cygnusx1

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Well, yeah he modified it for adjustability and put the threads in the highest stressed area of the rod. Threads are serious stress risers. I have seen it done before but it should be frowned upon for now obvious reasons.

Agreed. Still much improved over the 350. Anyone else see the BMW Z4 midsection in this Z?

I already did a photochop of it and painted the sheet metal that forms the headlight notch to look like it was part of the light and not the fender. This looked OK but not great so I deleted it.

Do you run a stock soft rubber bushing on the back of the radius rod bucket? The soft bushing on the back will keep the threaded portion from some of the bending stresses of suspension travel. I recently switched the back bushings from Poly to the original rubber. Keep the poly on the front only.

I actually like every bit of it. I wonder if it would make a decent replacement for my WRX....probably won't get up the snowy roads, and it might be difficult to get my son in the baby seat in the back.....darn I really do like it but I can't do it at this point in my life.....darn darn darn.

This photo needs a caption contest! "Not only did they break my leg, but they put my right thumb on backwards too"

Nah I am just fooling around with it. I'm not getting into another money sucking hobby!

I know this is for photography but I have been testing out videography lately. It's sort of like photography but it tells the story a little differently. I like to incorporate photography into my videos as well. Here is one I did just minutes ago.

Excellent design and fabrication...and nice coffee maker! Congrats on a super reliable, hands free, ignition system.

or you can hacksaw the Ford EDIS-6 coil connector into the shap of the Dodge coilpack plug. Ford Harness Plug, re-shaped to fit the Dodge/Chrysler "4-in-a-row" style coilpack connector. A little hacking and filing and it's a perfectly snug fit with all pins lining up. The connector can only go in one way so it can't be flipped over by accident either.

I like this layout. It would be even better with a small, sealed catch can after the block breather. I would also play with an adjustable restrictor on the valve cover port, to modulate the amount of flow/vacuum inside the crankcase. The more you would restrict the valve cover breather, the higher vacuum you can pull in the crank case. You dont want too much, but you want it to be enough vacuum to be horsepower beneficial, yet still have enough flow to clear out the light gasses without sucking out heavy oil mist.

Arrrgh! When it rains, it pours; as they say. It is time to nestle the Z down for a comfortable, seasonal rest, and start mixing up some early eggnog. I am sure she will be good and ready to reward you next season.

You know cleanliness adds about 10 stickers worth of horsepower. I make up for the cleanliness of the Z by the nastiness of the surrounding garage.

Thanks. I like working on clean cars...so I make them clean by getting dirty. I need to get it up on stands and get that Z32 trans in there. After the snow flies, I'll get to it.

Woohoo! finished it up and it runs great. So far no leakage and I really like the way the valve cover turned out.

LOL you are ADDICTED my friend!

Intalling a head gasket. Taking my time and being meticulous. Sometimes you need a day off alone to get things done right. Enjoy my morning coffee video.

There was a huge difference in the oil I was getting out of the PCV when I went to Megasquirt. I doubt it was a coincedence as I also eliminated the full PCV system designed by Nissan and am only using half of it. I think Proxlamus had the exact same observation if I'm not mistaking. I could try leaving both vented to atmosphere as an experiment but I really like the idea of PCV pulling the nastyness out of the crankcase. Just not as much as I'm getting. Besides, it never smokes under boost. Only smokes on engine cold, high vacuum driving, downhills, for about five minutes after start and then clears up. It doesn't smoke on startup either. I will definitely experiment to see if it is blow-by. Thanks for the tips.

Thanks, Tim! I know it sounds bad but if you saw how clean this motor looks inside the bores and the fact that compression tests are excellent, and the head has just been rebuilt, you would not point to excessive blow by. I have the valve cover vented to atmoshpere which makes it "easy" for the intake vacuum to suck clean air into the valve cover and oil-mist out of the crank case vent. The history of oil getting sucked into the intake through the PCV valve began when I eliminated the AFM and the hose from the fresh air intake pipe to the valve cover. What I think happens now is that since there is ZERO vacuum on the valve cover side, the PCV valve has too much authority; if that makes sense to you. In order for turbo clearance, I also had to mount the PCV valve at about 45 degrees instead of vertical. This, in effect, changed the spring rate of the check function, allowing MORE PCV to happen in the low to mid vacuum states. The combination of things results in a lot more flow from the block vent. There are no signs of oil at the valve cover vent at all. A clear indication that there is heavy flow in the downward direction and out the block vent. As far as the oil mist collector in the block, I have no idea of its condition. What I need to do is to make sure the crank case is mostly always under a vacuum condition, yet still maintain a (controlled) flow direction for case ventilation. I have some thoughts mulling around. 1) Fix the angle of the PCV valve. 2) Use an exhaust scavenge vacuum pipe with a catch can from the block vent. 3) Put a fresh air restrictor (adjustable flow valve) on the valve cover vent to control flow through the crankcase during high intake vacuum. 4) Hook the valve cover vent back to the turbo inlet pipe to create "counter vacuum" to reduce crank case flow. 5) Rig a sealed catch can between the block vent and PCV in combo with point 3) I think all of them have their + and -, and most can be combined with eachother so I will need to experiment. Of course I can just re-create what Nissan did from the factory and leave it at that. Currently, it only smokes visibly when you coast downhill with a DEAD COLD engine for the first few minutes of driving. This is because all of the oil mist from the previous drive has settled into the intake tract, dripped to the bottom of the runners, and is getting sucked into the valve ports. I actually saw this happen when I took the manifold off last night. After about five minutes of driving, the smoke is always completely gone. The bad head gasket install was due to oil from the stud holes (poor prep) leeching in between the head and block during assembly causing a seal failure on the spark plug side. Leading to very slight coolant seepage on that side.

Tonight, I pulled off the head to replace the head gasket that I had installed incorrectly. It was a record. I had the head off in two hours flat by myself. Anyhow, the PCV hose that delivers blow-by from the block vent was very oily on the outside. On the inside it was even worse. The intake manifold, once removed, was dripping oil out of the runners and you could feel the oil inside the intake ports. The intercooler pipes were dry as a desert, so the only way the oil was getting into the intake manifold is the PCV. Finally I have positively confirmed that I am not burning all that oil from my valve guides and rings. Now what to do.....stay tuned.

Oh cool, I get it now. The screws don't pass through the tooth wheel. Nice.

I thought it was ..., LMNOP,...

The VR bracket's much easier to visualize once you figure out where you want to mount it. Setup looks great. Where are you going to mount the EDIS module? You should have not drilled the two "alignment" holes that will tap into the two pulley tap holes until you mounted the sensor. This way you can mount your sensor, rotate the aluminum hub and tooth wheel to the right spot and then drill the holes to the exact clocked position you need. This would allow you a little more flexibility in the VR bracket design/mounting.