DJZ

4G swap, get rid of that Nissan junk.

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!

Yeap me too, good job and very reasonable price on my last driveshaft.

Err, what is that coil off? The one on your car should be a normal 2 terminal coil and the bracket should look similar to this: What they call the power transistor/ignitor is the thing on the right hand side of the bracket.

I just helped a dude troubleshoot a similar problem, it was the "power transistor" mounted on the side of the coil bracket. They aren't easy to find though. If you are replacing the coil make sure you get an electronic ignition one, the Repco part number used to be 11380 from memory, or use a newer t coil setup like from an RB30 or VG30 etc or a Bosch HEC715 or similar. Maybe try the testing procedure at the bottom of this page, bear in mind it's for a Z31 but the transistor should be the same, if you need a wiring diagram for it look for an L28ET 280ZX diagram. http://www.xenonzcar.com/z31/SENSORS/powertransistor.html

Once the distributor drive is in (if you've taken it out that is) with the motor at TDC firing on number 1 it should look similar to this: Because the crank gear is err helical-ish? it will sometimes rotate out of position. As said it is possible to put the distributor back in 180 degrees out, even though the shaft has a tang that is offset. Just go over the basics really, put the motor at TDC firing on number one and make sure the cam lobes look like they are in the right position and check the notch behind the cam pulley is close to where it should be (if you can see it with your pulley). With the motor at TDC take the distributor cap off and see if the rotor is pointing close to where the number 1 terminal is on the inside of the cap. Check the leads are on the right plugs and that you are going the right way around the cap, pretty sure it's anti clockwise, 153624, number 1 is normally closest to the radiator.

My knowledge of newer Nissan stuff isn't that great but: R180 = 180mm ring gear, smaller diff and lighter. These usually came out in non turbo cars R200 = 200mm ring gear, bigger and heavier. These are probably the most common Nissan diff and are fitted to just about everything rear wheel drive in one form or another With the shortnose version there are heaps of different types, different spacings on the backing plate bolts, different axle bolt flange patterns, ABS & non ABS, visous LSD, clutch LSD, no LSD. They are pretty much all interchangable, you can mix and match the right bits, especially if you are not using the ABS sensors etc If you are in Christchurch I have most of an R200 that came out of an S13 that I'm not using if you want to borrow it? As for whether the driveshafts will fit in front wheel drive hubs you'd just have to try it to see.

Hope you wedged the chain Do you need a headbolt? I've got a bunch of second hand spare ones.

I found it hardish to find standard bore Z24/KA24 pistons in NZ, I was told that there's not much call for stock bore pistons for most motors, if the stock pistons are rooted then it's normally time to over bore the motor. That's why I ended up with 89.5mm pistons when I built mine. Bear in mind if you are going to bore it that far you will probably be looking at $500+ for a head gasket.

Build an RB24

I seem to remember something being up with the clutch splines when I did mine, I think I fitted a 63 clutch but it had a different number of splines to the 1600 gearbox, symptom was no drive hah. Had the motor in and out about 4 times before I realised what was wrong.

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.

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!

Speehut make GPS speedos. You could try asking E Parrot & Son, I think they can recalibrate them. http://www.eparrott.co.nz/

Yeah, the ones I was looking at are something like this: The holes are the moment are just over 12mm and I need a 10mm thread in there, looks like they do make an oversize 10mm helicoil that needs a 12.5mm hole so I might try and get some of them, they also make a 10x1.25 one that uses a 12mm hole, so that might work.

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.

Looks very interesting, it already has a 240mm clutch by the looks of it. You'll need to figure out what rods they are before you can determine what piston to use. The normal ones that people use in 3.1 builds are L20ET/L24 rods which are 133mm long (center to center from the big end/small end holes from memory). If they are about 130mm they are factory L28 rods. Pistons could be Z22 1mm over if the rods are L24 ones, if the rods are L28 ones I'm not sure what the pistons would be, they'd need to have a lower gudgeon pin hole/tall deck height. They look cast and appear to have been fly cut to clear the valves? The crank looks like it's been lightened, does every counter weight have those holes in it? Definitely check the thrust surfaces on the crank itself if the thrust surfaces on the middle bearing are worn, I had to replace the crank in my old 3.1 because of that.

