how is the response and lag with the gearing?

well all finished today...sort of.
Engine is running which is good. Still have some wiring changes to make and off to the dyno.
Can't see the timing marks on the new balance so will have to sort that out before the tune.
One injector was stuck. A little compressed air helped dislodge it.
A couple of oil lines needed tightening else no leaks which is always good.
With the 15W run-in oil, oil pressure was in the 70s during idle.
No weird noises to overall ecstatic.
List of work on this rebuild is pretty long. For those that are interested list is below.

Engine:
Machining
Crank re-ground and polished
Hone/bore/Deck block
Head rebuild - New valve guides and two valves replaced.
Valves and seats reground.
Custom CP high compression Pistons
Rod small end bushes replaced.
ACL race bearing (Big and mains)
New gaskets Cometic kit and head
Engine "blueprinted"
New oil pump, water pump.
Winged and gates sump (engine now 5Ltr capacity)
Adjustable cam gears
Exhaust to inlet cam swap
KA24 throttle body installed
Custom steampipe exhaust manifold
Custom dump pipe (large wastegate dump)
Manifold and dump pipe heat wrapped
Added flex pipe and another hanger on the exhaust
Turbo water and oil lines replaced (Speedflow 100 series water and 200 series oil - I should have shares in that company)

All fuel flex lines replaced with 200 series Teflon
Bonnet pin mounts re-enforced (noticed bonnet lifting at high speed)
Air box modified
Added EGT sensor
Added Boost trim switch
Kaaz LSD installed

And after all that I still use a piece of aluminium to hold up the bonnet :)

I'll keep you posted with the dyno run (I'll take the GoPro)




Unsure if the video will work, it was taken using my phone.

http://vid247.photobucket.com/albums/gg139/Xmcgee/VID_20150928_173305_zpsrztullxq.mp4

looks awesome, your doing great work...

its starting to look like a car again.
Nearly finished.
dump pipe is done, turbo lines are re-routed and installed.
Have a couple of fuel lines to upgrade to Teflon and a couple of sensors to move around (added an Exhaust temp sensor and a multi position switch for boost control).
Been a big job and a heap of little changes.

Dump pipe finished. Wastegate side significantly increased in size. divider installed








Exhaust with flex pipe



EGT sensor boss



Hot side all finished



Turbo water fitting welded a -6 fitting to the end of the pipe for ease of install/removal. mess of wires down this side



New turbo position changed the airbox inlet.



As I left it last night, nearly finished.

So it did end up being something on the valve seat holding it open. Fixed now so not too much time lost.
CAs do oil the head too much which is why I had the drain installed into the head. The block restrictors work pretty well from what I have heard.
As for the rods/pistons. The pistons are custom cp. Rods are spool. The spool rod small ends are not supplied finished and need to be machined to fit the pins. My new pins are upgrade cp versions. These are thicker then standard.

Thank you for the updates, definitely a clean and well thought of racer
Would you know if there is an issue with the oil feed to the head on these
motors? hence the use of rear oil drain trick.
Wilkins sells an oil restrictor for these engines and its supposed to make
a difference to the oil fed to the mains not lowering pressure.
Are they spool pistons and rods? if so shouldnt they have matching pins?

it's a shame the valves aren't seating properly...
not dirt or something on the seat?
can you hold them open and look inside with a borescope or something???

OK bit of an updated. The lifters are fine. They do bleed down so the above diatribe isn't worth the worry. The valve is slight longer but should have still sealed. I suspect there is a problem with the seat.
Good guide above to clean the lifters. Leak check with inlet cam out still showed the same problem. Leaking through no. 1 cylinder inlet valves. So unfortunately head has to come off and be fixed. Before I do that I wanted to finish the exhaust. Added the flex pipe and new bracket. Ready to finish the dump pipe tomorrow.

I'm having a second guess about the problem.
I spoke to the machinist today they are happy to help fix the problem (if it is a long valve) so that part is covered.
My concern is that I may have not really reset the lifters properly. 1-2mm extra long valves should be taken up by lifters which have about 4mm total travel.

Looking into how they work I still don't understand why they wouldn't have bleed down the the required height. Do the CA18 lifters actually bleed back down on their own or are they a one way, pump up only deal?

I wonder if by following the guide below I have actually pumped them up to full height before installing them? If so, then why did they not bleed back down when the cam was installed.
http://www.twinturbo.net/nissan/300zx/forums/technical/view/917346/Lifter-Rebuild-101.html
Using the above guide I'm pretty sure the lifter is reset back to full extension? Is that the way others see it?
My reasoning for coming to this conclusion is with oil in the "lower lifter body", then bleeding all the air out the lifter body returns to the springs natural height. The check valve draws oil in until the spring reaches this height, at this point the lifter is incompressible, as it is full of oil. Is this not full lifter extension?

However without oil the spring is free to move and the lifter body compresses. Should they not be installed with air in the lower lifter body and just bleed through cam rotation and spring pressure. When the engine oil pressure comes up, wouldn't this fill the reservoir and with successive cam rotations will compress the internal spring and oil will be drawn in through the check valve until the lash is correct and the lifter is bled.

Maybe Ive proved my lifter hold pressure and have not reset them?
How have others reset their lifters when they have replaced cams or valves?

had a bit of a setback today.
Had suspicion that the replacement valves might have been a bit long and confirmed this today with a leakdown check.
No. 1 cylinder is not holding pressure and leaking though the inlet valves.
All the lifters were reset when the engine was disassembled and during reassembly I noticed the two new valves made those lifters sit a little high (maybe 1mm max), I thought the lifter may have compensated but obviously it doesn't work that way (as I said they were already reset) and is permanently cracking the valve open :( . Frustrating to have to pull the head off, I should be ok to reuse the head gasket.
Kicking myself I didn't chase/fix this earlier.
Anyway should be about 2hours to remove the head and it can be done in situ which is a slight bonus. I'll chat to the machinist tomorrow to see what he wants to do.

Will probably redo the timing belt cover whilst it is all out. I don't like the fact the belt is so exposed, worried i'll forget and put my hand on there when it is running.
I bought a 89mm holesaw blade yesterday for another job. This will work a treat to still access the adjustable timing gears.