Long term v8 260z project.

[bramagedained]

I recently bought a really nice 260z, that already has a SBC and automatic.  Swap was done sometime in the 90's and apparently saw nearly no miles after it was done.  Not enough miles for either of the 2 previous owners to be bothered to get the right combo of drive gears to correct the speedo, for example.  When I bought it, the tires were from 1992.

 

Disclaimer fullsize picture is quite large.

 

 

Album: http://imgur.com/a/ic8Bx#tokFrVf

 

The car is really in amazing shape.  There's one small spot underneath starting to rust.  The hatch, battery tray, tool/spare wells, fenders, hood, are all pristine.  It still has what I can only assume is the OEM spare with a date code of 473 which I assume corresponds to 47th week of 73.  It also came with the OEM manual, window sticker, radio guide, tool kit, jack and wheel chocks.  The electric rear defrost, map light, and motor to raise/lower the antenna work.  The light under the hood still works, too.  Brake pads/shoes were replaced last year.

 

I actually saw it posted via reddit from craigslist.  Car was near Richmond, VA and I have a buddy from the Army that lives in DC so he checked it out for me.  I bought a ticket from Minnesota to DC, cash in hand, without ever seeing the car in person myself and planned on driving it home, which I did.

 

Eventually, it needs to be as fast/faster than my last car, which was a 900whp Evo IX.  But, at the same time, needs to hide what it is as much as possible.

 

How it sits now:

 

350 from 1979. 

 

-Originally 170hp. 

-It has a cam(unknown).

-Holley 600, Accel HEI

-Edelbrock Streetmaster intake(apparently these were a 70's thing).

-Holley fuel pump.

-Electric fans on a thermostat.  Super awesome, I got stuck in traffic when it was ~90° and it didn't get hot.

 

 

TH350 I assume from 1979 with the motor.

 

-Feels like there's a shift kit.

 

Issues as it sits:

 

-Couple of oil leaks to chase down.  It appears to be timing cover and oil pan gaskets.  Not major, but, it bothers me that it leaks at all.

-Speedo quit working in Iowa, it was ~10% off anyway.

-In dash tach doesn't work, an old Sun SuperTach is mounted on the dash.

-Mystery clunk from the rear, doesn't feel like any of the U-Joints.

-Outer bolster on the driver's seat has wear, not quite to the point of tearing, but, it's fairly close.(Yes, this level of nit-picky of things not 100% right with the car)

-Turn signal doesn't reliably auto cancel.  I'm not sure if it's worth taking things apart(with the risk of damaging something else in the process) to try and get that working correctly, I've already developed the habit of turning them off manually.  I have a background in electronics, my concern is over the parts I'd have to remove to get to the switch itself.

-Rheostat for the dimmer died. It worked until I started playing with it.

 

 

Things found wrong on the way home:

 

-The fuel pump had a bad gasket internally, and the era of holley pump that was on it came with weep holes for oil when that gasket failed.  So, $100 for a fuel pump from O'Riellys and I was good to go. 

-The other leak was the valve cover gaskets, another $22 from Autozone.

-Ate the v-belt, luckily right before an exit on the interstate with services. I think it was $13 from an actual service station, which was about a mile walk into town from the gas station at the interchange.

 

Things already done:

 

-New fuel pump. $100

-New valve cover gaskets. $22

-New Tires. $250(lol)

-New V-belt. $13

-Oil change. $? I had the oil at home, didn't pay attention to what the filter cost.

 

Things coming soon™ in the next couple of months:

 

-Autometer speedo and tach.  I'm sort of torn between the at-a-glance of the Phantom Series(which will stand out in the dash with the white face) and the Pro-Comp ones which have a black face.

-Do something about the lighting of the OEM oil/temp/amp gauges to make it a bit brighter and more even.

-Fix remaining oil leaks.

-Get it dyno'd to have the timing/carb jetting checked out.

-Make sure the clunk isn't a u-joint, the whole rear end will be changed out this winter anyway if it's a bushing.

-Address the one rust spot.  Sort of addressed. Rust cleaned up and painted until I can have it apart for a patch.

