Whittie

If anyone has two, or two people have one, I'd be interested as well, I don't have right hand indication on a broken stalk

Well, this arrived the other week and MY GOD is it an amazing piece of kit! It is suprisingly heavy at around 7 pounds, but extreamely well made. I got part #918040 which is actually a kit with a generic damper #917070, the three ringed aluminium piece and an adapter for the L series crank, #916020, so that the damper can be mounted to the crank and locate on the keyway. I don't have the exact number on hand, but it was about $650-$670 AU delivered. The BMW part, which finally died on my car, is around $480 delivered, so the difference is not huge. The ATI damper comes with a warranty of up to 1200HP drag motors, in fact the lowest power figure mentioned on the warranty card is 800hp I think this damper will suffice for a piddly 200rwhp L series motor

Me again This should be my last new thread, with any luck. Now, please, before I get slammed, I have searched but I would like to collate all the information into one thread to make it concise. I am rebuilding my motor which currently has a shaved deck and shaved head. I don't know what the compression ratio is, but the car was running so much advance it was off the dizzy, so I want to put some more compression and head work into the motor while it's apart. It was pressure tested at 220-240psi across all cylinders before stripping it but I still want more Now, this raises the question of keeping everything together. I was wondering what people would reccommend for stud/bolts kits for a super high compression motor (Let's call it 12:1 for design purposes). I hear a lot about ARP, but what kits do you guys use and where do you get them? Is there a kit for the head and a kit for the bottom end, is it one kit, should I be using something else and not ARP at all? I just can't seem to work out from searching what exactly the kit is and what it secures to what. It's an F54 block, 40thou bore, flat tops, shaved deck and head, P90 head and we rev it to 7500, so let's say 8000rpm for designing the motor, if it makes a difference? Advice from those that are more away than I is greatly appreciated! Also, links to some reasonably priced online suppliers (USA is fine) would be grand.

Hey All, Again with the engine building questions: I found the oil pump drive worm gear, the one that sits around the crank shaft and drives the dizzy and the oil pump, was split and the teeth on the shaft were wearing badly. This is the second worm gear to crack on this motor and before i put it back together I want to know why! I suspect it's either due to bad teeth mesh, which I think is unlikely considering it's not adjustable, or too much pressure being put on the gear. Now, when racing the oil guage, which is standard so readings could be suspect, sits right in the upper region of the guage, close enough to 90psi to call it 80psi. When idling, it sits around 40-50 psi. I suspect that this pressure is putting huge force on the gear, stipping engine power and stuffing the drive parts. So, what I was wondering, for the engine experts, what sort of pressure should the oil pump be putting out and why is mine so high? I've heard that 30psi is sufficient at racing revs (7500rpm) provided you have good oil flow rates and can get the oil into all parts of the engine, but what oil pump should I be using and how should I configure it to get these high flow rates at lower pressures? I think I'd like 50psi at race revs, 30+psi idling, just to be safe!. Also, does any internal motor work need to be done to get oil to flow in/on to all components and away again efficiently? Cheers.

Hey All, Just started pulling the motor down as part of the rebuild and I'm looking at all aspects of it and I came across the interesting conundrem of Ram Tubes. The Ram Tubes on the car are SUPER long, and this would not normally be an issue, but I've put those cylindrical K&N type air filters that have the chrome plate on the ends. The ram tubes come within probably 1-2cm of the chrome plate and I can only assume that this is killing engine power. So, I was wondering what length people use on their motors, what effect the length has on the motor (from a fluid mechanics point, so long as it's smooth and well rounded I can't think of anything it would do). Also, if anyone knows somewhere reputable to buy them, the places in the UK want upwards of 20 pounds each plus shipping for these things!! The tubes will be inside the air filters so colour really doesn't matter, but if the cost is irrelevent, blue Cheers

After doing some more thinking about this problem, this is exactly what I am going to do. I only need a small amount of more travel, nothing drastic, and don't want to start running in to issues with the chassis rails bottoming out before the shocks hit the bump-stops! I don't know what my spring rates are, or what shocks I have in the car currently, so I'm going to have to resort to taking the car to a suspension place once it's running again, getting all the height measurements made, spring rate's tested and selecting the adjustable shocks to match the springs I have. At the moment I believe I have Koni (red?) internally adjustable shocks. The proportining valve is totally busted, but I have the shocks wound to full resistence and they still are not hard enough, so I don't want to buy new shocks and run in to issue's of being on full adjustment, one way or the other, and still not have the ideal setting for the springs in the car.

