New World Datsuns...

This post is mostly for myself, just writing out what I still need to do. There may or may not be any structure to this...

Buy rest of parts for Motor,bearings, gaskets, timing kit, water pump. Assemble motor.

Spark, new plugs of course. CA has COP (coil over plug), and they are known to be a little troublesome (well the motor is 25 years old...) There are many fixes to this, some more elegant than others. I want to retain the COP design as much as possible, just because it looks cleaner.

Refill Welder bottle, fix welder.

Finish oil pan, baffles, drain plug. Paint/powder coat.

Finish front end fab for intercooler. Also finish engine bay for seam sealer and paint, but there are other things, like new holes...

Battery relocation. Fab up the box under the rear seat, Run the wires (inside car). Firewall grommets which will double as jump posts.

Gas tank modifications. Make a hanger assembly (new or borrow parts from JY). Make simple spiral tank baffle. Run larger gas line for feed.

Fit motor in car. With Transmission. measure for Driveshaft shortening. Send driveshaft off. Start figuring out Coolant hoses, and intake tubing (plan is to make Aluminum tubes so less silicone adapters, I have access to welding from multiple sources).

Exhaust manifold. Design, build. Make flange at work. Material Stainless. Staying T2 flange (to aid in the limiting of power). Full stainless exhuast, well because again I have access to multiple Tig welders, and I get Stainless cheaper than you can get mild steel at a steel yard. Planning on a Resonator and Borla muffler, but after hearing a CA straight piped, I kinda fell in love with that sound (makes an SR sound girly).

Um electrical. I have plans. I have back up plans. I have back up back up plans. All depends how rushed I am and how much access to things is... The long term goal is a complete rewire of the car, with Deutsch connectors. Custom Fuse/relay box designed to fit the passenger kick panel. And bunches of other things. I would love a Mil-Spec connector for the firewall for a quick disconnect of the engine bay harness. Maybe 2, for engine itself and then engine bay separately.

I forgot something(s)

Pistons ordered! The single largest expense for the build. Also nearly the most expensive thing I have bought for the car (the Wed wheels were in the $600...)

Also, I forgot about the tranny in the above post. I have one, it's handshake is the worst I have felt, PO said it made noises. So source another tranny (probably want SR due to gearing), or rebuild the one I have.

Pistons!

Pretty. Shame they'll be inside the engine.

^^^^exactly what I was thinking as I scrolled down.

Sooooo much great info in here.. just skimming through, I didn't see much as far as what you're doing for brakes? Are you going to be adding a booster? I'm at the point in my build trying to decide whether to delete the booster or get even more creative..

CP pistons make great products.

Brakes, the car has never needed a booster, and I don't plan on one. Currently just have the zx brakes up front. But I do have some plans. But really right now the car has a problem of too much front bias. The ceramic pads grab hard.

That said, I really want to switch to S13 brakes on all corners. Pretty much identical to 280ZX, but of course there is so much swapping around of things its not even funny. Plus 280ZX is old and parts are just drying up, kinda like original 510 rotors are hard to get now.





So I was reading about the paper given with the pistons. I have chrome piston rings. They pretty much mandate a torque plate on the block when boring and honing... Ouch. I need to find one... Talking about a large chunk of aluminum, and even with my prices it wont be cheap. Sigh. I'll figure out something.

Damnit, need a torque plate. One guy rents them out... with a $500 deposit... $100 rental fee, and plus shipping (to and from Kansas...) So for that amount of money, I am pretty sure I could make something at work... and I could get a decent price on the metal too. Really didnt see this coming...

Hey Raph, if you ever decided to bore out your block, talk to me!

crazy. I've never heard of people using a torque plate. I did read about it. Just,,, crazy.


I think micro used chromoly rings on his LZ build. IIRC they didn't seat right first go around, but second time they did?

Yeah, I was thinking if/when I rebuild my block, if you made a torque plate, I'd just rent/borrow yours.

You're right, Tim. I used Chrome rings on my LZ the first time I rebuilt it, and one of them didn't seat I went and got myself some cheap cast ones after that and they seated right up. I'm not sure if a turbocharged engine would cause the chrome rings to seat better(due to more cylinder pressure), but I think I remember reading that they were preferable in turbo'd applications.. I have no doubts that you've researched this to the hilt, Jacob.

Chrome is pretty much necessary in turbo/supercharged, and nitrous applications. Also pretty sure the CA came stock with chrome rings...

You know whats funny? my shop just took delivery of 21 3"x6"x31.5" blocks of 6061 aluminum... Maybe if we accidentally scrap one of the parts I could get the block for free... and it would kinda be the perfect size... I want 3"x5.5"x17" but Im not too picky.

I also decided it would be cake to make the torque plate on a drill press. 3-3/8" hole saw is between 85 and 86mm diameter. Drill out the holes for the head bolts. And maybe drill out 2 of the holes a little bigger round for the locating rings.

The more I think about it, the more I am not too worried about the situation. It still sucks that I have to sink money into a chunk of aluminum for a 1 time use tool when it could go to other things, but doing things right is better, especially if failure is on the board.

That last sentence answers any question you have about getting or making one.

Agreed.

Couple of things...

The blocks of aluminum that we got, well we definitely have a couple of scraps... boss was in a bit of frantic mood so I decided to hold off on asking him. But I plotted all the hole we put in it already, and then plotted the head bolt and cylinder holes over top, and I can totally make it work. Even better, the material is 6061 T651, the 51 means its stress relieved already. Even more better, the surfaces are nearly perfectly flat, as in I have personally measured them at less than .001 inches off.

Also a coworker is checking his metal pile at home to see if he has a something that will work for me.

This may be so very cheap for me... I think Ill just do it during my second brake at work. Should be fun.

Research shows the proper method of using a torque plate is to also use a head gasket, to like better simulate the head being bolted to the block.


Also I ordered my rod and main bearings. Both as Clevite 77 series.


I really need to order some ARP washers and ARP grease(ordered) to be able to install the studs into the block.

That torque plate could turn in to a money maker.

CA18DE(T) protip. Do more research before boring out to 84mm. I just learned the OEM and the Fel-Pro head gaskets have 84mm bores themselves. So that means I have to go with a MLS head gasket. Which also means, I have to get the deck and head surfaced. Or just attempt to run an 84mm head gasket, since the pistons are level with deck height.

I've used a lot of Cometic gaskets. They list one for the CA18 DOHC. But at the tune of 114 bucks.
http://www.shopengineparts.com/productd ... ype=engine

Yea I am well aware of the Cometic gaskets. Lots of people have issues, for whatever reasons (Im optimistic I would not). Ebay has them for under a 100 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cometic-Head-Ga ... ed&vxp=mtr). Probably what I will end up with.

That means getting the block and head surfaced to a finish finer than 50RA, but 15RA would be more optimal and probably what I will have to demand to avoid having issues.



Anyways a coworker gave me a chunk of metal. It used to be one of the base plates on a vertical mill. All I know, its pretty heavy, so I am thinking its not your standard 6061 aluminum. It is drilled to swiss cheese, but I think I found a way to use it. Printed off the shape of the cylinders and headbolts and their spacing on transparency film, and then slid it around on the aluminum til I found a good spot. I also held it up to the block to see how close it to matching it was, and it looks pretty close.