Tony D

Challenge ACCEPTED! While running at ElMirage three years ago, Andy Flagg in the Land Speed 280Z went into a flat spin at 140+mph! The car went fully backwards, and about 195 degrees of rotation before the parachute deployed over the TOP of the hatch and jerked him back straight ahead... He ended up running over THREE of his chute cords! He actually went through the traps partially backwards with a speed (slowed by the chute) of around 132 and change.... When we went into Tech for spin check, they said "only one record per day!" Uh, noooo, guys, this is a "spin tech"... You SPUN? Really? Like coming through the tech for a record was the normal M.O. for the car (which it kinda was at that time...LOL ) So it wasn't me, but I was driving the recovery truck to go pick up Andy who DID spin at just over 140...

ooo key, the worlds only top-end turboed 280 with a 7800 rpm stock engine has weighed in...... The photo on the autobahn was my screensaver for about three years until that computer terminally crashed. It was actually 145 indicated, with proper sized tires, and a stock non-intercooled L28ET (eurospec) at 10psi boost in a 240Z The ZisiZit Super-Z went something like 178mph with a 280 body. I do not believe he had a G-Nose. This is the guy who (yes F-n-F Fans) blew the WELDS on his manifold. Apparently he was running 25psi, and sheetmetal a bit thinner than what he should've, and during the run on long course BLEW the manifold apart! So now that you guys have a boost figure, and a body configuration, and know what JeffP makes around 23psi... Can you figure how much HP it takes to get a Stock Bodied Z over 150mph? I'm with John C on this one. Anything over 150 TRUE is a difficult feat to accomplish. And it AIN'T happenin' in NUTHIN Stock Datsun 6-Style!

Just saw the link at ZC.C you posted. Check out Lynn Burkholder's setup... He is running the Electromotive setup for years on his Supercharged Z, anywhere from 12 to 17psi. He has lots of experience with the setup. Seeing your manifold, that gives me an idea for the 510 and that 80CID Blower I picked up last year... Far Easier conversion than what I'd seen in the past! Lynn is in the Ontario ZCC up in Canada. I believe his contact information is on their Website.

an S30 and an S130 are two entirely different animals and should not be classed in teh same category at all.

I live about 15 miles from you, used to live in Corona... Where in Corona are you located, it's become a big place. I'm off Van Buren and the 91 now up in Riverside. And am a Group Z member. Though right now I'm 8600+ miles away tapping out on the keyboard in Singapore.... I'll be back the 23rd, e-mail me off forum, and we can get something together. Just helped complete a turbo conversion on a 240Z Roadster up in Diammond Bar, which turned out to be a hoot to drive. Cheers! TonyD

on a zxt manifold, there is a BOV (vacuum control valve) AND a relief vavle. The perform two separate and distinct functions. One (the BOV, AKA Vacuum Control Valve, ported into #4 Intake Runner) controls pressure rise in the intake manifold after the throttle is snapped shut, relieving pressure from the turbocharger to keep it from a stall condition, and to blow it into the intake manifold, keeping the valve seals from experiencing a rapid spike to total vacuum keeping oil consumption down. The other (the emergency pressure relief valve, the big golden round thing on the top on the manifold near the EGR Valve) is simply an emergbency relief valve to keep the turbo from overpressurising the intake manifold over about 10psi---where the stock fuel map stops! It is a failsafe for the wastegate. If you disconnect the wastegate, and drive hard, you will find the Emergency Relief valve opening wooshwooshwoosh continually to keep manifold pressure at a safe level for the fuel delivery available. They are two different valves, with very different reasons for being there. No, Nissan made no mistakes--but a lot of peole get them confused through lack of understanding of the system and how it is supposed to operate. "Works for Me" and "Properly Engineered" are not mutually inclusive terms in may cases... In many cases, they are mutually exclusive when scrutinized closely, as a matter of fact!

