Turning a totaled out dirt track Datsun into a Hot Rod.(starting on page 15)

[Digi7al Trauma]

Well, I got the car all ready and took it to the track, helped "pack" the track and the next thing we know a big storm rolls in and Rains us out. I guess you'll all have to wait till next week for new video.

 

Lol, i was at home in Washington mo for that rain.... it was pretty nuts.... altho kinnda needed it seeing as its been triple digits and everything is dry as hell....next time im out there ill come out and cheer you on.... ill be the clown with the sign that says "You better not lose to a neon!"

[Dirttrack510]

ill be the clown with the sign that says "You better not lose to a neon!"

It's funny you say that, as one of the guys at the track is a smart ass... He calls my car the "Clown Car" and he races in a NEON :rofl:

[Dirttrack510]

i enjoyed reading through this thread. good work dirttrack!

 

side note, those headers that you sold me worked out great! thanks man, i dont think i go tthe chance to tell you. i welded a collector on the end, and replaced all the piping on the sedan. it looks and sounds good!

 

i have pretty limited experience on a circle track. i participated in a drift event in my sr20 s13, and suprised myself... had a blast. are nissan 240sx's allowed in your catagory of racing? those would be a dime a dozen, and powerfull enough id suppose...

I'm glad the Header worked out for you, I know it needed a little work, but I thought it would be nice when it was done. And yeah, 240sx's are allowed and do sometimes race in my class. One of the guys I race with had a 240sx for a along time, he just recently got rid of it and built a Chevy Cobalt :no: I dog him out all the time for giving in to the front wheel drive urge, I tell him real race cars are rear wheel drive, an old lady could get out there and drive a fwd car. :P

[Dirttrack510]

Well, I put an L20B together last night, I must be nuts, but I put a $1300 head on a $25 motor. The bearings looked good and the cylinders looked decent, so I figured screw it. Anyway, here's some photos ( this head can also be seen under my head question page.

 

 

KA oil pump

 

 

 

 

It's ugly and filthy looking, but I figured screw it, it's suppose to be temporary and I didn't wanna spend an entire day on cleaning. This should yield somewhere around 175HP according to Ron at ISKY cams, maybe a little more.

[Digi7al Trauma]

niiiiiiiiiice! cant wait to hear it growl with that datsun fury

[Dirttrack510]

I'm just hoping I don't damage this head with that motor :crying: As soon as I have my motor with the H beam rods and forged pistons built I'm gonna swap it over to that motor, but this should be pretty mean if it runs good. :devil:

[sedan20]

nice. its an awesome feeling to kick the rear end out and powerslide a corner... dirt or pavement... no matching it.

[Dirttrack510]

Yeah, It's a blast. I raced a FWD car my first year at the track and the RWD Datsun is waaaaaaaay more fun. even though I'm in the back of the pack. I'm really hoping this motor moves me to the front. :thumbup:

[Dirttrack510]

Well :poop: , I went out there tonight to finish up the L20 engine and when I tried to "test spin" the motor by hand it was almost like it was locked up, my guess is that the big 46mm valves are hitting the piston tops and need valve relief pistons. :sneaky: I took that head back off and test fit a stock head with a stock cam and it spun over nice and easy by hand. I took it back off, because I figured the head gasket wasn't gonna be any good now that it's been "crushed" once or can I still use it? Sooooo.... now what? Am I missing something? This cam does have .580 lift, would that cause the valves to hit? I wouldn't think so, since it's a popular racing cam, but this head is shaved a lot though. Any suggestions? :confused:

[EricJB]

Are you sure the valves aren't hitting the cylinder walls instead of the piston? If it is in fact the piston, stack enough head gaskets up till it rotates (gently) than put some clay on the pistons, rotate, and measure the thickness of the dented clay. Do the math and notch the pistons. Easier said than done, but not too bad.

[wayno]

I would measure across the piston hole, and then from intake valve outside to exhaust valve outside, from the looks of the head, the piston hole might not be big enough, but that is hard to determine from these photos.

[EricJB]

Hey, what brand valves are those, and where did you get them?

