Lola 340 with Nissan A-12 motor HELP!!!

[Offcamber1]

Gentlemen,

I realize this is an open wheel forum, but this thing did start life as a Lola FF and thought maybe someone here could point me in the right direction...

I just left the garage of a friend from Rotary. He has had a Lola 340 modded to DSR specs with a Nissan A-12 motor for 8 years and has never really run it in anger. He had it running a few years back and took it up and down the local road, then wisely put it back in his garage. Trouble starting it...

Here's what I know so far: The motor has an Electromotive crank fire ignition set at either 38 or 40 BTDC, and two 45 DCOE Webers. The motor has some build sheets from a guy named Malcom Garrett in Lubbick Texas and it appears to have an aggressive cam and some fairly well done valve/head work as the red line is at 9K. We turned it over today and the car has an alarmingly MIGHTY spark, so I think some of the problem is the fact that the timing is static and set so far to advance to make it difficult to fire up cold.

Does anyone out there run something similar???

Here's what I need to know to get going:

1. What plug should I use for "Cold start?"
2. What plug should I use for "Hot running?"
3. 45DCOE are pretty big carbs. Too big?
4. If not, what would be appropriate jet and choke sizes?

Otherwise, it appears to be a pretty nice car. I'm a bit out of my element here, having worked on FV, FSV, FF, and F-Atlantic cars in the past. I've got no experience with this type of motor beyond what little FF knowledge that I have that might cross over. Any help or hints would be appreciated. Any potential contacts with direct experience with a machine of this nature would be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Ciao,

Kip

[Offfield]

The first thing you should do is call malcom garrit . If you can't track him down See if you can find a engine shop that still works on these motors. They are great little motors the carbs should be fine and they love to rev some people were turning them to 11 thou.
offfield

[Offcamber1]

The first thing you should do is call malcom garrit . If you can't track him down See if you can find a engine shop that still works on these motors. They are great little motors the carbs should be fine and they love to rev some people were turning them to 11 thou.
offfield

I have found an email addy for Mr. Garrett using Google. Sent him a message and will see what kind of response I get. If I recall correctly, there was a bloke back in the 1980s that made the runnoffs each year with a Nissan powered car and competed with the Beasley Boys at the front of the pack. For some reason the name Miller rings a bell on that, but it has been a while.

[JerryH]

That engine was the engine of choice at one time. more than one of these ran at the front in several runoffs.

The static timing/starting problem can be overcome by simply spinning the motor over with the ignition switch off, then turning it on while the motor is spinning. Very common practice at one time.

Although not competive today, it should still be a lot of fun to play with.

Enjoy,

Jerry

[Offcamber1]

That engine was the engine of choice at one time. more than one of these ran at the front in several runoffs.

The static timing/starting problem can be overcome by simply spinning the motor over with the ignition switch off, then turning it on while the motor is spinning. Very common practice at one time.

Although not competive today, it should still be a lot of fun to play with.

Enjoy,

Jerry

Thanks Jerry, I had not heard of that technique for getting it to fire. We'll give that a shot next weekend.

He is interested in going Vintage with it, but I'd like to see him hit some SCCA regionals with it instead.

The log book goes all that way back so the first book has pictures of the car as a Lola 340 FF when it was new. What a beautiful car! It has been tastefully, but permanently modified now as a Sports Racer. Not a bad little car.

Two more years of child support for this dead-beat dad, so it will be a while before I get back behind the wheel. I figure I might as well jump back in the pool as a wrench and get into the swing of things.

Ciao,

Kip

[stonebridge20]

For any A12 questions, give Vinny Bedini @ Performance Specialties a call.
(860) 355-1829

He only builds Datsun L and A series race engines.

[rwindle]

Malcolm Garrett is indeed from Lubbock, TX and was a Nissan sponsored driver in SCCA's GT3 class in the 80s and 90s. His cars were very well prepared and faster than one would think a production based car should be. His engines were always in the hunt at the runoffs in his and customer cars. Hope you find him.

[stonebridge20]

Malcolm Garrett is indeed from Lubbock, TX and was a Nissan sponsored driver in SCCA's GT3 class in the 80s and 90s. His cars were very well prepared and faster than one would think a production based car should be. His engines were always in the hunt at the runoffs in his and customer cars. Hope you find him.

All true but Malcolm passed away. I think his son Danny? is still running the shop.

[Offcamber1]

All true but Malcolm passed away. I think his son Danny? is still running the shop.

Bummer. But it sounds like he did quite a bit of racing and was highly respected by his friends and competitors. We'll see how this goes next weekend and if I strike out I will try Vinny or Malcolm's son.

Thank you for the help and suggestions. I'm optimistic that we can get it fired up next week.

[10rmotor]

Travis Duder won the runoffs 3 or 4 times at Road Atlanta in DSR with an A series Datsun motor. Bill Lomenick in Simi Valley also ran that motor for a number of years, also in a DSR.