-Check out the rheostat for dimmer.  Either see if it can be repaired, rig something up with a pot, or, use a variable resistor to get to a light level I like and leave it alone.  Everything on full-bright is fine

 

Planned changes for this coming winter(2015-16):

 

-New rear suspension/diff/brakes.  The "ultimate" one on here with the 8.8 and such that bolts in place seems really attractive. 

-New front suspension/brakes.

-Poly bushings for whatever is left.

-Wheels/tires.

-Flares?  I've actually had quite a few people tell me(on here and in person) that the car is just too nice as it is to cut the fenders for flares.

 

Plans for next winter(2016-2017):

 

-Turbo 5.3  It's so widely done, I can gather parts over the summer so there's not such a big hit all at once for cost.

-Built TH400

-Cage?  Probably worse than people telling me it's too nice to cut the fenders for flares.  I don't like the idea of a cage in a street car, but, something would need to be done to keep the chassis straight with the power and a sticky tire.  At least I've decided against having it back-halved for a 4-link, right?

-NHRA safety stuff.  If I'm honest, the car will probably rarely see a track, but, get used quite a lot.

 

My last fun car was a 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, the project got out of hand and it ended up being a ~900whp/700wtq car.  I spent way too much money and in the end it would just eat gears in the transmission.

 

That project thread:  http://www.evomn.net/showthread.php?5900-The-source-of-my-fun-and-frustration

 

I kept it very subtle looking, and with the relatively small cams it didn't lope at idle.  The drag radials were on stock wheels.

Edited July 25, 2015 by bramagedained

[bramagedained]

Under the car for a bit yesterday.

 

None of the U-joints had noticeable play.

 

Hit all the zerk fittings, which didn't take much grease.  None of the suspension parts had any unexpected play in them.

 

I decided on the black faced Autometer Pro Comp Speedo+Tach which should be here in the next couple of days, along with a speedo cable.  I totally forgot to check what gears were in the TH350 to see about changing them to make the new speedo correct.

 

The 2 gauges will be the first actual modification I'll have done.

[GeeZ]

Nice Z. I have one the same color and approx. condition.

[bramagedained]

Got back home from Road America at 5:30 or so.

The Hawk vintage race is something everyone needs to go to, seriously.  It was cool as ****, and hands down the coolest racing event I've ever been to.  So much stuff, from 1930's race cars to a 2014 prototype.  70's Can-Am/Formula 1, muscle cars, 90's Formula 1 and IndyCars, etc.  Multiple classes were 50 deep, and I got to have some very interesting chats with a couple different guys who were racing S30s there, mostly about chassis stiffening.

Had the box from summit with the gauges and another from vatozone with new gas shocks for the front end as one is leaking oil(and probably original like everything else.)

I got right to work tonight on the new gauges.



Just sitting in place.

I did get the wiring for the tach and all the lights done, which was actually much simpler than expected.

Factory was 2 bulbs per light, and individually wired, so, I just removed those and added the bulbs/pigtails for the autometer ones.

Same with the switched IGN ON power for the tach.

I still need to make a mounting bracket and run the new speedo cable, which I'll start in the morning.

 

I'm trying to decide how I want to deal with the parking brake/highbeam/turn signal bulbs.

I'm waiting on replacing the shocks until I can get a new set of wheel bearings.  It doesn't feel like it needs them, but, if I'm taking the front end apart anyway, I may as while do it while I'm there.

I very nearly just ordered coilovers for the front, but, I don't actually want to lower it any, which nearly all of the pre-fabbed ones seem to do.

[bramagedained]

I didn't take a picture, but, the new speedo/tach are mounted.

 

I had to order a ratio adapter to correct the speedo as the trans is already geared as far towards correcting as possible.  It should be here Monday/Tuesday.

 

In hind sight(and what I'd recommend everyone else does) is buy the Speedometer Sender/VSS that Autometer makes which connects right to the tailshaft along with the electronic speedometer.

 

 

I couldn't wait any longer on the front shocks as the driver's side was completely gone.

 

One of these things is not like the other:


The blue one is what I took out, and, it's totally blown.  Where it slides into the strut tube was full of the oil that is supposed to be inside the shock.

...the KYB is also a rear.  Someone fucked up and sent me the wrong set.  I opted for free overnight shipping on a front set.  I'll need the rears this winter anyway.

Fronts not expected to show up until Monday, since I was too late on the call for today.

