebang would revert to solid crisco!)

 

For an individual using waste base stocks it indeed is viable.

 

But as an industry, it's a big lie that it somehow will 'save the planet using renewable oil'. They are using an individual's costs, and totally disregarding all the costs in fuel and refining to GET the base-stock in the first place. Cooking oil does cost about 35% MORE than diesel on a per-gallon basis as it comes from the refinery...meaning without anyn road taxes being charged, diesel is about 55% cheaper to produce than vegetable oil!

 

I have been a big proponent of fuel independence since my hippie days when I attended the Mother Earth News Alcohol Fuel Seminar Series down in North Carolina lo some 30 years ago. Hell, I was a 13 year old going to this thing instead of going on vacation. All sorts of bearded oldtimers that 'smelled like otto's jacket' interested in Farm Fuel Production.

 

For an individual to make subsistence fuel, it is possible. But on a massive scale as something to 'save the planet' it's a big sham. It won't work. using areable land to make fuel instead of food is a big mistake, and will cause far more wars than simply fighting for oil.

 

Oil is not a necessity. Food is. When you trade food production for a non-necessity such as vehicular fuel you make a dangerous tradeoff that moves in the wrong direction for not only the country, but the world as a whole.

 

But from an individual standpoint you can get cheap fuel as long as your base stock is available cheap enough. From that standpoint it's economically an alternative.

 

Just remember, used vegetable oil doesn't seep out of the ground and become useable right then and there. There is a cost to produce it, you just don't see it as it's considered 'expended commercially' when you start with it. From that standpoint, it is NOT an economical alternative!

[OEM Dry Sump Source]

911 has 21 qt dry sump oiling system

[The Z that almost was]

Oh Dude, someone stole your designs for the 84 F-Body Redesign! LOL

 

I was in Japan at that time, and was assisting on a full refitting of a 67 Camaro involving greenfoam overlays on the stock body panels. We made a complete front and rear rebody... I think there were six Japanese guys working on it (three on each end) as well as myself and two other Americans who came to work on it every day after work from aroudn 5pm to about 11pm each evening, as well as 12-14 hours a day on the weekends (though on Saturday nights and a lot of Sunday that was more beer drinking and racing time! LOL) As I recall, that was something like 2 1/2 or 3 months...all summer to get the body prepped to make the molds.

 

Having gone through all that, having the body perfect and ready to make the mold off...laying that goop and mat over the pristine bodywork was stressful! I know where you sit, man. That must have taken the better part of a year (all winter at least) to get to the point you are at in those photos...especially if there were only a couple of guys working on it, after your regular jobs!

 

I remember that Camaro to this day...it's been the reason I have been so lax in making molds off my 73 body panels for transfer to the next car... Now thanks to HybridZ I found a place that has flares that are 'close enough' for me to simply modify them instead of repop my own car! I never look forward to making molds on body panels.

 

It still has a unique look, I like it!

[Mounting Options Big Oil Cooler & Big Intercooler? Pics]

IMO, for the effort of routing the thing, I'd put in a Harrison or Serk cooler. I don't know the heat rejection capabilities of the OEM Turbo Cooler, but since it uses funky SAE 45 degree fittings, and not 'standard' 37 JIC stuff, I'd simply switch to something more efficient.

 

If you (should I reveal this?) search on "NACSAR OIL COOLER" in E-Bay you will find a BUTTLOAD of high capacity coolers that will work FAR better than most smaller crap that is commercially available, and can be had at a reasonable price, albiet being used. The NASCAR cast-off stuff is really high quality, and I have bought coolers like that for oil, tranny, and differential coolers.

 

Come to think of it, I just successfully imported the Euro R200 Differential cover with all the pickup tubing and screens for the differential coolers, so I got to photograph it and get the information out...

[how to turbocharged 2 stroke ????]

One last item, to say there are no 'supercharged' diesels that actually boost pressure to do more than scavenge the cylinders is also plain wrong.

Early stationary engines, as well as several mobile engines used gear driven suprechargers to boost engine performance. Some of the Cooper GMV series produced before 1940 used huge contrifugal compressors as an engine boosting device. Many of the mobile engines used compound roots blowers for higher pressures which were gear driven, or crankshaft driven straight off the crankshaft.

