Stock Car Mafia

I've already have a gentlemen's agreement to 383, so unless something catostrophic happens, I will be ordering through him.

Btw, that front suspension setup is eye candy!

Great work! Were you able to just hammer the studs out? Did you use an impact to pull the new ones in? I think this would be a worthy investment on my end as well.

Nascar is starting! Time for me to start growing the mullet... I decided to fix the gas tank mount in the car. I welded the tabs flush with the frame and everything looked level. After I was finished (many weeks ago) I notice the front of the tank sat lower by about an inch than the rear. It just didn't look right. I ended up cutting off the rear tabs and lowering them by about 3/4" to get the tank parallel with the car. Since I had the cage out, it was time to grind the outer welds. 3 or so hours later it was done while watching the Daytona 500 . I was able to throw down some paint as well so I will have to post up pictures later.

Seeing these pictures just makes me wanna cry! How beautiful!

Yea buddy!

You're making more ground than I am at this point. It's definitely the wiring that is turning me off. haha I say waiting for the 4.8 and turbo swap is a wise choice. This will give you time to get your ducks in a row, collect information, and start digging for good deals on parts. If you find a killer deal, the motor and stuff can slowly be collected through the summer. I really have a feeling you'd be tempted to do it though if you had the parts! Is your break in March? I don't think I would get to my flares by then. The whole suspension will be dropped once I get this engine swap done, so I'm not going to rush anything. Btw, you should be happy with the flares! They fit quite well!

The wheels are finally here and the gauges came while I was away this week!

I decided to paint the throttle body satin black. The aluminum was looking a little worse for wear and I believe it will flow better closely matching the intake and then the 90 deg. elbow for the intake. I used electrical tape to mask off the inlet as it was easier to mold and get a nice clean line on it. I taked over the outlet and gently used a knife to cut out a rough circle. The throttle body electrical plug was just taped off as close to the base as possible. I am pleased with the look and I don't think I will have to touch this up very often.

It's the itch we all get when we are away from our "loves". I've done little things here and there, just nothing that really gets me closer to the end goal.

It's been pretty busy around here and just got back from a week long trip to Green Bay for work. I'm gone this weekend but man I am getting the itch to get back out and acutally get some work accomplished.

When is the next time that you'll be able to cross some more items off your list? I would feel pretty terrible if you beat me to the flares but hell if I get there, anything I run in to I won't hesistate to let you know. I have no problem helping but I have some gauges that need to be mounted and wired now

For now the ODBII reader I have is bluetooth so it really can be put anywhere. I would like it on the passenger side as you said though, as in my Mustang, the cord is usually strung across me to the computer in the passenger seat. Thanks for the kind words on the bracket! I guess this is my redneck way of getting the job done, but I am pleased with how it turned out. I do believe Hoke is coming out with more LS2 swap parts for these cars and his work is TOP NOTCH! I wish I could have waited for this swap kit. I am for SURE waiting on the flares. I just wanted to get them in so I don't have to wait for them to ship when I get to that point. I for sure need to get my coilovers welded in, tires mounted, and then put on the car. I would never do flares with it up in the air! I want to see how the car sits with full weight first. And still it may need to be drove a bit for the suspension to settle. But the beautiful thing is the adjustability you get with the coilovers, so it can always be fine tuned.

haha, so you are the staggering drunk that will call and be long winded? No wonder they are taking their time I can see the level of thoroughness you are doing and I think it is best left to the professionals. I would have a hard time driving your car once its done as it is going to be MINT.