Originally I was going to order a wheel bearing kit and just replace what was there.

When I got things apart I'm glad I didn't, the side I have apart was in great shape with no wear visible of any kind.  I cleaned out the bearings and re-packed.

Bearings:



Spindle:



I don't know if these were replaced at some point or not.  There is still the tooling marks on the spindle from when it was made, as it is not smooth.

Outer Races:






Nearly everything came apart nicely.  One of the two bolts that holds the steering arm to the whole assembly will not budge.  I am only using a cordless impact that maxes at <100ft-lbs of force.  Leaving it to sit with some penetrating oil overnight.  If that fails it will get a little heat.  The brake line fittings took a little coaxing with the proper kind of wrench, but, came loose without too much effort.  Pads/rotors are in good shape.

Edited July 25, 2015 by bramagedained

[bramagedained]

Got the other side apart this morning.  That last bolt did take a little heat and using my torque wrench for leverage.  It was set for 100 ft-lbs and never clicked before the bolt broke free.

The cordless impact I have is pretty wimpy, especially as the battery drains.

Progress stopped until the shocks arrive.  I did crack open the bleeders on both calipers to make sure they would come free for when I flush/bleed the system as it goes back together.

Both sides look like this:



and a side by side:



My 2-month to-do list is coming along nicely.

[bramagedained]

I need to go snap a picture of it sitting in the street.  I didnt think to take any pictures while I was re-assembling stuff.

Shocks came at about noon and I started working at 1pm or so.

I just got back from a test drive and cleaned up the garage.

Man, do new shocks completely change the feel of the car.  I also added progressive bumpstops for the front that it never had before.

Front brake circuit was flushed and is now new fluid, I'll get to the rears.  Car has 2 separate reservoirs.

The ratio box also came so now it has an accurate speedometer.

[thedarkie]

I had 2 clunks, driveshaft bolts on rear end were loose and front strut top nut backed off a few threads. Just a suggestion for further diagnosing your issue. 

[bramagedained]

I really hadn't been maintaining this here and instead on a local forum.

 

I'm catching this up by copy and pasting posts.  So there's a chance things might not make sense until I go back through what I end up here and clean it up.

 

 

 

 

[bramagedained]

I saw a cheap catch can on Amazon the other day and ordered it.  It does actually have a couple baffles inside.  The breathers I got about a week ago are made to hook to an EGR and have media in them that is supposed to separate oil out, too.

There was an old hole from something when it had the L26, so I just had to make that one slightly larger and drill one more.  

[bramagedained]

Managed to spend most of another day in the garage, though, I only maybe had 3 actual hours of work into it.

I had the nuts on the front hubs a bit too tight, when I got back from Brainerd yesterday they were hot. So today, I pulled them apart, re-packed the wheel bearings and put it back together.

I replaced the distributor<-> intake manifold gasket that was leaking. The nut that holds the clamp wasn't very tight again(I tightened it once before) so I added a lock washer. Happily, it fired right back up after having the distributor out and back in. I guess the pointers I made for where the housing/rotor needed to sit were good.

I did not yet go for a drive to see if it's better. That requires a first stop at the car wash to spray everything clean first anyway.

I figured I would replace the spark plugs while I was at it, since I had never pulled them nor had any idea when they were from. Now this part was interesting.

The casting marks and numbers on the block are easy enough to see and read. The block itself is from 1979 and I assumed the heads were as well. On a reference chart, the block was in a "passenger car".

Interestingly, the plugs that were in it, physically do not fit anything that came from GM in 1979. They do not have a tapered seat and instead use a washer to seal.

From what I've found looking, GM switched to using heads with a tapered seat in 1971.

Maybe the motor is more than I thought. Makes me wonder what cam/lifters/springs etc are actually in it. Or if the shortblock is even stock. Also the 70's era Edelbrock intake manifold.

Anyway, all 8 plugs looked like the should. With the exception of half the insulators on all of them had black spraypaint from whenever the block was painted to get put in the car.

[bramagedained]

Another change.

I sat in the car with a helmet on, and my head was very close/touching the inside of the car.

The one of the previous owners raised the seats up with some kind of janky spacers, and I had left it because I still fit.

Well, yesterday I took them out which lowered the seat about an inch and gives me much more room.

