technicalninja

Thanks guys! Link is appreciated. I'm in the "ballpark" regarding price and should have the car after the first of the new year. Will post details and pictures after I have it in my garage. Thanks again.

Well I've been working out a V8 swap for my 78 Z for some time. I already have most of what it will take for a series 1/t56 swap but as you all know Plans Change! A friend of mine has offered me his mint 2002 Camaro SS 6 speed. Completely stock drivetrain LS1/T56. 30K miles. Black leather interior. Enthusiast owned and maintained; mobile 1 oil/KN filter change every 1500 miles-(Silly IMO but far better than not often enough). It's a fully documented (orignal paperwork/window sticker) 1 owner car. Original owner is an old guy as well (55+) but is still a hotrodder. He was planning to keep it forever but sadly it was assassinated by an Evil Dodge Ram driven by a distracted youngster. Solid rear strike. Insurance totaled it. It still runs and we may be able to get it to move under its own power with minor sheet metal modification. Did not rupture the gas tank or deploy the airbags. From what I have searched on this forum and other sources seems to point to these late F bodies as being the better doner for a LS swap into a early Z. Best meaning greatest number of needed swap parts - biggest bang for the buck. Does anyone have a better choice? Alternate opinions? What should someting like this be worth? At what point is it a steal? I know, that's real hard to say without seeing the car. I'm just trying to get a ballpark feel for value here. I intend to place the car on jackstands and do a detailed inspection of what is damaged before purchase. Is there a best year/model regarding donor cars? Suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Get a new one. aluminum bore wears and I have not had a "rebuild kit" last very long on any aluminum bore. Steel cylinders take rebuild kits much better All Nissan CMs that I have run across are aluminum.

Yes you can, Sort of..... Standard head thickness is 4.248" from what I remember. But you can only tell how much has been taken off totally. Most of time heads are milled because they were warped and a proper job on a Z head mills the block side till it is flat then the top is milled till flat and then top is further milled untill total amount taken from both sides closes on .020 or .040 or .060 and so on as the cam tower shims are .020 thick. To give example. Let's say bottom requires .017 to straighten and top only requires .015. totalled this equals .032. Another .008 should be taken off of top (or bottom if your after compression) to equal .040 and 2 shim kits will be needed. You cannot easily tell exactly how much was taken off bottom if both sides were cut. Good machine shops stamp amount removed so look for markings. Machine shops unfamilure with the L-series only mill the bottom of head and if head was badly warped the top surface will no longer be flat which can result in cam and cam tower issues. You can actually measure a head installed on engine but only at one spot. Directly under the heater hose fitting at rear of head to the valve gasket mounting surface. If I found a head that had been heavily milled but appeared to not have been milled on the top as well I would shy away from it unless the seller started with an un-warped head and was milling for compression alone. A seller who had done this would know EXACTLY how much had been removed. Both sides do not have to be milled as long as both sides are flat and parallel. Hope this helps...

keep all the mounts, bars ect from the rear end. I/2 shafts, stub axles, and inner flanges. Front hubs (makes some of the brake upgrades easier) Complete AC system (if orig nissan). All of the interior parts are worth keeping if nice. Gas tank if nice. Bumper tips if nice. Hood and vents. Be sure to remove the spot welded in turn signal mounts as you will need them. Hood release cable. E brake cable Speedo cable. Rad overflow bottle and mounts. WW bottle. Entire combo switch from column.Column covers.

