LT1 into a Z32 + more

[dts300z]

Ok her it goes… some of this everyone has seen but I wanted to put everything in one place with a few comments to help others out. I have been back and forth with engine swaps in this car for a long time. Since 2003 or so I have done 3 swaps in this car and I have finally made a good choice with the LT1. I actually initially started with the LT1 and then took it out and sold everything off to put away money for a house. I then dropped a turbo 4cyl. in it thinking that would pacify my needs (well that did not last long). So here we are again with the new swap (back to the ole LT1).

The first time I did this swap I really did not plan anything out and pretty much just threw the setup in and wired it up… it turned out pretty shitty to say the least (but it was a lot of fun). So this time I really thought things out and just dove right into a huge project. I first started with tearing out the inside of the car and cutting some big ass holes… lol.







I got excited after cutting the hole and forgot to take some good pictures so here is the new tunnel in rough stages. I pretty much took a sheet of 16 gauge for the fire wall and cut out a nice radius and tangent legs to wrap underneath the car. Then I used a sheet of 22 gauge to create the tunnel. The 16 gauge piece on the firewall acted as a guide for putting the tunnel in and just kinda fell in place (with a little persuasion of course). Then I broke out the good ole body filler and sander and went to town.








Ahhh amazing what a little bondo and paint does…









Now its time to fab up some mounts. First thing is first lets see how far back we can shove this engine and center everything up. You have to center everything up tack it in place then build your mounts. Don’t do what I originally did and wedge it in and weld it… lol. Take you time and be sure everything has clearance and nothing will interfere with the engine rocking from torque and settling in place with the new mounts. I’m not a pro just a DIYer so don’t take everything literal. So here are the engine mounts and how the engine sits.









Here is the tranny mount… kinda beefy. Gotta have reinforcement.








Now you gotta figure out the wiring. Its pretty simple if you do your research. And here is the first fire up. Ohh and don’t forget everything else like exhaust, driveshaft, radiator, fans, fluids, filters, etc….



And when naturally aspiration is not enough you gotta build a home made turbo kit.













And this is what happens when you don’t tune the car and just turn up the boost without adjusting the timing on a 130k engine that has overheated a few times due to a bad fan relay… lol. Blown head gasket and broken ring lands on pistons 1 and 3. I heard the detonation on the final dyno pass. I get excited when I start making power and well I’ll turn up the boost until something happens… woops.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Turbo-LT1-300ZX_158121.htm





Its amazing when you have a ton of time to figure things out cause your broke and you have nothing to do but think of ways to spend the money you don’t have. So instead of just replacing a few pistons and the head gaskets might as well go the distance. Now I’m working on installing a MSII engine management and Ford EDIS-8, injectors, forged pistons ARP hardware and a bunch of other goodies. Here are the pictures of the progress with the EDIS stuff. This is from design to finish.. well almost finished.



This is a bracket a I came up with to hold the VR (variable reluctance) sensor… and it bolts right where the opti used to reside.






Here is the wheel after getting it back from the EDM. Man it turned out good…





Here is everything mocked up on a timing cover.



Well I ended up adding a revision to the design. I got a ATI balancer hub and now where I decided to key the factory hub is not going to work with the ATI. So since this happened I decided to make the wheel concentric to the ATI hub to minimize runout. But I still mocked everything back up so I could get everything lined up and ready to go. Although this is not the final 36-1 wheel you can get the idea.















There will be more to come!!!!

[dts300z]

Ok just an update to show you where I’m at… I’ve got some goodies in the mail over the last few months and the engine is going to the machine shop tomorrow. So far I have everything for the bottom end build minus the cam.




I’m still waiting on the new 36-1 wheel but I got the new alternator bracket I drew up and it fits pretty well. I still need to wait till I get the engine together to build the spacers to line up the pulley but you get the idea.





I’ve also installed the new shifter… going with an ole turbo 350 to take some stress off the R200 and axles in place of the T56 I previously had.



I got a wild hair and threw together a side exhaust that exits out of the lower front quarter. I have always wanted to do this… I took an old magnaflow muffler and cut it down to about 8” from its original 12 or so. I took great care not to screw up the packing and overall it turned out great. I revised the engine mounts just a touch centering the engine in the bay within 1/16”. I made the new down pipe to connect to the muffler and cleaned all unnecessary wiring and fuse blocks out of the engine bay. I relocated everything in the car under the dash (easy access). Incase you are wondering about tire clearance between the exhaust there is plenty from lock to lock.










