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Use the LD block and crankshaft. The LD block is 19mm taller than a petrol block. Find a mechanical head P91A. Find a set of L20B rods and a L20B timing cover. Oversize block only if there is a ring ridge but try to stick to .020 over otherwise just cross hatch it. Use a P91A head gasket to determine which coolant passages will need to be pipe tapped and plugged in the block in relation to the coolant holes in the head. The cavitation feed hole near cylinder #1 will need to be blocked too so you'll have to route coolant around to the thermostat housing to keep that system functioning at startup. You'll recognize it when the head is set because it will be exposed near the mechanical fuel pump location. Block will need to be drilled/tapped to accept a large fitting for the PCV system. The oil screen and retaining plate (inside the block behind the PCV tube) will need to be scavenged from a petrol block. The block will need to be rifle drilled to relocate oil pickup and oil pan scavenged from petrol block. Have the head machined to accept 12mm head bolts and the guides in the block. Order custom pistons to suit your application (na, turbo'd, sc'd). Order a set of ARP 12mm hardened washers for the head bolts. Order a custom set of ARP bolts (ridiculous price!!!) or go to the local industrial park fastener supply. Get socket head 12mm grade 12.9 bolts (I don't have the info in front of me but I think the pitch is 1.25). The closest bolt length is about 1/4" too long so get these cut down on a lathe. There are no head bolts from any engine with the correct length and pitch for this application no matter what you might read here or elsewhere (I've got a couple sets of these bolts still in the garage). There are the basics for a strong long stroke square (bore/stroke ratio) 2.8 that can be rebuilt if needed. You may have to cut your motor mounts vertically and lower the engine about 1/2" to clear the hood and still clear the front crossmember too. A chunk of soft clay on the front of your stock engine valve cover will reveal how much clearance you have to work with. There is a bit more to this but I'm typing on the fly here.

As a note, the distance piece is stamped (A,B,C) as is the housing. These must match as the final machining of the housing dictates the preload. It isn't out of question but most people have the original distance piece only (or spares sitting in a box somewhere) so mismatching seldom happens. I've never torn down a S30 to find different distance pieces from left to right... they've always matched for me.

I converted my T5 to a WCT5 to gain some stength and get a closer gear ratio set. A stock T5 will sustain a lot of abuse but that 3.50:1 1st gear frustrated me. My new setup uses the 2.95 1.94 1.34 1.00 0.80 ratios. I actually swapped the bellhousing, shifter cover and tailhousing onto a WCT5 case. The swap requires the tailhousing to be machined for the larger WCT5 yoke sleeve, a modified driveshaft with the 1.5 OD yoke and a 240mm flywheel to accept a 9.5" 10 spline clutch rag.

The Mercedes OM603 oil pan would prevent it's use in a Z car. The power is <120hp anyhow. These Mercedes do use a typical Garrett T3. I pulled a turbo yesterday for $49 after core and taxes (usually sells for $77 plus core and tax) at the local PNP. The easiest(?) would be to locate a european LD turbo exhaust manifold. Next would be to fab one out of schedule 40 pipe, yes, pipe. We've done it for custom diesels in old Land Rovers a few times with success. You'd need to get the flanges machined. The bigger problem I see is there's no oil squirters for cooling the backside of the pistons as is typical of a turbo diesel engine. I don't know how long the engine would survive due to higher temps acting on those pistons under boost. Lots of work/cash involved to gain 30-40 hp but it's definately doable.

You should check into the Northern Va Z club. Good and knowledgable folks.

Assuming that it actually puts out 5-6 psi then it could cause flooding. You'd know that because there would be raw fuel pouring out of the air cleaner as the fuel bowls overfilled. We're to assume you swapped the SU's off the L24 and that engine ran fine? The pressure gauge will be telling.

Did you do the L28 conversion? Did the car ever run proper? Why did you add the electric pump? Where is the pump installed? How are you powering it? I run an electric pump (RX-7 4psi) at the stock rear location and use a regulator to drop it to 2.5psi at the fuel rail without any issues (as do a lot of other people). Like Tony pointed out, what about pressure at the fuel rail? You could install a gauge and run the engine at 2500 sitting in the driveway and monitor the pressure. Alternately, you could install an electric sensor in the fuel line and place an 'electric' gauge in the cabin to monitor. There's also a mechanical gauge that uses a pressure sensor connected by oil or glycol. To state the obvious, NEVER run fuel directly to a gauge installed in the cabin! Burning to death is one of my greatest fears.

I run 16x7 Panasports (0 offset) with Dunlop Direzza Z1 225\50R16. Eibach ProKit springs and Tokico Illuminas are installed. I had to hammer roll the the quarter panel lips to clear the tires on bad bumps. All of the roads in my town are bad bumps! I think you'll find you have similar problems depending on the rubber you chose.

