All Activity

Last month blew by but good progress has been made on the chassis. This next few weeks I'll need to finish stripping a few things off the chassis and get it loaded onto a body cart for transport in May. Due to the uncertain tariff situation I procured a few parts I was initially planning to order after the car goes out. I decided to eat the costs now as prices could potentially increase 25%-200%+ on the US consumer tax side and who knows how sticky that will be. For the turbo build refresh I wanted to beef up the chassis and rear end. A few weeks ago I dropped off the Q45 diff for a full rebuild with R34 GT-R 3.54 gears and a OSG Super Lock LSD. My rear end was also already structurally reinforced and plated in, but I decided to take that a step further with a Escort JP single piece rear end. I also received a PTZ rear finned cover, which I will need to perform some machine work to fit. For additional chassis reinforcement, the OE type competition rollbar should arrive soon. It's more of a historic/obscure part but I'll post some mockup pictures for anyone who's interested.

With summer only a few months on the horizon I'm planning the next several changes to the car. Things waiting to be done: -Install driver side spindle and bearings - only passenger side was replaced this winter to allow the car to move for now. -Install micro brake kit from T3 - sitting at my sister's place begging to be used. -Check wiring for new stereo. -Install and seal nismo shifter - washers arrived after I last left, only plastic cup missing. Things that require purchases or mild side work: -Redo oil pan gasket... again ... small leak from rear passenger side. Will likely purchase the reproduction nissan comp gasket from MSA - has been very well reviewed and recommended. -Clearance throttle cable bracket for AC bulkhead - my AC bulkhead unfortunately bumps into the skillard piece. Would prefer to grind that bracket a bit than grind the rounded side of my printed piece. -Fix/remake intercooler and AC condenser brackets. -Swap to 3.54 rear diff - my 3.9 was great with the worn old engine, but is probably holding back my turbo build, and even worsening my fuel economy on my long trips. Have been told it'll be faster since I'll be able to stay in boost longer without shifting too. -Potentially rebuild my old 3.54 with an OS Giken diff. Still debating if it's worth it or if I should just drop in the old diff as is. -Install and wire AC Fans - Looking into how I want to wire them now. Would like to control them with megasquirt, but I know it'd be simpler to just have them trigger by a thermostatic switch. -Cut and crimp AC hoses. Low priority, but will likely buy parts and hope I get to it: -Resurrected Classics has remade all of the important gaskets, and I'm considering ordering a kit so I can finally get decent sealing and fitment from the front windshield seal and lower rear hatch seal. The rear hatch seals in particular have driven me insane and ruined some of the usability of the rear hatch because I'm never comfortable opening it and having to tuck in the hatch seal so it doesn't get pulled down when I'm closing it. -Drop off somewhere to have exhaust redone (or cut and fit myself and have someone I know weld it) - Planning on improving the clearance in the center and by the trans mount, as well as getting a Stainless Bros center resonator (bigger and oval to help with clearance and volume) and a Stainless bros oval muffler. Will still be straight through but with much more volume to absorb some of the sound. -Drop off for light tint to further improve interior temps on long drives - Lizard skin did some miracle work on keeping the interior drive-able for more than ten minutes at a time, but the greenhouse effect of the windows, especially the rear hatch, will always catch up after a while.

Then it was off to paint. The boys did an amazing job! Worthy of a $50 bottle of tequila and a celebration!

We did a lot more paint prep than we should have, because the painter was not going to apply his paint over someone else' prep. But I think we did save a lot of his time, by taking care of some problem areas, especially where the rear fenders did not quite fit the damaged sheet metal behind them.

