Ghostrider

Make up your mind! You going Turbo or N/a?? Best of best off the shelf n/a cams is the one stamped C and it was in all E88 headed 260Z. It is reputedly the Nismo works cam.

The factory cams have codes stamped in the back end face and the L24E cam is NOT really suitable for a turbo application, but it has been used in the past. The best off the shelf cams are L28E and will have the markings A or F stamped in the back. The A cam came from engines origin prior to 8/81 and were in N42/N47 & P79 heads and F cams came from 9/81 onwards in P79 heads only. Cheers, D.

Maybe! My take on the front bar is this. As it sits over the existing bar it sits proud by about 20mm off the front guard and for my money, it looked a bit out of place, unless guard flairs and side skirts were also available. Guard flairs for R30's are non existent, from my sources unless custom make is on your agenda. I don't think there would be enough interest, to spend the dollars necessary to get them made, but that's up to you. Do some homework on the other bits before you concern yourself with the bars. Cheers, D.

Nick, your possibly right. I could probably fit them into an L20A block too, but the water jackets would be a bit large. Your quoting SWR as an engine builder? Stewart Wilkins will never recommend an over bore of 4.0mm in any L series block. The cylinder walls would be paper thin and very suspect to failure. You might have done it, but I'm sure not going to try. I have 2 x F54 blocks and they wont take a 3.0mm over bore, as I had them sonic tested to find out, as I was going to build an 2968 engine, but am settling for 2818 instead. I don't know that these guys would want to be doing it either, but I suppose ANYTHING is possible if you want it enough. Cheers, D

It's not new, and it has to be repaired slightly to get a mould made, but what you see in the pic cost me zilch. The repairs were going to cost just $50 but the 2 pak spray job was going to cost about $400 as it had to be perfect, so the mould would be that way, otherwise any imperfections in the original, would come out in the copies.

The L20ET manifold will give you better low down torque, but you will lose a bit of top end, no matter wether on the n/a or turbo motor. It's the inside diameter of the runners that causes the problem this way. AS for the cam, the biggie in a turbo cam is LOBE SEPARATION, it has to be 109+ degrees, preferably 110. Cheers, D

Sorry! wrong pic

yes! got it under the house.Problem Josh, I went down the same track you are years ago and everyone thinks .... great idea, but when it comes to putting up the dosh, there is no one to be seen. I had a guy in Campbelltown that was prepared to make the mould for $350.00 and churn them out at about $200 each, so I could sell them for about $300 each, but I wanted 50% up front an zero response was the go. I have a similar rear as well, if I had a scanner working, I would give you a pic of that too, but the side skirts come in 2 varieties from Jenesis and getting them was going to cost me about $2000 landed in Oz. Makes for a VERY EXPENSIVE body kit, so I opted for the stock DR set up. Cheers, D

That's right! 86 & 87mm pistons WILL NOT go into your L24E block. If you have the L20ET bits coming next week, why are you putting extractors on at all when your intention is to turbo your car? The stock inlet valves are 42mm and exhaust 35mm. If your going to port the head, concentrate on flowing the exhaust side, as the inlet side will not be as important due to it being force fed, but to breath it must get rid of the gases as fast as possible. Don't do a lot of polishing, just remove the rough bits, a mirror shine does sfa other than cost lots of dollars. Oversize valves???? they're going to cost more than an N42 head is and that has 44mm inlets standard. Spend your dollars on a better turbo, as a pound of pressure will beat a larger valve every day of the week. Remember your oil pump when you go turbo, it has to pump more oil so you need a bigger pump. SWR sells the best for about $185, a high flow pump, but L20ET pumps will do the job for you and probably cost a little less and bigger than an L20ET is the L28E pump. Why are you spending $350 on a crow cam? what are the specs your looking at?? I'm using a stock L28ET cam from a P90 head on mine. Cheers, D

I'm not trying to sound too condescending, but everything you talk about costs lots of dollars. If your going to use a P90 head, you have to use flat top pistons to bring the compression up, because the top of the combustion chambers (cc's) is larger. My 2818 motor has 8.7:1 static compression, that's at atmospheric pressure, add another bar (15psi) to that and it's about 16:1. AS these parts get harder to find in Oz, our wreckers want more money for them. Recently Stewart and I were going to go halves in an engine and Z Bits wanted $1450 for the complete motor, yet Stewart got the bottom half for $600 and I was to get the head for $500. Go figure where his original cost was. Something to consider is this, R30's need a front pan sump, yet all Zed cars had Mid & Rear pan sumps, so a conversion cost has to be accounted for. The dip stick hole can't be simply drilled through the block as they mostly have an oil return gallery, right where the hole should go, so a dipstick adaption is necessary. There is heaps to consider when looking at this conversion and it isn't easy if you want to change blocks. I have seen an L24ET see off a stock rex, so why would you want more than this unless you plan on going racing with it, and then your talking lots more bucks for suspension, brakes, etc etc etc. Cheers, D

This what your looking for??? Cheers, D

Congratulations, how you going to get 86 or 87mm out of an L24 or L26 block??? I am doing what you guys are talking about now! I'm re building an L20ET motor .... cough, cough, ................ 2818cc (87mm bore) L28 crank, P90 head, flat top pistons, VG30 turbo etc etc etc and I'm going to have about 250 at the wheels. The cost ................. about $10000.00 How much are you going to spend??? Cheers, D.

