Dat73z

Thanks @calZ. I just read through that thread and the final recommendation is what I have currently set up. Except I also kept the heater core in the loop. If I was going to redo my setup, perhaps I'd run -8 or larger lines for more bypass through the turbo. As-is they are -6...a project for another day.

@Zetsaz Here are some pics. It's pretty difficult to get good shots now that everything's back in the car...but I think there may be more pics earlier in the thread when I was doing the turbo setup with the engine on the stand. I ran one line from the tstat housing to the turbo. The other line I welded on an AN fitting to the stock heater feed/return location which comes off the lower rad hose fitting from the pump. Perhaps others can comment if this is the correct or incorrect way to do it. Originally I was going to do tstat-turbo-block drain but ended doing the setup I have now after chatting with Dave Rebello. I think this is what @calZ is describing. Btw do you have pictures of your exhaust ground clearance and clearances to the chassis parts? I'm trying to strike that balance between clearance of the midpipe to the trans xmember and the ground. I have it tucked up about half a finger gap from the trans xmember now which gives me more ground clearance even with the 3" pipe than the MSA system I had before. The tradeoff of course is I'm worried about the midpipe smacking the trans xmember. I think we may be running the same trans and t3 trans mount.

Had an hour after lunch and got the downpipe tacked up. Happy with the run so far. I angled it such that the lowest point on the car is the (now sacrificial) oil pan. There is also a minimum of 1-2 finger gaps around anything which I'm hoping will be enough. I plan to inconel shield this as well like the manifold for thermal management. I think the midpipe will likely hang slightly below the rails so maybe that will bottom out first. Just need to find a solid hour or two to fully weld it out.

So my wife has been asking about the box of pipes in front of her gym equipment and I took that as a signal to start turning those pipes into parts 😁 I started on the downpipe this morning. I'm hoping I can get through the exhaust in a week or two with an hour here or there. I realized I should have probably started on something less critical like the muffler or midpipe as I'm really out of practice. My welds aren't perfect but the penetration is good and this isn't a showcar so we'll see if it holds.

@Zetsaz Another option for the mid section might be the transmission ear(s) if you have those. I think the midpipe originally hung from that location. I was considering there for the midpipe and maybe a bracket to the bellhousing for the downpipe but I'm curious what you come up with. Looks great!

Very nicely done. Where are you planning to place the hangers? Are you going to brace the downpipe before the flex as well?

@AydinZ71 What boost were you running on 9:1 which blew the two L24 blocks?

That is a lot of work! but I'm sure the end result will be worth it. What amps and wire diameter did you use when tig silicon bronze brazing the seams? I did the same last summer to fill some rust pinholes in my windshield section and I found it really difficult to find the correct balance balance between melting the filler and base material. I think maybe my filler was too thick at 1/16" and I should've been using 0.045" or smaller.

@Michael in the link @calZ posted above 17x8.5's were widened via welding to 17x9.5 and fit into the factory arches. There's a lot of good detail in there.

I was researching this a while back due to AL driveshaft coming close to the crossmember on a short nose diff setup. I've seen pictures of where people just run another set of rear caps up front and no bracing at all but imo if you're going to cut it I'd at least weld in some bracing across.

@19782plus2

What pictures are you looking for? It's a fairly basic setup. Nothing custom or fabricated except the q45 diff mounting which doesn't affect the track width or anything

Thanks @calZ that was the thread I was thinking of

Here's a picture of the inboard clearance at ride height (~2 figer gap) with coilover sleeves. Theres room to go further inboard. I think I measured at one time you could fit 245s under the stock rear arches rolled maybe trimmed and welded if you have the proper offset. I believe some other members here have done that for maximum tire. I think someone here has actually gone wider but I don't recall their username.

I am running a similar setup to what you describe. Specifically on the rears is the T3 BBK, T3 LCAs, stock tophats, T3 coilovers (non-evolved so using OEM cores) with ground control springs and sleeves, 280z hubs. 15x8 0 offset rota RKR with 225 50 Toyo R888. Not sure what you mean by "flush" but everything will fit. If you want to go low you will need to roll your fenders. I think if you run 205s for a bit of stretch and dial in more negative camber you can get away with no roll. I wanted a square sidewall, maximum tire, the ability to go wider in the future so I opted to roll. I may go back and trim/weld for more clearance. Here are some pics, hope it helps

