280z that replaced the TT

[makaofox]

Taking my block to my friends shop on wednesday. Its going to be a very slow process since the holiday's are coming up people tend to be drunk and not do work lol. Which I rather prefer drunk and no work than drunk and work haha. He is going to send it out to a machine shop and hoefully she will look as good as new I told him to buy what he needs because he has dealer discounts that are awesome! So since the motor will be away, I will work on the roll cage, brakes, and gas tank.

[makaofox]

Update!

Well its been awhile, sent out my motor to be built by JDS Motoring in port reading, New Jersey. He is a really good friend of mine and he is doing the work for a great price, so I couldnt resist building up the motor to a respectable status. All I really wanted were 280zx flat tops the rest 280z parts, so 200hp should be within my expected output in the end.

Brought a silver mine rear disk kit and some pieces for the front to complete it like ss lines and the spacers. Finished the driver side front and that was cake. Got to the passenger side and the disk needs to be surfaced as it has a high point -____-. The front is basically done, the rear isnt going to be hard but its a a pain with the parking brake lol.


^ Driver side, looks soo pretty.

^ SS line is serious business!

^ Passenger side, with the disk that needs to be cut a bit to even it out.

^ Passenger side, it already had ss lines but they were weak sauce for the new set up.



^ The old icky front brakes. Gotta say they are pretty nice, but they dont compare to the 4x4 calipers and z31 vented disks.


^ The devils work lol. This sucker has to be cut in order to fit the rear disks. It wasnt that bad.

^ All the nonsense of the driver side rear. Those drum covers put up a SERIOUS a** battle! I hammered the driver side so hard it split in half! The passenger side came off like butter.

^ Passenger side hub, with the back plate still on it. Hammer it a few times to loosen it off the hub and then cut away with a sawzal VERY CAREFULLY.

^ The rear goodies! This kit is serious. Its expensive but worth it! Edan is a very good guy. (messed up my order though :/ I wanted NO drilled/slotted disks just regular. But its all good, I dont intend to track the z yet.

^ Calipers come off a ford cobra I think, the year is 2010?

^ss brake lines, my rubber ones were shot!

Painted my cage, its REALLY hard with it still in the car. So hard I have drips galore lol. I dont care though, as long as it doesnt rust again. Im going to sand it and give it another coat and then clean up everything else. Since part of the interior is now red lol. Some area's of the cage are ON the body of the car, I cant even get a thin piece of paper between the body and the cage. This was a nice cage but man did they do a tight job.





These guys are still waiting to be united with their best bud mr.L28 T___T. Hopefully I get the motor in January, as by then I'll have the brakes all done, and the gas tank back up. All I need is a hose for the gas tank and a master cylinder from a 79-81 280zx. I can get one but its almost impossible to get another or even a rebuild kit!

This is how she sits now, waiting...

[makaofox]

Hey guys small update:
Still waiting on my motor, going either tomorrow or tuesday to talk price as he is assembling it.

Working on all the bushing I did the Front control arms, radius rod (found that it was already upgraded to a ball and socket upgrade so only needed to use one poly bushing), I did the mustache bar, trans mount and im waiting to see if I should do the sway bar end links. Since I have a different set up might not even use it. The whole bushing install went smoothly but its tiresome!

Some pics of the mustache bar

and then when I cleaned it up:


Im thinking about getting a diff mount the GM one, I heard they were like $20.

Prepared some of the parts I took out and painted them.

I got a 5sp from a local guy and its pretty nice, I brought brass bushings for it:

^ $5 for though and one fits like a glove and this

Is the nylon piece, mine looked worn so I replaced it for $15.

After installing the bushing and the nylon piece I put it on the trans and DEAR LORD the transformation is night and day! I cant drive the z yet but I know she will feel good while shifting, none of that typical sloppiness.


What she looks like with the spacers and wheels. Plan on getting xxr 002 15x9 all around to hold me over. I might sell these panasports.

All thats left at this moment is adjust my MC (wilwood 1in mc) bleed the brakes, add fluid to the diff and transmission, and drop in the motor.

[makaofox]

Update:

Well super excited my motor got back from being professionally hi-temp painted and should be in assembly this week in time for my spring break next week!

What have I been doing thus far is learning that my z used to be a automatic, that they swapped over to a manual. Which means I have the smaller diff an R180. Cracking that open I learned that it is infact a welded diff. So fo now I put some oil in it a blend of lucus oil (Which is thick as a mother!) and a generic blend of 75w-140. I am putting the same blen into my 5sp transmission, once I replace the output shaft seal.

I Ordered a crap load of stuff!
Wheels: XXR 002 in red 15x9 all around, 0+ offset.
Tires: FALKEN ZIEX ZE-512 205/50/15 all around (has a nice stretch too them, nothing crazy)
zg fender flares
bre style spoiler
front spacers: 15mm
Rolled all 4 fenders and what a PAIN in the toosh that was! Paint chipped even though the heat gun was applied properly. Its ok and then a chunk fell off because it had bondo. Im not mad, just painted it black for now to prevent it from rusting.

Now onto the pics!



^ Tires new that I ordered from ebay. Not a bad deal.





^ Looks SO much better than what I had thought, it really compliments the cage.


^ Thats the reason why I need a 15mm spacer lol! 15 is a bit excessive but I need something with studs. It should push it out a nice bit and will look great with the zg flares.








^ The area where the bondo came off. Looks like the tire ripped into it and totally Fed it up lol. They did good covering it up.





