tonycharger72

Don't know if that pic was of a real car, may have been the underside of a matchbox car !!! This is a bit off-topic, But, 260DET was looking through another thread and you mentioned you stuffed the front end form an S14 into your 280zx? was that a straight bolt in? you use the steering rack as well from the S14?

Hey Wheelman, nice install of the Subaru rack mate! I am in the process of installing a Subaru myself and have noticed that the pivot points for the inner control arms need to be up and a touch out to line up with the ends of the Subaru rack (amazingly very close to JTR manual suggested movement of inner control arm pivot points, 3/4" up and 1/4" out - something like that) - slightly different though! Means if you want to line up the inner control arm pivot points and rack ends and then have the ball-joint and tie rod end centre's line up your going to need to get an extra bit of distance through your inner rack and tie-rod ends - that is, the subaru rack, inner rack ends and tie-rod ends need to be longer than the original datsun rack, rack ends and tie-rod ends!!! Is that possible with the Celica and Subaru rack end combination mate? Do you have enough thread on the Celica rack ends for adjustment out??? I am in the process of looking at what bits and pieces I can slap together so I don't have to ream the steering knuckles or cut and re-thread inner rack ends!!!

"When mine was cut away as in the pic on p.1 the long term plan was to fit a diffuser there." Did you find that helped Richard? Nice looking 280zx by the way mate! Where did you get the 2-seater in Australia?

This is the bottom of an M3, sure making up stuff like this for the Zed wouldn't be all that tricky - just go on the same princibal as below and what Bjhines said - just try and get the bottom of the Zed as smooth as possible!!! Is it just me - or is there some sort of rear diffuser there???

I would love to see pics if you can get your hands on them? Particulary the M3! "I can take some pics of a Porsche, E-46 M3, Minis, and a Lancer EVO, etc" The M3 would probably be the only one that would bear similarity to the Zed, nice big straight 6 rwd car - be interesting to see if the exhaust is run up in the tunnel underneath the transmission and tailshaft and then covered!!! "The tunnel areas are covered and the lower control arms have plastic inserts to smooth them out. There are often trip-strips right before the suspension components(front and rear). I have also seen scoops or turnouts near the control arms to divert air into the wheel wells(brake cooling)." I would love to see pics of how the factory does this mate!!!

"The only glaring error i can see however is that if youve got the exhaust tucked up under that thing what are you gonna do to cool it down? And what about all that big air pocket youll be creating in the engine bay if the air doesn't have anywhere to vent." Yeah that floor pan is from a Ferrari 360, so engine is at the back -so no drama's with the exhaust, don't know how you would get around that one with a zed, be good to look under a mk.4 Supra see what is done there! For venting the air in the engine bay you could do something silly like this !!! http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=19602&limit=recent

Just thinking out loud - but what if you constructed an entire underbody that you could bolt to the underbody of the Zed? Make it out of fibreglass possibly, So it looks something like this! That would fix up those aerodynamics underneath the Zed wouldn't it? Incorporate it so the front is bolted to the underside of a big spoiler and as mentioned previously, should be low enough at the back for the rear diffuser to do something! Lay down some really thin sheet metal, cover all areas, make a mould out of fibreglass, than make a final version out of fibreglass or carbon fibre and your away - timely as hell, but would this work?

What part of Canberra were you from? not Tuggernong I hope !!! I live in Canberra, can't move out to Queanbeyan, I can spell, my brother isnt my father and I still have all my own teeth Nah, just kidding!!! I honestly don't think I will be doing anything like wiring for a bit, so if you get some diagrams together by the new year that would be sweet - my email address is tonycharger72@hotmail.com - have re-wired cars before but haven't tackled anything more complex them electronic ignition and relay's for wiper motor's (that was a fun couple of days )!!! The auto box in my tran's tunnel with the original gearbox mounts removed just fits on the passenger side, the fellow at RushImports said that the T56 is slightly fatter than the auto, so got the impression that the transmission tunnel internal support (the bit the original mounts were welded to and runs around the top of the transmission tunnel) would probably need cutting out - he did say that the shifter location of the T56 was the same as the shifter location of the auto, also said that the T56 has a slave cylinder internally mounted into the gearbox, so you just have to run a line from your Clutch Master Cylinder, made it a touch easier to mount!!! He used to sell a W58 and R154 conversion, but think it was just CRS's, but he did say there was issues with these conversions, can't remember what the issue was though - you bought from Dellow right? did you have any issues with your manual conversion? The fellow from RushImports said that you can get T56's on EBAY for $1200-$1400 - I didn't quite believe him so I had a look myself, there was one at $1k or so with lots of bids, another at $1200 with zero bids, and another sitting on $3k with no bids at all!!! I think its a bit of "luck of the draw" but he was right - it appears you can source one cheaper than an R154!!!