Still dealing with residual back pain but I have meandered out in to the garage for a bit here and there. I was able to get the LS2 gas pedal adapter plate spray painted. This is the first time I have used the VHT roll bay and chassis paint but I really like the look of the satin black. The fender flares also did arrive. They are great about communicating any updates and they also shipped quite fast. Here is just a test fit for the rear flares. They fit EXTREMELY WELL and are way better quality than the ones from The Z store. I really can't wait to tackle the suspension and make this happen I've been spending way too much time still thinking about how to route the wiring. I tend to over think things but hell I only wanna do it once! The computer and fuse block are fulling mounted. The wire loom for the fuse block was quite long so I spiralled it up and pushed it high enough and out of the way. I chose to run the majority of the loose wiring along the wire holders for the antennae stereo wire. The following wires will run the width of the car to the passenger side: - Engine harness 12 V power wire - Fan 1 ground feed - Fan 2 ground feed These items will split from this routing and run up the steering column: - Tach signal - Speedo signal - Engine harness switched power wire I don't have the wires in front of me right now but the ODB2 port will need to be mounted as well. I will have to see the best hidden spot to put this when the dash is back in.

I don't know how you do it man! My patience would be running quite thin with waiting on others to do the work. And then you feel like a nuisance when you consistently call. I suppose that is the great thing about attempting to do it yourself. The fate is in your hands!

No work on the car as of late. I'm not sure what I did, but I have killer back pain that's barely allowing me to sit. I will be sourcing out material to make a set of battery cables today. I can't allow myself to work on anything else until the electrical stuff is wrapped up. I need to get this done to bear the fruit and it doesn't pay to push it off anymore.

Wow, you got lucky there! Will you be using new spindle pins or just cleaning up the old ones since they came out so nice? I haven't read too much in to the putting disc's on the back but I'd say save for a good aftermarket set instead of the 240sx? upgrade. You should be ok with the rear drums and I'd be more concerned with swapping good front disc's on.

That was short and sweet, but OHHH does that sound good! Can't imagine it closer to redline. I really glad to see you are enjoying the car! After all your hard work, I'm sure you still sit back and smile

I know you suggested getting another slip yoke a while back to try. I probably should just pick one up from Speedway and test it, and ship it back. Jim's Performance did add a relay to the LS2 computer for the fuel pump, I just need to look at what color those wires are. I honestly didn't know much about them either and still don't. I see them as a door to complete a circuit that carries a good amount of current. Wiring is kryptonite to me. At least the green stuff.

Did it upload to youtube just fine? If so, just copy the url from the video browser, then copy and paste it here in a post. Just like this:

I will see if I could possibly test it before soldering the 2 prong connector on. I didn't look at the plug but maybe it's simple to get them out and switched if need be. I am still having issues with getting my driveshaft in the tranny. There are no visible burrs, or twists in the splines. The shaft seems to be true as you spin it as well. I'm not liking the possible problems I may be facing with this. I have a list I want to tackle before pulling the motor again to look at the tranny: 1. Route the engine harness wiring to passenger side. 2. Make a set of battery/start/alt. cables. I don't know exactly what gauge wiring or ends to use for this yet. 3. Wire my 2 fans relays. 4. Route fuel pump wiring. Contemplating cutting and splicing into the stock wiring? I'm not sure if this wire is run straight or through a oem relay. Need to read more.

Upload it to a youtube account and then share the link. I believe that is how most have done it.

I am looking for any information on how to wire the mustang reverse light switch that I got. I know that there are 2 green wires that run to my tranny for this. I think that one is an input power wire and the other is an output to the lights. Do I just power up the harness and test which wire has juice running to it? Is the tranny switch just an open/close switch or is this unidirectional?

So I've been staring at this god awful Datsun "engine room harness" for many weeks now. I can't stand how shitty the fusable links and most of the harness looks so I finally pulled it. I stared at the junction box for a good 5 minutes. I didn't want to cut the wires just to get it out or chop up the box either. The plug has two front facing clips that lock it in place, but on the back there are 4 clips that don't seem to be flexible enough to get the plug out. My option was to take a razor blade and cut those 4 tabs off. I circled the tabs I'm talking about in the picture below. I have yet to determine how to rework this harness. Initial plans are to delete the transistor ignition unit and all associated wiring for the old motor. The charging/ignition wiring will be run through the same location and I might run the lights/blinkers through the wheeel well so the engine bay isn't so cluttered with wiring. I'm open for ideas!