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spent the last few days focusing on fixing some steering geometry. If you guys remember this car came with the 240sx knuckles and if you've ever done any research on that swap, its hot garbage. I spent some time adusting ackerman right off the bat and made it so it was drivable and made a small adjustment last week. My plan has always been to modify them and get all the geometry dialed to how i like it and then scan it. and make a billet version that is modular and can be tweaked in from there. Anyway. This weekends goal was to dial in the mechanical trail and some roll center correction. The 240sx knuckle on the wrong side of the car made the mechanical trail very large so the car had very very heavy steering feel. I did some measuring and made a decision. Clipped off 8º of angle off the ball joint mount. and offset the mount to where i wanted it. Designed and machined an adapter block and welded it on. came up with a quick bumpsteer kit as the knuckle needs to have the tie rod mount lowered by a good bit. didn't take good photos but the car drives SO MUCH BETTER. steering feels great. "light" (for manual steering) but centers still centers well and has good feedback. Took the wife to get ice cream last night and what a great feeling that was after a year of work.

Got the the hood and inspection covers on. Happy

Before getting the top side and interior sealed up in 2 coats of white epoxy, I first hit the underside. I chose to do it in black Epoxy to more follow the original paint where you could see the black though white overspray. I first put down a full coat of the black again using my 360 degree extension paint gun to get in all the difficult location like between the spare tire well and rear valance, then a normal 1.4mm tip gun. After allowing the top to cure for two days I sanded out the bottom side and scuffed it well with Scotchbrite. I then applied 2k epoxy seam sealer in all the original OEM locations I then taped up the topside and put down a final coat of black I then let that cure for two days before applying the Gravitex. It is made by U-Pol the same company who makes Raptorliner, Gravitex is better in my opinion for the other side as it is intended as a sound insulting stone and chip guard. Its what you see on the rocker panels of German cars. Goes on the same with an undercoating style gun. Its a 1k product so I will need a sealer coat on top of it before finally paining the underside white in body color. I really happy how it came out. The weeks of metal work straitening and shrinking the original floor pans really looks good all finished.

Alright, finally got some time to make some more progress. The engine is mostly disassembled, and I have mics and a bore gauge coming to measure clearances. I am planning on a stock engine, with the oil fixes, and a bigger turbo. I am not concerned with making a ton of power; anything will be better than the stock L24, and I just want it to not blow up immediately. I am new to engine work, and have a couple of questions: 1. Does anyone have any recommendations for what size oil restrictors to use? Enjuku sells oil gallery restrictors in 0.9, 1.1, 1.3, and 1.5 mm. 2. I have googled RB25 specs for rod and piston bearing clearances, but does anyone have a trusted source that they recommend? Thanks for all the help! I have read through the site and watched a couple of rebuild videos, but I'm still not 100%, and I don't want to make a stupid mistake.

Got an Accusump for the Z, and made a mounting bracket for it. I’m going to have another plate on the front side to weld on some angle iron for the oil cooler to mount on. Added a pressure sensor so I can read the Accusump oil pressure with the engine oil pressure so I can see when it’s charging and discharging. the bottom bolts are just to hold the clamps and it’ll sit up slightly higher when it’s tightened up.

You want to do mine next?

