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The green. And the black. And the red. and the grey. And whatever else is in there. Semigloss black bay now. I was thinking of matching the engine to the car, but I couldn't picture an engine being green, and unless it matched the exterior perfectly, it would be a waste. Green is good for a car, partly because it's not so common, but if and when I ever have to redo this cheap paint job I'll probably go gunmetal grey or something like that and I don't want to paint the engine again to match second time around. Oh duh you meant that's the pan I have. Yeah it's from a Z31 of sorts at least. I couldn't exactly go to a pick a part place to get one like some of you guys. Oh yeah? Well how about that California weather!

I'm sensing a bunch of "that's what she said"

Pictures I forgot to include. Old and busted...* As clean as dirt gets. *It's actually not busted, but it is actually for sale. If anyone wants some info, let me know. I'd be willing to part it out and sell the 5spd separately.

I'm in no condition to be running an aftermarket ems, but in retrospect, I live in California. Our scientists think that the freezing point is a brisk 55F...

The Japanese market RB20. It uses the narrower bolt pattern than the beefier awd pan.

I'm trying to figure out if I really need the AAC at all, or if I can just go around it without having to get an aftermarket ems. I would assume that it hooks into the a/c because when the a/c kicks on, the idle needs to go up a little to compensate. Generally cars just have a little vacuum switch or solenoid to do this. My l24 had one. But of course this setup allows for more ecm control and fine tuning. My l24 didn't have one of those.

Okay, so I finally got the cherry picker today, and took out the old motor. Time for a little semigloss on the bay. Also, the injectors arrived, so after I paint the intake manifold the engine will be made whole again. The welder said the custom oil pickup is ready, so hopefully it will fit together properly. Just a few more steps before the dawn.

Thanks for your concern. I think the picture makes it look worse than it is, which Is why I at first thought it would need to be resurfaced, but to the touch it doesn't really feel pitted at all after just a light sanding. Down the line I plan on getting a new rear end anyway, so if it turns out to be worse I don't think it will be much harder to do it then. Perhaps by then I'll be able to afford a new fly if anyone recommends it. This one weighs 21 pounds...

The old mounts Removed wiring I sanded the fly a little by hand and it seems to be in better shape than I initially thought, so I'm going to go with it. Yay! More broken things! The caps on three injectors were done for when I took them out. I couldn't find any pieces, but I don't think it will cause any problems. I already ordered a set of 4 on ebay. The plug for the ignitor is also broken. I didn't even notice at first when I was trying to unsnap it and it just came out. It seems like it will still work since all the teeth are fine, I just need to make sure it stays in.

Well my fuel rail is looking good now, and I decided to paint it blue with a can I found in the garage. I ended up buying three more and taking off the valve covers and whatnot to paint those too. I think it looks good enough that I'm also going to paint the intake manifold to match. The black paint didn't stick o the "RB26" so I decided rather than mask it again, I'd just sand off what was left with a fine grit and it ended up looking even better that way. You'll also notice that I put tape over marks I made around the cam sensor so I could line it up the way it was before. I really didn't want to have to mess with that...I hope it stays looking this good for a while.

Okay, I've been pretty lazy in uploading the latest, but I have a bunch of pictures to go through. This is for the oil pan. Well, the 300zx pan does bolt up once you remove the baffles, but it runs right across the pickup tube. And what erked me most about this is that while they decided to add a flange and holes to mount the new 300zx pickup (which would fit perfectly with the new pan), they failed to make the channel actually run to that flange. At first I thought all you had to do was drill it out, but nope. That flange doesn't go anywhere. The channel stops a mere inch before hitting it. I had several ideas for making this work, and decided to go with cutting the old pickup and running a tube from it into the new pickup a few inches away, then making a bubble around the area on the pan so that they fit inside. That way I don't have to worry about any welding or tapping into the block itself--having to remove all the internals and whatnot and taking it to a machine shop or something would be quite bothersome.

According to the picture, the supra isolators are offset, but I have yet to buy a pair to prove it.

I was thinking about putting mine in the tool boxes, but it makes less sense to point them straight up anyway, especially since the sound is first deflected by the back of your seat anyway. Where the speakers point and whether they are covered at all makes a huge difference. I used to have some behind me pointed right at my ears but they got stolen so I put some in the doors in front o me and even though they were way more powerful, it wasn't nearly as loud or clear because they pointed at and were muffled by our legs. Sound wise, yours are probably in the best location. I'm pretty devoted to 6x9s but my friend got 4 almost identical speakers and the two 6" sounded louder and more deep at lower wattage than his 6x9s, which I thought was pretty strange.

Thanks for your input and interest. That thought did seem so crazy it might work, but really, I think I should be ready enough to start "now". I've actually been saving up money as fast as I've been buying parts to this point, and since my dad said he wants the peace of mind and doesn't want me driving his truck forever, he's going to pitch in for the mounts. Works for me! I'm just waiting for infinity machining to finish carving them for me. The "only" parts left will be the ones that I have to figure out after the engine is mounted. By that time, I'll have more money, the rest of the parts will have arrived, and the things that needed fixing will be fixed. The day I can get that cherry picker on loan is the day the battle begins. Then it's trans mount fab, fuel lines, drive shaft, and exhaust. I'm still tinkering with exhaust ideas, if anyone has an opinion on the matter. Also, I don't know what I was thinking before, the trans came with the slip yoke, so there's no counting and finding business, I'll just get a shop to match the u-joint and connect it at length to the rear end that they'll cut off of my current drive shaft. I'm hoping it will be a fairly inexpensive job... Cheers!

