Gollum

An impact driver like this can be your best friend when it comes to this kind of stuff. Probably the best $20 you can spend on a tool in so many ways. I've NEVER found a stubborn screw that my impact driver can't wrestle loose, as long as there's space to get the tool and a hammer in there.

I once drove someone's CRX that had a TINY (I mean, almost toy-like tiny) steering wheel because the PO I guess was a bit husky and needed the space... It was just about IMPOSSIBLE to move without rolling. My wife's '66 Mercedes has no power steering but actually isn't that bad, but the steering wheel is in your lap no matter what. Everything is always a trade off.

That basic distinction is exactly why I wouldn't put stock in your, or many other's opinion on the SR vs KA comparison. The L block was never intended as a turbo block when they made the first castings. Why don't people like 1 Fast Z care about sourcing a "turbo motor" when building 700+ whp engines? So a SR has heavy duty piston crowns, woopie! As soon as you throw out the "build to same specs" you COMPLETELY throw out the "SR is designed for boost" argument, because the only things that can't be changed easily aren't any special between turbo versus non-turbo engines, and that includes SR's. People like to tout things like "but OIL SQUIRTERS!! OMG!!", but have no ability to see through the internet BS. Any I'd bet that MOST engines of ANY type blow up due to poor tuning or craftsmanship. Most L engines that blow are around the 350-450whp mark, because that's where the detonation becomes extremely hard to control. Oh, and I love it when people throw around the term "bullet proof", as though that means anything. Compared to what? Every engine has it's limits, even the SR. The Honda K series has proven to take 500-600hp on stock internals, and that's NOT a "factory turbo motor"... would you call THAT bullet proof?

Apparently they're extremely common still on military bases. Local travis air field has one that is something like $20/month for a parking space outside, bring your own tools type deal. Dedicated lift spot wasn't insanely priced iirc.

I don't believe in PNP sales anymore. I just assume they're like this:

Wait, is that EXACTLY the point of what I said? Oh wait... and didn't Phil end up spending ABSURD amounts of money on his "budget" build? Off the top of my head I know, phil went through: 3 turbos (AT LEAST!) 2 transmissions, or was it 2 and THEN the Z32 upgrade? 3 EFI systems 3 Intakes 2 Short blocks (1st stock, upgraded pistons next time aorund) Pulled his exhaust for porting AT LEAST twice and on and on. I'm saying the story of Phil and Chris shouldn't be ignored. You can either spend your money on the right parts the first time, knowing you're building a SYSTEM, or you can "wing it" and realize that the same power goals will most likely end up costing money no matter which path you take... My budget for my turbo build is staged, so that I can hopefully drive the damn thing while I build it up. I anticipate spending AT LEAST $7k on my VERY budget build, and plan to use junkyard bottom ends the entire time, even if that means going through a shortblock a year. And I also anticipate doing 90% of the work myself, if not 100%. If I decided to have someone like robello build the head the costs will creep. If I decide to have someone ELSE dyno tune it, costs will creep. If I decide at any point to have someone balance a stock crank, rods, and pistons, costs will creep. But the one thing I WON'T do, is tell anybody that I expect it to be "easy" or "affordable" to build a high HP turbo L motor. If you wanna shoot for 300whp then you can do that on a budget all day long. But don't ever expect anyone taking Phil's approach to reach JeffP or TimZ numbers without taking a HUGE $$$ detour along the way. Oh, and by the time Phil pulled the L28 to make room for the RB, he had haltech and a was "fully built" too. Still never made the power numbers Chris did. ...and in case Phil reads this, this is for you! I have every ounce of respect for you and what you've done. You inspire many of us to just get out there and DO IT! I'll never say the path you took was wrong, or even stupid. It's not what I would have done, but that's OKAY!

Looks about the same in quality as my 280Z-T when I got it... ...which was $1,100... But that WAS about 5 years ago. The market IS changing, but I wouldn't pay 3k for that, but I also see people pay 1k for turbo motors... Last turbo motor I bought was only 3 years ago and I paid $250.

