Six_Shooter

For anyone that wondered what happened to this car, like I have been over the last few years, this project is no more. A member of another forum bought what was left of the car and it was ROUGH. He's using the few good parts as donor parts for his car. This is the most recent picture of it. lol

*sigh*, my turbo L28 was not the current swap I was talking about, please read for detail. My current swap is a GM LX9 (3.5L V6) that is mated to a Nissan 300ZX TT trans, and a bunch of other parts all put together that were never intended to be, but no, I didn't do a swap. FWIW, I believe I'm the only person to swap this engine into an S30, and so therefore I had to pave my own way and was not able to buy mounts, or even follow what someone else had done. I simply mentioned my personal turbo L28 experience because you mention a turbo L28 swap. The only difference between the two is that I didn't buy an engine when doing the swap I used the L28 that had already been swapped into my car before I got it. The rest of the turbocharging and EFI upgrade applies, because they are all parts that would have been needed regardless. I'm not going to get into the LS debate, they are not the god's gift to hot rodding that people want to believe they are, and anything that has that engine design in the circles I run in fall under the "LSx" name sake. The truck engines also seem to be the most popular engines to swap, since they are cheaper than the Car LSx engines, for whatever reason people want to pay more for the car versions... Yes, most people that swap engines anymore follow other people's recipes, throwing money at them and hope they are buying the right parts, I see very few people doing otherwise and therefore they seem to spend a lot more than they need to. It's not my money, but I see people buying parts that they REALLy don't need, because someone else bought that part for their swap. Most of the time they are "performance" parts that don't work any better for their applications than a properly selected OEM part, and in fact many times I see them give the owner troubles, because they were not intended to be used on street cars in many cases. Do as you wish, it's your money, but but people seem to lie to themselves about the actual purpose of their cars and therefore overspend on parts they really don't need. I haven't mentioned the numerous other swaps and builds that I have done over the years in my own and other people's vehicles and not one that I can recall was any where near $10k, for the swap, as in get a different engine in and running reliably with basic engine purchase. I'm not going to include the prices of engine (re)builds because those can vary so widely depending on what the owner/builder wants to do. But a basic engine purchase and get it in and running reliably can be done for far less than what I see most people spend on them, when the right parts are chosen for the purpose of use and not just because the parts are the "in" parts to use. Forget you had certain engines? Son, I don't follow anyone around and remember what engines they have in their cars, so there's no forgetting here, there's a lot of not caring what you may have had previously, but to say that most engine swaps cost $10K plus is a logical fallacy in my eyes. I'm also not saying that engine swaps don't cost that much and more, because they can, but they don't need to for the average swapper.

Right, this is not hard info to find, what I need are not friction disc external diameters, but measurements of the bolt circles, the major and minor diameters of the friction discs, pressure plate thickness, would be a bonus. Basically the engineering dimensions would be perfect. I plan to use this with a non Nissan Flywheel/engine, which is why I can't simply use the friction disc major diameters as knowing if the clutch will fit or not.

See this is where you and I differ. I've never spent $3000 on an engine and transmission, because I shop around. I can get LSxs and (auto) trans (4L60E) around here all day for usually less than $1000 (CDN) (4.8/5.3 truck engines), if I wanted to go that route, which I never will. Some of those engines and transmissions even come with the ECM and harness. If I spend more than $2000 on making mounts and the EFI and fuel system to work with it, then I'm doing something VERY wrong. I don't buy race car parts for my street cars, I buy street car parts and most of the time they are either junk yard parts or (new) stock replacement parts, because I put a lot of thought into how I do things, not just throw money at it. Also when I turbocharged my L28 (about 8 years ago), I spent less than $1100 (CDN) on the FULL conversion (N/A carbed L28 to turbo/EFI), IIRC, since I got some parts cheap and I sourced out other parts cheap. Some were used, some were new. Just because I did it cheap, doesn't mean it was wrong, it just means I know where to spend the money. I used GM EFI, since it's great, made my own fuel lines, bought a Walbro from a cheaper retailer (still in the car and still working well), made my own harness, built my own exhaust from 3" mandrel bends (probably the most expensive part), modified a stock intake manifold from a '77 or '78 280Z, used a stock L28ET exhaust manifold. The set up worked extremely well for me for about 7 years, then decided to finally swap to the drivetrain I had planned to install before buying the car, which if I figure in the cost of the previously bought and used parts from the turbo L28, is still under $2500, but has since risen to about $3000 with a few upgrades I have done since, which are about what some ARP fasteners cost me when I decided I wanted to upgrade when I replaced a head gasket (head gasket failure was my fault for pushing timing too high with too low of an octane fuel, because I was testing limits, no fault of the engine or the components to run the engine). So as you can see, there's more than one way to skin and engine swap, those that simply throw money at the swap, and those that know exactly what they need, and only buy those parts.

