260Z + RB25DET S2 motor = badazz 260ZR and some ?'s

[rayaapp2]

Well I found the perfect way to have a really bad day.

 

My wifes car was repossessed cause we missed a payment. So we are trying to get it back. That being the case I decided to put my series one 240z up for sale.

Que today:

I started up my 240z to go get gas so people could come look at the car as prospective buyers. I got the gas station and the car died and rolled up to a pump. After adding gas I could not restart it. So I had my wife grab the truck and a tow strap and we pulled it back up the hill to my house. After I took the valve cover off I found that the cam gear bolt loosened up and the cam gear was free spinning while the cam was stationary. 3 bent valves. So while I am checking things I have my 260Z next to the 240Z with jumper cables since I had been cranking to get the fuel back up to the carbs after I believed I had driven it empty. Im sitting in my 260z about to disconnect my jumper cable when I hear "OH NO!". This was followed by a 14 year old weighing 240 lbs on a bicycle comes barreling down the hill and thuds into my right fender and flys left side first into my hood peeling the hood almost completely off the hinge bases.

I was stunned. I got out and almost cried, but had enough sense left to help the kid up and look him over. I drove him to his friends house up the street and dropped him off(where he was staying) in my buddies truck. I made a phone call to my insurance and Im hoping this falls under un-insured motorist. It was on a public street.

 

So my daily driver has no hood, my 240z has a f-d engine and I my wife is driving my f250 diesel to work until we can get her car back from the tow yard. FML

 

 

[rayaapp2]

Car was hit again on the 13th of Feb.

 

88 Mustang hit my parked 260Z

 

Check out the album for more

2/13/12 second accident

 

So the next step for this project is here. The big turbo kit in my garage is going on. Im going straight after a set of reaction research 280YZ flares and air dam and a nice set of 18" CCW wheels. Im going to try and get something similar to Bill Coffey's 240Z.

Delete the hood scoop, rally stripes, and Im going to have a flat black centers forgings for those wheels.

The color blue is very similar to what Im after too with this I think. Still in the air on color, but I know its gonna be a blue.

 

Insurance is finally working with me with both of these accidents. The car will not be totaled after an independent special adjuster was hired by the insurance company to come out and get a proper estimate. He returned back to the insurance with a scary answer for them. Roughly ' Here is my assessment of the vehicle and price to repair this vehicle to stock, however there are a lot of custom fabricated parts that are damaged on this vehicle.' The insurance knows at that point that its gonna be expensive real fast when someone like me has all the receipts and could potentially drag this out. So rather than send the car off to a shop for taredown and supplement payments for anything they find beyond the initial stock components, they are seriously considering just paying me their cap and having me sign a release for them. Their cap will cover my repair costs for sure and then some.

Looks like I will be detailing these mods as well and setting aside monies from the insurance payment to have the car appraised when its finished. I am also going to have a pow wow with my insurance about the costs of full coverage on my Datsun now and with the appraisal. Good time to snuff this problem from ever becoming a point of stress again.

[rayaapp2]

Well after 4 months and a ton of haggling with the insurance and several broken laws latter I have a settlement to fix the car. Its about $5000 short of a full fix, but close enough to get it started and Ill come up with the rest.

 

The long process of putting all the broken bits back together again starts.

The short list of what Im getting:

-1 Tokico BZ3015 rear shock

-240Z strut & A-arm

-2 Optima Red Top batteries

-Reaction Research 280yz kit

-Arizona Zcar big brakes 13†rotor and 6 piston caliper

-Garrett GT35R

-LoveFab Exhaust Manifold

-Injectors 800cc

-fuel rail

-fpr tomei

-044 Bosch fuel pump

-A/N fittings

-25’ x2 3/8†fuel lines

-CCW wheels 17x10.5 17x9.5

-Tires 315/30R17 275/40R17

-inner fender wells rear

-Intercooler lines

-MAF meter 4â€

-body work and paint

 

 

There are some body lines on the driver side rear that will need addressed before I can place the 280yz fenders on as well, but I was surprised to find so little damage up front under the headlight bucket.

 

I will be ordering parts for everything very soon pending the check from insurance clearing.

 

thats all for now I will keep posting.

 

EDIT:

I hope to be painted and done by MSA next year with any luck.

Edited June 15, 2012 by rayaapp2

[rayaapp2]

Long time since I updated anything.

 

280YZ kit is almost done. John at Reaction Research has been awesome and worked up a custom air dam for me.

The kit should be shipping out in the next few weeks.

 

Im perplexed by what happened to the stock turbo in the car.

