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VKLR

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I got a box of pure crap in the mail today.....

 

I'm converting all of the bulbs in the car to LED's. I was planning on doing all of the conversion myself until i saw Keepitclean had a kit to do the rear tail lights. I decided to order the kit from them to save some time and effort. That seems to have been the wrong choice. The kit looks to be badly misrepresented. On the website their picture shows 4 jumpers, there are only 2 in the kit, furthermore i think there should be 6. The amount of led's on their picture looks great, i don't think they gave me even half of what's pictured. There are NO instructions. Most any fool could figure out how to wire the stupid things, the problem is layout of the led's. No mounting hardware is included so i'm assuming they want me to glue this crap to my car??

 

If anyone is thinking about getting this so called kit......beware.

 

http://www.keepitcleanwiring.com/catalog/details/LEDU337578/NISSAN-1975-1978-280Z-LED-TAILIGHT-CONVERSION-KIT

 

Oh yea and another thing their return process looks to be a nightmare.

Edited by VKLR
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  • 1 month later...

Tonight was wild hair night.

I removed the stock rear bumper and all associated parts.

 

 

 

I'm not really certain when the "while i'm at it list" exceeded the original budget but that's long past. BTW the original budget was $3,500.00 for the SR s13 swap.

 

What i didn't include in the original plan were:

 

Nobody had a s13 red or black top when i was ready to pull the trigger so i had to get the s14 Kouki.

SpeedHut Instrumentation

Aluminum driveshaft

Re-wiring the entire car, including weatherpack connectors, bulkhead connectors for the dash (so it still removes the same as OEM).

1k exhaust system, 3" ceramic coated.

And a whole list of little nothings that add up.

 

One thing that still stands out in my mind. When i took the marker lights apart to clean them, the metal sockets and reflectors look brand new, i mean brand new. I could package these up in plastic bags and sell them as new and everybody would be happy. It blows my mind that a 37 year old car's bulb sockets look friking new. I work on GM stuff everyday and would rate these as kicking their stupid butt's all over the place,, really. I see '04 models with rust and arching. Makes me really love the little car even more.

 

I'm still chugging along and expect to fire it up in a few weeks....

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One thing leads to another.... new 3" exhaust = remove bumper = pull gas tank and clean = service rear diff and so on and so fourth. LOL

 

The outside of the gas tank was dirty. Inside of the gas tank was clean. :D

 

So on the wiring. I'm trying to make it more serviceable. One example is the rear tail light harness connector. Instead of being behind the rear quarter panel interior trim. I moved the location to the rear tail light bulb access panel. Improving grounds through the whole system.

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  • 1 month later...

OK so I have an engine,,,Instead of a boat anchor.

 

The engine started up and ran great. I'm talking about "set the wine glass" smooth. I let it get to operating temperature and shut her down. Did a general check over,, everything looks good, no leaks to speak of. Try to re-start.. no luck. Now it wont run,, LOL too late and too many beers to even care. It will run and it dosen't smoke at all. Seems like a good engine.

Edited by VKLR
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Stupid simple fix on the no start....

 

Now i need to finish up a few loose ends.

 

Alignment

Install console

Finish wiper wiring

Check electric fan operation

Check- timing,MAF,TPS,verify-calibrate WB gauge.

Calibrate fuel gauge

install trim panels

 

That's about it

Edited by VKLR
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During my engine swap and while i'm at it list I've dealt with different vendors and suppliers.

Most all have been good. One i'll never ever recommend or deal with, one is still out to lunch. Certainly there has been one person that has exceeded my expectations with a quality product delivered on time with truly exceptional service. That person would be Yury Lyalko of wiring Specialties.

From what I've seen myself he has the best customer service in the automotive aftermarket segment. His product was spot on and if there ever was a problem he would be there.

 

 

Special thanks to the following:

 

Mckinney Motorsports

Wiring Specialties

SpeedHut

Millers Powder coating

JTR

Auto-n-Audio

Hybridz

PLMS

Edited by VKLR
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  • 3 weeks later...

It runs and drives!! At this point i have only one complaint. The motor mounts are a little stiff, i'm getting just a little too much vibration from the engine. It's fine while driving but at idle i'm afraid the gauges are going to pop out of the dash. Good power and seems to be a little more nimble in the handling department.