I used the check valves from the donor car (83ZXT) on the vacuum system, and the original brake booster check valve from the 260. I have been running the stock brake booster check valve in my turbo 240 since 87 with no problems. But yeah, I grabbed the turbo check valves (which looked the same as the stock 260Z check valves) and used them on the vacuum reservoir for the heater controls.

at 45 degrees below zero, on a frosty Michigan Morning, Amsoil was the ONLY lubricant available that had the viscosity required when hot, AND that would allow me to actually SHIFT the transmission in my 62 VW Microbus. After moving to CA, and going back to Dino Oil (no big swings in temperature!) I experienced, after a rebuild of the tranny and reduction boxes, a TERRIBLE sound like something binding and breaking after 3+ hours of straight through highway driving at 75mph+. Tranny rebuilder told me the reduction gear boxes were overheating and breaking down the Dino Oil. Put the Amsoil back into them, and it's there to this day, 65K miles later. Regular Particulate sampling shows no undue flaking of gearsets, synchros, etc... So I have synoil in all trannys and gearboxes ever since...

webers will work, but get composite float assemblies from later models, as mentioned earlier, the brass units tend to collapse around 10+ psi. The guy you are talking about is David Glidewell, and is a Group Z member. You may be able to leave a message at the Group Z SCC Yahoo Groups Site and maybe he'll contact you with some answers. David and I were the two of the three or four "blow through turbo"guys in Group Z back in the early 90's. My tank was a copy of the HKS Surge tank, and didn't sufferethe lean surge problems inhjerent in the smaller cartech styled box. Something to be said for pressure diffusion and proper airflow entry to the carbs. I used soft mounts on my carbs, and never had blowout problems, then again I was using good Mikuini Pieces, and not the phenolic knock-off crap sold today. Mine was low-key, running only 10 to 17psi (when I got spunky) and returned 17mpg in daily driving to and from work in SoCal. It also gave me cleser to 5mpg when driven hard. Everything encountered with carbs is solvable if you have the right information. David is unwilling to experiment with modulator rings in front of the carbs to take care of his lean surge transition problem, as are most people when they reach that stage of tune with triples and a blowthrough setup. I, myself saw the light, and went EFI some time ago. It has taken some time to find the original HKS EFI TB's (triples like the Mikuinis) and the original HKS Surge Tank (was over $1000 in Japan whilst I was there) so soon an "old school lookalike" turbo motor will be back under the hood of my 73... And Sharkie will prowl once again! Really, go with EFI and save yhourself a LOT of headaches and an excruciating learing curve! There is a lot to be said for going out to the car, and just turning the key after a hot run and shutdown on a summer day. Believe me, if you think 74 and 73 engines had hot-start issues, try driving a blowthrough turbo car in desert heat!

In 1984, when I touched down in Japan, the head was still available at around $12,000. In 1989, whne I left, due tot he Yen going from 268 in 84 to 131 in 89, the price at the same speed shop in American Dollars had risen to $24,000+. I really hate to sound like a broken record, but ANYONE saying "it won't cost a ball" or "wil it be reasonably" priced is out of touch with the REALITIES of the situation. I have seen Japanese S30 vehicles with over $60K in modifications on them, and for those owners, a $24K head is something to set them apart from the rest of the crowd. There is NO WAY IN HELL you will even sniff the FARTS of the guy laying up the cope for the casting, much less get a completed head out of OS Gikken for anything under $10K, and I'd venture to say $20 by now! Nissan realized the weaknesses inherent in the L-Block, and after experimentation withthe NISSAN crossflow head (The LY) they shelved further development on the L-Series for the NEXT GENERATION of L-6, the RB Series. If you want and "Original" L-Series, bet an LY head, they are still around, and only run you around $60K complete engine assembly---the head alonw bare is going for around $25 to $40K depending on where you source it and how willing they are to part with it. The these levels, the block it's bolted onto is merely a support for the display of the head itself...

wow! Sims, that looks a bit cleaner then the original photos you sent me! Nice sleeving and db37 connector terminations!

to answer David's question, and Marshalls comment: most positively YES! At the Denver Nat'l Z Car Convention, there was a track event at the old Stapleton Airport. The back straight was 3/4 mile long and coming off that corner there was an orange 240 Z from Ontario Canada (Lynn Burkhardt I believe) that would pull the Z32TT like they were standing still as they hit their speed limiters. Lynn would scream by (You could hear his supercharger wailing away from the spectator's area) and leave those Z32's wondering what had hit them. Come the corners, they could "swish" by him silently as he was running street tires that had to make the return journey to Ontario, but on that back straight, he would start waaaay back, and come on like a freight train and blow by them as you heard the telltale "buurrp buuurrrp" of the fuel cut on the Z32. His comment was "I've got the big pulley on there, running about 5psi less than normal. I do have to drive 3500 miles back home, you know!" He was at the Atlanta convention the year before, I believe, also. I saw the car again in 2000 at the Kingston Ontario ZCC, and it sounded even meaner---apparently he's cammed it even more! And to make the feat even more impressive, think on this: He was runnning STOCK bodywork. No G-Nose, No Headlight Covers. As I recall, only the BRE Wing and Splitter. At speed the car did have a "Nose Up" attitude, so it must've been frightfully light in the steering. Sometimes it's not the power that stops your advance on the speed, it's the testicular fortitude!

