240sx v8 build

V8 240sx? Sure! If either the chassis OR the engine is non-Nissan (i.e. SR20 in an RX-7 or LS1 in a 240sx), we've done it.
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WDRacing
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540sx wrote: car is not painted yet. if my paint is still good I will be painting the outside the color the engine bay got painted in July(hopefully).
otherwise I am going flat black on the outside to cut the cost.
Have you considered just doing a roll on paint job? IMHO it would be leaps better then primer and it's pretty easy to do. Just takes time in between coats for it to dry enough to allow a quick wet sand. Doesn't get any cheaper either.

This thread has a nice quick outline with before/after pics. There are also some additional links in the thread that direct you towards different methods and steps etc. I'll be doing this to my S14 someday.

One of those things where you just crank some really good music, drink a few beers and spend the entire day doing nothing but sanding and painting...repeat for a few days...lol. Not bad with air and electric tools though and I'm sure you have both. I've read threads where guys murdered a few coats but were quickly able to recover with some time wet sanding.

Anyway, I think your car is right on par with how I'd do mine if I had the balls to do all the things you have. I love the raised hood and the wing. Gives the whole car a really sinister look :yesnod I think primer black would be doing her an injustice. Gloss black on the other hand coupled with some polished wheels :dblthumb:


chemao
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Definitely! With all the hard work, love, and MONEY poured into this car, why in the world would you even THINK to skip a proper paint job? Hell, if you want to go cheap and don't have time to do it yourself at LEAST take it to Maaco and get one of their cheap $300 jobs. You can sand/primer it yourself and then just take it there for a couple of coats with gloss. Primer it the same color as you want to have it painted (since they only put a couple of coats), and I'm positive it'll be the best few hundred bucks you'll spend.

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540sx
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I am planning on painting it myself.
I still got the magnesium pearl, going to pull the engine soon seal up the access whole I made in the firewall(has removable panel.
then I will touch up some spots in the engine bay.
anyone know how to tell if paint is still good.
I have had it for about 2 years now but I only opened it a couple of times and I always kept it closed in between coats.

it has not been opened in over a year. be a shame to waste the paint

i am trying to sell some stuff to get more money to finish things like paint.

what should it cost for
blocksanding the whole body kit and some minor bondo, primer, paint, sanding, clear and buffing,
not painting panels while on the car. removing all the body kit and painting then reinstalling.
going to paint in an inch on the actual quarters then rivet them down so the paint will not crack.

the shop i go to said that if i plan on tracking the car or driving it hard it is not good to
mold the body kit because it will crack.

anyone?

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WDRacing
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Hmm...Bondo will crack if the panel is tweaked. Your car will definitly have torque twist...lol.

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540sx
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I agree about the cracking but i have reinforced the frame quite a bit.

front is stiched , wear the front clip frame rail meets the part that goes under cab I welded the seam solid.
front universal mount is welded in to frame , still using oem x-member as well. triangulated strut bar.
most of 10 point cage. cut out upper portion of the A-pillar and roof hoop. bottom half of A pillar is still in place and connected across under the dash. I added extra bracing to the roll cage in the rear. my transmission mount is pretty heavy duty as well.
only using 5 mm of polyurethane on the trans mount and going to hard mount the engine. I don't like how close my down pipe is to the
engine mounts. the rubber already looks a little cracked. i will feel better knowing that it is solid and the head won't prematurely wear out the rubber. along frame rails under the cab i welded on flat steel running the length of the cab. in the back I welded 2 in angle steel across to use for strength and mounting my custom trunk floor. one is welded to the frame the other is welded on the ends then the middle bolts to the end pieces so i can remove the gas tank. my tank only comes out going up(safety measure). my car is pretty stiff. when I jack it up from a corner there is virtually no twist(does not settle on to jack stands ,have to get the height about perfect (hope I made it straight). :ohno:

still going to do a little reinforcement along the bottom of firewall , from frame rail to trans tunnel with 3/4 in rectangular steel, welded to flat piece with L brackets.

hope that takes car of the twisting. :gapteeth:

