Zetsaz

Did they sell off their molds to you after the fire? Are you now manufacturing their parts or just running the business side to allow them to focus just on manufacturing in a timely manner? Not sure you'll have a very enthusiastic response related to Retro-Spec. Lots of people have been disappointed for a long time about overly long lead times and very poor communication.

I'm with cgsheen on this. The AFM works reliably when properly set up, but will always be antiquated and hold you back. The best solution is to go to a standalone ecu so you don't have to deal with it

Spend minimal effort thinking of any of this for now, and focus on finding a clean shell with minimal rust first. Take it from someone who's had to go through it a bit and had to do a lot of work twice... just pay more up front for a cleaner starting example. Fortunately you have more of those in California. Once you have a clean car I would focus on brakes and suspension before swaps. Once that's done you'll quickly get an idea of how much things are really going to cost you down the road. Smog laws will affect your options in CA unless you plan on buying a California EO approved Chevy crate engine if you end up with a later car. LS with a 6 speed and low gearing, or an SR20 will get you the best fuel economy compared to other options if you actually care about that sort of thing.

Where did you take it to have that work done? What was the estimate? Mine is in decent shape but has some gunks. I'll have to live with some of the dents since I don't want to crack it open.

Later cars had larger lines. Also, that tank is so damn clean. Hoping mine turns out half as good.

Separate from any sort of brand loyalty and just plain really loving the combination in my G37, this is the biggest reason I would consider the VQ over an LS in terms of costs. I'm not drag racing and don't want a cheaper auto just to have the LS power.

The big cost differences are going to be transmissions. Everyone seems to want $1500 for even used T56's with unknown history. It's absurd quite frankly. I'm a huge fan of the throttle response on my G37s. That engine and 6 speed in an S30 would be a fun combo. VQ35 is cheaper, but I like the VVEL and dual intake. You can make about 350whp NA on the VQ37 with an intake/headers/exhaust/tune, but I don't think many people have actually done that. LS will get you more torque in low RPM as well as better cruising MPG. Either will be a riot, but with the prices everyone seems to want for a proper aluminum block LS and the inflated prices for GM 6 speeds the VQs might become more appealing swaps. All that being said, I still think an aluminum LS with a 6 speed would be better and more easily upgraded, but everyone boasting about cheap LS swaps seems to be running iron block truck engines for boost with an auto and they lean towards drag racing setups for raw speed.

https://autoweek.com/article/empire-hill-climb/datsun-280zmercedes-v12-empire-hill-climb-engine-swap-update-tick-tick?fbclid=IwAR0GrrK-sfLo7qu3FImL8ibjSX6_KM4EJwWikC5LxF8HbgybPvIdhc98QEg

Every time I see your car and those ITBs I want to sell all my car stuff and just start with a super clean earlier model and go ITBs. Speed be damned. It's looking real good!

I still have full vinyl and most of the interior pieces from the series 1 I scrapped. Really only good for patterns for people looking for a restoration sort of job, but most of it is pretty okay. Was gonna sell for like $50 plus shipping. You can have it for the price of some tasty tacos next time you're around and we hang out. Also, for this interested in the car. I've driven it and can confirm that it's a pretty excellent ride. More well sorted in terms of function that most of the Datsun I come across. Period.

Had one similar that I stripped for parts and then scrapped. As much as some might complain, I don't see anyone stepping up to actually save examples in such dire condition. Better to sacrifice usable parts so as many others as possible can keep running.

@jpndave, see Gollum's comment

I assume it's the same ones Black Dragon used to sell. Mine came in completely different packaging and arrived in good shape. I will agree with grannyknot though. I had to do a lot of bending and trimming just to get it to bolt in, and that doesn't even get you close to fixing alignment issues if you want even gaps for paint.

Looking for a stock T3 turbo or someones used T3/T4 or RB25 turbo that they've upgraded from in usable condition. Also looking for a same side intercoooler before I go digging in junkyards for all this

I don't think anyone makes a replacement panel. Your best bet would be to find a car that's being recycled and hack it out of there or somehow cut the panel from a junkyard S30 if you can find one.

Rear hatch from the 2+2 is not interchangeable. In fact most things behind to the rear of the firewall/dash can't be swapped, except for suspension/brakes/diff/fuel tank/lights, and a few other odd trim pieces.

Since you seem to have the funds going for an LS6 instead of some version of the 5.3 like so many people, Apex or Hoke are definitely going to be your highest quality options, though you definitely pay the price for them.

77-78 was a completely different tank due to the change to a space saver spare tire.

ZFever makes the aluminum replacements. Ross's SleeperZ thread has a section towards the end where he talks about his experience with it. Didn't seem worth it for the price he paid.

Oh, I forget... double check what year your distributor is. I think the '81 was slightly different from the '82-'83, but you'll have to search yourself what the exact differences are. Though I think the optical wheel makes the differences null.

Everyone can ignore this. The grounds are all functionally identical even though they're labeled differently. They're all tied together on the board and I confirmed this by checking continuity on different pins, and across spare ground and sensor ground wires with the harness connected to the ecu. I'm entirely overthinking this....

Is that on a 240 or a 280? Seems like there are no spot welds on the top side of the rail where you attached the crossmember. It's been a bit since I've been able to compare side by side on with the shell I parted out, but supposedly the 280 had more spot welds throughout holding everything together.

Hi all, hoping this is a better place to put these few questions than on my build thread. Firstly, it's important to note that I got the v3.57 MS3X I have from a past member here along with his old chassis who moved on to a Porsche project. It was purchased new and never used, the harness was mostly done and for the most part has been really easy to start finishing with the bits of free time I have! I've double checked almost all of the pin outs at this point along with making sure that cables are going to the correct colors, and most everything seems totally normal. The only wires that aren't pinned right now are ones I would never have used and the past owner seems to have done a mostly great job on the harness. There's one thing I'm concerned about though. On the main plug, the crank sensor ground and input should both be in the shielded wire correct? My issue is that the sensor ground in the shielded wire is supposed to be going to Pin #1 and it's pinned to 8 right now which is listed as a spare gnd. The crank sensor shield is also listed as Pin #2, but that just seems to be another ground wire on my harness that was routed out towards the sensors. The extra wire in the shielded cable that should be in Pn #2 on the hardware guide just seems to have been spliced into one of the chassis grounds. Will either of these things cause issues. Do I need to do a few repins? My last hold up is the sensor grounds. They're all listed as going to the Black/White cable, I'm not entirely sure of the best practice for splicing them, but I can figure that out. My concern is that the black/white is supposed to be Pin #7 according to the hardware guide, but is pinned to #9 on my harness (another one listed as a spare gnd), and there's nothing in Pin #7.

https://www.diyautotune.com/support/tech/hardware/nissan-trigger-disc/ Wiring mine right now. wiring notes with correct colors are the bottom of this guide. This guide should help you if you're using an optical trigger disk. Are you using the dizzy for crank and cam signal? Things will be different if you have a crank sensor mounted to the crank pulley and getting signal from that or from a sensor reading off the flywheel like some people have done.