How high do you rev your Z? My 260 is ill.......

[Ron Earp]

Well, I'm not sure what the header is but I'm going to coat it for preservation. Got an antique!!!!

Now, bad news on my block - it is 1mm over now as Mike says. So what are my options? I'm not finding greater than 0.040" pistons, 1mm over, and I've got to have this thing cleaned up. Do I have it sleeved? Or do I toss it to the curb and find another one?

If I have it sleeved, what do I go with, stock bore? I suppose that would make the most sense to get more use out of the sleeves. If that is the case then I can go ahead and order up the parts at standard bore.

R

[JeffYoung]

You can't go more than .40 over per the GCR. Not sure about sleeving, will check when I get home.

[Joe Harlan]

One sleeve OK but six you mayas well start with a fresh block. Std pistons will be hard to find anyway so find what pistons are out there and bore to fit. I know you are not into short cuts but you need to find a running short block and get this hot rod back on the track so you can take you time and build something nice over the winter. Seat time seat time will benefit you more than an extra 20hp. I can check around and see if there are any 260 engine laying around.

Katman, I bow to your memory, you are correct on the header 100% I had one of those and a Stahl on my GT2 car years ago.

[Ron Earp]

I hear you guys and through a stroke of luck Jeff found that a local racer, Rex D. from IT7, has two 260 blocks squirrled away at Happy Japs, his car repair business. So.......I bought them and will pick them up Monday. One engine is complete and we'll do a leak down on it, the other is a short block. I hope to use the complete one as a spare motor to get back running, and use the short block to build a new race motor out of, depending on bore. Might switch around depending on what is going on with them.


I don't think this block can be used. It is definitely 1mm over, which is legal limit. I'll take it to the shop for evaluation, but I don't think there is much help there.

I could be back up and running in as little as a week if all works according to plan. Having a spare "stock" motor that runs would be a good thing. They can be swapped in 2-3 hours and would be a cool thing for failures like this or other unforeseen accidents.

Tell you one thing, having a lot of people that know about a car/motor is a fantastic thing. There was no way to get this sort of info on the Lotus motor or buy two engines locally for a couple of bills. And, help in the paddock is available - I've lent parts to other Z racers to get them on track and have borrowed as well, another nice feature. Any future race cars I race/build will be known quanities for sure.

Hey, when you guys do the mains on the Z do you use two sets to make a 360 grooved bearing? Common Lotus 907 trick to help with oiling, do the Z guys do it too? I noticed I have a spare main bearing set in the spares that came with the car, but only half of them are grooved. Could buy another set and only use 1/2 for each set.

R

[Gary L]

Hey, when you guys do the mains on the Z do you use two sets to make a 360 grooved bearing? Common Lotus 907 trick to help with oiling, do the Z guys do it too? I noticed I have a spare main bearing set in the spares that came with the car, but only half of them are grooved. Could buy another set and only use 1/2 for each set.

R [/b]

I have two comments on this procedure. First, aren't bearing halves supposed to be mated for life? I guess the procedure could be beneficial, but couldn't one also end up with a mis-matched pair of halves that might be more detrimental than beneficial?

Second, someone may correct me (and that's okay ), but I would consider this to be well into the grey area WRT the IT ruleset. Aren't you essentially creating replacement parts that don't meet OEM spec when you do this?

[Joe Harlan]

Ron, on the bearing question.
No I do work on the bearing but I don't use full grooved all around.


Gary, I have never read or even considered bearing to be in specific pairs. Nissan used to sell (maybe still do) bering half of different thickness so you could get proper race clearence on OE cranks. While i would never have an issue with using full circle bearings I have to agree under the current writing of the book that would be of questionable legality.

Anyway good luck on your plan. When you get it back together get some help setting the carbs up and get back to the dyno just to be sure the motor is getting proper care and feed at high rpm.

[Parrish57]

"I think it is a Motorsports Auto header."

Nope, I'm right. I got a picture of it that will convince you. Monday I'll see if I can get it posted somewhere.
[/b]

I hate to throw doubt on the subject, but just in case there is someone looking for one of these headers I thought I'd provide this link. http://www.blackdragonauto.com/icatalog/z/0066.asp Black Dragon used to be Victoria British. More than likely Monza has copied the older header that you were refering to.