actually, the air hits the FIREWALL, and piles up under the HOOD, lifting the front end. This is why both the G-Nose and the S130 have a below-the-bumper-line air inlet for the radiator, and most later vehicles are total bottom-breathers! The lift on the back end is aerodynamic from the shape of the decklid. But the lift up front is from that open maw ramming air against the firewall, where it acts similar to a diffuser turning velocity into pressure. The air speeding under the vehicle acts similar to an "air door" preventing easy exit, adding to the diffuser action of the firewall. By adding a Factory-Style Z432R bellypan, along with the G-Nose, the air admitted through the raidator is at the bare minimum to cool the vehicle (when I partially obstructed my G-Nose inlet, the car ran 15 degrees hotter, removed some of the offending items---teeth if you must know--the temperature went back down. Airflow therough the G-Nose inlet is only what it needs to be, and nothing more!) and this allows the FRP bellypan used on those models to smooth the airflow under the vehicle to almost the rear of the tranmission....where it acts like and ejector due to it's relatively highspeed, "sucking" air out of the tunnel and evacuating the engine bay of it's diffused airload. Clever, those Japanese One of the popular (though styling wise probably would not catch on here in the USA) is the addition of vents through the front wings relieving the pressure along the sides of the body. Holes are cut along the inner fenderwell to allow the pressure to relieve to the inner fender well, or through a duct to the outer fender surface. This is very effective, and if you look at the interiors of may high speed performance cars, you will see louvres near the rear of the engine bay venting to the wheel wells. Most hink it's for keeping underhood heat down---whit IS a function, but that can be accomplished through a simple 4" louvre. But having one square foot of louvres on each inner fender near the firewall (wichi is about the equivalent area of the radiator opening....) there is more to it than simply "heat evacuation". Remember, heat radiates UP... Not sideways. Overheating at speed is rarely a concern, it's in stop and go that underhood temperatures soar. So maybe a bit of "misdirection" is involved in the stated purpose of the vents. But then again, an automobile company would NEVER obscure a speed secret from the general public, would they?

remember the stock NISSAN designed BOV for the AFM equipped turbo cars was to dump air into the INTAKE MANIFOLD at the #4 intake runner utilizing a differential pressure check valve. This works well in that the air is behind the Throttle Body in the Intake Plenum, letting the turbo simply do a slow spindown between shifts or lift-throttle as opposed to a surge or rapid deceleration caused by rising pressure in the intake when not BOV equipped. Forrest, I have my BOV (the stock 280ZXT Piece) dumping straight into the plenum, but with the non-stock BOV (like yours) designed to discharge to atmosphere you are best to discharge it at the turbine wheel in a manner set to pre-spool. Adding a glasspack to the intake tract will muffle both blowoff and intake whine on turbocharger equipped engines. The Japanese would use VW mufflers, motorcycle mufflers, etc to muffle blowoff noises. There was a time in the beginning when "rice" was quiet and efficient.... But that was almost 20-25 years ago now... The archives should have the description on my older setup on the carburetted blow through setup I had before, which was a mandrel bent 3/4" tube with a baloney cut end discharging at the turbine wheel. It was put through my intake piping positioned and welded. It looked very similar to the old 930 Turbo setup if that helps any. Burns Stainless rocks.... On the air flow backwards through the aircleaner: on industrial stationary turbines, this is an integral part of the design used to PROLONG FILTER LIFE as the "reverse pulse" usually is designed to blow light dust and swarf off the inlet filter allowing the precleaners to live longer in high dust environments. The pumping loss on reinitializing airflow through the filter is only a factor if you take a long time to get back on the throttle. And in that case it it wouldn't matter. But if you are back on the throttle quickly, the pressure rise in the intake ducting in front of the turbo from the blowoff just dumping statically into the intake ducting (not to prespool the turbo, just 'dumping') may indeed HELP respool pressurization due to a higher "ambient" pressure that may exist at that time. It's easier to pump from 15psi across a turbine with a 3:1 comprssion ratio when starting at say +1 or 2" H2O pressure from blowoff than it would be to the -1 to 2" H2O existing during normal draw. Lower discharge temp would exist for a fraction of a section to be sure. Ideally you wouldn't have any more than -4" H2O during WOT at full load, full boost, full rpm...

