1.2JZ into a 280Z build.

[Geno750]

I've had a 280Z in my possession for years now, and I got what was essentially a free 1JZ after I sold the manual trans ecu and harness from it. I never intended to swap a 1JZ in a Datsun, but after holding onto both since around the date I joined the forums, I started collecting more parts over the years and decided it was time to start the swap process. 

 

The first major hurdle turned out to be my 75 280Z's body. While outside the car looked great for its age, under years of dirt and what turned out to be bondo, the Alabama/Florida weather wasn't kind to the car at all. Everything from the floorpans forward had rusted out, including the shock towers and frame rails. 

 

One quick trip from Colorado to the west coast later and I had a new to me 1977 280Z shell that had spent its life in Cali, and had very little rust. Even better was what rust the car did have wasn't rusted at all on my 1975 280Z. With their powers combined, I had a fairly rust free shell to work with.

 

 

Onto the motor, The parts collection started early, but has been revised a few times. I used to have a completely built up 180SX and some of the parts intended for it were originally slated for the 1JZ.

 

After a series of trades and deals, I ended up with a 9174 EFR with an aluminum center section and 1.05 A/R T4 hotside. I feel that this is going to be way more turbo than I need for a 280Z but whatever, I can't seem to get rid of the thing for a smaller turbo.

 

My 1JZ head had some odd wear, and as I was trying to decide if I wanted to try and machine it and bring its flow up to anything near what a stock 2JZ head can do, a vvti 2JZGTE popped up for sale and I scooped it up with the assumption that if 1.5JZ swaps are a thing, then going the other way has to work. Turns out Aaron from Driftmotion has already been down this path with quite a bit of success, and after speaking with him while ordering parts, I'm glad I took the plunge.

 

Supporting mods on the 1JZ bottom end are:

Weisco 86.5mm 9.5:1 pistons

ARP rod bolts for stock 1JZ rods

ARP head studs

 

I'll have the bottom end machined and the assembly re-balanced with the new pistons and rod bolts. Should be fun. Anyone know of a machine shop near Denver with a 2JZ torque plate?

 

Fuel system/ecu: 

Drift motion -8 Fuel rail

Donkeypower 1300cc injectors (EV14 bosch type). 

DW Surge tank with twin AEM e85 044 clones. 

Fuel lab fpr and filters

GM Flex fuel sensor for E85

AEM Infinity 6 Standalone

 

I'll likely have the stock 280Z tank popped apart, cleaned out and coated since with the surge tank I should have enough fuel to do whatever I want. 

 

 

One thing I learned in my quest for DBW is aside from being heavy, the USDM 2JZGTE (or possible early JDM, not 100% sure) throttle body doesn't play well with the VVTI solenoid. In fact, they don't fit due to the TPS sensor being in the way. However, I'm totally okay with that, as I didn't want to deal with installing a throttle cable anyway. The plan from the start was to switch the TB out with something similarly sized in diameter, and that ended up being a 350Z throttle body. For wiring I'll simply move what would have been IACV wiring about 18" further forward.

 

 

Please excuse the messy garage, its normally much more organized but trying to cram 2 shells and a Ducati in there left me with little space. I'm having to play garage tetris to store all of this crap until I can haul away the blue shell.

 

 

 

Here is the 2JZGTE vvti head on the 1JZ bottom end.

 

 

All of this stuff is eliminated simply by going DBW with the AEM infinity 6 with my 350Z TB and pedal combo.

 

 

Quite the size difference.

 

 

The biggest irony is that if the bolt pattern on the 2JZ thottle body was the same for the top two bolts as it is for the bottom two studs, this would be a bolt on affair. Sadly, only the bottom two studs line up.

 

 

No issues with the throttle blade hitting the inside of the manifold. I'll likely end up not using the bottom bolt holes at all, and instead center up a plate and weld it to the intake to use as a new flange.

 

 

 

 

One of the last engine parts I need is a flywheel/clutch. I'm using a milled down 350Z CD009 transmission. What I'm hoping to do is just run a clutch kit that lets me swap the clutch hub/disc out for a Nissan one and lets me keep my 2JZ flywheel. OS Giken, ATS work this way as the clutch disc part number is universal to all their kits. The only thing that changes is the center hub. The thousand dollar question however is simply will there be enough engagement of the input shaft on the transmission to make this work long term.