I pulled it out tonight and found that the turbine is ok, but the compressor wheel has granaded! Im guessing the impact to the rear of the exhaust pushed the nylon wheel into the housing so that when I started the car after the acciedent to load it on the trailer the whole wheel just blew up!

 

The GT3076R I have now will replace it until I get my hands on a nice GTX35R.

I have a Tial 38mm wastegate for it as well. Ive decided to stick with the CXRacing top mount manifold as the Lovefab I have need a ton of work for it to fit in my car or even on the engine sadly.

 

Ive also started aquiring TTT suspension components. I have the camber plates and the control arms are next.

 

Ive not started buying brakes yet, but Ive got a plan for those.

 

I dont know if it will be finished by MSA, but I hope I can pull that off. I need to put together a lot of fundage to finish this still.

 

 

 

The LoveFab manifold that I wish would work but will require a lot of work

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

The old turbo came apart this morning. The compressor wheel looks as if it was jammed against the back of the housing from the wear marks. The bearings inside the turbo are wasted. The turbine snapped off its shaft as well. There isnt anything salvagable unless I can extract 2 of the broken bolts from the turbine housing as it isnt cracked like most. Its nice to have a good turbine housing with all the stock turbos Ive taken apart so far having cracks in those. I was able to save the wastegate actuator and that was about it. The rest of the turbo is a paperweight. Ive seen turbos go out, and its typically catostrophic, but man there is usually more salvagable parts. Now I have to start cleaning out my intercooler system and finding ALL the little peices. At least its only nylon so having that fly through the engine isnt to bad. Aluminum is far worse is my guess.

 

Im thinking about flushing the intercooler with hot soapy water to try and back flush everything out. I wont be re-using the intercooler on this car again, but I want to use it, my down pipe, and my manifold on my the 910R project.

 

Im still scratching my head as to how the acciedent caused the turbo to fail like this. Maybe the shaft was bent somehow in the impact and the imbalance shattered the compressor wheel. I dont know, buts its really a crappy way to take a turbo out that had less than 10K miles on it.

Edited November 25, 2012 by rayaapp2

[brianZortiz]

Hey Rayaap your first post website pics are not working, will you be fixing them anytime soon?

[rayaapp2]

There is no edit function for those old posts and my internet here no longer allows me to run dynamic DNS. IF you pull up one of the current pictures you will find a shared photobucket album though with all the old pictures buried in it.

 

http://s81.beta.photobucket.com/user/rayaapp2/library/260ZR

Edited November 30, 2012 by rayaapp2

[rayaapp2]

12/15/12 was a good day. It almost makes up for 2/13/12... almost

A very patient, awesome guy name John hooked me up with some vinylester fenders and a custom brand new style air damn.

A HUGE thanks to John at Reaction Research for the 280YZ kit and all the work on the custom front air dam.

 

 

 

Those 17x8.5 front wheels are way to narrow!

They are about 3.5" inset from the edge of the fender.

I have some wheel arch trimming to do on the rear fenders as well. 

I wasnt sure about that front dam, but now that Ive seen it I have taken a liking to it.

 

That's all for now. Im off to figure out how I should attach these to the car.

 

Ray

Edited December 16, 2012 by rayaapp2

[rayaapp2]

Techno Toy Tuning Suspension components came in around Christmas.
Front and rear adjustable control arms, adjustable TC rods, and I already had the camber plates from a few months back.

My only surprise with the T3 components was weight. I was not expecting them to weigh more than the original parts, but I guess it makes sense. An interesting side note for those worried about un-sprung weights.

EDIT:

I have made several phone calls over the past few weeks regarding wheels. I need to speak with CCW one more time and a few more tire places about 16" tire options.

It sounds like a 325 or a 335 tire will fit these fenders. I think I will go with the 325mm all the way around if I can get away with it. Power steering is gonna be a must anyway. I need to order up my forester rack soon. Its gonna be nice to be able to replace inner tie rods and get out tie rods for $20 a pair!

16"x12" at all 4 corners would be really nice, Im off to research what I can find out about tires and rims!