"The next steps for me are custom headers (have the flanges and bends, collectors etc just need to get it together), then wiring and all fluids like heater, radiator, power steering etc... I think I've got the wiring fairly sorted so hopefully that shouldn't take too long. The most annoying thing is I'm stuck in Perth for the next couple of months and the car is in Sydney, so probably don't expect to be done till about half way through next year...." You doing the wiring yourself? Haven't really thought about doing the wiring myself (well not the 1UZ part) - was going to re-wire the Datsun but was probably just going to call that Sideshow fellow and see if he can come down and do it for me! Wouldn't really know where to start with the 1UZ harness ! Got any pics of the header kit? really interested to see that - thinking if you can get custom headers in the 280zx I might be able to do the same in my 260z !!! "Yeah I can understans not wanting to outlay the extra cash for the manual.... I was able to sell a whole bunch of 280zx parts off that I had collected for a turbo build for about $1800, then the half cut only cost $1000 so I'm not too badly out of pocket at the moment." See how it goes - there is a place local to me called "Rushimports" and apparently he is putting together a T56 conversion, see how that goes - but got so many other things to do, completely unassociated with the engine conversion, like bodywork that will take up a lot of time and money - so keen to get all that sort of stuff underway and at a later date deal with the possibility of a Manual conversion!

"Great progress..but one thing i noticed is it seems as if you could mount your engine alittle further back, is there a reason for not doing this?" There was a few mate !!! I really wanted to run A/C and at present have the stock underdash Datsun AC/Heater unit - the outlet/inlet pipes are just clear on the passenger side rocker cover, also the heater outlet pipes are just clear on the drivers side, with the engine in its current position! But that was only the start - it was were the engine mounts are mounted on the 1UZ, they aren't really even mid-block, they are slightly more towards the back on the engine, but I really didn't want to run a 2nd crossmember - so I enlarged my original Datsun crossmember and sloped the mounts back to meet the 1UZ engine mounts - they slope back a bit and I wanted to centre them in the middle of my crossmember for strength, I tried to slope the 1UZ engine mounts forward, but it then would have been impossible to get the bolts through them to bolt the 1UZ engine mounts to the block, So the 1UZ engine mounts have to almost come straight down, So that was a consideration not to push the engine much further back!!! But, it was all about the Subaru PS rack - the reason the crossmember looks like it does, the engine sits were it does is because of the Subaru Rack really!!! I tried mounting the rack on the stock Datto Crossmember and just wasn't happy with it, so decided to make a whole new centre section for the crossmember, firstly stood the rack up (like it is mounted in the WRX, Forester, Legacy etc, etc, etc) I did this so I would gain lot's of clearance for the intermediate shaft over the Chassis-Rails plus make running PS lines SOOOOOOO much easier - however this limited how far back I could push the engine as the alternator would foul on the intermediate shaft coupling to the rack, Therefore the engine is where it is because thats how far I could get it back without the intermediate shaft hitting the Alternator! But if it had gone further back the hood-latch would have to be modified ala JTR style, would have had to re-route heater and A/C lines (like make new holes in the firewall, Clutch MS would not have fit (that was more luck than anything else and the Gearbox linkages align perfectly with the original gearbox level hole in the cabin! With the Driver on the other side of the car in the US it would be a different story, still have the issues of heater/AC pipes, clutch MS, shifter location and engine mounts being interesting with mounting the engine further back, however the intermediate shaft would be fouling on the A/C compressor and not the alternator, maybe even the oil filter as well - can't see how you could possibly run the A/C compressor in its stock location with the driver on the other side of the car, which means you would have to remove it, therefore could get the engine back quite a way in the US, however you would run into all those aforementioned issues!!! The 1UZ sits approximately 110mm of the firewall - I am curious now , wonder how that compares with the L-Series in its stock location??? This all means that the engine is a touch further forward than I would have liked but had to weigh up all those other bits and pieces - I am just hoping it wont take noise drives when I pull hard on the anchors !!!