Old:




Stuff taken out:



How the seat sits now:

[bramagedained]

Well, pretend progress.

I have all the parts for the rear end, rear suspension, rear brakes, front brakes, new 1" master cylinder and a proportioning valve.

Custom parts for the rear swap:


Most of the store-bought parts:


I'm done with school for 3 weeks so I thought I would spend my first day off getting things prepped to actually swap the rear.

I went through the motions, which turned out to be a COMPLETE ******* WASTE OF TIME.  More on that later.

F150 axles, these need to be cut apart to disassemble the outer CV, which is used along with the new 930 axle shaft and a 930CV as the inner joint.



The shaft needs to be cut off so you can spin the star far enough for the ball bearings to come out so that you can take it apart:



Good thing a pipe vise is in the garage, it made this part fairly easy:



 I spun the axle around the other way before I actually cut it, this just made for a better picture:



Done with a cutoff wheel, care taken to not ding the CV joint itself:



Now you can spin the star far enough to get the balls out, which means you can get the whole thing apart:



Star and balls:



CV Joint separated and cleaned, shaft still needs to be pressed out of the star:



Outer stub fits into the Dodge Intrepid hub like it should:



New 930 shaft in what will be the inboard 930 CV joint:



Everything was good until this point.  Until I had re-assembled the CV joint and went to slide the 930 axle in.

OH RIGHT THEY DON'T ******* FIT:



Despite the F150 axles being for the correct year truck, and correct model, these ones are different internally than how Ford designed them.  The Ford design uses less/bigger splines than the shit I bought.

So I wasted $150 and 5 hours today on this.  Tomorrow I'm going to try and see if I can source some re-man Ford shafts from an autoparts store.  Otherwise I can order ones I now know will work with the 930 shafts from summit and have them on Tuesday/Wednesday.

[bramagedained]

Teardown.

There is surprisingly few fasteners that hold everything for the rear end together.

It all came apart without needing to be clever, to my amazement.  Presumably the last time all this came apart is when the car was first assembled in Japan.

Old stuff, it turned out I didn't need to take the drum off, but, it made for a better before/after picture anyway:



Brake line on both sides, I did have to use a vice grip on the Driver's side as even with a proper flare fitting wrench it rounded off:



Parking brake cable.  The car will no longer have a parking brake, which is sort of unfortunate, but, it will always be an auto anyway:



Exhaust came out partially by sawzall.  Whether I get to an LS swap this winter or not, the exhaust was going to be changed either way.  The quality of what was in there is a bit lacking(to put it lightly):



Yes, that is RTV and some of the most booger'd welds I've seen.


At this point I had two jacks holding up the subframe+diff.

One of these on either side holds the mustache bar/diff up into the car at the rear:



These two bolts on either side hold what I will call the rear of the sub-frame up into the car:



These on both sides hold the front of the subframe/front diff mount:



Now the only thing still attached to the car are the struts.  I used some 4' zipties to hold the struts to the control arms so that they wouldn't flop out when they dropped free of the car;



Out of the car it came:



I honestly expected it to be a hassle to get the driveshaft off of the diff, so I just let it drop out of the trans onto a cardboard box.  I need to get a new driveshaft made somewhere anyway.

There was 4 more bolts that secured the control arms to the rear part of the subframe that I forgot to take pictures of.  The control arms, rear of the subframe, and strut tops are the only pieces re-used.

The control arms are held to the upright with a big pin.  This pin is notoriously difficult to remove as it is not greased and pinned to not move in the upright, so it seizes together.  I probably could have got it free, but, since I'm not reusing the upright nor the pins I just cut them apart with a porta-band.



The strut tops need to be slightly modified.  OEM they're made to key onto the top of the damper cartridge and the hole needs to be made round for the Koni ones:

[bramagedained]

Assembly.

All the parts (minus brakes) going into the car:



The first thing I did was assemble my new shocks.  Koni adjustable shocks and 250lb/in springs.  The strut tubes are part of the kit and custom made to work with everything else in the swap.

This little spacer goes inside the tube, so the inside is the correct length for the Koni damper.  It's contoured to matched the shape at the bottom of the Koni:



Everything else is simple to assembly and I forgot pictures.  The lower spring perch is adjustable for ride height.  The tube is filled with a small amount of oil, the logic behind it is so the cartridge can better transfer heat to the tube itself.  It also stops the cartridge from corroding itself into the tube.

