Gollum

No pictures, but she runs again! Took me a while to get it all sorted out, but she runs, and I've got almost all the wiring in place for the time being. Only problems - No brake lights and no headlights My headlights were already sketchy before, with only the brights working, so I'm going to bust out the multimeter and see if I can find the culprit. As far as the brakelights, I'm not too sure. It seems kinda odd because the wiring seems to be pretty simple and I don't think anything I deleted could have caused the circuit to stop working, but obviously something happened. So I'll have to diagnose that as well. Could be a lot worse. I'm happy it's only those two issues.

Thanks for the input. I pretty much understood the theory behind all that, I just had no clue what pin on the ECU it was, and I'm still not seeing where it had been spliced in before, so I'm still kinda left in the dark on how it was all hooked up, but that's been the story of my history with this car. Still lots to revamp and correct. I'm just going to leave it on the ignition for now, it'll do.

I ended up hooking it up to the ignition key's "ON" position. Car fired right up and seems to drive fine. Before when I went to the on position the fuel pump would prime for 5 seconds then shut off, now it just stays on. Oh well, it works I guess.

So I'm 99% finished wiring my car back up after several months of downtime and I've got it turning over again, but gawd the conversion done on this car sucks big huge monkey balls. There's two wires that come up from the fuel pump relay in the back. One I'm 100% positive was hooked up to constant battery + and there's a second wire that I can't seem to figure out where it was hooked up to before. I'm worried I might have cut or pulled the connector off and didn't mind what it was hooked up too (moe134%!F4k!) If you guys need me to I can post up some pictures, but I'm sure once someone reminds me what the fuel pump wiring is "supposed" to be switched by I'll feel like an idiot and go hook it up. I tired searching for the answer, and went through the turbo wiring guide but it wasn't of much help. Part of the problem is that my car is so freakin' hacked up. I really want a new turbo wiring harness to start over from scratch. (or just drop a V8 into it...) Thanks in advance guys.

I can understand feeling safer on a bike and I don't even ride, yet. I feel safer in a manual than I do an auto, why? Because it's so easy to just not pay attention in an auto for me. I can make a 1 hour drive home and completely forget where it all went. I'm much much much more aware of the drive, who's in the lane next to me, who's following me, etc when I'm in a manual. I can see the same being true for motorcyclists when comparing it to driving a car. That being said I've come close enough on several occasions in a car to not trust other people enough. If I've avoided so many serious accidents in california at my age (21) by and large pure luck, then I don't want to risk it on a bike.

Is it possible? I'd say so. Likely? Not really. I can see the potential to make a 100mpg vehicle, but engine transplant alone into a vehicle like a fox body mustang or a GTM seems unlikely. But let's consider this - A lot of fuel economy comes down to two main factors, friction loss and air mixture. The brake specific fuel consumption also makes a big difference but I've seen "efficient" engines that span the range on that one. If you built an engine to a high RPM race quality build it would reduce friction a ton. Removing as much weight from the pistons and then crankshaft and rods in conjunction while putting a low friction coating on the pistons would go a long way to reducing friction. We also know he's running E85, and almost guaranteed some form of aftermarket EMS. E85 can run much higher compression, and is also much more tolerant to mixture changes. Considering there's guys out there getting 60mpg with nothing more than lightly modified civics and highly modified driving styles, I could see a efficiency minded V8 build with the right driver getting 100mpg. But it still seems far fetched to model a business around. EPA standards are EPA standards. As soon as one of his cars goes through all it's certifications the truth will be revealed. My biggest concern is that there was so little information on his site as to why his engines can reach 100mpg while having decent power numbers. Most of the companies out there pushing the limits are glad to at least talk shop a bit and share the basis of their ideas.

Ok, second update for the day, and I'm not done yet today! I need to get over to my other cars to scavenge some parts off of them. I'm almost to the point of starting her up again once I get a few more wires hooked up and the battery back in again. I've moved the battery back to the engine bay for the time being, I needed the space for the wiring that's all too long with nowhere to go. So here's the current interior shot as it stands: (shot was my second attempt at a HDR image for you photo geeks out there)

Wow, two updates in two days! Expect another tonight. I'm debating leaving it like this for now. The OEM gauges aren't round, kinda kidney bean shaped, so I'm considering leaving them out for now. Besides, Tach and Boost, what else do you need?