Fact: Compression readings ≠Horsepower... My NA motor has compression readings WAY higher than yours, but I'd be SHOCKED to see it put out 100hp to the wheels... Unless you have EVERY factor accounted for, which you obviously aren't even close to, then the compression readings are really just a sign or a possible indicator to the health/sealing of the chamber, which says NOTHING as to how much air is getting in, and how well it can burn fuel. If you're unhappy with your off boost performance, I'd have a million other questions to ask, which had NOTHING to do with your original post, but nether did your complain of power. 1. Do you have a wideband on the car, and what do your logs look like? Give us a WOT in 5th gear from 1000RPM to 3000RPM. Then also give us a log showing coasting to WOT bellow 2,000RPM in 4th or 5th gear, so we can look at transient fueling. 2. What size, brand, and model injectors are you using? 3. What type of fuel are you using? Not just octane, verify state location for us, and that the fuel doesn't sit in the car for months on end... 4. What plugs are you using? 5. What's your spark arrangement? Are you able to log timing? That should be in the wideband log if possible. 6. What diff ratio are you running? What trans are you using? 7. What's been done to the head? Stock chambers? Stock Valves? Stock Cam? Stock Ports? 8. Has your intake been modified in any way? Which intake are you running? 9. When was the last time you pulled your turbo? How's the condition? Is the wastegate sealing/closing completely? 10. Have you done a leak test of the intake system (ie: with a smoke machine to do a REAL visual check to see where leaks are coming from)? 11. Have you verified installed cam angle? 12. Checked your driveline lately for excess friction? 13. When was the last time you pulled your plugs to read them directly after a WOT pull? What did you see? 14. Has there been a dramatic change in performance over a short period, or has this been a long standing complaint you've had and just now getting around to wanting to deal with? I could go on and on, but that's a good place to start. My L28ET when running the stock EFI and stock T3 was almost impossible to keep out of boost. I'd almost have to FORCE it to not build boost if I wanted to be hard on the throttle, but keep it civil around town. The commute I had for a while had a nice long uphill stretch on the freeway. Anyone who stays light enough on the throttle that their automatic trans stays in top gear will find themselves doing 40-50mph by the top of this 1/4 mile uphill grade. Usually if I'm doing 80mph I still have a hard time not dipping bellow 65mph unless I'm really aggressive (depending on the car I'm driving of course). My goal with this hill for a good 4 months was to keep my L28ET out of boost all the way up. I'd get going up to near triple digits, and watch my boost gauge trying my best to keep it right at atmospheric, and I'd either end up slowing to a crawl (like 30mph or under) or building boost. I simply COULDN'T AVOID it. That's my point. I could drive around town doing 25mph in a school zone, in 4th gear, then stab the throttle when the speed limit lifted and suddenly I'm in boost with ease. But that's the way the factory designed it. It's a small turbo, only adding about 15% of extra power. You're running a T3/T04E according to your signature, and that thing should build boost just as well... unless something is wrong.... And usually off-boost performance isn't the bottom end, unless something is SERIOUSLY wrong. Even if your rings were leaking, they wouldn't have THAT much of an impact on performance. You'll notice HEAVY oil consumption LONG before a horsepower reduction...

Tony, I'm self employeed. This year has been a good one, and as such I've paid off some debts which means I'm at a much higher taxable income than usual this year. I haven't had to pay quarterly taxes yet, which is what I'm trying to avoid. Last year a $400 donation put me just over the edge to keep me in the bracket I want to stay in, and my return went from getting $200 back to getting $2,000 back... Yea.. I think I know what I'm trying to do with my finances. PS... my mom's an accountant, I've grown up around taxes and all that entails. I always stuck with stock heat ranges, and I always gap my plugs before putting them in. I NEVER trust "pregapped", even if they're premium plugs I'm putting in for someone else. And we'll see how much it fouls when I get it put back together. I think I'll be junkyard shopping next week.

