hornedcow

Working more on it. Completed the belt drive and intercooler mounting and plumbing. Just electrical, PCV, and tuning to do.

Presented without commentary:

This is what I did, but I got a pump bulkhead/lock ring for a late model GM in tank pump and welded it on top of the stock tank. Then cut a hole in the floor of the hatch for access, raised it an inch or so, then put on an access panel for future pump access.

I would assume that means they just give you wiring for the senders in their harness. You'll still need metric adapters and re-use the stock Z coolant and oil pressure sending units if you want the stock gauges to work. Tach might be able to be made to work but not going to be plug and play. And you have no speedometer cable so the two main gauges are not going to work. The fuel gauge will work if it did before (ha) and the amp gauge will work if you wire everything through it electrically ... I bypassed it all and did new gauges.

I cut everything out of the front harness except for the lights and wipers. Time consuming ...

I still wasn't happy with the shifter effort required for the TKO after relocating the shifter. At the same time, I found an insane deal on a LS style T56. Had to drive almost 4 hours, but worth it. I knew that if I didn't put the T56 in the Z, there is another project I will be working on shortly and this was too good of a deal to pass up. So either way I needed to take advantage of the deal. I had planned to mess with the shifter again in the TKO, but after kicking the idea around for awhile I just decided to put the T56 into the Z. I am going to keep the same clutch but I upgraded to a Fidanza aluminum flywheel. I'm hoping between the light weight of the Z and the bottom end torque from the motor it doesn't make the clutch too much of a hassle. Never had a car with an aluminum flywheel before. I also purchased a Pro-5.0 shifter for the T56, I had one before on my T-5 and I absolutely loved that shifter. Anyway, the T56 is mounted in place, just waiting on the CX mount to arrive. Then I need to have a new clutch line made and I should be all set to be on the road again. Edit: Also, the driveshaft is going to work out fine. Originally I gave the driveshaft guy the measurement with the yoke bottomed out in the tranny, and told him to subtract 1.5" from that for slip. He marked it 1.5" inches back, and when I came to pick up the shaft he had taken another 1.5" from where he marked! Needless to say, the yoke was not engaged as far as I would have liked on the TKO and I was going to bring it back to him at a later date and have him re-make it. However, the T56 is a little bit longer (not that much than the TKO) and the slip yoke I found was also about 1/2" longer than the TKO slip yoke. Now the yoke has almost full engagement in the tranny. Just enough to push it into the tranny and back out onto the rear flange on the diff with a little play left in for drivetrain movement.

We were supposed to be on vacation this week but we ended up cancelling our trip. Which gave me lots of time to finish the car. Installed a headunit Installed speakers Cleaned up the wiring around the column Spent an ENTIRE DAY getting the turn signals to work Installed the rest of the interior trim Made access panel cover for fuel pump Got windows tinted Installed front valence Installed front bumper Washed car DROVE CAR I've put about 100 miles on it so far. There are some things that I need to mess with in the tune and I'm still not quite happy with the shifter but both of those are pretty minor and don't impede me from driving around and getting some miles on the car. My primary goal for finishing this week was because of a car show today, which I was able to make it to. We had over 60 cars enter, and I got a top 10 trophy. I was hoping for best import but I was snuffed by a tube chassis drag 'Solara'. It was powered by a 2JZ with the largest turbo I think I've ever seen short of a dump truck, so I guess it was technically a Toyota still.

What did you modify on the DD mounts? With the DD mounts and the low mount alternator the alt would keep me from getting the extra inch back because of interference with the mount. Ended up modifying the alternator a bit to get it back as far as I could. I know you're trying to get it forward, is that why you modified the mounts? Or some other issue?

The differential mounting bushings were the root cause of the noises I was hearing. What was making the noise is kind of scary. The pinion (and thus the driveshaft) were lifting up several INCHES and hitting the parking brake equalizer on the bottom of the body. The rear of the differential is solid mounted to the 1/2" thick billet mustache bar through 2 studs on the rear differential cover. I cannot believe that those parts would flex as much as they did. I'm sure if I attempted WOT I would have broken something, either the diff cover, mustache bar, or the mounts for it. Anyway, I'm a little miffed that I missed those bushings but I'm glad their catastrophic demise didn't seem to cause any other issues. I had some energy suspension urethane bushings shipped in, since literally every other bushing on the car has been replaced with such. Went for a little test drive down my street and no more noises! Woohoo! Side note, air chisel was worth every penny to get the old bushing shells out. Screw doing that any other way. I've got a few minor things to button up and I can start driving around on the street for some real testing.