[Offcamber1]

Travis Duder won the runoffs 3 or 4 times at Road Atlanta in DSR with an A series Datsun motor. Bill Lomenick in Simi Valley also ran that motor for a number of years, also in a DSR.

I did hear from Bill Lomenick over on the Sports Racer forum. He was thinking Travis Duder would be the best source of info as well. Anyone have contact info on Travis? If you do not wish to send that to me via PM then could you forward my email to him for me and request that he please, please drop me an email? khollowell@comwares.net

Thanks in advance!

Kip

[Earl Zwickey]

All true but Malcolm passed away. I think his son Danny? is still running the shop.

No, Mike, I don't think so. I had an email from him last week. You must have him mixed up with someone else. His son is not Danny, and his son has never been in the engine building business with him. Malcolm is still in Lubbock.

Kip, please send me a private message if you would like contact information for Malcolm.

Earl Zwickey

[DD16]

Contact Peter Zekert in St. Louis. He ran this engines in GT5 for years. He advertises on the Race Car Sales website for his email.

[DLayton]

Here is Peter Zekert's e-mail: peterzekert@juno.com. He's based in St. Louis and does a lot of buying/selling of Datsun A-series engine parts in addition to building his own motors. He won the GT-Lite SCCA Runoffs a couple of years ago using an A-series engine in his tube frame Nissan 200SX.

Between these three mentioned in this string (Peter, Vinny Bedini or Malcolm Garrett) should be able to get you the answers you need.

[stonebridge20]

No, Mike, I don't think so. I had an email from him last week. You must have him mixed up with someone else. His son is not Danny, and his son has never been in the engine building business with him. Malcolm is still in Lubbock.


Earl Zwickey

Earl, Thanks for clearing that up. Someone told me Malcolm died in March of 01. It turns out that the Malcolm Garrett that died in Lubbock was another Malcolm Garrett origionaly from NM. I'm glad to hear that Malcolm is still alive and kicking. He builds some great stuff!

[Offcamber1]

I am glad to hear that the news of Mr. Garrett's demise (Like Samuel Clemems) has been greatly exaggerated!

I also heard again from Bill, who found some motor set up notes from Mr. Duder, so I know have a good base line on the carb jets and spark plugs. Peter Zecker is only 160 or so miles away from me so that is an outstanding resource as well.

Thank you gentlemen, so much, for your help. With the right plugs and a little persuasion, hopefully we will have it running this weekend.

Again, thanks!

Kip

[Offcamber1]

Ok, I showed up early this morning and started through my checklist. Turning the motor over on just the starter motor without plugs in I could only get 10 pounds of oil pressure at the gauge... So I started checking stuff that wasn't on my list.

A quick compression test revealed 160, 50, 55, 60 in the four cylinders. A wet test revealed roughly the same in the three low cylinders. So I checked and adjusted the valves. #1 was close, but 2,3,4 were all a bit loose. After adjusting I re-ran the compression test with the same results.

I did not have my dial indicator (I had thought far enough ahead to put the compression tester in my truck, but dial indicator never occurred to me) to check for sure but it appeared that I have great lift at all 8 valves. There are some beautiful billit aluminum roller rocker arms on the rocker shaft, and by looking in the plug holes it looks like we have some nice high compression high dome pistons. So, my guess is that I have some bent intake valves.

My friend had had the head off to look in the cylinders a few years back, and also pulled the pan to look at the big end bearings on the rods, but says that he did not have the crank or cam out. So theoretically the cam timing has not changed.

Question: Did these things use to run special head gaskets? Years ago I ran an 850 Fiat in H Prod and with an agressive GK cam, and high dome pistons, I had to run a special head gasket to keep from blowing it out and as I recall, it was a bit thicker than the stock one. So I'm thinking when my friend had it apart he might have pitched the special head gasket, then installed a slightly thinner stock one, thus reducing clearences enough to shag the valves.

Regardless, it looks like minimally the head has to come off. So I guess I will try and get contact info on Malcolm Garrett and see if he is still working on motors. If so, we box the head up and send it to him.

Anyone who has any suggestions or guidance, please by all means pitch in hear an post whatever info you feel will be useful.

Thanks!

Kip

[Jeff Jagusch]

Might want to look at the lift for each of the valves, perhaps you have a worn cam and lifters.
common issue

Jeff

[10rmotor]

Can you see any divots in the pistons from the possibly bent valves?

[Offcamber1]

My next step is to pull the rocker shaft and use a dial indicator to check the cam lift on all lobes. Then the head comes off for a good look at the piston tops and valves.

After thinking about this most of the day, I'm inclined to think that regardless of the information these steps reveal, the motor needs to come out and be gone through completely. Who knows what else is wrong?

[glenn cooper]

doing a leak down test on it, and finding just where those low cranking compression #'s are coming from.
As for the oil pressure, I'm not sure you will see impressive #'s at starter cranking speed.
It does sound as though taking the engine down and going through it might be the best bet in regard to how long it had been hibernating.