I might be able to help but need more information. What cam is in it? Specs would be helpfull. Thickness of the head? Really need to know how much was taken off of bottom of head. You can use a dial caliper and measure. Stock heads are 4.248" but as both sides are usually cut during a milling procedure (to retain parallelity) it is nice to know how much was taken off of bottom. Was the block decked? If so how much? The 2 mm shorter valves will not have any effect on piston to valve clearance. They may cause problems with retainer to valve stem seal clearance and they will increase spring loads as the spring is at .080 less installed height. If your using a big cam this interferance will be an issue and could cause you to DROP a valve. This is what is called a catostophic faliure. You need to really make sure this will not happen. The standard L28 valves will work fine for you. 75-80.5 N42, N47 heads. The P series heads P90, P90A, P79 all used the 2 mm shorter valves. You did have a machine shop cut the larger valves into the E31 head? Are they experienced with L-series stuff? Stacking head gaskets in not a good idea IMO. Some people have made it work but.... 2 mm head gaskets are a possible solution but are expensive and reduce quench which a 10.75 comp engine needs. They also reduce compression. The MN47 head is a possible solution but it has the smaller intake valve and I believe it has the valve seat height of the early heads so using it would change nothing in regards to your problem and cost money. Did you degree your cam? If your interferance is small, valve pockets could be cut into pistons but this weakens them and reduces compression slightly. It might also affect the engines balance if much was taken out of the piston. Things that reduce piston to valve clearance. Increasing valve size. You did this. Milling head on bottom. You did this. amount unknown Using a head that has the valve seats 2 mm (Approx .080) closer to the gasket surface. You did this. Decking block- unknown Installed valve depth. IE how deep in the seats were the bigger valves installed. We want them as deep into the seats as they can go and still have a proper outside margin and no recession below chamber surface. increasing lift and duration on cam shaft- unknown Not properly installing cam. At this level of build (this many changes to basic engine geometry) dialing in the cam is more of a requirement than an option. One of my last customer motors was built using a flat top F54/N42 with minor head milling that used a mild Schnieder cam. I intentionally overset the valves till I had valve to piston contact and it was alot closer than I though it would be. Both the intake and the exhaust figures were close to my limits of 0.060" intake and .100" exhaust (clearance between valve and piston at closest point). Two things came to mind. If cam timing was off just a little I would have problems and if I built this with a bigger cam it would require valve pockets in the piston. The cam was the 274-F grind. .480 lift 274 degrees 214 degrees@.050 pretty whimpy IMO but the customer wanted excellent manners in traffic and good fuel economy. as I remember the exhaust clearance was more of an issue that the intake. About 15 degrees before TDC was the closest point. The head was milled the minimum amout to get a clean gasket surface and had been milled once before. I belive it had about .015 total removed from lower surface. This build up mirrors yours in regards to valve/piston placement. Hope this helps

found this from an earlier post I did concerning the differences between 4 and 5 speeds "See, I didn't lie to you. The 4 speeds should be just as strong as the 5 speeds mainly because Nissan just used all of the basic 4 speed parts when they built the 5 speed. All of the bearings are the same, Shaft diameters are all identical. Only serious improvements that I can think of were in the 82-83 NA cars which has a left handed threaded main shaft lock nut which does not loosen up with use. This is an important feature to have for a high HP car as they tend to loosen up the right handed lock nuts quickly." The left handed lock nut trannys are better IMO. Nissan first modified the final thrust washer for use with the roll pin locator (instead of a tiny ball bearing) about 1980 and further modifed to the left handed lock nut sometime in 1982. The left handed versions are the rarest IMO. I am not aware of an early (pre 82) tranny that used the left handed nut. The 82 tranny was factory installed with the 3.9 R200 and was the closest ratio trans installed in a Z in the US .It did not need a low first gear due to the rear end ratio. In figuring gear ratios did you first figure the reduction between the main and countershaft? This is what most people consider the "4th" gear. In 4th the input shaft is basically locked directly to the output (main)shaft and the countershaft is taken out of the power delievery path. In all gears but 4th the power comes into the tranny via the input shaft, transfers to the countershaft via the gear built into the input shaft to the first gear in the countershaft, then from the countershaft back into the main shaft by the gear selected (other than 4th). The input shaft gear and the counter shaft gear have different number of teeth and thus have an effect on the overall gearing of all gears but 4th. You should have the 82-83 gear ratios instead of the 77-79 ratios. IMO the later ratios are better. It might be possible that someone replaced the main shaft in an early 5 spd with a left handed replacement as the shafts are basically the same critter and as long as the last thrust washer, the retaining pin and the left handed lock nut are used it would work fine. A real quick indentifier for the late tranny is massively long shifter ears. The shift lever pin hole is 1 1/4" below the top of the ears. These ears allow you to make a cheap shift lever ratio change by redrilling them and lengthening the bottom section of the shift lever. There is a long thread with the shifter mod info in the archives. One last note.... It can be a real pain getting a replacement left handed lock nut from Nissan (especially if you tell them its a 78 tranny). Tell them its an 83 and hope that they get you the proper nut. It may take multiple attempts. It also may be better to order for 300 ZX as I expect all of them had left nuts. I am very very careful when I take the original ones off and can normally reuse the nut as they will usually tighten up more than the original stake area thus allowing restaking. I tighten the nuts as tight as I can get them with a BIG channel lock (I don't have the cool super deep socket that is needed), use blue locktight being careful to keep it out of the fifth gear assembly. Then restake the lock area of the nut. Only ones I every have further trouble with are the right handed versions and then only on high HP engines. Hope this helps, Rick

