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1.4L race motor needs more ...


TimGreen

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...specially when they say "JDM" then the price just quadrupled.

 

 

I know this all too well... I'm pushing $7k into my B210. Most of cost has been stupid "jdm" bumpers, lights, etc....

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First to Tim's question; 3-4 years ago I sold my last two H89 heads for $75 each to a couple of hugs in Australia. Those heads are the next best thing to the GX head. If your 210 has the H95 head (I think that's the right number) those have a swirl port which greatly restricts the flow. There isn't a lot of good info on these some say you can open up the port, others say no you'll grind into the water jacket. Regardless they use smaller valves and the combustion shape is less than ideal.

 

As for prices of stuff, I'm exceedingly cheap and tend to only buy what can be had reasonablely. I've made a few exceptions, like the LSD because locked rears suck (my opinion), I did spend $1500 for a 56 series ultra close ratio 4 speed but I wouldn't do that again.

The secret seems to be running less loved / popular. While 1200s are great everyone wants a 510 or Z. In the case of Tim's 210 those aren't popular as of yet so you can still get stuff reasonable. I was given a A15 and 60 series 5 speed last year, the gear box is in the car now and the A15 will be built up to replace the blown one. If I ever run through all my A-series stuff I might go to an L16 because I get offered those for free and I can build one up to make slightly more power than the A15 for next to nothing. Once upon a time I had a $500-$700 for any part, that's crept up to $700-$1000. If I ever had stupid money to spend on racing I probably wouldn't have to drive the 1200 like an animal every inch of every lap..........no what fun would that be.

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Wanted to add that if the OP has the stock engine for his 210 with just a swapped head then he would have the smog cam as well. The mid 70's cam is a better one. Every mid 70's B210's I've looked at that had an A14 were rated on the tag as having 80 hp at 6000. The "nifty fifty" high mpg cars were rated less. 

 

I believe you want the early points distributor as well....better curve.

 

Of course this is just the "we cheeeeep" option. 

 

Kurt

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Well we finally solved the "Over Heating" issue - unbelevable discovery.  It turns out the last owner put the water temp probe in the thermostat housing hole for the exhaust gas EGR - so in fact we were never reading water temp.  We did clean the radiator, replaced the water punp and thermostat and now have the water temp sensor in the hose from the thermostat housing to the radiator - PROBLEM SOLVED !!!!!

 

Car ran fine last weekend at Blackhawk Farms with the exception of a little off road excursion...    Now we can get back to adding a little more power to the race car.  We did get an H89 head recently so now I need new springs, guides, and maybe a little porting.

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Tim I have a spare set of Isky double valve springs with retainers that I'd sell cheap. With that said you can get them brand new from Isky I think they run around $100-150. As for valve guides you can still get them from Rockauto.

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Tim I have a spare set of Isky double valve springs with retainers that I'd sell cheap. With that said you can get them brand new from Isky I think they run around $100-150. As for valve guides you can still get them from Rockauto.

Tom -
 
Are the valve springs new or used?

How much do you want for the springs?

What valve guides do you recommend I get from Rock-Auto?

 

Tim

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Tim I've always used bronze guides, they are $4-$5 or so. Other guys may use something different but I'm revving the motor to 8200 and they've never given me an issue. My one cylinder head had 50 events on it, the head gasket popped but the guides still appear to be fine.

 

The springs I have are used, I have the retainers as well so I'm thinking $75.

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Tim I've always used bronze guides, they are $4-$5 or so. Other guys may use something different but I'm revving the motor to 8200 and they've never given me an issue. My one cylinder head had 50 events on it, the head gasket popped but the guides still appear to be fine.

 

The springs I have are used, I have the retainers as well so I'm thinking $75.

Please email me regarding the valve springs 

tim@914-6.org

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To get the most out of A -series engines you have to rev the snot out of them and winding them to 9K doesn't do much for piston ring life. You can get decent power out of them and engine life if you keep them to 7800-8000 rpm. As I've mentioned in various posts my A15 did a whopping 99whp but I'm still running the standard 37/30mm valves and a pretty moderate cam. There is likely another 10-15 horsepower to be had without reducing the engine life.

