thehelix112

My 1972 240z is the same as Rob's.

Quickest ``L24'' that I have heard about is this: http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/featurecars/JamesF/JamesF_dat.htm#Zed L24 turbo with L28 crank blah blah blah. Apparently producing around 250rwkw (or 335rwhp). Dave

Whats with the obsession with L24 dude? There is a very good reason why the vast majority of people interested in performance upgrade to the L28. There is almost no downside to them. If you can't afford to or don't want to, then don't expect your car to be fast. Dave

Tried Alfa Fibreglass? Dave

Cheers Chris. I'll still be checking this while I'm there so hopefully someone will say g'day. Would like to catch up and meet a few people while I'm here. Dave

No worries. Lemme know if there are any other questions you have or anything. Dave

Friendly bunch. Dave

Gav, I haven't left yet! Thursday I'm heading over. And I think it'll be a while before the gearbox issue is sorted. I'm looking at putting a T56 behind it, to go with the R200 LSD. Take some pics for me if you do cruise before I get back. Dave

I'm happy with the results. Its only tuned for 10psi as I had exhaust issues. 2.5" press bent exhausts are crap, don't muck around with a turbo's exhaust system was my lesson. I went to the drags and pulled said offending exhaust off and ran it with a 3" dumppipe and went 12.83 @ 115MPH with said 10psi, an open diff and 195 Pirelli P400s ( about as far from semi-slick as you can get ). MPH was a lot higher than I was expecting. I went exactly the same MPH as a friend with a 300rwkw 1600kg domestic. Which leads me to believe I'm making around 200rwkw in this thing. Don't get me wrong, its a fun car, but its not what I'd call fast. Getting there, but it needs strengthening. I went to tune it for some more boost and the gearbox spat the dummy so no more fun for me. Its a breeze to drive but I've only done so with the crap exhaust. Even with that choking the living hell out of the turbo I still have positive manifold pressure at 3000rpm and its well and truly cooking by 4500. Haven't had it on the track yet so I won't comment on what its like to drive around corners, I don't think i'll have any troubles though. The corners to my parents place were fun. Spinning up the inside at 150+. Dave

Ok heres a little speel about what I've done. I purchased a F54/P90 engine a while back with a supercharger setup. After becoming extremely frustrated at the poor drivability a sideways mounted (not my work!) holley provides I started collecting bits for a turbo conversion. I found by far the hardest piece of the puzzle to put together was the exhaust manifold. I didn't want a standard L28ET job (as they are hard to find over here) and not adequate for the power I wanted from the engine. A friend of mine put me onto a local TIG wedler who had built a manifold for his turbo-L and was no longer using it. Went and picked it up for a bargain (AUD250) and that was that. Here it is: I was talked into a 640hp GT35R garrett turbocharger by a mate running one on a circuit car as being ultra-reliable and nicely responsive. Good enough for me. That is it sitting on the manifold above. Obviously this manifold is a bit crazy and definitely no good for a LHD car. I decided to use a basic L28E intake manifold as the larger plenum L28ET version isn't overly common here and I just wanted to get the damn thing going. I will be upgrading to a proper alu manifold shortly. Next problem was a fuel rail and injectors. I brought some alu fuel stock and 11mm denso o-ring top-feed injectors and drilled some 11mm holes at appropriate spacing in the rail and voila. I tapped the ends to fit 1/2 BSPT speedflow fittings. After that it looked like this: Next problem was the fuel system. Anyone who has looked under the arse of a 240Z will know what I mean when I say theres not too much room in there. Fortunately I managed to squeeze in a carter lift pump, 1.5L surge tank, and a bosch 044 ``motorsport'' fuel pump and a fuel filter. The 044 is clamped to the side of the surge tank using some basic plumbing circle clamps (with rubber for vibration insulation of course). The carter and the surge are mounted to the floor. The carter being a DAMN noisy pump. Far noiser than the 044. The whole lot was connected using speedflow stuff: The standard fuel feed line is adequate I have been told for quite a bit of horse power but I figured while I was there. I routed -8 (1/2") speedflow steel conduit pipe along the left hand side of the top of transmission tunnel and then across and up next to the right hand side of the bonnet catch. You can see it here coming up on the left then angling around into the fuel rail: I used the standard feed line as the return line after of course going to the fuel pressure regulator (a bosch item). See previous engine bay pic. Next I spent a while wiring up the Autronic computer. I was lucky in that when I brought the computer it came with a hall-effect sensed dizzy built by a Melbourne company that provides the autronic with a pulse every cylinder revolution. In order to tell the computer when the engine is at #1 TDC a reluctor interface thingo is put over the #1 plug lead. Dodgey if you ask me but it seems to be working ok and it once again, a temporary measure until I sort out some proper crank sensing. Then I did all the lines on the turbo. The water feed is taken from the rear of the block on the left hand side and returns by going around the engine to the water pump. The oil feed is from the oil-pressure sender and returns back to the sump: Next I mounted the intercooler and I decided to put an oil cooler on it as well just in case (debating whether to pull it off or not, anyone know of a proper high volume oil pump I can get?). Mounting this cooler was a dream, fits beautifully in the front of the radiator and the oil cooler was then mounted in front of that: Oil cooler is thermostated and speedflow lines. Next I did the intake plumbing, I adapted a Ford Falcon XF 65mm throttle body to the manifold using a spacer. This spacer angles the T/B towards the left-hand side of the car to clear the dizzy. I then tacked together stainless mandrel bends and got a local welding place to tig them all together. They were joined using black silicon hose as appropriate. Thats about it really. After fitting everything described as well as the thermo fans, fabricating up a 3" mandrel dump pipe, external wastegate screamer pipe and mounting misc stuff like the boost control solenoid and ignition module it looks something like this: I've also put a proper oil catch can a mate made for me on the right hand side strut tower and added some lovely ACL heatshield stuff between the intake and exhaust manifolds, but don't have any pics of that. I dont' think I've forgotten anything. Dave

