DJZ

I couldn't really find any good pictures of R30 intercooler setups, I found a few of ironmask DR30s and it looks like there is enough room to sneak the piping through behind the headlights, this isn't possible with an non-ironmask R30 as the lights must be deeper. The way that I've done it on both sides is the piping will come out of the intercooler into a 90 through the front panel into another 90 that comes up through the inner guard. I'll have to get a short piece of pipe welded onto the intercooler outlets and they are both just a little bit short. The AAC valve will also have to be moved but that will be pretty easy. I ran out of piping so I need to get another 180 degree to finish the turbo outlet and also a 3" 135 degree to do the inlet to the turbo with, I should be able to sneak my filter under the turbo outlet piping up behind the LHS headlight.

Got back for the weekend before heading off to Invercargill, going to try and get heaps done this weekend. Second hand Racepro 600x300 intercooler Some intercooler piping, hopefully it'll be enough! Chassis punch set I borrowed from work, first I drill a 10mm hole, then punch a 20ish mm hole with the small punch on the bottom left, then put the big shaft and big punch in and punch a 75mm hole, easy! Turbo rebuild in progress, got the shaft & wheels balanced and a new carbon seal now I just have to put it back together

I had a pair of 280ZX calipers done by Precision Brake & Clutch in Takanini, he did a really good job on mine. I can't remember what it cost though.

Managed to reassemble the gearbox this weekend, bit of a mission and I really needed a new spacer/shim for the countershaft bearing but I forgot to go and try and get one from Cockram's on Saturday so I reused the old slightly bent one, looks like it's been slightly rooted by a previous countershaft bearing failure. Got the new clutch fitted and after 1½ hours of mucking around on my back with the car not quite high enough I managed to get the gearbox back in, drilled two holes in my modified gearbox mount and fitted that. Fitted the new front half of the driveshaft, it's perfect which is good, I was a bit worried about my measuring skills. And now I'm off to Dunedin tomorrow then touring round the rest of the South Island! Yay! I'll pick up my turbo tomorrow morning hopefully it'll be all good. Work on the car is pretty much on hold till Christmas, buying parts for it isn't though muhahaha. I'm still on the lookout for some wheels for it, either R32 GTR rims or something equally as cool, anybody got any 5 stud Watanabes?

Got my driveshaft shortened by Circle Track Engineering, cost $90 which is pretty good I think. Made up the new ignition leads, haven't found anybody with an ignition terminal crimper yet (not that I've looked very hard). Coils & ignitor are mounted, wiring for them is pretty much done. Put the car back on the ground, it's sitting pretty low in the back but quite high at the front with the coil overs in it, might have to take the keeper springs out and get the shocks shortened but I'll have a better look at this later on. I took the turbo in to get balanced and a new carbon seal fitted, the old one had a big chunk missing out of it, should get this back next week but then I'll be in Dunedin for 2 - 3 weeks which doesn't really help! Got a 14" fan and mounted it to the radiator, made up a couple of plates to mount the radiator too but I need to bolt/weld these in and make up two mounts for the top of the radiator. I'm going to try and get it moving under it's own power this weekend, this involves taking the gearbox out again and fitting the new front bearing, sealing it up, fitting the clutch and driveshaft, tiding up some more wiring and mounting the computer where it should be instead of sitting on top of the rocker covers.

Have a look here: http://www.xenonz31.com/s130/reference.html There is a fuel injection manual there which covers the EFI stuff only. The L20 AFM plugs in but may not be set correctly for an L28, they are pretty easy to adjust though. http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/afm/index.html If it's running extremely rich it's probably the AFM or the engine temp sensor, but as suggested above do the basics first.

Bought some coils for the wasted spark setup, the fit pretty nicely here. Would prob be better the other way up but this works. Bought some awesome silicon radiator hoses. Top hose it a little short so will cut and extend it with some alloy tubing. New radiator, R32 GTS-t, seems to be worse quality than the one I bought for my 280Z but it'll do the job I think. Going to mount the ignitor about here. Pic of the steering wheel mounted.

