74 260z build "From the middle forwards and backards!"

[Tempered]

Well Hello all, reporting in from the central valley of California. I've owned a couple of Z's prior, 94 300zx convertible, 85 300zx turbo and this is my first S30 car. I can already tell you I love it more than all the others. I'm a ways along in this build and i've been saving pics so I apologize for the flood.

 

I'll also be running a total tally on the costs i've invested, showing how much a V8 conversion CAN be.

 

So here we are, my 1974 260z (12/1974) which I purchased for $1450. I didn't know then but it was a big rust bucket and yes, I should have done more research. If you notice the chrome valve cover, I got it from pick n pull for $9.

 

 

After I bought her I took her home and scrubbed her up.

 

 

Then I tackled the interior, which was a mess. After pulling out the ripped carpet and non existent spare tire area I discovered rust and holes. I don't have after pictures but I stripped the interior, used a POR 15 starter Kit, POR 15 putty and got an extra pint for good measure totaling $77.75. Cleaned and sealed the complete floor area. I also ordered a roll of insulation off the internet for approximately $30.

[Tempered]

So continuing on.....

 

After going to Pick n Pull again I found a square port 6-1 header which I got for $30. The SU's I had weren't running too hot so I bought some used Weber DGV's with an intake off of Hybrid for $225. I got my buddy to help rebuild them at 24.95 a kit. I ordered the cheaper air cleaners from Redline Carbs for approx $40(losing my memory) and the throttle linkage kit $79.00. I purchased an MSD blaster coil kit from the local kragens at $49.00. From MSA I ordered the taylor plugs for $46.95.

 

So it went from this

To This

 

Once I was running an open header, I took her down to the shop for an exhaust system. Went with a Magnaflow resonater along the tunnel and a stainless Magnaflow muffler out the back, it sounds so/so, $240. After I heard the twice pipes kit I kinda cried.(once again my fault for poor research)

 

So later on I ordered front Cross drilled slotted rotors off of EBAY for $104 or so. I then changed my front disc over to kragens for the toyota four piston kit, also bought a caliper paint kit. I also purchased rebuild kits for the back drums, i'm guessing this was just under $200. For new shock/strut boots, Kragens charged $20 a pop!

 

From MSA I purchased the Tokico non adjustable shocks/struts all the way around, The complete polyurethane bushing kit, upgraded sway bars, stainless steel brake lines, the pile-loop carpet kit, deck lid. The total came out to about $1500, just a bit over I believe.

 

While doing the rebuild, I found an 85 200sx turbo and snagged the 4.11 R200 rear end. Went to a buddy's junk yard and got the axles for free. Took them down to the local shop and they were retrofitted with new greasable U-joints. That totaled out to $160.

 

I totally disassembled the car, put all of the new goodies on, including the urethane bushings. Everything was cleaned and painted with rattle can flat black.

[Tempered]

So then I saw the ROTA RB group buy and jumped on it quickly, getting 9's in front and 9.5's in the rear for $700.00. I went down to America's tire company after some research and spent $600 approx on new Z rated BF goodrich's, balance and locking lug nuts.

 

Also Along the way I found a near brand new radiator in a 280Z at the junk yard and bought it for $80. It brought my temp gauge down nicely. Speaking of Gauges I bought the flame gauge covers for $22.00 off Ebay, even stained the gauge bulbs blue, but couldn't get a picture of that. The Sparco steering wheel was FREE off of a wrecked porsche at my buddy's junk yard. The adapater was flipping $72.00.

[Tempered]

Well after starting this thread tonight and seeing the actual money i've invested, i'm a little embarrassed and I think i'll stop. I'll just continue on up to my current vehicle state. Most recently i've had my interior finished by a shop because I tried to install it myself and I sucke. I did put some holes where they shouldn't be. The shop saved my butt, re upholstered my doors and seats and it looks great. The pictures dont do it justice so i'll try to update them.

 

I later went down to the radio shop and got a new deck, some 6" speakers in the doors and 6x9's in the back, which I mounted through the carpet into the empty storage boxes. Not such a good idea.

 

Finally purchased some JDM style fender mirrors. I had been waiting for some chrome ones to pop up. I followed the directions for a left hand drive and took some pictures of my measuring process hoping they may help someone else one day.

 

The start

I have more detailed outlines on my work computer, i'll add shortly.

One major Mistake I made was in the diameter I drilled into the fender. The diameter of the plastic piece for the mirror was most likely metric, I had hoped that the next standard drill size up would work but now there is minor play and the mirrors can rotate, not too easily but enough for a bumpy road to rotate them.

