DJZ's 280ZX

[DJZ]

Yeah, I've got a mag base drill I can put it in but clamping the metal is the problem as it's so thin. Might have a look at some other options like a piece of 4" ID tubing instead.

Got the first radius rod bracket made up today, looks like it's going to work pretty well. I had to chop the cup for the bush off the factory mount but that's no biggie. Haven't got everything bolted up tight yet as I need to get some more nuts and bolts.


Mocked up the rack end and lengthened tie rod end, I might get some rack end spacers not for extra lock but to help with the thread problem too.


This is how the motor is sitting at the moment, I've got to get the top radiator outlet welded up before I can finish the water line for the turbo.


This is how the finished engine mount came out.


So tomorrows mission is to start on the gearbox mount.

[DJZ]

Finally got some steel today to start the gearbox mount with. I was planning on using some 75x6 that we had sitting at work but it was just too wide to fit in the flat part of the tunnel and I wasn't so keen on chopping 25mm off a meter plus long piece of steel so I ended up with 6 meters of 50x5 flat bar, pretty cheap - thanks Steel & Tube!

I need to either chop up the old gearbox crossmember which I'm not too keen on as I can probably sell it, find a different type of mount or find some 40mm RHS or SHS.

Sump is done, I haven't picked it up yet, I'll do that tomorrow. It better be good because it was mighty expensive due to a lot of pissing around as he's never done a rear bowl RB sump before. I gave him the radiator outlet pipe to weld the A/N fitting on for me so that should be done too.

I need to get the exhaust manifold flange machined flat, it looks pretty warped. Still have to figure out how I'm going to bolt the turbo to it as well. Might have to look into sizes of helicoils.

[DJZ]

The finished sump, 4 trap doors, one really long pickup and space ship looking wings.



Rob @ Racefab welded this up for me too, I need to get a 45 degree fitting for it to put it a bit closer to the top cover.


Zac finished up my intercooler, looks & fits perfect. Need to make up some mounts for it now.


The beginnings of my very very industrial looking gearbox mount, the RHS is a light hanging bracket that I found at work hah, hopefully it's thick/strong enough for the certifier.


10 ton 150mm stroke rams, base plates and top plates, 4 of these should lift my car pretty easily hah.


Found out something interesting today, I finally got the back end of the car jacked up and removed the original driveshaft, it looks like the front half of the R33 driveshaft is the perfect length. All I need to do is change the flange on the diff which hopefully the S14 diff that I have at home will have the right one on it!

[DJZ]

Gearbox is now mounted. Once I pull the gearbox/engine out again I have a couple of bits to tidy up on it then paint it. I need to cut out a notch in it for the exhaust and weld in a gusset on the right hand side. I also need to tidy up where the engine gearbox mounts were in the tunnel, I hacked them off with the grinder and need to flatten them off or drill out the spot welds.

I swapped the input flange over on the diff, pretty much a straight swap except for having to cut about 3 or 4mm off the dust shield on the new flange. I've dummied up the driveshaft, the spline is about half engaged so I think it'll be alright. The driveshaft & flange actually use bigger bolts compared to the original Z stuff which is another bonus.

So tomorrow nights mission is to pull the engine and gearbox out again and do the rest of the stuff that needs to be done to it before it goes in for the final time:

Install the sump
Block up the original rear turbo water return
Fit the clutch
Try and mount the powersteering lines, it'll be a lot easier to do with the motor out

I bought another rack end and tie rod end on the weekend, went to install them last night and the rack end was different to the first one. The new TRW one is about 30mm longer which is a lot better than the Silverline one that I had, only problem is I've welded nuts on to the tie rod ends to lengthen the internal thread, now I'm probably going to run out of adjustment the opposite way. Might have to buy another pair of tie rod ends. I fitted my awesome "drift" rack end spacers, haven't noticed much difference in the lock except for the wheel will now hit on the radius rod, I still need to adjust the lock stoppers on the control arms.

Once I get the rack end sorted I should be able to roll/steer the car around on it's new suspension for the first time, I need to get it out of the spot that it's in so that I can fit the left rear coil over, it's too tight to do it where it's parked currently.

Still haven't really decided what to do about a clutch, I can't find a reasonably priced twin plate. The single plate that was on the L28 was working okay but I have a feeling it's probably not going to hold up to what the RB is capable of. I was thinking of getting a bigger single plate, a Z32 250mm clutch should fit on my flywheel.