Diesel or Petrol, the designs were interchangable. Many stationary engines were designed to run on Diesel, and where you normally would have a diesel injector, operated off a lobe on the cam...you have a 'gas admission valve' which opens a third valve allowing gasseous fuel to be admitted to the intake tract for combustion.

 

Hell, to think of it, I've owned at least two 2-Stroke Cars in my lifetime. A Suzuki Cervo, and a Suzuki Jimny Jeep. For the market, they both were stellar successes in my eyes. I had nary a problem with either vehicle. The Jeep Ate Clutch Cables every 25K km, and both the cars needed spark plugs to be changed on a regular basis. Other than that, run the hell out of them and they just kept going and going and going...

 

I sold the Jeep and bought a Twin-Charged Suzuki Alto. It had a Roots Blower, as well as a Turbocharger, ran some ridiculous amount of boost, had a redline like a sportbike and sequential shifting. A screaming 550cc's of DOHC Microcar. And no, I was like 120# lighter then so I had no problem fitting in the car.... Man, that Alto was a hooot to drive! LOL

 

 

I digress...

[how to turbocharged 2 stroke ????]

I have also heard of opposing piston, 2 stroke diesels that had cranks at the top and bottom of the engine with separate pistons at either end of each cylinder. When the pistons were all the way apart, they unshrouded an intake port at one end and an exhaust port at the other. Thus the pistons themselves worked like valves. These engines also use some type of turbo or supercharger to force air into the cylinders.

 

That would be an Ajax engine, or on a ship more than likely a Fairbanks Morse.

 

Most Two Strokes do NOT use Reed Valves. They use either Rotary Valves or Piston Porting.

 

And this is why they are totally suitable for forced induction.

 

Even with reed valves in the intake as the 'anti-reversion' device, the exhaust is invariably piston-ported, and works fine in turbo service.

 

But Ajax and Fairbanks Morse use the opposed piston, common combustion chamber design. Another which is bitchenwickedcool to watch in operation or even to look over from a design standpoint is the "Deltic Engine" which has THREE crankshafts which are linked via gearing to a central shaft running through the center of the DELTA configured engine block (think of those common combustion chambered engines, set up so they configure a triangle, with SIX pistons at any given time being able to give power to any of the three crankchafts...) I think you can find Deltic Engine information on Google... It's worth a look if you want to see a reaaaaallly cool engine design!

[how to turbocharged 2 stroke ????]

Two Strokes take to turbocharging very well.

As for the comments about Detroits, they have 17:1 CR in the 71 Series and that is definately enough to start compression. The blower in the Detroit is there to scavenge the cylinders, and the Turbocharger is either altitude compensation or power boosting. A Detroit V871-T will have a blower for idle scavenging, and once turbo boost comes up sufficiently to scavenge the cylinders in many cases the DDEC Controller will disconnect drive to the blower to allow the turbo to continue the scavenging function, as well as going to positive pressure (in some cases 45psi+) for engine power boosting. In the old days a simple pressure control anneroid connected to the fuel rack would twist and allow more fueling comeing from the injectors...but now the peizeo injectors and the DDEC controller will control that much more efficiently.

 

Talk that a Two-Stroke can't be turbocharged is simply foolishness.

 

Just an FYI, the Snowmobile Mr. Unser got busted on when he trespassed in the national park was a turbocharged two-stroke with well above 200hp. They have been selling turbokits for Snowmachines for YEARS.

[Finished that stubby exhaust]

I am picturing a slight angle cut in a piece of pipe, not enough to form a complete ring but something to be centered on the bit of the pipe most exposed to the engine bay, to "persuade" the exhaust gases to go down under the vehicle rather than anywhere else. Just a thought for possible (possibly un needed, for all I know) improvement.

 

Actually this would be a highly recomended modification. A "Baloney Cut End" is almost required in this case...not so much for the direction of flow (which it would do, especially if you placed the longest point forward, opening to the rear) but for decrease of the pressure where the gasses exit the piping. A baloney cut increases the surface area of the pipe making the flow exiting the pipe to drastically decrease it's speed...it's like discharging into a much larger pipe. It not only decreases exhaust velocity, but it also increases scavenging effects.

