drzed

DAW, come on up and we'll swap that diff! You don't really need to though as I drive out to the track with a loose convertor, a 3 spd auto (turbo 3N71B) and 3.90 gears on 24" tall tires - just takes a little longer. Besides when someone pulls up beside you at 55 MPH you can punch it and get three car lengths on them before they know whats happening! Thanks for the info. I have a line on two complete cars - one auto and one stick. Can't decide which but I'm leaning towards the stick as there is a chance that it might have some killer tall O/D ratio for use with my other car. Any preference? (I'm not sure of the years yet) I'm just interested in the block & crank as I want to use the rest of my existing combo as per my signature below.

DAW I've been following your engine combo with interest over the last while and am looking at building a similar engine for use with my 260Z. Have you ever sonic checked one of the blocks to see if you could safely bore it out to more than 86mm? If you build another did you plan on trying to use the diesel rods again (with custom pistons for those huge pins) or some other nissan rod? Sorry, I can't help you with your questions but I can add the following from experience. Once you go turbo you will never go back! Also if you are ever driving north and hour or two I'd like to meet up and see your combo. I'm just over the border in Langley. If you are looking for an excuse to come up we have a good 1/4 mile track (36 ft above sea level) with Street Legal Drags about every other Friday night. It would be cool to see the Maxima running down the track.

Me four? Ross is a great guy with great parts - no problems ever.

94 octane at 15 psi and 100 octane at 19 psi. I know that both of these are totally safe with my setup as it never detonates no matter how warm it is or how hard I work the engine. I think I could make it with 92 octane at 15 psi but I have not tried yet. I also think the 100 octane should be good for 22-25 psi. Will try that after the track opens!

Your engine plan sounds reasonable. My N/A 240z runs a similar setup (except for tripple webbers and an E31) but in my opinion your N42 and injection should make just as much power. I never dyno'd the 240 but if you run my 1/4 mile numbers at Smokemup.com it works out to around 180 - 190 RWHP. Depending on your race weight you could easily run mid 13's if your tune is on. If you want to run good 1/4 mile times get some 4:11 or 4:38 gears, a five speed, and some sticky tires. An LSD would help but isn't totally required at this level of power. Lastly make sure that your cam is matched to your CR. You want to end up at 190 - 200 PSI cranking pressure to make some HP. BTW if you want to go fast at the track read all the posts you can find from Norm the 12 sec SU dude. This guy knows how to make a 240 really fly!

Bernardd - in what gear is your trans slipping? I've done some minor valve body mods to my 3N71B last year and it worked great all year until the last day at the track - then it started to slip in 2nd only. I was told that this is one of the weaknesses on this trans as 1st and 3rd have multiple clutches while 2nd only has a brake band (like a brake shoe) - or so I was told anyway. I am going to pull my trans in the next few weeks and see whats up. I would be interested in seeing your shift improver sheet to see if there is anything else I can do.

The stock bottom end is very strong. For a street/strip car the stock components will take almost anything you can throw at it. A buddy of mine is still running a bone stock never touched F54 bottom end (225K KM) on his turbo 240z and it runs 12.6@114. My 260z was freshened up (new rings and bearings but all other components stock original nissan 220K KM) and it runs 11.78 @ 115. Both cars are street driven often and dead reliable. The most important thing to make it last is proper A/F ratio and ignition timing. Without these even the best forged pistons will fail. Spend your money on good fuel and ignition systems and turbo components and the stock bottom end will work fine untill you are making huge HP. You will be scattering drivetrain peices way before engine components!!

The N42 block has dished pistons (this is what I used on my 9:1 engine). With your N42 I think you will be between 8.5:1 and 9:1. There is a program somewhere on the net called "lengine" which will help you calculate the compression ratio (Look up under Google). Try to go at least 9.5:1 to capture as much cylinder pressure as possible. Too low compression and that cam will make for a lazy engine. Other than that everthing sound great - including the price. You do have to watch those Civics - one of my buddies at the track runs 12.6 with the most plain looking NA civic - a real sleeper.