I paid $90 for mine fitted, so 75 sounds about right. Dead easy to do, the hard bit is adjusting it to the right voltage. Better again is don't drive the car till it's fixed. Overcharging is not good, but lead-acid batteries are not designed to be deep-cycled, and you don't want to kill a battery if you can avoid it, otherwise it's a premature another $150 for a battery. If you must, don't drive far and keep it on charge when you're not driving to keep the battery charged fully.

"ALTERNATOR REMANUFACTURED HITACHI TYPE OEX to SUIT DATSUN 1200, 120Y, 180B With external type Regulator." Ask Rev, but I'd say either you don't have an external regulator or it's busted.

Impressive. There is one I've seen on HybridZ with a viper v12 in it. Far more modified than that tho, he had to cut away the firewall to get good weight balance and engine fitment...

Thanks Mike!!!!! I'll be taking these pics to the suspension shop and working out part numbers for appropriate shocks and then cut once when I know the proper amount to remove.

Cheers Mike. The issue is that I have lowered the car too far with shorter springs and now there is not enough strut insert travel. It seems to bottom out well and truely before the end of where I would have thought the stroke would be. There is a good 3cm of rod sticking out the insert when it is fully compressed, I would like to recover some of this. I like your idea however, of sectioning the strut WITHOUT changing the spring perch height. If you could please measure this then that is the route I will take. I am very happy with the ride height and spring rates, I just need some extra travel, which it sounds like the AE92 strut inserts will give me.

Where abouts is your mate located in WA? I don't know of any in particular for sale at the moment like what you're after, but give Martin at Tuneright a call, he usually hears about cars for sale before they come up. http://www.yellowpages.com.au/wa/canning-vale-pte-boxes/tune-right-13560856-listing.html

Lurch, So, I get confused with the terminology a bit. What I meant was: Is it possible to get strut inserts that have a longer travel and will install in the standard struts without cutting and welding the struts themselves to make them shorter? I have Koni Red's at the moment, internally adjustable, and I have busted the valves due to bottoming out. I don't need much extra travel, but everything helps. I have also just purchased some polyurethane bump stops which will help as well, I'm looking to offset the suspension travel they consume, in an effort to maintain maximum linearity in the suspension travel. Cheers.

I would love to know some more about this if anyone has some solid info. I am having issues with my car bottoming out on the strut inserts, but don't want to have to chop/weld anything and don't have any budget for coil-overs. I have long suspected you could just get strut inserts with longer travel, but this is promising. Has anyone here successfully installed strut inserts with more travel for longer suspension travel in a 260z without having to cut the struts up? **EDIT** editted for correct wording

Any reason in front instead of behind the front wheels? That's a lot of heat close to the tyres/brakes, that's all. Depending on what class you want to run in, I think for regularity you need a muffled car, so let's call it something that you would be happy driving on the road, rather than sticking to 90dB. No muffler's and you'll likely meet resistance. As a side note, the local Toyo dealer here in WA charge's over $50 per tyre above RRP. Taleb tyres can get them in and delivered to me at $100 below his price. I think it's just a toyo thing, but being a dealer you should get sponsorship price at least!! I got Toyo sponsorship for one event and it was around half the RRP for a set of R-comps in exchange for running 5 Toyo stickers, 3 small, 2 large.

260DET will be able to help you out if you drop him a line. He and I spend a fair bit of time over on hybridz in the Aero section and have donw tests to the cars on the track with noticable results. I've done 245kph in my S30 and it was fine over the hill. It feels very light, but when you get off the gas and a touch of brake for the chase, the cars really settle down at the front a lot. Be thankful you're not in one of the Group N Mustangs: 300kph and wheelspin over that rise! Also, you probably won't need any special brake cooling. Bathurst is not that hard on the brakes, there is so much time between hard braking that provided you can do 250-80 at the end of the chase, you'll be fine as the brakes get a good chance to cool down. Much of the top of the hill is just light braking here and there, most of it is at a more or less constant speed. I didn't do anything except fresh pads and discs (slotted) for both times I have been to Bathurst. My dad took his TT supra a couple years ago and was doing similar speeds, 230+ and also only had to put fresh pads on. Whatever you normally use on the track will be fine.

Ah, I thought I recognised the one with the headlight covers RayRay, have seen it before. I didn't even know the Z-day was on this year, there was no email about it from the list and so I totally forgot. Allegedly it was a little hap-hazard because there was a fate on the oval, so the guys only had the car park. Still good, just not ideal. I'm pegging to make it to next years event in my new car. It had better be running!! Vindicare, I honestly don't remember the number plates, that's what got me.