 

I run motors for ridculous amounts of time, if one were willing to go through their motor more frequently them my every 5 seasons standard, going to a 10-15 race rebuild schedule would probably make 125-130whp possible.

 

The other limiting factor is the gearbox. The 60 series 5 speed is strong enough but the ratios suck, unlike L series powered cars where you can find a 280ZX box with decent ratios, the only cheap alternative is to use ultra low gearing (4.88 -5.12) so that you only use 3rd, 4th and 5th gear. I can't remember who off the top of my head but Kameri, Tomei or someone else in Japan was talking about making a closer 2nd 3rd gear set but it's been at least a year since I've heard anything new on this front.

 

My cheap gearbox solution is to use a 63 series 5 speed and search for the alternate second gear from a Z-series 200sx. I have the gearbox and believe I've found the second gear. The problem this option is the parts are not readily available. This combo will give you a mid-close box.

 

The not so cheap but not $4000.00 alternative is adapting a Ford type 9 5 speed as close ratio gear sets for those are $750-$900. The type 9 box can be had for $500-$600, you need an A-series auto bellhousing (I think I paid $50 for mine). This option may be possible for as little as $1500 but more likely will be $2000.

 

FYI the $4000 was derived by taking the $1000 to get a Toyota T-50 5 speed and adapter and $3000 for a gearset from Housman.

 

The powerband on the 99whp wonder is such that it only drops 3-4hp from 8k to 7k and only loses another 4-5 to 6200 rpm but by the time it gets down to 5600 it's dropped down to 78. The gear ratios are such in the stock boxes that the motor drops 2900 rpm between 2nd and 3rd.

 

Much like Tim's Grandson is experiencing, I too feel the pain of being out accelerated but much like Tim I'm not willing to spend crazy money. As noted above a race box is $4,000 and a professionally built motor can easily be $10,000. An extra 14k to go from 5-9th overall to 3rd-5th overall is just crazy. Even my Ego has tough time justifying that.

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Not being snarky.... But like my first post,

 

Should go with a different car altogether if winning is the goal.

 

The Datsun provides fun, but you just won't win without deep pockets (and willingness to empty them).

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I can't speak for Tim but in my case vintage racing rules are such that I could go to an L-series motor as the PB110 came with an L14. Like tune for like tune L-18 and A15 are roughly 20hp apart. The L18 motor and gearbox will add about 130lbs to an A-series car, granted the weight only equals about 5-6hp. It also changes the handling a bit. You can close the gap with the A-series which can be bored to 1600cc and if you install an E16 crank that will take it out to 1700cc. A 1600cc motor is easily and cheaply attained using Mazda pistons. The 1700 motor requires machine the E16 crank, custom pistons or rods, so not cheap. The A15/16 can be brought up to 10-12hp of the L18, that coupled with the weight difference would get a car close.

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The largest bore you can get with an A-series motor is 79mm and consequently the largest valves you can fit are 40mm intake and 34mm exhaust. The larger bore of the L series allows you to stuff bigger valves in it. There was a fellow who managed 200hp at the flywheel with an A-series engine but you'd be rebuilding the engine after every race to keep it from coming apart.

 

For vintage B Sedan there are some possible advantages a 1300cc A series car is allowed to weigh 1300lbs. The 500-600lbs won't make up for the 50 horsepower deficit but on low to medium speed tracks. I can tell you from experience (following Lotus 7s) that a 1300lb car is good for 3-5mph in every corner versus my 1640lb car, so it would be quite possible to build a big gap to 1900-2100lb 510s in the twisty bits that they wouldn't be able to claw back on the straights.

 

210s like Tim has are a bit porky but they have more in them than a 1200 so there is quite a bit of weight that can be pulled out of a 210. It's been a long time but I think you can get them down to 1700lbs.

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there is quite a bit of weight that can be pulled out of a 210. It's been a long time but I think you can get them down to 1700lbs.

 

Got a 210 sedan down to 1690 once, but without a cage. So yeah...

 

As I recall, a stock 1200 is already 100 pounds lighter than that...   :rofl:

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