 

It's a highly recomended addition. Watch industrial stacks for process flow, and you will ALWAYS see them angle-cut. A straight pipe will make more of a 'pop' for each pulse that comes out, and angle cut pipe will more 'woosh' for each pulse.

[Finished that stubby exhaust]

It's listed as a muffler, but it's really just a resonator.

 

How's that again?

The thing is a muffler, especially in the application you use it.

The difference between a 'muffler' and a 'resonator' is purely in their position in the exhaust stream and their designed function at that position.

 

Because something is straight through does not immediately make it a 'resonator'. Putting it at a point in the exhaust system where it takes out a specific exhaust system resonance frequency (this could be before or after another 'muffler') is what dictates it's nomenclature.

 

A Muffler knocks down all frequencies, whereas a resonator knocks down a specific frequency or set of frequencies.

 

So as you are using it, indeed it IS a muffler. Were you to have two of them, placed traditionally they could both be considered mufflers. But if you started playing with positioning of the front end unit to take out resonance in a specific rpm range (like the boomy 2500 rpm cruise range, usually knocked out placing it under the tranny) then the front one could be the Resonator. But if you put it in a generic under-tranny placement position, and then sized the rear unit for removing turbine whine specifically, the rear one would be the resonator.

 

Generally mufflers will have a chambered construction, but not always.

 

This is like "Freeze Plug" with BRAAP. It bugs me when people think because it's a straight through design that 'it's not a muffler, it's a resonator'....

 

My weakness is revealed...

 

This setup looks good though, I'd not considered a stainless muffler AS the downpipe... I have a setup where the chambered muffler is under my seat in a box, exiting out the side. This may make it more friendly with smaller units in two places. I'm going to have to redesign now...

[My car is fouling spark plugs like crazy!!!]

You will not see black smoke out the back end of the car until the AFR is into the 9:1 Region. At 10:1 I could not see any smoke at all out the tailpipe (non-catalyst exhaust). Until it dropped into the 9's, the smoke did not show up---so you can be plenty rich and never see a whiff of black smoke out back, so don't put much credence in that evidence!

 

Timing and Fuel are what will cause this, unless you have some sort of plugged exhaust, or terribly restricted inlet.

 

How do you know your timing is not an issue?

[Mounting Options Big Oil Cooler & Big Intercooler? Pics]

I'd shoot for a more efficient oil cooler like on Helix's setup. That tubing and perforated fin cooler is terribly space inefficient, as well as not haveing great heat transfer properties. A good folded fin Harrison Style Oil Cooler will reject much more heat with a MUCH smaller footprint, making alternative positions (like down low in the front spoiler...) much more plausible.

 

That thing looks like a tranny cooler for my F350 Turbodiesel!

 

The JDM solution is a 1st Gen Mazda RX7 Cooler, and they work wonderfully!

[steel fender flares?]

930 Flares anybody?

 

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/3/web/735000-735999/735451_189_full.jpg

 

My car had these done in FRP back in 1981 by the previous owner Roger Puffer. I went for years trying to figure out what kind of flares they were as I'd not seen them anywhere else. Then one day on Beach Blvd up in LaHabra this Porsche idles up alongside me...him looking at me, me looking at him. "Oh, 930 Turbo Flares, that makes sense! I got to get me some of those chip guards the P-Cars have!" And the secret was over.

 

It looked better in Black... Now alas it's resting in faded primer grey waiting for rework.

 

 

And megathanks for that 930 fender post! Those guys are about an hour away, and I'll be damned if I'm rebuilding my flares from scratch on another car!!! That website alone will save me hundreds of hours making molds off my current car for transfer to another!

[The Z that almost was]

Somewhat Firebirdish from the front, eh?

 

Man, I don't even want to think what kind of time you had into that to put it aside!!!

[Recommended Body Repair Manuals]

Books are fine, but really hands on work is how you will make the links. See if there is a local trades college that has some bodywork classes...then see if you can get a copy of the syllabus---they usually have a series of very good books for the classes. You can read up, then take the class to answer all the questions that will come from reading the books!

