Alex's 260Z 2+2

[alex_260z]

Hi, Bought these two Z's in early 2014, this has been my progress since then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The guy wanted $3k for both cars which was a bit steep, but after some haggling managed to get him down to $2600 which I thought wasnt too bad for a car with walkin rego plates and a spare shell

 

Got started on stripping out the interior of the car which was quite waterlogged.

 

 

 

After a lot of broken bolts and blowtorch persuasion the front end came off.

 

 

 

And then the rear lights and garnish

 

Thought id try start the thing given the guy who sold it said it kind of ran. Managed to start it a few times and seemed to run fairly smooth, no strange noises or knocks. 

 

 Few pics of the rust that was cut out of the thing. Some creative paper mache repairs from the previous owner :-)

 

 

Bog fixes all problems... Seal panel had quite a bit of weight to it

 

 

 

Found a couple surprises when tearing down the engine.Had been rebuild previouslly with new 40 thou overbored pistons and oversized bearings at some point in time. 

 

Had a look at the inside and it was pretty sludged up. One of the rod journals was scored and the bearing looked like it had spun.

 

Tore down the engine and cleaned it out. Fitted some new welch plugs after cleaning out the coolant passages. Couldn't find the turquoise kind of colour it originally comes in so just gave it a spray in ford blue lol

 

 

Sent the engine off to have the crank regrinded and bores honed.

 

Ordered a bunch of new engine parts while I was at it. Got a set of flat top,new rings, clutch kit, electronic 280ZX distributor, new water pump. Full gasket kit and new Leads

 

Chucked in a set of kings.

 

As both cars were previously automatics I had two auto pedal boxes. Managed to take both auto pedal and trim them down, fitting them into the one pedal box. Spacing between them wasn't too bad but the footrest is pretty useless now.

 

Finished the metal work on the front end in the past few weeks and sealed it with a gloss black enamel which later came off. Turns out it liked to react when coming in contact with pretty much anything.

 

Some of my dodgy fabrication skills.

 

Also fitted a rear spoiler of eBay that was sold as a 240Z/260Z item, as per usual with fibreglass parts it wasn't even close to fitting so have had to take a bit off. Im guessing it might have fit alright on a 2 seater.

 

Engine came back from the machinist.

 

 

The crank and rod journal were ground down to fit 040 oversized bearings as it had already been rebuilt to oversized bearings in the past.

 

Cleaned the block up installed the main bearings and then dropped the crank in, only to find it didn't fit.

Pulled it out and noticed the thrust bearings were too large for the crank. Looks like the engine machinist didn't account for the thrust also being oversized on the center main bearing.

The weight of the crank damaged the thrust surface of the bearing. 

 

 

Used a piece of glass and slowly brought the side of the main bearing down to create clearance. This took a few days of going back and forth checking tolerances.

 

My potato camera can't focus properly but you can kind of still see the ridge the crank made.

 

 

Crank finally in with the correct end play checked.

 

Scored some spare rods out of an l28 patrol from upullit for $13 a piece. To replace the damaged rod that had a spun bearing.

 

Got to work on de-gunking and prepping the head

 

All cleaned up and valves lapped. New stem seals installed

 

 

Had a spare head with a c grind cam so chucked that cam and valve-train in for now 

 

Short block with 40thou oversize 240z flattops and ARP head studs

 

Head on the block and setting the timing

 

Chucked on a few bits and pieces painted for a mockup to see what it looked like

 

Came to the conclusion that  I wanted to do an efi setup and learn how it all works. So purchased a Megasquirt 2 DIY kit from DIYautotune and assembled it. Few days of soldering later.

 

Seemed to talk to my PC fine after assembling and plugging it in, so here's hoping it actually runs the car.

Managed to grab this intake manifold for a 6 pack. He even chucked in a turbo sump, rocker cover and fuel rail with injectors.

 

How it sat

 

And a shot of the reacted paint from my attempt at doing it in enamel

 

Stripped majority of the engine bay paint back and sprayed it again with a duplicolor quick dry enamel this time, thankfully no more reacting.