Funny you should mention that. I bumped it up to 17* and things improved. I'm leaving Sunday morning for ZCON2011. As such, I really don't want to get into the distributor and risk a problem that would stall my plans. I guess I'll crank it to the external limit which is about 24* and mod the advance when I return to VA from the convention. Do you have a photo of that welded advance plate?

I use a fuel cutoff solenoid found on many GM cars back in the seventies. It is mounted where a dashpot was located on my balance tube (SU carb'd). When the a/c is 'on' the solenoid gets 12 volts too. The plunger can be turned in or out to set idle as desired. I set mine so the idle remains identical whether the a/c is 'on' or 'off'. There are number of these solenoids in a varity of shapes. Cost is typically in the $65 to $75 range.

I also just installed the Delta 270-2 that Xnke mentioned. My idle is set at about 900 with a nice subtle lope. The overall power is less than I was hoping for but I didn't want to replace springs/retainers. It pulls okay off the line and really wakes up at +3000 rpms. The biggest issue was relearning the car with the power band moved further up. I now find myself tooling along in the 3000-4000 rpm range more often. It did occur to me to advance the cam a few degrees for better off-idle performance but I'm sorta happy right now. The old lash pads (run with the damaged Crane 272) I'm using mic'd at .165" and work perfect with this regrind. I did use new rockers so you might have to bump up the lash pads to .170 or .180 with reground rockers. On a side note, my distributor is stock with a petronix pick-up. Timing is set at 12* static and I'm using the vacuum advance. Any suggestions regarding changes here to possibly get a little better throttle response leaving a stop light?

I just ordered the Melling M111 for my 240Z from Autozone for <$98 out the door. The extra 3 lbs of iron won't make any difference to me. I also have one on my L28 SC'd stroker project yet to be completed but darn close. There is talk of using a Nissan gasket. That is only applicable when you disassemble the pump to check, clean or blueprint the internals.

I'm in a similar predicament. I replaced the camshaft by unbolting the passenger side motor mount, loosening the driver side mount and lifting the engine using a hoist attached to the passenger side mount. The old cam came out without pulling the hood and the new one went in. I haven't checked the oil pump for damage but will probably replace it outright. A new filter and oil will go in. The rockers will be left out and spark plugs pulled. The external oil bar will be left off and a bunch of rags placed strategically to catch squirting oil from going everywhere or draining back into the engine. I'll turn the engine over until I get fresh oil coming out of the towers and cam lobes. It's just a matter of cleaning up and reinstalling all of the bits and pieces, adding more oil and another oil filter. There was no indication of a knock in the engine prior to discovering my wiped #4 exhaust lobe. If debri is embedded in the bearings it will have to stay there until I get around to tearing the engine down or it trashs the crankshaft. I'm hopeful that any particles worthy of causing damages were trapped by the oil filter. I've seen plenty of wiped cams in high mileage SBC's way back. Each time a cam was swapped in, oil/filter changed and the car driven down the road without any other problems. I'm hoping for the best this time around.

I just installed a Delta 270-2 regrind. I set it straight up using number two on the Nismo cam gear. New rockers were placed and lash set at .0080 intake and .010 exhaust cold. The #4 exhaust was also checked to see if there was any valve stem stretch or a pounded seat since that was the wiped lobe of the Crane cam. Manually rotating the assembly was met with no resistance such as valves colliding with pistons. The wipe pattern looks good using .165 mic'd lash pads. The far left is the #4 exhaust but I smeared the top wipe pattern with my finger tip. Once I break the cam in I'll reset the lash at .0060 and .0080. If it feels poor at either end I'll just make a gear change to advance or retard. This goes against the tried and true methods of using a degree wheel and dial indicator but I'm not focused on every hp I can milk, out of this 2.4L.

I run this old s/s Janspeed header on my 240Z. The long slip-on collector is a nice touch. They haven't produced this header in about 25 years as I recall.

I've got two full sets getting refaced at Delta. Another 11 are in the garage and a 'new' complete set on the way to the house. There is a slew of different markings. When I've got them all together I'll try to determine if there is any rhyme or reason. I suspect that several OEM suppliers were producing these rockers which would account for the random markings. Several people have mentioned the various offsets on this and other forums. It could be nothing more than poor molds. It may also have been done for specific engine (auto/industrial) that required the offset due to valvetrain design. With a wide cam lobe and pad the offset may not have been considered a critcal issue for Z production runs. That said, it seems reasonable to assume 0 offset would eliminate side loads reducing friction and wear in a performance oriented engine build if you've got enough rockers to build a matched set.