 

If you can get into the class, do so, you will be glad you did!

[Resistors vs. PWM for injectors?]

I have made some measurements with current limiting resistors and the PWM off, and the opening time is less that if the PWM settings were optimized without resistors.

 

Wow, that is a suprising bit of information! Sometimes KISS Rocks!

[280zx test pipe...a few questions]

There once was a time you could order 'test pipes' by vehicle model...

But I think that era ended by the late 1980's...

 

Now, it's all custom fab stuff.

[whats a 3/4 cam??]

That sounds like a terribly inefficient way to describe the dimensions of any cam. I'd expect it's meant that it is 3/4 of the way to the full race cam. In other words, a street/track type of cam.

This depends on the phraseoogy. "3/4-Race" as one would take it means 75% of a full-race setup?

 

Doubtful. Ever hear of a 1/2 Race Cam? 1/4 Race? 15/16th's?

 

The most logical derivation is that once the duration exceeded 270 degrees, which is 3/4ths of the circle, you broke into the 'Race' designation. "3/4 Race" and "Full Race" are about the only two terms I ever heard, "Full Race" being something with a duration beyond 300 degrees.

 

For big V8's that 270 degree duration is pretty radical, and 'in the beginning' V-8's dominated terminology. For a VW, 308 and 310 degree cams may or may not be a 'big cam' depending on displacement.

 

Bigger you are, the less you are accustomed to seeing!

[What are the common misnomers ppl use?]

Irregardless...

 

"Series 1" 240Z...

 

ECT...

 

Don't get me started!!!

[Resistors vs. PWM for injectors?]

This seems to be an issue that comes up many times when using stock injectors without the ballas packs. I still don't see why with stock injectors people have such a resistance to using the stock resistor package in the injector circuit. What is this fascination with PWM and it's fiddling capabilities. KISS was more than a rock band...

The low-Z injectors work fine with resistor packages, and idle quality is good. Usually the big honking injectors people buy for high flow apps are high-impedance anyway, and idle quality suffers because they don't really have that crisp a response at shorter pulsewidths...which kind of says something about application selection more than what kind of current limiting you need to employ.

 

Of the startups I've seen, far more people have fried things trying to set up a system without the resistors on low-z injectors. Since Datsun made a nice Resistor Pack for the L... I mean, is weight savings that critical?

 

Of the problems I've had, injector driver issues has not been one of them...and I ran that stock Datsun from the get-go and haven't looked back.

[How to balance your valve train]

I'm with Miles on the Longevity issue. This is not so much for power, it just makes things last so much longer. Until you weigh stuff accurately, you really can't tell how much difference you have. On large industrial engines I was aghast that the pistons were weight-matched within 10 POUNDS! (10" bore, 10.5" stroke with 900rpm operating speed...) I talked with one of their oldtimer technicians, and for some Naval Craft, they hand file the pistons on the balance pads to within 1# of each other, and it really helps with how the engine runs onboard ships...but for grouted stationary installations they figured WTF. Well, I did the first engine using a Bathroom Scale and did the pistons to within 1/2 a pound "more or less" just because I was curious. Took me a good 32 hours of work by hand. I really didn't tell anybody I did it, just did. When that engine started up the amount of vibration reduction was amazing! Where the handrails on the engine used to vibrate visibly, you could not even FEEL them moving afterwards. Now 32 man hours of work on something that takes a crew of 8 men a week to accomplish working around the clock is not a big investment in time IMO...and given the improvement in vibration reduction was well worth it. It was not required, but the time to do it was minimal. Since my time in VW's, half a gram was always the standard for just about any part. And even on stock engines I'd take the time to at least weight match everything that got torn down. Deburring Chevy pressed rocker arms, etc. It's all back to what I've said in the past...there is no real secret for speed or power, there are three basic elements:

1)Preparation

2)Preparation

3)Preparation

The difference between the engine that makes 208HP and the one that makes 147 using the exact same components is found in one of the three steps mentioned above, plain and simple. The reason one engine will last 2X as long as another assembled with the exact same components will be found in one of the three steps mentioned above as well.

