inline6

I ordered rear main cap seals (the strips) from Nissan and they didn't come with any pins or "nails". Anyone ever seen that before? Do I use them as is? The How to Rebuild or the How to Modify book, one or the other, seems to indicate that they are not always utilized - that you can get some that don't have them. Also, on the Kameari timing chain idler, do you still run one (the straight one)of the chain guides - just not the curved one?

Crank, flywheel, pressure plate, and disc, etc. are being balanced. The crank was 2-3 grams out of balance... The brand new Fidanza 10 lb. aluminum flywheel was 8 grams out... Looks like I'll be final honing without the use of a torque plate. My engine builder is going to try to torque the head on and take some measurements to see the cyl wall deflection. We'll see... Should have some more pics and more frequent updates going forward as we are getting ever closer to assembly, or rather, mock-up!

When balancing is done, the crank is typically balanced by itself. Then the flywheel may be bolted on and the balance is checked and adjusted as necessary, next, the pressure plate... The disc is balanced by itself instead of while on the crank assembly because its relative position changes all the time relative to the other parts which are "fixed" in their position. Rods are not assembled onto the crank when it is balanced. The rods are typically weighed and each one is brought to within a certain range of the others. As long as there isn't any substantial difference in the weight of the new rod bolts and nuts from one rod to the next across the rods (1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc.) you won't harm any of the balance just by putting in slightly lighter hardware. Only if say, you ran the stock hardware in 1 of the rods and the new stuff in each of the others would you mess anything up. Make sense?

The block has already been bored... The equipment to hone is readily available. My engine builder says a week max. $400 deposit (you or Pete) is fine... What is this one made of? Over 70 lbs. incurs extra UPS charges, and at some point, cost inevitably will get too high. Thanks Tim, and Pete.

Thanks... Motor is in VA, as I just moved here recently. Do mention it (loaning it out). It would be shipped to VA and returned promptly. A deposit is fine... Garrett

Hey Pete, any update?

Ok, an update: Block (N42) is back from the machine shop. They left about 4 thou for final honing (final sizing). Also, the main caps were ground a touch and the crank main bore was align honed - probably overkill. I am looking for a torque plate... If I can't find a suitable one to use then I will just have the final hone done without it. Head bolt/stud hole location is such that the distortion on these blocks (when compared to many) isn't a big issue. Anyway, happy to pony up money to rent one, if that is what it takes. The fun stuff, (actual assembly) is not too far off!

Hey Pete, let me know what your machinist says... or point me in the direction of McKinney (how to contact), and I'll check that out. Probably looking at doing final hone in the next couple of weeks or so. Thanks much!

Time to hone the cylinders... Anyone have a nice torque plate they are willing to part with for a couple of weeks? Looking for a nice quality one for 88 mm bore on the L motor. Rental is fine. Please let me know - shop is in VA. Thanks.

Oops. My bad. I stand corrected.

Those are 280zx ones. These are z31: z31 axles

I worked for a long time Nissan engine builder for one summer when I was in college. He uses an air hammer just like Josh said. No heat, no lube. I even used it once to drive some guides out and put new ones in. Is very easy. I don't think you can drive them out a bit and back in and use them though. All kinds of problems with that.

Got it. Well, my motor is no longer... I'm building the 3.0 stroker with Toyota rods and offset ground crank, etc. with the e88 head... you commented on the build thread about welding up the cyl head chambers... Anyway, with the right needles and those big bore SU's, and further timing tweaks as necessary, it will be interesting to see how much more you can get out of your motor. I'm thinking lots.

What needles are you running? Are the SU's modified or stock? I was running SM needles with my stock SU's, manifold, and air cleaner... flat top f54 block and e88 head and stock cam but with bigger valves and some port work, header, etc. As you can see, the ratio looks decent across the range here. Maybe the motor is too apples to oranges, but wondering if the SM needles would be a good choice for that cam... The stock N27s were no good for my combo. Dog rich at idle to be decent at high revs.

My custom JE pistons have arrived... Now we have to see if they were made to the correct specification. If so, we should be able to start building the thing in earnest now.

