From Smoker to Sssssmokin’!

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Thanks JB.

So many schools of thought and very strongly held views on this topic, it's quite confusing.

Help me understand the logic JB.
 

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
Thanks JB.

So many schools of thought and very strongly held views on this topic, it's quite confusing.

Help me understand the logic JB.

Logic was very simple for me. It was what the ‘rebuild your nissan ohc’ and ‘modify your nissan ohc’ books and what skiddell and Phil Goodrich all told me.
I’m not 100% on the science. I think it is that you need the rings and bore to wear each other a little in one go to get a good seal, otherwise you get work/heat cycle hardening and you’ll not get the seal. But I could be wrong.
 
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AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Logic was very simple for me. It was what the ‘rebuild your nissan ohc’ and ‘modify your nissan ohc’ books and what skiddell and Phil Goodrich all told me.
I’m not 100% on the science. I think it is that you need the rings and bore to wear each other a little in one go to get a good seal, otherwise you get work/heat xycle hardening and you’ll not get the seal. But I could be wrong.

That makes sense! [emoji106]
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Been a while, so I thought I'd do an update.

720 miles in now and she is a MONSTER!!!!

After a few initial problems getting the carbs to go rich enough, I took her to CCK Historic for a base tune. Really great garage that I would recommend in a heartbeat. They spent about 2-3 hours on the rolling road re-profiling the SM needles and sorting out timing etc.

The best £300 ever spent, it brought the low to mid range to life - they didn't take it past 4K rpm and will do the upper end once run-in period is over.

The guy doing the tuning looked up and said, "when this engine is ran in, it's gonna make a LOT of power"! While tuning she did 95bhp at the wheels at 3.5k rpm which is pretty much what smokie was achieving as peak power.

http://www.cckhistoric.com

Compression test was pretty healthy at 150 miles - 205psi max and equal or 3 psi difference all round.

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My "fish tank" clearly did its job and a fuel tank flush is in order ...

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Checked / redid the valve clearances at 300, 500 and 700 miles and each time the engine felt significantly easier to turn by hand. The head bolt torque also fine and only at 700 miles did the head bolts move a tiny smidge.

Both PMAC and CCK recommended I pipe away breather pipes into a catch tank. Here is my effort. I used an existing hole in the strut tower. The dodgy angle is for the photo and it stands vertical. I may need to move it over as the filter at the top just touches the bottom of the airbox. Used the existing crank case breather pipe and made a new one for the valve cover.

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With the car squatting down harder under acceleration, the rear tyres rub more often than they used to. The offset on the wheels is a tiny bit too much.

I have two options: 1. Camber bushes, 2. New wheelies!

Not decided yet but tending to the new wheels option - thanks to franky and his ambitions on spending my money for me, this may be an expensive one [emoji1]

Also considered going triples but quite like having SUs. 2" SU was clearly an option but I wanted to see if the Hitachis would be man enough - so I wrote to ZT about bored out HSUs and the reply was quite interesting!!

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While getting old smokie ready for storage, I had a closer look at the head. It appears someone had given it a lot of time and love!! Which possibly explains why she went so well despite reduced compression.

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Also made a crate / trolley to move the bottom end and it fits perfectly into the shed now.

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Interestingly, without the head on it I could "just" lift it up onto my crate but it's pretty heavy! I estimate about 120Kg. So smokie has been reunited with its head, lathered in grease and covered up in case I ever choose to sell the car and someone wants the original block or if I ever choose to do something with it again.

Now to get some more miles on!
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Glad to hear that you’re managing to put some good mileage on her and she’s getting used! Must be very satisfying, I’d love a passenger ride at some point for comparison if you’d be happy.

Interesting to read the argument about triples vs SU’s, without really knowing I’d imagine you’d get more top end with the triples with a nicely built engine such as yours. The setup complexity would be significantly higher though I’m sure. I’ve refrained with my very stock engine for now but long term the calling of triple OER’s is beckoning! It’s hard to ignore the look and sound track even if the fuel economy will be ridiculous.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Good feedback - thanks. Your head-breather pipe won't foul the carb linkage ?

Good spot. I had a similar thought and used some tape in case of vibrations. But if you look at a different angle of dangle, you'll see there is clearance.

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Hi Ali, really good write up and the engine looks great. Good effort!

Thanks dude, appreciate it.

Glad to hear that you’re managing to put some good mileage on her and she’s getting used! Must be very satisfying, I’d love a passenger ride at some point for comparison if you’d be happy.

Interesting to read the argument about triples vs SU’s, without really knowing I’d imagine you’d get more top end with the triples with a nicely built engine such as yours. The setup complexity would be significantly higher though I’m sure. I’ve refrained with my very stock engine for now but long term the calling of triple OER’s is beckoning! It’s hard to ignore the look and sound track even if the fuel economy will be ridiculous.

It's nice to be able to drive without worrying about the weather! You're more than welcome to jump in. Maybe a meet up at Goodwood would be a good excuse for a drive.

I agree, I think triples are definitely designed to flow better for the top end but if you want entertainment, have a read up on the net. There are two very entrenched camps and it's difficult to know what to believe without trying out.