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Ok so the wipers WERE a pain in the rear to say the least. I should have taken some notes before i started this project. The FSM has all of the information except good identification of connector end views. It took me a couple of hours of racking my brain but i have full functions again. Interval, low, high and park are all functional. Searching this forum was useless as nobody could ever get full functions and or had to install a Honda wiper motor. One day soon i'll post the needed information to easily wire up the wipers from scratch.

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I'm using the stock wiper motor. One thing the FSM showed different connections at the relay. It also shows wire colors on one drawing and functions on another. It took a little brain power to figure out the correct way to wire everything up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just got back from my first extended road trip. One failure...While driving I notice the hood gap at the rear had increased. I knew I shut the hood well. Kept on traveling at 80mph. The further I went the larger the gap became? I finally pulled over, pulled the hood release and tried to close the hood fully. It still wouldnt close all the way. Opened it again and saw the striker had un-screwed. Threaded it back in and tightened, hit the road again...LOL

 

Actually the car did better than expected. I can see a 6spd trans in the near future.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've got 1,000 miles since the swap and everything is good. This car now actually gets better gas mileage than any car I've ever owned.

 

Next up

Z32 MAF

Injectors

New fuel system

Modified Moroso oil pan

Rocker arm stoppers

Greddy remote oil filter and thermostat

Oil cooler

Move air intake in front of radiator

Tune for 12psi

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So, I went to an informal car show last Thursday EVENING. I got a few ideas and now I'm headed down a different but well traveled (in a different hobby) path. Pictures and vids coming at some point.

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Its nice to see a Muscle Car guy appreciating a 4-banger j-motor in his Z instead of an American V8. Nothing wrong with pure Americano grunt but I just personally like to keep it Japanese with Japanese. :D Great build!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

With it so dang hot here right now it's more enjoyable to work on the car in my air condition garage than drive it.

Getting the AC working again is a project for this coming winter.

I'm very pleased with the swap overall, although there are a few things that still need to be refined.

The SR engine is not really a smooth balanced engine. The straight six engines seem to me to be the best balanced engines. The SR while I do like it better than the L28 has some annoying harmonics. Acceleration the exhaust tone is good, deceleration it is in my opinion horrible. So adding another exhaust hanger and possibly going to add a flex pipe should tone things down in the interior of the car. What i'm going for on this build is as close as I can come to an OEM driving experience. That means everything works when it should AND runs and drives like a factory produced car with no excuses.

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  • 1 month later...

I just got a PM from a fellow member and thought i'd post my reply here. So others may benefit from the information.

Plus it's the first time I started to figure what I've spent on the swap so far.

 

 

My swap evolved from just a swap to doing it right. I've got about 1,500 miles on it and glad i did the swap.

I could have just done the swap and get it running BUT i decided to do my best on it, my only limitation was my wallet.

When planning I was going to use the stock gauges.Then I thought why try to get 30 plus year old stuff to work with a modern engine. The tachometer would have been the only hard one to get working. So i went with new gauges, no i couldnt settle for nothing but the best. Speedhut it was.

Then i got thinking more, since the gauges would eliminate some wiring and the rest of the wiring in the car was 30 plus years old, why not rewire the whole car? If i rewire the car i might as well run LED lights, up grade the headlights with relays and H-4 housings.

Since the old cross member was going to be out to be modified, might as well do some suspension up-grades. Techno Toy Tunning it was.

You could do it on a budget but i think in the long run it's easier for me to do it once, or try anyway.

 

Here are some costs

S-14 Kouki SR20DET engine and 5spd trans $2,500

E-Bay inter cooler, pipe, couplers $300.00 there is no "kit" you'll have mix and match.

seals, fluids, clamps, hoses etc $250.00

Drive shaft aluminum $400.00 or you could shorten the stock one $150.00

Mckinney mount kit $450.00 Get the rubber mounts for under 300hp and street use, trust me on this. :lol:

Mckinney down pipe $320.00

Mckinney exhaust $550.00

Speed Hut gauges $1,200.00

Wiring,Fuse block, looms etc $400.00

Lighting $350.00

Arizona Z car radiator $350.00

Shroud $100.00

Fan $280.00 bad ass Derale 2 spd

Fan controller $130.00

And there was the suspension, brakes, etc.....

 

If you would, please ask questions in the thread so that others may benefit from the information. ;)

 

Willing to help all I can,

Eric

Edited by VKLR
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