hey 25 out of 70 is darned good! Great to see people DOING instead of TALKING! I got my issue yesterday, and liked the ZX on the cover for sure. But my diseased half has an unhealthy lure towards the BatVan. I would never do that to my 62 Microbus, but that old 66 I bought back in the 80's owuld have been a prime canidate for the conversion they did. Saratoga Springs is near Rochester. Maybe I will have to go over one day during the 2005 Z-Car Convention and check out the progress on the "BatVan". But it's great to see someone from here get "Published" LOL "Got my picture on the cover of the Rollin' Stone..."

I have two things to add to this topic: 1) Did you LUBRICATE the seal upon installation with a smeared grease or assembly lube in the lip groove on the seal? If not, it's possible that it started DRY, and quickly smoked on startup, leading to a quick leak after initial startup. You can easily salvage a grooved shaft using a Chicago Rawhide or Federal Mogul "Shaft Saver Sleeve" which is a .003" think sleeve that is driven over the shaft while in place, with loctite on it's inner bore. They were designed for automotive harmonic balancer initially, and many shops now install them on NEW cranks or reground cranks so the seal area is a highly-polished precision sealing surface that is easily renewable at teardown whithout removing the crank or machining at all. It also adds .006 diametrical thickness making for more seal face pressure adding to sealing integrity (theough some argue more seal wear). Many people do not install seals correctly, and the faces of a rubber (say Viton) seal may reach temperature of over 400* well short of 15 seconds after startup due to the combination of seal face pressure and dry running straight on the shaft. This is also a good reason to pre-lube the engine with oil under pressure as opposed to cranking the engine with the plugs out until oil pressure comes up. Even cranking at 300 rpm can burn up an un-lubed seal. LUBE YOUR SEALS AS RECOMMENDED BY THE SEAL MANUFACTURER! 2) CHECK YOUR CRANKCASE PRESSURE! You may have excessive blowby or inadequate PCV action exacerbating seal leakage. The rear main is the closest to full pressure oil continually bathing the seal, and if there isn't adequate negative pressure in the crankcase, it will leak like a pig from day one, regardless of how well it's sealing. A single lip seal normally will seal up to 5psi differential, which sounds like a lot, but any installation deformity for misalignment can kill off that efficency. You may consider the possibility of a similarly sized seal with a dual-lip design if it's available. The Federal-Mogul catalog is immensely helpful in searching out compatible seals. The big thing is having the same outer diameter, inner diameter, and width. Usually width is "negotiable" and in some cases if a dual lip seal isn't available at say a 10mm width, it IS available at 15mm, and if the seal bore can accomodate the added depth of installation (or if it will tolerate a seal sticking OUT from the seal surface by 5mm) you can use it. Sometimes it's only a 1 or 2mm width difference that allows you to use a double-lip design over a single lip. Just some food for thought. Good Luck and keep us all posted on what you find. Were you at any of the convention activities last week? Saw John C at the Willow Springs Event....

Hey Jamie, those of us who passed through the Air Products Wierton Program might argue that "best in the business" comment!

agreed. Hot borning and honing is the way to go for an absolutely round bore and ultimate ring seal. The heating should not be a problem in a street car. The cooling system is misunderstood by many people, and the part that usually get overlooked is the installation of a proper bypass line. once that hotspot forms, it gets damn hard to get it back down to temperature as steam pockets make wonderful insulation. Lots of times the problem isn't in the cooling water flow, but the pressure the pump is operating at within the block.