The one thing you can say for sure though: the triples WILL sound better on any given day! Who cares about fuel economy when you do 1k- 2k miles a year!

I was (thanks to Mr Franky trying to drain my bank account) VERY seriously considering triple OERs and hovered over the checkout button for hours. But I got talked to about getting the rest of the car sorted first which makes sense as there are a lot of £200 there £300 there spend happening which all adds up.

Not wishing to sound over critical my friend, but the choke cables, or maybe just the kinked one, are letting the side down somewhat! [emoji33] [emoji1]
especially when everything else looks so good :thumbs:

Nope, you are right! That's the trouble with shiny bits, something else always looks less shiny!!!!!! I do have a nearly new "looking" cable to go in one day when I pull out the centre console, but sorting engine and drive train out this year has to come first.
 
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Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
It's nice to be able to drive without worrying about the weather! You're more than welcome to jump in. Maybe a meet up at Goodwood would be a good excuse for a drive.

I agree, I think triples are definitely designed to flow better for the top end but if you want entertainment, have a read up on the net. There are two very entrenched camps and it's difficult to know what to believe without trying out.

The one thing you can say for sure though: the triples WILL sound better on any given day! Who cares about fuel economy when you do 1k- 2k miles a year!

I was (thanks to Mr Franky trying to drain my bank account) VERY seriously considering triple OERs and hovered over the checkout button for hours. But I got talked to about getting the rest of the car sorted first which makes sense as there are a lot of £200 there £300 there spend happening which all adds up.

Awesome, now that sounds like a plan. Do let me know if you're going to classic car Sunday in a couple of weeks.

Haha I've already visited that minefield before, I have my reasons for my current choice but like you I'm sure will have to scratch that itch eventually! Lol I tend to just fill up the car however it would be nice if I didn't have to do it so often!

Mr F is a very bad influence when it comes to these things, he's more than capable of spending vast amounts of your money for your on nice shiny JDM items to compliment your car! :willynilly: Oh I know that feeling all too well, I keep telling myself that the engine is the last item on my list anyway. Get the rest of the car spot on before more power.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
I’ll even drop my usual percentage of the saving if you just look in the cupboard for the box marked ‘man-up’ And get them ordered.

I see you're "Trumping" me (as in Donald not the Northern expression).

I never respond to peer pressure, if anything it makes me more certain I'm right! [emoji14]

Ps. I looked in that box and found a bra!
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Another update at 900 miles - not much time of late to drive as family duties / holidays took over the whole of August.

Not being able to get the car to idle properly I turned my attention to the carbs again. Turns out the choke was sticking and the jets weren't fully returning. Also I had bent the choke linkage thingie too much and was keeping the butterfly open on the front carb at idle. Having sorted both I turned my attention to timing.

Not happy with / being scared witless by 25 degrees of vac advance my new Cardone dizzy was delivering at 3.5krpm fast idle, I removed the epoxy blob and re-curved it as far as it would go - to about 13-14 degrees with all in advance set at 34.

The upper end power between 4500-6800 is utterly intoxicating now but I would say tail off starts somewhere near 6500. I did get a bit lairy and a BMW M4 firmly put me in my place on my usual dual carriageway test route [emoji14]

Still not satisfied with idle timing and being a geek at heart, I needed more control over the timing. Some days, when I get home there is more to look forward to than bed-time stories and house chores. Tonight there was this bad boy ......

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Yummmmmm ....
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Classic car and Bluetooth, yeah baby, yeah!

And ooooh lots of dials to geek over! Two great features are immobiliser from phone and programmable rev limiter.

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Mr Franky has a lot to answer for! [emoji14]

I really like a curve I found on hybrid Z which adds advance as an anti-stall. Early to bed tonight but I will have to geek out one eve and will report back on findings!

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Link here for those wishing to share my newfound obsession.

http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/123556-l28-31-advance-curve/
 
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Russell

Club Member
I always say "If its worth doing, its worth doing with a gadget"!

Never seen one of these and it looks great!
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Awesome work dude, who makes the fancy looking distributor?

Nowhere on my immediate wish list however long term I do like the idea of one of those, particularly with the extra features!
 

johnymd

Club Member
On ECU equipped cars without idle control valves, ignition timing is usually used to maintain a target idle as temperature increases.

The key to getting you timing right throughout the rev range is to achieve a 50% burn by 20deg ATDC (I think). Depending on the speed of your flame front you have to place the spark at a certain point of the rotation to achieve this. As the engine revs go part 3700 you will need to continue advancing the timing in order maintain the 50% burn by 20deg ATDC. The likelihood of an engine pinking will reduce as the revs rise so you can usually get away with more advance in the higher range.
 

richiep

Club Member
Awesome work dude, who makes the fancy looking distributor?

Nowhere on my immediate wish list however long term I do like the idea of one of those, particularly with the extra features!

123Ignition dizzy. No mechanical parts, app controlled via Bluetooth, with the extra features Ali mentioned. Made in the Netherlands. Been thinking about one for the FairladyZ. Even had the app on my phone to play with!

Did it come with the correct Z mounting bracket and drive cog to engage with the fuel pump drive?
 
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