Its been an exhausting month of hard work getting the chassis in Epoxy to move it back home before the end of the month. Here is the process. 1.) strip all factory sound deadening/undercoating with a scraper, heat gun, wire brush. 2.) clean any residue with paint stripper and after-wash solvent. 3.) strip original paint from body with Citri-Strip paint stripper - again clean with after-wash 4.) remove interior tar paper with dry ice and liquid nitrogen. 5.) wash and clean entire body with Mastercoat metal prep - phosphoric acid rust neutralizer https://nomorerust.com/collections/metal-prep-rust-remover-products 6.) sandblast all seams and overlop joints. 7.) brush Mastercoat rust sealer primer into all seams and nooks https://nomorerust.com/products/mastercoat-ultimate-permanent-rust-sealer-silver-primer-original-sprayable-slim-quart 8.) lightly blast the floor pans with white aluminum oxide until white metal 9) brush 3 coats of Mastercoat rust sealer primer on to floors 10) blast the internal frame chambers clean and blow out any sand 11) spray the internal cavities ( rocker panels, rear fenders, rear internal quarter, and front internal cowl area with Matercoat using a 18 inch long extended tip spray gun https://paascheairbrush.com/collections/extension-spray-guns?shop_consented_scopes=email%3Averified+openid+pay%3Asession_token+profile+shop%3Aaccount_uuid&shop_sign_in=true using a 360 degree spray tip to coat all surfaces 12) sand the entire body removing any Mastercoat not reaming in pits or detents 13) sand the entire external body shell and underside with 180 grit and clean with wax and grease remover 14) lightly blast entire body inside and out until perfectly clean and lightly textured to promote adheision - holding the blast nozzle 12 to 15 inches away at 60psi with white aluminum oxide 15) hours blowing out the remaining grit 16) again using 360 degree long extension spray gun, paint all internal cavities and under sides with DPLV Epoxy Primer 17) Spray entire body inside, outside, underside with 2 coats of Epoxy Ridiculous amount of hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-kogRrJYJU

Got a little more work done. Started getting the front end together. headlights wired up. have new corner markers on the way and need to come up with a grill and turn signal. Bent up some brake line templates and headed to the parts store to try and get some pre bent heater hose. was a successful journey. got a u bend that worked for both hoses perfectly. Got the hoses on. pressure tested for leaks. found one small one at the turbo. fixed it. filled and bled the cooling system. Got the fan hooked up to the ECU thru PWM, and man does this fan flow some air. turned all the way up it might move the car like a fan boat. haha. I had it running while playing with the tune at 35% duty cycle and it CLT stayed at 172ºF when it was 85ºF in the shop so i was happy about that. will play with setting once i can get it on the road. I made the alternator bracket to move it to the driver side but having a little issue with belt routing. Currently did get a belt on but the tensioner doesn't have enough movement to work how I'd like so I'll reevaluate this later. Belt is tight and spins everything so I can run it this way for now and figure something else out later. I have the same alternator on my other car but on the passenger side so worst case I can probably get away with moving it back over there. just was trying to avoid the heat from the turbo. Also got the brakes bled. I'm real close to taking it for a spin around the neighborhood. Going to try and get the edged around the windows sanded and buffed this week so i can put the glass back in.

This is how I feel watching some youtube channels. popularity doesn't mean skill or quality.

Very nicely done, love it! I'm on my second early 260Z so I've got a soft spot for the S30 family middle child. I do have a syncrometer, I've been tuning sidedraft Webers on-and-off for close to 15 years now. It's been some time since I've played with SUs but they're pretty simple devices comparatively. BTW, have you checked your valve lash? This is super critical to do on a fresh head. The lash can change considerably and quickly over the first few hundred miles as the valves break into their seats. I did my motor break-in while driving the car to JCCS back in 2013 and by the time I reached SLO, a cam lobe was already wiped. My best guess is that it was a result of the aggressive wipe pattern of my cam combined with a rapid reduction in lash during break-in. I'd love to pop by Pre-Stage again some time as well, I've only been once and that was on a rainy day last December. Maybe I'll even have my side mirror repainted and fresh door cards mounted by then...