The HKS 3.5 Liter Kit also contained a custom crank made by Crower, and was sold "exclusively" through HKS in Japan only. If you could get the specs on the crank, you could back-calculate the bore diameter used. I looked through my notes and found the Diesel Liners were used more to Bore L20A's out to L28 specs, so maybe the HKS kit didn't use liners. I can't find my old brochure in the closet--- But taking an old block and running six big bores at the maximum diameter possible will only cost around $120 at most shops, so you could sacrifice a block (maybe one with a "hole" in it already, say...around #5 rod area... there are more than a few out there) and find out what you run into. I have not heard of any shops here in the USA doing liners for an L-Motor except for service replacement... Intersecting the oil gallery isn't that big a deal, as a rifle drilling and sleeving of the gallery would restor it once the liners were set in place... This is high-end machining, though---few places of automotive grade will be willing to do it, but in general heavy industry they do stuff like this all the time. Mid America Machine does some amazing restoration work on centrifugal compressors and their passages. If I lived in West Kentucky, I would start talking to them more intently. Out on the west coast I would talk with Powers Brothers Machine in paramount (L.A) or Santa Fe Machine. The guys at Santa Fe have been workgin miracles for years...

the Crafstman one is O.K. for general use, but beware as it's not the most accurate. I have one I use for general stuff that I keep in my travel bag since it's cheap and if it goes away it's not big loss. The ones by Raytek are very good, and have a MUCH tighter focus spot at a distance. Also beware of using them on polished surfaces, they don't emit the same as a rough surface. Similarly Stainless Steel does not emit hardly at all without painting it. Been using one of these for years, and they are great. "In the beginning" they are about the size of a Dirty-Harry Special, and cost $800! Now you get better resolution on a unit that costs $90! Cool, huh?

Wow, those ITB's are big. On the Bonneville car we were running a bigger cam and with only 45mm TWM bodies the terminal HP ended up in the 290's to the rear wheels at 8300rpm or thereabouts. Which was 55hp more than 45mm Webers. The choice was 55mm Webers or 45 TWMs and with the costs, we decided to go EFI. Thing idles at 800rpm and started on a 39 degree F morning at the Lake like nothing was out of the ordinary. Nothing like EFI! Man, I like those Air Cleaners...

showing NO tach activity? I would check connections, the VR should privide a good enough firing signal through the amplifier... Like Moby said, off the coil terminal, though. If not, you can trigger like above in the sticky diagram. Is the tach in the car connected and functioning? Origianally I had a problem with incompatible voltage regulators, and once I installed the proper voltage regulator I regained my in-dash tach, and could also get the MSS to fire when it should. Something in the Tach/VR circuit drew dow nthe firing impulses for the coil and it would only fire every third cylinder or so. When disconnected from the alt and VR, running off the battery the thing worked great. Took a while to figure out the internal/external regulator incompatibility and that it actually affected the spark trigger signal, though...

thicker oil just causes it to be harder to pump, and take longer to reach lubricating surfaces at startup, causing more wear. The only time thick oil is a factor is at increased temperatures when viscosity breakdown rears it's ugly head. Synthetics shine during these circumstances. Personally I don't run synthetic in anything but gearboxes or racing engines. They will save you when the oil temperature goes above 350 (Corvair dropping a belt at Willow Springs...) The anti-coking properties in the turbo are well documented, but with proper shutdown, and regular oil changes, there really is no reason for synthetics in the engine of a street driven vehicle. But putting a thick oil that is hard to pump in an engine that has excessive clearances makes it look like it has higher pressures (due to viscosity) but in reality the pump-up time required during startup does more damage than the higher pressure does while running. Most manufacturers use the 5W crap to get oil to the top end quickly during startup...

Oh, you wanna kill a turbo? Just run your rev limiter at about 4500 (pick a number) and have it retard spark to around 1*BTDC. Then go out an floor it. Watch your boost build without any load on the engine.... Watch the turbine housing start glowing bright red. This includes the downpipe. Soon the radiator will boil over, or the turbine will melt. I will let you know what mine did when I take it off..... (That XP changing values thing.....) Partitioned the Laptop tonight, loaded 98SE, and now have to wait till sometime Thursday to do the test....

It's gotta be the laptop and WinXP. I have loaded the same versions of software onto my laptop that I loaded onto JeffP's Win98SE machine, and it's STILL doing the same thing. But on the Win98 machine all is well. Looks like it's "system commander" and a Win98SE partition for me... I hope it's not the chipset like you mentioned, then it's off to computer swapmeet for the absolutely CHEAPEST box I can find. So much for "Cheap EFI!"