I don't have DOHC type funds:)

oil lines and where to put massive porsche 928 oil filter next on the list

Man that is so cool. Not as cool as a DOHC though. 😀 I'm for sure going to do this mod at some point especially after seeing how responsive it is. Great job!

hello, Some tiny small steps right now. I have started with the frame rails and have made the part that will go inside the car. 1.5mm steel that goes front to rear. New ones under the car are being made with a higher profile than standard, 45mm in front and 25 in the rear. Christian

04-13-2025 TURBO PROJECT UPDATE: so now I am in the world of carb, carb, carb. I must have taken the carb off, changed jets and re-installed about 10 times today, I didn't keep count, but at any rate it was a lot! I got tan idea from another guy to use "Chat GPT" and when you give it all your information, you would be amazed at how well it can give you an idea on tuning everything in! I did manage to drive the Z to the nearby gas station to get some gas....and although it wouldn't idle without giving it gas, and it was rich, once I got into the mid range circuit of the carb it started running better, when I hit wide open throttle the sound, everything changed and it roared like a wild beast! seat of the pants it felt like 300 h.p. or close to it. I......Couldn't tell the boost, my AEM gauge is wonky....., it had to have been over 10 psi it felt like, FWIW. Then I heard a loud "POP" and the engine died. I pulled over and checked everything and everything seemed ok. I started it back up and drove it back home, and it didn't pull like that first time, but wasn't sure why. Later I was running it and watching it, and I could see a burning charge coming out of my main turbo coupler! So, the POP was the coupling giving out. No wonder I can't get it to idle. BUT, CHAT GPT gave me a lot of experience with it, and it is now sitting with a 47.5 pilot jet in it. I just ordered the coupling, so God willing we will give it a go at a later date! Here is a crummy pic, but you can kind of see how my customer center dash piece turned out.~Joe

ITBS are bolted down after doing some fitting of the Maxima Diesel intake . Still waiting on the welder to finish up my collector pipe so I can’t start it yet . Also need to finalize location of vacuum log that will be inside my CAI - whenever it gets done at the welder . I wish I could TIG worth a shit and my life would be easier - lol. Still most of the back breaking work of bolting this down and plumbing should be good to go .

My BIG pilot jets for the HSR carb arrived today.....at some point the beast will have enough fuel to idle! cheap at amazon! No name China made, but they work.

Oops. Looks like it is.

I would use the Engine Electrical and Body Electrical chapters for the diagrams. They are more detailed. I don't see the ignition relay involved in the lighting system.

When I was fixing up my car I was bit thick and lost my ignition relay. Now I’m trying to make a replacement relays for, because new is not anymore available. Is this correct? I took it from the Classic z car wiring diagram and it does not make sense. Why the black/white has connection to coil side and the connection side? Also why there is one dummy connection? The blue/green. This is really frustrating, because I think that this preventing me from having blinkers and there for I cannot get my car inspected.

I found this video on visiting a Metal Supply Shop in Japan. While doing a S30 Fairlady Restoration, the Body Man needed more sheet metal to finish his job. This video shows a side of car restoration that most people never see- where the sheet metal actually comes from. The rest of the video shows detailed 240z body restoration It shows how to repair difficult body areas of the 240z. I hope you guys find this video interesting. Toolman

for curiosity, on an HSR carb, the pilot jet for idle sprays into the bore right behind the needle. here is a pic. When I looked online I couldn't find a pic anywhere.

04-09-2025 TURBO UPGRADE UPDATE: So, I started the day by pulling carb off and changed the pilot jet out to 37.5 and then dropped the needle back to the stock range and put everything together. she still won't run! so i put the largest pilot jet i have in the carb a 42.5 with the air screw all the way in she runs great! but won't idle. There is still not enough fuel to idle, so I have to pump it, and so i got it running, and then I leaned out the door and sprayed starter fluid on places where there could be a vacuum leak and I found 3 places. Then I decided to get some permatek black gasket maker and run a bead on those spots then wipe it clean. once it is dry enough i will try again. Right now, with the 42.5 pilot jet AND the choke pulled she ALMOST idles! it's a big engine, so she wants fuel! Right now she will start without starting fluid using the 70-accelerator nozzle. so, iII went ahead and ordered some pilot jets that are even richer which will be here in a couple days off of Amazon. For the first time in 5 months the car left the garage and i was able to sweep it out and put the Z car back in the garage with the tail facing out. Laugh if you want but after 5 months of mental hell that is a huge deal! i almost have her ready to go! can you believe she likes a 42.5 pilot AND choke?!? but still wants more to idle on her own. 2.9 litre, she wants fuel! After letting hte gasket maker harden up for an hour, she still wants more fuel, so when the Idle jets come in we will continue to feed the beast until she will idle on her own! SO cool to actually get her out even if just in the parking lot.....progess is progress. FWIW a neighbor commented on the car while it was out. Sent from my iPhone

It has been a very slow progress for a couple of months unfortunately but i hope to take a test run this summer.