My short list:

Suspension and Brakes
-Tokico BZ3015 rear shock
-Arizona Zcar big brakes 13†rotor and 6 piston caliper
-Modern Motorsports xtreme 13 rear brakes
-CCW wheels 16"x12" 4.5" backspace (up in the air about polished or gloss black centers)
-Tires 325?
-BM55 MC

Engine and Transmission
-GTX3582R T3 .82 A/R 4 bolt
-034 Motorsports Dual 044 Fuel Pump Mounting Kit With Surge Tank
-x2 044 Bosch fuel pump
-Fuel Safe Enduro fuel cell FIA FT3 ed115

Body
-inner fender wells rear
-license plate gas cap door
-cage
-Subaru Forester Steering rack with Celica outer tie rods

Purchased:
-Techno Toy Tuning Camber Plates
-Reaction Research 280yz kit
-LoveFab Exhaust Manifold
-2 Optima Red Top batteries
-240Z strut
-Techno Toy Tuning Front Lower Control Arms
-Techno Toy Tuning Rear Lower Control Arms
-Techno Toy Tuning Tension Control Rods
-xenon 3124
-Klearz front turn signals

There is a long list with all the bits and pieces that I know of that I will need for everything.

 

 

Edited January 1, 2013 by rayaapp2

[rayaapp2]

Ive spent countless hours searching for tire options.

I have to run 16" or bigger rims to clear the 13" rotors front and rear!

Im looking at 315-335mm tires that would be acceptable for street use or wet use.

I think Ive run out of options in a 16 if I exclude slicks.

I have found like 3 tires in 325 for 17" rims but they are competition tires which Im not really trying to get into.

 

Here are some pictures of where Im going with the engine bay.

Im going to remove the radiator support and build a new support structure up there to tie the upper frame rails together.

Once I get all the ducting in order the engine bay is coming back apart.

 

[brianZortiz]

Hey Ray, is the stock early 260z wiring difficult to mate with rb25? Was there any additions or deletes to wiring harness?

I ask beecause Im not sure if I should stick with 260z wiring. I want to go to a painless kit or maybe to a 240z wiring since it has a lot of support.

[rayaapp2]

My personal opinion is work with what you got if its in good enough shape.

I completely stripped out the stock harness and integrated some of it with the RB. I would suggest making the RB wiring as stand alone as possible. Relying on 35-40+ year old harness's to run a modern EFI setup is asking a bit much.

pay close attention to your charging system and the fuel pump circuits as those were the areas I had the most problems with as I used the stock 260Z harness and tried to splice them together. I've made some corrections to those areas but only after burning up the fuel pump driver circuit in the ECU once.

 

Its a big task with the stock harness or the painless(which isnt painless). That's just my opinion and you should have a real good look at what you have first before contemplating changing it all out.

 

Ray

[wrcbonk]

Ray,

 

I assume you just put gt-r valve covers on your s2 rb25det, as opposed a new engine?

 

Bonk

[rayaapp2]

Ray, I assume you just put gt-r valve covers on your s2 rb25det, as opposed a new engine? Bonk

Yes I did though I have a whole rb26 top end for something as well.

 

Those valve covers look nice though and they are powder coated!

[richracing]

It's pretty sad that a CXracing manifold fits better than a top dollar Lovefab mani.  It does make me feel better about my decision though lol, I'm using the same CXracing manifold, only difference is mine puts the turbo at almost a 45 degree angle which is causing me to have to notch the strut tower.

[rayaapp2]

I cut the T3 flange off with a band saw and welded it back on parallel with the valve covers and now a GT35 easily clears both the valve covers and the strut tower. It was the only major mod I had to do. If you have some nice tools cleaning up the inside of the CXracing manifold should be done as they do a really crappy job of putting those tubes together though they look good from the outside.

[rayaapp2]

I have an off topic update:

 

I recently bought a 91 240sx with a swapped RB25det S1.

It has the same ApexI Power FC as my 260ZR as well as the Commander and an AVC-R. For some reason the PO and the original owner that did the swap never purchased the $30 ApexI harness 49C-A002 to integrate the AVCR components into the PFC as the boost controller kit. Well I ordered that. I have a lot of cleanup to do on the car and some misc corrections, but nothing to bad considering some of the S13 swaps Ive seen.

 

I bring this up because the PO was using the Commander. The car was professionally tuned(but not to my liking as it has hickups). The idle was set at 1100rpm as well, probably because they didnt know how to set the TB and IAC properly. Well I have the FC Datalogit on the 260Z. After it failed and was repaired by FC Datalogit and the long process that it took for the repair I decided tht I would try the cheaper competitor the FC HAKO. So I have the FC HAKO on the way and now finally I will be able to compare the two. I already spoke with John at FC HAKO and he stands behind his product 100% and shipped the unit the same day I purchased it! In the case I run into a user induced failure of his unit he will warranty it or repair it at little cost! I hope Im as happy with his product and I will report back with comparisons between the FC Datalogit and the FC HAKO in case anyone is interested.