[Dirttrack510]

I just measured the thickness of the head top to bottom and Datzunmike said in another post that stock was 4.248 thick, this head is milled down to 4.125, I might have to by head gasket shims :sneaky: I'm getting ready to try the stacked head gasket idea in a minute

[Dirttrack510]

I just tried that and it was a little better, but it still locks up. this time I could see little shiny spots on the top of #4 piston where it rubbed off the carbon build up on the piston. :sneaky: This sucks, I'm just sayin'... I guess between the intake valves being so much bigger and the head being shaved way down, plus the huge camshaft it just won't clear the stock pistons. I'm guessing I'll have to just wait and use this head on engine it was intended for, as it has Wiseco Racing pistons with valve reliefs cut in em' already.

 

I'm half tempted to slap a 210 head on that L20B and just go for high compression for now, although the small ports would probably screw me. I'm guessing I'd loose more power than I'd gain. I read through this thread...

L16 head on L20

 

and saw where it said it would make a little more torque, but restrict high end power. Any thoughts?

[Dirttrack510]

well crap, I just called ISKY racing cams and talked to the tech dept. and they told me that with that camshaft I have to run valve relieved pistons in order for the valves to clear. Sooo... I guess I'm gonna be slapping on a stock head or a 210 head. Oh well :sick:

[EricJB]

Put a stock L20 cam in it. Unless your runing a ton of carbs, you probably aren't going to get to the powerband of that cam. Where did you get those valves?

[Dirttrack510]

Put a stock L20 cam in it. Unless your runing a ton of carbs, you probably aren't going to get to the powerband of that cam. Where did you get those valves?

I sent you a link to the valves, actually I run right in the powerband for that camshaft that was why I ordered it. That cam is designed for between 5000 and 7500 RPM's and I usually run between 6000 and 7200. I probably am going to run a L20 camshaft for now though, till I get my full race motor built.

[Dirttrack510]

I got the call I've been waiting for today... Machine shop says my other engine parts are ready to pick up for the Project Kaboom engine, so hopefully I'll have that motor back together and installed before Saturday Night.

[Dirttrack510]

Video time :w00t:

 

The first video is Hot Laps (practice)... If you listen closely you can hear the engine is misfiring, The air-filter housing I made was pinching the fuel line, so after practice I swapped it back to the old one.

 

Here's the heat race (qualifier)... In this race the car was running decent, but... I had the wrong tires on the car and the track was to wet for em', so the car kept sliding up the track. UGH!!! :sneaky:

[Dirttrack510]

Last but not least, Here's the Video footage of my feature....

Like I said earlier, I finished 15th out of 25 cars. I would of finished a couple spots higher, but I had a couple guy that kept side swiping me every time I got up past their back tire and they heard my car coming. You'll see it in the video, Hopefully when I swap the motor I'll have enough power to pass em' easier. :thumbup:

[mcmlxxxv]

pure adrenaline !!! ahah love it !!

[Dirttrack510]

New Videos coming soon, but I raced tonight and the car didn't seem to run right for my heat race, so I pulled off the air filter and it was so clogged up with oil and dirt you couldn't see through it at all. I hurried up and cleaned it for the feature race and it helped a bunch. This was probably the last week for this motor though. I'm planning to try and install a L20B before next weekend and I think I'm gonna put the "Grenade L16" in the new race car.

 

Anyway, I'll post up the vids soon.

[Dirttrack510]

Ok, here's the In-Car video of my heat race from tonight 7-21-12 (this was with a clogged up air filter problem)

 

Here's the In-Car video from the feature (clean air filter :rofl:)

 

I'll post the out of car video as soon as it finishes uploading to Youtube

[Dirttrack510]

Here's the out of car video footage from the same feature, I think with the L20 installed i should be able to run up front. I'll know soon enough though.

 

http://youtu.be/AQk6Rc1GQ_c

 

By the way, I finished 16th out of 21 cars, not my best week. I hoping to finish better when I do the engine swap.

[wayno]

Here's the out of car video footage from the same feature, I think with the L20 installed i should be able to run up front. I'll know soon enough though.

 

http://youtu.be/AQk6Rc1GQ_c

 

 

The out of car vid is unavailable.