Zedyone_kenobi

Just to clarify, I do not think its bad to spend big bucks on parts, as long as all the other parts in the engine can support it. You have a high flow head but you have matched it with a nice set of triples and probably a good exhaust. It sounds like you know what you got yourself into and did not just buy a big name part for the sake of having it. I would LOVE to hear your Z run after your engine build, as it sounds like you have chosen to build what I would call a 'fast street' beast! Good luck!

Most practical is what you already have. But best choice is different. The best choice depends on your personal value set. What matters the most to you. Cost, performance, ease of use, availability, etc. I would suggest what filters the air the most efficiently to keep your engine as happy as possible.

I hear ya, but all manufacturers had to fight that battle. The small block chevy is a classic example. It was choked down to 135 HP in some forms in the 70's if I recall my history. But the bones are still there. When you look at what they designed starting form the early 4 cylinder L series engines, they had it right from early on. Look at the L20 with that sweet DOHC setup you see in some pictures with the exhaust and intake on opposite sides of the head as God intended. I think you do not need to look further than that to see what Datsun engineers would have done. Just my 0.02 cents. How would the L28 have been done if not for emissions is tough. I mean its hard to play what if, as SO many variables were in play at that time. Datsun would not have made a race engine for the street, even though they certainly could have. They still had to make it a street car. I think honestly, they would have changed very little. I would wager that it still would have had fuel injection, as that increased driveability at the time. I think you would have seen more compression, and perhaps a more aggressive timing curve. Perhaps a more free flowing head. I do not think that the cam would have changed much, but perhaps a little higher lift cam along with a freer flowing exhaust. Again, I think that if left unregulated and restricted by emission laws, Datsun would have put out a 280Z with around 190-195 HP at the crank. I know that is only ~20 HP more than the 170 gross HP it was rated at from the factory, but I think it would have had more torque. They still had to run on pump gas, and still had to get somewhat decent mileage while be civil enough to idle in traffic for hours if it had to. I think the L28 is a wonderful engine to build up and one day I plan on trying my hand at a strong, yet reliable street engine, that I am hoping to make 210 to 225 HP and still be livable on a daily basis. Of course, i will need another Z car to put it in, as I am never butchering my silver arrow.

SU's are wonderful and can be tuned to handle VERY large HP Normally aspirated engines. I would stick with SU's and build your engine using the best parts you can. Also, do not skimp on machine work. Building an engine is like painting a car. Its all in the prep and precision. I have built over a dozen or so engines in the past, mostly V8's but the rules hold true for anything...Here are some guidelines I recommend you follow... 1) Your best bet is to take some time and be honest with yourself. Are you racing for money, are you running ITS class in an SCCA championship. Is this a street engine 99% of the time, or is it closer to 50/50 street/track. You really have to be honest here. Build the engine for what you will use it most for. Sure it is awesome to say you have 300HP, but if it only comes alive at 7600 rpm, it is not much use to you. 2) Match parts. Match parts. Match parts. We do not have the benefit of VTEC, or variable intake runners. We have a single cam and two valves per cylinder. You will only get one shot at a peak performance combination. Having properly matched parts for the driving style you do is FAR more important than having an uber built head, or a monster cam or huge carbs. Let me say that again. Its FAR more important to have all your parts in harmony with one another. Case and point, I have built many street engines in my V8 days using off the shelf GM parts that were carefully picked to work together, with a mild cam and reasonable carb and intake. I routinely beat my buddies with mega dollar aluminum heads, huge cams, monster carbs, etc. The parts must be designed to work together with not only each other, but with your car as well (gearing, driving conditions, etc) 3) Do not try to make the most powerful engine you can. The more high strung engines are the closer you need to monitor them and keep them in perfect tune. IF you like this kind of thing, then great, but if you want a streetable engine that is fun all the time, then build smart, build conservatively, and build cleanly. Put your ego aside and build the engine you want, not the engine you THINK you want. Again, it goes back to being honest with yourself. 4) Research, what is available form Datsun/Nissan. Engineers spent millions of dollars and many years researching the L series of engine. It is very much like the small block chevy of Japan. Parts interchangeability is huge and a killer combo can be picked directly form OEM parts. READ READ READ how to manuals. Read books on building the L series of engines. It will not only teach you how, but why things work and what evolution the engine took in development. The number one thing that is needed to build a fantastic engine is not money, its knowledge. Read as many books as you can to learn the intricacies of the L series engine. You will be smarter, and you WILL make smarter choices. Check amazon for books on the subject, you will be rewarded 10 fold.

I may try to restore my stock cable for a spare using just that technique. For now I just use this NOS cable. It will be fun to try to fix the old one though! 7T1240Z, here is your picture of the block off hose... sorry, but I must have thrown the package away... it was at advance auto parts, and it was in the radiator cap section

UPDATE: Found an OEM choke cable assembly on Ebay, and managed to win it for a reasonable sum, and the kind folks at ZT said they would be happy to send me new fuel lines. I cannot stress enough how fantastic it is to deal with people who care about their customers and strive to give them a good product and service.