Ktm, I do all of my own work, always have. Also where did I say anything about LSx? I didn't. On top of that if i spent more than about $3k installing an LSx in my car, I'd very disappointed. I'll never install an LSx in any of my cars though, there are better engines for less money, they just have less cylinders.

Same master and booster as before the upgrade?

I agree, if you're spending 10K on most swaps, you're doing it wrong, or paying for someone else to do it and probably buying all new parts/crate engine. I'm not sure I've ever spent more than about $2K on a swap, including the engine, maybe $2.5K. That is of course, myself performing all labour, and I usually use less mainsteam engines, so they will cost less than the "it" engines.

I'd still flip the cages.

I assume you mean fuel level, since to mention tapping into the stock wires... No, there is no direct replacement from Auto Meter for the S30, however... People have used Ford ranged gauges with a couple resistors providing a volatge dividing network with sucess. I have used a GM 0-90 gauge, and it works almost exactly backwards to the Nissan range, so E is really F and visa-versa. I had intended to flip the sender around so that it would have worked correctly (E being E, etc), but never got around to it and went back to the original gauge.

I ground off more than 1/8" IIRC. I basically ground down until I felt there was just enough material left to hold the clip, probably somewhere around 3/32 to 1/8" left.

Take a look at the top of the trans, if there is a plate that is about 1" wide and 5 to 7" long, then it's a 4 speed, if not then it's trans tear down time. I've seen more than a few people assume that just because the trans was in a 280Z (2+2) that it is a 5-speed, when the 5 speed was an option and many had 4 speeds installed. The fact that it's harder to move the gear shift to the right to go into the reverse and possible 5th gate, makes me think that it's actually a 4 speed.

The 240Zs have no less distance between the diff and the companion flange than 260 or 280Zs from what I have seen, and knowing that a majority of the suspension parts are interchangeable. Flipping cages and grinding the end of the axle gained between 1/4 to 5/16" on each axle. At full droop where the distance between the companion flanges and the diff is shortest, my driver side axles slides in with between 1/8 and 1/4" to spare, and the passenger side is a tight squeeze past the lip, but then I still need to pull the axle cup and companion flange together to mate them. My companion flange adapters are home made and made from 5/16" material, with proper locating recess for the axle to align to. I've been running them for about 6 years IIRC with many many miles of hard driving and drag use. I also lowered the car a few years ago, still without issue. If I were in your shoes I would flip the cages, since it's free to do so and see where you stand.

You might be able to do as I did and flip the outer CV cages along with some grinding of the end of the end of the shafts to get the clearance you need. As far as the concern with the CLSD itself, I can't tell you got sure, but any kid noise likely isn't good.

I have been looking for a while now, but can't seem to locate anything that lists dimensions of the bolt patterns, clutch disc dimensions, inner and outer diameters of the friction materials, etc. I need to replace my clutch, and since the fitment of my clutch for my combo was not exactly ideal to start with, I'd like to find something better. For those that have a puzzled look on your face right now, I have a rather unique combination of engine, trans and flywheel happening. The engine is an LX9 (3.5L GM V6, aka a "3500"), a 3.1/3.4 flywheel from 1988 to 1994 F-body and a 1992 300ZX TT trans. So far I've been using a 240Z 225mm clutch, a Centerforce Dual Friction to be exact, and has worked great for the last 7 years or so, behind 3 different engines, two different flywheels and in front of 3 different transmissions, so I have no complaints at all about it just starting to slip now. What I would like to find is the bolt pattern dimensions of some pressure plates, such as the 240mm (2+2/turbo) clutch, N/A and turbo 300ZX clutches, and anything else that might be close (240SX, RB...??), along with the major and minor dimensions of the friction material on the discs. Ultimately I'd love to go to a dual disc set-up, but that doesn't look like it's in the budget right now. The 240 clutch I used needed the bolt holes enlarged slightly, since the bolt pattern on the flywheel was slightly smaller than the 240Z's pressure plate bolt pattern. Ideally I'd like to find a pressure plate and disc combo that doesn't require modification at all. So if you have a clutch sitting around and know what it's for/from, can you take some measurements, even just really close to being exact measurements? I think this would help people that want to make some odd ball combinations of clutch and disc as well. In the same vein, if anyone can recommend a clutch supplier that I could contact and discuss piecing together a clutch, that would also be helpful.