I have used that cam from Colt Cams in several motors before. Depending on the rest of your combination it should make excellent power from 3000 - 7000. Geoff knows his stuff and is one of the most honest people you could deal with. He also has a great turbo cam if anyone is looking for one. Tell him DRZED sent you "www.coltcams.com". O.K. now to the engine. I need to know piston and block specs in order to determine the compression ratio. That cam worked "good" in my 240Z when it had 9.0:1 compression but when I bumped it up to 10.6:1 it was way better. The engine makes more bottom end torque and has lots more power everywere. Post more details and I'll give you my .02 So far your combo sounds similar to my 240Z engine (less the carbs). Also what do you want out of the car in terms of performance? What do you do with the car? 1/4 mile? AutoX?

Hey, not that it matters, but for anyone looking to use the auto it is strong enough for most turbo engines. My auto trans is stock except for some minor valve body mods (thanks J. Thagard) and it had over 225K on it before I put it in the car. After 1 season of drag racing and several thousand miles of hard street driving it is starting to slip in second gear - but not enough that you would notice on the street - just on the track with sticky tires. Keep in mind that this is with well over 300RWHP. BTW in my opinion the auto is stronger that the stock 5 spd. (several of my buddies have spit out 3rd gear with their turbo cars).

The biggest problem with Datsun L series heads is cracks do to overheating and freezing. In my experience N42's seem to be more prone to this than most of the other castings. Specifically look in the #4 chamber between the adjacent cooling holes and the exhaust seat. A crack may show up as nothing more than a dark line. If the head is cheap a visual inspection may be OK but if you are paying any real money I would insist on a pressure test. Other than the above check for corrosion in the cooling jackets, pulled theads, warped head as per above post and excess milling of head - the three small divets in the head should be visible and 030 - 060 thou deep. You can use heads milled beyond this with head saver shims. Last confirm that the first and last exhaust manifold studs are not broken - this is also very common but fixable. Good luck.

Definatley don't try to return the oil to the cooler as the return line is not under pressure. The oil from the turbo is very hot and foamy and requires a large diamater pipe to return to the oil pan. This pipe should be as vertical as possible with as few bends as possible. Do you have access to any 280zx turbos to view the piping etc? Their pans are already drilled for oil drainback and should interchange with yours if you switch the pickup as well. I can't fiqure out how to post the pics here so I will email them to you later - hope they help.

I never got a manual with my system - bought it used. There is lots of information about rayjay turbos in the turbo book by Hugh McKinness. Includes compressor maps and lots of info on older systems.

The rod will go thru the hole in the cap and also the hole in the rotor - then bolt down the distributor, pull out the rod and you are done.

I could take pics of my engine bay but I don't think it would help you. The only part of the BAE kit I used was the turbo and BOV. Everything else has been swapped in from many other years and models of Z's - poor mans performance parts!! I also custom made some of the intake and exhaust plumbing.

OOPS... After consulting my nissan bible (factory manual) I have confirmed that it is actually set at TDC (on compression stroke of coarse!). This all confirms that you are using factory cap and rotor - the aftermarket cap I used didn't have the hole. Had to use my old cap to set the distributor and then change caps.

It probably won't make much difference at idle but maybe under high load / high RPM conditions it might. To adjust it properly I believe you insert a small rod (gas welding rod works well) into the #1 lead hole in the top of the cap and line this up with the hole in the rotor when the engine is at 20? degrees BTDC - I don't have a factory manual with me so I am fairly sure it is 20??

I think I am one of the only people still running one of these BAE / Rayjay setups. They can be made to work very well under the right conditions but they have lots of limitations. The turbo supplied in the BAE kits that I have seen is a 301?EE80. It is very large and takes just this side of forever to spool up. If you design your engine and drivetrain around this it can be made to work well. I was told that an F exhaust wheel would help the spool up time but never tried it. There are still a few of these systems around and they are worth almost nothing so it could be a great budget build up. Are you using this for a track car?? or daily driver?? or what??