Hi All,

What sources do you know of for getting adjustable cam sprockets for the A-series engines?

I think that being able to adjust the cam timing is a darn good thing for setting up a hot street or race engine for maximum flexibility.

I was drooling over the cam sprocket and front cover with the access cover on the Pit Road site and had an idea for modifying the front cover to support the adjustable sprocket.

There is a company called Front Panel Express that is on the web. They have a free cad program for download that allows you to design flat work including blind holes and blind tapped holes.

As a price test I layed out a 5" ring with a 4" hole out of 4mm aluminum including 4 tapped M4 holes for the base and a matching cover also from 4mm aluminum. The size is a total guess but gets in the ball park. After a quick trip to the garage the parts should have been 4" in diameter. I'll stick with the over size parts for now just as a demo.

The estimated cost for the parts was ~$24.00 for the cover and ~$31.00 for the mount ring.

The ring could be tig welded to the front cover or for a cheaper route you could have blind holes done in the back side of the ring and hold it to the front cover with small screws from the inside of the front cover. Use your favorite gasket goo or JB weld for the sealer.

I think I'll give this a try after I get some accurate measurnemts on how big the parts need to be and actually get beyond the parts collection stage of the engine project.

Haven't been too excited to get the big engine built untill the chassis is properly setup. At this point the car does not do a good job of putting all of the screaming 45 horsepower on the ground exiting corners, somthing that will change in the near future as I work out the front end geometry and get the front/rear roll stiffness dialed in...

Ok, I'll go back in my cave now. I just get in trouble when I start thinking...

Sounds sweet! When do we get to see the printout?

Gary

Only one word... WOW!

What is your phone number? You can send it by pm if you like. I'd like to take a look.

Gary

Only thing I have on hand is from an old Datsun Comp catalog from '82. PN's and notes.

13231-M0820 Lightweight cam follower (not for use w/race camshafts)

13231-78201 Oversize cam follower (required when utilizing race cams)

Quote:

Yep, lots of 2 door sedans. All US models had hydralic clutches and disk brakes on the front.

Over the years I've owned 1 coupe and 7 2 door sedans. Only have one sedan now though...

I did a crude measurment many years ago and came up with 90#/inch for 1200 springs and 110#/inch for B310 springs.

My first thought looking at your plenum is too much flat surface.

Between the heating/cooling going on between vacuum and boost plus the vacuum/boost pressure transitions I think the top of the plenum is flexing and broke the sheet metal next to the welds.

Have you had the car on a dyno where you could watch the top of the plenum to see if it is flexing up and down while transitioning from vacuum to boost?

I've always been intrigued by the thought of the 215 ci buick V8 in a 1200. I was very impressed by a 510 that was setup that way. Had enough cam and carburation that the idle was up around 2000 and still not smooth. Man did that thing jump when he blipped the throttle!

Here is a link to Craigs list in Portland where there just happens to be a 510 with the V8 for sale. Not much time left on the add...
Clicky

My first car was a '65 Plymouth Fury. We had great fun with a similar trick, only it was not a flame thrower, it was a fuel/air bomb. After the car was warmed up you would drive up to 40mph, turn off the key, let the car coast down to 35mph, then turn the key back on. BOOM!!!!! A fireball a couple of feet wide would shoot out the end of the exhaust accompanied with a very loud explosion.

Turning the key back on ignited the fuel air mixture that was filling the exhaust system. Doesn't work on the newer cars with idle cut solonoids or fuel injection.

A standard muffler was good for about 100 explosions before splitting wide open. When you were getting to the end of the usefull life of the muffler you could hear a whistling sound from normal driving as the seam in the muffler was starting to unroll...