Zedyone_kenobi

Fair enough, I hear what your saying. It is not lack of outright desire to know, more of availability. Most of these new dyno shops around me only know EFI late model mustangs and camaros. I will try to find one though when it is all broken in.

Well I will definitely call around to try to find an hour or two of dyno time. But I have to be honest with you. If my AFR come in spot on, and it drives fine, I will be hard pressed to care. Sure I may be leaving some power on the table, but if temp is good, AFR is good, power feels good, not sure it will matter to me. I cannot emphasize how much I want drivability over peak HP. I think dyno tuning can drive you crazy trying to track down that last few HP. I have a feeling I am going to be quite happy. But my only worry is what LeonV said. 10.5 is quite a bit of squish. So we will see what happens. I will say this...If I get it and it just feels weak and my AFR is spot on, I will want to know what is going on.

Yes, in the simplest of terms. But another thing critical thing to look at is lobe separation and valve overlap. A longer overlap will also decrease cylinder pressure since you spend more time with both valves open. This all has effects on when the cam is in the sweet spot. To be honest, I have to go with what Eiji recommends on this. He thinks I will be fine on 93 octane. I have no reason NOT to trust his word. I was planning on running 10-15 deg initial advance and 33 max as a starting point. The only dyno tuning will be with me on the road with my O2 sensor. Better than seat of the pants, but I may look for a local dyno shop near me. Most guys at dyno shops near me only want to deal with late model muscle cars with EFI.

It is a chromoly steel flywheel designed to be 9 lbs. NO idea who the vendor is. Eiji has a vendor he likes. Again, he is running it on two of his cars, so obviously if it was good enough for him, it is good enough for me.

I got some more information from Eiji about my engine. Target compression with the ROSS pistons (86.5mm) is about 10.5:1 -- sounds very healthy to me. Datsun Spirit custom grind cam: 275 Duration/.480 lift with 108 lobe centers -- no idea what that would do in a L motor, but a 480 lift in a V8 is pretty nice without being to extreme. 9 lb flywheel Really looking forward to this now. If anybody has any doubts about working with Eiji, stop and just talk to him. A more personable engine builder I have never met.

Great weekend and awesome perseverance. One day I would love to get back into racing for fun and for points, but not for money. It is a great hobby, and I dearly miss it.

Eiji said it will ship this saturday. So figure a week after that it will be in my garage on a stand getting the extras mounted to it.

Not sure it matters as long as its pretty and shiny!

I will get all the details on cam duration and lift and machining specs when the engine is delivered. I can report back then. I am looking forward to what a healthy L28 sounds like with triples and a 9 lb flywheel!

Blue I read many articles on the N42 and P90, and both seem to have great size valves but the P90 seems to have a larger combustion chamber. Eiji recommended an N42 to me, as he has an N42block/N42head combo in one of his current cars and was able to tell me exactly how it would work on todays fuels and ignitions. The N42 is drilled for both carburated and injected engines, and that will bolt to my current triples manifold with ease. I have nothing against the P90 head, and really the biggest reason for going N42 was simply the availability of a good condition core to start the build. Those are flattops? Did I say something to confuse that? I apologize if I did. They are ROSS forged flat tops from MSA.

Great write up! I just went through the same thing as you did. A wideband O2 is God send, and the instant you have about 150 bucks laying around, get one. I recommend you adjust your floats on your MSA webers. Mine, are exactly the same as yours, and I also had to readjust my studs on the intake side so I could get a nut on them to mount the carbs. Good job putting that in the write up. I went down to a 160 Air corrector which helped eliminate a large part of my flat spot. Then I found all my floats were too low, and that was the biggest change in how the car ran. I have all flat spots 95% gone now. I have to actively try to make the car falter a bit. I think the F11 E tube is a good one. I think the 55F9 progression jet is probably a bit too much but it is okay for now. I really think I want to go down to a smaller main jet and a smaller Air corrector. But for now, I am happy. I have not tried to dial in the accelerator pump yet, as I think most of the tuning is with the jets, and air correctors. But look at your float levels. They will make your car even happier. They are critical to how the main jets and air correctors work. Most of all, great looking engine! My throttle linkage bar from MSA was bent and I could not use it!