I'm interested as well. Sent e-mail.

Machinist probably doesn't know that cam tower shims are available for the L-series. Machining .010 off of both sides is totally acceptable and the cheapest way to go. You will need 1 set of shims. On the other hand- Heating an aluminum head for straightening is also a normal process and it usually does not disturb the valve seats. They only heat it to 325-375 degrees and the hot head is usually placed in a press and "reverse bent" approx the same amount it is warped and allowed to cool in the press. A really good machinist can get one very close to straight. It will still need to be milled after this process is complete. Unless it is milled a very shallow amount it will need to be milled on the upper surface as well to ensure that the cam towers are in the same plane with each other. So either way you will most likely end up needing a set of cam shims. A large precentage of aluminum OHC heads run the cams directly in the head and this straightening process can be mandatory to fix warped heads. It keeps the cam bores in line and it reduces the amount that must be milled off the head which keeps the cam centerline the proper height (as a head is milled the cam drops in regard to the crank and cam timing retards as a result). The L-series is one of the "unique" heads that has the ability to manipulate the cam height with shims. Your machinist is giving you good information generally. He may not be familure with the L-series and its quirks. One other reason for limiting the amount of milling is if it is already at a high compression ratio and you don't want to go any higher.

Very nice. Sanitary. Did you fabricate the exhaust? If you did you need to show it off. More pics are called for... I take it this is an "emissions legal" swap?

I thought that the "quick steering knuckles" were nothing more tham 510 stock knuckles. Am I mistaken?

I'm pretty sure the senders are the same 70-late 76. The 77-78 tanks take a far different sender unit (that is very expensive!) and it is mounted in the top of the tank not the side like the earlier ones. Early ones are cheap and you may be able to reuse yours. Get the o-ring from Nissan as they fit best. 70-78 Zs had no fuel lines installed in the sending unit. Feed and return lines are on the bottom side of tank (near dif).

See, I didn't lie to you. The 4 speeds should be just as strong as the 5 speeds mainly because Nissan just used all of the basic 4 speed parts when they built the 5 speed. All of the bearings are the same, Shaft diameters are all identical. Only serious improvements that I can think of were in the 82-83 NA cars which has a left handed threaded main shaft lock nut which does not loosen up with use. This is an important feature to have for a high HP car as they tend to loosen up the right handed lock nuts quickly.

Do you have a Vacuum controlled regulator? If not, a regulator which varies fuel pressure in responce manifold pressure (vacuum) would lower your fuel pressure at idle (high vacuum condition) and allow you to increase your pulse width. 1 ms seems to be the limit of some fuel injectors. Not enough time to fully activate the injector before pulse is cut. You might want to contact RC Engineering to find out their suggestions of a minimum pulse width for your injectors, set the MS to that figure, and then adjust fp to reach your AFR.

