HS30-H

Hi Fred! I'd be surprised if it had indeed been done before........ The main reason is because I believe the 8.32 Thema is Front Wheel Drive, and the engine is transverse. It'd be a whole lot of trouble converting it back to North-South, and a proper longitudinal Ferrari V12 with a transmission attached to it could be had from a specialist Ferrari breaker ( and I know there's a few of them out there, as Ferraris do get crashed or beyond economic repair ) for not that much money....... I bet the HybridZ site would show up evidence of the RWD Ferrari V12 engine having been put into a Z ( with a 250 GTO "replica" body on it ). Anythings possible over there in HybridZ land. The 8.32 Thema is a real "sleeper" though, and it boasts massive torque - so don't be fooled by the fairly low numbers of the BHP figure. My daily driver is an Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6 24V ( Sport Pack 3 ) and the engine is really pretty. Sounds good too, and has a close-ratio 6 speed transmission. Trouble is it's transverse and front wheel drive! I don't know what you have for breakfast Fred, but I like what it does to you! Keep taking the medicine....... Regards, Alan T.

Hi Beandip, I already told both you and the owner of the car what that is, both in replies to your original posts and in PMs and direct e-mails to both of you. What's changed since then? If there is something specific that you want to know about, then let me know and I can maybe help you - but other than that, as I told you before, its nothing "fancy"................ The L20 was offered in countless different versions in many models other than, and as well as, Zs for the Japanese home market. You should not be surprised that it revs so well - it has an extremely short stroke! The Y70 head is nothing special ( as I told you before ) and in fact is not even one of the desirable heads with more performance potential; its a fairly late iteration of L-series head that was low-emissions related, and not a hot tip for tuning work. The earlier L20 with the E30 head has a better combustion chamber shape. I have always been slightly irritated that people tend to dismiss the smaller capacitied Japanese home market Z engines as vastly inferior, even though they usually have never driven one. In fact, many of the higher-spec. Japanese S30-series cars with the L20 engine and five-speed transmission drove better than the USA / North American spec. models ( which lost all their 400cc advantage by mating it with a four-speed and a very low diff. ratio ). As you say, the L20 can be very revvy - and this can be quite a sporting characteristic with a relatively close-ratioed five speed trans. and 3.9 diff. ratio. Don't forget that the Japanese home market also had the choice of the L24 engine from October 1971 onwards. That left them with a relatively wide choice of Z variants from cheapo L20 and four-speed equipped "cooking" models with no carpets or hubcaps, right up to the 240ZG and twin-cam 24 valve S20-equipped Z432. That's quite a different situation to the rest of the world, which tended to get one market-specific model and no choice other than paint and interior colour. The USA / North American market version looks quite a spec. compromise in this light, with its 4-speed and diff. ratio................. ( its hard to resist the temptation to poke a little fun at this version whenever the opportunity arises ). There is a lot of disinformation and ill-informed hearsay out there in cyberspace about the rarer variants of Z engine. I was absolutely amazed to read on the HybridZ site that people were posting nonsense about the S20 and LY Crossflow engines, and the O.S. Giken TC24 twin cam conversions. These ranged from posts saying that the S20 was a twin-cam cylinder head that Nissan put on the L20 block ( totally wrong! ) to comments on the LY Crossflow head being a twin cam ( it was a single cam ). They even get all three mixed up and nobody sorts it out for them. All this must have come about because there is very little literature out there for people to learn from; any Z-related books or magazine articles in the English language are usually poorly researched when it comes to these rarer variants, and these are usually the very writers who dismiss the 2 litre engines as some kind of inferior nails. If the engine ( or whole car? ) came from Japan in anything other than "new" condition, then it may have been improved or rebuilt over there with a compression ratio increase and / or a camshaft change. This is quite often enough to wake one of these engines up and make it seem quite peppy. But if you think its something special, then think again. Sorry to repeat it - but its actually quite "normal" in Japan.......... Regards, Alan T.

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Hi Fred, Guus, 2Many, ozlime, beandip and everyone, Like so many things, its been done in Japan before. You used to be able to buy a kit for quite a lot of Japanese "Classic" cars - although it was pretty expensive. The FCR carbs cured all the tuning problems that Guus mentions, and I believe that they work quite well. The following pictures are of C10 and C110 Skylines with the 6 FCR's on L28 engines. Sorry I could not dig up any S30-series Z pictures with the FCR's. Alan T.

