sooo my 71 240z should have that head on its stock engine right? and why only the EARLY E88 are the good ones? are there any aspects about the early ones that the older dont have?

 

ohh ohh and yeha i THOGHT about making the turbo engine..... BUT since there anre not alot of parts available on the junkayrds and so i ve heard that if any little problem comes around. " goodluck " fixing it since ET's are RARE nowadays unless you buy the whole donor car but i mean common... who wants an extra parking space taken just for a parts car... but yeah a TURBO 240z would be nice to have in the other hand

 

The 73-74 E88's had a different combustion chamber. It was designed to get hotter. A combustion chamber that gets too hot can lead to pre-ignition which puts holes through pistons. It's not a bad head, it's just not as desirable as the 72 E88. I believe 71 came with the E31 didnt it? The E31 is good for high compression but the exhaust valves were pretty small. Not to worry though cause you can have the head machined to accept the larger valves found on the later heads.

 

so i can get that from the 72 right? and i've heard that the 260z came with a special intake manifold that makes an exelent mixture and give evenbetter performance yet what do u tihnk about that?

 

yeah if you're going to go E88 get one from a '72. I misrepresented some info above though (I already corrected it for anyone that hadn't read that post yet). The E31 and the early E88 both had the same size exhaust valves. It was the later E88's that got the bigger exhaust valves. So while the later E88's had the larger exhaust valves they still had the drawback of poor combustion chamber design (from a performance standpoint). So I guess at this point the question should be what are you looking to accomplish when choosing a head? A high compression racing engine or a performance street machine? What block do you plan to use? If you've already got an E31, and it's going on an L24/L26 than I'd stay with that. It's one of the most desirable heads for it's high c/r (small combustion chamber). If you're going with an L28 then the E88 is probably a better choice.

I still think the P90 has the most overall potential though.

As far as the 260Z manifold goes: I have no idea. I did just buy a 260Z though . But I haven't taken delivery yet.

 

drop a V-8 crate ZZ4 in it.. you will be much happier... it weighs a little less and it sits lower and further back... better blancing the car...

Honestly... the L-XX engines are outdated... there are few machine shops that have any real knowledge on how to build them up...

If you go at it yourself there are a lot of big considerations to make... The L-24s turn higher RPMs more smoothly than the L28s... I run an L24 that outruns most of the L28s on a road course track... but they would have me in a drag race...

The real consideration is compression ratio... an L-24 with an L-28 head is not going to get a lot of compression without shaving the head... not that the L-28 heads are significantly larger chamber volume than the L-24 heads... you really can't gain useable increases in compression with many combinations without shaving the heads...

Shaving the heads will require shimming the cam towers and realigning them... the camshaft will determine dynamic compression... therefore a more aggressive cam will require higher static compression to work well... bigger cam means even more shaving and shimming...

most of the later engines had dished pistons... dished pistons are not the preferred design for anti knock and quench performance...

also keep in mind that as you shave the heads to gain compression you will need to cc the chambers and remove material from some to make them all the same size again... the cc work that was done at the factory will not stay the same once you begin to shave the heads...

This is a big job... just preparing a head for a performance L-xx engine will cost $1000 to $2000... this would not include porting and polishing the runners... the bottom end could require new pistons as well as a complete rebuild of the bearings and rod ends... by the time this beast is assembled you will still need an induction system... Webers cost over $2000 installed... I don't care if you found a kit for $1500 or less... It takes someone familiar with Weber DCOEs to tune them... you will forever have preblems if you do not understand the most complex of carburator issues...


Consider that the JTR v-8 swap kit is only a few hundred dollars... you need a T5 or T56 tranny to go with that... $3800 for the engine, $500 for the carby and around $1200 for tranny, clutch and driveshaft... It will be impossible to beat this performance with an L-xx series engine...

Guys will argue for purist reasons... but I have driven both on track... I can tell you that the lightweight ZZ4 engine installed in an early Z will outperform jsut about ANY L series engine including turbo 3.2liter franken-engines... the cars actually drive better with the lightweight V-8s....

There are a lot of folks who just don't understand that EFI and Turbo gack adds a great deal of weight in the worst possible location (front end)... it may get off the line fast... but it won't handle as well as a V-8 swap...

The latest craze is to swap the modern LS1, LS2 engines into the Z cars with the T-56 6 speed trannys... the all aluminum LS engine weighs less than the old iron blocks.. but the T-56 trannies are 4ucking heavy... the tranny weighs twice as much as the T-5 or the Datsun units... though the weight is low in the car.. and it sits rearward... so the extra weight is well placed...

