Pharaohabq

HODOR!!I think you Meant Hodor. He's a big Z fan you know... Right okay, maybe not, but That's pretty funny you mention "hoard" and TonyD's ears perk up. He's kind of like the Datsun Dragon sitting on his hoard of parts! Okay, back to the topic. Really we'd have to really look at what you've got to decide on whether to fix it or not. The biggest question here, is Can you weld, and have you done body work before. If you say yes to both, or have a good hankering to learn, I'd say fix your existing car. All the panels and rails can be purchased, and once you have new stuff you'll be really happy since you'll know your chassis is in good shape. You can fix it all yourself, for 3-5K depending on your skills. it's a good amount of work. As for buying another car. the 240's, especially the series 1's are definitely more rare than the 280's but it's what you can find. Finding something rust free and unmolested is not a simple task. Almost anything you find is going to have some issue. My Series 1 sat in a NM field for 10 years after they sanded it down for paint. All that exposed metal has heavy surface rust. I'm going to replace the hood and left fender, get the rest sandblasted, checked, blocked and then painted. I have new rear arches and inners for mine, though I may let a body shop install them since my panel welding experience is low, and I want it to look nice. My point is that anything you find will likely need some work, so since you'll be dishing out for some work anyway, why not learn and work on what you've got? You really only need to worry about the rust that's spauling, or pitting. The surface rust is not so big a deal, you just sand, treat, prime and paint it. Tabco makes a lot of parts, anything else could be cut from a donor. I know a good Z lot here in NM that could get you about any clip. I got great deals on panels through RockAuto.com

Did you try loosening all the mounts and re tightening? maybe some are slightly out of alignment. is that assy lube very viscous? if it's like grease it could just need to be warmed up and replaced with the oil when the engine is running. at this point turning smoothly is more important than too tight a fit. Does it loosen much when the mounts are loosened? may be cam is slightly bent?

If you can get classic car insurance the Z may be a lot cheaper to insure. Even if you modify it. 15K isn't a bad budget for a Z. but once you get into it, it's easy to spend and spend on a Z, since there's a lot you can do with it. Before you buy one, take a look at LOTS of Z pictures and really decide what you like and want you want to have then adjust your budget accordingly. That might give you a better idea of what a Z really costs these days.

Pretty Nifty, I hope those work out well for you. I was thinking I might 3d print some LED holders to fit in my lenses. I have a ton of those cheap china LED's and they're nice, and the Chinese little controllers work well, but I'm still wondering about the quality and reliability. I know they're not waterproof, but your setup looks pretty cool. I was thinking about maybe getting some plexi and having a reflector pattern engraved with the laser cutter to diffuse the light a bit more. that's my biggest complaint about the LEDs is just that they're such small points of light. The large Ebay pucks could be used, but that's a lot of power too. 100W at 12v is about 8 amps each. A diffuser could allow for smaller LEDs to spread the light a little better. I'll have to play with it. I love your design at this point. I'd also like to see how these LEDs look from a distance, say 300 ft vs standard lighting.

Did you try measuring them wet with a squirt of oil into the cylinders? Turbo motors are supposed to be lower compression due to the turbos adding air, but yours sounds low to me. What does the manual say the process is? You have downloaded the manual right?

Nice Job. could you detail how you mounted it a little better? I'm very interested in putting my pump in the same area.

The regulator limits the Current, not the voltage. That helps keep the LED's happy. If you're using modules designed for LED's then you're probably going to be fine. Especially with the larger LED strips and pucks, the current limiting is more important. Remember when calculating which resistors to use, that you need to be setting 13.5 ish volts rather than 12v as battery voltage, since a well charged car battery is over 13 volts normally. Are those sequential modules designed for LED's or for standard bulbs. If they're for standard bulbs you can put PWM circuits (modules) between the Sequential modules and the LEDs. That way you can also adjust LED brightness without changing anything but the size of the pulsewidth.. Here's an interesting module that may work for you. http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1281013

We've written quite a lot about VQ swaps. There's a lot of threads including a primer I wrote on VQ's in the Nissan V6 area. A good Budget is easily 5 grand if not twice that.

Yeah there's no vent holes, and I don't think any came stock with cloth seats. Interesting though.

I think it's on classicZcar there was a Z registry by Model. 240/260/280/S130/Z31/Z32/Z33 etc... Here in Albuquerque I know of just one RHD. Sorry I'd misread the RHD portion of this thread originally, and have edited this post to be on topic.

