Kakimoto N42!?

[Ron Carter]

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,

[g72s20]

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.

[HS30-H]

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:

[HS30-H]

A few more:

[Ron Carter]

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