Just been through some of the photos, looks like an awesome event! Here's to hoping I can come along to the next one. Guys in the pure Z's, who ownes the two red one's? I've never seen them before. You guys (and you kobe's) should try and come along to the annual zed days or just up to wanner's for regularity some time, there are over a dozen now and we're always lookig to recruit more!! I figured

I used these at Bathurst and while they were OK at best, after 4 or 5 laps they started to fade and the brake dust turned my car black!! Not surprising then that the pad life was TERRIBLE. This is with the commodore brake upgrade too, so HUGE pieces of kit. I will not use these again or recommend them to anyone ever again. Haven't yet decided what to go to next, let us know how you go with the stupid car pads, I have a feeling they'll be terribly over-priced for what they are....

DOT5 is silicon based and is not really a very good idea for use in Zed cars which have for 30+ years been running glycol based brake fluids. I can't remember the discussion in its entirity, but there is fluid compatability problems and you'll find that DOT5 will be less effective in a car that has always run a glycol brake fluid, worse than even DOT3. Something about residual water being left in the lines and the DOT5 not being able to handle it. Here is an interesting article, with boiling points: http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/fluid.shtml Stick to DOT4, or go DOT5.1, both Glycol based with 5.1 being the best around, also can be had for about $5 a bottle.... Otherwise, have you tried changing over to slotted rotors? I have heard many stories of guys running slotted AND drilled rotors in race cars with catastrophic explosions. Apparently something about too much material being taken out and it can't handle the constant forces and heat cycling. They look good and are touted as the best, but I bet you wont find any of the super fast guys running them. Perhaps with the reduction in contact area due to the slotts, the pads are having to work far harder and thus cooking your brake fluid. Perhaps due to less metal, the rotors get even hotter for a given amount of heat dissipation. I'm not up to speed on the actual technical reasons, but have been told by people who are that you should only ever run one or the other, with slotted being prefered. Other more drastic options would be to lose weight from the car and/or swap to a bigger brake set-up, which is what I did and went commodore brakes.

Not quite normal to have bearings come out, no. Not all of the bearings in the gearbox are sealed, several of them are just captured ball-bearings, so I'd be rebuilding that box, replacing all the bearings as you have a busted one.

You sure can. Head on over to your local Repco dealer and they have kits. It's a SKG kit and it's the same as the one for the FS5W71C kit, with the only difference being a smaller countershaft bearing for the 71B box. The kit comes with both a large and small countershaft bearing. If they're not in stock, they can get it in for you in reasonable time. They're about $250 if I recall correctly, but I could be way off. Or, you could just go a a FS5W71C box and be done with the weak 260z box with its small teeth and shitty synchro's....

Thread tidied up and more info added to the first post. Those of you doing this mod, feel free to add more pictures when you are done!

Z + 225 tyres = impossible to park You've probably just got good tyres, be thankful they are sticky. I can't think of anything that would make turning the wheel difficult, but perhaps put it up on jack stands and see how difficult it is to turn the wheels by hand, it should be pretty easy. If not, check mounts and bushes to see if the alignment of the rack is good, the column might be stiff. Otherwise, just the luxury of no power steering, free work-out in parking lots

I started at 14, so don't worry about the age there buddy! My first pass, assuming only what you've shared in this thread (little) would be to check fluids and condition of brakes and suspension components. Check all the rubbers on all moving parts, bearing, etc. replace with new parts and nolathane for bushes would be a good start. There is a few pay checks. Next, ss stated, how about starting with what the car can do as is?! Until you have reached the limits of the car (I'm not assuming here, but there is no info to say either way) it's pretty useless trying to improve things. Everything you have mentioned is a good place to start. For me, if I had to upgrade, it would be making sure the front and rear of the car are balanced. You said the front struts/springs had been changed and only the rear springs? WHY?! what about roll bars, is there one on the front but not rear? As for an LSD, you're wasting your money! I ran an open diff and didn't even notice a need to change until I'd done plenty of other things on the car. Don't start here for 'safety' start with knowledge of your/car's ability. "why" is such a great place to start, it will drive you insan, so check out everything on the car and question why/why not things were done. My best advice, if I'm allowed to give it, get the car to a motorkhana and find out what needs to be done. The motor sounds strong, but dished pistons is going to cost BIG horsepower, but also cost big dollar to rebuild a motor, so, start at a track and work out your limits, the cars limits, and then what you think is the best way to move forward. Equally likely that suspension/brakes/drive train/seat/steering require work before the motor. PS, forget cheap and or good on fuel, you've chosen the wrong car. I don't mean to be a dick, but I thought the same things and my car STILL drinks 18L/100km, regardless of how I tried to control things. Fast zeds are too old to be cheap To get back on topic for your original question - $ vs. HP: Turbo. period. end discussion. full stop. You CANNOT compare NA vs Turbo power/cost for an L28, the turbo will win every time. However, you're still looking at like 5k to get a turbo install tuned and running. Mind you, that's like 350+ HP, enough to kill yourself with for sure, but that's the fun bit