ozconnection

Porkbun, great work with the Holley et al. I'm a devotee to this way of thinking and I endorse completely what you've done to your engine! I personally would love to see your theoretical manifold design for the four barrel carb. I've done my own research and looked carefully at several manifolds for the L and other engines and if I had the time and money, would've created that manifold. As it turns out, I use an AZC on one of my cars and a Clifford 6=8 on the other. The Clifford intake supports 212 rwhp on my L28 normally aspirated!! Keep up the great work, Cheers.

Hmmm, to use a readily available, pressed metal impeller water pump or the last one of my LD28 pumps? I think I know the answer to this one already...

Damn...just as I was getting the idle tuning sorted, the water pump seal gave out and leaked coolant everywhere. It was the last of my "good" water pumps with the cast impeller.

Heat...lots of it. It has begun to melt and distort many of my split convoluted electrical wrap that I've used close to my headers. I now wrapped the primary pipes with thermal wrap and I'm considering building some more protective heat shields. I'm even thinking about using cold air pick-up points because it seems silly to be picking up such hot under bonnet air and expecting the engine to be making any more power or torque. Also, it's time to start working on my cold start idle, some more work ahead and hopefully some good results to go with it.

You're right, total advance may be on the money already and converting over to megasquirt control of the ignition timing may build the midrange torque up a bit. I'll do some more work to it over the next few weeks and see what I end up with. There's potential there, I just gotta find it. Tuning is the key!

Yep, we got those early heads too, just like the one you posted. I will tell you, at TDC when I was putting on the head, the chamber on cylinder 3 (IIRC) was so laid back around the spark plug area, you could see all the way into the chamber and see the head gasket and the hone marks on the top part of the bore....EASILY!! And the valve was not at full lift either. Your E88 head has the wrong part of the chamber laid back, the side on the short side radius of the port. When you think about that for a moment, it makes perfect sense to lay back the area around the SPARK PLUG the most for ease of entry into the cylinder through the port. No, not very common anymore, they've been snapped up because they're good to use for NA L28's. You want one?

There was an earlier version of the E88 head, found out here on Cedrics and other lower specification engines, their quench isnt closed like this head. Like I said, think more like a small chambered P90 rather than like the N42 which is low quench. Something maybe to consider!

The dizzy is bit of an odd one. During my years of collecting bits and pieces, I found this dizzy and I suspect a previous owner had modified it to include only 10 degrees of mechanical advance (20 to 30 degrees, in this case). I'm very happy with that, plenty of low rpm advance followed by an acceptable and perhaps somewhat conservative total advance. Bumping it up a degree or two shouldn't be too bad but I'm also considering adding vacuum advance, i'm assuming this wont be bad either since manifold vacuum at idle is 8-9 inhg and advance wont be excessive and really only work a little at part throttle. At WOT it'll be zero advance. Calculated compression ratio is 10.1 to one. ...and a pic of the combustion chamber.

Thank you very much Guy! I went and sought out a guy local to me who builds engines for many racing teams and often sends complete engines O/S for owners who want something top shelf. I took an MN47 and a Schneider cam to him and I asked him if he could work some magic. Instead, at the end of a rather long conversation, I went home with the same head and cam and was convinced by him that he had a combination perfect for me. I bit the bullet and decided to go with his advice. Sure, it wasn't cheap, but its now become the standard bearer for the rest of the engine to live up to. A fantastic starting point, I don't really think another 10-20 rwhp is out of the question with some more tweaks. More importantly, I'm looking for more midrange if I can get it and that shouldn't be too hard either from what I've been told. Overall, I'm absolutely besotted with this engine! And how does the car go with this new combination......? What do you think. :-) At the track on Friday, I scalped my first V8, a 308 Cube Holden ute down the main straight of Sydney Motorsport Park. At the end of the session, guess who was peering under my bonnet to see "what the hell is under there?" Happy days!!

Thanks Steve, you may be right about 'leaving power on the table' This is a brand new combo for me and i have some work to do yet to optimise this combo. in the event that i do some ignition fiddling, adding some timing is certainly on the cards. ATM, however, I have some 'room' for error so I don't push too far/hard too soon and cause engine damage. This has become a fairly expensive motor and you know the rest... As far as the head design is concerned, its nothing really like an N47 at all. Think more like a small chambered P90.

My ignition timing is 20 degrees static, with 30 degrees total.

Perhaps, but atm I'm finding that the Clifford and the Throttle body can support over 200 rwhp from an L28. This isn't an L31 we're talkin about here. The induction was an evolutionary step beyond a Holley four barrel carb which in itself I had great success with over the years. I wanted to move away from tearing down carbs and play with a laptop instead, keep my interests up and look at engine tuning through a new, more modern perspective. It was hard at first but I'm getting used to it. I work on the philosophy 'I have....I use'. And there is the 'different' factor which loosely relates to 'cool' factor. It certainly surprises a few people when the bonnet is opened on that car. Megasquirt in the signature. Yes, that's correct, I'm using it BUT just for fuel atm, Not ignition....just yet!

