Was it between the lower plenum and heads or the fuel rail and lower plenum. You don't use gasket maker on the fuel rail. The oem seals will seal better than the gasket maker and the oem seals isolate the rail from the lower plenum.

Between the intake and fuel rail but not a problem anyone not racing will encounter, the rest is not for here, please check your email

more pics and captions for update


Accessories and belts installed


How old alternator/trans harness used to look


Fixed up


5 spd trans cleaned up


Wire tuck completed


New bracket made for PTU and EFI harness connectors




How stock oil pan looks inside


Cutting baffle kit down to size


Baffle kit assembeled


Baffle kit installed pernamently


J30 stock motor mount, Z1 Poly urethane 300zx mount, 300zx stock mount


Cut a 3rd section between the other mounting holes for the J30 mount to make the 300zx mount fit. Also made a plate to fit in and reinforce the subframe.


Motor ready to go in


Motor in


Pic with motor mount and 300zx oil tree


Underside of motor mount

Nice work!

Whats the timeline for getting it finished?

well just went to pay tuition for summer classes and Pell Grant here in GA is paying for everything and I am getting some extra cash so I now have more money up front to put in to the project since i saved to pay for Summer classes out of pocket. probably gonna go ahead and start getting front suspension squared away. then buy springs after next paycheck. last part is this intake project. so hopefully by end of the summer. already ordered some oil filter relocation pieces from summit and they should be here today. have to wait until the 17th for the premade AN-8 PTFE lines. friend is also trying to find a urethane trans mount for me to use.

my Dad is having surgery this week and just found out this morn so probably not gonna do much on it next few days.

Really havent done much since both my Dad's parents have passed away in the past two months and been helping the family more than working on my car. Really only thing I have done is finish routing all the sound system wiring and installing 7" flip out touch screen DVD player. After Z Nationals my weekends will be freed up and can get back to finishing this car up. Working on it though is a good way to give my mind a break from all the craziness here.

Enjoyed looking at this thread. You really had humpty dumpty all in pieces. I would be worried I couldn't put it back together again. Doing the timing belt on mine was hard enough. The poor thing needs more attention than I can give it.

yah its been a lot of work for sure. now that my life is slowly returning to normal, i can finish the intake and suspension. then its back on the road.

swimshark wrote:yah its been a lot of work for sure. now that my life is slowly returning to normal, i can finish the intake and suspension. then its back on the road.

It's sweet though. Are those the original seats? Did you have them re-upholstered or what did you do? My driver side seat needs some work as there are two holes in the leather (I have a seat cover over it) and I'm not sure what to do, but what you did has me curious.


Also, do you think you could weigh in on my question here:

fuel-hose-replacement-how-many-feet-t580902.html

Thanks Swimshark.

thanks. i cant wait for the final product. they are 350z cloth seats.

still working on it slowly. have electrical system up and running. got sound system installed and tuned. hopefully getting plenum welded up soon and then can focus on suspension up front. Been doing some TLC to my E28 535i so havent messed with the J30 lately. Another idea in the works is doing Audi coil packs and deleting the PTU.





Removed EGR and since i am deleting the balance tube off the top of the motor, i am maintaining balance for the plenum and adding vacuum ports. This suystem just mounts where the EGR used to be.

Hoooooly crap. I have not been on here in so long, I forgot I had an account.

I must say, swimshark, your project is nothing short of mind-boggling. I am very impressed. Please keep us all updated; this is pure inspiration material.

Here are some updated pics of the engine bay

Hey man I just want to say that your build totally inspired me to buy a J of my own. Awesome work you do !
Have you ever thought about doing a Vh45de swap in the near future?

Hey swim shark...have a quick question. What kind of front lowering springs did u put on the j30.