The Heart of a Record Breaker II: The Doctor Is In
In our last story, we covered the basic design of our land speed record breaking engine we've dubbed the SR15VET 20V. This time around, we'll take a deep look inside the engine and detail its build with none other than our resident Nissan guru, Nick Hunter of 5523 Motorsports.
We like to call him the zombie vampire because we're ass clowns who find the need to humor ourselves at the expense of others. Put all the ass-clownery aside though, take a deep look into Nick Hunter's track record of building Nissans, and you'll quickly understand how he earned his real nick name “the 23 Doctor.” (Translating 2-3 into Japanese you get ni-san.) Nick's nickname (no pun intended), was initially earned through his experience repairing thousands of Nissans as a master tech at a local Nissan dealer. However, the nickname was quickly solidified through the multiple VQ35DE race engine builds he executed for Grand Am race teams as well as the likes of Dai Yoshihara and his Abu Dhabi drift car. Throw in the slew of SR20DET, RB26DETT and VR38DETT street car builds he has executed over the years and there's no need to justify the nickname any further. Let's take a look at the Nissan Doctor in action.
It just so happens that Nick Hunter was one of the first in the US to figure out how to install a SR20VE head on a SR20DET block. Although most everything lines up, there are a few things that need to be addressed to make the SR20VE head swap happen. Since the VVL head doesn't line up exactly with the RWD SR20DET block, plugging this drain hole in the block is one of the modifications that needs to be made.
To accomplish this, Nick Hunter drilled out one of the factory oil drain holes in the block with a 45/64 drill bit and then used a ½-14 tap to thread the hole. Nick then threaded a stainless steel plug in place.
Upon receiving the engine block back from the machine shop, amongst some of the many things that Nick Hunter measures and verifies, is the flatness of the block's deck along with the bore diameter and cylindricity.