They told me Wednesday as well, Surpised to see Fed/Ex today. Summit has always shipped quickly for me. I'd expect it to show up Monday for everyone else. Fed/Ex will leave it at your doorstep if your not home.

Thanks to trwebb26 for posting this, Mine was delievered today. Blk/Blk

I think the conversion factor your are looking for is 2.205 lbs = 1 Kg

Real important to verify timing. Make piston stop from sparkplug with bolt in it. Carefully find interferance point close to TDC. Make simple adjustable pointer. mark balancer with crayon/liquid paper. rotate balancer in opposite dir until you once again just barely hit stop. mark balancer again. difference between marks is TDC for that pointer set up. Balance could be marked in center position with notch or model paint. Better to move pointer around untill original factory mark can be used. "test pointer" can be made out of coathanger and car will be able to be timed from it. Use an "advance" timing light to set timing. Real good idea to check factory set up anyways as I have seen completely stock set ups 4 degrees off. This method can be used to mark TDC at any position for custom setups.

Trannys die from torque application and the rate that the torque is multiplied in tranny. The 4 speed should be able to handle the same amount of torque as the basic diameter of the gears and shafts are the same. Saying that-- all 4 speeds are going on 30 years old. The 4 speed often has a lower 1st gear and will multiply the applied torque to a higher level. 4 speed are cheap and all L-series are easy to install. For 2-5 hours of work and the cost of a fluid change you can have car back in service. Be gentle in 1/2 and as long as the tranny is in reasonable shape it will do fine. And if it dies, no real loss...

I believe the setup is for high rpm use where the wp speeds would be above cavatation speed and this reduces wp rpm and flow loss. it will have some effect on low speed operation... With a really good radiator this may not be an issue. It also reduces belt drag for a small amount of HP.

If your asking will the 78 harness and support pieces wrk. Sort of.... Much modification will be needed. Install complete engine support system from turbo is the easier way (by a huge amount) to do it. Good sticky at top of turbo section.

Newest issue of HotRod magazine page 90 ERL LS2 super-deck 4.2 bore 4.5 stroke. 499 CID only available as a complete short block $12,000 Pretty good picture of it. Of more interest to me page 88 World Products LS7X "Warhawk" block. Accepts all standard LS 2 stuff , 454 cid, 6 bolt per chamber. Designed to accept heavy doses of boost. Has multiple engine mount options (including old style small block) Bare block 4000 Better pictures of this unit. April 2006 issue

Another possibility is that the stock tires were fairly wide on that car (at least for its weight) Any car will do better in slick conditions with narrow tires. Look at some pictures of WRC cars set up for snow. Very narrow with big grooves all the way around to make the contact patch appear as multiple narrower tires. I once got a 300ZX TT stuck in front of my house because of the width of the rear tires. Couldn't move it at all after I got it turned sideways in the street. Had to round up a bunch of neighbors to push it into the driveway. This narrow tire feature is one of the main reasons VW bugs were pretty good in snow and ice.

Varnish inside the pin bores in the piston. usually will show as a brown line on the exposed portion of the pin (underside of piston). Spray with B12, rock piston back and forth, more spray, more rocking, blow out with air, repeat.... Be carefull to not use much force as it is possible to scratch the pin bores if you have an extremely dirty set. Some times soaking pistons in a can of B9 Carb dip will help. The B9 is a much more dangerous chemical. You DON"T use air to blown it off pistons. Carefully wash the B9 off with water. Use GOOD rubber gloves. If you get either of these chemicals in your eyes your will never forget it. Good Luck

Nissan changed the ring thickness on the later model pistons. They reduced thickness to reduce internal friction as improved construction techniques allowed a thinner ring with the same sealing charateristics. This marginally increases power and economy as an engine internal friction has a greater effect than you might imagine. Take the pistons to the machine shop and have the ring thickness miked then order the correct rings. Most likely rings for a 81/82 NA ZX will work for you.