I don't mind the later 280zx's - used one for a daily driver for a few months and was quite surprised by it, honestly felt like a much better put together car than my 260z, more comfortable, heaps less noise - just a little thirsty on the fuel with the L28, was only getting about 420km's out of 60L!!! Don't know if I am all the keen on cutting out the floor pans - have half a mind to just go over what is there with nice new fresh channel!!! "Do you mainly want the dual exhausts for the look? I haven't had to go through the whole engineering process yet although I'm told they can be fairly strict with a lot of mods these days...." I want to get a larger fuel tank in there - only have about 42L with the in-tank fuel pump setup that I was using for the RB30, so was thinking that if I was going to the hassle of slapping in a larger fuel tank I may as well do it so I can run dual exhausts, however see how it goes the more stuff I do the more money I will have to hand over to the engineer to approve anything!!!

"Depends on if you want the LOOK of CF or just the strength, I just wanted a layer of CF to help stiffen a FG part I made, as CF is structurally stronger. If you paint it you can have a shitty mould and bog the hell out of it without problems, but if you want it to drape well and look seamless and pretty with a clear resin exposing the CF weave, theres no chance of bogging in hollows and sanding down humps will likewise ruin the look." Oh okay, so you can basically work with the Carbon Fibre the same way you can work with the fibreglass!!! that is pretty cool!!! But get your point - if I wanted it to have the Carbon Fibre look basically got to have it pop-out perfect!!! Well if I were to use it for body-panels I would be painting it anyways, so wouldn't be to worried about it poping-out with imperfections, just the fact you can work with it like FG makes it a possibility - price is still a bit of an issue though !!! Do you use the same sort's of resin's, cataylist's, wax, PVA release for CB as you would for FB? Do you use a gel-coat/tooling gel like FB???

"good luck making a set that looks good. CF isn't cheap to start with but the trick is to make a mold that is flawless and that you can actually pull a part from. I watched two extremely seasoned guys work with the door panel part for countless hours to get it right." Is that you you learn't by making your own carbon fibre guards? or being told by the guys you are paying to make em for you? Thats pretty much the same story I have been told by most of the local fibreglass fellows I have come across as well - however, doesnt mean you can't not make a flawless mould and still end up with a decent product - just take's a lot of effort after you remove the final version from your mould - lots of bogging, sanding, adding more Fibreglass, etc, etc, etc!!! I take it you can't do this when using Carbon Fibre? $500 for a pair is a pretty good price - but is it just the outside skin of the door mate? or did these fellow do the inner door skin as well and bond them together?

Wow that isn't cheap!!! Looks to be about $30US/yard - which is $50AUD! I can get fibreglass matting for about $5AUD/Metre!!! Might just stick to the fibreglass !!!

So have you modified your sump & pickup already to gain clearance? Would be thinking like you in your situation though - would try and avoid modifying the sump at all costs and keeping the manual - I would have gone the manual route but have so many other things to do - plus didnt really have the $2k or more laying about for it !!! Awesome find for the Tilton Clutch MS - looks tiny, should do the trick mate! How bout you - how far off is the car from running? Whats next?