That's exactly how I was going to do mine, except for the tool rack. Nice! Looks spiffy too like it's OEM. Those front speakers seem like they could take quite the beating over time from people kicking them when they get in and out. They point nice though. Where did you get those gauges? They look stock, only, of course, white.

My 240z came with those. Obviously they point straight ahead, which is better than the stock positions, but what I don't like about them is that there's not back to what you would think to be a box. It's just an L shape (making the port merely aesthetic) that you loosely fasten to your tail and shove the carpet under. Seems kinda cheap to me, especially for that price. Plus they're extra easy to see and a little obtrusive, so you could risk a break in. I'm going to try to make them work for now, and since my car is missing a spare tire anyway, I might go crazy and build a woofer box in the tub. It's been done before, and it will not only hide a pretty nice sub, but it will save space too. You just throw the carpet over the insert, and no one will know where that sound is coming from. If you have a flat, call AAA.

Well my alternator took a dump yesterday. It wasn't in great condition when I first got the car, and now it completely quit and I drained the battery on my way home from work. Perhaps I will start actual work a little sooner than planned. All the major parts are in. I will post pictures, if not here, then on my project forum. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=128243

My stock radiator is the same, but I've heard nothing but bad things about them so I was surprised to see yours working for you. Even a radiator shop told me that they aren't worth servicing because they are cheaply made. Mine doesn't cool the best, it is 35 years old and probably pretty crummy inside. It has one electric fan on it with a thermostat switch jammed into the core, but I just jumped that because it kept overheating so now the fan runs all the time. I just went ahead and ordered an aluminum 3 core double pass. They sure aren't cheap though. Plus having it right hand should make it a little easier. It's funny that the hump in the hood is actually for the radiator cap to snuggle, but I think the side cap will just barely fit because it's slightly lower without the top reservoir. My only regret is that the bottom of the core will be covered by the crossmember and not do very much justice, but I plan on 2 small fans anyway. The more cooling you get, the less power and mileage the engine suffers in daily driving. One day, I will like to go with a water to air ic but the budget is too tight right now and it would be another point of failure since it's more complicated. I went ahead and ordered the 31" aftercooler a few days ago, and it came this morning! I figured that if all else fails, I can get cut off the ends and weld on aluminum 90s instead, but rubber would make it easier all around if I can get it to work. I thought those vents were for the heater or something. Of course if they are sucking from the engine bay, I would think the vent air would be hot anyway. I've never used a vent, and don't plan to start now though. A/C would be a nice luxury...

Go to http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=127109 for the progress forum on my project. This is where I will post all the detailed final results of each step, including a parts list and total prices, no BS, of the total cost of this swap including miscellaneous parts and time spent on custom fabrication. My goal is to get an rb26dett and rb25det trans into my 240z at minimal pain, cost, and downtime, which means I will start off completely stock, so the total cost will only include necessary parts and a few replacement parts, as no crate motor is perfect. In case you were wondering, I bought my 240z for $2,500 and it came with a salvage title and a fresh coat of paint, but it doesn't look like it has ever been in an accident, and the only rust I've found is on the driver side kicker panel, which was covered in bondo before the paint. Not too bad of a start I think. Zero dollars going into the body that is in decent condition all around, and every penny going into the swap. The engine and trans set, which I got from a Hybridz member, was actually really convenient because he lives 20 miles away from me and cost $3,000 altogether. If it weren't for that bit of luck, I would probably be going in a completely different direction. Also, after the swap, for what it's worth, I will be selling off parts I didn't need, including my old engine parts, so if you have a similar situation you can subtract that from the total in a sense. I might be giving my l24 long block to a friend for his autoshop class to rebuild it though. Ideally this blog will contain one post titled for each area of the swap and be organized and easy to follow, but we'll see how that works out. So bear with me, as this is also the first time I will have ever attempted to do a swap of any magnitude, let alone one this involved.

I just got the oil pan in the mail today. Waiting on the clutch and a fuel pump. I am also about to buy an aftercooler off ebay, if they are saying that the 31" will fit after all. Perhaps the elbows bend in just soon enough to corner the hood brackets. And yes, I still need mounts. Those pesky little guys are getting on my nerves.

Yeah, perhaps in your funloving country, but this here is America, and Americans own all the machine shops. We hate everybody. And we charge like $150 an hour. But I guess it's worth a try...

So the 31" will fit after all? And the elbows don't hit the hood latches or anything? Or did you move the core support a little when you remade it? Cause if it would work for me, then I'll be damned, that would make it a lot easier since that core seems to be the most common size on ebay and the cheapest for some reason. You had one album with a cooler that had the inlets in the middle, what happened with that? How's the stock radiator working for you? Also, those plastic hoses you eliminated to run the piping through those holes in the core support, do they go to the heater? I don't even know. The popular plan is to get rid of them, but what do you lose as a result? I don't have any friends with a machine shop, so having one made isn't a viable option, since the rates are so freaking high. An aftermarket one would be much cheaper, but I'm still going to try to fix mine first. Thanks for your input!

I was thinking you were comparing prices with the 26, which is a big difference. The 25 itself would probably be attainable at like $1500 minus the trans.

Will you have any exhaust tips for me? I sure don't wanna screw that up. I'm especially curious at the sound difference between single and dual exhaust and also different pipe sizes.

Is the rb really cheaper? Parts may be more, but the bigger issue is finding them. I don't like most of those threads on how much it costs. I think it's a reaction to how people always underestimate that they go and do the complete opposite.