[classicdat]

Great to read your progress, really looking forward to seeing this up and running.

[dirtyleppa]

nice man, you making good progress

[DJZ]

I've been trying to get my shit sorted and make some progress on this thing. I missed out on a twin plate clutch on Trademe but it got a bit expensive for me.

Today I bought a barb for the turbo oil return, a brake line tee and some o rings for my oil cooler adaptor. Tomorrow I need to try and track down a brake liner joiner, I got one today but it doesn't have the conical seats in the bottom which makes it useless. Also tracked down pretty much all the other bits for the motor, I got an RB25 crank pulley so the non hicas power steering pump lines up now, also got a Z32 crank angle sensor after I slightly rooted the original RB one trying to change the bearings, also got a power steering pulley and the front cam belt guide. I made up a clutch line as well which turned out pretty good. I've installed the rack ends, boots and tie rod ends so the steering setup is pretty much done, it will need adjustment as one tie rod end was adjusted out further than the other with the wheels pointing straight.

I've had the spacers made up for the exhaust manifold, looks like they are going to work alright. Zac is going to tack the staino bolts on to it for me once I've sorted out where the wastegate needs to go so I can get him to do the wastegate flange at the same time.

The sump turned into a bit of a mission, when I gave it to him he said he had an RB26 block to mock it up on, turns out he didn't have the crank girdle and when I tried to fit it to my block the sump was hitting on it, it would have been an absolute mission to modify the sump so I ended up modifying the girdle by cutting around 4mm off the top of it on both sides at the rear as it was raised compared to the rest of the girdle, also 75% of the bolt holes don't line up with the 26 block so I've had to drill/grind them to get it to fit.

This weekend I'm going to finish off the motor/clutch/gearbox and the brake lines around the engine bay then refit the motor hopefully for the last time. My companies director is down here next week and my car is down at work (which it shouldn't be) so I'm not going to get much done over the next week, my plan is to get it running by the weekend after next and drivable the weekend after that. Whether that is an achievable goal I'm not sure but I'll try!

[DJZ]

Not related to the Z but I made up a new fuel rail for the R30.


Custom drill press


Fitted up one side of the car with the brake calipers and now the wheel hits on the caliper, I've been looking at some wheels they are 17x9 +20 so I took one of the spacers off the back of the car and used some washers to try and replicate what it'd look like.


Intercooler and oil cooler are going to sit about here:




Motor back in the hole




Still need to do something about the wastegate position & downpipe clearance




Cut down staino bolts for the turbo

[Bartman]

This thing is going to be lethal.
Great documentation of your work too. A lot of people probably don't realise just how tricky a repower like this can be. It's not just slam the rb in there, and go do some skids. Nice build quality too.

[DJZ]

Progress has been reasonably slow recently, slower than I'd like.

Yesterday and today I spent ages mucking around with my engine mounts, after I put the sump on and dropped the motor back into the car I released that the sump was sitting on the steering rack/rack mounts. I spaced up the right hand side about 7mm under the mount and 5mm on top, and the left hand mount 5mm under and on top. I also ground down the side of the left hand rack mount slightly.

The motor and gearbox are all bolted in tight now, finally. I installed the driveshaft today as well, also I cut off the lock stopper off the control arm and moved it about 40mm towards the ball joint so the stopper on the knuckle actually hits on it now, yay.

I've mostly finished the engine bay wiring, I chopped out a few more bits and pieces, the head light sensor thing for the display on the dash and some other stuff. I need to get some more split loom tubing before I can reinstall it.

I started on the engine wiring, just waiting for some more braided cable sleeving to show up. The correct injector plugs also showed up, should be able to finish the wiring this week.

Still need to get some more oil cooler hose and mount the remote filter mount, also need to mount the intercooler and the oil cooler itself too. Have to buy an oil catch can, the list of things I have to buy is slowly dwindling which is good.

The guy with the wheels that I wanted to buy is still being a dick so I'm not sure what to do there, don't want to spend too much on new wheels or new wheels and tyres. Might just have to get some new spacers for the front and keep my current wheels for the moment, I'll probably have to buy new spacers for the back too as the ones I've got aren't technically legal.