DJZ

Yeah, I don't think soldering them would make a hell of a lot of difference, the O2 wires are still intact anyway.

Okay, some developments. The RB can't go any further back without modifying the sump, it's actually in about as good as position as it is going to get unfortunately. I bought an R32 GTS-t flywheel to use, it's away at the moment being lightened and surface ground by Mace Reconditioning here in Christchurch, pretty cheap about $80 to lighten it. It weighed 9kgs according to the bathroom scale, I'll let you know how much it weighs when it comes back, hopefully they'll be able to get it down it around 6 - 6.5kgs. I asked them to reduce the thickness through the middle (where the bolts go) from about 15.5mm to 12mm, I have no RB flywheel bolts but about 40 L series bolts but they are just a little bit too short in my opinion, if they can take a bit off in the middle they should be sweet. I'll get a new clutch on Friday, same as the one I'm running in my 280ZX, if it can handle 315 L series horsepower it'll handle an RB20 okay. At the moment it's looking like I might have to use a C series box, shorten the drive shaft and remake the gearbox mount to sit a bit further back. I bought a box for $100, the guy said it needed a new front mainshaft bearing and gave me a brand new one in the box (probably about $70 worth), took the bellhousing off and there is nothing wrong with the front bearing but both bearings in the middle are rooted. Going to be fun fixing that! Have been working on the turbo, got a price of $80 to balance it from a guy out in Rolleston, I've cleaned up a center section and removed a stud from the exhaust housing so I can use a normal down pipe. I'm thinking I might go with an external gate, should be pretty easy to do. Once I get it balanced it can go back together. Also have been working on the wiring a bit, not very fun. When I got the motor it was supposed to have an uncut loom. One section of wiring has been cut off which is the wiring for the air flow meter and for some reason both knock sensors which are on the other side of the motor. I hate soldering shielded wire.

So trying to use the L20ET flywheel didn't end up working. The center hole in the L20 flywheel is 1mm smaller than the spigot on the RB crank, I used one of the mag base drills at work and drilled it out to 36mm, took it home and bolted it up and the casting on the back side of the flywheel must be different as it was jamming up against the rear main seal housing, need to find an RB flywheel. Engine mounts bolted up okay except I had to drill a new hole for the locating pin on the LHS engine mount about half way between the slot for the mounting pin and the slot for the stud. The Z31 RB rubber mounts are exactly the same as the original L20 ones. The motor is sitting about 20mm too far forward which means that I can't get the gearbox mount to bolt up and the drive shaft is not quite all the way into the gearbox. If I can't get some R31 engine mounts to try I'll just have to slot some holes and see where it ends up. You can see in the pictures of the motor the T3/4 turbo that I'm going to run, it's a Z31 0.63 rear housing with a Turbonetics front end.

Since I just deleted my whole post by accident I'll put these up here and write it again tomorrow. Does anybody know if R31 engine mounting brackets are very different to R32 ones? The motor is sitting about 20 - 30mm too far forward.

L20 is out compete with uncut loom, for some dumb reason they decided to put the injector & temp sensor part of the loom behind a brake line that runs across the fire wall so I had to unplug all of that just to get it out. And for anybody who is as dumb as me here is how to mate your L series gearbox up to an RB, now I've got a stubby RB box! L20 bellhousing RB20 bellhousing, note bigger countershaft bearing hole and one large selector shaft hole Bellhousing removed, the countershaft bearing needs to come off All the gears looked pretty good, well until I chipped a couple of teeth trying to get the countershaft bearing off Old on the right, new on the left, just had to pick the seals out and it was ready to put on Bush for selector shaft hole, it was a standard 16x12x20 bush that I had the ID drilled out to 14, it slipped in the lathe chuck which is what the marks around it are. I had to "hone" out the ID a little bit more to make it slide on the shaft okay Bush fitted into selector shaft hole, yes I did clean this out before putting the box back together After a bit of mucking around this is what you end up with You'll need to fit the front cover from the RB box as the L series one won't work The hole in the cover for the countershaft bearing is too small Free short throw shifter modification

Progress has been pretty slow so far, managed to cut out and repair all the visable rust in the sills and give the whole sills a couple of coats of chassis black. These were the major repairs that it needed to get a warrant, it passed on everything except a low right hand headlight. Zac and I pulled the headlight out and the adjuster must have been broken, shimmed out the bottom of the light and checked it against the garage door, seemed a little high but pretty close. Took it back for a recheck, guy put the beam setter on it and said "It's a little high", I told him there wasn't much else I could do so he put his knee on the bumper and pushed down a little bit and said that it looked fine hah. I'll work on pulling the L20 out tomorrow, still trying to find a front bowl sump and some engine mounts for the RB.