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540sx
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starting next week i am taking my two weeks vacation from my job to try an get this car running again so I can get it legal.
picked up a oil temp gauge and permacool 6 pass maxicool oil cooler with a fan, jegs thermostatic sandwich adapter,got just about everything I need. got the exhaust mapped but not built. using the stock manifolds to pass the ref. with any luck I will be posting new videos of it in the beginning of july. got the wiring harness and smog equipment from my donor car. going to rewire harness to work with the 730 ecu.
got the moates.net autoprom to tune it from my wife's laptop. need to add some stuff under the dash, started welding the trans tunnel solid again
so i can get the trans in and out with out having to cut the floor next time. i have altered the gas pedal to clear the trans tunnel. will be altering the brake pedal next , moving over to the right to create room for gas pedal. pedals will be nice and close together. welding access hole in my firewall solid,dialing in the bellhousing( did not know this was needed the first time around, got some RobbMc dowels that should work nicely from what I have read.

changing the valve retainers and locks because they were not installed properly. 10 degree retainers did not work either, they would not fit in deep enough so i am down to thinking that the guy used the keepers/locks that came on the heads and and replaced the retainers to upgrade my heads to dual springs but got the 7degree retainers for a 3/8 valve stem instead of an 11/32 or he used locks that were designed to increase installed height. so I am replacing the retainers and locks with comp cams 10 super lock stuff so I know it will match, got the shims and a summit racing valve spring compressor to make the job easier.

more pics to come soon.
Last edited by 540sx on Wed Jun 23, 2010 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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540sx
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oil cooler mounted inside of fender on passenger side in front of tire.
got my valve springs set up properly on one side. took a spring to PAW and they tested it for me.
got the installed height at roughly 1.82 which gives me about 118 lbs at the seat.
if you ever use a valve spring micrometer do not put the push rod in while it is in their.
(paw had my spring and I tried to rotate engine to dial in the bellhousing, i now have a nicely bent pushrod,
the micrometer is a little jacked too , good thing i had a regular micrometer to measure with).

customized my oil filter adapter. had a bypass valve for a 68 and later block and had adapted it to work with a spin on adapter(intended for canister style). originally I had used a piece of copper pipe with a bevel from being cut to thread on to the threading from the bypass and to the spin on adapter so a little bit of oil would be slipping through unfiltered all the time.
I made a permanent solution. I cut off the threading on the bypass and welded on a piece of aluminum pipe from a thermostat neck.
measured and cut the size down so it would press up against the spin on adapter, tapered the end of pipe to fit nicely with the spin on adapter(like AN fitting). put a rubber washer in between the two for a good seal.
checked for any leaks and then added the sandwich adapter for the oil cooler.

customized my o-ring thermostat housing to fit in the space for the TPI setup( needed to be shorter and leaned to the side).

dialed in the bell housing runout to .007 vertical and .003 horizontal. flywheel , pressure plate and bellhousing are all torqued down to spec
with antisieze.

customized my oil dipstick tube. bought a moroso universal dipstick to be mounted in 1/4 npt fitting on pan.
the hoseends are plastic and I accidentally stripped the fitting torquing it too much.
bought a new hose end and had to shorten the hose, welded the stick on to the handle because it had a set screw that I did not like and had pulled it out thinking it was my old one that I could not use. cut off the handle from old one and welded it to the part of new one that has the o-ring for the seal in the tube. used the o-ring portion of old dipstick as a plug for the dipstick location on the block(handle portion is cut off and welded to new one).

bolt for the tps sensor snapped and then the stupid bit for removing bolts snapped. so I drilled around it and used a small screwdriver as a chisel to get out the remaining bolt and bit parts. filled in the hole with aluminum welding so I can tap a fresh hole.
(old parts are a pain in the ***) another bolt snapped on the throttle body from being rusted and seized up, but luckily I was able to get that one
out.

I did not take any pics of the work because I forgot the camera. the oil filter customization is one I would like to post.

I am waiting on some stuff from summit racing( pushrod) so I cannot seal up the engine.

