MickeyThief

You should do a skid.

Rad didn't know you were going to Leadfoot. Car looks pretty sharp all shiney and stuff. Does it feel a bit faster than with the old motor? A bit lighter on it's feet? If it doesn't quite feel mega fast then it might be related to that fueling issue eh...

You must be quite pleased.

Did old Rod look at your car?

If you were bored one day and looking for something to fill that gap in your engine bay, a strut brace could do the trick aye - might stiffen up the old shell a little.

Effing rad man. Well done. Can't wait to see/hear it in real life.

Dam and blast there is always one final hurdle isn't there! The fact that it is actually tootling about on the road is a pretty big deal tho! Yehah!

The rad is pretty rad. Deffo looks better than a shiney silver one. A lot of peeps will be looking in the engine bay so best it looks nice in there aye. So can TTT fix stuff like your wheel spacers? That could be good. Have you still got the old Hilux disks? You know, just in case? To get it operational for the deadline...

Yeah I got a K&N a little while ago at your suggestion. I might even hook it up tonight!

With the brakes there's about 2mm of air-grasping, which apparently a lot of people run brakes like that. But yeah, that's why I'll move them in a couple of mm at some point.

I spoke to the guys who I want to do the exhaust yesterday. They're pretty busy but if things go well this week for them, and me, they might have a day free to do it next week. Which'd be perfect. So will talk to them on Monday. Otherwise I'll get a muffler shop to do it.

It'll be a new exhaust from the headers back.

Mr Clipboard, does indeed need to give it the all clear, however that's not gonna stop me taking it on the road. Because meh AND my Subaru's cam belt snapped on Friday which is about as gay as it gets.

I own 3 cars and a scooter and only one car runs....

Mmmm. Very good very good. Good good good.

Yeah I mean it has some sort of cert for the suspension anyway innit. You'd have to be pretty unlucky to get A: pulled over, B: have 'em look in the engine bay and C: know it's a different engine.

Was that exhaust place some sort of recommendation? Man they can have such an influence them pipe benders - a muffler shop might give you summink that sounds a bit rubbish innit. You going 3 inch or 2.5? I say 2.5. Mandrel bent if poss. 3 inchers tend to drone and blare a bit and kinda all sound the same - no difference in flow either as the smaller diameter keeps the gas hot and flowing, wheras the bigger pipes cool it down and slow it up. So they say anyway.

Oh no! Did it do much damage? Hopefully not in need of a third engine! And the little putt putt too out of action. What is your third car? The 'rolla?

Good luck man. Don't forget a air filter. You know with them brakes - does all the pad surface grip disk where they currently sit? Or is there a bit just grasping at air? (hence the need to move 'em at a later date...)

Twats happening with the exahust? Are you just hooking them fancy headers up to the existing drainpipe?

Does it need to be inspected by a man with a clipboard before you take it on the road?

Anyhoo, I'm probably getting ahead of myself. ho ho

Both myself and zep got ahead of ourselves when doing our engine conversions/builds. He ended up with race seats and a half cage, I ended up with a stripped car and race seats. All when the original idea was just to give the cars a bit more power. Don't lose track of your original goal just because it's going to potentially be a fast car. You want it to primarily be a cruiser and occasional track toy, not the other way around. An old car is never going to be the safest thing around, but that's not what they are about. Plus people still manage to kill themselves in new cars with 5 star ancap ratings, so providing you drive with care and don't get too carried away when not on the race track the engine isn't going to put you anymore at risk.

TL:DR - just slap the engine in and go hooning as is

True dat. Harnesses definitely cross a line.

One of them removable half cages might be a good compromise - to keep pais happy.

Oh yeah not too bad eh! I thought you might pine for a little more side bolstering but these blokes obviously survive OK without it!

Yeah, wider, not bigger diameter. I can get wider tires on the current wheels, so will try that first.

My word, 4.1 seconds is madness. She's already very keen on a cage. I suppose it makes sense. I'd like to have a harness bar with it so I can run harnesses when I'm at the track. But my seats aren't designed to work with 'em so not sure what to do there, I quite like the look of the stock seats so don't wanna replace them. I've seen people cut holes in their seats to accept harnesses, might be the go if I get an upholsterer to do it...

Orrrrr replace them with some classic racing seats if I absolutely have to.

