Some of you know that I have gotten a little silly over my A13 what with modified GX head, alloy oil pan & rocker cover & roller rockers etc. etc.
Well after some encouragement from the sidelines by people that I'm sure are still pointing & laughing, I have gone downright loopy over it.
This may well prove to be the worlds most overbuilt mild A series street engine, but what the heck, man needs a hobby.
All of this has now arrived in Australia.

In for a penny, in for a pound says I & here's the current state of craziness.


I wanted 77mm flat top pistons & they were made for the 1200/A12 with the small pin, so my A12A rods would be redundant. H beam rods were readily available, but the pistons weren't, so I switched to 78mm pistons from the A14. These have the larger pin size & since my block was made with a 76mm bore, it's not stretching it too far.








Well since I was getting pistons, I might as well get rods, but the only large pin rods were the longer A14/15 ones, so I had to have a set of rods made to order. These are essentially A12 rods with the larger pin size, so they are custom A12A & A13 rods.
I priced having new I beam comp rods made in Australia & the Jap H beam ones were less.









And while you're at it, says Mike, how are you off for tappets? What about some of those nice Nismo lightweight hollow ones.
[In for a penny, in for a pound] Yeah yeah, might as well. Next e-mail,"Tappets are NLA" Oh well, never mind, I have some new ones I can machine to lighten so it's all good.
Next thing, "Hey Chris, I found a set, ya want em?" [In for a penny etc. etc.]
So now we have tappets. [but no cam yet]



Hmmmm, what to do about the alternator problem. Better to tuck it down out of the way if possible, so I ordered the mounting kit that places it down where the original B10 & 1200 ones were. This will allow me to use stock wiring too.






There's more of course, like ARP main bearing studs [I don't like capscrews] & ARP head studs & Nismo head gasket &, .... well whatever it is that I don't really need, I either have it, or will get it soon.

I was going to get my head read, but couldn't find a Phrenologist anywhere.

Chris,
The loopier the better I say.
I now have to paint my coupe green, I am thinking the shade of envy
Very cool score there sir

Kelly

P.S. The missus is going to check posting on Monday, so we should be able to ship by the end of next week.

Thanks mate. I have just sent you a PM.

For the record, fellow forumites, Kelmo is sending me a couple of genuine 'Nissan USA' block heaters. Looks like we got the last of them as there wasn't enough to fill my order.
Nothing like keeping your precious warm on a cold winters night.

Don't forget lightweight push rods ...

And what has all this "lunacy" cost you?? Its going to be 1 tough motor.

Adam.

Dodgeman.
That is some nice looking gear.
What horse power are you expecting ?
Cheers Mark

Mark
To be honest, I am not chasing horsepower numbers & the engine will be in a nice mild streetable state of tune, initially with stock 1200 GX induction.
If I can get about 100 at the fly I will be ecstatic, but whatever it makes will be good enough.
I have an option 1 close ratio five speed for it so I need to keep a little torque down low because first gear is fairly tall, somewhere between first & second in a 4 speed.
If it revs out cleanly & strong to about 6,000 then it will a good car to drive & as we both know well, good street cars don't need huge grunt to be fun to drive.
My old 1000 sedan had just the big bore 1200 GX in it with the regular 5 speed & I still sing the praises of how much fun that was.

Adam
Cost? We don't talk about that any more.

Ddgonzal
Custom pushrods, knife edge crank, harmonic balancer, street weight steel or alloy flywheel, yes, the list still goes on.

Chris, with the 3.7:1 diff ratio, it should be a bit long in 1st gear but that will probably make that gear more usable around town. What sort of a cam are you thinking of using, because i've used the factory designed 70 degree cam serveral times with great success, on a 32DGV weber or twin GX carbs. Lots of torque plus a healthy top end. Arthur Jackson who's now out at Stewart Wilkins Rallying supplied the cams the 3 times i got them, so a call to him might get you one that's new old stock, like i got a genuine Nismo head gasket he just had sitting around.

Paul
You hit the nail on the head with the diff ratio thing.
The plan to use it was established back when I had intended to run this engine as a stroker with the A14 crank, but to be honest, the 56A gearboxes don't like the higher torque engines too much, so I have reverted to plan 'B' with the short stroke crank & I have given some thought to the best diff ratio.
Still, the 3.7 is not a big step up in ratio from 3.9 & the A13 will still pump out a bit more torque than my old 1200 GX did in the B10 sedan. I ran a 3.9 diff in that [from a 1200] & towed a small boat, fully laden, well up the north coast & back without problems, even outran some wannabe in a near new VC Commodore up O'Sulivans Gap Pass with the boat in tow, so I might be getting worried about nothing.
I also remember that it handled second gear takeoffs without any problem at all, so that's got to be a good sign. In fact, come to think of it, first always was a little on the low side, but good for traffic.

My driving style is kind to clutches & drivelines, so an easy takeoff with a healthy rev-out in the gears should keep the Adrenalin flowing & still allow me some rpm reduction at highway cruise.

EDIT
First gear ratio's
F4W56A ......... 3.760 to 1 [2nd gear 2.170 to 1]
F5W56A ......... 3.757 to 1 [2nd gear 2.374 to 1]
F5C56A .......... 2.676 to 1 [2nd gear 1.691 to 1]
As you can see the Option 1 box has a taller first gear than the other two, but not as tall as second gear in either of them. I guess I will need to suck it & see, but trust me, I am really looking forward to seeing just what this gearbox can do.

As for a cam, no decision yet, but something that puts peak torque up around 3,000 to 3,500 rpm might be nice, however your thoughts, as always, are welcome & appreciated.