After seeing the Alfa Romeo twin cam engines converted from chain drive to belt drive and gaining almost 8hp it seems this is possible for an L series since the LD20T II diesel engine has all the bits required. I wonder if a gain can be had from an L series with such a strange conversion apart from giving a little more clearance on the bonnet and front radiator, intercooler if turboed.

eg.

http://images01.olx-st.com/ui/8/45/73/1 ... -autos.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voYEcjb9k8c

Les Collins recently built a belt-drive L-series, although with a KA24 head. Can't find any pics / reference to it though ? Maybe saw it on Facebook ??

From memory, was dry sump, which would solve the "what do I do with the oil pump" question.

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1970 ex Group A Rally P510
1971 P510
1972 180B SSS
1965 SP310 Fairlady
1966 SP311 Fairlady

Good to know so there is some reasoning behind it, love to see the KA belt drive thats really mad!
I saw a complete dry sump kit with all bits needed, tank, lines, pump, pulleys go cheap on wolfcreek racing $600usd

Les has a belt drive engine he's built for a customer:

Z24 block
Billet crank
KA24 head converted to belt drive
dry-sumped
4, 50mm TB's
2. Ltrs
Est 310hp+

Cost: More than any sane person would spend.

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Classic Auto Fabrications:
http://www.ozdat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=31659

http://www.lescollinsracing.com/

I keep saying it in the past now Ive seen it all but again now Ive seen it all
Thanks Lurch you always blow my mind with these posts. The bar is always
raised higher by Les a real revolutionary thinker.
I hope it gets the box it deserves eg. nothing less than sequential 6 speed

AFAIK it's getting a CR 71B gearbox behind it.

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Classic Auto Fabrications:
http://www.ozdat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=31659

http://www.lescollinsracing.com/

Not surprised if all the coins gone to that belt driven art piece

Why go belt. Imho chains are proven and better long term. None of this 5years or 100000km rubbish.

nothing better than a good belting for speedier horses

[ quote="unfamilia"]Why go belt. Imho chains are proven and better long term. None of this 5years or 100000km rubbish.[/quote] Couldn't agree more, maybe a bit of chest beating? If there's any HP gain, kiss it goodbye and more with that oil pump.

Chains stretch, guides wear, oil pressure fed tensioner block wears and low oil pressure on startup can be ann issue.
All needs replacing, on rebuild, but does last longer.

Belt drives have been known to jump a tooth, and even rip teeth off a belt.
Example,,,
The sexy " look at my exposed belt drive" types that remove the plastic covers,,,, great, until a small pebble or stone gets flung up under a belt or sprocket.
Have seen results from three such "exposed/sexy" belt drives.
They are covered up now, after bending valves, smashing pistons, etc.

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Yep, i race a Datsun, and I drive a truck, sometimes I get confused, and then the truck goes fast, and the Datsun gets a lot of boxes shoved into it. AWW GEE

good points but also less noise and less inertia from belts, eventually belts will be cheaper as chain kits disappear

Bringing this back up,

I really want to L16 one of my Datsun 1000

but the only way to do it would be to use a belt drive setup like shown above and an external oil pump,

now if I could use the inlet hole at the bottom right of the L series and place and external oil pump
made from an A series with L28ET or similar internals to run off the cambelt pulley where the chain
drive would usually sit on an L series crank, is this possible?

That way I could run a front plate to seal the front of the L series block, a chopped Na20e head
similar to the Z18et but with kidney chambers also using a belt cog and would save heaps of
room at the front using an external mechanica or e- water pump and megajolt crankfire ignition.

Belts wont replace chains. Subaru have gone back to chains as are honda slowly
. Most deisel are chain too. So rationale going to belt doesn't make sense for efficency or power savings unless you need every poofteenth of a kw.

Any particular reason, or just because that's the way you want to do it? Nothing wrong if that is the case, although personally I'm with the others who suggest staying with the timing chain.

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green200b - aka Alistair

The fleet:

Australia:
'80 200B GX - the green200b - hibernating
'81 RX-7 - 12A extend port - daily
'74 RX-2 - 13B bridgeport - cruiser

Europe:
'93 200SX - CA18DET - tourer