Fairlady - update

It's been a while since I posted any updates. I haven't done as much as I planned to by now, just been busy with other things. All I have left on the motor is installing the distributer and valve cover so it is basically done. I cracked open the diff and started cleaning up the 39 years of grease from the diff housing. Everything internally in the diff is in really good shape and the magnetic oil plug did not have any metal deposits.

The drum brakes are in decent shape and I would probably be okay keeping them but I went ahead and ordered the disk brake upgrade from silvermine for all four corners. I also have a set of tokico hp shocks (non-adjustable) and springs on the way.

Oil pickup installed:

The oil pan actually turned out to be a real pain. The ARP studs on the rear main cap were taller than the factory bolts and there was an indention pressed into the oil pan that was in the way. A few minutes with a hammer solved that problem.

Fresh set of NGK BPR6ES spark plugs.

Current state of the motor.

Diff housing after some cleaning. Almost ready for paint.

 

 

 

The early JDM Z cars have shorter 3.9:1 gears to make up for the lower displacement of the 2.0 Liter L20a. This may be interesting with the L28. 

Fairlady - Diff and Rear Suspension removed.

Me and a buddy dropped the rear suspension and diff in the Fairlady. The job went better than I expected thanks to this post from dirtys30.blogspot.com. We were able to get the rear end dropped in just over an hour. Not bad for the first time I have done anything with the rear suspension on a Z. I think I got lucky because none of the bolts were siezed tight with rust. It was actually scary how loose some of the bolts in the front diff mounts were. There is no telling how old the gear oil is so I am not looking forward to cracking open the diff cover.

I have ordered an energy suspension master bushing kit and stainless brake braided soft lines for the brakes.

I noticed that the right side brake drum was seized which explains why the car was so hard to push when we loaded it onto the trailer the day I picked it up.

Before:

After:

 

CZOT Dyno Day - COBB Tuning Austin.

The Capital Z of Texas club put together a dyno day for the Nissan owners in the area. The event was held at COBB Tuning in Austin. The facilities are amazing and the cars were quite a sight to see. I have never seen so many skylines at the same place at once. It's time to get a real camera. It's too hard to get decent pics with an iPhone.

 

Fairlady - More progress on the L28 motor.

It's getting closer!

I am using an LD-28 water pump. The impeller on the LD-28 pump is larger so it does require some small modification to the front cover to make it fit but it was pretty simple. The Nissan part number is: 21010-17SY7.
More info here if anyone is interested: HybridZ link

Comparison:

You need to trim the a little from the front cover. The gasket makes a good reference.

ARP head studs installed:

Head torqued down and cam oiler installed:

Timing chain installed:

Front cover installed:

 

Right now I am waiting on some parts that I forgot to order and a few things that I decided to go ahead and upgrade while I have everything apart.

I dropped the gas tank tonight to clean it out and it was worse than I expected. The gas had to be at least 5 years old (judging by when the car was last registered) and had turned red. The tank will probably need to be boiled, it looked like the inside was coated with rust and I was afraid it was ruined but I sprayed the inside with a water hose and the rust washed away and there was nice bare metal underneath. Hopefully the tank won't cause any headaches.

240Z - LS1 going in the 240z.

I just got a motor for the Datsun 240Z project.

After much consideration of what motor I wanted to put in the Z I finally decided to go with a gm LS1 V8. I have always been against putting an American v8 in Z cars, but here I am joining the v8 club. I was originally considering either the Nissan VQ35 or VH45 but decided against going that route because of how tight the fit was going to be with a DOHC V motor, not to mention that the VQ35 is so integrated into the 350z body harness that you need an entire donor car to realistically do the swap. I also like that I will be able to retain A/C with no additional fabrication.


So here it is. 2004 LS1 crate motor for a Chevrolet Corvette - 0 miles.

Fairlady - L28 re-assembly started.

L28 block honed:

Bottom end assembled using ARP bolts and studs:

 

Fairlady - L28 primed and painted.

Primed and painted the L28 block. Now I can start the re-assembly on the bottom-end.

Primed:

Painted:

Fairlady - L28 rebuild for Fairlady Z.

Got my pistons back from the machine shop. I also got a set of ARP bolts and studs for the entire motor.

Fairlady - L28 going in the Fairlady

Since I have had trouble finding the pistons for the L20a rebuild I am going to use one of my spare L28 motors. I am going to use my built up E31 head and dished pistons to drop the CR down low enough to use pump gas since I want to keep this car streetable. The head has an MSA stage IV cam (290/290 duration .495 lift) so it should be fun when I get the mikuni's fixed up.

The L28 block I am going to use:

I almost have everything I am going to need for the motor. I bought the Koyo radiator from MVP motorsports last year for the yellow Z, but then I decided to tear that car down to the chassis and never installed it. Might as well put it to use in the Fairlady. The water pump is actually from a LD28 Nissan Diesel motor. It has a larger impeller and can be installed on an L28 with very little modification to the front cover. The oil pump is for an L28ET. Pistons are .50 oversized with dished top to drop the CR down a little.

New heater hoses from Nissan:

This is probably the best upgrade you can do for an old Z. I always hated how dim the headlights were on my 240Z so I never drove it anywhere at night. These harnesses will connect into the stock harness without any cutting. It adds relays to the high load circuits such as the headlights and running lights. The 105 amp H.O. alternator is from Z Specialties and is internally regulated. It is a direct replacement without modifying any of the existing wiring, you just need disconnect the external voltage regulator. I got the headlight housings from John at h4lights.com. The housings have modern H4 bulbs to replace the useless sealed beam lights.

Innovate MTX-L wideband:

Fairlady - Triple Mikuni 40PHH

I am having a lot of trouble finding a set of replacement pistons for the L20a so I am going put in an L28 while I keep looking for parts.

I have started piecing together all of the parts needed for triple carbs. So far I have a three Mikuni/Solex 40PHH carbs, six velocity stacks, and an L6 triple manifold. I just need to find all of the linkage parts and send the carbs to wolfcreekracing to be rebuilt.