What about 74 through 89 don't get lazy on us! ! That is just stunning dude.. no other words for it.

I did not intend to use forged pistons, as I think it is overkill, but could not find the right oversize at the time. Eiji chose to use OEM NISSAN bolts, which I was thrilled with of course. He has exceeded my expectations throughout this process. Best part is I have spent well below what a Rebello stroker would have cost and I truly believe I got the perfect engine FOR ME. Which is all anybody can ask

N42/N42 block/head Eiji said he has a recommended break in procedure, and assuredly I will follow that to the letter. Yes, I am running a custom grind cam, but all I know now is the 274 number. That sounds more like a duration than a lift, but I will get all the specifics from Eiji with the engine. I am trusting him to pick a cam that will perform in the rpm band I am looking for.

Job is complete except for getting the alignment done. I may just try to do it myself There is only one nut turn on each side. Anyway, she is ready to drive until my engine gets here, but that is another thread!

UPDATE: I would rather have updated the first post to save some clicking, but My L28 is ready to ship! Eiji is the MAN You can follow the details of its build in this thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46362&p=400947#post400947

My great rally adventure in my Z would not be complete without a healthy dose of drivable HP. When I decided to rebuild my engine, I had originally planned on doing it myself. I have build up many engines, but none of the 'L' variety. I had vast experience with V8's, but the L was a bit different. And there were some finesse items I had read about in all the rebuild books. I called around and not many people had experience near me in doing high quality L series head work and I just did not want to trust my original L24 to anybody. So I took this opportunity to call around and find out who was who when it came to rebuilding L series engines. I started with Rebello of course, and the was all to happy to build me a 2.7, but what he really wanted to build me was a stroker. After several calls to Rebello, I ended up having a great phone conversation with Diseazd. (you remember the one) Well as hard as he tried to talk me into building it myself, he also pointed me to give this guy name Eiji a call at Datsun spirit. Now I had seen www.datsunspirit.com before, and was never that impressed with his website, but I kept it saved. I gave Eiji a call, and immediately we had a great conversation with him doing quite a lot of listening and not much talking. Then he made some generalizations about what he thought I had said. And we agreed on two very important things that every customer/engine builder need to understand: 1) He understood exactly what I wanted out of my engine 2) He understood exactly what my budget was With those two things firmly established, he set out to make a couple of options that would fit my needs. He took he time to write me some VERY long emails describing his suggestions and how they fit within my established plans. Each part he recommended (and more importantly many he did not recommend) kept me on the tract to have the EXACT engine I first described. I discovered very quickly that Eiji was not out to retire on the profit he would make on building me an engine. He was out to make me a happy customer. The result: We decided on an L28 versus modifying my original L24. Bang for the buck the L28 would be the choice for me. Why: What I wanted was a completely drivable engine that had a big fat meaty midrange torque curve. I wanted it to have a healthy smooth idle and not be temperamental beast. It had to survive houston heat and run on 91 to 93 octane. I wanted the engine to make usable power up to 7000 rpm, but have so much mid range that you would rarely need to go there. Most of all, I wanted an engine that could be driven 300 miles to an event. Then rack up 1000 miles of vintage road rally work, then drive 300 miles home. I wanted peak reliability over peak power. We did not even talk HP numbers, as I really do not care. I wanted drivability and mid range. The HP can fall where it does. Makes me no difference if the car feels right. I always thought my L24 felt pretty good, so any healthy L28 will be great. It began with this: N42 block standard bore. Well from here the process began. Eiji did a meticulous job of cleaning and inspecting the bores. He found an issue with one of them. It had some pitting that could be seen by not felt after a light hone. I am sure some builders would have just let this go and never told the customer, but Eiji was not happy with this. He cleaned and inspected three more L28's he had, and all had issues. We then decided to look for some overbore pistons and then machine the block for these. Well no OEM overbore pistons were readily available. We made the decision to go with ROSS forged pistons sold by MSA. The block was prepared and the pistons were assembled onto a set of OEM L28 rods that were cleaned and checked for weight. Here is the block honed and with the pistons installed: I want to point something out at this time. Every single time Eiji was about to install something, he took the time to photograph the part in the bag (so you could read the NISSAN part label with part number), the part out of the back and the part being installed in the engine itself. It is this level of detail that separates Eiji from any other vendor I have ever even heard of. His commitment to keeping me involved with the engine build was staggering. You may be asking about the head. Well we talked and for my purposes an N42 head was selected. This is the head after assembly but before installation: This is the head after installation: When Eiji installed the cam we had an issue with it touching the pistons, which may have stuck out a bit more than other flat tops, but he told me he had to get the cam reground a slight lower lift. That has been done and he spent a couple of days examining the wipe patterns of each lobe on the rockers: I needed custom lash pads for the new 274 cam, so he ordered them from Japan and installed them. Next he test filled the engine with oil and water and looked for leaks. Then he emailed me and asked what oil I wanted to use so he could buy some and prime the oil pump for me (I used Valvoline VR1 10w-30) Latesly Eiji helped me find a good shipper. My engine is complete and ready to run. I will need to add my triple webers and a dizzy, but other than that, it is ready. Here she is ready to be shipped. (note 9 lb flywheel is not shown) : Note the cad plated NEW hardware on every connection in the engine. Eiji used NEW NISSAN bolts, washers, nuts, etc throughout and photo documented every single time he measured anything. I honestly feel better knowing he built this engine than if I had built it. I have never seen such attention to detail and caring about what MY opinion was. I have only included a few of my pictures. But he set up a photo bucket account for my build if you want to take a look: It is amazingly thorough: http://s905.photobucket.com/albums/ac257/datsunspirit/Stephen%20L28/?start=all I am crazy excited to see this thing and start bolting on parts to it. I will put on my polished valve cover when it gets here, but I an extremely happy customer. I will document all my installation in this thread, and I will link this thread to my master TEXAS 1000 vintage rally thread. Hope you enjoyed the read!