Sweet car, I remember seeing it on Trademe I think? If it's an LD crank it'll have V07 cast into it somewhere, near the back of the crank on one of the counterweights from memory? What head/block numbers does it have? And what diameter is the bore currently at? The fuel "box" is pretty sweet.

Gave the sump to Rob at Racefab yesterday to do, it's going to have 4 trapdoors and wings now. I bought some 75x75 SHS to do the radius rod mounts with, should be able to get them mostly done this weekend. Need to get the guys next door to spin up some big washer/locators for me. Have been trying to figure out a way of mounting the gauges, I'm going to need to buy a 4" hole saw I think, the closest chassis punch that was have at work is slightly too big so the gauges are a little bit loose, need to make up some rings about 10mm wide then screw/glue them to the inside of the cluster to mount the gauges to. Finally got the right oil filter stud from Cockrams, bought some lower injector seals too, can finally install the injectors and mount the oil cooler now. In other news, Green Hornet is not a good movie. 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.

Gauges showed up today, look pretty sweet.

Modified the VL right hand side engine mount, motor is sitting at a pretty good angle now. I'm going to get the guys next door at HBI to weld it up for me. This gives me more clearance here And also here, where it mattered the most Need to weld that bit onto here for the water return from the turbo

Nice man, always liked the shape of MG Bs, well GTs anyway. What are your plans for it?

So I bolted the engine mounts tight onto the block as they were a little loose as I didn't have the right bolts and now the mount on the LHS doesn't really line up. Did a bit of research on the interwebs and a few people were saying to use R31/VL mounts as they are a direct fit and the motor will just slot in, the Z31 mounts were supposed to work for S30s but I couldn't find much info for what people have used for S130s. So I bought some VL mounts, the LHS on is exactly the same as the Z31 mount and the RHS mount is about 40mm longer which makes things even worse. Have pretty much decided to use the LHS mount as is and cut 50 or 60mm out of the RHS mount, this will mean I can tilt the motor over a bit more towards the drivers side, which will give me quite a bit more clearance for the turbo and also around the clutch master cylinder. Haven't really made much progress on anything else, need to get the mounts sorted first. I bought a 4" 45 degree bend for the inlet to the turbo and bought some fittings and stuff for the turbo water feed/return. The kit I bought had the wrong fitting to go into the block and one of the lines was too short, so I bought some more line and a weld on fitting to weld onto the radiator inlet pipe. Got misc other bits and pieces, new oil and fuel filters and some 3" silicon joiners. Took apart the oil cooler setup and cleaned out all the lines and the cooler itself, most of it is in pretty good nick except for one fitting. Ended up ordering the wrong fitting to screw into the block from Nissan so the correct one is coming from Japan. Also ordered my new gauges which should be here hopefully next week.

A little mini update. Got sick of trying to fix the idle control so I've pulled the loom out and started installing the old Link loom from the Z, everything is pretty close to being in the right places, had to extend the wiring for the TPS, CAS and ignitor but it's almost there. There is a base map that comes with the G4 Links for an RB20DET with 440cc injectors so I bought another set of GTR injectors and a GTR fuel rail as the NICS motors have barb injectors. I hope to get it running on the Link sometime this week. I keep getting and then selling sets of 5 stud hubs for it, haven't quite got the money to do anything about the brakes at the moment, most of it is going into trying to get the Z finished asap. I'm probably going to end up buying new wheels for the Z so the 17"s off that will most likely end up on this with small spacers on the back.

Got the okay from the certifier to chop off the ears in the tunnel and make up a new mount as per the pics above. Needs to be minimum 50x5mm steel, 8mm 8.8 grade bolts or 10mm if I only use two, with plates on inside the cabin. Have to pull the motor and box out again tomorrow so I've got enough room to chop them off. Been trying to decide what to do about wheels, I don't really want to buy new ones but the current ones don't really fit on the back and now on the front they sit really far in. I was thinking about these: They are very common looking drifty type wheels but reasonably cheap for 18x9.5s & 18x10s, but that means I'll need to buy new tyres too.