ShaggyZ

And "rotary," "CA18DET," and "electric s30." Shoot, the way things are shaping up for me, I may end up with no engine ever in my Z! I was standing in the engine bay last night and thought I might Flinstone it. (note: I'm a 6'1" and 180lbs)

How about a 3.15 LSD? I've got one I MIGHT be wanting to get rid of before long.

My work on this project will have to be non-costing only for awhile as I've been out of the job for a couple months and am nearly out of money. Stupid economy!! Spent some time last night dropping the 2JZ into the engine bay again and examining clearances and the possibility of using the Toyota Aristo engine mounts. The main reason I'm not going to go with the Beta Motorsports crossmember ($350 + shipping) is that I'd have to buy Toyota Supra mounts ($200+ easily) and isolators ($150ish). I sat the engine as low and far back as possible. The driver's side Aristo mount clears the steering shaft by 5mm, so I don't know what I want to do. I'll likely end up fabricating entirely my own mounts and using the Jaguar V12 isolators that go for so cheap on eBay. While the engine was in there, I started eyeing the Aristo dipstick again. I didn't think I could use it because it doesn't have the correct shape or bracket; really, I don't even know if it goes to the right depth - I'll decide once I put oil in it. BUT, I spent a half hour gently bending the dipstick tube into a shape that works and bolts up to the intake manifold where I believe it should. The clearances are tight and there is one bend that is a bit tight, offering a bit of resistance to insertion and removal of the dipstick itself, but I'm fairly confident it'll be fine. I don't know what other front-to-rear-sump 2JZ purchasers do; my guess is that they're buying new, correct parts or scour forums, eBay, and rear sump engines in junk yards. Several months ago, I remember looking at Z-Gad's alternator setup and figured I could do something similar. I believe he said he fabricated a bracket. While the engine was hanging in the engine bay, I messed with that, too. Over the past few days, I've been moving around my leftover L28e parts to clean up and sell some of them; I remembered the L28 alternator bracket and wondered if that would work. The short: it had to be flattened out from it's zig-zag shape, but it works great. I was hoping to have a fancier setup that threads out to move the alternator out and tighten the serpentine belt so I don't have to use a crow bar in one hand and tighten the bolts with the other, but this will be just fine for now. Also, while in that area, I decided to remove the OEM serpentine belt tensioner. It's just three 13mm bolts and it comes right out. Unfortunately, when the first one broke loose, my socket popped off and went right down the timing belt hole. It took about 15 minutes to fish it out with a bent hanger - I was not interested in removing anything just to get a socket out of there. As much tension as the tensioner provides, I'm amazed how light it is - easily around, if not less than, 1 lb. I suppose I'm a little disappointed that it doesn't remove more weight... like 10lbs!! I took pictures to show the modified and installed dipstick and the removed tensioner along with the new alternator bracket, but HybridZ's albums aren't accepting my upload for some reason.

http://www.motorsportauto.com

I've heard this a couple times in the past few days and it doesn't make sense to me. Wasn't it oriented that way in the Supras? That's the way I received mine. Timbo, if I haven't said it in this thread or in awhile, your car is looking great! I appreciate your documentation, too. Rock on!

I just realized I never gave you a big thumbs up for the work you've done, Russ. You rock. While I won't necessarily be using your ideas, reading your documentation and encouragement has made this project seem doable.

Short, not particularly interesting update and no pictures. I finally decided (remembered, rather) to install the gas tank I bought off a guy who had it completely refreshed; the original tank was NASTY and rusty and I sold it for $30 - the kid didn't care it was so gross. I've wondered if I should modify it for any reason: baffling, larger outlets. Right now, I'm going to leave it alone as I've gathered that the stock 280Z fuel tank and fittings are adequate for a ~$400 HP turbo engine. Installing a fuel tank for the first time using a bum left wrist that is weak and inflexible and a right shoulder that has something torn in it is not an easy task. It took awhile, but I got it all back in and, hopefully, the hardened rubber hoses on top of the tank and the fill-hose will hold up; replacing them didn't look like fun (how do you pull out the right rear internal panel?!) and I was determined to finish installing the tank right then and there. I will, of course, be looking for a decent inline fuel pump. I may even look to using a stock MKIV Supra fuel pump, though those might be in-tank. I'd like it to be factory quiet. Perhaps just good rubber isolation will be enough if I go with the standard Walbro 255 or Bosch 044 (I think those are the right numbers). Otherwise, I spent some time pulling out the rest of the engine harness and trying to figure out what should stay and what should go. I stared at the harness after pulling it from the passenger cabin to the engine compartment; I was thinking I might leave it hooked up to the ECU's pigtail/plug/harness for now because I might use the information I'll get from knowing what went where as I begin the Megasquirt installation. We'll see. I'm sure I'll probably just pull it out before long without caring. Prior to disassembling anything on the car, I hooked up a battery to test some of the electrics; really, I just checked the lights and most of them worked and looked great. After pulling the engine, I applied power back to the harness as part of a way to find out which wires were the headlights, blinkers, markers, horn, etc, so I'd know what to leave alone. Long story short, I couldn't get any power to anything and every light connector had continuity with ground. I dont know why this is and I was hoping for the quick and dirty, work hard, not smart problem solving to figure it out: it didn't work out. I still don't understand, but pulling all the unnecessary wiring will simplify the problem. Fortunately, because this car is so low-mileage and it sat for 10 years, the wiring and connections look fantastic; I fully intend to reuse a great deal of it. I also pulled the brake booster and, though it looked pretty crusty on the bottom, might actually be usable. I don't think I'm going to use it. I've considered looking to other vehicles, such as Toyota Supras, to use their brake booster and master cylinder. The only two complicated things for me are the diameter of the brake boost (interference with the clutch master cylinder) and modifying the shaft of said brake booster to work with the Z pedal. I've read too many complaints about non-OEM (read $500 brake boosters from Nissan) not to entertain the idea of other brake boosters. After all, this is the same mentality that had me choose a 2JZGTE over the L28ET. If you have any ideas, I welcome messages sent through HybridZ.