 

 

I also got my Greddy T88 turbo manifold on there and my 9174EFR fits quite nicely on it. The only thing to do to the manifold now is cut off the 4-Bolt WG flange and weld on a v-band for my Turbosmart WG.

 

 

For anyone wondering what the CD009 looks like bolted up to a 1JZGTE with a VVTI 2JZ head, here you go.

 

 

Edited September 10, 2017 by Geno750

[joa_taste]

I almost went with a cd009 as well. Keep up the hard work brutha. Definitely want to see this running.

[makaofox]

Looking good! Thats one big turbo! I cant wait to try my 350z trans, my friend had it on his 240z with 600hp and it was amazing. It was def the right choice compared to a r154. Your build def has big power potential. 

[Greeko]

Looking good! Thats one big turbo! I cant wait to try my 350z trans, my friend had it on his 240z with 600hp and it was amazing. It was def the right choice compared to a r154. Your build def has big power potential. 

 At 600 hp, Did he have to change the R200 and axles?

[Geno750]

Kinda forgot about this thread. I picked apart my blue Z and salvaged everything I could. Combined I'll have a single rust free chassis.

 

The plan was finish engine first, get rid of all the left over parts for more garage space, then work on getting the engine in the car, then finish restoring the rest of the car. However, first I needed space.

 

 

Here's the growing pile of parts for the motor. I wound up selling my 9174EFR to a guy who needed one right away for his racecar. I replaced it with a S364.5SXE since this is a street car. If I do any sort of revisit into EFR turbos I'll probably go small twins.

 

 

Manifold and turbo fit, barely. I still need to cut the 4 bolt flange for the wastegate off and weld on a vband. Ironically, it seems that if one were to try this in the future, go with a 60mm wastegate. Turns out the wastegate flange, while designed for Greddy's 47mm wastegate is fed by an almost 60mm tube. Of course, I'm using a 50mm Turbosmart pro-lite wastegate, so more work is going to be required.

 

 

Got the bottom end back from the machine shop. Painted it, and installed the Greddy thermostatic oil cooler. With a laser temperature probe and my propane heater I was able to 'bake' the paint on.

 

 

 

Rods were shot peened and resized/balanced for ARP bolts and the fitted to the new wrist pins. Ended up going with 10.6:1 wiseco 86.5mm pistons. With the 2JZ head I'll loose about a point and some change of compression. With my 1.2mm Tomei head gasket I should be somewhere around 9.6:1 SCR. One catch with the pistons was having to bend all the oil squirters to get them to fit.

 

 

Also sold the CD008 and picked up a TR6060 from a Ford XR6. The rear end I've got would have made the first two gears in the CD008 useless. Not wanting a 4 speed I got something a bit better suited. The XR6 uses some of the shortest gears offered in a TR6060 as well, which will be nice, while still having a long 6th for highways. The other nice thing is shifter placement is almost factory.

 

 

Bell housing adapter.

 

 

The only thing I've done to my VVTI head was clean it and install better valve springs and Ti retainers. Downside to that is the factory valve lengths aren't uniform. So when I checked fitment with my Kelford V202-D cams, I would need to order 13 new shims to achieve the .010" lash required. Screw that. Shims were about $7 each, and I found a Toyota dealer in the Middle East with shimless buckets for $7.70 a piece. Shimless buckets arrived 4 days after ordering.

 

 

Ran into my first modification required hurdle with the 2JZ head 1JZ block combo. The cam gear backplate cover doesn't fit. The lower tabs on each side have to be cut off to clear the oil & water pumps.

 

 

After some cutting and a few hours of test fits and checking timing I had the lower cover in place and everything was on. Also for anyone wondering, the water neck needs to use the water pipe for the block it's going on. In my case the 1JZ water neck worked perfectly.

 

 

Another thing that worked perfectly were the front engine covers. The 1JZ bottom cover and 2JZ upper cover fit perfectly.

 

 

It also turned out my serpentine belt tensioner was bad so new one is on the way, along with the pully since I won't have ac or ps on this engine.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Geno750

[seattlejester]

"I replaced it with a S364.5SXE since this is a street car"

 

Lol, you crazy! That turbo will flow 80lb/min at peak although that is like 45lbs of boost. 

