IDing camshafts?...

[EricB]

The salvaged car I am taking parts from felt relatively quick when I last drove it and i wonder if the camshaft in there is OEM or aftermarket. I come from the Honda world originally (oh the shock and the horror!!) and there at least there does exist a series of casting marks on the camshafts to help ID them. Did Nissan or the aftermarket companies do the same for our 240z's? Is there anything I can look for short of putting next to another cam to figure out what it is?

Thanks again.

-e

[Royce]

The cams are very much the same for 240Z - 280Z but are not marked very clearly. I have a chart someplace and will try to find it. In the mean time I believe the Nissan cams are designated by a single letter stamped on the front end. If it is an aftermarket cam I would think it would be more clearly marked.

If I can find the tech sheet I will post.

[EricB]

Yeah Royce,

That would be great... chances are it's just a relatively well tuned L24 compared to mine which I know must have either bad valve seat on #3 or bad rings there.... but you never know this salvaged car had money spent on it once in the past seeing the goodies I have found on it so far.

-e

[Royce]

It looks pretty ugly when I cut and past it here so I also have attached the info in a word document. Here it is for those of you who want more of a challenge...

Engine L24 L26 L28&L28e L28e L28et L28et L28et L24e

Head E31/E88 E88 N42/N47/P79 P79 P90 P90 P90A N47

Cam Mark A C A F B J M E

Date all all <8/81 9/81> AT<7/82 MT<7/82 8/82> all

Part # 13001- E4126 N3626 E4126 P7980 P3026 P9580 P9980 S6280

Intake duration 248 256 248 240 240 240 240 240

Exhaust duration 248 256 248 248 248 240 240 240

Lobe centers 109 109 109 109 109 110 109 106

Cam lift intake 7.35 7 7.35 7 7 7 6.75 7

Cam lift exhaust 7.35 7.35 7.35 7.35 7.35 7 6.7 7

I did not compile this data and have not verified it to be true. I do believe it to be from a reliable source.

Oh yeah, the cam mark is indicated by a letter etched/stamped on the rear surface of the rear bearing journal of the camshaft.

Have fun!

[Royce]

Okay lets try the attachment thing again...

datsun_l6_cams.txt

[Royce]

Sorry folks, I am looking like a rookie here on the attachment deal. When I convert from word document to text file I cannot save or modify the format.

Anyway, it should be a table with 9 columns. If you cut and paste the table to word or a text editor you should be able to use the tab and create the columns and make it easier to read.

The bottom line is that the Datsun L6 cams were very similar from in all the different heads from '69 - '83.

[EricB]

Awesome Royce.. That's exactly what I was after. Much appreciated.

-e

[Captnsam]

Royce

I just posted a request for an aftermarket replacement cam for my Z. The car is setu similar to yours (see posting). What cam are you running in your L28/E88???

[Royce]

Sorry, I have no idea what cam I have! I know, I wish I would have gotten that info from Rebello when they built the motor but that was 14 years ago and I had no clue what I was doing, things haven't changed to much!

My car does not like to rev (doesn't like to go past 5K RPM in 3rd - 5th) which could be a result of the cam, but I have many other things to look into first. The engine has so much more torque than my old L24, so the fact it doesn't rev really doesn't bother me much. Fact is it is probably the reason the motor has lasted so long. However, some day I would like to see it work to it's full potential. I have a 2.5" exhaust ready to go in, and have some other things to check- distributor, intake, etc. then I may be in the market for a new cam myself.

[kmack]

Thanks for the info, Royce.

Does anybody know which whould be a better cam out of the list that Royce provided? On the intake/exhaust durations, is it better to have a longer duration or a shorter one? What about the lift?

[Royce]

Good question! I don't know the answer but found a great article that may help you decide. This article was written by D. Elgin of Elgin Cams, a cam guru in the SF peninsula.

Check out: http://www.elgincams.com/campaper.html

I have heard tales that the 260Z cam was a performance mod. But the question is in what situation and when in the 30+ years of Z cars this was applicable. It may rank in there with the N36 manifold. Either one may be better than stock 240Z stuff but you could probably achieve the same if not more from modifying what you have. In this example, I would think it would NOT be worth finding a good used 260Z cam at this point. I think you would probably be better off talking with a cam grinder and seeing what they have to say. Elgin used to have a online catalog that listed Z car cams, however, I couldn't find it this time around.

Have fun!