I have been in discussion with several people at the track. It's certainly a hotpot for information exchange, some good and some not so good. Most of the interest on increasing the power output of this engine revolved around the exhaust, notably the headers. that's cool, they're nothing more than off the shelf, generic interference headers. There is a company local to me that produced the modified head, they also have a matched set of specially tuned headers for the exact combination of head and cam that i have, so it seems only logical that i use that. The ignition is another area that will receive some work, eventually I'll convert to mapping with megasquirt. I have all the hardware, I just need some time to do it. I'll keep you guys posted... Cheers.

yep, 40.5cc IIRC

At the dyno getting tuned yesterday.Its an N42 bottom end with JE forged slugs, for a VG30DETT and they have a 4cc dish, or so in them. Custom rods, 136.5mm's and a 22mm small end for the piston pin. The Rod to stroke ratio is better and akin to the engine Diseazd built and is building again!! Yep, you're right LeonV with the mixtures, 13's do make more power. I can follow up on this shortly. Temps rose a bit higher at the track with the more powerful engine. I've got some fixes in mind and some parts to replace but nothing major. Car ran very well, I pulled away from a Holden 308ci ute down the main straight. Funny who I should see peering under my bonnet at the end of that session. We introduced each other, compared notes and had a chuckle. I love that comradery. Happens every time I go there to the track. Great day full of great moments. :classic:

I'll get back to you all shortly, I'm off to the racetrack for some fun! :-)

As some of you might recall, I built a new engine for my 240C coupe that was originally going to be turbo'ed. Since I put this car on the track, a change in direction to keep it NA kept me in a more appropriate class, so a new head was sourced. The P90 with 1mm oversized valves was taken off and replaced by a late model E88 from an injected 2.4E engine. With L28 valves and a CNC port job, 300 degree duration cam, 595 valve lift, 1000cfm 4 barrel throttle body, on a Clifford manifold, headers and a 3 inch exhaust running a stock 280zx dizzy, the engine did this today.......

Hahahaha, I don't have as many motors as you after all. NINE, crikey that's heaps. Same to you and yours, I hope all is well at your end mate! I'll stay posted and I'll drop a line in from time to time. Like I said, love what you do! Cheers.

Love your work Guy. You have quite the collection of motors there! I thought you had a lot until I realised I have just as many. Bitten by the same bug it seems. I can't help but thinking about an N42/F54 stuffed with an L20A crank. The option to do this is not for all, the first stumbling block is locating the crankshaft. It would probably be fairly expensive to build, quality crank dampers, valve train components, forged pistons etc etc but it's an idea I can't help but entertain in my head. The fact that you'd be using an L28 block means very good unshrouding of the valves, big valves and good ports could make this engine breath very well for 2.4 litres capacity. Your first hand experience with this sort of engine Guy; what do you think? Cheers mate.

Excellent!!

Put the cap in the freezer and heat the block with a heat gun. That should allow you some time to get the cap in position before the clearances close up.

Let me know next time you're coming 'down under' and I will chuck some 'roo steaks on the barbie for ya!! I drove my car on Sunday with a group of other Datsun nuts through some great back roads in the country. Gave me a chance to open it up a 'little', and the bark/howl the engine makes is superb. I'm sure it's to do with the rod to stroke ratio, it just transforms the way the L28's perform. Enjoy your new engine mate. I'm so happy for you!! Cheers.

I would love to come and play in your sandpit boys but there's a big pond in the way!! Damn. Great news about the engine, I just knew you were going to love it. Looks fantastic in there, nice pics. All the best to you Guy, Regards.

Yep, I agree. I run one of these clutches...no issues whatsoever.

The camshaft timing is off. Your picture shows the cam to be very advanced. I looked at the timing number 'one' near the chain and the timing mark there is between link plates, not on the link plate. Your cam is one tooth too advanced. With your dissy adjusted the way it is in the pic, your oil/distributor spindle is off proper timing too. Many years ago, I did my dads cylinder head when I was just a kid. He had a 240K (with an L24) and it was my first time doing a headgasket. Did what you guys did with the cam, one tooth out too advanced. It was a buggar to start too, from memory, and had to muck around with the dizzy timing until, bingo, it fired up. The engine, this far advanced had awesome low speed torque but zero power after 4K rpm (stock camshaft profile). My dad loved what I did, he couldn't believe the difference. The engine suited his driving style perfectly and he used to tow a half cabin 16 ft fibreglass boat and a 70HP Evinrude with it...effortlessly. Tony D on hybridz is aware of this 'trick'...and has a similar story to tell. Change it if you want to, but get that ignition timing spindle in the proper position bro!.