Zetsaz

Yes. Wouldn't be any different than just removing your AC, you just won't have a functioning system.

Only a few people have even done the VQ37, the electronics are what gets expensive. Unlike older swaps, newer engine ECUs are more interdependent on different systems to be connected to function properly, which quickly becomes cost prohibitive to most people. Even if you somehow used just the engine instead of having the expensive modern donor car you'd have to find a standalone ECU that would support it.

My stock R200 mustache bar worked with the T3 dog bone/drop mounts for the finned cover. was a bit tight, but it worked fine.

I have one from a series 1. Did you want the later box that went with the 73 flat tops? They're not the same iirc

Was just about to add that this is what I've always called them. Most people I've talked to that own S30s usually call them frame horns as well.

My priorities have almost been opposite direction lately. The more I drove my daily (a G37S), the more I realized that I didn't even take advantage of the top end of that car. I quickly realized that anything near 200whp in the S30 would match the power to weight ratio of the G37s.... sounds fun enough for me and easy enough to do with a very mild turbo L28, or some extensive work on the L28 with fuel injection. 300hp is a common goal for a lot of people, and really you can hit it with almost any of the popular swaps. For your goals I really think the turbo L28 would be a solid option. It'll hit the numbers. fitment will be easy, will be lighter than a 2jz or an RB, turbo will let you adjust how much power you're making to meet regulations when you need to.

Your setup is very comfortable for me. I'm not a giant fan of the how high up the top of the doors come, but you have to make some sacrifice for the fitment. I fit in it great and see out just fine. Don't feel like there's more of a blindspot than normal. Yes sir! High school currently. Bands, jazz, marching music theory, mariachi (weirdly enough... it's way more fun than running a group guitar class which is the more standard option students would have). High School schedule is pretty exhausting. Example, we had a marching rehearsal yesterday and a football game the band is playing at tonight. Which means I haven't finished those rails like I hoped... slows things down, but hey! The car is here now, which means even a couple welds/bolts a day is more progress than I was making last year.

Made a call recently about certain parts. Seemed excessively priced, even compared to some higher ebay prices, but the support and conversation was definitely great. If I wasn't so budget minded I definitely wouldn't mind buying there. Think everything was recently moved. There's always an ad on craigslist for the same stuff.

Z specialties has good stuff but seems notoriously overpriced.

If you wanted to be REALLY out of the box and stay semi modern inline 6 you could always consider a Mercedes M104, but there are a lot of disadvantages it shares with other engines you've mentioned, and no significant advantages over a JZ or RB as far as I know

@seattlejester Have you ever checked the weight balance after your swap? @OverkillZ Might have info too.

I'm actually JUST shy of 6'. I'm fairly thin, so it makes me look a bit taller than 6' sometimes. I don't have the stock mounts actually, but I fit fine in them in the old rusted shell, but even after adjustment my hair would always skim the ceiling which was annoying. In bad positioning my head would touch just a bit. I'm only trying to get an inch or two lower out of the mounts so I'm totally comfortable while driving. I actually really like the height for everything else, just my hair always touching was annoying. If I ever modify them for different seats I'll have even more room since most aftermarket mounts are lower profile and the seat bottoms often are too.

No huge updates just yet since the start of the school year is always excessively busy, but I've made some small progress. Finished making seat rails, they're not super pretty, but I think my welds are decent considering it's the first time I've really welded anything for the car. Hoping take the seat tops off so I can test fit them and make sure that I get a reasonable angle front to back. Hopefully tomorow or thursday I'll have the rails welded into the car! Special thanks to @seattlejester for helping me figure out the best way to make something that'll work with the original seats. Once that's done I'll start taping things off and maybe in a week or two I'll spray in the insulation. Very exciting stuff! Pictures to come as I finish things up.

18 was released a little while ago for those who maybe missed it. Still amazed by the amount of work into such tiny details.

Post is much later than anticipated but the car is finally in Washington! I didn't get the chance to make seat rails with how long it took to strip out the electronics and interior from the other car, but I was able to at least bolt in the engine and transmission so I wouldn't be carrying them in a truck. Was very tempted to take the car on a full dolly, but the cost was on the virge of ridiculous so I settled for a dolly and disconnected the driveshaft. At least I know my rear end will hold together now that it's been put together haha. Some Pics of the car before and on arrival. Don't mind the mismatched silver on the fenders. I took some rustoleum and did a quick spray of them so the mismatching wouldn't drive me completely crazy. It's unforunately the only thing that didn't come with the shell along with seat rails. In other news, my girlfriend has been looking for a roadster for a long time. The prices on some were out of budget and others were just so rusted they weren't even worth looking at. She ended up finding a very nice example from a true roadster enthusiast near Snohomish. Aside from needing to be put together (there seems to be commom theme here....) the car is in great shape and has a new remachined 1600 engine with all new parts ready to be put together. Came with tons of extra goodies, I'm almost more excited to help her put it together than I am to do the work on my own car. I'm so indecisive sometimes I don't know how to move forward with things, especially anything engine related. Anyway, until it's moving my carport was the only place for it, sadly that meant potentially losing the only working space I have for my daily unil one or the other is moving... that is until I found out I could fit the whole thing sideways and still park my car behind it. Thank goodness the last owner included the tired dollies. That's it for now. Haven't gotten much work done since getting back due to some setup for work a long with some very long days running a high school band camp for my job. Next up is either an upgraded or just personally rebuilt brake master cylinder since I discovered mine was leaking really bad the morning I left. It messed up some of the not totally cured paint on the engine bay After that will be seat rails, then wiring, then engine decisions.... which I'm not particuarly good at, so it might be a while haha.

