1967.5 SPL311-14570; 1600 Restomod KA24DE

[Gregs672000]

They look great! I remember the first time I saw brake calipers with any lettering on them (nobody was doing that). I was driving the Roadster on a freeway somewhere in So Cal, and this completely unbadged cool looking car pulled next to me with two Asian looking gentleman in it. They were looking at and pointing to me, and I was looking back and wondering what the heck this car was. Then I saw NISSAN on the calipers, and I realized this must be the new 300zx. We were all smiles and thumbs up, and then off they went. I can imagine them getting back to the studio and saying "guess what we saw!" Great memory.

[Mattk]

So gotta ask; where did you get the calipers with the “fairlady” machined in them? I really like that!

[demonwaif5]

Mattk: they are custom laser engraved.

Just a little update:
1) Fitted the roll bar and got weld on seatbelt bungs. Lent my cousin my welder so that will have to wait.

2) Cam work!: I wanted to learn more about this motor. Turns out it is a mash-up 1994 Ka24DE. Some early 91-93 and some late 95-98 parts. My luck would have it is one of the S14 heads with butterfly valves in the intake manifold. Kind of like worst of both worlds!! Worst cam and intake combo. Well, I went ahead and disabled the SCV’s and picked up a 248 exhaust cam. In order to be precise, I also ordered some Tomei adjustable cam gears. Still waiting for the cam…

3) Hope to install the brakes this weekend. Will definitely post pictures when done.

Thanks, Ben

[demonwaif5]

Finally got the 248 exhaust cam. USPS delayed it by 7 days.
There was some scoring on the bearing surfaces but the lobes looked good. I said screw it, going to slap them in and see.

Here is the ‘cam sheet’
91-93 S13, 248*
95-98 S14, 232*
Intake Duration: 248º
Intake Open BTDC(-ATDC): -1º
Intake Close ABDC: 69º
Intake Centerline: 125º
Intake Timing: 2.7º retarded
Lobe Separation: 117.25º
Exhaust Duration: 232º
Exhaust Open BBDC: 45.5º
Exhaust Close ATDC (-BTDC): 6.5º
Exhaust Centerline: 109.5º
Exhaust Timing: 2.5º advanced
Overlap: 5.5º

Using the Tomei adjustable cam gears, I rotated 4 links and put the new intake cam intake opening ATDC the same as stock to keep the idle rpm and lope to a minimum. I then advanced the stock 232 exhaust to increase the lobe separation and decrease the overlap. This should give me a great mid and better high rpm with minimal low end torque loss.
Startup was hard due to dead battery and it usually is hard to start. Sprayed some starter fluid and bam! Roared right up. Had some stumbling at idle but it never died out. Pretty sure it’s just from not being run for 3 wks. The idle smoothed out after 45 seconds and held steady.
It revs much faster and feels angrier. Nice.

I polished the lettering on be VC, got new FelPro gaskets, and forked over $$ for new cover bolts.

Brakes are next in the to do list… after some seat dyno.
Then, new custom SS headers and oval exhaust.

[demonwaif5]

Progress on the 300zx brakes.
Disassembly was going smooth. TONS of grease and dirt. Caked on for probably 40 years. You couldn’t see the top four control arm bolts.
Started breaking down the spindle but as I got deeper, the upper control arm bushing is out of spec. This sucks. How do I get it off? Should I keep the ball joints connected when replacing the bushing?

[demonwaif5]

It’s been multi day +100 temps and weekends have been busy.
Ordering the front ball joint sets from Datsunparts.com are on hold as they are updating their site. Will continue with the 300zx brakes once I receive them.

I decided to work on the custom exhaust since I can’t make progress on the brakes. Looks like PO welded the bottom flange after fitting the headers on because there was no way to get the headers out with the flange on. The steering shaft severely limits the install angles. One way to increase install clearance is to remove the exhaust header studs but I didn’t feel like doing that.
Once I cut the bottom flange off, it was easy to take out.
As you can see from the pics. Not the best welding and the collector is sketchy. Function over form! UNLESS the function is limited by that small 1.5in exhaust pipe going through the frame cross members. Yah, I said it, 1.5in!! The header primary pipes are 1.75in. This motor was choking!!
The new SS ISR headers are really nice. Bends and TIG welds are very clean. I’m hoping to shorten the overall lenght in order to add a O2 bung and 4in flex pipe to dampen the stress from the minor. I’ve never bent or welded SS pipe before so this will be a first. Ideally TIG is preferred but I don’t want to buy a whole new machine for one exhaust. So, I’ll be using SS ER309L 0.023 wire and $$$ Tri-mix for MIG.
Pics of my bandsaw setup as well.
Thanks for following.