Yes Ash, I know where to get them from. Trouble is that they are not that cheap ( especially considering that they are "just" bare FRP mouldings ) and I am not sure that they would line up with the nose that you have already got on your car ( it will depend on how accurate it is and where it came from ). I better take this conversation off the forums and send you another personal e-mail for the fine details. Cheers, Alan T.

Hi Biker, I'll send it to your e-mail address, as it is too long ( wide ) to fit on these pages without messing about ( and I'm not computer literate enough to sort it out ). It's not "secret" information; its data that Nissan had available and has been reproduced in a lot of the tuning books and Sports Option parts lists. Anyway, I'll mail it to you. Ash, That deal sounds good to me. A proper race-version of the "B" box with the dogleg shift pattern and direct fifth ( non overdrive ) is a LOT of work to put together. Cutting gears is also not cheap, and there will be a lot of fabrication involved in making the shift forks and rails. If you firm up the spec. with this supplier and you are sure that he can do the job successfully - then I would be interested in a couple of boxes myself. Let me know how it proceeds. This might be a way for you to finance your own project. Regards, Alan T.

Alfadog, if its me you are calling then forget it! My interest does not cover late model stuff like the Z31. Even the S130 is late for me. However, the 200ZR is another one of those interesting Home market special editions that they never offered to the rest of us. Its certainly a great organ donor for the Hybrid Z guys. By the way, Alfadog - maybe your family would like my new daily driver; A.R. 156 2.5 V6 24v Sport Pack 3. Silver with red leather, bought to replace my 155 2.0 16v Twin Spark which I plain wore out. Regards, Alan T.

Yes Ash - they are all in Japan. Mind you, that's closer to you than it is to me! You can still get replicas of the "Works" Type "A" and "B" aerodynamic body kits in Japan. In the pictures above, Shun Koike's car has a "Type A" kit ( notice the shape of the front spoiler on the G nose ) and the genuine Works ZR ( the appelation that they gave to the race version of the ZG ) is wearing the full "Type B" with the different front spoiler, wider arches and tall three-piece rear spoiler. Both kits are still available as replicas in Japan. Alan T.

Hi George, Just like Alfadog says - its probably the synchros in your gearbox that are getting tired. If you don't know what these are - basically they are small toothed rings which ensure that your gears mesh together smoothly as you change gear. They wear out eventually, and the only way to fix it is to replace them - which means a full transmission strip down. Meeting this problem, I have noticed that may people start looking around for a good used transmission to swap in. This will almost certainly have the same problems, or will eventually develop them - so its a false economy. If you replace the synchro rings and freshen up the 'box with a few new bearings and shifter bushes, you will not believe the difference. The transmission is one of the main places that the driver interfaces with the mechanism of the car, and if its working right it is a real joy to use. I've driven quite a few "other people's" Z cars, and it is amazing how many of them are soldiering on with a tired and baulky transmission that makes it pain to drive the car. Mind you, you have not got a synchro on reverse gear - so that will always be a slow shift. If you can't get it to engage reverse smoothly ( without the crunch / graunch ) even after doing it slowly and deliberately, then you may have a clutch or clutch operating system issue after all. Did it start doing this suddenly, or has it gradually got worse? Alan T.

Hi Saint, 90mph? Is this part of the break-in procedure for your rebuilt engine? I think you should be taking it a bit easier for the first few hundred miles at least........... Pinning down the whine / vibration will be quite hard on a completely restored car that you never drove before the resto. - you do not know the history of some of the components that have not been replaced. However, the low pitched whine is probably the diff. If it was the transmission you would be able to hear it more beside you rather than behind you - so where is it coming from? Since your car started life as an HLS30 you might very well still have a diff. ratio that does not suit your conversion to a 5-speed box. A 3.9 ratio would probably be better - so this might be a good chance to fit one. This should be easy to find here in the UK - but I have one that is a "known quantity" if you get stumped for one. The vibration could be the propshaft or indeed any other rotating component, but the prop and driveshafts would be the most likely culprits seeing as your wheels and tyres are brand spanking new and have just been balanced.......... These cars are supposed to be smooth as anything when cruising in top gear - so there is definitely an issue with yours. However, after taking it completely apart and putting it back together you will have to expect some niggles like this. Don't get too upset, and it will all be sortable in the end. Good luck, Alan T.