Do a skid

Yeap FS5R30A is 300ZX & RB25DET, the you get the FS5R90A which is a T5 Borg Warner box. I'm running an FS5W71C out of an R32 GTS-t behind my L28, they are stronger (bigger/wider gears) and have dual syncros on some gears etc etc. They'll probably have a bigger counter shaft bearing than the box you have currently depending on what year it is.

As far I know they are an FS5W71C, same as all the other Nissan rear drive boxes from around that period except for the FS5R30A.

They apparently do that when you run the L20ET manifold on them, a mate of mine has a LD28 in a 280Z that he turboed recently using an adaptor thing that I sold him that bolts on to the stock manifold that brings the turbo up. He is running 17psi on a T04 and absolutely loves it, it's had the pump tweaked and the timing set by someone here in Christchurch. I've been for a ride in it and it'd be faster than a stock L28. He was building some sort of frankenstein LD28 with LD20 turbo pistons and pre combustion chambers or something like that.

Borrowed the wasted spark coil setup off my Z and temporarily wired it up to the RB, seemed to make a little bit of difference. Blocked up a whole bunch of extra vacuum tubes and also copied the AFM meter wiring from a VG30ET, pretty sure it's right now, the voltage changed with the air flow. It's running a bit better now, won't idle but it still has no exhaust at all and no radiator either so I can't run it for too long. Sounds pretty good when revved and seems to be running on 6 now. Finally got the right boss kit so I've got the steering wheel fitted now. Now I just have to: Fit the clutch Do something about the driveshaft Radiator Intercooler & piping Get the turbo rebuilt Build an exhaust Get a BOV Fuel pump Pop a skid Sounds easy.

My "log" plenum works okay, I read that entire thread on Hybridz before I made it, cost has a lot to do with the way I made it if you look at the Audi copy manifold the guy ended up making on there it's pretty much perfect, he CNC machined it from two solid blocks of aluminium and it probably cost him several thousand US dollars, mine cost about $200. Also I'm pretty sure the log in your first picture has a flat bottom where the runners exit the plenum (so it's a D shape), mine is a 3.5" round tube, I also left as much length before the first runner as would fit.

Non cross flow but who cares this is before it was finished/tidied up. I don't think I've actually got a picture of it finished.

Managed to get it kind of started tonight, I can keep it running but only with the throttle half open, sounds like it is only running on 3 cylinders and it could be quite rich. I can't run it for very long as it has no exhaust at all after the exhaust manifold (no turbo), it's pretty loud. Had problems with no power supply to the air flow meter (I'm still not 100% sure the wiring is correct) and no power to the coils at all! Hint: when you have a fat red wire left over after wiring it up with no power going to it you should probably do something about that. I popped the coils out and two of the spark plug "tubes" were full of rusty water, nice one! Coil loom is really rooted and all of the plugs going to the coils are extremely brittle and broken. Will be going to a wasted spark set up sooner or later.

Throttle body position does matter, if you have it going straight on to the end of the plenum (which looking at your pictures you won't) it can be bad depending on how far away from the first runner it is, you can starve the first cylinder of air if it's too close. Aftermarket RB plenums have the throttle body angled, this helps with equalizing the amount of air each cylinder gets. I made the plenum for my 280Z, it's very simple but it seems to work okay. It was all guess work and no maths hah.

It's a very complicated science, from what I've read you really want the runners as straight as possible and inline with the port/back of the valve to keep the velocity up, or you want a runner with a very gentle bend if it has to be curved, so picture number one would be terrible and wouldn't work well at all. This is all hearsay and don't quote me on any of it.

Little bit more progress this weekend, got some more wiring done, filled the motor with oil and got it cranking over, little bit more wiring and I should be able to start it. Got the plate for the gearbox mount welded on, just have to measure up where the new holes need to be and drill them. Spent a while trying to figure out what some idiot has done to the fuel pump wiring, the bung in the floor where it comes through has been taken out and the hole filled with silicon sealant, the wires came up through that then were twisted together with some speaker wire and tape put round them, then they run under the sill trim to under the dash somewhere. Nice one idiot previous owner. I don't know if I mentioned the other speaker cable running around the engine bay that I don't know what is for either. So I'll be running new wiring & a new relay for the pump when I replace it with an 044.

