CasperIV Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 (edited) UPDATE: For those interested, my pictures are all broken in this thread and the information is falling out of date. If you are interested in keeping up with this project you can catch updates on my YouTube channel or Facebook and the long form evolving article at www.ambive.com. This project will be finished, but it took forever to get my parts back from the shops that were doing anything but work on it to finish myself. I got bored with my S2000 and decided I wanted to have another Z. Traded the S2000 in for a BRZ as my wife's car and started this project. The goal was simple, I wanted over 300WHP (hopefully closer to 380WHP) when it was completely done and a solid daily driver/weekend racer. I initially wanted to build a KA24DET but after really digging into what it would take to make it as dependable as the SR20DET out of the box, I abandoned it for now (really want to come back and revisit building a KA24DET or maybe a newer Nissan engine). I started out by sourcing an "almost" rust free 73 240Z that looked well enough that I didn't feel I had to dump money into paint and body. I apologize for not getting more pics of before and after as well some specifics of fitment. I know when I started this project I searched high and low for things like shifter placement, then forgot to take hardly any pics of our mock up.This build could be done for less money if I just fabricated parts as I went, but I wanted to actually try out using pre-made parts and having other people do some of the work (first car I have paid for build work, hope it's a positive experience).Here are the parts I have already bought (or some of the more notable): SR20DET red top with transmission. McKinney Motorsports mount kit. McKinney SR20 FMIC kit. McKinney radiator with fan and shroud. McKinney 3" exhaust and muffler with McKinney SR20 down pipe. Arizona Z Car brake kit with 5 lug conversion. Tokico shock and spring kit. Megan Racing AFPR with ISIS FPR adapter. Megan Racing short shifter kit. Circuit Sports Solid Shifter Bushing Energy Suspension Urethane kit Hallman MBC. S15 oil pickup (to replace the common failure point on the S13). New wheels and tires (since I am going 5 lug). ISIS intake manifold/plenum (Greddy style) GKTech eccentric throttle pulley (S14) Circuit Sports stainless steel oil pan with baffles. We will be using an R200 long nose, and money willing, it will be rebuilt with a Quaife sometime next year once testing is done.Planned performance upgrades to come this Fall/Winter once we test the setup through out this year: EFR 6758 Full Race Manifold AEM EMS v2 AEM Electronics MAP Sensor Kits 30-2130-50 AEM AIT Sensor Kit Circuit Sports DIS Ignition System Jim Wolf S3 Cams 11.2 Lift 260 - SR20DET Tomei Rocker Arm Stoppers The car (I hated the mirrors from the moment I picked the car up).So I changed those immediately... Next up, the parts... Edited June 28, 2017 by CasperIV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 (edited) I wanted to use as many pre-made parts as possible so that I could get a realistic build process for those who don't have tools for serious fabrication available. To this end I sourced my mount kit, FMIC, radiator & fan, full exhaust, and a few other parts from McKinney Motorsports (http://mckinneymotorsports.com/) (great guys to work with). I then sourced brakes from Arizona Z Car (http://arizonazcar.com/) (again, awesome). I went back and fourth on the suspension trying to decide if I wanted to jump to coil overs while I was already tearing the underside a part of go with shocks and springs to test first. In the end I decided to use a Tokico kit. Here's the heart of it all... (James drove over night to SoCal to pick out an engine with the most freebie upgrades and healthiest compression/bits) The pile of parts... Transmission brace from McKinney. I don't really have a pic of just the engine cradle but it's a simple cross pipe with mounts and weld/bolt in angle mounts on the end. Some Arizona Z goodness... McKinney goodies... Going 5 lug necessitated some new wheels. Since I didn't want to break the bank on wheels before I had even put the thing together I picked up some cheaper wheels that were in +0 that I thought wouldn't look bad. A handy craigslist find... Edited March 22, 2013 by CasperIV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 (edited) I also wanted to make sure I didn't rush the build, but at the same time didn't want it to be a multi-year project, so I selected a local Z guy and shop owner James Whitman (http://www.jwsportcars.com/) to do work I didn't have time/tools for. Part of the build was intended to extend the life of the car another 40 years, so I worked with him to powder coat pretty much everything under the car that could be removed and undercoat the rest. Unfortunatly we didn't start taking pictures until we were well under way, so I don't have any of the underside ground down before the spray. A little test fitting... Shifter placement after shoving it as far back as possible (it will be replaced with a