Hi Ashley, I'll write out the ratios and e-mail them you direct. That custom-built box with " any ratios you want" sounds a bit too good to be true. Where will he be getting the gears from?! There's a fair bit of mix-and-matching that you can do to come up with something close to a close-ratio overdrive box, but its not unlimited and I think he may be exaggerating somewhat......... Of course, if he really CAN come up with something like the Option direct-top ratios then it will be good. Do remember that the best choice for a circuit car is NOT going to be anything with an overdriven fifth gear, and is going to have that dogleg first pattern that will allow you to use second to fifth gears in a conventional "H" gate ( must faster and less easy to fumble a shift in ). Trouble is, this would demand the different rails and selectors of the dogleg box - which are all but unobtainable................ Alan T.

Here's a side-on pic. of the Works 240ZR at the 2001 event, post restoration.

And here it is with the bonnet on ( they don't call them "hoods" in Japan..........

Oops, photo dropped off.....

Here's Mr Abe's car from the front three quarter. The sunlight was a bit strong on the day, but the car was part shaded, so it was difficult to get a good shot in the pits. That black line near the cowl is indeed ( as 2Many said ) the rubber sealing strip, and is not any kind of bar or any other device. The airbox on the carbs is a genuine Works type ( supplied by Mr Matsui of NP35 ) and they were made from a pressed fibre-board kind of material. The Works race cars had a couple of channels made from the same kind of material that funnelled cool air towards the inlet. This car is roughly in the mid-1970 season spec. - just before the aerodynamic parts debuted, but already with the "Overfenders" and the rad panel sheetmetal ( of which there were many versions ).

Here's a picture of Shun Koike's car on track at the 2000 event. The driver is Kazuyoshi Hoshino, who drove these cars for the Works team as one of the so-called "Seven Samurai" core of Works Nissan drivers from the early 1970's.

The photos were taken at the NISMO FESTIVAL events at Fuji Speedway - but they are from two different years; the 2000 and 2001 events. The red car ( no.31 ) is a replica of a "Works" 240Z racer, and is owned by Mr Abe. My good friend Mr Matsui of NP35 built the engine for it, and the body was put together by Mr Shun Koike - who I am also proud to call a friend. Shun owns the no.9 car in the photos - which is a replica of another "Works" 240ZR, this time with the full "Type B" Works aerodynamic kit and the hen's-teeth-rare Works 4-spoke magnesium wheels. Mr Matsui also built the engine for that car, and I can tell you that they are both real screamers. Both Shun and Mr Abe are part of a small core of Z enthusiasts in Japan who are after my own heart; they are nuts about the early period race cars ( especially the Works cars ) and they collect the appropriate parts of the period. Sadly, they are forced to use some parts and some specs. on their cars that are not "period" correct - mainly due to safety requirements. If they were not subject to these rules than the cars would be even more accurate replicas of the real thing. The car with the no.23 IS the Real Thing, and the photo was taken at the 2000 event - when Nissan wheeled out the car to show in the pits and not run. It is nothing less than a full Works-spec. 240ZR ( like a lot of these later Works race cars it was based on a later spec. of bodyshell from about 1974, but was still called a "240ZR" ) complete with LY "Crossflow" engine in carburated spec. At the time of the photo, it was in the condition that it had been in for the last 25 years or so; unrestored but with loads of lovely patina and pretty much all of the correct period parts. This car was campaigned in a few races and then became a Test car for the Works "Omori" ( Nissan Competition HQ in Tokyo ) race team, and was also used at the Nissan Racing School, based at FUJI, where they used to coach young Works drivers. For the 2001 event, NISMO decided to "restore" the car - with what I think was too much of a heavy hand. They completely pulled it apart and went through it - chucking away many of the period parts and replacing them with modern equivalents ( especially the rads, seats and fuel tank ). These look jarringly modern and I think they spoil the feel of the car. They even decided not to use the four-spoke Mags and used modern Watanabes instead ( for safety reasons, I guess ).The new paint is pretty much correct for the car when it was in its first season of Works use, though. Here's a picture of the engine bay on the genuine car, which I took in the pits at the 2001 event;