All the pics of Paul Newman make me think what other star today is even close as passionate about racing... The only name that comes to mind is Patrick Dempsey. They sort of have that calm demeanor about them.

Correct, do not chase numbers Chase drivability. Peak HP numbers are only really good for bragging to your buddies. Driveable HP is what you are after. Big fat meaty midrange will make you smile far more often than making peak HP at 6800 rpm.

UPDATE I am half way done. I managed to get the bolts tightened to 35 ft lbs on the ball joint, which is the lower amount called out in the FSM. I then removed it and compared the length and no permanent set had occurred. Threads looked clean. So I left it at 35 and smiled and walked away. I plan to have the car rolling again by this weekend. Is there a desired amount of toe in/castor, I should have the alignment shop dial in. Camber is pretty much fixed.

Well I hear ya, but if the manual says 40 lbs, why should I second guess it? 40 did rip it right off. I will shoot for 35 this evening when I get some more hardened bolts built in the last 30 years.

Arne! Your car is living like a european king over there with Terje! Wonderful to see she is still being enjoyed!!!!

I started to get parts bolted back up, but had a miserable time of it. The two bolts that hold the ball joint onto the transverse link require 35 to 45 ft lbs. Well at exactly 40 one snapped off and the other was just about to. Then the washer that goes to the bolt that holds the steering knuckle to the shock body cracked in half. Man these parts after being compressed for so many years, are so darn brittle! I will replace anything M8 and below from now on with new cad plated hardware. All my cleaning and polishing bolts was futile, as now I am going to replace everything. crack on me once, shame on you crack on me twice, shame on me! I did manage to get my transverse link installed and torqued to 90 ft lbs though. The poly bushings sure look better in there than the worn out stockers.

Actually my plan after I get my new 2.8 installed and my webers dialed in, I will go from my OEM/Pertronix setup and then switch to a mallory later. If you have a working dizzy, I would start with that. Change the minimum amount of things first. Then slowly upgrade part by part, so diagnosing will be much easier. For instance. I bought my webers and installed them on my L24 which I will be taking out. But it allowed me to build a fuel system, rail, and get them some what dialed in prior to bolting on my L28. Now I know it will start and idle beautifully, so all I will have to do is jet for the increased displacement. Should be a quick thing. Good luck and keep us posted

The natural result when people get fixated on one single modification, and taking it to a completely illogical conclusion. Extreme camber, 30" wheels, airbags to slam a car. Simple minds can only chase one thing at a time in an effort to get noticed by all the other immature leg humpers.