Well I'm out of school (yay) so time to start cracking down on the laziness that's been my car. I want to get this thing back on the road for the summer so I'm using our upcoming meet as motivation to get it done. That means it needs to be drivable again by Saturday, so I've got 4 days to make it happen. Here's the new dash panel I just fabb'ed up tonight with that piece of stainless I had sitting around. I've decided it'll do until I eventually start working with composites and I'll make a new dash then.

As others have said, more power to you, and take lots of pics! As much as many of us don't find this practical you'd definitely have one of most original setups. I think you'll have a hard time getting the weight bellow 1800, but even at 1900 pounds with 200hp that's a fun little car. The only thing is that I wonder if it might just make more sense to start off with the engine you plan on using in the long run.

Imo the shaved rear makes the tail lights stick out like a sore thumb. I can see why some of the other modified rear ends i've seen on S130 cars have used different tail lights. Even the stock ones would be fine if you could find a way to recess them in a bit to make them more flush, might be pretty cool even.

I want to know how you plan on loosing that much weight since the stock engine only weighs about 400 pounds wet + about 75 for the transmission. You'll obviously loose weight in the radiator and water in it as well, but I still don't see 600 pounds being lost just in the engine change. I thoroughly believe you can loose 600 pounds of the car total, but I'm just not seeing that much weight to be lost in the drivetrain unless the engine + transaxle setup you're putting in only weighs about 50 pounds.

These rims where specifically designed with the S30 in mind, not a S130, or a S13 for that matter (pictured above). A 5x114.3 rim IS pictured on rotawheel.com, which I believe is Kim's site. I'd just call him up and see what's available. Odds are most rims he has are much more likely to fit your S13 than our old S30's which need negative offset in most cases.

Yea, now there's a 2+2 with the torque it deserves.

Don't worry, there's those of us that respect your thread too. I saw the S130. I leaned over to by brother and mentioned it immediately, he hadn't noticed.

I think I just puked a little.

I think one of the big things that keeps a lot of people from doing it is unfamiliarity of the engine. There aren't many newer engines being put into Z cars, even on these boards. It takes someone with bravery to just do it. We have many of those types around here, they just normally choose engines you can pick up for next to free somewhere. One of the more interesting swaps (in my eyes) that's being done right now is a BMW V8.

Sorry bleach, just read the specs for myself on your site - 16x8 +4. Good choice on wheel sizes I think. How are you liking the offset tire widths?

What specs are those rims and tires? Those aren't the group by rims by the looks of it. There's a surprising amount of room left in there.

I hadn't realized we were talking about the beetle air cooled engines, as you never mentioned bug, beetle or air cooled in your initial post. It'd be an interesting swap to say the least. 200 hp can be had with relative easy from the stock engine though, much more if you wanted to build up a decent 2.8 liter with a decent port job with programmable EFI. The NA 2.4 liter is pretty light too, or at least lighter than I originally thought a long time ago. For being an iron block inline 6 it's very light.

So sure? I'm not going to try to argue, but I'd say both engines are within spitting distance of each other. The VQ might be a smidge heavier, but will have a lower center of gravity, and sit slightly farther back if the blocks were mounted staring at the same point. All in all I'd say the differences aren't mentionable. You'll see more of an effect created from a full tank to empty tank. Both engines should come in under 400 pounds in NA form (dry),which is "light enough" for most applications. Verified weights can be found of both engines in the enginer/trans stick on this site under the misc tech section, though they're hard to compare because of what is and isn't missing on each. All that being said... this car looks great. Looks like you took a "perfectly good" 350Z and turned it into a perfectly good car finally (just kidding, i've grown to respect the 350Z but i'm excited to see this project progress)

Correct, which is why mitsu even states in the conclusion of their research paper that they actually decrease drag, due to the reduction of boundary layer. The increase of boundary layer size is a huge contributor to the swirl in the air behind a car. You're creating a vacuum that the air is trying desperately to fill. By cleaning up this air you create a much more efficient flow path for your wing/spoiler. I think one of the biggest advantages I could see is that you don't need to run your wing as high up to get the same lift out of it, giving you better visibility, or possibly get good enough results from a wale tail type spoiler as would make street use of a wing impractical. I don't really see any downside to them, other than looking odd at first.