Hi Ash, The following information on Nissan's early 1970's "Option" sports / race transmissions might be of interest to you: *32010-N3130 "Close Ratio Overdrive" *32010-N3030 "Wide Ratio Overdrive" *32010-N3220 "Option 1 Race Transmission" *32010-N3221 "Option 2 Race Transmission" *32010-N3222 "Option 3 Race Transmission" *32010-N3201 " Rally Transmission" All the above were based on the FS5C71B / F5C71B "Bent Stick" boxes, and the Options 1,2,3 & Rally type all had "Direct Fifth" 1:1 top gears ( sometimes called the "Direct Top" or "Dogleg" boxes ). These are great for the racer, as you don't spend time going in and out of fifth gear on its dogleg with the danger of wrong-slotting reverse. Once you are out of first gear you have a conventional H pattern gate for second to fifth gears, which is quite handy on the track. The lack of overdrive is not a problem on a proper race car, and can be adjusted-for with a judicious rear-end ratio choice. Most of the Option 1,2 & 3 transmissions ended up in the USA, and are now very hard to find in good used condition ( don't bother trying to find a new one ). These Direct Fifth boxes have quite a few differences internally to the "stock" B type boxes, and the selector forks and rails are now all but unobtainable. I can give you a list of the ratios in all the above boxes, which are quite interesting - but a bit longwinded to post up here. Let me know if you need it. QUAIFE will be a bit of a waste of time for you to call I'm afraid; they used to stock a super-wide straight-cut gear set for the B boxes ( they listed it as a 240RS part ) but they have not made these for a few years now. They don't seem to be very interested in making any more either. You can't bolt in the 240RS box complete as it had a different bellhousing that would leave the trans. about 40 degrees from vertical if you bolted it to an L6. Looking at your car, it seems to me that you might be pretty much unhampered by rules and regs. - in which case you might like to investigate some of the boxes from 2WD Skylines that can be made to fit with a bit of engineering nous. Good luck, Alan T.

Hi Z-Voit, That kind of post is pretty much guaranteed to get my attention ( as long as I'm looking in, that is ). As far as I know ( and only the Pope is infallible ) Nissan / Datsun never tried to "soup" any of their race cars in the '60's and '70's. I also don't know of any road cars that they tried to supercharge in the same era, but they might have tried it on some obscure Home-market commercials for all I know. Pretty much most of their induction-side research went on perfecting the fuel injection and engine management systems on the race cars. That's why they were able to jump ahead of their competitors when they applied what they had learned to forced-induction systems. Toyota were always the forced-induction pioneers in Japan ( not forgetting Mazda who were a little behind them ) and Nissan never really got going on turbos until the Eighties. Once they got into them, they really did do it much better than everyone else. However, it was the aftermarket and street-tuning world where most of the really effective research went on.......... I remember HKS used to sell a supercharger kit ( a proper "everything you need" bolt-on job ) for the L28 engine in the early 1980's in Japan. I seem to remember them also offering a bolt-on supercharger kit too around the same period, and I will have to have a dig into my literature collection to see if I can find any photos to scan and post up. That's an interesting challenge for the coming week.......... Why, are you looking for some "free" horsepower?!? Alan T.

Mike, If you got a new set of 40PHH Mikunis ( including manifold and linkage? ) for $600 then it really was the deal of a lifetime........ I am quite often dismayed when people seem to think that the prices for these kinds of parts should be cheaper and cheaper. Japan is one of the most expensive countries in the world ( have a look and see how much your local currency exchange-rates against the mighty Yen ) and the workers there do not get paid peanuts. I have told people before that, contrary to what they seem to believe, Japan is NOT a third world country. In fact, if you buy anything from Japan it SHOULD be really quite expensive compared to your home-grown product. The fact is that they adjust the prices to suit the local markets - so the "new" price of the Mikuni carbs that you can still see advertised at companies like Courtesy Nissan in the USA are in fact CHEAPER than the retail price of the equivalent parts in Japan when they were current. As far as I am concerned, anything made in Japan is pretty "exotic" ( its made on the other side of the world to me ) and I can understand if it works out expensive ( although I'm not all that happy about it! ). I really don't think that you could compare the price of a set of triple side-draught Mikunis to a Holley four-barrel ( or even two Double Pumpers.... ) on a like-for-like basis. The set in Guus's photos look pretty cherry to me ( for a used set ) and that is a GOOD manifold and linkage too ( some aftermarket linkages are laughable ) - so I think that the price of $1500 might not be unachievable. Its a good bargaining point to start out from, and here in Europe we have rules and regulations in some race series ( EG - the F.I.A. homologation regs ) that will not allow anything other than the Mikunis for a period-correct S30-series Z race car. Remember, they are in Europe and they are going to be slightly more expensive than a set that comes up for grabs in the States......... Now, if they really WERE "50's", we would be talking about more than $1500.