This is the block off plate I made for the clutch master.

[dts300z]

Alright! So I got the block back from the machine shop along with the rotating assembly and I went to town... I gapped the top rings at 0.025" and the second at 0.024". I plastigauged all the bearings and all the mains were right at 0.0025" across the board and the rods were from 0.0025" - 0.0030". After assembly and torque everything to spec I put a torque wrench on the end of the crank and it took about 25 ft. pounds to start rotating and about 15 or so to keep it going. So far so good!!!







Yea I know I'm messy. I'm also very liberal with the moly too. loll....

[dts300z]

Alright I got it idleing good! Here is a little taste of poor quality video at its finest... lol.

[dts300z]

I hooked up the line lock today…



I used a main activation switch and 1 switch is for just the front and the other is for both front and rear. I set it up this way to give me better staging and to be able to load the drive train a little better.



I also installed the tranny cooler and lines.








Lastly I ran into a little snag with the transmission. The aluminum boss crack when I torqued down the front pump… what a bummer and one stripped out. Oh well looking for a new case now.





I now have a new hole to fill in the back of the car… lol. I got bored and I couldn’t drive the car so I decided to cut on it instead. Just so you know this was a spare tire well. For the time being I’ll use this gained area for a single muffler with dual tips.

[dts300z]

Ok here is a picture of the engine in the car. Keep in mind I still need to re-wrap the engine harness... long story. I have been taking it out on evening cruises for shake down purposes and I have a small trans leak at the shift linkage.

[dts300z]

I put this in the MS section but I did not do such a great job and stuck it in one of my trouble shooting threads so here you go!

Here are a couple maps that seem to work pretty good. I HAVE NOT done any final tuning but the driveability is good and the plugs look good so far.

This combo includes:
LT1 355 (around 9:1)
60# injectors
EDIS-8
T-70 master power (.96 A/R)

I have not tuned full throttle yet. Use at your own risk!

[dts300z]

Ok just a quick update and a FYI.

FYI: Don't use the VE table above... lol it is pig ass rich. I will post a new and better table soon enough. The timing table seems to be a good starting point.

Update: I am currently in the process of wiring up LS1 coils and fixing some little stuff (leaks etc...). I just finished up the wiring last night and I'll start playing around with the MS to get it fired up again. Videos shall come soon!! Pictures too!!

[dts300z]

Here are a few pictures with the LS1 coils and a quick video. I still need to work on the tune but it will get there. Also I ran out of electrical tape so the harness is not fully wrapped...

[dts300z]

Well one more thing to hold me back just a little bit longer till completion. I have been bouncing back and forth on what I was going to do for the gearing in the rear end. I have finally made a decision and I'm sticking with it... . I have decided to modify the sub frame to accept a 350z differential that so happens to have the perfect gearing (3.35:1) for my tire size I'll be running (26").

So far I have yanked out the sub frame and cut it up a little to make room for the wider footprint between the ears on the 350z diff. As seen below in the comparison picture. You will also notice the the height of the ears are different as well in comparison from the centerline of the pinions and this will also be addressed.

300z on the left and 350z on the right




Here is the cuts I've made so far to make a little room.





You can see in this picture the difference between the rear covers and unfortunately they won't swap.

350z left and the 300z right



The plan here is to mill down the cover around the perimeter bolts so I can design a girdle to replace the missing mounting point. It so happens that the one bolt lines up perfectly and will provide a point of origin for the differential.


Unfortunately this diff is an open diff and well lets just say I stopped at spools-r-us on the way home... and since this is not an everyday driver it will be fine for my application.





No worries I still have a little more welding to do on that...

[dts300z]

Ok, I boxed in the subframe with some 1/8" plate and welded everything up. I still need to work on the girdle for the back of the differential but the front mount is good to go. The picture has an optical illusion and the holes look cocked but they aren't. I will keep the updates coming as I make progress.

OH and sorry about the bad camera phone picture...



I'll get some more pictures of the differential mounted in its new home...

[dts300z]

Just a small update!

I'm waiting on some axles to show up and a few parts for the differential so I can reassemble it. I hope to have some real progress over the next few weeks so stay tuned for some pictures and hopefully some dyno videos will follow in the near future.