The finished product

[Tempered]

So I had been wrestling with the issue of how to build the car, of course I wanted to go fast and for the most part i've already upgraded the brakes and suspension. I'm worrying about bodywork and paint last. I knew that if I spent a lot of money on an L28 I would in the long run still want to go faster in my thrill searching and probably spend more money on a V8. So my buddy had an old 60's corvette 327 he gave me. It had one piston go bad but he had the new piston. It has the double camel hump heads, new bearings, the block had been honed. So what the heck a FREE motor. My bad

 

Decided to take the block down to the local machine show. They are a good shop with years of experience, so I trust them. They inform me the 327 has wear inside the bore. The camel hump heads have issues and need to be reworked as well. So, the guy was straight up and said if I wanted an engine that would last and not go out after 3000 miles, It would be wise to rebuild. So I decide to do it all nice and rebuild.

 

The engine was hot tanked, bored over, new pistons, rings, already have the bearings. The shop hooked me up and gave me their price on all related parts, including gaskets, cam, timing chain, freeze plugs. I also had the engine balanced while it was there. So I just got that back.

So here she is now and all her parts. I'm just starting to paint the block, still waiting for the heads to be finished.

 

The shop said the engine will have compression just under 10:1

I yanked the cam out of the box, and it says "Crane Cams" I'm interpreting the specs as a 454/454 with a 280 advertised Duration, Is that decent?

 

So Far i've aquired

*Ceramic coated block hugger headers

*Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap

*HEI 57,000 volt distributor

*95 amp 1 wire (powdercoated) alternator

*Water pump

*valve cover kit

*engine bolt kit

*FREE holley double pumper (needs rebuild)

*Holley RED electric fuel pump

*Summit battery to trunk kit

*battery disconnect switch

*JTR V8 conversion kit, Radiator hasn't arrived yet

Some goodies Pictures

[Tempered]

So now I'm caught up to my current status of the car. I figured I would handle the fuel pump and battery relocation before the V8 Swap to save down time. The damn spare tire area was rusted, leaking exhaust fumes so I decided to remove it, thinking I could build small trunk to mount my battery.

 

First off, if you plan to do this, obviously use some kind of cutting tool. I didn't have one so I tried drilled the welds out. It took forever and I still needed a cutting tool to clean it up. Heres how it looks

 

Now, the battery box relocation kit I got from summit is a little bigger than expected. and my ideas of a small trunk were crushed.

 

So at this point there is the option of a fuel cell, No way, I enjoy using the filler from the rear side of the car and I'm afraid a fuel cell will fume up the inside of the car. At this point I drop the tank to deal with apparent rust issues with EVERYTHING. I'm also going to take it down to bare metal and repaint the tank after I reseal it with Por15 tank sealer.

Tank gone

 

So once the tanks gone, I'm figuring I can mount my new Holley Red pump to where the old electric return line pump is located. I am assuming the wiring will run the new pump correctly. I used the old bracket, cleaned it up added the pump. Since my battery is probably gonna be just above it I also mounted the disconnect switch. My buddy recommended using the disconnect on the negative cable. I kind of wanted it hidden as well so I thought this was the next best spot due to the ground going right there anyways.

 

Same mount cleaned up with new additions.

 

Currently this is my idea for my battery box. I plan on welding up the hole once I re install the gas tank because I have no welder and the nearest buddy is beyond pushing distance.

 

So now that i'm moving the battery I decided to tackle a small hole under the old battery box. WHOOPS!!

 

So I plan to section out all of the rust areas in the old battery tray area and weld it up with new metal. Any suggestions on this would be excellent since i'm doing it somewhat with no experience in this area. I do have some buddies who are pretty savy at this but I haven't spoken with them yet.

[Pharaohabq]

Wow, well hey Brave man, keep up the fun. It's always fun cutting things up without a plan on how to fix it.

 

Probably the best advice I can give you for fixing that hole is to clean up as much of the rust as you can, (wire brush on a angle grinder, WEAR GOGGLES) cutting away anything that's more than say 1/2 rusted through. Then get some cardboard and make a template for the curves you're going to want to follow. Then you can bend some sheet metal to the approximate shape, either by hand or my cutting a form from wood and using a mallet. then once you've got the blank you can weld it in place using tack welds. Magnets will really help here to hold it while you're welding. once it's tacked. you can weld it the rest of the way, but watch how hot the metal gets, since you don't want to warp anything. do maybe an inch then stop, then an inch etc..

 

Make sure you clean up and seal the backside of the plate when you're done because you don't want the bare metal rusting through from behind.

