Re: 180hp L18 rally motor! Is it possible? Cheap!

[Richard Clough]

In Les Collins pocket!   Seriously, for that you get bullet proof everything.  Crack tested, balanced, top quality everything.  Trick crank and rods and clutch, major head/cam/valve train modifications, match ported manifolds.  Twin 48mm Webers, big bore extractors, and the dull engine parts painted in a very attractive red.  The motor comes with full bench dyno testing, and is fitted and road dyno tested by Les. It also includes fitting a brake balance setup so you can stop it.   Les gets orders from Japan for his motors.  He founded Datrally and built the L series motors that Geoff Portman without Nissan backing used to beat the Ford works BDA Escorts and dominate Australian rallying for a decade in the 70's and early 80's. ( A 1600 "Grunter" followed by a Jap built Bluebird with IRS).  Remember, this was an era when an average State or Oz championship rally ran day and night from Friday night to Sunday afternoon, up to 1200 to 2500 competitive kilometers.   Club rallys were always 400 - 500 competitive kilometers in length. You ran a 60 litre fuel tank in a Datto, (up to 450Lts in a 350 Monaro) and carried at least 40 litres of spare fuel in two jerry cans in the boot, in case you ran out in mid stage.   And the tracks they used make today's events look like they are run on freeways.  Grotty, very rough, twisty, very muddy, obscure, the odd fallen log to get round, deep creeks and bogs, it was all fair game by Directors.     Motors and cars and crews had to be tough in those days. No time out for services, rebuilds or replacement of parts, if it was cracking up you fixed on the roadside in the timed stage or had to live with it, hence the success of Dattos, as they rarely broke down. Those events made today's 200Km competitive events on open graveled forest roads look like a warm up lap.   Rally's in those days used to be called "Trials" - and they were!  No pace notes or prior knowledge of the course.  A "route chart" was often jokingly called exactly that, a chart that rooted the car and the crew.    ----- Original Message ----- From: Nicholas Abraham To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, 24 May 2001 15:29 PM Subject: Re: 180hp L18 rally motor! Is it possible? Cheap! Geez, $12000 for a L18.   Out of interest, where does the money go?   My list of the main mechanical mods required would be something like......   BOTTOM END   L16 rods and shaved (Flat top) L18 pistons. Decked block - gives +0.3mm at TDC. Fully balanced, polished, and shotpeened rods. Balanced and polished crank. Tidy up block Heavy duty bearings Lightened and balanced 6 cylinder flywheel and clutch.   HEAD Bluebird head with welded in 'squish' areas. Major exhaust port modification. Minor modification/tidy up and port-matching of inlet port, perhaps raise it slightly. 5 angle valve job CC combustion chambers Machine head to give ? compression. Do you want to run Regular or Premium or AVGAS?   ACCESSORIES Cam/Valve springs ? Depends on performance required. Carburation - WEBERS!!! or EFI Extractors ...... Hmmm.....   As long as you don't want to run over 7500rpm I don't see why it should cost heaps. Of course there are the long hours needed to prepare and measure everything.   Nick 1978 Datsun Stanza   --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/membersozdat@datascribe.com.au/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/membersozdat@datascribe.com.au/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------