Enzo250gto

RebekahsZ is right about checking the tires first. I had fitted some 245/45/16 tires to my '76 260z on 16x8 BBS wheels and found that they tram tracked on every uneven section of the road. The tire shape was more of a sharp angle at the edges with a large footprint. On changing to a 225/50/16 profile tire which had more of a rounded edge to the footprint, it was like driving a different car. For a street car the narrower tire worked out better. For a race car on smooth tracks and without the suspension travel of a street car (which would be on all sorts of rough roads), you can obviously get away with wider tires. As to modifying the cross member or adding Bump steer spacers, well that is up to the individual. All the best for the New Year. David (Enzo)

Hello Guys, Merry Christmas from Australia. I am getting a head heavily modified at the moment with Argon welded chambers, etc to go with a bottom end with all Datsun spirit parts. The original head was warped so I purchased a replacement head. When I was discussing the modification with the engineer he mentioned about pre-bending the head prior to commencing the work. I asked him if the head being warped was an issue. He replied that if it hadn't been cooked beyond repair and softening the alloy it would be ok for the modifications. As it worked out the warped head was ok to use with the benefit of being pre-bent and I got to keep a spare good head. Have a safe Christmas and new Year. David (Enzo)

Good luck with the project.

I was just looking at some of your pictures and was quite surprised that for a race engine, the crank had not been dowelled. With the on and off the throttle at high revs there can be some movement of the flywheel under the bolts. As the bolt threads cut into the flywheel the movement will increase. Just a thought. David.

Hi, Check the radiator water level. Take the spark plugs out and try again. If you have a leaking head gasket with water in the cylinder it will stop the engine from turning and can crack the bore as water won't compress. Hope that this is not the case. David

1976 260z

Hi, I had not fired up this engine for about 4 months. It took about 20 seconds from memory to start feeding oil to the cam. When I took the valve cover off to install the clear one I noticed that the cam still had a thin film of oil on it. The thin band of oil that you can see is the oil squirted from the spray bar at idle revs which has enough pressure to reach the cam. At higher revs it spays quite hard. When I am building an engine I preload the oil pump with STP added to the oil. I originally made the clear valve cover because I was worried about having blocked nozzles on the spray bar. It gave me piece of mind to see everything working as it should. Cheers David.

Hi, I have been reading you post with interest and mate, I feel for you. I think it was Tony D that speculated that the bottom end may be losing pressure causing the top ends lack of oil to the cam. Do you have the original press-in plugs fitted to the crankshaft oil passages or did you modify them to screw in plugs. With high oil pressure the original plugs can be pushed out. This could cause the top end to be suffering from low pressure. It would only take one. Just a thought. I have added a link to a short you-tube video that I had made of a modified valve cover with a clear Perspex cover for viewing my camshaft and oil spray-bar. It was a quick modification but worked good enough for me to see what was happening with oil on the cam without getting drowned in hot oil. Once I was happy I just refitted the original cover. Good luck with your engine. David. http://youtu.be/S7WPya5-P7Q