No, body work - lots of bodywork !!! I recently finished getting rid of the original chassis rails in the engine bay and replacing them with nice new box section - also ditched the original radiator support panel and will make a new piece! I have ordered some new floor pans from Rare-Spares and am waiting to go and grab them, it appears as if someone went off-roading with my Zed if you look underneath it - so instead of trying to fix what is there just going to cut it all out and replace with new floors - so that should be a fun experience installing them Also - about 2yrs ago I bought a set of ZG flares - wasnt overly keen on just bolting them on, so instead I moulded them into the guards (lots of bog) - thought it looked really cool, but they have started to crack - so I am in the process of replicating them out of fibreglass - so making two new front guards - and thinking of what I would like to do with the front end, would love to install newer modern altezza style front headlamps, but dont think that is going to be possible without re-making the bonnet and ditching the bumper bar! Also getting a local body shop to whip me up steel replica's of the rear ZG flares, so once done will hack up the rear guards and weld them on!!! I bought a small sand blaster a few months back so will bead/sand blast the Zed and fix up the body work and give her a re-spray, After that will look at getting it running again - but still have to decide if I am going to go with dual exhaust or single and if I will stick with the current fuel tank I am running - I modified it for the RB30 conversion and slapped in a fuel cradle from early 90's Pintara - using an in-tank Walbro 242 from memory - but has a 42-45L capacity, which is a bit sh#t - would like to be able to get more fuel into it, but also like to run dual exhaust - only way out of that is running the fuel filler neck inside the cabin probably - Dont know if the engineer or Rego will be to happy about that!!!

Where do you even get Carbon Fibre from? I am in the process of making some Fibre-Glass front guards for my Zed, would love to make them out of carbon fibre - guess it's not cheap - but who actually sells the stuff, how much does it cost?

How do you mean mate? Like what Subaru is it from? I went searching for a WRX rack but all I could find locally was Liberty and Forester rack's from the early to mid-90's, well without paying over $250 for it !!! So that rack from memory is from a 1991 Liberty, I have another rack from a 1994 Forester (or might be Liberty, looks identical) nice and cheap!!! And from having a look at other folks power steering conversions my rack looks very similar to what others have used! However, when I originally thought of using the Subaru rack I more or less slapped it onto the original Datto rack mounts - this caused a few issues, firstly the steering coupling bashed into the engine mounts - so a section has to be cut out, secondly could just squeeze a piece of paper between the intermediate shaft and chassis rails, thirdly the fluid lines on the rack were a b#stard - really tricky to run them without hacking the f#ck out of the crossmember, forthly the rack ends are a touch wider and higher than the inner control arm pivot points! The main reason why I went nuts with the crossmember was to make it suit the Subaru rack, not so much the 1UZ engine - if I had stuck with the original rack could have just as easily whipped up similar engine mounts to what I have used in the above photos! By re-making the rack mounts and everything else in between I have been able to position the rack and inner control pivot points, intermediate shaft and fluid lines to better suit the Subaru Rack and Datsun body!

Ok guys got some more pics of the Engine and Gearbox Crossmembers!!! New Gearbox Mounts, Shot of them welded into the tunnel, Left Side, Right Side, New Engine Crossmember & Subaru Steering Rack,

Hey mate, Here is a pic of the clearance I have for the clutch MS to the rocker's and head of the 1UZ! The only thing is if I move the engine forward I will need to make a new sump from scratch and modify the pickup, then get the extension for the gearbox shifter, and redo the engine and trans mounts.... My rack is in front of the crossmember, not behind it like the 280zx's - moving your engine forward sounds like such a pain!!! - how much clearance do you have though? can you move the engine forward enough so you just get clearance for the clutch and the rack? Sure there was another fellow about the place who did this conversion into a 280zx - wonder how he solved it? Another alternative is going down the auto path? flog off your manual gearbox and dellow unit - auto gearbox's are literally throw-aways, pick it up for free!!! How is your car for clearance for the oil filter? I'll need to either do a remote mount setup or use a shorter filter as at the moment it the filter can't be changed with moving the engine. Oil filter clears the chassis rails and rack, but also the lines for the Subaru power-steering - that was more blind luck than anything else , even with the engine mounted towards the passenger side still have enough room to get it off - I will post some pics of how it all looks and my modified crossmember very soon to show you how it all sits mate!!!

Hey mate, Mate has his 280zx on jack-stands right next to my 260z - I took some measurements yesterday, Both engine bays are approximately 1030mm, From the the centre of the strut tower to the firewall on a 260z is approximately 530mm, on a 280zx its 450mm, Based on where you have mounted your gearbox and where I mounted mine I think my gearbox is actually further back in the tunnel - but I still have reasonably large amount of clearance for the clutch MS, just because of where the crossmember sits in the 280zx in comparision to the 260z - I would be moving your engine forward until you get clearance mate!!! I will post a pic to show the clearance I have at the back of the engine and around the clutch MS!