The coilovers I bought off Trademe ages ago for my 280ZX, they apparently came off an R31 in Japan, the rears as you can see from the pics are JIC brand, they bolt straight in. The fronts have just had sleeves welded on the OE tubes by the looks of it, they have adjustable inserts that are probably rooted. Being HR31 struts they do have the 100mm caliper mounts. I've just put the R30 hubs on them for the moment. That'd be great thanks man.

New clutch, what an awesome colour that no one will ever see Drilled out the spare exhaust manifold for an external wastegate, broke a $250 odd dollar rotabroach cutter in the process, whoops. Water cooled center section on top of my other spares Rear coilovers Front coilovers & rusty camber plates Spare gearbox mount ready to be modded Momo wheel, freebie! Pity the R30 boss kit I got doesn't fit This is where the shifter comes up now, you can see the massive hole in the tunnel. Anybody know what length gearbox a DR30 runs? The engines in those sit really far forward. Hmm might have to have a look at my mates one at some stage. My mate gave me these air filters off his Mini, so we made up some adaptors now my compressor is K&N filter equipped.

Looks like it needs to be about 10cm shorter than the stock one. From the bolts holding the center bearing on to the end of the output shaft is 40 cm, add 10 cm for the output shaft spline bit makes 50cms, stock one measures about 60cm.

Progress is still slow, these are the things I have done: Bought a new RPM clutch. Put my coil overs in the back of it, it's pretty slammed now. Need to try the front coil overs and see how it sits. Installed the flywheel. Swapped the bellhousing onto the L28 long box and have put the box in again, gearstick now will come up right at the back of the tunnel hole, mount still doesn't line up but I think this will be an easy fix, cut the tabs with the bolt holes off the sides, weld a plate to the top and redrill two new holes. Took some measurements for a driveshaft, doesn't look like anything common will work, thinking about replacing the two piece shaft with a new one piece but I can assume it will be $$$. I bought two more turbos, not too sure what to do now. I ended up with another Z31 VG30ET turbo, that makes 3 now, except this one has a watercooled center section which if I stick with a Garret I'll be using. I also bought a T3 flanged TD06 19C/20G? not 100% sure as it hasn't shown up yet. Apparently it came off an imported FJ20? Might be an old Greddy or HKS piece or something. Did some more wiring, I actually hope to have it running this weekend, probably with no turbo, radiator or anything like that but I'd like to at least hear it run. I'm having to go away for work for 2 months later this year and not much will get done on it, will give me a bit of time to save up for the rest of the bits I need though.

Hey man, I've already swapped the sump for a R32 GTS-t front sump & pickup, they bolted straight on. I'm keeping the rear bowl sump incase I decide to put an RB in the Z. There is a gearbox that comes in S12 Sylvias that I think would work, it's a C type gearbox and is in between a long and short box in length, it'd probably be perfect but I can't find one and I've already got 3 other boxes to choose from here, I'll make something work. First pic is the difference between the short C box and short B box, second pic is long vs short C, last pic is long C vs short B. Trying to use the short gearbox with the RB where it is means the gear stick comes up really far forward and the stick already has a big bend in it to bring it back, the hole in the tunnel for the stick to come through is huge as you probably know, so I'll use a long box it just means there'll be the extra expensive of shortening the driveshaft.

As per usual my brilliant plans don't work out. Think I got a bit ripped by Mace, $157 including GST to surface the flywheel and lighten it, they managed to get less than a kilo off it. Down from 9.55Kg on their scales to 8.8ish. Anybody got any NICS RB20DET parts? I think I'm missing the MAP sensor. I've worked out most of the loom, need to pull the gearbox which I'll try and do tomorrow, fit the flywheel and starter and then I'll be pretty close to being able to start it. I'm probably going to end up using the spare 280ZX long gearbox that I've got with the RB bellhousing fitted to it. I haven't got the cash or the time at the moment to fix the RB20 box I have. They'll be interchangeable once the gearbox mount is modified and the driveshaft is shortened.

You could try welding a big nut to it, if you have welding facilities handy.