Well, you need to do another video so we can all hear the latest

What MLS did you use Pete? Also, don't forget about putting up a sound clip. I'd like to hear it!

Hi Tony, When you say 'this is the same cam', do you mean it is identical to the cam and valve springs from Kinetic Sunbelt that I have?

I think I am doing what you and NewZed describe with the piston and dish area... it's just that the "quench pad" is quite small. Note that the piston is marked as .600" - for the distance from edge of piston to end of flat area, and the rest is dished. That .600" matches the flat portion of the combustion chamber in that pic. Also note that the piston has a .250" flat shelf running all the way around the perimeter. The idea is to have this work with the flat area on the spark plug side of the chamber... as well as the flat edges that are near the "main" quench pad. The flat areas of the piston will be put right at TDC and I am using a .6 mm (.024") thick head gasket. When the valve reliefs are cut, I'll see if there are any other options to improve the quench (maybe a slight raised area on the piston to match the slant of the combustion chamber until the valve reliefs are encountered). Does this make sense?

It's been a while and I have an update that is worth sharing. Some more chamber mods have been roughed in, and I have a chunk of aluminum that my engine builder has made to hopefully provide guidance to JE for the custom pistons. With my E88 head cut about 110 thousandths, and valve unshrouding done, the chambers look quite a bit different than stock. Milling the head this much was done to try to get some quench. Welding was not a viable option because I had done all of the valve and valve guide work already. Looking at the pictures, you can see that cutting this much off of the head does in fact give it some quench, but nothing like some of the other L heads. The chamber is at 33.2 cc at the moment. I am shooting for 11.0:1 compression and will be attempting to run 93 octane. It you've read the previous posts, you know I've got a big cam, which will help... and I'll eventually be running EFI. To get the compression down from where it would be with a flat top piston, I'll need a piston with about 12.75 cc's of dish. We still have to add valve reliefs, which should add some more cc volume. So, the finished pistons will likely have a shallower dish than this blank:

Nissan dealer can order you one. Take the tensioner to the parts counter (sometimes helps to have the item in hand as they are looking at pictures) and they can look up the bolts for it. Other option is to determine metric thread size and length and see if your local parts store has metric bolts that are close enough... or go looking online - Amazon comes to mind.

Yes, you also have to use an adjustable cam gear and time the cam because although the Kameari unit takes up the slack, the distance between the cam and the crank gets shorter. And this alters the cam timing in relationship with the crank. Xnke, I'm not sure where to do more unshrouding work. The Nismo gasket is 91mm wide at 3:00 and 9:00 if I recall correctly. As you can see, the gasket is right at the edge of the intake valve. There is a little room left on the exhaust, but my bores are only going to be 88mm... As it is, I'll need to eyebrow the block for flow reasons. Should I take the exhaust valve area out to the edge of the gasket like on the intake side? Or, are you talking about more unshrouding elsewhere in the chamber?

So, I have been held up with the decision of what to do about my head. It is a late style E88 and I didn't realize the lack of quench issues with it. I explored all kinds of options, popping a flat top piston up out of the deck, welding chambers, etc. After chewing on it for some time, I decided to mill the heck out of it. At this point, it has had .107" taken off of it. Here is a pic of one of the chambers. The .6mm Nismo gasket is laying on it. Chamber size is 33.2 cc. So, the idea now is to order custom JE pistons that will work with this chamber. I'll be running zero deck. Based on some earlier mocking up and measuring of piston to valve clearance, my valve reliefs will need to be around .160" intake and .180" exhaust. Piston to deck clearance will be the Nismo gasket = .024". I calculate that between valve reliefs and a dish in the pistons, I'll need to find 11.75 cc's to bring the compression ratio down to 11.0 to 1. I could also open up the chamber a bit on the spark plug side, but I'm thinking it would be good to have the flat area there for quench. I am hoping to run this thing on 93 pump gas with 35-36 degrees advance. If I can't do that with the Mikuni set up, maybe the Tec GT fuel injection setup can make it happen.

duplicate

I'm interested in the 81-83. I'm in central VA as well. Just north of Charlottesville. Garrett