Yeah, I managed to one weight off with a prybar. Some of the wheels have metal valves and some have rubber, the rubber ones just bend out of the way so it'll only be one or two that need changing.

Yeah man, I'll definitely do that, I need to get new valves put in as well as the wheel centres don't really clear them, which I didn't realise till I knocked the centre out of the first one and flatted half of the valve which you might be able to see in the pic. What's the best way to get the knock on weights off? Just lever them off?

Wheels look like they're going to come up alright.

They wouldn't have bothered taking any of the parts off a Mitsubishi, nothing work taking, just chop it straight up.

I was worried was going to end up in some "drift" Laufiro or something retarded like that, and the sump and engine mounts would end up in the bin. I had the option of buying a Z31 off the guy the R30 came from, long story but it's one that I used to own, auto 2+2 VG20ET, I'd rather have the R30. If I'd come across a facelift turbo 2 seater though things might be different

Wheels have "Gallop Racing" and "V the V" on the inside, I've started polishing them. Apparently the Z31 was really mint, they took the motor, gearbox and rear hubs out of it then chopped it up in Japan, pretty sad.

Am I doing this right?

I went about this project the wrong way, buying a motor before I had any idea what I was going to do with it. 63,000K Z31 200ZR RB20DET, I was mainly trying to get the sump and engine mounts but ended up with the whole motor, it is very very clean, no oil inside the inlet manifold, turbo looks perfect, I popped the top cambelt cover off, everything inside is shiny with an OE cambelt. A friend of mine was looking at selling a few cars so I made a deal with him for a HR30 coupe and a 260Z 2+2. I can't get a good picture of the car right now as it in the garage but overall it is in pretty good nick, some idiot painted two black stripes on the bonnet which my mate painted over (badly). There are a couple of bits of rust in the sills which is going to be patched. Came with these seats, apparently 323? They have been welded onto the original rails. 14" wheels, maybe Volk? These will be polished, painted and then will go up on Trademe. 145 horsepower of L20ET grunt, this is already on Trademe. My favourite part of the entire car. Plan at the moment is: Full 5 stud conversion, I already have the Z31 front and rear hubs and R31 CV axles if the R30 ones don't fit the Z31 companion flanges. Clutch R200 LSD. R32 GTR wheels. Keeping the original gearbox and swapping an RB bellhousing I have from the GTS-t gearbox in my 280ZX on to it, this will let me use the original gearbox mount & driveshaft, it may not last very long but we'll see. 450x300 front mount, probably 2¼" piping. 2.5" or maybe 3" exhaust. Black paint at some stage in the distant future. New turbo, I already have a Turbonetics T04 front cover and a Z31 0.63 rear housing & wheel. I have already fitted a 60mm throttle body in place of the 55mm one which should let me use the original R30 throttle cable, the hole in the inlet manifold was actually 60mm anyway so I didn't have to grind it out at all. I have also stripped the motor of the top mount, exhaust manifold and turbo, the exhaust manifold actually had to come off just to get the top mount intercooler mounting bracket off. I kind of want to make the engine bay look like the Bathurst R31 race cars but in an R30 shell, I will try and copy the intercooler piping routing and retain the original inlet manifold and eventually make up a sort of replica of an RB20DET-R exhaust manifold.

HBI Engineering in Christchurch rebuild balljoints and whatnot, maybe give them a holla? http://www.hbiengineering.com/

4G32 rubber engine mounts won't work with 4G63 metal engine mounts, the stud sticking out of the mount is in a different place. You can use a standard 4G32 gearbox behind a narrow block 4G63, using the 4G63 flywheel, release bearing and clutch cover and a clutch plate from a 4G52 Sigma/Celeste. If using a FWD flywheel you'll have to get it machined to take a spigot bearing.

Don't want to chop up the floor and muck around with the gearstick.

Turns out there is a different number of splines on the 1600 gearbox shaft compared to the Sigma one, I'll have to find a clutch plate with the Lancer splines but the size of the Sigma one.

Hey, I've just converted my EX from a 4G32 to a Sigma 4G63, I'm using the factory Lancer gearbox/cable with the Sigma clutch, I've fitted new spigot and release bearings, the problem is its making a whirring noise from the clutch when the pedal is depressed with the engine running. Has anybody done a 4G63 conversion using the factory Lancer gearbox before? I've tried adjusting the cable from one extreme to the other and it doesn't seem to make much difference.