The tops are two of the 5 pieces re-used with this swap.



Control arms ready to assemble:



In goes the new subframe dropdown and mustache bar.  While the old mustache bar was very much a leaf spring, this one is solid aluminum and not made to give a whole lot.

This is where I started to be really amazed by the kit.  Parts are very close, but, don't touch.





Now, I could have fought with the driver's side bolt for the diff, but, I chose not to and just drilled a hole in the spare tire will that I'll get a plug for.  Eventually(maybe even this winter) I'm putting a fuel cell in the car so all that sheet metal will be cut out anyway.



Next to prep the diff I replaced the pinion and axle seals.  I know the pinion seal was bad and I realized it would be dumb to not replace the axles seals as well while I had it out of the car:





I forgot to take a picture of putting in the front diff mount.  I had to grind down some spot welds and knock off a tab that was used as an exhaust  hanger.  This is apparently only present here on the 260z and not the 240z or 280z.

I had help wrestling the much bigger Ford 8.8" into the car.  A transmission jack(which I don't have) would have made this much, much easier.





The factory rear part of the subframe is re-used which holds the rear of the control arms.  I had to massage it some with a hammer so it would clear the drain plug on the diff.  But, only by 1/4" or so.  I could have assembled as-is, but, didn't want it to touch.

Everything from here-on was so easy and quick I forgot to take pictures.  After the diff was in, I only had an hour and a half into putting everything else back together.

New upright/axles:


New struts and brakes:



Stainless brake lines now run from the hardline to the caliper.

And that was that, I threw on a pair of old DSM spares(since the rear bolt pattern is now 5x114.3) I got for cheap from Brownman so I could set the car back on the ground and push it back to the side of the garage on the car dollies.

[bramagedained]

I still have a new 1" Master Cylinder, proportioning valve, and front brakes sitting around to go in.  I can't do the front brakes until I get wheels.

They're for another day, though.

The new front calipers/disks are pretty big and OEM from a 90's 4-runner.  Hybridz-I bought the silvermane motors kit instead of piecing stuff together.



Next project is probably going to be pulling the dash to clean up the wiring/add relays and make better mounts for the speedo/tach along with rig something up for the turn signal/high beam indicator lights.

[bramagedained]

Painless has $100 mail in rebates on a lot of their wiring kits.

And Vatozone(who is an authorized retailer) has a 20% off deal right now.

So last night I impulse bought the 18 circuit universal kit, and after the rebate will be $190 or so.

Which I'm willing to pay vs piecing together all the needed stuff from digikey or something.

There's even a couple of threads on Hybridz on how to hook the painless stuff up to the OEM switches and such.

[bramagedained]

Welp.  Now I've gone and done it.

I pulled the console and dash to prep for the painless kit, now I have a case of "while I'm in there".

The car originally had A/C, so I'm going to pull the coil which is dead weight.

While laying across the rocker to unhook stuff to pull the dash I got curious and peeled up the off-brand dynamat which the floor is lined with.

It turns out the rust spot is bigger than I thought, it's still not major and will just be one piece of flat sheetmetal to patch.

While looking at that I noticed that the trans tunnel is coated with a tar like stuff, which I assumed to be OEM sound deadening/insulation.  Some of which is dried like plastic and breaks off, the rest comes off like tar.

Should I just peel all of this shit out?  

I have to remove a lot of the interior to strip the OEM wiring to put in the new stuff anyway.  I could always buy new stuff later if the noise/heat bothers me.

Should I just get the full whack of autometer gauges now since I have the dash out and I'm starting from scratch with the wiring anyway?

At a minimum that's replacing the 3 factory ones with Oil Pressure/Fuel Level/Water Temp.  The 2-5/8" ones are very close to OEM size and will fit in the stock location.

[bramagedained]

I've decided to just work on the car for 2-4 hours a day while the sun is still bright in the garage.

That sort of schedule also stops me from getting overly frustrated/tired of working on the car.

Dash out of the car:



What I meant about comitted:



I found more than a couple spots of questionable wiring like this:



...that actually ran to the starter.

