seattlejester

A friend asked for help wiring his RB25 swap into his 280z. Engine bay forward also had to be rewired due to a theft. Wiring diagrams and FSMs from atlanticz and xenon were crucial there, but when it came time to look into the swap specifics, hybridz is hard to beat. Figuring out how to wire the alternator, looking at how sensor wires would go and how or if they could work with the z gauges, figuring out all that stuff I kept being directed to hybrid where I would find my answer. Just a heartfelt thanks, even though my Z is gone, happy to be part of this community.

500-600hp with a close ratio transmission on a boosted engine with a high gear is going to be a bit silly. I could see the use-case of a sequential or something at that point with how quick the gears would fly by if you could get traction. Usually short gears and high numerical value diffs are useful for improving sluggish engines like the stock motor, supra people usually just keep throwing more power until it feels right. That could still be done if you wanted to stay around stock boost levels, I enjoyed my 7mgte with the 4.11 for a little bit. It would spin tires in the wet in all gears, but I could max out the gearing in a really short distance. It might give you more options for an optimal gear for a corner, but you would also be shifting quite a bit more. With boost and higher hp you can get away with a taller gear set or a lower numerical value diff. As long as the turbo is sized for it you can ramp in more boost at higher RPM to compensate for any sluggish feeling with the downfall of maybe having to sacrifice some of the lower RPM. My combo was a 2jz single turbo with a CD009 and a 3.55 if I remember. Plenty of passing power even in 6th and fast cruising around 2200rpm on the freeway. I would say it was a bit much for something technical like an autocross or a track without straights as the power building can really mess with smooth transitions, but could be fun to master. If I were to do it again, I think I would go with the 8.8 kit and not deal with antiquated suspension and axle headaches, I would also consider a BMW getrag option if you could tone the power down a bit. Cd009 is a big transmission and a lot of massaging has to be done unless you plan on hanging it pretty low in a 280z. If you hang it high you also have to deal with heat which was surprising.

Spot welds need to be drilled out, a lot more effort than it is really worth. VFib did it on his car, I think we found a 4x3? and that was pretty close to the dimensions to replace his rusted out piece. If you do remove it, totally worth cleaning up the area and seam sealing the seams

Honestly even engine arrangements tend to sound pretty similar. Between an RB and a JZ, RB's tend to rev quite a bit more and sound a bit more manic since people push the RPM's higher, where as the bouncing off the rev limiter is pretty iconic for a JZ, but you could replicate either or with setting the limiter and hysteresis. The only reason I point it out is that this is something you are going to have to live with. Peaky screams big turbo small displacement to me. You could get away with a smaller turbo for more spool, but then you might run into efficiency blocks. My friend's stock LS2 back in the day you could start in 6th and would have torque at pretty much off idle. My small turbo JZ was a maniac making 20 psi at 4k rpm, but I'm not sure if my target was 5-600 hp I would want to push that turbo, and the next step up is like a 1k rpm power band shift. You could look into new age turbo's or go old school with something like a QSV which I would love to see a combo of new age and QSV, but doubt the effort is worthwhile these days.

An import sounding motor is also quite subjective. Ford Barra is going to sound like some of the other import 6's, and a 1UZ will sound more like a domestic. LS would also not be considered peaky, anything running high amounts of boost to achieve those numbers like a rotary or a 1.6L boosted to the moon would be peaky. Something like a 6L V8 will have a pretty broad power range, where as depending on the turbo on a JZ you might get like 1.5-2k RPM unless you are willing to rev it much higher. Take stock of what you have, and what you want and make a list. Also take stock of the car. It is not going to take any power if the chassis is twisted or it has holes in the floor. Stock brakes at the power level are also going to suffer and if you run stock suspension it is going to squat hard and stock axles and stubs may not last very long depending on the driving.

You might want to take a look at the bores. I was planning on doing rings and bearings, but my higher milage motor had stock cross hatching. Much less of a concern at stockish power levels as well.

Take with a grain of salt, but you can ball park it by counting the teeth from the missing tooth when the engine is at TDC. Keep in mind you need to check the cam since two crank rotations per crank. Count teeth offset and I think you offset by 1/2 of the teeth x 30*. With that said mine never matched up, I had to just set it based off the timing light, so would be best to get that working either by boosting the charge on the battery or getting a more sensitive trigger.

Oh wow, that is super cool. Might have to start collecting parts for a future build! Given that the chassis is old I would not want to have someone remote a setup at a premium price like that unless I knew it was going to be 100% fit and they had a warranty and reputation to back it up. It could be a perfect fit on their car, but could be off on yours, and if they are making the holes extra large or slotted to compensate then the precision fit isn't really a selling point. The apex mount looks nice and with an adapter plate should be able to adjust, and with spacers also in 3 dimensions. Price compared to 400-500 is darn good, just make sure to talk to them before hand, I know they had some issues in customer service a while back. My thinking is a bit tainted since I have welder's and such, paying a ton for something like basic mounts just doesn't make sense, but at the same time I've been in your shoes. I just had a bad experience with prefab bolt on parts (granted I went cheap) so I tend to recommend the fab route, but it can and most likely will add quite a bit of time and will rarely come out cheaper unless you are efficient with your time and planning.

^looks like bots mods?

It would be the least amount of work from the looks of things, and in theory just an adapter or something to the w58 should work if the mounts are different. I would personally try and find a local welder. It would take a couple hours for you to clean the area and cut out the pieces with an angle grinder, but you could get the fitment how you want it and the material cost in overkill 3/16 to be safe should be about $20. Granted if you aren't comfortable or familiar the apex piece looks like it should work fine. I guess it depends on how much your time is worth. Curious, how are the carbs going to mount to the head?