Okay, I will go next, in no particular order: 55 Chevy BelAire - defined an entire generation of cars in the US Mini Cooper - So many advances and ground breaking design cues VW beetle - the peoples car, brought transportation to many Jeep - brought mass production exploration of the countries back roads to the people Porsche 356 speedster - the birth of a legend. I know I did not put the Z cars on there, but if I was thinking back on the top 5 biggest impact cars from the 30's to now. It is not a tough list. I could just as easily pick 5 more that were ground breaking. I will let the judges decide the merits of my pics.

yup, got it at Advanced auto parts. Its just look like a hose with a domed closed end on it. I will try to see if I kept the package. If not, It would be my pleasure to shoot a close up pic of it for you sir.

I was thinking the same thing... how about some ground rules. Must be a mass production car of at least 500 units produced Left a great impact on the automotive market be it either in the US or worldwide or both Lets start it at some reasonable date as well. I mean you go back too far, you would have to include the first car with a clutch, the first car with a steering wheel, the first car with 4 wheels, etc. Lets start the clock at 1930 if that is okay with everybody. Cars were pretty well normalized at that point, with what most people know as standard fare. It is also far enough back to capture great evolutions any more suggestions? Perhaps everybody should nominate 5 cars, and the top choices makes the list. Then we can put that list in order.

UPDATE: work is on hold for a few days. Still working on the dining room and office paint jobs, but managed to squeeze some Z time in. I found out I have had non functioning choke cables. I can barely get them to move. Not sure how they worked in my older setup. So I will need to get those off and try to lubricate them. Second, upon trying to start the car (which did roar to life rather quickly, but briefly) I noticed my fuel lines from the bowl to the car were SPEWING fuel on the ground. It was not from the where the jet nozzle is on the body, as that completely dry. Upon closer inspection, when I moved the fuel hose, fuel shot out of a small slit. I will contact ZT today and see if I can get some replacements. He mentioned in his video that at times those get damaged during shipping. It is easy to see why. As for how I fixed my coolant. I wanted to reuse the stock fitting that bolted to the side of the block. So I found a heater core cap that was made to block off coolant. It was remarkable easy and I was able to keep the stock routing of my heater hose. On the plus side, and another advantage to the 'while I am here' syndrome. I was able to finally add my heater grommet to the firewall, as well as my new choke cable grommet. Lets here it for unplanned and extra work. So, cliff notes version.... I got my carbs hooked up and all lines hooked up and got to hear some fire for a brief second before I saw some fuel leaking. New fuel lines and new choke cables (or repairing my old ones) and I will be back on the road.

UPDATE: Not much to report, wife has had me painting the dining room and den this weekend. I did manage to get the radiator empty and got my coolant hoses removed from the spark plug side of the engine. I need to come up with a way to reroute the coolant hose straight to the heater core, versus around the engine to the intake. I need to connect two lines with different diameters. Should not be too hard. In the mean time, I spent some time polishing my valve cover and refinishing my fuel line so it does not look so 'dirty' next to my purdy carbs. Engine is coming together nicely for now, just slowly.

I think mine may have to be called.. "WHAT NOW" AS that seems to be how I always address her.

DRAT, UAW got to him.

This is awesome! I have a ton of odds and ins. I will make a list tonight

Not loving the monster truck wheels. But that Z will be nice once the engine is done and the interior is tidy. But I will say this, I sure could use a nice set of floormats.

Wait, if your renting out you kid, while your in texas, I may have an antenna wire I need run! hahaa

I cannot get over his scheming look... like how can I get dad to buy me this radio controlled Z car.

install the heat sheild near last. I am not to that point yet, but it would just get in the way. Besides, its held on by very easy to reach bolts at the base of the carbs. I torqued all the header bolts that were independent of the intake before I put the intake on. Makes for less contorting my body later.

Thought I would get my son to show mommy what he wanted for Christmas. I mean what 20 month old would not want some original loop 240Z floormats...right!!!

We will find out Arne. I have always thought my advance mechanism may be a bit dirty. I will tear it down and clean it after I get the new one in. Should be plug and play for the most part. This will complete my tune up so to speak. After I get the carbs in and balanced, will swap out distributors. I only wanted to change one thing at a time. Carbs alone are a big change, and I expect great things from the Ztherapy units.

Ordered my new wire holder today, and since its just plain silly to just order something for $1.53, I had to add a new european curved dizzy. I am hoping my current pertronix will bolt into the new dizzy. Yes, I am weak, and like new shiny OEM parts. But HEY, its Christmas soon, Merry Christmas to ME!!!

You know for whatever reason, I was looking at the cooling part of the catalog since that is where its attached to the engine. Sometimes, I really have to think I am starting the road to senility early.

Quick note. It seems I made a bit of a mistake when putting my thermostat back on. The spark plug wire holder that bolts to the rear most bolt on the thermostat cover is made of plastic, and when I put it back on, I sort of snapped the plastic in half. Does anybody know who may have an extra?

I bought several plugs yesterday. I know one fit very nicely, threaded in with no issues at all. I will see which one it was. I think it may have been NPT. As far as the carbs go. They were installed by Ztherapy on the manifold when it arrived. I just bolted it up. I may have to remove the carbs to get a good torque on the nuts. I think a 12mm crows foot would help dramatically as well.

They do put in different needles that run more rich. I am not sure that it is part of the basic Ztherapy SS treatment, but I requested them. I get the impression that the performance in the SU's is mostly due to the correct needle selection and the weight of the oil in the piston. You can control how fast it rises and how much fuel comes out. Until you reach the max CFM the SU's can flow with the pistons fully up, I think you can tune to just about any reasonable performance level.