Guus, That's a set of triple 44PHH Mikunis in the photos. The 50PHH are quite a different shape altogether. Looks like a nice set with the correct trumpets and everything, and its a shame you did not see these before you got that other set in from the States, eh? Regards, Alan T.

Like anything new, its going to take me some time to get used to the new look ( I was still learning how to use the old one ). One thing bugs me though; that "Classic Zcar Club" ident / banner thing at the top left of the page. I would have thought that a bone-stock and non "customised" car would have been more appropriate than ( what seems to be ) a UK-market HS30 with a colour-coded air dam / spoiler, plastic colour-coded mirrors and the god-awful UK-law compliant front turn signal indicators ( which always raise a big laugh in Japan ). No disrespect to the owner of said car, but wouldn't a "fresh from the factory" looking car be more appropriate? If its going to be a modified car, then surely a "period" modified look would be more appropriate? Whine whine moan moan, Alan T.

Ah Enrique - a voice of reason in the wilderness........... We have the "Concours" competitions over here in the UK too ( makes me laugh when they call them "Concourse" ) and its quite apparent it gets like a sickness with them. As you pointed out, many of the cars become OVER restored - as the owners aim seems to change from total originality to just getting points in the competition. Don't get me wrong; I think its well worth trying to get a resto-job as original as possible - as long as the data, knowledge and parts are out there.That's probably possible for a Porsche 356 or Hemi Coronet, as the data is out there and its pretty much accepted as correct. My gripe with this kind of thing in relation to the S30-series Z is that in many cases the knowledge is NOT out there, and many of the parts are not out there either. Anybody who thinks they can tell you with 100% certainty what a particular model of Z should look like is really kidding themselves. There will certainly be people who remember what the cars looked like when they arrived off the boat ( especially the people who sold and maintained them when new ) but I don't trust 33 year old memories either. I think I have a fairly good knowledge of the particular area of the S30-series Z car that I happen to be enthusiastic about - mainly the Factory Race and Rally cars and the Japanese "Home" market models - but there are ENORMOUS gaps in this knowledge, and I might as well be studying the artifacts of an ancient civilisation when I try to delve into the history of it all. Talking to people in Japan who were "there" on the Factory floor, or working with the race teams at the time, has just made it clearer to me that it is probably now much too late for Nissan / Datsun or anybody else to get the full story and all the facts down for posterity. In comparison, restoring a 1940's Delahaye / Bentley Continental "R" / Maserati Birdcage / Porsche 911R or any other exotic you care to mention is a BREEZE compared to getting it "right" for an early S30-series Z. There is also more literature and first-hand knowledge out there for them too. Its ironic to think that some of the most successful mass-produced Twentieth Century icons have less accurately-researched and complete history than the famously unsuccessful "one-offs" of the same period............... I also think its now becoming clear that the "unitary construction" cars of the late sixties onwards were built once, and taking them apart kills many of the original parts - stopping them from being re-used accurately. You can't re-furb and fabricate on these cars like you can on earlier stuff. Over the last few years I have been actively seeking out more and more genuine NOS and good-condition original parts to keep and trade with. I am also a long-term fan of "patina", and I really do not like to see those "100 Point" resto. jobs that get everything much cheesier than it ever was when it left the factory. My car has stone-chips, tarnished plated parts ( they were tarnished when the factory bolted them on! ) and chipped windows. It also has a life, and I let it live it when I get the opportunity; it does a fair few miles on the track every year ( I'm still fiddling with it and learning how to drive it fast ). If that causes "patina" then I'm happy with it. I was asked to join a "Concours" competition whilst at a Japanese-car show here in the UK a few months ago. I declined the offer, not because I thought I would not win ( I'd lose points for the flysquash! ) but because I did not want to be "judged" by people who know next to nothing about my car. I'm not trying to be elitist or snobby - but how would they be able to judge the originality or otherwise of something that they have no knowledge of? Half of them think my car should have an L20 in it.............. Alan T.