[PanzerAce]

You're just up the road from a couple of other HBZers *waves*.

 

GL with all that rust man, Looking forward to seeing the end result (and seeing it on the road).

[drift_inertia]

Not wanting to thread jack just sying Hi, I'm a fellow 209 hybridZ'er I'm in modesto name is matt

[theguppies]

damn nice build. if you want to spend money. get a TURBO motor from a 280zx

[Tempered]

Whats up panzer and ace! good to see we have some central valley Z'ers. I've been keeping an eye out on the road and have not see many rolling around.

 

Do you guys ever get involved with the Z events from the Sac/bay area? I've been curious to see how many locals attend and look forward to road trippin.

 

Thanks on the car, getting ready to assemble the motor in a couple of days.

 

I'm still not sure if I want a Manual or AT. I'm not really a track racer and my experience with manuals and taking corners is a minimum. I'm also afraid a 5 speed with be torquey or jerky, trying to convince my wife to ride in it. heh )

[PanzerAce]

Nah, I never get out to the bay, I just don't have the money these days to justify the gas it would take to get there and back :/

[Pharaohabq]

go Manual. All the automatic S30 tranny's I've seen leak and shift like crap. You've got much better control, and better MGP on a standard... It's also easier to keep what the car came with tho. Less to change, and less to muck up

[icapture]

Keep it up man, I am enjoying this thread. But whats up with not having a cutting tool or a welder? Do you have a harbor freight around you? The stuff there is dirt cheap - and craigslist is another great place to find tool in great condition for super cheap.

[Horatio]

So now I'm caught up to my current status of the car. I figured I would handle the fuel pump and battery relocation before the V8 Swap to save down time. The damn spare tire area was rusted, leaking exhaust fumes so I decided to remove it, thinking I could build small trunk to mount my battery.

 

So I plan to section out all of the rust areas in the old battery tray area and weld it up with new metal. Any suggestions on this would be excellent since i'm doing it somewhat with no experience in this area. I do have some buddies who are pretty savy at this but I haven't spoken with them yet.

 

Nasty rust. It'll be worse than it looks when you get into it. I'd suggest finding a donor section from another car. Post in the "parts wanted" section. I tried shaping some metal to replace this same area. It was a huge PITA. Found someone who was willing to cut up a donor and send it my way. Turned out great! Easiest way to do this.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2009 by Drax240z

[Tempered]

Damn that looks great. Thanks for the tip. I have a 77 as a donor car but i'm not sure if it's rust situation is in any better condition. But i'll be looking now.

 

As far as harbor freight goes, i've been making bi-weekly trips lately. At the time I think I had just dropped $1k at the machine shop and was not looking to piss off my wife any further. I usually have many friends with all the right tools when in a tough spot, but I have the damn tank out so couldn't drive there.

 

 

*update on motor. Got the first four pistons in the block, retapped all the bolt holes on the block, cleaned em out. Ran out of time but will finish motor next sunday most likely.

[Tempered]

A little update, I've wire wheeled the entire fuel tank and then used a POR 15 tank sealer kit. The sealer is hardening on its last 24 hours. I made a rookie mistake by putting the sealer in while the sending unit was inside, it has now hardened beyond use. I also POR 15'd the straps.

 

Next I added onto my battery box move and mounted the fuel pump. The battery disconnect was moved to the battery box.

 

 

The engine build is going slowly, a little bit each Sunday. All the way up to retapped the engine threads, tank mounted and finally got all of the pistons in. THEN when torquing the Connecting rods, most would not torque to 45 ft lbs, but kept going. My buddy thinks someone over tightened them the last time it was built and they stretched. So regardless the ARP connecting rod bolts arrived today. Some pics

[streeteg]

nice build

[Tempered]

Ok, tanks finally done, after numerous screw ups. I am somewhat versed sending units now. I have the wrong one, backwards in my tank. It's only going to show half full or so.

 

Got my heads from the machine shop today!!

 

Re-painting them to match the block of course.

[Tempered]

Well, moving backwards a bit. My first car ever was a truck, a 1950 F-1 I bought in 1995 when I was 15. I sold it about 7 years ago after giving it a paint job and doing all the work and i've regretted it ever since. I bought it back two weeks ago and here she be!

 

The original rouge 226 flat head, producing roughly 95 BHP! they did not take care of the vehicle for the most part as the paint on the engine had been good when I sold it.

 

 

So for now the Z sits. I've gotten a little work done. Battery move is complete and the gas tank is back in. I wired the Holley fuel pump to a toggle switch to the Black-white wire off the ignition switch.