I'd like to clarify that I said to use PWM to dim the LED's rather than using just in series resistors. PWM pulses the LEDS at a high rate so that they look dimmer when they're off more than they're on and blight when they're on full. This is usually at some multiple of 120Hz. So if at 120 HZ your LEDs are on 1/2 the time, they'll look dim like parking lights. Then when braking or Blinking, they'll be on the full 120HZ so they'll be at full brightness. If you use resistors, sure you can do it, but your wiring gets much more difficult. For LEDs, you should really use a power regulator too, or they'll vary in how much current they'll pull over time, getting brighter or dimmer and they'll burn out much more quickly. Don't say LED's don't burn out, trust me they do. Just not in the same way incandescent bulbs do. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is really the best way to get two brightness levels out of the same LEDs digitally.

Or Spend some $ and donate to the site, That's be much better Probably won't cover the $ your'd make from the Haynes, but it would really help keep the community alive. Thanks!

Well Really you're the only one that can answer these questions. A lot of it is matter of preference. If you think about it, All the upgrades are optional, but A lot of it is easier while the car is torn down, in that you won't have to worry about farking up the paint if you do it now compared to later. Camber plates are probably your best bet at this point. But a cage is really good to put in before you paint. Especially it you're planning a really nice paint job. Aside from that, The Fuel Cell idea, Sure you can, but on a driver its' not really worth it. If you were racing sure, but highway car, it's kind of a waste. Though I'd still get the tanks cleaned and sealed while it's out of the car. Next you may need to mod to body a little if you are planning on different seats. or putting on flares or an air dam. So keep that in mind. You've got a handle on most all of the common repairs. So it's up to you to decide how crazy you want to go before you put her back together. I really like the coilovers and AZCAR suspension parts. You could consider an LSD too, but that's also a later project that doesn't need to be done before paint. So think about where you want to be and what should really be done before paint, n there you go, you'll be set to make a list.

yes it'll fit just fine.

Yes, As he said both will work. The Auto engine you'll need to buy a new flywheel and clutch, buy NEW bolts for it. You'll also have to put in a different pilot bearing. You can use the grease trick with a dowel to pop the old bearing out. You'll need the Manual Engine harness, since the Auto harness is a little different. You should read my primer on VQ swaps in this forum. Don't be afraid of NATS, it's actually really easy if you have the ECU/BCU/Key all from the same donor.

Gotta build a form out of foam/fiberglas then you form over it and ouila' ready made to cut out... You could mould from one with bags and expanding foam. I don't really know the process.

See I don't really like the outside outlined lights. I'd much prefer to use Pulse width modulated lights to get a dimmer effect, Separating the driving lights from the brake and blinkers. The sequential is kind of cool. But I dunno it's kind of gimmicky too. That photochopped image he put up looks much better to me. I'm sticking with the Red for the brake lights, but I have a set of Klearz for the Blinkers. so I'll use yellow LEDS for that area. Now with those large LED pucks you're looking at using, You need to look at using a driver chip for them or they're over current and die much quicker than they should. With a driver they should last forever. Not sure how much you know about electronics.

I need a vacuum former. All these plastic parts you can't find anymore would be so nice to be able to recreate. My 78 has them but some of the bolt holes to hold them on are cracked out. my 70 doesn't have them nor the mounting bolt holes.

Do you already have the HR engine? I've been working on the same swap, but the body's had some issues so I've been a little slow at it. I'm hoping to get back into it pretty soon. Let me know and I'll try to help you figure things if I can.

We've been looking at how to go about it for a while now. Factory AC is in the way of the steering shaft. Docaam found that a pathfinder steering gear can get around the AC compressor. I'm trying to figure if I can run it under the compressor, but I think the headers will be in the way. Another idea he came up with is to use a Toyota AC pump in place of the stock VQ PS pump. Might work. Another Idea I was going to look into is maybe using an electric AC pump from a Prius. Hard to figure. If you think up anything else, let us know. Phar

Sorry I've been out on vacation... So If you're going with the Toyota AC up where the PS would be, then you should be able to go back to the standard way of mounting the steering shaft without the Pathfinder do-hicky. Sounds like it'll simplify things a bit. What Toyota AC pump are you going to use? I wonder if it'll fit the VQ35HR in the same location? I was thinking I might go with Toyota prius electric AC. I wouldn't have to worry about much at all that way.

Wow Congratulations Mark! The first running VQ35HR S30 Ever! You certainly beat me to getting it running by at least another year. Your Build is certainly much more extreme than mine too. Very very cool! I'm looking forward to more videos etc. Were there any wiring issues that you had to work through? Did you end up going with the NATS delete afterall? I assume you dropped all circuits that are not directly needed for race operation?

Nice! Glad you found a direct fit hose. If I go with Koyo I will keep this in mind!

Maybe it's the Reaction Disk had slipped out on it, Check it out on here with a search for reaction disk.

You might also look at how AZCar made their Aluminum replacement parts.