Spoke directly to the man himself today and popped the question about the engine in the 76 car: All ally block, girdle is all as well and is part of the dry sump system - all this was made in L A in the states. The main bearings actually ran ZERO clearance, the engine has to be pre heated and hot oil circulated through it prior to start up or it will either simply not start or destroy itself pretty smartly. The cylinder heads are OEM Nissan items seriously modified with big valves and cam followers etc. So that confirms the block was ally and heads were OEM, interesting about the bearing clearances. Would have loved to have plucked his brains a little more but I didn't want to chew up too much of his time - one day I will try and gather more info for us when I get the right chance
Be interesting to know more about the block. My guess is that the non OE girdle would be like a spacer botted to the bottom of the block or else the block skirt extended below the crank centerline with the girdle supported against the inside of the skirt.
Steve just said the girdle and sump were just one big part all bolted up to the bottom, I might try and get hold of who ever it was that built it all - Mike was this Mr Daily or was it another company?
This is like the one that JP bought for theVQ30 in the Slot Car. SO MUNGY what was Steve like? Bit more detail please. Wish I could have come over to meet him. I have tried to search out many times about the IMSA series in the 90's but there isnt really a lot of info around. Must have been a good time to be racing
Love to hear more about this engine. The zero tolerence of the bearings are very interesting; how did they work out they needed zero tolerence? Was it purely due to the expansion rate of the alloy? Very interested in any information?
Teky: Steve seems to be a great guy from the little time I have spent with him (maybe twenty minutes at best) I'm sure he is more than happy to provide us with more information but on a drip feed basis :rofl: The poor guy must get overloaded with Z32 freaks wanting all the nitty gritty details of those awesome cars from back in the day. I did mention to him that perhaps one day I will be in touch via email and he might be able to pass on some contacts so we can build a good picture of the history - BLOODY HELL!!!! I just had a good idea this would make an awesome book!! All the trials and tribulations of creating those beasts and pushing them to the top!! There is still the slim chance he may pop along to the event on Saturday but sadly the R35 has to be shipped back ASAP - I'll just chuck him the keys to mine (yeah right! :rofl: he might give mine a fright being driven properly :rofl: ) Dave yes the bearings were set at zero clearance due to the ally expanding faster than the (forged) crank and so if they were set with clearance when cold by the time it all heated up = bad bad bad. I've heard of a motor that came over from the states and kept running bearings (had done in the states also), took a while for the guys to figure out that the titanium rods weren't expanding as fast as the crank and so when it got hot it seized up the bearings - sounds so simple when you have figured it out :rofl: (was a stinking old pushrod clunker V8 not a beautiful Nissan masterpiece )
As Tekky said, it sounds like there was a one piece block extension incorporating a crank girdle that bolted up to the bottom of the block. Like the VQ motors have.
Ha-ha funny I too was talking to Steve about his 76 IMSA car, he said he took it for a drive recently and said it still surprised him how fast it was. He was over in NZ for the Targa Rally and did a corporate event at Hampton Downs where he took people for drives and signed by model He said that it was a complete cast alloy block, so not a block extension.
Shhh Mike you are showing a weakness LOL! He's still in NZ at the moment What we are talking about is with some engines if you take the centre line of the crank as the datum point the bottom of the block is flush with that. Other engines have the bottom of the block much lower than that & sometimes the crank girdle is supported far more than what you have on a stock VG30DE. The crank girdle slots down inside the block rather than bolting on to it with no support on the sides. I will try and see if there is any way we can get our grubby little hands on some pictures of the actual engines in parts, there will be pictures or parts out there but just not on the net possibly.
Thats tight - Sounds like the Russian Front - put fire under your motor! Suck all the info ....out of him...lol Good work and give him all our regards ...us Z lovers. Preheating and zero tolerances were a bit of a surprise to me for that time period. But I guess that was the real difference in those days. Would'nt want to let it sit for too long, bloody seize up at zero clearance- lol Did he strip after every race meet or was it dependant on the motor? Just wondering what the life expectancy was for him to stay in the top and win. Jamie (misszens other half)
Engine pic Pic i took of the engine when i was at the stillen complex back in 04, Have other pics of the car being race prepped. Met Steve twice, great guy, free with his time and provided answers to any questions you had.
Pic of the car that beat the ferraris, lambo's and porsches http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/m3621.jpg/ Not much...but the best I can do - enjoy
Spot the difference Still scraping the bottom of the barrel with pics - lol Can you spot the difference between the two photo's? http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/847/stillen300.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/695/exon300zx.jpg/ I was trying to work out what the stainless steel holes on the side were for and only recently found this pic which shows the difference. It appears that he uses shorter exhausts (almost dump pipes) in some race meets. I assume that they are meets with less restrictions on pollution etc Anyone know anymore ?
thanks for my new desktop background Yes I have quite a few pics and the exhaust does move around a bit.
Yeh - its not a bad desktop background Cheers Tektrader Glad you like it - I owed you one anyway, for the help you given me in the posts! Its not a bad pic - I'm using it as one of my desktop backgrounds as well. Regards
Also the wings are differen't, from what I know one caught fire at a 24hr race so maybe the redisigned it?
There was also that massive crash between the two cars, would have been a substantial amount of work to do on them after that so maybe took the chance to alter a few things. I will try and talk to Steve later today and get a couple of questions answered - and ask him to write a book LOL!
Already done Bought back two autographed copies, raffled one at one of the Zedfests for forum funds, the other i kept, good read.