A injector duty cycle of over 85-90% is indicative of running out of injector. 100% duty cycle is the injector wide open. Because you changed your fuel pressure and required fuel without any kind of math to calculate the fuel injector flow change with the extra fuel pressure, it’s hard to really know if the injector duty cycle megasquirt reported was true or not. Based on an Internet fuel injector calculator you would have needed to be running 60lbs of base fuel pressure for the 260cc/min factory 280zx turbo injectors to flow 330cc/min. It’s likely that you were locking the injectors up with that high of a duty cycle which would explain the abrupt lean event at/ above 4500-5000 rpm. I’m sorry to hear about the rod knock. It seems like this was a lesson learned the hard way. Be sure to check your pistons because detonation with the intensity and duration to stuff a rod bearing has more than likely taken some ring lands with it as well (from experience). Broken rings/ ring lands could account for the oil consumption. I would also change out your fuel pump to one that will more than accommodate the power levels and fuel type you intend on running for the next motor.

I love it when a plan comes together! Fully operational below dcoe throttle body actuator for DBW ITB. Mostly hidden!

The TKX looks like a good transmission. Playing with gear/speed calculator I think the 3.3 rear end gearing is the way to go. Nice Z by the way, love the color

This is some great info, thanks for sharing. I’m looking into transmission upgrades now and I haven’t sourced my diff yet. Any thoughts on diff gearing, I’m going back and forth between 3.3 and 3.54. I’ve a big brake kit so I’ll be running 19” wheels, so I’m leaning toward the 3.54. You got me excited on the transmission now, I was kind of lost. Was thinking of a TREMEC TKO, but I’ll look into what you were suggesting. Thanks again for the info.

Very nice build so far, looking forward to your updates as you go.

I track my Ford powered 260Z. My personal experience is that transmission gearing is extremely important to getting the most fun on the track. In Florida, you will most likely be doing track days at Daytona and Sebring. Both tracks have very fast sections. Before doing track days, I autocrossed the car. In autocross, you only really need second gear if you have the right differential / tire height. I used Hoosier 275/35-15 tires and have a 3.36 rear end. With a 1.94 second gear in a T-5 and 6,500 rpm, 2nd gear was good for 73 mph. When I started doing track days, I needed all the gears. I had replaced the stock 1st through 4th with G-Force gears and shafts, but fifth gear was still stock. With that set-up, these were my gear ratios. 1st 2.95:1 2nd 1.94:1 3rd 1.33:1 4th 1:1 5th 0.59:1 Worked great until I needed 5th gear. that big a drop absolutely killed the fun (no acceleration in 5th). After my first time a Daytona, I changed 5th gear to 0.81:1. The .81 gear absolutely transformed the car. Now 5th gear is warp drive. The transmission that you show probably doesn't have a good selection of gear ratios, and probably won't hold much power. If it were me, I would get the new TKX with the close ratio rears. That transmission will handle the power and maximize you fun on track. If I didn't already have so much invested in my T5, I would get a TKX. This is the TKX I would get: https://www.speedwaymotors.com/TREMEC-TCET18084-TKX-Close-Ratio-5-Speed-Ford-Manual-Transmission,452007.html?srsltid=AfmBOoq-x1paVSDoNvgI38myLy79UBWXzZFW-QeQ4bK1_vWnSHM7bEEJ Gear Ratios 1st - 2.87, 2nd - 1.89, 3rd - 1.28, 4th - 1.00, 5th - 0.81