Dash on the new workbench so I can work on it where stuff is warm.  Most of the hard part of re-wiring the car is here, getting the painless stuff connected to the stock combo switches for lights/wipers.



New stuff came in the mail today, now just to send in for the $100 rebate:



I think the instructions were written by an old guy.  I can't see someone who grew up with the internet thinking that the font for all of the "Note:" sections was a good idea:



I pulled the evap coil out too.  These were dealer installed options, it's a 240z part showing the mix and match of parts on the 260z:



It's not very heavy, but, is something else I don't need in the car so it goes.  I decided last night that anything not required is going.  Pulling insulation/sound deadening, but, leaving the panels as based on the ones I took out, they can't weight more than 20lbs total.

I have the harness pulled out of the car except for rear of the seats which runs the rear lights. It runs into the passenger side quarter and it seemed like a good place to stop before I have to start pulling interior panels off.

I left myself a couple feet of the stock harness from the front lights which I'll put a weatherpack connector on and tie to the painless stuff.

The dash harness is still there, but, is coming out.  I decided to put in new gauges while I have it out.

I left a pigtail for the wipers for now, as I don't know how much of a hassle that could otherwise turn into.  I don't expect it to be a problem to take things apart to get to the motor itself, but, it is still a 42 year old car.  The same logic was behind leaving a length going to the front lights.

I'm ordering gauges when I'm done with this post.  I'm also tacking a new shifter on to that order.  I don't like how the one that is in there doesn't lock you out of neutral, so you can go right past Drive/3rd into Neutral.  So, I'm buying a ratchet shifter.  It will fit better in the car, too.  The space between the dash and where the shifter needs to be is limited and the current one is so close in Park that you can't get your hand all the way around it which has been semi annoying since I bought the car.

I'm going to order wheels in the next couple of days.  My plan is to have the wiring done, and the interior back in the car by mid-feb.

That will leave me spring break to hack up the body for flares and pull the motor/trans.  I can't do that until I have wheels+tires and new springs for the front(to set ride height, etc).  I can't get new springs until I know if I need to change to smaller coils to clear the wheels+tires.  I can't pull the motor until all of that is done so the car is at the right weight.

At that point I'll decide if I swap in a motor.  There should be enough time between spring break and the end of salt on the roads to pull it off.  It is amazingly well documented online.

Tomorrow I'm pulling the bumpers/bumper shock absorbers.  Supposedly they weigh a bit over 100lbs total.  They'll get replaced with fiberglass replicas of the smaller 240z bumpers.

If I had the cash, there's a guy in NY making carbon fiber dashes and consoles which combined weigh like 5lbs.  The factory dash is probably like 30.

[bramagedained]

The wires also pulled out of the crimp connector inside the tape when I went to pull it out from the firewall.  -This was referenced to a comment about the duct tape.

When stuff goes back together, everything is getting soldered.

Oil Pressure, Water Temp, and Fuel level gauges are on the way. I did tack on a ratchet shifter, too.

For the fuel gauge there was basically two options.

First, buy the fuel gauge that is set for an older Ford which is semi close to the ohm value that the Datsun sender uses. The mismatch can be bandaided with some trial and error with resistors/pots. I'd still be at the mercy of the error now in the 40 year old sender.

Second, just buy a fuel level gauge calibrated to a GM sensor, which pretty much everything aftermarket uses and then figure out the rest later.

I went for the second option, which means I will absolutely have to cut up the car for a fuel cell. It's something that would have to happen before the car got boosted anyway as you simply cannot pull fuel fast enough from the stock tank to feed that.

I still need to dig more on what is practical for a fuel cell, there's cheap aluminum ones and cheap plastic ones(summit/jegs brands, RCI, etc). Which while not Certified by anyone can't be any worse than the factory steel tank. NHRA rules look super easy to comply with.

While I forgot to order one, I'll be putting in the NHRA required battery cutoff while I'm re-wiring the car. The battery is pretty obviously no longer in front and the rules require one regardless of your et/trap when relocated.

The more of this "extra" stuff I add, the less likely a motor swap becomes. I originally planned on doing it next winter anyway. The only way I could have pulled it off this year is if "the plan" went exactly as planned.

This whole re-wiring project wasn't originally accounted for, nor the one of adding a fuel cell.