Phew. Glad that's what you meant. Methinks the arches will be too tight right? Hmmm dunno how it would look with wider tyres - not the same!

Yeah no point in a cage without harnesses - you don't want to be bouncing around in there should the unthinkable happen.

You might have to man - your seats don't even have headrests right? Stock seats and no cage will be just fine for tootling about on the street tho aye.

Will the engine be ok oil wise on ze track?

Fuck I can't imagine how fast 0-100 in 5 secs feels like! The fastest car I've owed is this one with the L24. Something tells me my wheel sizes wont support very good 0-100 times though, might need to go bigger.

The deadline is pretty tough, but I've been without the car long enough thou so having the deadline is great for motivation. And Pais is sweet with all the shed time if there's a deadline involved for some reason.

Might as well get a K&N one, they're not that expensive when you look at all the other crap I've bought.

Oh you mean wider rubber right? Not bigger wheels - yuck. Meh - it's only first gear wheelspin... More traction at launch just puts everything else under more stress.

You know once Pais has a ride in it, she'll be calling for a roll cage right?

One look at these calculations and you might be thinking about a cage yourself!

Hey Mickey Mouse,

I've not given it much thought yet, I think for the 3rd of November I'll just chuck a pod filter on the end of the MAF sensor housing, so long as it runs! Once everything's running l'll go back over a few things and tidy it up.

So eventually a cool air intake in front of radiator perhaps? There's so much airflow under the bonnet that finding cold air probably isn't much of a problem!

I think the specs for the 350z said the factory airbox added 3hp in ram-air effect alone!

Yeah man fair enough eh. Good luck for the 3rd - it'll be hard yakka but good to have a deadline eh. Exthiting times.

Nah you prob don't need to go all the to the front of the radiator eh - should be plenty of cool air behind it - at least until you fit that carbon fibre undertray eh...

When you get your pod it's worth spending the extra on a K&N, you look at all the tests and the other brands will either flow poorly or let in heaps of crap - even the exxy Jap brands are no good.

You know your car will have around 300hp per tonne, should make it pretty quick - 0-100 in under 5 secs... Should be a bit of fun.

Good update man, thanks. What are you thinking of for getting air into ze motor? Looks like quite a bit of room to get some sort of cool air intake - they say on an N/A motor that type of thing is very important... It should suck air from a cool spot and not meet much resistance on it's way into the motor. That's what they say I think...

Update thread!

+1

Those are awesome brakes. I like that they say Nissan on 'em as it gives a hint at what lies beneath. Wowee you are barely going to recognise the driving experience.

Hey pal looking good - I mean all that stuff 'underneath' - the nuts and bolts of the engine conversion so to speak... Technical stuff far beyond my capability...

(I changed a headlight globe in my car today - it took me no less than two hours, + two skinned knuckles and much swearing and cursing)

I am very impressed with the 'FM' engine position! Far!

(As in Far Out that's a big gap... And also that is very 'Far' from the engine to the front)

You know back in the day I thought a straight six was the only engine anyone should have, why would you need anything else? But now I have learnt that they really are rather long, and this does not bode well for weight distribution. This is a shining example of that point. (I also learnt that not all straight sixes sound as good as the RB's and Beemer's I'd been piloting back in the day - case in point: Mr Ford 'poo bum' Falcon)

I did see you say you weren't 'gonna be dragging it'... Huh? May as well do a couple of runs tho right? Just to see what she'll do? It's not like you won't be dumping the clutch here there and everywhere anyway... You'll soon know whether that diff is strong enough or not...

I am an excellent drag racer btw. Always win that shit from the lights. Eat my dust Mr Diesel van man!

Ahh well, that's all a while away innit... Lots of 'underneath' stuff needs to happen first... I remember tho we were talking about exhausts being ages away and then suddenly they were there.

Actually I remember even engines being talked about with misty eyes as if looking far into the future... Nek Minute...

I wonder how she'll be progressing in early Jan... When I'm in Taupo...

Cheerio now.

Who cares who gets it, it looks boss as shit.

For those that dont know what we are talking about.

So the exhaust tip style?

The double vertical stack man. It's certainly a bit different. I think I probably would go for it, but I wouldn't cry too much if I couldn't have it.

Go a slightly enlarged Z432 look.

You could, not sure how many people would 'get it' tho...