 

On another note of comparison the S13 has the HKS SSQV(dont know which generation though) and I am running the Synapse BOV on my 260ZR. The SSQV as its currently setup has a slight amount of flutter indicative of surge, and the boost level is around 8psi where the synapse was preforming on a stock turbo at 14.7(1 bar) and the synapse had no hint of surge/flutter. The HKS is loud as well and draws much un-wanted attention to the car and will soon be rectified. I will have to see if there are any adjustments to be made on the HKS SSQV that will reduce the flutter.

 

Soon I will be starting Project 910R NEO RB25det as well. Pat supplied me with the fuel system components I needed. All thats really left is the clutch pedal and the time to make the custom exhaust and intercooler lines.

 

Im not a big Drifto fan, and the car will now be setup as a daily driver.
Im not really even a fan of the S13, but this one has enough done to it to be an acceptable DD for now and it has the neat factor for me. I actually surprised how well it handles and drives with all that engine out front. Very different an excitingly un-expected. The car has the potential to be a monster for sure.

No I did not smog it before anyone asks. I would never do such a thing. It came smogged.

If anyone is interested here is the add: http://zilvia.net/f/cars-sale/494477-1991-nissan-240sx-rb25det-ft-fs.html

 

The Honda wheels are first on the list to go.

I will either go with my Enkei series 92 16x7 or convert it to run the 350Z 30th anniversary wheels.

Edited January 24, 2013 by rayaapp2

[rayaapp2]

UPDATE:

2/23/13

 

I cut my rear fenders off last night finally. Relieved to cut out the sore on my car for sure.

I also removed the inner radiator support. The upper support has zero structure left so it will go too when I figure out how to make that front solid again!

 

This morning I tackled my left rear bent strut. I removed the coil over and bent control arm. That was easy. I found the Tokico Illumina in the rear was still good. However it was completely jambed in at the bottom where the strut bent. After trying a slide hammer and some other methods of removal I gave up and tried out my angle grinder.

 

Opps! To deep. One spendy tokico with less than 5000 miles or so on them destroyed... ARG!

Well the bright side is that I now have the perfect shock to use for length to section rear struts!

I went slow and watched carefully, but oh well. Spilled Milk as they say.

 

I guess its gonna be a few weeks before the car sits on the wheels again. Ill finish what I can and move on to the body work again. Uploading some crappy pictures from my phone and will post them here in a bit.

[rayaapp2]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More discoveries.

 

You cannot really see it yet, but its important to note the bottom corner of the inner fender well where it meets the trunk floor is no longer straight but pushed in towards the strut area.

 

 

Here you can see where I used lighting to shadow the area that 'gave' when the bottom part bent. I outlined it in red paint marker.

 

The top of the strut tower though does not seem to have moved according to my measurements.

 

I discovered all this damage after I pulled the vinyl back for the camber plates yesterday.

 

So I have to deal with some of this damage. The question is how much do I deal with and how much should I leave alone. Im gonna have to straighten out the inner fender well. That's part of putting new fenders on. In order to straighten the strut tower (which is pretty thick metal) I have to cut and remove a small section of inner fender well on the bottom inside of the the strut tower and carefully work the metal and hope I can re-orientate the lower fender well without making messing with the alignment of all the mounts.

 

I also found that pushing the tire forward pulled the rear LCA mount out so I have to replace that as well. What is interesting is that my rear transverse link didnt seem to give, but the right side LCA mount didnt move at all. It must have given at the mounting bolts or something All the chassis mounting points look great so Im continuing on.

 

 

 

Here is my opps... arg!

 

 

 

I am going to re-form both sides where I made that large hole. Mainly because before I had to beat that area for the IC and intake piping and Id like to have a clean engine bay when Im done as this time the car will be getting painted finally.

 

 

This is what the beating looks like on the passengers side.

 

 

Thats all for now. I will be doing the T3 camber plates up front very soon and getting the suspension up front replaced.

[rayaapp2]

Making progress here. Camber plates are in all the way around. Today I dropped the engine, cross member, and transmission out the bottom of the car onto moving dollies and rolled it out. I started to remove all the crap in the engine bay too.

 

So much crap. I dont want to go crazy, but Im going to clean the engine bay up a bit. Im going to tuck the fuse box, and AC components where the battery was.

 

I have a feeling Im still hundreds of hours away from driving it again. Exaggerating, but still many hours of work ahead and Im not counting body work that the body shop will be doing!

 

Im taking lots of pictures.

Ray

[tooquick260]

Just read it all. Looks like it will awesome when your done!