Been working on lots of other peoples vehicles, finally made some progress. I may have found the noise under medium/heavy load. I inspected the front diff bushings before I installed the diff, since it was a used drop out from a 96 Q45. They looked fine and had no cracks that I could see so I installed them as is. When I put the Z on the lift tonight it looked slightly askew - when I took the front mounting bolts out the center of the bushings literally fell into my hands. Nice. I'm lucky I didn't break the rear hanger since the front mounts were just aesthetic apparently. Going to order some energy suspension replacements, should be easy since the hard part is usually removing the old bushings! There is a car show being held at my job on October 1st, I'm going to try and bring the Datsun there but not if it's her maiden voyage. So far she has only been up and down my street 4 or 5 times while I'm trying to figure out the noises and issues. If I can get a few days driving in before that date then maybe I can make it there.

I'm not using the CX racing mounts but I am using their exhaust setup. I have the JCI AC setup, I would have preferred the low mount AC but I don't think it's possible without some fabrication. There are many high mount AC kits on ebay and online, but I don't like the compressor sitting up so high. At least with the JCI kit it's not right in your face when you're looking at the engine. He still makes them, best to email or call. I got mine earlier this year. Edit: Here are some pics of the JCI kit. I see no reason why it wouldn't work with pretty much any of the LS mounts available.

If its 12K + parts bring it to me and I'll do it in my shop! Lol. Just finishing my LS Z, a little over 6 months in right now. Only working on it when I have no customer cars to work on and when I'm out from work. Upgraded Z32 brakes all around, complete T3 rear Q45 setup, new gauges, new Vintage Air setup, all carpet removed, sound deadened and new carpet installed. L33 + TKO600 trans. If it's 12K total with parts, I'd be wary of what you're getting. It adds up fast.

Progress still being made ... Engine bay is pretty much done. Wired up senders for the gauges, and ran the AC compressor lead. Made an overflow tank bracket and mounted that. For the A/C controls I cut out the factory control section (was all controlled by levers) and made a blankout plate out of black ABS to cover it. Then I took the rotrary AC controls from the vintage air setup and mounted it into that panel. Looks decent, and keeps the controls where they were intended to be. Still have some minor wiring to do but nothing that has to go under the carpet so I went ahead and laid the new carpet into the car. AC works well, blows out mid 40's out of the center vent, and this is with the car idling in the shop in 90+* high humidity weather. The condenser I'm using is a more efficient parallel flow design but is smaller than what is usually recommended by Vintage Air. I'm pretty constrained size wise unless I move the condenser way in front of the radiator, which will kill airflow from the radiator fans. Because of this I ended up needed a smaller refrigerant charge than what they figure you will need. I figure this is what is keeping me from getting any colder air from the evap. Of course, I may be pleasantly surprised when I actually have more airflow over the condenser. Got the drivers seat rail modified and bolted in. Passenger side was already modified earlier. Cleaned out everything from the hatch area and then insulated it and made a spare tire cover. Boxed in the fuel pump cutout and then laid the carpet down. I don't have any lighting working yet, so I can only drive around my block for now. Happy with the sound deadening thus far, once everything is buttoned up it should be even a little bit quieter. The real test will be on the road because who just sits in their car listening to it idle? Oh right, I do. Backing out of the shop I scraped the shit out of the exhaust and more worryingly the flex sections on the Y pipe. I raised the rear coilovers up a bit but it still didn't give me enough clearance so I put a pair of coil boosters on the front for now. Going to order coilovers for the front next week. First drive down the road was OK, but under medium throttle there is a large knocking noise under the car. I put it on the lift and couldn't find anything loose or any evidence of the drivetrain /exhaust hitting anything. Ran it up on the lift through the gears and it doesn't make the noise. Drove it around again today and it's still there. Not sure where it is coming from. The top of the shifter assembly is very close to the underside of the tunnel, but I don't see any scuffs or marks from interference. Nonetheless, the shifter effort from my shifter extension is far from ideal so I ordered a shifter relocation that uses a lower pivot point that should reduce shifter effort. It also appears to be lower profile so it should take care of the clearance issue. Probably going to just get the lighting working in the mean time and then see if the new shifter takes care of the noise issue. It's really tight in the back of the tunnel and with the exhaust in place you can't really see or do much. Hopefully I don't need to drop it to get the shifter out but with my luck I will. A/C controls in place Passenger seat in place Both seats in place with new belts and reels Engine bay and intake completed. Just need to loom the sender wires Out in the sunlight for the first time in months! Blue still looks good under the layers of shop dust.

I had kind of the same idea, but I have the battery and new engine bay fuse box in the original battery location and the ECM run inside the car. Was going to try and mount the ECM next to the battery but with the battery I'm using it wouldn't quite fit nicely. Instead of the super expensive lightweight battery, I'm using a Miata battery. Same physical size as a lawnmower battery or some brands lightweight batteries, but still a flooded lead acid battery with reliable (standard) battery characteristics. Half the weight of a standard automotive unit with no special care needs.

IT'S ALIVE! Lots more do electrically and physically in the cabin. But not too much longer hopefully!