Dan Juday

Why waste money and back pressure on all that extra pipe? I have a feeling this will be the new "thing" for FWD.

We have one V12 guy here goes by DOT. He has a Jag 12 in his S30. I know this is not a BMW and not an S130 but his is a finished running car. He could have some valuable advice. To say fitment issues would not be a problem is a huge assumption. As an example just look at Auxilary's rotory swap. Small motor, big engine bay, and he still has to notch a frame rail to get it to fit. Initial motor cost is a small percentage of the swap cost. A safe rough gauge of the price of a V8 swap is to figure out what you think it will cost and them double it. If you decide to go V12 I would say quadruple that number. I'm not trying to discourage you, I'd love to see it. Just go in with your eyes wide open. You don't want to get half way through and give up after spending a ton of money.

We notched both frame rails on the Tomahawk to make clearance for the sidepipes. Obviously you want to be very careful to completely support both sides of the area to be notched before cutting. We had the car up on eight jack stands. we shimed each one and banged on them to estimate the load each one had. Only untill we were pretty damn sure the jacks were equally supporting the weight of the car did we cut. We used 3/16" mild steel plate and , like John said, our reinforcement pieces spanned about four inches past the notch both for and aft. We used a section of 3" steel pipe cut in half to fill in our notch. Welded those in then ground and fitted the reinforcement pieces on each side of each rail and welded them in too. These pieces took a while to fit. We wanted the notched area to be completely supported from the top of the frame rails to the bottom. Came out very strong. At least as strong as before.

Nice nearby spot to hide it. Just curious, does this leave enough room for the wiper motor and linkage?

I've done this swap too. Since you are relocating the battery aft the old battery area is a very viable option. Depending on your harness that location should not require cutting and splicing extra wire lengths in. Always preferable if you can avoid cutting perfectly good OEM wires. Heat should not be an issue as long as it's not too close to the headers. In the f-bodies the ECM is located directly over the rear area of the right valve cover and crammed under the windshield. If GM designed it to live comfortably (and warranty it) in that rather harsh location it should be happy as a clam on the old Datsun battery shelf.

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood you. Yes fender liners are a good idea. Fiberglass may not hold up to well to small rocks and pebbles thown up from the tires though. I made my liners out of thin (.030") aluminum. I pop rivited it to the inner wheelhouse and ran pinch weld moulding around the edge that touchs the outer fiberglass fender. Then I caulked it with duct sealer and sprayed the new fender wells with body Schutz. All the parts were pretty cheap. I used the cardboard from cerial boxes to make the patterns for the liners.

I'm sure Nissan has no problem at all (dripping with sarcasm) with us yanking the motors out of their cars and replacing them with mills from GM, Ford, ect...

Your employees have other names for you. FWIW, get into the same arguments that Jon does.

Scissor doors? Please, I have a hard enough time getting in and out of my Z now. Wait 'till you're old and fat. Suicide doors, humm... Now that may have some merit. Although it might look like your trying to sneek into your Z butt first. Misjudge your entry approch and it could look real funny. I was going to jump all over this thread saying how re-hingeing your door is a useless mod that doesn't improve the car. Then I remembered about my taillights. Caught that one in the nick of time.

You need to rework that brace or your tires will rub. More important though is that you need to reconnect the wheelhouse back to the outer fender with something more substantial than glue and fiberglass. The wheelhouse to fender connection is a structural member of the unibody. Either weld the two back together or use mechanical fasteners. Other wise you risk flexing and bending and all that glue and fiberglass is just going to fall out.

Hey Jon, A couple of years ago we put short Illuminas in the front on a 280. The "D" shape in the rubber isolator had to be drilled out because the struts we bought did not have the flat ground on the end. Also the gland nuts supplied would not fit I just got a set of short Illuminas for my 240. These are 1.75" shorter than stock and have the "D" shape rod end. Also the gland nuts supplied fit perfect. What do think the original applications for these cartridges is? Do you think the first ones were for a Rabbit and the ones I have now are for the MR2?

See, this is why the TomahawkZ works. Wheel placement is so important.

Got the parts and whipped out the sawzall tonight. Cut the heads off the 3/4"x5 1/2" grade 8 bolts. Cut the control arms in half. And made two grade 8 jam nuts out of one standard grade 8 nut. That grade 8 stuff is hard. Three cuts cost me one and half saw blades. Next chore: Grind, file, and wire brush the rust off the inside of the arms so the welds will stick!

There is a guy in Sacramento, Gary something, that did that swap (Z32 brakes). He did all his own machining of the brackets and spacers. He is building an all metal widebody V8 roadster Z. I know he has posted here before but it was years ago. He had a pretty ambitious project, don't know if he finished or gave up. He was a ZONC member. Maybe Zron, a current poster here knows him.

That is exactly what I was saying to myself. Beautiful fab work Matt. (what happpened to the dang "two thumbs up" dude?)

Isn't that Moe Larry and Shemp in the last pic?

Thanks guys, Anybody know what the stock camber setting is? My main concern is proper handling and even tire wear. Like Mike said, this is a street car.The car will be about 3" lower than stock with wide (265) tires in front. I have a pair of MSA's 25mm strut spacers to go on with the new arms. Jon measured my camber last weekend at his place when we were sectioning a pair of struts as part of this whole front end rebuild. I have more negative camber on one side than the other. I'm going to try and correct some of that with the placement of the new arm pivot holes in the crossmember. Given my set up and how the car is used can anyone here recommend an appropriate camber setting? Just so I have this right: / =negative camber, / =positive camber. Right?

Ordered the rod end bearings today. The thread length (depth) of the rod ends is 1.72" Since minimum grip should be no less than one diameter that leaves just under 1" of total adjustment. Anybody know what this translates into camber angle range? I'm hoping this will give me enough adjustment without having to buy camber plates. Should I bottom the theaded rod (bolt with head cut off) in the rod end then back it out 1/2" and then jig it up and weld it to match the stock arm length? This way I should have 1/2" of adjustment both in and out. Or should I bias my initial set up one way or the other?

Jon, a.k.a. Jumbo240ez also has the Phantom grip in his R200. He doesn't show up here much anymore so I'll share what he told me about it a couple days ago. He doesn't drag race, he runs his Z at Infinion (Sears Point) and also on the street. He said that it worked for a while but now is worthless/worn out. I doubt it would help you much in the 1/4 mile. I don't think it would give much support to the spider gear pin. You didn't say, but I'm assuming your running an R200. If that's the case and your breaking it than it's time to spend some real money. If you want to keep the IRS either upgrade to the R230 or a Nismo R200 LSD with four spider gears rather than two. If this is mainly a drag car then you may want to consider going to a live axle.

I have no brake cable interference. All the links I had for Ron's site are broken. Maybe he moved his site. He had some great pics with a measured drawing. I built mine right off the drawing. Anybody have any working links to his site?

I think the mount you are refering to is one made by Jon Miwa, a.k.a. Jumbo240ez. I have a Ron Tyler front mount and I absolutely love it. No noise or vibration transfers to the body at all. I can adjust my pinion angle to exactly where it needs to be and the diff stays where it belongs under the hardest launch. IMHO this is the best front diff mount for a hybridZ, hands down.

Thanks guys, You have inspired me make my own. I have a question about the hiem joint though. I have a friend here in town that has a couple rod ends of the right size but I don't know if they are the right type. Looking at the McMaster-Carr site there are lots of different types with a variaty of materials for the race, nylon, urathane, brass. What do I need guys?

Huh, went back to his home page and clicked around a couple links back to the suspension page and then it worked. Eh, computers. Thanks Jeff.