short shifter when we finish it up). Edited March 22, 2013 by CasperIV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 (edited) Here are some pics of the car undercoated... Cross member is powder coated and trimmed a bit to ensure it doesn't mess with the SR's oil pan. Edited March 22, 2013 by CasperIV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 Some suspension hanging... Brakes are making their way onto the car... Wheel just set on to see how it looks (looks better in person than pics)... More pics to come. Unfortunately we need to move it to a new location, so James is going to throw wheels on it and get it moved before work resumes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh280z Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 What kind of undercoat you using? POR15? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 (edited) Not on this car, POR15 is a more smooth finish/sealent. This is a 3M product that is more of a thick almost rubbery textured material. The actual buy code is a dealer specific order code, but it also provides a bit of a sound deadening quality as well as industrial rating for wear. I'll see if I can snag a picture of the containers when I'm back at the shop. Edited March 22, 2013 by CasperIV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Ben Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Any progress on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 (edited) We ended up decided to restore the car from the metal up before we add the flares, so we stopped the installation and sent it to the body shop. It should have new paint in a couple weeks and we can throw the engine in. Since we have a little more time than planned we threw the engine on the stand again and are doing clean up/upgrades. Doing the S15 oil pickup, Circuit Sports oil pan, new water pump, plugs, etc. Basic improvement/tune up items. Edited June 10, 2013 by CasperIV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Domzs Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 Nice build . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 Nice build . Thanks. It certainly is expensive going this route, but the car should easily last another 40 years in good condition. Once it comes back from paint it will have no body filler on the whole car and everything will be gapped properly. It should be clean... then later next year I will revisit a more expensive paint job (just doing white for now on the outside, will be white with blue pearl) and all House of Color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Domzs Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 I love those colors combination . Going to do my 280ZXT in two tone , white and blue ( more like blurple or burple ) , when I get more time . Too many projects are going at once . LOL . And i'm not much of a body man but going to give it a shot . Bought a few body tools and spray guns . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 I normally like to do the work myself, but for the money I'm investing the in the rest of the car I wanted A+ quality and receipts. Couldn't really justify dumping $15,000 into a project and spraying it myself. When I make a new dedicated race/hoon car I will be going back to doing my own fabrication/paint... but it won't be pretty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Domzs Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 True . But for me , I gotta start somewhere . Did a little priming here and there . Gotta get some more gun time , my 78 Z would be a perfect candidate . Doing single stage satin black so it would be a little easier to learn and easier to fix my mistakes . LOL . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 Sounds like a good idea, and maybe you are one of the people that is naturally good at paint. It seems to be one of those things that you can work really hard at to get "better" but never be great at unless you have a natural aptitude. I don't have it, so I pay those that do when I care about how it looks. It also doesn't help that I took an auto restoration class that taught me to look for all the flaws... What has been seen can't be unseen! I look forward to checking out your progress. I really want to do my next Z in flat black with flat white stripes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Domzs Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 Matte black was the plan . Then I was told that matte black doesn't last long in TX heat ( sun ) . After the paint job , I would like to try plastic dip it . Just don't know long that stuff will last . Can't find any good feedback on durability . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted June 10, 2013 Author Share Posted June 10, 2013 Plastidip seems to hold up pretty well, but we don't have as much sun up here. I have a buddy who used it on his truck bumpers and such and another that used it on the wheels of his Audi. It looks decent and held up really well against the weather and rock chips from what I saw. I was thinking about doing it over the top of my new paint to protect against chips/scratches during track testing. It peels off pretty well (at least on wheels) so I think it should work fine on my paint as a temporary bra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Domzs Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 I'm going to try it , it's cheap enough . Thanks for the feedback . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Ben Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Looking through your list of future mods, I will recommend a change on a few things. If you are planning on running a 2871 on that engine, those 550's are going to be too small at any thing over 12 pounds of boost. I would at least bump up to a 740cc and think about running the injectors at 4 bar fuel pressure. Also, I dont recommend rocker arm stoppers as well. I know all to well about rocker arms spitting out at higher RPMs, but I would rather spit a rocker then have valve train damage. Also, check out the link I am posting in here about an alternative to AEM. It still runs the stock ECU, but it has the full capabilites of a full stand alone at a 1/4 of the price. Its what alot of the SR guys are going. And if you are not, check out www.sr20-forum.com for more info. Its mostly FWD SR's, but the engines themselves are the same. NEMU ECU: http://www.nismotronic.com/nemu-tuning-package/jktuning/nemu-tuning-package_001_14.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasperIV Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 (edited) Looking through your list of future mods, I will recommend a change on a few things. If you are planning on running a 2871 on that engine, those 550's are going to be too small at any thing over 12 pounds of boost. I would at least bump up to a 740cc and think about running the injectors at 4 bar fuel pressure. Also, I dont recommend rocker arm stoppers as well. I know all to well about rocker arms spitting out at higher RPMs, but I would rather spit a rocker then have valve train damage. Also, check out the link I am posting in here about an alternative to AEM. It still runs the stock ECU, but it has the full capabilites of a full stand alone at a 1/4 of the price. Its what alot of the SR guys are going. And if you are not, check out www.sr20-forum.com for more info. Its mostly FWD SR's, but the engines themselves are the same. NEMU ECU: http://www.nismotronic.com/nemu-tuning-package/jktuning/nemu-tuning-package_001_14.php The 550's weren't for much boost, they were just going to give me a base, but since the plans changed for power goals, I will be going much larger. I don't mind running injectors at higher duty cycles because I also typically use the supporting modifications to help protect against failure, but I wasn't planning to push them much beyond 80% unless I was completely comfortable with the system. In fact I prefer over duty to leaking over sized pairings... but that's a discussion for a whole different thread. As of right now I doubt I will go with a piggy back system. Saying that they do "all the capabilities" of a standalone is a serious stretch. Haltech and AEM EMS systems are extremely detailed tuning vs piggy back systems as they directly control the components rather than adapting a signal and have much faster/more accurate processing. Nistune and NismoTronic work well enough, but you will be leaving power and reliability on the table if you don't match parts to them extremely closely or spend a lot of time compensating for that which can't be tuned out. You are also dependent on an additional part for operation, which is one more (old) part that can fail and tied to the other factory type parts. There is also a major limitation to who can do your tuning. My goal is to tune it very accurately and get the car running like a factory vehicle, just more powerful. If I decide to scale back for some reason I may reevaluate a piggy back solution and NismoTronic will be high on the list of considerations. People debate the rocker arm stoppers endlessly. The reality is that you shouldn't be hitting the stoppers on a regular basis... otherwise it means you are being stupid and should fix the person controlling the throttle first The stoppers should be there to prevent them from escaping due to a mistake, not constantly smash into the components to keep them in check. I will be using the stopper as a safe guard, if there is excessive contact I will upgrade the springs, retainers, etc. The general performance plans are changing too. Initially I was going to just go basic with a 2871R and call it a day, but that was before I decided to make this car a little more high performance. I'm now leaning toward a Full Race manifold with an EFR 6758 and building around that pairing. So intake manifold will be changing as will several other aspects. I may even go twin scroll EFR... need to do some measurements and reassess once my drive tests are done this summer. I don't want to over build and ruin the cars balance. Edited June 13, 2013 by CasperIV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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