 

Ordered a chrome-moly flywheel from the US after finding out the last I bought wasnt for a L engine (almost a vg30e but seems like a smaller diameter surface?)

 

Chucked the engine and gearbox together to drop into the car to do some of the wiring and start welding up the exhaust.

 

 

 

 

 

Had a wrx 2.5" mid section in the shed with a resonator that will be making up part of the exhaust. Seems to clear the ground and tailshaft fine.

 

Also made an attempt at a strut brace for the rear. Still needs a tidy up with the dremel. Cheap plasma cutter didnt cut very cleanly through thick steel

 

Rebuilt the front calipers and master which seemed to be pretty ceased up with varnish. Bores looked good thankfully. (Excuse the potato photos)

 

 

Gearbox came out and new chomemoly flywheel and clutch went in. Lost the original flywheel bolts so bought ARP ones.

 

Looked like I had the wrong sized collar for the pressure plate. At full extension of the slave cylinder pin only just pushes the clutch fork enough for the throwout bearing to touch the pressure plate.

 

Ended up making an adaptor plate to move the slave cylinder closer to the clutch fork.

 

Also made a start on the megasquirt wiring and kick panel plate.

 

 

Datsun 1200 shifter kinda fits the 260z. Ended up bending it into shape, at a later date.

 

 

 

More parts arrived to go in. Bought an alloy rad with twin thermos as the old one turned out to be stuffed. Fins were coming off when I ran my finger against it.

 

Also got the surge tank and fittings.

 

As well as a rep hks pod to go with the intake setup

 

Managed to grab this set of Advan ADA 360/460s for $220.

 

Bit of oxidisation, but polishing up alright.

 

 

Will definitely need some larger tires. The current 185/60/14s are a bit too small for the size of the car. Will probably end up going with the original sized tires for the car so that it fills the guards a bit better.

 

Started putting together the fuel system for the engine.

Drilled and installed a few fittings into some fuel rail extrusion.

 

Made up a wiring loom for the injectors using some updated plugs from a later model pulsar, which you can kind of see the final product of in 3rd photo below.

 

 

 

This will be replacing the ugly looking old rail.

 

With this one that is a bit tidier.

 

Started removing the old paint with crows feet and resealing it.

 

 

Chucked some high-fill on the roof which showed up a few small dents that I have been filling.

 

Anyway, managed to get the surge tank mounted under the car the correct way round using some custom made brackets. 

 

In the process I also made a plate for holding the other hardware like the tank filter, lift pump and high pressure pump.

 

To make room I had to remove the existing fuel pump brackets.

 

First up made some cardboard templates to get an idea of how it was going to work.

 

This one bracket above mounted to the original fuel pump assembly bolt location.

 

Next part was a plate to hold the tank and other hardware.

 

 

I was happy with how they looked and transferred them to metal. Excuse my crap welding skills, probably should have removed more paint from the steel.

 

 

 

Needed one more bracket to hold the opposite side steady. Repeated the process and eventually ended up with this.

 

 

 

Started replacing all the front end bushings, wheel bearings and tie rod ends. 

 

Pulled everything off the front of the car.

Not that you can make much from the photo but everything was covered in this mess.

 

 

Everything rubber was disintegrated. Looks like they never replaced anything

 

 

Started with stripping the grease and rust off everything and painting it black.

 

 

Installed new ball joints

 

 

Also fitted new LCA bushes, steering rack bushes and tie rod ends.

 

Bought some HEL lines as the originals were beyond stuffed.

[blu260z]

Hi alex really nice work there mate. When I was looking for my 260z I stumbled into these cars aswell. I had a look and decided it was to much work and hassel, but very glad someone snapped them up. What Did you end up doing with the orange car ? Also what spoiler are you running on the 2+2?

 

Chris

[PB260Z]

Gidday,

 

You have been busy. Reading through all that you have done I get the impression that you are doing absolutely everything yourself. What colour are thinking of for body work ?.