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540sx
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new developments

shaped the airfoil to be more aerodynamic
and welded it in to the throttle body

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welded up the trans tunnel to I can pull the trans with the engine in the car still.

had to move over the gas and brake pedal to accomodate the work I did on the trans tunnel.
so I made some petals out of stainless steel while I was at it, removed the rubber and plastic and welded the stainless straight
on to the pedal. altered the angle of the brake pedal (cut off bottom portion and welded back on at diff angle), did the same to gas pedal.
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the picture is a bit bright but I welded up the 9 injector opening for the coldstart since I am using the 91 ecm that fires all the injectors instead.
cut a piece of t6 aluminum sheet to fit in the opening and welded it in.
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pic of engine sitting back in car with new valve covers and tunedportinjection mocked up.
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Basic1
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If you have any interest in making any more molds of that cowl on your car, hit me up on pm. I'm definitely interested in it's design!!

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TurboSauce
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subbed'

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540sx
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some pics of my new oil cooler

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got some work done on making the cowl out of fiberglass/carbonfiber.

covered my shifter with carbonfiber because the aluminum gets really hot sitting in the sun
and the radio bezel because the surfaced was cracked since I used brake clean on it to chemically clean it. :facepalm:

had to alter my strut bar to clear the TPI intake plenum

customized the radiator hose and welded on a new outlet to the radiator,
radiator is back on with fans and

post pics when they are done.

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ST240
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Really interested to see your cowl and any tips/tricks you have for doing it. I need to make one for my RB30 this winter!

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540sx
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Location: Culver City, Los Angeles

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honestly I would buy one if I could find one that fit my application,
the other thing is if you plan on tracking it and going over 150 the cowl is not a good idea.
apparently at those speeds the high pressure that builds up on windshield forces air into engine bay
and can lift the front end unless the opening is sealed and leads directly into intake manifold.\
I was not aware of this when I started mine. with my new setup I would have just built a bump in the middle and
used the louvers on the sides to let out hot air.

I spent the over a day making just the original metal cowl and reinforcing the hood
since i had cut the support skeleton underneath the skin.
then at least 40 man hours making it look clean , plaster & bondo and sanding.

then came the fiberglass work.
I am new to fiberglass so the only tip there is make sure an use enough resin.
i had read that you should use as little as needed so i did, just kept barely wetting out the material.
when I cut the edge with a grinder it looks fiberous compared to when I cut my TC sportline hood
which looks like it is totally impregnated with resin.
live and learn. I realized that the part I cut was the material that was hanging over , yet to cut back the the lip to original size,
I think i use the right amount actually. :)


Here are some pics of how i went about this if you are determined to make one.

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Last edited by 540sx on Sun Mar 06, 2011 8:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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ST240
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Holy that does seem like a lot of work :/. Know anyone who sells a hood with extra space? I don't think anyone does man...

Did you weld the entire thing or just tack it? Might have to give it a shot lol. Perhaps i could just completely fiberglass something instead of using sheet metal...

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540sx
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ST240 wrote:Holy that does seem like a lot of work :/. Know anyone who sells a hood with extra space? I don't think anyone does man...

Did you weld the entire thing or just tack it? Might have to give it a shot lol. Perhaps i could just completely fiberglass something instead of using sheet metal...
I welded solid which was my mistake, guy a body shop told me I should have tacked and then filled the seams.

I would personally use fiberglass. I was originally going to leave as metal for costs but I warped the $%#^ out of it
welding it solid, also had welded the skeleton to the hood skin where I had cut the skeleton.

keep in mind that using a cowl hood is going to limit your top speed.
with my new engine setup I would just build a small bump for clearance in the front and put some louvers on the sides to let out the heat.
I would like to get my car on a track and see how fast it will go. I have read that using a cowl will start to pressurize the engine bay
at 150+ mph. as long as you don't plan on driving that fast I would not even worry about it.

good luck with your hood

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WDRacing
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Fiberglass and foam ftw. Or just buy a cowl from summit.

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ST240
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Foam to make a form you're saying?

Id like a wide one inch full, low profile cowl. If you can find me a cowl on summit that doesn't scream mullet I'd be happy to buy one lol.

rsagen
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looks good! lots of effort put into this one for sure.

What type of rear end is in the car? My bad if it is covered already. Also if you did use a stock rear end did you have to beef up anything?

ps what you up to with the carb you had on earlier, noticed you went with EFI to pass smog

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WDRacing
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ST240 wrote:Foam to make a form you're saying?

Id like a wide one inch full, low profile cowl. If you can find me a cowl on summit that doesn't scream mullet I'd be happy to buy one lol.
Yeah, use the foam for the form. I hear ya with the mullet cowls :chuckle: But it's ok to have a big cowl if you actually have something that requires it.