Nice mate! Gearbox crossmember looks really good!!! It's weird - I was able to put the engine and gearbox back a touch further, I had to make new gearbox mounting "ears" behind the stock gearbox mount bracing in the transmission tunnel - by about 3" - however I havent installed my clutch MS - now I am worried!!! Love to see more pics of the engine in the engine bay mate!!!

I will have to give Dellow another call and get them to send me out their pricing lists - would be pretty cool to put in a manual, save me finding an auto pedal box and installing it into the Zed, that isnt the funnest job in the world !!! "I'd also love to go for a T56 or Tremec or something... I'm guessing you know that you can get a kit which uses the tremec 5 speed box out of the XR6 Turbos. I'd think that would also have to be a decent step up over the W series boxes and they can also be had for reasonable prices. " Did the XR6 turbo's come with a 5-speed? I thought they all used the T56 - I dont really know - but I would be thinking the R154 is a much better buy than the T56? cost's about half as much and I would be surprised if the R154 is much weaker, if not stronger than the T56 gearbox??? "As for the exhaust I'm planning to join the pipes just after the gearbox. I've heard a lot of people saying these engines sounds a lot better with just one outlet... and then working out how to fit it all in is also a lot easier. I know it is pretty tight for header space, I just don't like how the rear exhaust runner joins into the manifold for the soarer design...." Yeah I had a good look under my Zed yesterday and think dual exhaust really would be a pain !!! really think you would have to install a custom filler neck for the fuel tank - probably not really worth the effort unless your super-duper keen on dual exhaust! Have you seen these fellows? http://bulletcars.com/superchargers/toyota/ Not overly cheap and probably unlikely to fit under a normal bonnet - but f#ck it would be cool !!!

Ford Australia stopped putting V8's in local cars from 1982/83 to 1992/93 and Holden (GM) used their own V8 until the late 90's - so they are a touch thinner on the ground than over in the states - the prices you pay for the Ford 5.0L and Chevy LT1 and earlier 350's are much, much cheaper than what we pay in Aus - and the LS1 is just insanely expensive, can find them occasionally for around the $3kAUD, but can pay up to $5kAUD for a 2nd hand long motor from a wrecker - and the T56 2nd hand usually goes for about $3kAUD, thats about the price I have found the 6-speed Getrag from a 2jzgtte Supra - know which gearbox I'd prefer! But prices over here are pretty crazy for Ford and Chevy small-blocks, particulary when you compare how much you pay for 1jz, 2jz's, 1uz's, RB's etc and what the end product is! They really don't offer any sort of value what so ever!!!

"Currently the gearbox (I'm using a w58 box and conversion kit from dellow) doesn't line up that well with the shifter hole. I've cut a little from the front of the hole (near the dash) to get it to fit. The main problem I found is I can't put it any further back as the valve cover will hit on the brake booster.... I'm also using the rear most shifter position available for the W series boxes so I may have to extend it somehow." Is it the W58 from the 2JZGE from an N/A Supra? - that has an extension housing, which sits the shifter position way-way-way back further than any other that I have seen on a W series - as shown below, see the difference between stock and extended shifter locations - that might solve your issues? Dont know about the clutch - I will have a good look at mine and see how much clearance I have - because I do love the idea of slapping a 6-speed Getrag in there eventually (just because a 6-speed would be cool and if your lucky can grab them for the same price as a T-56), Are you going to be making custom headers? Maybe - but there really isnt alot of clearance in there !!! I removed the CATS and then cut the flange's off the back of the exhaust manifolds as they were hitting the Radius Rod mounts - if I stick with the stock manifolds the exhaust is piss-easy, there is enough clearance to run them straight down at their current angle underneath the car - issue is running dual exhaust past the fuel tank filler - you thinking of running dual exhausts? on Lextreme you can purchase the flanges for about $120/pair (I think) which seems pretty reasonable for a set of exhaust flanges - but as there is such little clearance would probably try and mock it up with my own bender at home first, then if I can get it to fit go and purchase some mandrels locally! How much did Dellow charge you? what was in the kit? spoke to CRS and they said they do a kit for about $1700 or so, but it's supposed to be quite a heavy flywheel - Dellow said they were going to fax me something but I never recieved it !!! Get some more pics mate would love to see more of your conversion!!!