Hey Leon, Thanks for the reply! Pic attached for attention - you can probably figure out which are before vs after . The interior isn't all there yet, so not sharing that mess, still troubleshooting some stuff inside. Now that the alignment is done, I'm not opposed to bringing it down your way. Still working on break-in miles (it's at 78 total), so not trying to do any LONG drives just yet, but that might be manageable. Just have to figure out timing, and tooling. I don't have an empi style vacuum tester just yet, do you? I'll also be at Cars and Coffee (Vintage Oaks) and Pre-Stage (Marin Civic Center) in September, if anyone will be there! Robert

I got curious so i did this layout to approximate scale. It's not 100% accurate, but it gives you an idea of how our car sits in the world. Autos& Vehicles

car is officially registered and insured so i spent the weekend trying to button up a few things to make it a bit more "street friendly". did managed to put about 10 miles on it. I have a few things i need to address before racing it but it drove on the street decent. After the initial drive. did a nut and bolt check. then did like 4, did another check, and then another 6ish and everything is looking good. Got the driver mirror on. I wasn't 100% confident id like the round mirror so i designed and 3d printed an adapter to use the factory holes in the door rather than drill new holes i'd regret later. Its growing on me. I may buy a better quality mirror but the round is looking decent. Will still hook up electronic boost control but for now i just put 10psi springs in the wastegate and gave it a vacuum source. When I moved the strut towers back and inboard, i forgot to modify the hood to accept the new position of the strut tops so I designed and machined strut top spacers to push the adjuster down and hopefully clear the hood. I could make them a little thicker as i still have some ride height adjustment on the coilover but i think this will be enough. I'll go slow when closing the hood for the first time. I hooked up the hood release cable. decided to be a little fancier and routed it thru the wiper cowl instead of having the cable extend all the way across the engine bay. need to make a new handle for the cable pull as mine is MIA. Got the hood hinges cleaned up and painted black. fedex lost my order for replacement couplers to move my air filter to clear the hood tension bars so i didnt get the hood on this weekend.

08-14-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE/. Plastics 4 Performance has sent the final draft for my polycarbonate rear hatch "glass" for my approval. It is ready for production! The vents are to give the car an even more open air feel, which is what I want with this build. should look pretty cool. 8/32 bolts will be around the edge with a thin rubber layer between it and the lip on the hatch. Ferrari uses the vents for engine heat.....I used them because I like the look and as I said the open air feel.......no glass at all looks too unfinished to my eye. PICS:

A few pictures from the last time the engine was out

The front plate mid plate set-up was way easier than regular motor mounts. I originally used stock mounts, but switched to the motor plates when I decided to make it purely a track car. The front plate is 1/4" aluminum and sandwiches between the water pump and timing cover. The rear plate is .090" steel and sandwiches between the block and bell housing. The front plate on mine attached to tabs welded to tubes at the front strut towers. The mid plate is attached to two tabs welded to the frame. I use a regular rubber transmission mount. You can buy front and mid plates for the SBF that have the water pump and bell housing bolt patterns already machined. The plates come with a lot of extra material that allow you to trim to fit about anything.

Finally had the time to head south and pick up the replacement transmission and enjoy a cup of coffee while we were at it. And what better way to pick up a transmission for the broken one in your Z then with said Z! 😂 All jokes aside she still drives fine except for a worn out syngro on second gear and a missing fifth gear. The replacement gearbox is a >80’s FS5W71B 5-speed from a 280ZX that’s been in storage for a long time. I’ll be ordering some new seals and transmission oil before switching out the gearboxes for some peace of mind.

I love my front plate/mid plate mounts. It opens up lots of room under the engine and stiffens the front structure. The downside is that you hear and feel everything from the drive line.

work has been to busy, small update. Headlight bucket has been welded in and planished. Everything is starting to look alot better and starting to feel like an actual car again, not just pieces.

I drove the car about 3/4 of a mile around the block.... tune needs a lot of work (obviously), tires had a slight rub and it rattled a bit but was so exciting and such a relief after a year of hard work. Got the rest of the windows in as well. Wife offered to polish all the trim so I gave her some supplies and let her scrub away. also added a couple interior shots.

