madkaw

Not sure why you are trying to redesign the L motor . Take any other engine of its era and will see it’s a superior design . Properly maintained it’s probably one of the best engineered engines of its time . That bolt would have been fine if the owner had used coolant instead of water . We see it all the time . I challenge you to find a motor of that period that has forged internals for the most part and precise machined surfaces .

I bet the cover didn’t want to drop down with that bolt sticking out

Damn- wanted something like this , but where to keep it . How far is it from being streetable?

I’d like to get to the track on a official timer . My GPS speedo says 13.10 !

What kind of times in the 1/4?

Put the head gasket against the block and mark to un-shroud . I’d use a 1” drum sander with 80 grit in your cordless drill to open up the chamber . CC-ing the chambers would be easy . Check out the short side radius on all ports - they will need work. I’d take a good wack off the mating surface . Notch the cylinder bores to clear larger valves . Get a BIG cam and drive it like you stole it .

I might be able to give it look , but won’t be taking anymore work on . I’m about done after this 72 . Always happy to talk and look.

Speed density systems eliminate the need for MAF. Carbs require taking into account the TAL factor where ported EFI does not need to deal with this . Less parts to go wrong with EFI . Temp compensation is automatic . I would break the motor in with the simplest method possible - SU’s

You could have had Megasquirt or another programmable ECU by now , but I understand wanting to figure this out . Sure your MAF isn’t sticking ?

So I’m still helping this young lad with his 81zx. Those familiar know that the inlet for the water pump has an extra fitting to run around to the TB and EGR stuff . Well he wasn’t using that stuff and decided to use an early inlet that has the heater hose fitting only . The problem was that the early fitting would cause the clearance between the alternator and hose to diminish and not allow the alternator to slide close to the engine to install the belt . Looking at it I see the ZX inlet is made with a sharp bend vs the early fitting . I never noticed this before but I’ve mostly dealt with early Z’s. So is the later model alternator a bigger diameter which causes the rubbing ? It doesn’t make sense to me because many - including me - have done swaps to later alternator on an early Z . Maybe I was in to much of a rush yesterday to carefully look at this . Trying to figure out what I missed . The one on the left is what came off his engine . I’ve never seen one like that . The one on the right is the later ones I’ve seen . I have not tried the one on the right l but we tried one without the extra hose .

Heavy loading as in going up a hill can also put a strain on your ignition coil . Maybe another thing to check

So you would do half a K turn and block traffic while your carb refilled - lol

Sweet home Alabama! Maybe by fall next year the Covid issue will no longer be an issue . Still a long ways for me , but could do it in one day . I’m in the “ hope my back is well enough” club. I’m working on that issue . There’s some MN heads down there to grab too!

I can't help much with gear boxes except to say that sending the tailshaft to Australia and getting rid of the monkey motion was the best thing that ever could happen to the A box. I couldn't believe the difference and how precise the shifts were. The owner was over the moon with the rebuild. Lou Mondello is the man. He has a machinist that makes the magic striker rod .

Not everyone understands the geometry of the valve train so don't feel bad if it seems over your head. What we are wondering is what exactly was done to the head. If it was warped bad enough that the machinist had to take material off the top and bottom of the head -it will change the geometry of the valve train. If so, the camshaft is now closer to the valves and one would need smaller lashpads . There is also the possibility that the valves were sunk too deep into the seats during the valve job which would raise the height of the stem and put it closer to the camshaft. That would not be good. Just ask for an explanation of what was done and let us know

That really doesn't make sense. 120 is close to stock. What did he do to the head?

I order all my hardware there ! Fast service

Continued on with the dual exhaust fab . I now have pipe from front to back - but nothing solidly welded yet.

Wow - did you look the definition up ? Symantecs.

It's a poor design and should be discontinued. I guarantee there have been many more failures , but some customers don't even realize it -until maybe their car rolls away. A partial fail won't be noticed until its too late. It should NOT be a 2 piece design for an emergency brake cable .

Maybe they use to sell those . The one I got was once piece ends . I actually emailed Ryan at ZCD to ask before I ordered

That looks like a MSA version , not a ZCD .

I ran into this - yes they are junk . What pissed me off more was it took MSA weeks to decide whether to refund my money AFTER I sent it back . I guess only one person can make that decision . I ordered one from ZCD . One piece ends - shouldn’t fail . I can’t believe MSA still sells parts like this . Do they test the parts ?

Well I ran out of argon which forced me to go back to my spool gun . Figured out it’s issue ( operator error ), but live and learn . It’s sooooooo much faster with MIG ! This is my initial attempt , but I might redo it . I was hoping for a bit more spacing between the pipes . I could have gained a bit more clearance by get the pipes side by side sooner . It will be a trick , but I have lots of mandrel bends to use . The back half will be the easy part .

Always impressed with the guys on this site. Your work is spot on!