This isn't a new idea your getting, it has been discussed for a long time and on many threads. For a srarter, I suggested L20ET bits because they might, but only might be easier to get, as we did get a few front cuts and some guys have swapped RB's for the L20. The L28E inlet is better due to the larger runner diameter inside, if you get an L20, get it power ported and it will be very good value, but it's expensive. Paul, your talking about boring to L26????? how so when both L24 & L26 have the same 83.0mm bore. The L26 has a longer stroke, that's all. You will need to bore .120 (3.0mm) oversize to get anything like 2600 and I don't think the L24 block will take a 3.0 over bore. As for pistons and compression, blind elk is partly right, the early model R30 L24E engines were 8.5:1, but the later 84/85 engines were 8.9:1, so why? pray tell are you looking at flat top pistons. Remember the higher the static compression the lower the max boost level has to be. 8.5 - 9.0:1 is a great compression for turbo, but you just have to watch how much boost you push into it. The absolute best turbo head is a P90, all the experts say exactly this, but they are not easily obtained and not at a nice enough price. The last price I got from Z Bits in Kingswood was $500 - 750.00, so if it was me doing this conversion, I would be sticking to your N47, or getting an N42 head. The N42 has the larger 44mm inlet valves. Having said this, a tad more boost will always be better than a couple of mm in valve head size. Your dollars would be better spent on porting the exhaust side to allow the gases to flow out better. Both N42 & 47 heads are later models than L26 260Z heads. For the optimum L24ET package, I would think you need the following parts. Late model L24E engine, 280ZX inlet manifold, (if you can get a 280ZXT all the better) L20/28ET exhaust manifold, KA24E, or RB25DE throttle body, 280ZX or MX83, or 7MGTE injectors, maybe RB25DE as these are 270cc, The ECU is a bit of an issue, I think the L20ET ECU will control lots more than you will ever need, but it might have the 180kph restriction in it, I have never tried mine out to that speed, so I don't know. But the L20ET ECU has a different wiring arrangement, as the MR30 has one long plug, the L20 has 2 x smaller plugs, so it will need to be wired in. Other than this, just a high flow (zero back pressure) turbo exhaust of about 2.5/2.75 in is all you should need, outside of odd bits & pieces. Cheers, D

As I don't own an R31 Ti, this cant be specific, but! In my collection I have a U12 Pintara Ti auto and that returns about the same as your R31 and it is a KA24E. My old MX83 Cressida returned the best figures I could get, on highway cruising was 12L/100 and about 15/100 around town. These 2 cars are similar in weight but the R31 has less HP as in 114Kw Vs 142Kw. My latest Cressida on a recent trip to Melbourne, returned 10.5L/100 for 2011 Km and just got back from the Gold Coast and for 2312 Km returned 11.33L/100, so for over 4000K I got 10.9L/100 on average. I think this is brilliant considering the cars are their respective top of the tree luxury versions, complete with all the trimmings & fruit salad. I am though, questioning your computers calculation of 535k which tells me it says it only has 50L in the tank which is incorrect. I would guess it would have between 60 & 70L Cheers, D

Highway or City cycle???

Just a thought, as blind elk says; The lower ball joints might just be the bush where it mounts to the body, or the tension rod bushes, check that the tension rod nuts are tight and the rubbers aren't stuffed. Same with inner lower control arm rubbers. Cheers, D

Tie rod ends & Idler arm are all available NEW from Rare Spares. The lower ball joints come in the lower control arm as an assembly, unless you get a steering guy to replace them with I think holden, but they have to be pressed out and then the GMH variety gets bolted into place. Otherwise a guy on ebay sells the control arms complete for $140.00 per side, which is a pretty good price. For the exhaust, 2.5 or 2.75 will work well, the larger on the L24ET but for now, I would suggest just replacing the split muffler with a hot dog, because as most will testify here, turbo exhausts are and entirely different issue to n/a. with n/a some back pressure is necessary, but turbo needs none and should have none. Most of it if not all can be done by anyone with a reasonable set of tools, except probably the exhaust. Just remember to get a wheel alignment after you fit all the steering bits, otherwise your tires will be r/s in no time Cheers, D

Well I have placed an order with Slide, on a recent trip to the sunny Gold Coast I left a VG30 turbo with him to be MAX FLOWED. When it comes back it's going on my new L28ET engine, which will be interesting, or hoping so. Will let you know what it looks like, as he says it will be back by about 26th November. Cheers, D

Matt, I don't know wether you want to include this as relevant, but my PNV is colour code 441, which is 002 white over 028 grey metalic. And George Bryants old car that you list under ??? is colour code 434, which is 111 Dark Blue over 028 Grey metalic. And although some are plated LATE 83, ALL Paul Newman Versions were manufactured in series 2 livery and marketed and made for the 84/85 market ONLY. Cheers, D.

You got me! THere has to be compression, spark, fuel to make it go and you have it all. Is there an air leak in the system? but that shouldn't be an intermittent effect, it should be constant. I'm surprised the auto sparks couldn't fix it. There has to be some control on the system, an CAS or similar. I have just searched the manual for a result, but I'm sure you would have gone through that check list, coz they say things like cold start sensor, air leaks, fuel pump etc etc . I could understand a run rough under load, but not simply nothing. Sorry! D

Ignition Timing, . Ignition Control unit, or crank angle sensor, for want of another terminology. The black box on the side of the distributor. And you have a PM too. Cheers, D.

No! both are 65mm. As for an L20et? Do it to an L24E or L28E, and find an FJ20DET turbo. Common practice in US is fitting the L20ET system, onto 240Z's It will have bags of drifting power then. Cheers, D

I found a C211 on Yahoo Japan Auctions the other day and the requested price was about 150,000 yen. I thought that was cheap enough. Cheers, D

My call is 1 of 2 things. Timing? you say you have great spark at cold and nothing at hot? It's my guess your IC Unit is stuffed. There isn't much else it can be. You have spark & fuel, it has to be the timing or how it's getting the spark. Cheers, D

Me too! lol 280ZX is mine