Realized I haven't updated this thread in a while. This has been my first ground-up turbo build and I've learned a lot along the way. Over the winter I replumbed and pressure tested the entire brake and fuel system. I also got the full driveline back in which consists of a Q45 vlsd rear end, aluminum driveshaft, and modified s13 transmission for the L-series bellhousing and OS Giken twin plate clutch. I rebuilt and restored everything I could along the way that wasn't replaced since I was already in there. Anything I've missed will have to wait until the next time I tear the car down for paint. I think this is the 3rd time I've had the car completely apart. Now that all of the major running gear is back in I've been working on hooking everything up which has mostly been plumbing. The last major fabrication will be modifying the charge piping to fit as I changed the configuration of everything over time and fully fabricating the exhaust from stainless. I received the stainless pipe earlier this week from Ticon/Stainless Bro's so that will be my spring project.

Do you have any pictures of what you did? I've been curious about these swaps and haven't found any good information on driveshaft angles. I'm assuming you moved the tail of the trans further up in the tunnel? Do you even have room to do that without cutting more of the tunnel?

@tube80z the L-series or 240sx adapted trans won't be an issue, as I kept the tube profile about the same as the stock 240z setup and running along the same hangers. You can see from my pics I even tucked the rear brake line up higher than where it would be stock (but still along the same path). You have plenty of clearance at the front by the block as well. Where you may run into issues is if you install a CD009 trans or one which requires completely removing the stock trans mounting area but I don't have a CD009 retrofitted car to compare.

Should've kept my 44's!

Do you have any references to racing regs about this? I found a bunch for road racing/autocross about routing fuel in the cabin but haven't been able to find much on firewall mounting. A few people have brought up mounting a fire supression nozzle in that area but this is basically a 95% street car. Do you have any thoughts on that? Good points though. I think the fuel log is a few inches from the head. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that the head could move back/flatten the hood latch area and hit the fuel system in a crash as these cars will basically pancake the frontend with a 20-30mph frontal impact.

So I've asked around locally, on FB groups and a few forums and people are pretty divided on this. I think the most concise answers I received were from drag racers interpretations of NHRA rules which are basically: the firewall can and will deform in a crash, the lines by the bellhousing/clutch within a distance should be shielded or stainless braided in the event of clutch explosion, and generally if there is a fire on the firewall smoke and flames will enter the passenger compartment much quicker I think all of these concerns have merit but also based on responses I don't know how heavily enforced these rules are (I'm not a drag racer). Also as I was doing more research on early versus late model Zs it seems by the late 70s the 280z had moved the lines out of the tunnel and ran them by the framerail? This seems to make sense to me as you'd be in for a bad day if your driveline let go with all the plumbing in the tunnel. What threw me off is I've done numerous HPDEs over the years and haven't been questioned or seen anyone been questioned for fuel components on the firewall both OE and aftermarket. Even my Integra Type R has the filter bracketed to the firewall as factory with fuel lines running across. Doesn't mean it's safe but the response I got from drag racers on this one was OE cars have been rigorously crash tested so they get a pass (so people don't need to modify their OE cars with the configuration to pass tech). Either way to be honest not only for safety but also simplicity and flow I'm thinking you'd be better off staying out of the tunnel entirely, route the lines along the pass framerail and meet the engine at the front. Attach some skid plates or shielding for off track excursions. Here's some pictures of what I did in the original design, basically 20 or so bends per line with custom cnc machined brackets duplicating where the OE lines went. The tunnel can be a massive massive pita if you try and hug it close like I did. By moving to the framerail you'd only need a couple bends per line, much easier, safer, and better flow. These are in progress pics from my phone but I have the finals from the last iteration if you want anything for reference.

Welcome back! Looking good 👍

After some further research this appears to be an unsafe configuration. So I'll need to chop the stainless hardlines at the firewall and run braided past the bellhousing to an alternate location. Surprised I never knew about this as all of my vehicles have had a similar configuration and I've seen more than a few cars like this at Buttonwillow and Laguna over the years at track days.

I mounted my FPR, Filter, and Fuel Rail on the firewall and ran stainless lines for the feed and return. I didn't think too much about it as some of my other vehicles which I've taken to HPDEs have this configuration both from the factory and what I've done in the past. After doing some further research it seems like this is banned from drag racing. I don't intend to drag race this vehicle but I do plan HPDEs and I'm curious if I should relocate these components and what the safety concerns are. Could those more knowledgeable let me know? I've attached some pictures of what I've done. Thank you

Not the entire shroud, just a small 1/8" lip top and bottom would stiffen the flat plate up significantly. Basically like this