[kthomas]

That ain't the same header, and as far as a copy- well it has 6 into to at approximately the same place but that's it.

[Ron Earp]

Sort of looks like a cross between that one and one of the others. It has six EGT bosses that were added, and I'll be moving the probes around, you can bet that. I know I'm keeping it!

We might have a ace in the hole though with a motor in the car before long......some options have popped up, or shall I say started up.....

R

[[email protected]]

Steve, I think you are right, I was thinking of the Victoria British header. They have two versions. One is 6 into 1, and the one posted. I had one on my car prior to building the stepped header that Ty has now, or I hope has by now. Not a bad header, fit reasonably well, but the Y-pipe could be a pain sometimes and it was too low. Rubbed on the banking at LMS and over the curbs at Atlanta.

[pballance]

It has six EGT bosses that were added, and I'll be moving the probes around, you can bet that. I know I'm keeping it!

R
[/b]

I am fairly new at this but I don't think the "bosses" you mentioned were meant for EGT(I assume EGT=Exhaust Gas Temp used in todays ECU setups). They were Air injection ports to aid in the engine passing the smog regulations "back in the day." The orginal exhaust manifold had them as well and the air pump was mounted on the opposite side of the block from the alternator. I have a working air pump if you would like one :P .

Good luck on the new motor. I have located several parts cars around North Alabama if you get into a bind and need another block.
Paul

[Ron Earp]

Ah ha! Good to know. I've never seen a stock working 260Z. Let me check out these two engines I have and I might come back to you on a block. Thanks for the offer!

Ron

[Joe Harlan]

Actually, back in the day isspro egt probes used a screw in type bung just like that...

[Ron Earp]

Hey Joe, it is back in the day! :P

Have a look at my panel, ISSPRO gauges that you can't get anymore - the big 3 3/8" ones. They work great and are very readable, even at speed. Jeffery and I just made the panel new to replace the old junk that was in there and the extremely poor electrical system. The new system uses aircraft circuit breakers for protection, all new switches, and properly sized wire to deal with current loads. In fact, the metal panel up top is a C152 surplus from the aircraft breakers and works great in the Z.

R

[Joe Harlan]

Just so happens that isspro is here in town and I have a good contact there should you ever need it... The thing I never liked about those probes is they were to big and really filled up a 1.75 header tube.

[Ron Earp]

Just so happens that isspro is here in town and I have a good contact there should you ever need it... The thing I never liked about those probes is they were to big and really filled up a 1.75 header tube.
[/b]

Dang, wish I'd known, I just ordered new ones, but small ones. They have the Type Ks in a 1/16" package that don't do much in the way of blocking flow, although they are not cheap. These gauges I have are not made any longer and have been surplanted by small 2 1/16" models that are still over $400 each retail. Tech told me that these olders ones are somewhat in demand on the used market for replacement in various applications.

I'll get them fired up on the new engine. Still now sure what will happen there, but if this stock block I'm looking at tonight checks out it is going in the car while I build a race motor.

Will a stock block and stock oil pan survive (with Accusump) in a race car? I know the rods/crank will, just not sure about the oiling with a stock pan - I've never seen a stock pan.

R

[JeffYoung]

Accusump SHOULD be good enough to survive. But I will let the Z experts weigh in.

[Parrish57]

I ran my first two years with a stock pan and accusump. No oiling problems. Then I went to the NISMO pan and ditched the sump. Still no oiling problems. I'm looking at this pan for the future. http://www.arizonazcar.com/pan.html Has anyone used one of these for any length of time in race conditions?

[[email protected]]

Wow, that pan is a beauty!

I did see or hear about a deal where the BRE guys tried an aluminum pan and started breaking oil pan bolts. So they went to larger and stronger bolts. Then the started cracking and breaking pans. They ended up back with the steel pan and stock bolts. That big ol' 6 flexed too much at high rpms for the aluminum pan. Now they were running revs that we only have nightmares about. Might be fine for us.

Mike

[Butch Kummer]

I just caught up on this thread and I don't drive a Nissan, but in reading I noticed something that hasn't been mentioned here. If the timing mark is on the outer ring of the harmonic balancer and that ring has shifted relative to the crankshaft, you have no clue what your timing is set to. That could be the cause of the detonation moreso than an overrev situation.

Back to regularly scheduled programming...