I like how you say "the 2.4 liter engine" as though you mean the stock engine, though I suspect you mean to say "a 2.4 liter engine". Carbon footprint is a variable of several things, so let's discuss... Fuel usage - what MPG can you get? The 240SX is rated at 26/22 highway/city in the newer DOHC S14 chassis. The older SOHC S13 chassis is rated at 26/22 as well but makes less HP but pushes less weight. Guys on this very site, other sites, and well proven I think, are getting 30mpg highway in a stock 240Z in good working order with a good tune on the carbs. With modern EFI like megasquirt I'm sure even high could be attained if you were tuning specifically for mileage. CO/NOx/O2 Emissions - These emissions levels can only be brought to a minimum level, never removed. You can minimize them the most by making sure you have no wasted fuel or air, that all of the fuel put in gets burned, while no excess air gets in. You can have the ideal "air/fuel" ratio but still have fuel that doesn't get used, or air that doesn't get used. The best way to improve these performance values is to have a combustion chamber with lots of swirl/quench, and to make sure your fuel is getting atomized as best as you can get it. Fine spraying injectors placed well up the intake path go a long way in improving fuel atomization. But there's no way around it, there will be SOME emission output, as proven by this graph: There is no point in which all lines reach zero. Which leads us to our last topic: Catalytic Converters - Some of the biggest improvements in modern emission control systems isn't just in the fuel control, injection system, or EGR systems and the likes, but the "cats" as they're known. A good cat nowdays can really improve a cars emission performance to the point of getting a car that's failing a smog test, to showing as though it was brand new. Granted, if you're running too rich and failing for that reason then you'll very quickly kill that nice new cat, but it shows that it's doing it's job. Cats are one of the big reasons why some modern cars can actually claim to "clean the air around them" because the air running through the engine gets cleaner by the tip of the tail pipe compared to when it entered the air filter. Adding a cat to an old 240Z might increase underbody heat, but with the right engineering to take care of that it would improve the carbon footprint greatly. Fuel Vapor - Some quick research would show you that fuel vapor is one of the leading harmful gasses emitted by a car. Fuel vapor that escaped during a fill up will cause more "harm" to the environment than the burning of that entire tank (if the car is new and in good working order). The old Z cars are known for fuel fumes that secrete in many areas, fix these and I'm sure you'll "feel the trees thanking you". Hope that helps somehow.

I might be wrong, but I think a few have been done. Definitely discussed a bit. Find anything in your searching this board?

I know I know, bringing a thread back from the dead. I've been doing some research on the Ford 385 series big blocks though and seeing this thread got me thinking "so what's so expensive about building them", because from what I've seen the prices aren't that bad. It seems most of the cost is in the machine work. Aftermarket heads are the same price as small block ford parts. Intake manifolds are similarly priced as well. Exhaust manifolds aren't much different. An article I found the other day shows the build of a 429 into a 533 and they used a crank with BBC chevy journal sizes, so they were able to use over the counter BBC rods and pistons as well (4.44" bore). It was obviously the full works machine work. Bore work done, deck leveled, etc. This seems like it would be the largest factor in any build. The 385 series seems like a nice engine to build too. Sure you can make a 351W into a 427, but at what cost? How high will it rev? How much power can the block handle until ring wear becomes unreasonable due to the short rods? The 385 block can handle huge amounts of stroke until the stroke/rod ratio becomes nasty. So I guess I'm not helping the origonal post much, other than just saying I don't see them being THAT much more expensive, if done right.