While there are no issues with oil and copper, I'd try and find some aluminum tube to make that transition. IIRC there are some "metal Supermarkets around, I believe that's the name. I think there is one located in Cambridge that might have some aluminum tubing. Alternatively, you could get some aluminum block, drill intersecting holes and weld that in place, that might also help provide an easy method of adding bracing to the pickup.

Rotating pictures in Windows takes literally seconds. In the folder the picture is in, right click on it and select either "Rotate counter clockwise" or "Rotate clockwise". You can even select a whole bunch of pictures and rotate all of them at once. I'm interested in the front suspension swap idea. I've been looking at all sorts of front suspensions for something that looks close to what I want, but hadn't thought of the Supra front end. I may have to explore that deeper.

It's $1450 and you didn't buy it on the spot?

It's always fun to ruin a perfectly good anything... and then rebuild it better.

If the 1/4 mile E.T. is 10.7, then the car ran 10.7, there's no adding together of the reaction time and elapsed time. A car could sit on the starting line for a week after the tree went green, and it would still be the same E.T. as if it left with a 0.00 reaction time. If I'm not mistaken there's some video around from a few decades past that show S30s in the 9's and 8's. What was powering them exactly, I don't know, but I do know that done of those crazy Japanese tuners like to push the L- series beyond reasonable limits. Lol

They saved that core support?! Wow. Looks good.

Any pictures of gutter-less S30s? This is something I've thought about doing for a long while.

From my experience you have a problem you need to sort out before throwing any modifications at the system. When I had my turbo L28, in my '73, it would run a solid 182*F +/- about 2* during cruise even on the hottest of summer days, with a 180* stat. Flogging on it, I wouldn't get over 190 +/- 2*, and that took a LOT of flogging to get that high. Stock heater core, oil cooled turbo (no coolant provisions), 280Z rad, 15 PSI cap, though towards the end it was a bit weak. If I were in your shoes, I'd look at the condition of the coolant, make sure that the T-stat is good, because it sounds like it might be a bit lazy, that the coolant level is correct and that there are no bubbles in the coolant, and make sure that there is sufficient bypass happening.

This is why I use OEM distributors (when I'm not running DIS), they fit and work well. The MSD dizzys use a pick up that is similar, if not the same as a Chrysler distributor, which in many cases does not play well with the GM ICM (Ignition Control Module), especially at lower RPM. As far as what you have not fitting, or meshing, I can't say for sure, without seeing the parts. I've had some dizzys (even OEM), where the oil pump drive shaft had to be PERFECTLY aligned, not just REAL close, but I mean absolutely perfect, before the dizzy would drop. I've also resorted to the stabbing the dizzy in the hole and bump the engine over until it drops with pressure on the dizzy itself technique, but sometimes this doesn't work either, if the oil pump drive turns by friction of the gear and shaft just touching each other.

If you have 2 1/16" gauges for all 3 then the best solution is to either get two more clock faces/rings, or you can cut out the divider between the faces on the other gauges and slip the 2 1/16" gauges into them. If they are 2 5/8", then you need to get a little more creative. I ended up drilling holes in the back of the gauge cups to use the studs on my Autometer gauges, along with some holes for the lighting and hoses (mechanical gauges). My gauges actually slide into the front of the cups and I trimmed out the gauge ring a little bit to get them to sit just how I wanted them to.

They physically fit exactly the same, but the later 280Z hoods have vents as mentioned, which makes them different, but doesn't exclude them from fitting.