So I picked up a Kakimoto head recently and am looking to find out a bit more about it. It is a hightly modified N42 head with oversized valves and a heavily modified valve train, high lift long durration cam and tripple 50mm Mikuni's....

Can I get the background on Kakimoto from a few of you in the know. PS I am looking for the Kakimoto Valve cover to go with it too if anyone has a lead on one of them too let me know via PM.

Thanks,

Hi ya Ron,

here is their website

Go to Engine parts and you will see the "L Gata" info. How's ~$600 for ya cam cover grab you? I find it interesting that they only seem to play with the turbo RB engines,..and the Nissan L6! I do have some info in Japanese if you're interested? A cattledog and a photocopied magazine article about their 330ps 3.1 litre. I have made attempts to get it translated.... but nothing so far:(

When you can, could you kindly post some pics of the relevant mods to the head? The engine in my C10 is supposedly a Kakimoto built unit, but to what extent I have no idea. Alan suggested some time back that being a street engine it is most likely only headwork and that seems to fit. I recently had it on a dyno.....with a resultant printout that was less than impressive. Funny thing is the car drives as well as it ever did, so I'm approaching the whole deal as a starting point for much improvement. I'll carry this on in it's own thread Ron, and would be grateful for any input from your experience re reading dynocharts and modded L series in general.

Cheers,

Jim.

Hi Ron ( and Jim ),

I have a little info on the man and the company. Maybe you would like some photocopies of what I have. I can post them to you by Air Mail. Let me know.

As for the particular head in question - data on that will be one of those 'how long is a piece of string' type questions. I should imagine there are certain details that conform to the Kakimoto Racing 'menu', but you'd also have to imagine that a certain amount of 'bespoke' work might be possible. You should at least be able to measure what you have got ( valve sizes, cam specs, combustion chamber cc etc ) and get an idea of what it was built for.

The 50mm Mikunis are a clue that it was most likely built for a 3.1 conversion ( Kakimoto's stock in trade back in the late Seventies and early Eighties) using an LD28 crank, L14 rods and Honda XL500 motorcycle pistons. High probability that it was a 'street drag' engine, too. Kakimoto built his reputation in Japanese 0-400m competitions.

Some pics:

A few more:

Alan, I agree that the head that I have is for a 3.1 liter motor. Know what you mean in regards to a length of string...

I will forward you the specifications on the head, valve size etc. Unfortunately I do not have a cam card for this set up unfortunately so the cam is a bit of a mystery. however I can tell by a brief inspection that it has quite a bit of lift and durration. I will include some pictures of the different parts to shed some light on what I have. The rocker arms have had quite a bit of material removed from them.

Alan, I will will PM you with my address info, thank you for your kind offer.

Ron