For anyone who's swapped or planning to a BMW S50B32, I have two special, exclusive engine covers to sell. A = usd$250 shipped B = usd$350 shipped

08-02-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE. I went ahead and worked on the front end today. I dropped the struts and turned them all the way in, tightened up the cross member to shell bolts with the spacers, and did a bit of wire wheel cleaning. Then I dropped the car to get a preliminary look at where I am. It is LOW. LOW, LOW, LOW! The rear quarters are on the tires, so I will have to bring that up at least an inch and then fine tune from there. I will probably do that and then drop the axle shafts in at the same time. In the front, I have about 2 inches of clearance ground to K member, and my exhaust is less than an inch. So, now I know where I am at, and can make adjustments. I might space the front wheels out an inch. I also remade the electric panel....the old one I didn't like, so I did a layout and mounted it all up. Much better. Intake pipes go in for welding and sanding, then the polisher. Click on "MOV" for short video. PICS: IMG_4592.MOV

I got a tradition with my dad that I took over, every time we buy a new vehicle we stop at Mc Donalds on the way back and get a milkshake. This also gives us some time to look and admire our new purchase. We will probably continue this tradition this weekend as I’ll be looking at a 2015 BMW M550D touring (almost 400hp diesel station wagon) as a new daily driver.

The first ice cream trip is a great payoff for the hard work.

08-25-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE: I had a few minutes this morning, so I went ahead and prepped my new front brake calipers, by mounting the brake pads in and getting them ready for install. I got the calipers and pads from Z Car Depot.

I run 275/35-15 Hoosier or Avon 23x10.5-15 on all four corners. That size works pretty well and is the limit that I can run with struts and the SubtleZ body kit. If I had the SLA suspension, I would use wider wheels limited only by the body work and tire availability. I feel like 10 inch wide front wheels are perfect for these cars, but the rear could use a little more.

There is a point of diminishing returns on tire width. It varies greatly with many factors tho so no one size fits all. Its a balance of contact patch, corner weight and suspension geometry. The double a arm front will allow for a good amount of adjustment with caster, and KPI that we can't get easily with struts.

I still have struts on all four corners. Because of this, I am limited to how much backspace I can accommodate with my wheels. All four of my wheels are 15x10 with 5.25" backspace. I run 3/8" spacers up front and none in the rear. So, a 15x10 is actually 11" wide, and a 5.25" backspace is equivalent to a -.25" offset. If you look at the steering geometry of the strut suspension, I have a fairly significant scrub radius. Having a large scrub radius causes a couple of problems. First, the tire sweeps forward and backward as it goes though the range of steering motion. This can cause the tire to contact the fender / air dam. Second, if you have sufficient caster, the tire will rise and fall significantly causing weight jacking effects. If I had the sla front suspension, I would try to adjust to fit the wheel with the most positive offset that I could get. This would minimize scrub radius and maximize control arm length. You will get less weight jacking as you turn the steering wheel, and the wheel will rotate about a point closer to the center of the contact patch.

08-23-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE. Today was another tough one. 4+ hours in getting the clutch master cylinder rod screwed in to the custom clevis on the pedal arm and then everything bolted back up, adjusted and set up. VERY hard for me to get in there, and I am old, so it is a ball breaker. I knew it would be and put it off for months, today I did it. I managed to get the trim piece I mentioned yesterday painted silver and then after the clutch, I tackled the next issue. I don't know how, but there is no bar from the brake pedal arm to the switch so the brake lights will come on and go off. So, I simply took some sheet metal, bent and hammered a 90 and then with a sharpie and my angle grinder cut and formed a piece that I am bolting to he brake arm, that will stick out and push the brake light switch closed when the pedal is released. I drilled 2 holes through the arm and this sheet metal bracket It's hanging up painted and will be install with 2 1/4X20 bolts and nuts. After it was done it was time to relax a bit with a couple Coors and look around, I taped one of my atlas emblems to the front corner of the hood. I don't know If I will use it there or not, I can either paint it flat black to contrast on the gloss powder coat, paint it datsun metallic blue like the engine compartment, or I don't know, any ideas?

