thehelix112

Looks like you'll be doing some more cutting of the air dam? Push the sucker out of the garage and take some more pics! Dave

RB26280z, Thanks for the encouragement! I move extremely slowly though, so I expect it'll be a while. :S Dave

*Drools* Dave

Great news! Cannot wait to see it with the new wheels and Hoosiers! Dave

I didn't remove the fuel and brake lines, and just wanted to do another trial fit to see how close it'd go to being mid mount. For some reason it didn't occur to me to just use a tape measure, but oh well. I did remove the coolant lines that were sticking out the back, and I removed the engine mount bit that bolts to the chassis. In this pic you can see the engine is a bit twisted, it's further back on the passengers side. But the thing to note is that in the shadow the centre bolt on the strut tower is exactly level with the forwards end of the rocker cover: And here is a pic showing the gap to the firewall. Note this shows that the brake booster and the accelerator bracket I forgot to remove need to come out next. Here is a crappy pic showing the height it's currently sitting at. The black thing sticking down is the lower sump, which will be going as per a pic on a previous page. So the engine can go down another 50mm or so, and back a little less. So the result of trial fit number 3 is that the oil filter definitely needs to be relocated, as people before me highlighted, the accelerator bracket and the brake booster need to go. I also ordered the bolts for the trans adaptor, after I get them and test them I'll write up what they were. Dave

Just finished running the 3/4 EMT conduit for my welder circuit to where it needs to go. Now I need to enlist some help and pull the wires through, hopefully will get to that next weekend. Baby steps. Next on the agenda for today is going to be removing the brake and fuel lines from the frame rails and trial fitting the engine without the inner bit of the mounts. I wanna see how far back I can mount the thing with the coolant lines as they are. Dave

78zstyle, Cool. The guys I bought the engine from took me for a spin in his Armada after we'd stuffed the engine in the back of my minivan. Pretty impressive pickup for a 5200lb tank. I am very excited to see what it'll do in something that weight half that. I get the feeling it'll be a tyre smoker with the 4.11 different in the back.. but one problem at a time. Dave

So some more work yesterday. I got the exhaust manifolds off after some swearing. After rounding the 14mm nut by trying to use a racket in a tight spot (which caused it to kink), I filed down two of the sides that were accessible to 13mm. I then smacked a 13mm open ended spanner onto it and tried to use that, this just started to round the newly filed edges, so I stopped before I did that, and got a 13mm socket and smashed it onto the nut. That with a breaker bar worked a treat: With the manifolds off I trial fitted the engine again: Despite how it looks in these pictures, with some widdling it actually fits! The engine was sitting forward as I hadn't yet removed all the brackets and crap from the engine bay, but here are a few more pics: And here is a pic showing how far forwards it's sitting. I think with removing the water lines and replacing them with AN fittings I'll be able to tuck the engine nicely up against the firewall and fingers crossed, get the engine entirely behind the front axle: After that I cleaned up the frame rails of all the accumulated gunk and hit them with some matte black spray paint. I then went through and removed a bunch of the brackets. I left the battery bracket and the one that holds the fuel charcoal canister. I hope I'll be able to reuse one of them for the oil catch can. Next steps are to order the bolts I need to bolt the gearbox and engine together for a more thorough trial fit, and to start thinking about how to actually bolt the engine in. At this point it looks like maybe if I cut the lower side of the C out of the stock engine bracket it might sit nicely on the chassis rails. I could then reuse some of the urethane bushings I have from hyperflex or somewhere else to provide some vibration insulation. Will see what happens once I move the fuel and brake lines out of the way, and now that all the superfluous brackets and crap are gone. Feels great to be making some small progress! Dave

Actually started work on the conversion yesterday. Pulled out old L28 and gearbox. Easiest pull I've done so far, especially as I did it solo. Forgot to drain the gearbox oil, but oh well. Old carpet soaked it up nicely. Before: After: Yes I am storing it in my minivan. Trying to clear out my tiny-arse garage, purchasing a new car that will hopefully fit in there. Moved the engine out and marked everything and took the loom off: So first trial fit results: VK56DE engine manifolds will not even go close to fitting. Need to take them off, except I stripped a nut on one... actually kinda at a loss as to how to go about getting it off without damaging the manifold, people will pay a hundred bucks or so for the 2007+ ones as they were more reinforced than earlier ones... Dave

Maybe you could attach a normal picture file? Why does it need to be flash? Dave

My wife encouraged me to just ship my cars over from Oz, then when I couldn't get it together and I was sad not having one, she found the 280Z on craigslist that I ended up buying. She then took care of car insurance, registration for 3 years while the car sat on axle stands and I ever-so-slowly did the suspension. She asked her grandma on my behalf to let me store the car and all my crap when we moved, and she didn't strangle me when she came back from holidays and found I'd brought the zed to our house, and broken it, and it was sitting in the middle of the driveway. Oh and she agreed when I said while it was broken I wanted to do the VK56 conversion.. Dave

Oh since you're there Mike, did you take any pics mocking up the spoiler when the wing was still on? As I know you know, they two are complimentary, and I've wondered what they'd look like together for a while now. Dave

