Chris' 72 Project

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heirfaus
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Chris' 72 Project

Post by heirfaus »

I decided that before I get too ahead in this project that I might post it, since as far as I know there aren't too many EFI L series motors out there.

I couldn't decide whether to go with ITB's or manifold at first. Since I don't know a whole lot about ITB's I decided that I would go with the manifold. I also decided that fabricating from scratch would be a huge endeavor after talking to Rob so I am going to go with the 280ZX manifold. Besides who can pass up the opportunity to go at it with a cut off wheel and an intake manifold.

I bought the intake bare for 25.00.

From the pictures I have seen on the net. I don't think this was the best possible candidate, but oh well I love a tough challenge, I'll just have to get creative.
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DSCN0785.JPG
Last edited by heirfaus on 11 May 2009 21:41, edited 7 times in total.
"An intercooler...has never been, nor should ever be, considered icing on the cake. A proper intercooler is more cake."
Corky Bell, Maximum Boost

"one of the little things that add up"
-defdes
wrs1
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Post by wrs1 »

so are you just sectioning out the middle two intake ports and then welding the intake back together or how are you doing it?
I just got my L20b efi engine running this week. here is a pic.
I would be interested in seeing how your manifold turns out. post lots of pics as you go.
Bill.
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engine5.jpg
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heirfaus
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Post by heirfaus »

Ok here is the manifold, after the first raw cuts. I just tried to get rid of most of the obvious crap I didn't need. And made a ruff cut up the middle to start some mock up fittings.

I have 3 extra heads, so tomorrow, I am going to see if I can drill and tap the new bolt holes in the head to fix the two pieces on. I'll post more pics if I can get that all done tomorrow.

Just curious what you guys think. I have no experience with nitrous, but couldn't you plumb it into where the EGR used to go. Look at the middle runner that is cut off. How the old egr passage way has that hole at the base of the intake runner. As you can see in one of the pics it just has plugs that thread in right now.

Maybe a future upgrade? :twisted:
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P9270056.JPG
Last edited by heirfaus on 20 Aug 2007 15:07, edited 1 time in total.
"An intercooler...has never been, nor should ever be, considered icing on the cake. A proper intercooler is more cake."
Corky Bell, Maximum Boost

"one of the little things that add up"
-defdes
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heirfaus
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Post by heirfaus »

Hey bill as you can see that is the idea. Hopefully I can do the entire project myself. Your setup looks sweet. I bet it runs nice. I know that ITB's are great for performance.

I justified using the manifold, because I don't see myself passing 6K RPM on "this" motor. And the intake sizes match well with the head. Also I don't have to worry about whether the VE(Volumetric Efficiency) is good. Since normal cars are engineered to get about 60%-70%, and Sports cars are engineered for 80%-90%(if my numbers are correct) efficiency Nissan has already done the science for me, since the zx motors are pretty quick I imagine that they are 85-90%.
510rob
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Post by 510rob »

Chris, now I can see what the EGR crap is you were talking about... ...yech!!!

Looks like you are making good progress on it too. I haven't touched mine for a few weeks, but will get back on it

WRS1 - I can see the Electramotive computer, so I assume you mounted the 60-2 wheel to the crank. Do you have any pictures of the pulley/sensor arrangement you came up with?
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heirfaus
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Post by heirfaus »

WOW, Today I made awsome progress. Well a lot more than I thought I would get done. I was hoping to get the two 10mm holes drilled and tapped and test fit today. It was a little challenging, bucause I was worried that the position and angle might not come out well, because I am only holding half of the manifold. I did ALOT of measureing and it turned out pretty well.
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you can kinda see 3 of the 6 lines I mark to make sure that this thing was right on.
you can kinda see 3 of the 6 lines I mark to make sure that this thing was right on.
Left side monted up with 3 bolts.
Left side monted up with 3 bolts.
Last edited by heirfaus on 20 Aug 2007 15:09, edited 1 time in total.
"An intercooler...has never been, nor should ever be, considered icing on the cake. A proper intercooler is more cake."
Corky Bell, Maximum Boost

"one of the little things that add up"
-defdes
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heirfaus
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Post by heirfaus »

The icing on top of todays cake is that all of the cutting is complete on the left side, I wasn't expecting to get this done.

As you can see I will also have to drill out some metal for the injectors to spary through, but this is just the test head and I am going to wait to do that on the real head.

Well I am probably done with this thing until next week.

