How far can I get with this.

[frankensteinZ]

Alright here is the story I have a bunch of motor head friends all with suped up cars and my 72 240z does seem to be matched. I have read many threads on performance but they don't ever fit my specific wants.

I do not want to change engines, seems to me it is stealing from the cars originality if I do that. I also do not want to change out of my Su's. Fuel injection would definitely help on performance but it would also make the z unoriginal. Turbos are also so much of a change it is almost like a new engine so I don't want to do that.

I know some of this sounds weird but I want to try to keep my z as original as possible while still getting as much out of performance as possible. I am pretty much up for all other mods. Have I cut myself off from real performance or is there still a possiblility for a 12 or 13 sec car with keeping the su's and the engine.

Would appreciate your info.

Thanks

Frankenstein Z

[Bambikiller240]

It can be done, but it is more difficult when keeping the L24 and the SU's. There is a guy that hangs out on www.zcar.com named "Norm the Twelve second Z car dude" or something like that. He can tell you what was necessary to get his z down to the 12.9 sec ET range.

[Ed]

What about a little bit of Nitrous?

[tanny]

Of course, everything depends on available money, but you could just buy a 280 engine and modify it however you want. Then pop it in whenever you get the itch to drag and save your 240 to pop in whenever you feel like being original. I know taking the 240 engine out and putting back in is really pretty fast and easy after the first time(one of the easiest cars I've done). Don't have a 280 so I can't vouch for it. Money, money, money and time.

[Gav240z]

http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/z.html

One website many questions answered. It's all about diff ratio's gearbox ratio's , cam degree's, electronic ignition.

I would like to build a well worked L28 for my Z. I currenly have a L28(F54) with E88 Head 10:1 compression ratio. It's running Dual SU's. Extractors, Larger Cam(Not big enough). Bigger ZX valves. If anything the SU's will go. Tripple Webbers are the way to go for me. I like SU's but they just can't breathe enough. The cam will be changed for a bigger item and plenty of engine head work in future to get it to flow nicer.

I completely agree turbo's are like changing the entire engine, engine swaps will ruin the originality.

Nothing like hearing a worked L engine scream. I suggest buying the book How To Modify and Race Your L engine. Should find it on Ebay, Amazon etc...

Besides Turbo's are high maintenance and Naturally aspired L engine will go forever. :classic: .

[frankensteinZ]

I posted a link on Z car dot com for norm, asking what mods he made to get a regularly aspirated, L24 into the 12's, which would be plenty for me if not over kill. I have seen the geocities website, but it didn't really post results. I didn't want to put all this work and money into the car and end up two feet away from where I started in performance. If it ends up that the z would be a waste of time in getting it to put out major performance given my wants with keeping it original; I may as well just get a v8 and make it perform. I am in no way dogging the z. I love that car almost more then my girl, but because of the way I don't want to make a major change in the z, I may have made it impossible for major performance in the z.

I have considered nitrous but not until I get this engine rebuilt, I think it would be suicide to try it on this thirty year old engine without a rebuild on the books. I am still pricing the rebuild and finding out from the threads what I should do and what kinds of mods and upgrades I could make in the process. I also would like to change the cam while doing the rebuild.

PS Don't ever paint your car yourself. My arms hurt so much from sanding, I couldn't tell you.

Frankenstein Z

[beandip]

your desires may be beyond the reaches of the 30 yr old tec. of the ole L-24 or L-28 for that matter. They are great engines and I am amazied at the performance of these little engines . If you want instant HP you might look into a small block chev. Y ou can get some instant off the line responce just by changing the gear ratio of the diff.:sleepy:

[Leeroy]

Whilst being the first to admit that the L series is not the fastest engine in the world, its f@#$en tough! It'll run forever and then some! But in saying that, it can still make lots o' power! You can make about 230hp out of it using the stock carbs (albeit rejetted), just port and polish the head, get a lumpier cam (be sure to get correct specs, and replace the lash pads!), topend rebuild with 3 angle cut valves, 6-2-1 header/exhaust (I find 2 1/4" or 2 1/2" is the best), elec dizzy with a new non-ballast resistor coil (if u don't already have it) and get it tuned to run PULP...then give it a burl! The only 'unoriginal' look that the car will have is the exhaust (you can paint the coil, and the dizzy won't look any different really at all), all the mods are easily reversed and voila! You can get it bored out to run 280 pistons, but that would be 'too unoriginal'. So there!

Either that or you can tell your mates to get stuffed, and take em round some bends, see who owns who then!!!:classic:

Love the Zed!

Cheers ppl!

[Alfadog]

The L engines are unstoppable. In a (lightened) 260Z shell I've seen an L26 do low 10 second quarter miles............ the shell was totally stripped out of course but wasn't tubbed or anything.

That's pretty good for a 30 year old engine...

[frankensteinZ]

Would weight lose like that on the car really help that much? I heard it would be hard to get a 280z in the 12's let alone a 260z in the 10's.

Frankenstein Z

[Gav240z]

http://fangartists.com/pics/Jack2.mpeg

http://fangartists.com/pics/Jack3.mpeg

These are video's of a friend of mine doing his thing. I hope he doesn't mind me posting them here.

He's running a L28 turbo and as you can see it has no trouble creaming the competition.

www.geocities.com/spized1969/

for more info.

BTW that geocities site the Datsun Z garage does give times if you check the main page. It tells you he's done low 14's high 13's down the 1/4 mile.

With his old setup he's changed the setup since according to his site but has not updated info.

If you do the turbo setup right it should make the car easier to drive with the fuel injection setup and give you plenty of power. I'd go for that instead of bastardizing it with a v8. Just my opinion.

[Leeroy]

Thing is though, he doesn't actually want to turbo it or change the engine...he wants to keep the same block, not too many changes...which is what I also would like to do...keep it true to Datsun heritage!

Cheers ppl!