Cool. Can't wait to see how they look. Dave

does that mean you got the 17x10 ones? can't wait to see how they look. Dave

I'll just state the obvious and say that you should get the stickiest tyres that make sense for the conditions you drive on. No point having amazing brakes if all you do is lock up and slide into whatever you were aimed at. Dave

The video is marked not viewable for mobile, and the iPhone won't play flash. Viewed it on my HTC Evo just fine. Dave

Few little goodies: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/pts/2848529410.html barely used spindle pins http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/tag/2848576125.html 240z models, stock and bre Dave

I am running what you are with 275 hankook spec r. I had to back off castor to almost stock, trim down about 6mm from the front and back of the zg flares, and cut about 20mm or so out of the air dam. I can take some pics of how it is now when I get home of you'd like. I didnt trim enough initially and bent the he'll out of my driver's side guard. Ah well. few pics in the build thread in my signature, but not any that'll be much use to you I think. Dave

VK56DE belt setup without A/C and P/S: The parts From McMaster Carr: - 5972K84 Metric Steel Ball Bearing Double Sealed Bearing NO. 6003 for 17mm Shaft Dia: USD9.00 - 2896K15 Metric Ball Bearing Shim Ring for Bearing Number 6202/6300, 35mm Outside Dia: USD4.53 From Amazon: - Gates K070425 Belt: USD15.29 The tools - toolkit - old rollerblade wheel - bench vice - hammer The procedure The following is the belt layout for the VK56 from nissan. We are removing the P/S, A/C, cooling fan, and idler pulleys. We then put the idler pulley onto new bearings onto the tensioner. Step 1: Using a socket wrench set to anti-clockwise, apply torque to the tensioner and remove the belt. Step 2: Remove the following from the engine and set aside: * The P/S pump from the upper left (above the alternator) * The A/C pump from the lower right * The small ilder pulley right above the P/S pump * The cooling fan pulley and supporting bracket Step 3: Take the idler pulley and place it into the vise, using the rollerblade wheel to protect the outer lip so it is not compressed. Take a socket that fits snugly against the bearing and wind the vice in until you feel the bearing give. This took quite some force for me and involved me hammering the vice lever with a hammer. A hydraulic press would probably be best, but we do what we can: Advice: Be very careful of the lip, it bends easily. Replacement pulleys are USD54 from nissan. I bent mine the first time I tried. Step 4: Slip the shim ring from McMaster-Carr into the idler pulley. Step 5: Place the idler on the rollerblade wheel and tap in the new bearing using the same socket to distribute the load. Obviously much less force is required than in getting the old one out. Ensure the bearing goes all the way in Step 6: Turning the bolt clockwise, undo the tensioner pulley bolt, and remove the bearing and pulley. Step 7: Get the front protective cover from the idler pulley, and slide the entire lot back onto the tensioner. Do it back up using the tensioner LHT bolt. Step 8: Continuing to turning the tensioner bolt counter-clockwise, ease the load on the tensioner and fit the belt Done.

Guys, just came across this in my travels: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Patrol#Sixth_generation_.28Y62.3B_2010.E2.80.93present.29 Anyone driven one of these, or have any more info about it? Would be an interesting alternative fo the z33/z34 transmissions requiring adaptor plates. Dave

I know this is going to get bleeped out but: Holy ****! **** me in the ******* ass they look ******* awesome! Dave

madkaw, That's fantastic. I want that. I also hadn't even begun to think about insurance or maintenance. Decision made. Thanks guys! Dave

Jon, Yeah I don't think I could bring myself to piss away 10K just to say I had a `new' car. Any GTR would be used, and it's still a bit of a stretch. The appeal though is that it would be a daily driver I would enjoy, and still let me have fun at the track (more than enough car for me to learn). But I think you and BluDestiny both make pretty compelling points: I'll be poor, won't be able to tinker with it at all, and that won't be any fun. Damn it's tempting though. Bad-arse cars indeed. But I think I'll keep plodding along with the zed, until I can have the GTR _and_ the zed. Thanks guys, Dave

Guys, Was chatting to my wife about the GTR the other day (chatting: annoying, pestering, blubbering - you get the idea) and she said that we could probably swing it if we sold my current daily driver (a minivan), and I sold up shop on the 280z to get a down-payment. Owning a car like the GTR is not something I ever thought I would be able to do, so it being more-or-less within reach (ramen noodles for a few years, but hey, small price to pay) is very seductive. However, I like working on the zed. I like my snails paced progress, and knowing that at the end of the day it will be something I can be proud of. That being said, it won't be much of a daily driver, it won't be worth diddley squat to anyone else, and it may not even be any quicker around a track. That makes me question if I'm just being pig-headed and foolish about it. On the other hand again, I don't know how to weld, I've started 2 engine conversions and never finished them. I don't like this situation, and I will feel like a failure if I don't remedy them. Additionally I just bought a new lincoln tig to learn to weld and haven't finished wiring up the house for it yet. I don't have a lot of time to work on the zed, so things move very slowly, but they do move eventually. Would love peoples' input and thoughts. Thanks, Dave

I haven't ever seen one with a back seat. But I've used one like it had a back seat.