 

As for compliments to Miles, it's partially my own sloth...welll in a big part my own sloth. It's going to be WAY easier for me to explain what I do to the top end when assembling something by linking this post if it's a sticky than if I have to bookmark it and find it again later! LOL

 

But even for the raw information contained, it's stickyworthy IMO.

[L Series Block Brace]

Someone wanted a link, so I finally got around to making a link to my you-tube video extraction. Shiftlight comes on at 9300 and 9500 rpms depending on gear selection.

 

 

Another, with slightly lower shiftpoints, 9200 and 9300 if I recall correctly...

 

 

This one was from last year, without the dual exhaust, but Dave Mis-Shifted and this tells you what happens when you go from 2nd to 5th and then take forever to figure out what you did... I mean, you can hear it come on the cam pretty clearly...

 

[Lash Pad thickness]

Another thing to consider is exactly where on the seat the head man set up your valves. A good L-Head Shop will set valves for CC of the heads, and this will usually dictate different lash pads unless they shorten each valve accordingly dependent on how deep they seated the valves.

 

If they shallow seated your valves, up on the top of the valve seat...then they will be one height.

 

If they deep sunk them, more towards the bowl then they will appear taller.

 

The quickest thing to check is your lobe...you can caliper base adn lift do the math and know if the cam is worn. Same caliper will tell you your installed height on the springs more or less, and if you pop a valve or two will also measure the valve total length... Clear it all up in 15 minutes ifthe head is not on the engine.

 

Probably have the horse tied to the cart here, but this is why I will measure and mockup everything myself before sending it off to a shop to be ´cleaned´and assembled. If you´re not sure on the assembly, and the assembler is not sure on the assembly...then it´s time to simply pull it all down and keep things organized...and simply put it back together with a proper build sheet so you know what is where, and what lengths are what.

 

The shop should have done that for you when they assembled it. Even if it was chicken/scratches on the shop mans notepad...they should have something! You shouldn´t have to be grasping in the dark like this...they should be able to tell you what you started with after it left their shop.

[Where else do you guys look for a 240z?]

Shipping will be under a grand. Proper rust repair on most cars I see back east will be FAR more than that!

 

I have been selling rust free tubs-chassis to Europe now for two years. Stuff we THROW AWAY in SoCal was being compared to 3 year old BMW´s after being acid dipped to reveal any hidden rust. And this is from an FIA Certified Cage Installer!

 

`Rust Free´, `Surface Rust´, and `Rusty´mean TOTALLY Different things on the east coast and the west coast. What someone would throw away as something not worth repairing on the West Coast would be a car that would be considered almost rust free on the East Coast!

 

The southwest...no humidity, little rain, lots of sun. Your interior will be trashed, but the steel will have no tin worm larvae present!

 

Local Classified Papers online in remote town make for interesting finds...though craigslist seems to be the realm of bottom feeders wanting to sell something without paying anything...that can be good and bad. I´ve only had one good response from a Craigslist Seller...every single other has flaked and not returned calls, etc etc etc. For the hassle, I´ve had betteer luck on e-bay. though the potential to get something really cheap exists on craigslist. If they call you back.

[280ZX Turbo CV Rebuild]

Beware of `Rebuilt`tripods. If there is any wear in the races, the only viable solution for rebuild is to grind them oversize and install a bigger ball bearing.

 

Now, if the ball bearing was only 0.010´´ thicker, that may not be a problem. But from the pair I saw, they were the next standard metric oversize ball bearing. Which meant the oversized ground races they ride in had all the surface hardening ground out of them, and the balls were riding on the softer inner metal of the tripod carrier. They lasted half a pass, and hte ball bearings ate right through the carrier.

 

Put in a set of junkyard pieces and they´re still running.

 

Mosat driveline shops can dissassemble them, install new boots and pack them with grease for $50-75 a side. It´s NOT ´rebuild´but simply a repacking service. And really, this is all they usually need. If they are worn on the races, crapcan em...especially if you plan on putting power down with them...the reground races will not hold up!

 

Engraving axles is not a good idea, the stress risers associated with the surface imprefections can cause problems with higher horsepower applications.