 

purist = denial
And we all know the first step towards recovery...

I wouldn't mind an LS1 swap. The T56 isn't only heavy, it's also about half the size of the Z

 

Well speaking of LS1's..... my cousin does have an ls1 just sitting there on a small trailer.... he mentioned it woulb be nice to drop it in but i mean.... its got a few things missing for me to have a running car.. and id spend more $ on it than on an L series. and honestly.... a Z would'nt be a Z if you drop a chevy engine.... it would loose alot. altough GAIN as well. there are pro's and Con's as to a newere engine such *** . GOOD. more power BAD more sensors wiring electrival components ETC. ... but yes it would be nice to have so much ***** on a car that it would get good traction until 3rd gear :P (seen a video of that) but... i think for me... its a little too far ahead of what i have planned for my car. the HIGHEST i plan to go is droping an L28ET. is already a risk for me sinse i know SQUAT about turbos and their components and computers bla bla bla. but i would like the ET... i wanted that so bad since my first Z. but before that i think a little ET homework would be useful.

 

My suggestion was a ZZ4 crate motor... it comes with everything assembled and you can choose options like AC and others... You only need a carb to top it off...

light, simple, powerful over a broad range... well suited to the 3.54 rear ends the S-30 cars came with, and it improves both balance and center of gravity...

 

whats the ZZ4? is i get the feeling its a camaro engine :P

 

Lord have mercy.....

The ZZ4 is a crate engine that can be ordered through your local Chevy dealer... just google ZZ4 engine and you will see what it is...

It is a 1st gen SB 350 with aluminum heads and a tough bottom end... it is marketed towards the Hot Rod crowd... it puts down an amazing amount of power over a broad range of RPMs.... most importtantly it is the most affordable LIGHTWEIGHT SB 350 available... shipping charges do not usually apply considering you can pick it up at ANY Chevy dealership...

What constitutes a Camaro engine would be a really ignorant poorly thought out question... considering that the SB350 is a COMPACT engine design dating from the 1950s with relatively few changes up to the present...
It has been installed in MILLIONS upon MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of cars, trucks, boats, generators, pumps, cranes, aircraft, hovercraft, airboats, swamp buggies, barbecue grills, chainsaws( I am not kidding here)...

Rednecks all over the world can work on the SB 350... I don't care where you are... you can find people in the Sahara desert that can work on the SB350... Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Russia, India, upper Mongolia, Mogodishu, Tinbucktoo and Catmandoo... they can ALL work on SB 350s...

now go down the list of maybe a few dozen shops in USA and Japan that can perform sophisticated machine work on the Datsun L-xx series...

 

mmm good point there :P you're right i jsut know of TWO places " near" by and the closes is Los Angeles CA and im in San Diego , thats a 2 hour drive just to be charged $300+ for any little detail i can work at home myself. sometimes requiring help form u guys (Y) wich im THANKFUL for. But damn how much $ would we be tlaking about to order that engine? because i know for a fact i can get 3 or 4 Z's in a junkyard strip the engines and put the best parts on ONE good one. and have a running engine for about $350. I KNOW.... i bought my F54 engine like that. :P got a a HOT cam i found on one block, then the 2-1 header, polished valve cover frome another. flat top pistons from another :P and going on and ong by the end of the day right aroudn closing... i had the engine i wanted:P shure.... took time and a pain in the *** but it got done :P

 

IF you're in SD, how about Zwhizz?

 

You are correct in that the 73-74 E88's have a different combustion chamber, but they do indeed come with the larger size exhaust valves. From what I have seen with dyno numbers and such, there's no real advantage over the early e88 vs the later e88.

 

kool kool. so ok.. recap if i were to use the P90 head. it would benefit more with a TURBO setup right? what if i ran the F54 block with the P90 head adn run carbs and the 260z intake manifold? how would that perform?

 

probably not as well as an f54 blcok with the e88 head.

 

Honestly, I think you should go with the Zephel Dohickey Q83 head... the LobeMaster 3000 Stage XXXIV cam, diamond pistons, 25.995834 karat gold rods, CraniumCracking head studs, TornadoTwister turbo, Skeet-Skeet injectors, and a ****** 200mm throttle body.

 

Now that's a sick setup! Pretty much the king in bling factor. haha.

 

hahaha skeet skeet injectors holy **** :P how long did it take u to think of that one :P hahaha that was sweet. haha but thanks EMO, Il try that im in the process of getting the F54 engine. so while im out there. in the junkard... il find that E88 just watch :P hehe