Ivan280zt Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 (edited) …and the way its going it will take eternity to finish! On the serious note I am going to keep this journal so that way I can stay motivated to keep doing whatever it is that I am doing : ) Original plan was to get her running within year but as life goes some things just cant be planed and due to unfortunate events this build will take me several years yes SEVERAL years to complete. I originally “built” this car over period of year or two right out of highschool and at that time my skills were less that mediocre so the build itself was nothing less that learning experience very poor but none to less I learened from it. This time around there will be no shortcuts, schedules, no excuses, just getting it done right no matter how long it takes. Since she is stored at my work I can only work on her on Saturdays and being that its winter right now that makes it even more difficult to move from one building to another. I stared taking her apart late this past summer and so far its coming along very nice slow but its getting done right so I really cant complain. Right now I am focused on interior of the car. Fuel cell is coming along very nice and its just about done with being permanently mounted. Cage is 10 point from jegs that is getting slightly modified for more seat clearance and just cleaner appearance overall. 2jz is already mounted with BetaMotorports crossmember which required slight modifications for 280z (which I knew from beginning ) and engine fits perfect. Gm Th400 is already mounted with the help of Boostwerx transmission adapter and JTR transmission crossmember. My biggest issue with cars have always been seats. Its really hard to find race seat that fits me right being that I am 6’ 2” and 260lbs and also add Z’s small interior and you have recipe for disaster. Well issue of big seat was solved by acquiring Sparco Evo3 seat but issue of fitting seat that wide into the Z’s narrow driver space became evan more evident. To resolve that I had to cut portion of transmission tunnel and get it boxed in. This took hours upon hours just to get it right but with the help of my friend and coworker Tony we come out victorious. Now the seat fits perfect and what is even more important is that I fit great and with custom seat bracket that Tony made I even have nice roof clearance with helmet on. Like I said this will take while but its going to be just the way I envisioned it. Cage should get finalized within next six weeks or so (remember I can only work saturdays and its winter) and as soon as we get done with cage parachute will be getting mounted and afther that God knows whats next... Since pictures are worth thousands of words then here are few thousands of words... Edited November 25, 2020 by Ivan280zt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 Here is the last set for now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 Here is small update from this weekend. It all stared off really nice with some -10F temperature but once I got the car inside of the shop things turned out much nicer. This was my starting point yesteday : ( almost cleaned up lol Made it back to the shop so far so good! Finally nice and warm... While Tony was busy with fitting cage in this was my starting point Only good thing about car being outside is that all the insulation comes out much easier there is no need for dry ice : ) Tony is making some good time on fitting main hoop and strut bars. This is frame for the fuel cell pretty much all done. I am really happy with the progress so far and whats even better my boss told me today that I can keep my car at the shop as long as we got some space which means that now I can stay late wednesday nights and do even more carnage : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted January 25, 2009 Author Share Posted January 25, 2009 Made some small progress over the past week. Here is Tony nothching the halo bar he ended up shortening it few times until we were both happy with the way that it tucked in and final fit. This is the same fuel pump setup that we run in our 1150whp Evo8 so it will be more than enough for me : ) Here is the fuel cell setup looking from behind of the car. This is exactly what I was looking for just sump showing no cell sticking out. In this picture you can see 1/4" aluminum plates that are now holding fuel cell bolted to the fuel cell frame. I have done few more small things that I forgot to take pictures off but I will update in next upcoming weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Ok its time for small update. Over the past week I was able to do few small things nothing crazy but its progress : ) Intercooler getting installed Intercooler brackets are done and they came out pretty nice This is my seat bracket for Sparco seat. Seat will be mounted at angle that fits me the best and it will be permanently mounted with no adjustability. Now that intercooler is mounted its time to cut down on top of endtanks for proper clearance and to cut out old 2.5" inlet/outlet and get it ready for 3" inlet/outlet. I did some work on this today but will have to do rest of it over the next week. This one is bent some so that will have to be taken care of too. This does not look like alot of progress but I have been exhausted from work lately so everything now takes me twice as long to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Got some work done over the past two weeks nothing crazy but its progress : ) Seat bracket is done and it came out just perfect. Dash cut of for the cage nice and clean. Here are few pictures of cage progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Battery mount in progress. I will insulate fuel cell with aluminum plates so it will be fully isolated from battery and fuel