This contains some good high performance E16 modification info. It was retrieved from the defunct B15Sentra.net B11-B14 forums. The question was asked: "How fast is your B11 Sentra, Blownb310?"
You must be referring to my B11 race car? I don't normally drag it, but I did test it at the strip. With the 10.2 to 1 E16 I spoke of, it ran a 15.3 sec. at 89 mph. But that was a mild engine. I replaced it with a .035 over E16 with 13 to 1 forged Cosworth pistons, o-ringed the block, full floated the stock rods, balanced it, used another new Motorsport big valve head, lightly ported, added a Rebello .490" lift cam, the twin 44mm Mikuni's, Pacesetter header w/crankcase evacuation, lightened stock flywheel, [cut on brake lathe myself], and used the stock lightweight stamped steel cam and jackshaft sprockets, that came off of my Pulsar turbo engine [E15ET]. I bought a used Motorsport "Ultra-close ratio" five-speed gearset in my RS5F30A transaxle, with 4.16 final gears. On C12 leaded racing gas, and 13" slicks, it ran a 14.18 at 96.9 mph. I was pleased, [especially for an "E" engine, that many people regard as a boat anchor].
Holy crap. Nice work... What kind of intake manifold did you use for the Mikuni carbs?
I had a hard time finding a twin side draft intake for an E-series engine. I asked Dave Rebello at Rebello Racing [in CA] if he had one, while I was ordering my cam from him. He said the Nissan Motorsport intakes were discontinued a long time ago. Luckily, he said he had one Mexican made generic twin side draft intake kicking around, that was a rough casting, not machined. He sold it to me cheaply, and I had it machined and then ported it while it was bolted to my cyl. head, for a perfect port match. It had an internal vacum balance orifice cast into it, between the cyl. runners. Dave didn't know why, and told me to block them off by filling them in. I used PC-7 and it works fine. The carbs themselves are 44mm, but came with 37mm "chokes" installed from Motorsport. This is fine, because I don't feel that my engine would benefit from having any larger a venturi. It pulls strongly from 5,400 to 7,000 rpm.
Huh. Sounds awesome. Can you give us more details about your pistons and the full floating piston pins?
The pistons were bought used, from a pile of old E16 race engines Dave had. One of them had a few nicks on the bottom of it, obviously from an engine faliure, but they polished out easily, and were not problematic in any way. I fit them at .0035" piston to wall clearance. The advice Dave gave me, was to use the stock forged rods, to drill a 1/8th inch oil hole at the top of the small end [pin end] of the rod, and champher the hole. Then have the pin bore of the rod honed for .001" clearance for the now full floating stock E16 wrist pin, and no bronze bushing would be necessary. He was right, no problems at all. It sure beats pressing the piston pins on and off too. Here's a great tip I learned from Dave also: For a real hot "E" engine, the total amount of ignition timing you'll want is ONLY 18-20 degrees. This is not very much, compared to other engines, but the shape and the small 17.9cc chambers on the FI or Turbo heads, dictate this. Again, I never would have tried that little timing, unless Dave Rebello said so. He dyno's all kinds of E-series race engines, and is in "the know." Thank you Dave!
Where does the actual floating pin come from? Are forged pistons still available?
The piston pins I used were the OE pins, nothing special about them. The fact that they are no longer pressed into the rod, and that they are now fitted with .001" clearance, makes them a floating pin. There are teflon "buttons" that center the pin and retain it, in the piston. The pistons were made by Cosworth. I would imagine that you could get them from places like Malvern Racing [VA] or Rebello Racing [CA]. The web address for Malvern Racing is:
http://www.malvernracing.com, and the Rebello's web address is:
http://www.rebelloracing.com.