Oh, and the '79-'80 ZX had a N47 with liners, so should be pretty much the same exhaust manifold as the later P79. I'd probably just end up cutting the one I've got if i put the P90 on there. And you know why I want the maxima head, and it's NOT for this S130... Which would mean I'd definitely have to source a new P79 since you'd probably want my P90 in exchange.

Oh common ray, you know the answer to this! SEARCH!!! Oh I had to. For the real answer... http://www.cars.com/go/advice/car-donation/tax-deduction.jsp As long as the donation location doesn't SELL it, you can claim the entire fair market value. If there's no KBB value, or if you feel the KBB value is off due to maybe a collector status (like how KBB is ALWAYS off on limited edition mustangs), you're legally able to use records of actual sold vehicles. The only time the IRS would dispute a claimed value, that I'm aware of, is during an audit. Then you'll be up against an agent who needs to see proof, but won't know a lick about cars most likely, so really it's about documentation.

The way I see it, is that the KA has bottom end issues. The stock crank sucks and will be it's biggest limitation unless you bite the bullet for a pricey aftermarket one. The SR has valvetrain issues. I know people rave about how well the rev, but that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. The SR head just has some serious drawbacks that people rarely look at objectively. And by contrast, both engines are very strong in the other's weakness. The SR has a pretty stout bottom end, but obviously it was factory force induced, so it makes sense. The KA has an insanely good head that not only flows well, but also has a head that will rev to the moon, and be quite stable too, if you're bottom end allows it... Personally, it seems to me like a lot more SR's blow up left and right than KA's, but that could be simply how many of them are out there. Even here though, it seems like many of the people that have had SR's in their cars for a long time have been through a couple of longblocks... Maybe asking for too much power? Possibly. I think the problem in that regard is the same with ANY motor. People can't be happy with 300hp when they know they're just a couple PSI away from a lot more power. Instead of building the motor for more power to begin with, they cross their fingers and hope it all holds together. Oh, and I think subtle_driver's thread on here is a great example of a successful KA-T build. He did it all for insanely cheap, and probably much less than it could have been done with a SR. He WAS running E85, but personally I think that's just plain wise for ANYONE running 20+psi of boost, regardless of platform. To blame his success on the fuel he chose would be like saying a farmer cheats by using a tractor. E85 was simply a tool he used to get him to his goals. And if you wanted my personal choice between the two.... Neither... If I wanted a turbo 4 cylinder I'd want a better platform to start with. But that's me.

Ahh yes.... the sad song of many with unfinished projects. I know this post will be more philosophical than plain advice, but here's my two worthless cents... I've seen project after project abandoned due to "lack of funds" when the person happened to be less than $100 away from the answer to their problems. We tend to get stuck at roadblocks and if we don't have the intestinal fortitude to get through the struggle. It's not always lack of understanding that keeps up from overcoming. Don't lose heart. As far as real situation advice, I'd say you might either have some defective hardware, or you've got electrical issues. I don't have much experience with SDS, but I know with megasquirt noise issues are insanely common and many times that boils down to grounding problems quite often. Many people have ditched megasquirt because of their inability to cut their teeth finding the source of their issue. There was another thread recently where someone's MS problem ended up being they trusted the trigger wheel wizard instead of reading up for himself to find out what he had, and how to set it up properly from scratch. I felt bad for the guy. He was willing to ditch MS completely, but his problem was his own ignorance (and realize I don't use the word ignorance in a degrading way, look up the meaning of the word and you'll see what I mean). I'd hate to see you have take a huge loss on the SDS and/or ITB's because of an "unsolvable problem" that ends up being solved by someone else for next to nothing.