I would be sorely tempted to do a few things in addition to just bolting on a standard L28ET setup. Those being: -turbocharger. I believe its a T3 turbo which means you have a huge variety of aftermarket T3 turbine flanged turbos which will go close to bolting straight on - if requiring different intercooler/air filter pipes. -computer. As Brian said you could investigate the megasquirt ecu. In australia we are rather spoilt in that Autronic/Haltech are almost reasonably priced. I've had a little bit of a play with a base model megasquirt and I wouldn't be running a high-powered car with one. You'll want to be getting the MS-II or atleast one of the user firmware upgrades (MSnS etc) at the very least. Ignition control is absolutely essential on a turbocharged car so don't settle for not having it. This also means you don't need a crappy tiny AFM as most aftermarket computers are MAP sensed. -intercooler. OEM intercoolers with very rare execption (namely the GTR) are horrid baby things designed for stuff all boost/flow. Get a proper one. -exhaust. Obviously go as big as you can. I can't stress the importance of this enough. Especially the dumppipe (the bit directly off the back of the turbo). On my setup using the old 2.5" exhaust after a 3" dump pipe I couldnt' get more than 11psi. I pulled it off and went for a drive with the wastegate still unplugged: 25psi+ Enjoy, Dave

Sorry Matt, I didn't read that you were interested in carby turbo. Maybe have a read of this: http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/featurecars/JamesF/Zed_final/zed_final.html My turbo install was EFI. Autronic SMC computer. Let me know if you still want some details. Dave

I've turboed my L28. Will that do? Dave

Wow. You guys do get it rough. All aussie 240Zs come standard with 3.9:1s. My apologies. Does that mean someone will want mine? I'll be changing mine to a 4.1/4.4 R200. Dave

Gotta love toasting guys who see old datsun and make the obvious assumptions. I've caught a few new V8s off guard. I calculated my 0-62mph time of 4.8 seconds with an open diff. More than adequate for dispensing with most cars, but by no means what I'd call fast. My favourite is when its still an undecided thing if its on or not so you both take off reasonable pace and don't let the other guy get in front. Works perfectly as by the time they decide to give it $^!# I'm in boost range and booting it sees the old girl punching away from them.. hehehe.. godamn i hate my gearbox. Dave

R180 come in a whole shiteload of different version. All the way from 3.54 (maybe 3.36?) through to 5.1 (maybe 5.8). Where did you get the idea they didn't come in a 3.9? Most 240Zs come standard with a 3.9. Dave

Dinosaur engines in cars that were ahead of their time. And WHAT is with that bonnet? No vote from me. Dave

My zed looks like a sack of crap: http://thehelix.homelinux.net/pictures/240z-turbo/drags/heathcote5.jpg http://thehelix.homelinux.net/pictures/240z-turbo/drags/heathcote1.jpg http://thehelix.homelinux.net/pictures/240z-turbo/drags/heathcote2.jpg I got laughed at for that single-spinner burnout too. Dave

To each their own. Horses for courses. Different strokes for different folks. Ad infinitum. Dave

Are you a torana fan deep down Gav? You know what I'm talking about (sorry to the non-aussies). Dave

Mark, Not a clue mate. I've never done anything with fibreglass. I just know what I like. Dave

That is a damn nice looking zed. Get the flares not looking so bubbley and blending into the original lines and it'd be close to perfect for me. Oh and a proper turbo for the poor thing. Dave

Hey guys, I'm heading to LA to stay for a month or so on July 7th and was wondering if there were any Z events or club meetings or social events I should get myself along to and say hi? Thanks, Dave

Phred, Thanks mate. The engine runs with redline water wetter as is, and race 40w oil and will definitely be o-ringed when it comes apart. Thanks for all your help, will keep you informed of how things go. Dave

Hey Phred, I realise you're a busy man and probably sick of this but I still have some questions. Do you have any issues with blowing head gaskets between #5 and #6? If so, what was the solution? A fellow here in Melbourne (RPMZ) has had his head drilled and uses an external water manifold to ensure correct coolant supply (I think?). Also, what was the HP achieved from the SCCA turbo L28s and at what rpm/boost? Around the 600hp mark as noted in various books? Many thanks, Dave