1JZ Vvt into 260Z

[RUSSJZ-ZED]

Following information on oatmilks car, found this Toyota L6 forum, How long has this been going? Yes!! a nice quiet corner away from the RB26 is king crowd!!Here in Australia, these pedants are everywhere!Toyota ruins the "originality" an RB20/25/26/30 doesn't(????)

Finished this conversion engine wise, all approved and road legal. Started it over 18 months ago , inspired by the local(I'm in Australia) Zoom magazine project car-since sold to England.

On this forum, Cyrus' car showed me where it could end:flamedevi, but I want a car I can drive on the road every day.(still keep looking at it Cyrus- that is THE car!

this is a real easy transplant(apart from the wire hook-up)

First decision, think it through ,work out what would work, only ask for advice when totally cornered.That way any screw ups are my own.

Decided to go for a Vvt,Reason? one (bigger)turbo sounded less complex,less to go wrong. also, later model, cars this engine came out of mainly 4 door saloons, Late Chasers(a few Soarers) Sort of less likely to have had a hard life.

Half cut was a 1997 JZX100 chaser auto, don't know what the missing half looked like but the front half was like a new one.

I am aware of the story that the rods on the Vvt are weaker than the earlier models,when I hear of anyone actually snapping one, I might start to twitch and panic about when it's going to happen to me. The Vvt came in in 1996, I think still in production as late as 2006. Better get used to it if you want a late model J series.Now 13 years since the non Vvt. The factory power figures on this engine are 208Kw@ 6200rpm max torque 378Mn 2400rpm!!( better than a standard RB26DETT)

A free flowing exhaust, pod filter and a front mount IC gets it close to 300 RWHP.

Pulled the engine out of the 12/1996 260Z(Australia did not get the 280 engine, we had 260s till the start of the ZX's in 1979. pulled the engine /auto out of the Chaser and dropped it in the Z to see how it fitted, Catalitic converter had to go,(it was right on the turbo exhaust flange)front pan replaced with rear(or middle?) from a Soarer, everything else,no problem,Fabbed engine mounts to bolt on to 1J block at original, half way back Chaser position, set it up to sit low so a 2J could be a drop in later(not happening, even in un-molested form I have discovered since driving it. this engine WAAAAY! overpowers a flimsy 32 year old Z car.)

I welded a 6mm flat plate onto the rails, widened at the point where a pair of XJS Jag mounts sit, 3/4 of mount sits directly over the rails other bit of them on the slightly wider piece.(all weight bearing down)- Fabbed mounts I did in 6mm steel as well, engineer who approved it all said 4mm would have been OK, but I am big on overkill, little bit of extra weight not a problem in a road car, -solution, go on a diet, get a skinny girl friend.

Everything, steering wise has ample clearance,Subaru rack, 2 turns lock to lock, (this is a right hand drive car, much more room for intermediate shaft clearance in a left hooker.)

Auto shifter pops up dead center of Datsun hole.no work there. another fabbed mount at the back of auto, Had the drive shaft shortened and balanced (professionally)with Toyota yoke , connected it to R200, and nearly ready to Roll.

I had bought a R154 to drop in, but due to the rules in this state, all engine swaps have to be certified by a government approved engineer,(only about 50 state wide) emission rules get close to Californias. To hard to get approval with an aftermarket ECU ,and as the Vvt runs the trannie through the engine ECU it was easier to leave it auto (for a little while was the original intention)

This is a brilliant auto, after driving it, I'm hooked, it stays till it's broke!(and I have always disliked automatics- for women,oldies, cripples, and people that can't drive.This one changed my mind!

Because of the engine/auto feeding each other information it is a little bit harder to hook up, had to get the local wire guru (Known country wide as Sideshow)to do this for me. He had done 30 plus non Vvt "J's" but as he said "this is the engine we will be getting from now on,better get used to it. this one is the test case" Still only took him 3 hours to get it running, -took two more visits to get top gear to operate .Weird switching.

Bad news, good news, The chaser does not have an oil pressure gauge, good news, the transmitter on the block has the same thread as the Zed transmitter, screw it in, Dat gauge works.(still with the usual geriatric time lapse)

VDO makes a matching tacho and speedo, remove the Dat instruments from their cowl push VDOs in, tight fit,make sure they are aligned, get a tube of silicone in a gun, fill the gap between the cowl and the instrument( great insulation, never going to move). these are plug ins to the factory ECU, speedo is programable over a measured kilometre(or mile, depending on which one you need)

Thought it was a bit heavy at first, weighed it at the local tip 1290 Kgs,but had to get a real weighbridge ticket recently for engineering, came in at 1250Kgs. this is the real figure,apart from flares, no body mods.extra weight all Toyota. 53%front, 47% rear empty.

Try this link to pic's unfortunately flickr shows last pic on as the first to be viewed, so start at the other end page 2(???)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/russjz-zed/

[oatmilk]

I love it. Looks great. Either color would have looked good, blue or yellow. Im glad you found the Toyota section. Cliff, Cyrus, Zgad and now you are fine representatives of the Z-Toy community. Thanks for the pics and the info.