Hi All, I have been restomodding my very first Z (early 260), and probably did things way out of order. Got the car (rusty, needed work, half disassembled but told the engine would run, gas tank in the hatch, no airbox, etc) and it went straight into body and motor work/build. I wish I had gotten it running first, to appreciate how it ran and handled, but the rust gave me pause, so I went the full resto route first. All that said, this is not my first engine build, but my first L series and first car with carbs. Now that it's done, I need to work out what's keeping it from running better. The motor is a frankensteined together L28 (F54 block, N47 head), roughly 9.2:1 CR based on (Priddy - Cometic) head gasket and (flat top) piston combo. Steve Bonk stage 1 cam, stock hitachi/SU carbs (rebuilt with SM needles and rebuild kit from ZTherapy), cleaned up balance tube with N36 intake manifolds. Early 280zx close ratio 5sp trans,3.9 R200 rear end, stock (l28 appropriate) clutch/flywheel combo. The shop that did the body/resto work dropped the motor in, and got it running, but it I'm pretty sure it should be running a lot differently (read: better). It's idling around 5-600 rpms, lumpy, and feels pretty underpowered considering it's a light car with a modded L28. Did the break in drive in which I didn't take it over 5k RPMs, ran it decently hard with solid acceleration and engine braking across gears to seal the rings, did the oil first oil change, and all that jazz. This is where you come in - I'm hoping that someone here who knows the L series is up for a half day of walking me through confirming that the (mechanical) timing is set right (the easy part, I've done this with my other cars but appreciate a second set of eyes), then wants to help me make sure I don't do anything stupid trying to set the idle and balance the carbs. Looking to learn from one of you gurus so I'm not messing up a fresh motor in a fresh car. Anyone in the Bay Area want to come to Novato and help me out in exchange for beer, lunch, and the opportunity to mock me while you help me learn this motor? Thanks in advance! Robert

Thank you for the kind words. Im proud of this one and cant wait to get it dialed in a bit and get to enjoy it a bit on the street and track.

$170 is a lot less than I would have guessed for shipping something that size across the ocean. I've paid half that or more for shoebox-sized boxes from Japan.

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments, it was a ton of work, now it's on to the doors, hatch and hood next. I moved the car home into my garage, as I closed down my shop for good. Hope to keep making progress

https://i.imgur.com/SKO8gwQ.jpeg soldering connector did nothing, tail fuse still gets hot. i swapped pins on white connector, dome fuse is now park tail. you can really tell what is the hot fuse, color has changed

well, you could look it all up on their website plstics4performance. The hatch glass actually isn't flat, it has a crown to it. It isn't just plexiglass. it is Polycarbonate, with a special hardened coating, and the vents and everything are a custom deal. I wanted it professionally done. I waited for you to volunteer to do it for me, but you never did, so.... Yes it is made in England. Cheers.

That is just beautiful. As great as always to see your posts.

Big update on aesthetics. Got the whole front put together. Made a "crash" bar out of chromoly the support the front valance and fenders. It wraps around the front and the valance "rest" on it for support. Went a little extra because I know in the future im going to build a splitter and having a solid place for mounting will be needed. Front and rear glass is back in. will polish the quarter windows and put the side glass in this week. Fitted the fiberglass 240z bumper (had to do some trimming and fitting). need to make a more permanent center brackets. just wiped up some simple aluminum bars to hold it in place. Then i'll spray it a satin or semigloss black i think. I'll experiment. I don't think it would look good orange but maybe. Finished up the wiring to the back of the car. The PDM really simplifies the amount of wires. Added a few extras for future modifications/add ons. All the lights and electronics are working. Slowly working on the tune. it starts and free revs nicely. I plan on trying to get it registered and insured this week so i can start getting it finished up Then for the first time, under its own power. Drove it outside, took some photos and drove it back in. very exciting. Seeing it sitting in the sun, all the work I have into it and to be extremely happy with it. I'm proud of this one.