Don't know about the 'K' stamping but if it came from a L24e (Maxima) then it's a low profile camshaft. A quick check with a digital caliper across a lobe, height and width, would decern the approximate lift. I'm guessing it will be 7mm cam lift or 10mm at the valve.

Well, I decided to adjust my lifters today because the valvetrain was starting to get louder and power was off by the seat of my pants. I got to #4 exhaust and bumped it to put the lobe base on the rocker. As I looked closely I realized that the backside of the lobe was heavily wiped. It is/was a Crane cam with 272 lift. It sucks because I only needed the car running until after ZCON2011. I now have to make a decision. I can swap the hotter L28 out of my 280Z track car because it isn't street legal or being driven right now or I can swap out the worn camshaft with either a 'A' or 'B' cam I have in the garage or pull the camshaft out of the 280Z (specs unknown). If I choose the easier path of a simple cam swap which cam would you go with. After ZCON2011 I will be parking the 240Z for a teardown and restore. It will be receiving my new SC'd L28 stroker and WC T5 so whatever I do is just to get me through this July.

For what it is worth, the polys will transmit a LOT of engine vibration into your car. Tony D called it right. Use a simple torque strap from the engine block to the crossmember or framerail. It will prevent excessive twisting and damage to the mounts. These can be produced out of chain, cable, or more elaborate designs. It is bullet proof. I've used these on damn near every hi-po car/truck I've ever owned. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1003&bih=563&q=torque+strap&aq=3&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=torque+str

As I recall, the bolt pattern is slightly wider on the 280ZX rad and it is also taller. That would make it sit further down behind the front rad support. I have several flushed and ready to run rads, of most years, in my stock pile. I'll try to give a look this evening to get specifics. I'd like to rid myself of some of them to gain stoarage space if anyone is interested.

Not by my measure. I had a few clutch forks sitting around and used one on my T5 upgrade. They all look the same to me. I installed the '83 280ZXT BW bellhousing on a later WC T5. I used the early bearing retainer so I could keep the stock parts. The only change for me is using a stock 2+2 240mm flywheel, stock 240mm pressure plate and the 9.5" (really a 240mm 10-spline) clutch rag from a V8 Mustang. It did require me reaming out the bearing housing to accept the slightly larger OD of the WC T5 input. This setup isn't in the car but the completed assembly is sitting in the garage floor waiting for the engine completion.

Upgrades are fine. You mentioned an LSx swap. The bottom line is are you going to pursue that engine swap...really? Not picking at all but we all envision these things while many just don't have the resources to pull it off. The R180 is a great diff for many applications including V8 engines. It depends on the transmission, driving habits (cruising, drag racing, hard launches), tires (slippery or sticky), what type of diff internals, etc. as to whether the R180 will hold up or not. It does weigh less than the R200 too. The stock u-joint halfshafts have been around for years and proved their worthiness. Failures can be attributed to a lot of factors but I'd lean towards neglected 30+ year old u-joints as the primary problem. I built my CV conversions simply because I wanted to. They were bolted to a R180 clutch LSD 4.1:1 until that diff finally wore slam out. I then built a R200 Quaife LSD 3.9:1 and modified the CV axles to fit. I actually welded the adapters to the R200 diff stub flanges this time around. All of this for a 160hp L24... but the L(D)28 SC'd stroker is nearly complete after over 3 years. Bottomline is you'll not get the CV conversion any cheaper unless you have the abilities to machine the adapters and even then the savings won't be that much. I haven't looked at the Wolf Creek kit closely. Do they use the small Porsche flanges/boots or the larger flanges/boots typically found on offroad trucks?

Why are you removing this gear? That gear is pressed/keyed onto the countershaft. There really isn't any reason to pull it.

Last weekend I went on a winery tour with fellow TZCCVA members out in the Charlottevsille area of Virginia. Anyway, it was an uneventful trip (except for the torrential rain and flooding caused by that awful cold front) until I was heading home. Running along at 75-80 on I64 I suddenly hit a rpm ceiling of about 4000. I couldn't accelerate over 60 mph. I pulled off the road to check for scary stuff like fuel leaks but saw nothing wrong. The remaining 100 mile trip home was met with power then no power back and forth until I got home. My immediate suspicions is the 25 y.o. Allison ignition is starting to heat fail so I ponied up for a Petronix 1761 and new 40611 3.0 40k volt coil. I'll try to get this installed this weekend. The real reason for posting this to let everyone know that www.streetsideauto.com has the best deal going for the Petronix kit. The igniter ($68.98) and coil ($32.99) were $101.97 shipped! If you're in the market for these parts you'll not find a better deal.

I was speaking as a whole, not components. The idea is the same though. If he's using a shorter 'collar' then the clutch fork is extended over the fulcrum point by approximately 10mm which would be perceived as a heavier pedal feel.