Depending on the thickness of the baffle plates and the fact you can't really weld them all the way around without risking warping . If you don't have enough reliefs for the activity you can bend the baffle plate from sudden transitions if the route for the fuel is too convoluted. Based on your thickness and design you may need more yield routes i.e. holes or trap doors. It most likely will be overkill, I went to a couple events with a fuel cell that was just a box and with at least 25% fuel I didn't have any problems other than clogging a fuel filter a couple times. Although it is a bit annoying to see your fuel level change by up to 50% based on if your accelerating, turning, etc.

I think it depends on the activity you plan on running. Something interesting to note is that you have to find a decent yield route for the thickness of the material or else it can buckle or you may just have to add thicker material. Everything I've read say the foam will eventually deteriorate. Unless you build your tank for ease of service I don't think it would be a good idea. Good baffle system to stop big changes and maybe a trap door setup for low gas or a bucket would be preferential.

FYI the CX engine mount kit for the 2jz was pretty bad if your going that route, it offsets the whole drivetrain a couple inches, had to make a lot of modification to center it. That trans mount looks kind of similar to what I ran, but I imagine it will hang a bit lower. I think I have my old R154 mount somewhere, granted I put my engine back to within touching distance of the firewall and it was for an earlier 71-72 240z. I know I mimicked the mounts off of someone with a 73, and he had to fully remove the trans mount subframe from his car to mount his transmission. This is of course with mounting the engine back and the trans a bit high, one of my goals was to not have to crab over speed bumps so tucking the trans and exhaust was a requirement. If you don't mind them hanging low it shouldn't be a real problem.

What mounting points are you looking at, transmission crossmember? They are different on the mk3 supras which would lean to them not lining up great. If your post 73, it won't matter anyway if your going for the r154 it won't fit without removing the stock mounting points unless you plan on having the motor shoved forward and the trans hanging low. Might look at megajolt or something at that price range. Putting in a wheel to read and a sensor for pickup and you won't be limited to the stock 2jz coil architecture. I know I have the wiring most likely posted on here somewhere as I did the alternator wiring a few times granted 240z on my end so not 1:1, but it could at least decode the alternator on the 2jz side.

The diffuser muffler did the trick for me. $30 or so on amazon, prime shipped. Made my car from unbearable, requires ear plugs, down to not that bad, almost wish it was slightly louder. Drone was intercepted with an ultra quiet and a cat, but honestly i think i could have done without the ultra quiet, just having the diffuser creates enough backflow to really quiet things down.

My shifter had a reverse lockout as well, I think most do, but with a weighted shift knob to push down on the lock out spring and extra leverage, it actually isn't hard to push past. I never engaged reverse, but more than once I've felt the shifter slip under the bar.

You can undo the short throw by using a longer shifter with an extension rod. I feel you on what you are saying some of the shifts with the CD009 are sketchy and hard to tell especially with a short shifter and a soft transmission/motor mount. My fear was always somehow missing 5th or 6th and slipping into reverse (forget which way it goes).

Will say your transmission looks really nice and centered with what looks like the stock hole no less.

Bruno makes a controller that is automatic based on I think a GPS module feeding the VSS, but he didn't recommend it for sport driving since the rate would get easier as you braked for a corner making it harder to modulate linearly. I have heard additional caster can help with centering somewhat. The failsafe setting on the toyota ones are constant on. At speed you hardly need any assist so that was unappealing to me personally.

SC300 hose on the passenger side for sure, I think it needs a bit of a twist, so I cut it and used a coupler. Inlet was really simple I think it was an SC300 hose as well if not the stock datsun hose.

If it is what I think it is, I think the first time my fix was to fill in the hole with jb weld, let it set, then file it down to size. I think devcon steel putty would probably be better since JB still has a bit of flex. In the end the key was just super loose and I couldn't get it rekeyed so I picked up some aftermarket assemblies.

Saturn Vue motors are popular. @Ben280 has one in his car that is a very clean and simple install. My first set I made a hybrid, because I wanted a column that could collapse in an accident. For the second set I figured out you could do it much cheaper if you just cut and weld where you need and even easier if you ignore the safety features, granted I wouldn't run that unless you were running harnesses.

I forgot that car existed! Granted I think I like the sound of sidedrafts over ITB's.

OEM seals are used on 1000hp builds so power level isn't much of a concern. Interesting point with the trans, you are running less weight and not much power so a W58 may be perfectly fine. If you do oil pump, worth looking into modified ones with front seal retainers. I did a whole write up on the FMS, differences between the seals and how I think it should be installed, but everyone has their own opinion. Also make sure to run good crank case venting. You won't have the normal problem with pressurizing the crank case, but you will have the problem of not having much of a vacuum source unless you can tie all the runners together. Ooh does danst make a conversion manifold? I think this would honestly be inline with my next build now that I've more or less scratched the turbo monkey. I'd hope for something fairly high compression, maybe even keep the VVTI, and throw in some balancing and try and run the motor a bit more towards higher RPM. That would probably involve crank cradle and all sorts of balancing, but one can dream. Would love to see how you get along. Keep us updated!

Bummer, it seems design wise they were among the forefront. Manufacturing problems aside, I wonder if it is a case of being overwhelmed and refusing to hire staff, or if it is a case of having margins so small they can't afford to. @Zetsaz for consideration.