 

What are you aiming for?

[Geno750]

I wanted a smaller turbo tbh, like a Gen2 3076GTX, but when you're offered a brand new S364.5sxe for $500 it's hard to say no. With the cams and the valve train being shimless I can take the motor to 9000rpm to make full use of the turbo. I do admit it's going to be a dumb amount of power for a street car.

 

However I'm in Denver so I can compensate for that mile of elevation now.

[Geno750]

Finally got around to modifying the turbo manifold for the Turbosmart wastegate.

 

[seattlejester]

Well you do have a pretty good sized wastegate with decent priority so your boost control should be fairly effective.

 

I hear ya I had to pay quite a bit extra to get the hotside size I wanted. If I wasn't limited by space I would have definitely considered just stepping up for the cost savings alone.

 

Quite a few of us coming online, very exciting!

[Geno750]

Well you do have a pretty good sized wastegate with decent priority so your boost control should be fairly effective.

 

I hear ya I had to pay quite a bit extra to get the hotside size I wanted. If I wasn't limited by space I would have definitely considered just stepping up for the cost savings alone.

 

Quite a few of us coming online, very exciting!

Yeah, the manifold selection on the 2JZ head is a lot nicer than the 1JZ's. It's a Greddy manifold from their T88 turbo kit. I figure even if the turbo is a laggy beast, the car will still be fun out of boost compared to the original L28. The higher compression ratio and VVTI should keep the engine from being completely boring at lower rpm.

[jr_soliz2010]

You showed pictures with the cd009 and adapter plate. How did it fit in the car before you cut the tranny?

[Geno750]

It was a really snug fit. I don't see it going into a 240Z without some serious work.

[seattlejester]

Interesting badjuju and I found that the early 240z's seem to have the most clearance. We fit the massive R154, me without trimming anything, him with removing the later z style mounts.

 

Mind if I ask you if you are going to use a turbo blanket?

 

I just started mine up and revved it and reached in to check some wires and the wires which are probably a good 4 inches or so away were hot to the touch as was the fender. Borg warner says not to use a blanket, but I think without one under full load this is going to cook the wiring.

[Geno750]

I'm on the fence about using a blanket. The good ones (PTP Lava Blanket) cost almost as much as ceramic coating would, which would do the same thing. Both of which cost a tremendous amount more than a simple heat shield would as well.

[seattlejester]

Yea, ceramic coating was ~$150. There is a company that does it locally for $80 so I passed on it the first go around. Now that it is all assembled I'm kind of on the fence to take it all apart again. I ordered a Thermal Zero lava blanket to try out. Not doing anything would just be inviting catastrophic failure at some point. 

[Geno750]

There's also protection you can add to the wiring. Checkout http://www.designengineering.com/products.asp

 

They've got wire looms that provide thermal protection.

[Geno750]

My valve covers are finally ready for pickup, just need to leave work early enough and for retarded drivers in Denver not to crash and cause traffic problems to get them.

 

Throttle conversion to 350Z DBW system is under way. Hindsight, should have rotated the spacer 90 degrees and I could have been done with just one spacer. Sadly I'm dumb and have to buy a second one now for the TB to fit.

 

 

Radiator arrived. It's a Griffin 26x19 rad part number 1-55222. It is a snug fit.

 

 

 

 

The plan is to weld up a swirl pot into the upper rad neck and then plan the upper and lower hoses to complete the cooling system plumbing. Then I'll work on the fan shroud.

Edited August 18, 2017 by Geno750

[Geno750]

Got my valve covers back, and went and installed the IGN-1A's and brackets. The bracket needs 3mm thick spacers to allow coils to clear the valve covers.

 

 

[Geno750]

Spent more time working on the TB conversion. I noticed the holes in the spacers were .25" in diameter, which is the size you want when installing a M6x1.0 helicoil. So I went that route instead of drilling everything out to M8 not sizes. It worked perfectly.

 

[joa_taste]

Spent more time working on the TB conversion. I noticed the holes in the spacers were .25" in diameter, which is the size you want when installing a M6x1.0 helicoil. So I went that route instead of drilling everything out to M8 not sizes. It worked perfectly.

 

Looking good bro