The short Soarer 1" extensions (two parts) are $80 from Toyota. The parts to make the piece Driftmotion sells come out to about $15 for the average consumer. There's very little fabrication involved and it doesn't have to be "machinist perfect," just very close. But I suppose they're catering to the Lexus and Supra crowd so they can charge that. $150 is on the high end of reasonable for a piece that looks like someone put together in their garage with some scrap square tube aluminum and Alumaweld. If they cast their own single pieces so it looks a bit like OEM, I could see $250 for that. Otherwise, I agree - they rock.

Yikes! Thanks for the tip, but that is a grossly overpriced piece! Holy crap! I had heard they were selling them, but they're just offering a $50 service for $300!! They're generally reasonably priced but sheesh! I'll just have my friend at Boost Logic weld the aluminum for me if I need more than an inch. He does all of their welding and fabrication, as point of interest.

It could be from before December 15th or after January ~3rd. It's all buttoned up now that I got that oil line fixed. Now, I can hook up my trailer to it again and tow engine hoists without a bit of oil loss to help friends move around superfluous SBC's... oh, but you already knew that.

Cool. You're really coming along now and are nearing the end of the beginning. I'm still at the beginning of the beginning Regarding the Soarer extension, are you talking about the piece that only extends it another inch or so? Or the really long one from the later Soarers, I believe, that is about 4" longer? Either way, if you actually had the part already, I'm interested in buying it off you.

My neighbor, whom I never talk to and don't know, yelled across the street today "hey dude, do you ever listen to Jim Rome?" I don't, but he proceeded to tell me his site has been having some sort of XR4Ti spotting game going on. I think that's what he was telling me. So I went on there and found this: While I can't make out the license plate to be sure, it's highly unlikely that there are any other late, red XR's in as good a shape as mine and have similar wheels. Craziness! http://www.jimrome.com/home/jungle/spotted.html Reference picture:

Phil, you should start up a Wienerschnitzel competitor there in Wax and make your own red-linked dogs and pickled tripe. You'd make a ton of money. I'd even make a special trip up there for a couple links.

Maybe that's part of my semi-evil plan.

It's been a little quiet lately. Right now, the last activity we had there was 5 days ago. I check it regularly Perhaps we should go rally up some folks from Zcar.com or similar.

If cars really could have cancer...

Drifter, your wheels are really threatening to make me spend too much money on old school wheels that will be very hard to find. They really remind me how good sub-16" wheels look on a Z. Actually, if wide, small diameter tires weren't so hard to come by, I probably would have gone that route a long time ago.

That's kinda what I'm planning to do with my 2JZ in my white 280Z - go mostly white on the engine. Powdercoating would be nice, but it wouldn't be possible to powdercoat the plastic and would be hard to match powerdercoated cam covers with rattlecanned timing cover. Overall, actually, that's exactly what I plan to do. I wouldn't go with stock skinny wheels, though. Something old school JDM. That car is great!

I'd say he's tired of spending time and money on cars and wants to spend it on photography. Seems to me he's using a very high quality camera and is learning to use it pretty well.

All good points, Tony. I don't KNOW that they're true, but I'm inclined to believe it. For what it's worth, my $6k guesstimate on the wheels applied to "if you buy these wheels from Nissan to put on your 350Z or GT-Regular." I don't believe for a second that they actually cost that much to produce (even including tooling and design).

Below, I've made it easier to pick out the actual upgrades as detailed in the Jalopnik article. Seems to me that they pulled out the back seats and replaced the fronts with carbon fiber and put carbon fiber in various places (not extensive, really), put a $8k set of wheels and tires on (versus probably a $6k set on the GT-Regular), squirted some titanium on the regular exhaust, put some slightly fancier brakes on, and stuck in a boost controller. That's probably only $30k in parts (on the high end), but imagine getting a GT-Regular and selling your wheels, seats, brakes, and carbon fiber bits and getting that stuff - probably only cost you $10k after all is said and done. It's the badge. And I agree that the 370Z looks great. More like a Z than the 350Z.

Interesting. Seems like a lot of money for the changes, though. It seems it'd be far cheaper to buy a "regular" GT-R and make those mods yourself. Plus, "titanium coated exhaust?" What for? Why not straight-up titanium?

Sure. My buddy had a '75 with component 5.25" in the doors and two 8's behind the seats - it sounded and felt incredible.

For what it's worth, I say stay away from 6x9's. Round speakers sound much better, in my experience. I've not heard a 6x9 I didn't nearly cringe at, including "nice," well-powered 6x9's. If I decide to put speakers in the back, it'll be a custom box with probably 6.5's and an 8" sub.

Yep, that's the thing that gets me. Pretty gay. Reminds me of those OOOOLLLD school power window adapter kits that were just large boxes containing electric motors and you just slid it over the shaft. I believe zeeboost's wide body 280Z has those along with a bunch of other "back to the future" era gadgetry with big switches and lights.