Oh yeah I also noticed that the diameter of the right side, after it is cut down, might be small enough to slide right in the left side and be set up for a nice weld. We'll see!!
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Blocked injector holes
Blocked injector holes
Last edited by heirfaus on 20 Aug 2007 15:10, edited 1 time in total.
"An intercooler...has never been, nor should ever be, considered icing on the cake. A proper intercooler is more cake."
Corky Bell, Maximum Boost

"one of the little things that add up"
-defdes
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heirfaus
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Post by heirfaus »

Ok so I didn't get as far as I wanted this week. I hit a pretty big wall, not a brick wall, but a pretty good one. Got the right side cut down to the correct size and saw that the 2 halves of the plenum are about 1/2 inch missaligned. I was so frusterated I almost scrapped the manifold, wait...wait...calm down...ok I'm cool. So I decided to get real creative. next week I am going to cut the right side plenum into 4 pieces and see if I can get it welded into the correct angle. I post some pics of the missaligned sections tomorrow so you guys can see what I'm talking about.
"An intercooler...has never been, nor should ever be, considered icing on the cake. A proper intercooler is more cake."
Corky Bell, Maximum Boost

"one of the little things that add up"
-defdes
510rob
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Post by 510rob »

ouch - I feel responsible for that misalignment :(

it's about how my manifold is going too... cut, weld, cut, weld, cut, weld... (insert swearing fits, temper tantrums, and hissy fits in between each of those commas)
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heirfaus
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Post by heirfaus »

so I'm wondering, was it 280z or 280zx manifold your supposed to use?
"An intercooler...has never been, nor should ever be, considered icing on the cake. A proper intercooler is more cake."
Corky Bell, Maximum Boost

"one of the little things that add up"
-defdes
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jovial_cynic
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Post by jovial_cynic »

... just a shot in the dark, but does it matter? You'd think that any fuel-injected 6-cylinder L-series would work; all the holes should line up the same. Cutting/welding should be the same for any of them.
71 510 2-door SR20DET (S13)
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heirfaus
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Post by heirfaus »

wrong my dear sir....I have seen 2 different styles. one is perfectly straight, would cut and weld SWEET. the other , the one I have the plenum changes size and shape, kinda makes it challenging, maybe a little to challenging.
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jovial_cynic
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Post by jovial_cynic »

ah... i was only thinking about the location of the runners and their relationship to the intake ports on the head. Hm... if the plenum shapes are different, that could certainly be an issue.

Which one is the "bad" one, now that you see it can't be cut and welded cleanly? Or is that what you were asking in the first place?
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Byron510
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my EFI project

Post by Byron510 »

hairfaus, it's to bad that you don't live a little closer to Rob and I. I went through what you are now doing 10 years ago. The EFI IR manifold that I eventually made was the result and my answer. The 280Z/ZX manifold had one huge drawback for me.. the 1 1/8" runners. I just thought they were too small, since I'd been running 1 1/2" runners with great success on my motors at that point.
Although the manifold I developed was done by 1995, it wasn't until 2000 that I actually got one in my, then red wagon/X Canada car. To prove how easy and cheap one could fuel inject a car, I used an entire 200SX set up, with less than $600 into the project (and yes that was complete, every gasket and all), I had an EFI car that worked fairly well. (I even used the 2.2L motor out of the same parts car with a U67 head of course!)
Anyways, I copied the 280Z/ZX mounting flange as far as the position of the mounting stud is concerned. But I moved the injectors up, relative to the head to allow the ports to be increased in size. I'll post some pics of the head mods. They are a bit dirty, but you'll see what I mean.
In the head photo, the #1&2 ports have been ported out to match the manifold, #3&4 intake ports are stock U67.
Byron
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EFI Manifolds040 (Small).jpg
EFI Plenum001 (Small).jpg
EFI Manifolds037 (Small).jpg
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heirfaus
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SICKEST OPTION YET

Post by heirfaus »

Ok so at work this guy wanted a new oil pump in an Infinity Q45. I was looking up the quote. Labor said something like 24 or 27 hours!!!!!! So he ended up bringing in a motor since the labor alone on the oil pump came to like 2K US. So the old motor was just chillin and he didn't need it.

Here's where it gets good. I didn't give up on the ZX manifold job, but now I am deciding what to do with this bad boy. This is going to make the swap a lot easier I think. I am going to cut one set of runners off and have plate welded on the side. Should look pretty clean. Other side I am still deciding whether to fabricate runners or cut off the ZX runners and weld them on this plenum.

Now I have never heard of this but are there any downsides to a MASSIVE throttle plate. I mean that motor puts out around 200 ponies stock. I guess I'll be set up ahead of time for when I catch up with Kieths ???. And I promise I will get close.

OK AND THE SWEETEST PART, I was showing this intake to a friend of my who has a shop across town. He said, "oh yeah nissan V8, I have a core sitting in my shop I don't need, you can take what ever you want off it." So I get the sensors and a whole other intake plenum incase I mess up, or if it works good I could make another, or if it works good, I could sell cheap to someone else to try it themselves. So we'll see soon!!! I start cutting this one tomorrow!!!!!!
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infinty1.JPG
Last edited by heirfaus on 20 Aug 2007 15:14, edited 1 time in total.
"An intercooler...has never been, nor should ever be, considered icing on the cake. A proper intercooler is more cake."
Corky Bell, Maximum Boost

"one of the little things that add up"
-defdes
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