You know, Big-Phil comes to mind, because his friend Chris (who I believe is a member here) owns a blue S30 with a turbo L motor. At one point Chris made 402hp at 17psi while Phil made 342 at 25psi. Phil seemed to run into problem after problem. Phil, as much as I love him, was kind of cheap about certain things. In the end he probably spent as much on his L motor as Chris did, but never saw as much power (from what I recall...). How many turbos did Phil run? He ran TWO different standalones (MS then later haltech). He ended up having to swap/rebuild his bottom end, yada yada yada. I personally attribute many of Phil's problems he had along the way to his Maximum Boost mindset. He loved power, and instead of planning out a build, he'd turn up the boost until he hit a limitation. Fix that limitation, and then ramp it back up. Tony knows a bit of what I plan, and for my dream L build, that might actually become a reality in the not SO distant future, I'll be putting MOST of my investment into the head, then followed by the fuel system, then followed by other odds and ends. The reality is that I've seen time and time again, THOSE are the places that success comes from. Get the head to flow (which includes induction and exhaust, as a SYSTEM!), and then make sure your fuel system is up to snuff to tackle the challenge at hand. The rest is icing on the cake. I'm sorry to hear you've had issue with SDS. I also understand that it's frustrating to not be able to find someone to help you tune it. It's a rather unfortunate reality, but too many of us buy something we think we can handle ourselves, just to find out we cant', and are then stuck at the mercy of those in the know of that product. The truth is that most people should probably shop for their EMS by who they trust/know to tune it, and go with what they recommend. Many of us assume we can tune an EMS system all by ourself, or assume that a dyno shop can tune ANY EMS... Not always the case sadly...

I haven't hunted this corner of the forum much (though I'm here now... knock on wood...), I haven't seen much of any documentation on a Ford mod motor in a Z32, and it's a WHOLE different ball game than the LSx. The mod motor is significantly shorter, but insanely wider, due to the DOHC configuration. The "upside" is that the exhaust ports point much more downard, so it's MAYBE slightly less difficult to find shorty headers that don't make it impossible to clear the steering. The other aspect that makes any of these V8 swaps difficult in the Z32, from what I've seen, is the perfect fore-aft position as it relates to the oil pan, the shifter location, and firewall to head clearances. ALL of these aspects are quite different from the mod motor to the LSx. In any case, I'd love to see it done, and with details. There's a lot of variety in the mod family, and I wouldn't be shocked if some were much easier to swap than others, and if it could be done with lots of factory parts.

All wonderfull food for thought. Would you be concerned about using a round port manifold on a P90? For some reason I've always assumed you needed to stay kosher on that. As far as finding S130s in the yard, I think you've just had bad luck bro. I've seen at least one every time I've been in the last 5 years, but then again it's been at least 6 months since I've been. The kicker is that even when I was going once a month I rarely saw the same S130 twice. Seems like the supply might be waning, but maybe it was just a dry spell. And as far as selling to frank, I guess I could sell it to frank and for the same money find something economical to donate to this friend, but that does start to become more work than just junk yard hopping for some parts. I then becomes a whole emotional ride of craigslisting, finding the best thing I can to suit his needs, best bang for the buck, etc, etc, etc... It might end up being a long road to nowhere. The beauty of donating THIS car is that there's no KBB value, which means I can use NADA guide values, which START at $3,200... $4k+ in tax advantage means a lot more than $1k, or even $2k in my pocket right now, and if I find something newer to donate I doubt I'll be able to pass off as much deduction unless I went the opposite direction and found a falcon or something.... But nevertheless.... it's food for thought, and I won't ignore it. EDIT: Quick hunt shows most people just grind out the stock round manifold a bit to gasket match... Hmmm...... All I'd have to do is fix the exhaust stud and drop in 2 maybe 3 valves to be safe (since it HAS been sitting on it's deck for, ummm..... 4+ years now... At least I had it on wood that whole time), and maybe do a quick valve lap. Hell, I know it was rebuilt about 20-30k miles ago, I might just clean it, inspect it, and run it! I think I'll make some quick passes through the yards to have a look, and then make my decision. I'd kinda rather keep the P90 on the shelf just because of it's value, but it might be a worthwhile candidate.

That's what I'm worried about. Two other holes are pretty darn close to a fire ring, but certainly not in it. I'm sure the interior passages aren't very pretty. The crappy thing is that once I got the motor put back together I was going to donate the car to a friend of mine who can certainly use it more than I can. I don't want to give him a car that's guaranteed to overheat and certain implode on itself in less than another 50k. So it looks like I'll probably end up going hunting for a new one.