What are those header pipes bro? Are they off the shelf aftermarket jobbies for a 350Z? Will zey fit? They look pretty good I reckon!

Then what? I mean like then what happens exhaust wise - twin 2 inches or a big ole' drainpipe all the way back?

A little bird told me twin systems sound betterer.

^ That dose indeed sound ace, but it would be a pretty hot motor one would imagine.

Nah it just had cams and that slightly sporty exhaust system. Otherwise stock. Mikey's can make the same noise one day!

I'll just leave this here

http://vimeo.com/2740185

What an awesome vid... Good power too eh - 'bout 400 Horsies at the fly... Intake exhaust and cams - prob like what yours would logically end up with.

Christ that's a lot of horse for a little cart - more than double what it's got now...

With that gearbox you'll be able to run it at the strip too - low 12's for shiz...

I'm gonna see how we go with brakes. I can probably get certed with what I have (4-pots with solid rotors), but it'll be shit at the track, so an upgrade to vented disks and wider calipers will have to happen at some point.

I agree about the headers etc plus cams and it'd be fully seck.

Costs haven't been discussed at any household meetings yet. I'd rather avoid that for as long as poss/ever lest I have to tell pork pies to Pais.

yes I was thinking some ventilated and slotted DBA's or such, (not cross drilled) and some QFM road/track pads would do the trick - you'd just have to find some calipers - might not cost a bomb at all.

We probably shouldn't be wasting our time talking about it now but I heard you don't always get huge gains from cams when an engine has VCT/VVT or what have you... They still do sound cooler though - always a plus.

Could gasbag about this all day really, but plenty of time for that later when we don't have work to do aye...

Yeah it's pretty epicly rad. I'm trying not to get too excited, but I like your level of excitement for the cause.

There's quite a bit of work to make it happen but I can do the vast majority myself; just not the driveshaft really, and I might get someone else to weld up the zorst.

It's way lighter than the RB, esp when you take into account all the turbo gubbins. It's lighter than the current set up too, can't remember by how much. Annnnnnnd it fit's behind the strut towers so could technically be called mid-engine? Anyway it's good for weight distro.

I'll get it up and running on stock ECU and pretty much stock everything. I'd love to go ITB's one day; it'd sound super and look less ugly than the stock plenum.

Very exciting times!

I think they call that Front Mid don't they. It will still sound pretty good with a pod filter or such up front and a 2 and a half inch exhaust out back. One muff should do. Then one day you could dyno tune the ECU and get some fancy headers made up - you might pick up 40 horse and in such a light car, I'm sure you'd really notice it.

Front brakes going on the back and something new for the front? Or just leaving as is? Or just not thinking about/telling the missus about that potentially expensive little extra bit yet.

Is this Mick Robbers?

Yes - the riddle of my username has been undone!

Ha! I sorta guessed last time. It was the creepy tone of the message which gave it away.

Nothing much exciting has happened for the car recently, except purchsing this of course. It's on a boat from the states. Will rip into it in April hopefully.

GET OUTTA TOWN!

That is mega news.

Wowoo weewah. That is some engine. Alloy top and bottom, 300+ horsies, nice and short. Plus a six shooter tranny. My oh my.

Should be much lighter than an RB right? And keeps the weight back further toward the center of the car right? Depending on where it fits I guess...

Wowsers. You gonna run the ECU? I think you should try to run the ECU... ITB's and such would give it far too much power right?

If a 240 can fit an LS1, this should fit aye. Man that is mega, I approve. I wholeheartily approve. I love V6's actually, I mean I love straight 6s a lot, but V6's can sound awesome and are generally much better for handling/packaging.

How exciting. One daren't dream of how awesome it will be when finished because one knows there is a lot of work to do before then... But still...

Bonnet looks good man. A big improvement! As are those rampy things over those unsecured blocks of wood you used to have. Those things were a bit scary - both for the driver and any small children walking behind... I'm not sure which improvement I prefer actually!

PS: There are some 240's racing this friday so I will take some pics up close if I can get 'em.

Is this Mick Robbers?

Yes - the riddle of my username has been undone!

Bonnet looks good man. A big improvement! As are those rampy things over those unsecured blocks of wood you used to have. Those things were a bit scary - both for the driver and any small children walking behind... I'm not sure which improvement I prefer actually!

PS: There are some 240's racing this friday so I will take some pics up close if I can get 'em.