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540sx
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got a lot of wiring done,
will be finishing that up soon, pain in the a$$ to get it all in their neatly.
also will be finishing up exhaust soon .
will get more pics this weekend to post.

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540sx
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Location: Culver City, Los Angeles

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some pics of exhaust.

just built from the exhaust manifolds back to the diff. all tacked together.
off the original manifolds, cut off the collectors and changed the routing to go around the steering column and built down to the bellhousing.
y pipe is 2.25 pipe like the original manifolds, into 3 in cat which is legal for a 305 tpi setup(only the 305 came in manual 85-92 firebird/camaro),
3 in goes to 4 oval to spintech muffler.


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stopped here , the bit of exhaust you see past the sway bar is from the original set up,
will be tying into that and adding a 4 in cherry bomb muffler as well, with a bit of 4 in stainless coming out the back.

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TurboSauce
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Nice work!
keep the updates flowing, very interested to see how this turns out.

AndyV8
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Good luck man! Im looking at starting a V8 swap at the end of this year, Ill be following this build! Keep up the good work!

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540sx
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Location: Culver City, Los Angeles

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last weekend I finished all the wiring, vacuum hoses, and all the little stuff before you fire up a car(coolant, oil,etc.).
the starter would work for a few seconds and then not work. the car did not start,
after a while of trying to start the car I heard a loud noise like something popped. not sure what was affected,
but I will hopefully get it worked out this saturday.

I had reused the battery connectors when installing a Moroso sealed plastic battery box in place
of my open mount I had between the rear shock towers.

I cooked the cable ends pretty good trying to solder them.
later I was only getting 11 volts when testing wires to try an figure out what was wrong.
read up on how to do soldering for battery cables and purchased new connectors.

the plug connecting the pick up coil to the ignition module in the distributor I pulled from the junker I bought
was totally corroded and broke apart, after swapping out the ignition module for an Accel one i realized that I did not
remember which wire went where, I tried a guess at where they went (bad idea) , the pick up coil also is rusted like
a sunken tanker, read that the pick up coil being rusted will cause problems.

so I picked up a new distributor from Jegs for 130 ,

need to charge the battery,

hoping with the new cable ends, charged battery and working distributor I will be able to fire up
my new setup this coming weekend.

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540sx
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Location: Culver City, Los Angeles

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It's alive!!!

could only work on it till about 3 today but I got her started,
with the heads, cam, rocker arms, runners, air foil, bigger injectors for the turbo,
it is far from tuned but it started,
I had this car running about two years ago and then found out i could not register it as a specially constructed vehicle.
since then I had a baby and have had to tear it back down, pulled the motor and installed all the necessary smog equipment to make it
a legal engine swap.
I used to work 16-24 hours a weekend on this to get it built initially.
with the rebuild I took off 4 months for my newborn baby girl and then i get two days a month about 8 hours a day.

I will post a video once I get it idling decent. just had time to fire it up today and it died after about 20 seconds.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel finally.:)

aries240ss
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Car: 1995 240SX 396 LT1
2011 Camaro SS

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Your build looks good!
Congrats on getting her up and running.

240hatchsx
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Yeah 540sx very nice build I've just now seen this build tread and this might just change my mind from going to a big v8 instead of a boosted ka. Also wish they still sold those headlights that u have and really think that spoiler u custom made it's awesome

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540sx
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Location: Culver City, Los Angeles

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thanks, one problem with the wing is it weighs like 20 lbs or so. all metal.

if i could go back I would have done a ls1 with a procharger,
100% street legal in cali if done right and awesome power and it fits under the stock hood.

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maik21
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we need some video of car idleing or runnig. !! its good to know you finally see light at end of tunnel.

what ecu are installed on this car?

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540sx
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Car: 240SX
Location: Culver City, Los Angeles

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just got a new camera so I will try and remember to take a vid of idle and part throttle next weekend.

using the 7730 ecu for a 91 camaro got this
http://www.moates.net/apu1-autoprom-pac ... l?cPath=64
to tune it with using tunerproRT.


using $8d code for now to get car legal but will switch over to the $59 modified version of the syclone code(designed for boosted vehicles)
when I put a turbo back on it.


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