The past two days the site has been absolutely perfect in all aspects. Don't know what was done, but it sure worked! Today for the first time in ages absolutely no issues with responsiveness.

passenger floor. 1/4 X 20 nuts and bolts through the floor. Have to get a fire extinguisher over there as well. This car is more race car than street car. Strictly a street car, but it's pretty gutted. Yeah, I have door panels and panels in the rear, but no door windows, plexi rear glass ordered, no wipers, no heater, no vent air, racing style turn signal and lights stalk I have to bolt on but have it.....Just the rollbar and rear strut bar added any weight, most has been getting weight off of it. I had to reinforce the subframe to handle the power. Id like to get it under 2500.....might be hard as they have thicker sheet metal than the 240's do.

For me it works more often, and when it does work it's very snappy. When it's slow, I just hit refresh and go to a different tab for a moment and it'll be back by the time I return. It's still not perfect, but I think it's better than it was.

I haven't noticed much difference but i generally refresh the page and then flip off it and do something else while it loads.

It's a "little" thing, but progress.

I finally had some time this weekend to work on the Z again and finish off some of the little things that where nagging me. I finished my DIY door card project and got them installed in the car. I must say that they turned out pretty good. The only finishing piece would be to add the wood trim back in but I would have to make one myself. A few weeks ago I managed to pic up a set of Euro taillights from an original Dutch 260z that where in excellent condition. So with the remaining time I had that day I quickly switched them out. Yesterday there was a small all Nissan/Datsun meet I attended which gave me the opportunity to compare my Z with others and do up some inspiration for future modifications. Afterwards I finally had the time to take some proper pictures of the car (with the car not half apart) and cruise along the dikes. WhatsApp Video 2026-07-13 at 09.15.40.mp4

Got a new tool chest, been accumulating a lot of tools with this build and ran out of room to store everything. Space is limited in my garage so this will get a pile off the ground. Took a break from the heat and built two panels in the nice A/C. First panel is for anything not tied to emergency cut off like locks/lights/signals, with cut off solenoid on bottom to feed the second panel. Second panel has 3 250amp relays to power a relay box, fuse box and distribution block each running off of ignition 1, 2 or accessory position of push button start. Not sure if that’s the right way to do it, but that’s what I’m going with for now. I’ll get back to the garage and work on some other projects next.

im not happy voltage drops on this thing. best would be new fuse box re-route wiper and lights. i might try easy re-pin cause common, dome and lights uses same source. if that fuse box connector is some how the issue. on dome light i have not much draw, swap dome and light pins on end of connector

so, i failed MOT. there was no brake lights. fixed that it was loose connector on brake light switch but i found that parking light fuse was burning hot, measured current draw it was 5.6amps, seems to be common problem to melt fuse box. i did my math thought aging pressed pins heat cycles might have added resistance between those two connection so i soldered every connection. as i said earlier every load has dropped voltage slightly, no load its 13.8volts, press brake and it drops 13.3V. lights on wipers on fan at full blast i remember seen under 12volts on lighter socket. lets see how it goes after this work, if that park light fuse still gets hot first aid is led bulbs

you ever weighed this? I always thought a Z with a k series would have a great balance.

Not to hijack this thread but i can answer a couple of your questions regarding the K series engines as i was a Honda guy before i dove into old Z's. The K20A3 is the worst K series offering, you wont make anywhere near the power OP has made even with boost. I would say 300 hp is probably about the max for that motor. It does not have "real" VTEC, it only has variable valve timing on the intake cam. The valves are smaller in the head and the pistons have a weird shape as well as being lower compression. All that being said, its still a good engine, especially for free 99 lol. If you can do your own fab work swapping it in a Z will probably cost you a few grand still but would be a fun setup and quicker than an L series engine. The great thing about doing it using this engine is once its done your setup for a K series and you can find better K series options in the wild for very reasonable, so down the road if you wanted to upgrade, its just a simple engine swap. Hopefully this helps.