^ Cant wait till she is on the ground!
Here are some of the old panasports, still trying to sell them. I had a few bites.






I loved the old wheels but compared to the panasports the xxr's are so much nicer and surprisingly so much lighter! 16lbs each!!

Now what's left is to
Find a front air dam like the 240z style thats urethane.
Find 240z turn signals.
Buy muffler and make a 3in exhaust setup.
Im sure I will find out more things as the motor comes in.

[evildky]

why get 9' wheels for 6" of tire? I was test fitting some 275's on 9" 949 racing wheels on my MR2 today, which is 10" of tire on a 9" wheel (they are built similar to the cantilevers)

[makaofox]

why get 9' wheels for 6" of tire? I was test fitting some 275's on 9" 949 racing wheels on my MR2 today, which is 10" of tire on a 9" wheel (they are built similar to the cantilevers)

Well to put it simply, I wanted them to have a stretch to fit under the fender. Granted I now realize I could have went 225 and would have still been fine. I also got a deal with these tires but these are not going to be abused or tracked. These simply are daily wheels to get around. Once I go through these tires ill already have my zg flares and installed for beefier tires and wheels.

[makaofox]

Well been waiting forever for my motor and its STILL not here!

So in the mean time, I shaved my front passenger rotor which had a very high spot. Paid like $11 to fix that at a shop and they did a good job, it has a high spot still but nothing crazy, Its alot more manageable. Still gotta bleed my brakes but think ill do that once the motor is in.

Put some foam on the roll cage as I KNOW I will be hitting it a few times lol.

Then my air dam, spoiler and zg flares came in. Mocked up the flares and spoiler today.



240z xenon urethane airdam. Didnt have the fenders bolted up but it came with all the hardware, so thats going to be a blast to try and fit. I think ill have to reinforce the bottom too as it looks to me in high speed it will be flimsy. So I might just make an aluminum splitter just to prevent it from flexing. Still on the lookout for a decent pair of 240z turn signals. I think im going to keep the 280z grill and turn signals for awhile not sure yet. Here is a pic to help you see what I mean..




Mocked up the spoiler that was easy, doesnt fit 100% but I dont expect it too. Not sure if I should give it that space from the edge of the hatch or get it right up against the hatch? Opinions??








^ Gap or no gap?

Got 4 zg flares from ebay made from fiber glass. They dont fit 100% either and I didnt expect them too but they look nice. I think im going to paint them black, along with the spoiler. I still need the rubber welting. it came with the hardware to bolt it up. I think they will look great with the wheels but I dont want to do the flares just yet. I think Im going to wait until the winter to do them.












^ They are taped and I already maked the area of which to drill. I still need to mark where to cut and then I would have to weld them back together. Again I taped it but I think I will hold off on doing them, not sure 100%. It depends how the motor goes in and how anxious I am to drive lol.

[makaofox]

Well went to the shop that is doing my motor, and all it needs are 6 stupid little springs T_T. They are really retainer clips and a few gaskets and then she can be done. If the part arrives next week itll be done next week.

Here is a pic of it so far, the block is going to be painted silver:


In the mean time me and my buddy wanted to do something to make the car stiffer. So We welded a strut tower bar in the far to look like this:

And here is our result, its still not done, need to grind it down reweld a smother bead and paint it.



I have a question about my seatbelt position. Is this an OK SAFE set up? To mee it looks safe and it came like this when I brought it.


Last but not least ordered me a red ZCCNV shirt To add to my z collection.

[makaofox]

I brought some euro tail lights for the z and installed them today. I love the euro tails, they give it a bit more of a modern touch Enjoy:





v stockies are for sale $200 + 12 shipping.




What I added better pic:

euro tail also for sale, not the best condition:


[/

[makaofox]

Welp got my motor yesterday 6/1 and after a 6month long wait, I was eager to swap it in that day. Pretty much it was straight forward, with all the goofing around and lolz we had still only took us 12hrs to do. Now all that is left is to get a starter, perhaps and alternator because I would assume it would be stot as well and maybe (but im really hoping not) a distributor. If it turns out my alt is bad I think im going to upgrade to the 86-94 maxima 90amp alternators, just to have that extra 30amp coverage.

Now today just have to wire it up, bleed the brakes and then see what breaks lol.

Oh warning and I learned my lesson: Do not fill the trans BEFORE you install her, she WILL leak all over the place! I learned the hard way thinking 'Oh should be so much easier since its out the car' NOPE! All I did was make a huge mess 4x! Had to put serveral gloves to save myself from slipping and dying -___-. Lesson well learned its easier just to do it and suffer under the car lol.

ANOTHER LESSON: THE MOTOR MOUNTS HAVE A SPECIFIC LOCATION. The driver side with the intake and exhaust manifold has the longer mount while the passanger side with the spark plugs has the shorter mount. DO NOT CONFUSE THEM. Lucky we caught it early on and didnt suffer to much, but it was a pain to switch them.

peekchure time!:

^ My friend jon's 2012 speed3, fully bolted and big turbo. Pretty did it all at my house lol. Thing is a pain in the a**, I like the z better.




^ we were scared the headers would get in the way of the trans, but it cleared. I love the headers, still dont have an exhaust though.


^ 5speed trans.



^ Both mated together.

^ The mounts DONT MIX THEM UP. As you can see the difference.

^ Almost seated!


^ Shes staying that way! Open headers! :burnout:

^ Shes in!


^ Jon is happy its in, after a 6 month long wait for this dam motor lol.

^ Now to finish it up and get it running soon for the June 17th Nissan meet here in middletown,nj