HAT0791

Unfortunately my pockets are not very deep. That is part of the reason this is a long term project with a lot of patience and careful planning involved. I will try to get some good shots of the existing cage up later this week. The floor pans are going to be replaced, as they are rusted, and also damaged from being jacked up improperly by the idiot kid who owned the car before I rescued it. (Seriously, this kid was not too bright) The rockers are going to be cut out and fresh steel welded in, as the drivers side is rusted out. The rails on the inside of the doors are very solid though. Anyway, I'll try to get everything cleaned up so I can get some good pics later this week. The car is not going to be a race car again, thankfully whoever raced, it also kept up with the registration, and I already have it tagged, so will be a weekend toy... eventually. Right now the engine is on the stand and I am trying to get it cleaned up and ready for reassembly. I am working on drawing up plans and figuring up how much steel I will need. As soon as I get them drawn up I will scan them and post them. Again, thanks a TON.

74_5.0L_Z, do you have any more pics of the frame/support work that you have done on the front end you could post/message me? I would really like to glean from your experience and I'm trying to get to the point of visualizing exactly how I want to work everything out on the car. I am very impressed with everything I have seen so far on your car! And would like to borrow certain elements of your design if that is alright with you!

Got it. I'm going to strip the car and get the shell ready for modification hopefully next week. (engine/trans is out already) I've been making slow but steady progress, and I'm looking at possibly having all the old steel cut out by the end of next week. Then it's to the drawing board for the rebuild. Thanks so much for all the info so far. You guys have been awesome!

Gotcha. Thanks for the quick reply! That might be an option for me. But I will have to see how much clearance I have. I considered putting a set of CF fender flares on it after the swap, so I might just use the fact that I might need to trim the fender a little as my excuse to do it. haha. I am hoping to get the motor set in the car tomorrow, so that I can see how much clearance I have in there, so I can make plans for my mounts and frame modifications. I inspected the frame rails in the engine compartment very closely, and I am not happy with their condition. They seem to be thin, and weakened from too may repairs. (This car spend a large part of its life as a race car in the hands of someone who apparently did more wrecking than racing...) I think I would prefer to cut them out and just weld in some fresh steel. Any advice on what size would be strong and rigid without sacrificing space? I was thinking in the ballpark of 2"x3", and just cutting out the factory frame rails from underneath the car as well, and fabricating new compression rod brackets too, Pretty much just putting a whole new unibody frame underneath the car that is much stronger than stock, and tying the front frame rails into it. In my mind this is better than just capping the front rails with angle, and the rails underneath the car are in fairly poor shape anyway... ...Thoughts?

Just out of curiosity, Something that 74_5.0L_Z said got me thinking, moving the cross-member forward an inch would be a great way to clear a little more space for that engine, is there any special process that needs to be followed in order to move that cross member forward? I would think that there would be enough adjustment in the compression rod bracket to adjust it an inch forward, but I've never seen this done before. Any advice?

I took a lot of measurements beforehand, and it will fit. It's going to be close, but it will wedge in there. haha. The problem is not the sump, its the pump itself. The pump only clears the front of the oil pan by about 3/4 of an inch. I was hoping it would be set a little farther back than that, but I have worked out a way to get around the front sump. The unfortunate thing about it all is that I do not have an Argon gas adapter for my welder, so there's a lot of cleanup necessary after any welding because of the splatter. But, so far everything is going well. I'll drop a couple of pics in the next few days when I lower the engine in the car with the notched pan for a test-fit. (BTW, the water in those cylinders is from the pressure washing that block just got. I cleaned it out and sprayed oil in/on all of the moving parts shortly after I took the picture.)

Took some measurements, and started the process of making the big block 360 fit in there. I was trying to post a picture of the oil pan progress, but my image hosting site is down... Maybe next time. Oil pan has to be notched to fit between the rack mounts on the cross-member,which is going to be notched out to allow for the oil pan. (the rack cross-member will be reinforced and braced in to the frame, as wel as the the front clip.)

Well, the 360 is now torn down. All that's left in the block is the rotating assembly, and the oil pump. Everything looks fantastic inside, so I will be thoroughly cleaning everything, painting the block and other parts, installing a stage 1 cam, new timing set, and all new gaskets in my free time over the next few weeks. As far as fitment goes, It looks like I will have to cut the transmission tunnel about 2 inches all the way around, and 4 inches back to allow enough clearance for the transmission to sit at the proper angle. Which is fine because I need to cut the floor pans out and re-work the frame around the compression rod brackets on both sides, and that will allow me to tie everything in with fresh steel and some solid gusseting. I'll post pics of everything as soon as I finish cleaning up the shop from the whirlwind tear-down process.

Thanks for the feedback guys! I'm going to be pulling the L24 out of the car tomorrow, and then I'll be taking measurements for the dimensions of the engine compartment, calling some local shops to find one that can properly shorten and balance a drive shaft, and trying to find somewhere to get some high grade steel for the fabrication of the braces/mounts/cross-members. So, if everything measures out ok, then I will begin the process of the swap this weekend! I'll be posting pictures of the progress, and I'm sure I'll have some questions for you guys along the way.

Hello all, I am a long time lurker, and I am about to start a full tear down on my '71 240z, and I have a few questions regarding a V8 swap, that I couldn't find despite exhausting the search function... I have a fantastic running 360ci Ford engine, and a C4 transmission, that I want to freshen up, and swap into the car over the winter, and my questions are: 1. Does anybody here have any experience swapping a big block Ford engine into a Z? 2. How much more difficult would a big block swap be, compared to a small block Ford swap? 3. Does anyone know of any plans/drawings of proven cross-member/engine mount designs specifically for a big block Ford setup? Any tips/tricks, words of advice, encouragement, or a swift slap on the back of the head and a few good reasons for why I would be so foolish as to think about putting a 360 in a Z, would be greatly appreciated. Just FYI, The car has: A 12pt cage R200 diff Fuel cell Front strut tower brace I am a good welder, with a fair amount of fabrication experience. So a little remodeling isn't going to scare me...