My understanding is that this was made by a guy in Australia. Few reviews I've seen on the Datsun facebook page are pretty good. Should work fine, just more expensive than some other options.

That should work, though you can probably get a turbo distributor and trigger wheel, or a crank trigger setup from Hoke for less.

I might just... Every single trans option I have for the L28 that'll hold reasonable power basically puts me in the same price range as doing a JZ swap, whether it's NA-T, or the 1jzgte options I like. I think even the W58 would hold the power I was looking for out of the the L series, so a JZ swap price might be a wash compared to what I have left for the L series I'd actually enjoy. We'll have to grab lunch and talk more about the whole process once I'm back up in Washington.

Your car is so cool, I'm jealous haha. Letting me try it briefly was a bad idea... just made me want to abandon the L28 completely. Would slow things down to getting it on the road but wouldn't do things twice I guess. For insulation I'm gonna be using Lizard Skin, but I distinctly remember when I drove my car in the Cache Cruise-In last summer there was a TON of heat coming from near the shifter even through the shifter boot. This year after having a proper lower and upper shift boot to fully seal the cabin from the trans tunnel the heat was greatly reduced. It was 95 out and it was actually... bearable haha. Still not great without AC, but I'm sure if I wasn't driving so slow for the parade it would have been just fine. More to the point... just make sure the cabin is totally sealed. even with insulation and carpet like I had with the original stuff from the car it was getting really hot without the boot.

Major milestone today. All suspension components, all bushings, and all brake parts are now bolted in. Tested the emergency brake and it seems to be working great! All brake lines are in and new hoses on all 4 corners along with new hard lines on all 4 corners. Will double check that the ends are properly tightened and bleed the brakes this weekend. Pulling engine and transmission out tomorrow. Enjoy this picture for now, it's very satisfying. I'll wipe down some of the grease from the parts I had roughly repainted next time I'm under there for fuel lines.

Long day. Front lower mount of the diff wasn't bolting in. Dropped everything and realized that the passenger side bolts weren't even starting. Bought a tap and die set that I had needed anyway and chased the threads. Finally bolted up the rear, then bolted in the rear control arms and coilovers along with brakes. Only thing left is the sway bar and brake hoses which should be done tomorrow. After lots of debating (which I do a lot of with pretty much every decision on this car) and using @seattlejester as a sounding board for the millionth time this month I decided to get the T3 drop mounts and dog bone to fit the finned cover. I could have run the smooth cover, or just cut the brace of the stock drop mounts and sourced the old makeshift braces a user here had made a while back, but I figured if it's something I'll be upgrading later, I might as well get it now. I was concerned that it wouldn't fit with the stock mustache bar since that's not really a weak point and I have better things to do than spend an extra $300 on bling. Wasn't fitting at first and I was feeling disappointed.... until I realized I had left the nuts on the mustache bar loose to line up the bolts up front. Serious facepalm moment. It just barely touches, tight fit, but it'll work. Buttoning up the rear suspension and brake lines tomorrow, pictures to come. We're going places people! (Not literally... but places none the less)

Very friendly! Talked with him for a good while at nissanfest. He said he went with the LSA because he didn't feel like redoing his exhaust piping haha. Talked mostly about all the nice reinforcements he's done

They have a tendency to do that.... when I was pulling my axles I ended up getting a sharp screwdriver to hit between them so I could pry and separate them from the companion flanges.

Got the front suspension done. Rear is also about ready to bolt short of a modified drop mount for the finned cover and brake hoses since the old ones were dry and a couple were near impossible to pull. This week I'll be pulling the engine and at least bolting it in, and seat mounts. Once that's done it's just a matter of bleeding brakes, and stuff all the interior and wiring into the new shell at a minimum so I can finish working in it in Washington. Getting close! On with the project. New shell won't be Flintstones powered either, I'll power this thing to Washington myself if I have to

Aftermarket fenders are pretty much all from Tabco I think. I bought one from blackdragon when they were going out of business. Wish I'd bought both only because it was clean metal. That being said, they will most definitely not fit without some work. I spent a few hours trimming excess metal from the stamping and bending some parts to properly curve with the rest of the car. Bolts up front did not fit very well and required some serious pulling by the headlight to fit. Can't speak for how well the lower bolts into the rocker panel fit until I swap them onto my new shell. Last shell had replacement rockers which of course also require some work to fit.