pump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Next step weldon fuel pump mount. Ams fuel pump mount for Evo8 I belive that covers it for this round of pictures. I have few cool things in works right now but they wont be done at least by the end of the month. This week I am taking it easy and letting Tony deal with the cage I am about to order new aluminum radiator from Jegs so that will be my work for this week : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted March 24, 2009 Author Share Posted March 24, 2009 I guess its time for small update. As of now Z is in my garage time has come to take small brake from cage and focus on other "smaller" things that will not require me to spend every Saturday at the shop. For now I am going to focus on intake manifold, turbo manifold, and I will throw in my new and improved endtanks for intercooler in there as well. I guess cool thing about my job is that if I can think of something and that thing can become reality very quick : ) . I didnt like my old intercooler endtanks so I had one of our engineers redo them and while he was at it he also got me nice flange for exhaust manifold (bye bye ebay manifold) and very nice backing plate for my intake manifold. Well enough taking on with the pictures. Cad My staring point for intake manifold it looks very short but it will have 2-3" long velocity stacks welded on. Example velocity stack They should look something like this together Same picture different angle Exhaust manifold flange and all new intercooler endtanks...slight assembly required ; ) As usual things are going slow but they seem to be going somwhere so I will just go with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted March 30, 2009 Author Share Posted March 30, 2009 I spent most of the Saturday working on the intake manifold. I ended up porting and polishing all six runners plus smoothing out runners from the outside. When I was done with that backing plate was tack welded so manifold could be test fitted and I could figure out how much space I have to work with for my plenum. Here are some pictures of it. Test fitting on the engine, Now that I have my clerances figured out I am going to start on plenum design I have to figure out runner length to match my power band and also have to get optimum plenum volume for my application. I am really looking forward to this little project : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 Ok this is what I got done today afther work and it took me whopping 30min. LoL. This is just rough draft to make sure that my clearances are fine and they turned out just perfect. This is by no means my final design but it is just the begining : ) She is ready for some serious pressure ; ) I had to cut portion of foctory throttle bracket so that #6 cylinder velocity stack would clear nice. That is my realistic max size for the plenum but at this moment I am not sure what my optimum size will be and if it needs to be biger than this then f@#k! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted April 24, 2009 Author Share Posted April 24, 2009 Ok time for update intecooler is done and mounted back on the car it fits and it looks great well maybe little tilted on one side lol what can I say I guess my eye sight was lil off tonight : ) . On with the pictures. New endtanks with some gorgeous welds. Nice and tight. 3" inlet and outlet, bead roled, and endtanks spot welded from inside. I really need to sand down my core support and prime the damn thing asap Now that IC is done its time to get back to intake manifold : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted May 1, 2009 Author Share Posted May 1, 2009 Here is small update. I gave my "paper intake manifold plenum" to one of our engineers to see what he can do with it. Good thing about paper model is that I have verified all the clearances and its up to him now to finalize design. It took him just few hours aftherwork to finalize everything and with some input from me : ) this is what he came up with: I have q45 t/b sitting on my toolbox so I will most likely go with it its little larger than I wanted it but its really hard to justify spending $300 on t/b when my intake manifold wont cost that much to make. I should have most of the parts within next two weeks only thing that I will wait for last are velocity stacks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted July 11, 2009 Author Share Posted July 11, 2009 Yay update time! : ) Well in last two months I have managed to move to new place, build friends cars, work every Saturday (and few Sundays) and in the end my Z got the LEAST amount of attention. I have however collected few new parts and overall progress has been made. Here are few pictures of what has been done. q-45 tb got it for $60 at swap meet 6-1 turbo merge collector done by Tony at work (pictures really dont do it justice) Turbo bolted down to collector Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted July 11, 2009 Author Share Posted July 11, 2009 So call me crazy but I have decided that I want most of my turbo to stick out through the hood something down the line like RIPSZ has done it on his drag Z but since my turbo is lil baby compering to his it wont stick out "as much" lol. I had to use engine puller to keep this damn thing in the place Tony building fixture for the header Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted July 11, 2009 Author Share Posted July 11, 2009 More pictures of Tony welding Here is finished fixture so now header build starts : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan280zt Posted July 11, 2009 Author Share Posted July 11, 2009 I ended up pulling the engine out to make Tonys life little easier So far three runners are mocked up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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