So here's some pictures that tell a story: There might be a chance that explains the coolant leak.... I knew I was getting air into my coolant system and because of that I was losing coolant, and also overheating in traffic. I never saw white smoke so I was kind of eager to get in and figure out what was going on... Well I think this might explain it. That passage looks to have corroded JUST ENOUGH to let air into the water passage but not truly bypass the fire ring allowing much coolant into the chamber. The offending piston would be #6, which as you can see in my previous post, doesn't look to have any significant coolant/water burning signs. Now to figure out what I want to do about it...

Mmmmm Pizza and head! OmMomNom Yea, those guys are alright.

PMC posted pictures of an extended deck in another thread... Maybe there's details there?

No worries NewZed, I was just clarifying points, which it seems you are too. That's kind of the beauty of this place, there's no "best" which means all data is always up for interpretation to make up your own mind.

Watch out, they might bite back talking about how you just don't get their style. As for me and my house, we shall serve the wider tire.

PMC in that thread even goes directly what people quote from the how to modify book, which definitely shows that the "fat" gap in that book clearly doesn't event attempt to use quench. And there's misleading information in that thread. Forged components won't "stretch" as much, meaning that high RPM performance will be closer tolerance to idle than non-forged... But the stock rods ARE forged. And how many people have all new forged cranks made? The only variable in this equation really is the piston... But guess what? Forged pistons GROW more than stock (with heat), hence why you run a much larger bore gap. If you run a larger bore gap doesn't it make sense to run more piston to head clearance? .030" sounds like it's in the ballpark to me... And don't neglect grow factor. There's a bit of documentation out there showing that just pulling apart a LS1 and opening up the ring gap can increase the HP potential of the bottom end by as much as 50% possibly! Going for crazy force induced HP on the LS1 results in the rings growing too much and reaching their clearance limit. Open them up just a tad and voila, weakest link has just been fixed. There's a reason why there's such different specs out there for turbo/nitrous builds. Point being, different builds will require different specs. For stock components I think it's safe to mill the block .004" and be just fine. Nissan didn't expect these to be throw away blocks, as nobody engineered things that way back then (except ferrari). If Leon was doing some radical build will completely out of stock specs and requirements, things might be different.

Personally, I'd go as low as .0220" as long as I knew the bearings were in good shape. If I was building something to rev to 8k+ I'd also be making sure the rod bolts are of good quality too. I know I haven't built a million L engines like Braap or 1 Fast Z, but I've done enough independent research and interviews on the topic to trust their claims. If you have debris that's causing denting of the head/piston material at .0220, odds are you'll have debris do the same at .025. That's not a huge window to think about as "debris clearance". Now, if you're worried about the piston tapping because you're reusing an old bottom end that might be a tad loose, then I'd want to keep the gap a bit larger too. Oh, and for reference here's some carbon build up from my '81 L28E. Stock bottom end, stock P79, both untouched for 250k miles as far as I can tell. The head gasket wasn't stock (felpro) but there's no signs of machine work. The carbon build up was certain thinner and even non-existent in the quench pad areas, but that said there's definitely some build up that decided to hang around in that area anyways. So my question to people that think that even .025" is too tight of a piston to head clearance (trust me, there's people out there), if this engine ran JUST FINE in it's low performance configuration, and there was ZERO damage to the head surface from particles, and yet it can build up THAT much carbon... should you really have a problem with a CLEAN chamber running the .022-.025 referenced in that other thread?

That seems a bit high to me too, but as I've been told from several friends who've worked for body shops 75% or more of the work is prep work. If you bring in a TRULY "ready to paint" car, the price is extremely low by comparison. Even typical factory five kits need a LOT of work to really come out "perfect". I can't wait to see their new 818 in person since it's their first gel coated panels that are "zero paint" or "paint ready" as they ship. I've personally never seen smaller outfits pull that off, but the early reports seem positive. Which unfortunately means if you want to save money it looks like you WILL be spending a bit of the winter sanding. BTW, we still need to hook up, and I know it's COMPLETELY my fault.