 

Cheers

 

PB

[alex_260z]

Hi alex really nice work there mate. When I was looking for my 260z I stumbled into these cars aswell. I had a look and decided it was to much work and hassel, but very glad someone snapped them up. What Did you end up doing with the orange car ? Also what spoiler are you running on the 2+2?

 

Chris

Hi Chris,

 

Have kept the orange car undercover with plans of maybe building it up as a track car. I had originally thought about swapping everything onto the orange car as it looked like it might have been in better shape, but it will either need the front end straightened up or be converted to a tube front as the collision has brought one of the strut towers inward slightly.

 

The spoiler I'm running is this one here from memory http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DATSUN-240Z-260Z-REAR-BOBTAIL-SPOILER-/231315801779?hash=item35db7f06b3:g:ZwIAAOxyUgtTKqKr

 

It needed quite a lot of trimming on the ends to avoid it hitting the shoulder of the car when closing the boot, but that's to be expected of cheap fibreglass parts I guess.

 

 

Gidday,

 

You have been busy. Reading through all that you have done I get the impression that you are doing absolutely everything yourself. What colour are thinking of for body work ?.

 

Cheers

 

PB

Hi PB,

 

That has been my goal for the car to try and do everything possible myself. Wanted to do something a bit more challenging then the previous Nissans I had rebuilt this time round.

 

The colour i'm thinking of painting it is the 918 240Z orange.

 

Regards,

Alex

 

 

 

[blu260z]

When I looked at the two cars I was going to strip the orange car for its parts and sell or scrap it. But I had nowhere to store 2 cars and the girlfriend would have cracked it . Thanks for the info on the spoiler alex I will definitely keep it in mind. Its good when you can say (I) built the car from a rusty old wreck

[red76z]

Nice work mate. That is the same rear spoiler that I bought from eBay.

It is made to suit the 240Z as they are narrower than the 260z 2+2 so a bit of a mod is required. Keep up with the post's.

[blu260z]

Alex and Red76z how did you secure the spoiler to the hatch? I have heard some bolt but some sikaflex them or is there another way ?

[alex_260z]

Alex and Red76z how did you secure the spoiler to the hatch? I have heard some bolt but some sikaflex them or is there another way ?

Havent mounted mine properly yet but was thinking of making some metal brackets and using some sort of adhesive to stick them to the inside of the spoiler as it is hollow. That would at least give it a flat surface on the bottom that I could install a nutsert to. Could then drill a few holes in the boot and bolt it down.

[alex_260z]

An update of the past month or so.

 

Car is now in high fill, with all the rust having been cut out and repaired. Made a start on sanding out scratches and making everything flat.

 

Made up some replacements for the front guard mudflaps, using a sheet of rubber from Bunnings.

 

Have also been working with the Megasquirt to get the car running. Majority of the wiring has been done minus the crank trigger.

 

For the coolant temp and air temp sensors I used VT commodore coolant sensors.

 

For the TPS I used one that was from a later model pulsar from memory (PN: A71-601 T00), after realising that the TPS that came with a 280ZX and a Y30 one I had lying around were both switches rather than potentiometers. To make this fit the 280ZX throttle body I made some short sections of metal with a hole on either end to adapt the two together.

 

Switch Style - Doesnt work with MS

 

Potentiometer Style - Works with MS

 

My plan is to control fuel-only first using the Megasquirt. Ignition will be controlled by a 280ZX electronic dizzy. Once that is working and I familiarize myself with tuning it, the plan is to control ignition as well.

 

I attempted to get the signal for firing the injectors of the negative side of the coil but this didnt work. Im guessing I wired the jumpers inside the ECU incorrectly. So instead I've got with a Trigger wheel from EFI hardware and crank angle sensor from an EF falcon.
 

 

The wideband controller I purchased was an APSX wideband DIY board with a Bosch LSU4.2, but it is proving troublesome to calibrate as it uses a magnet rather than a push button for some reason.

 

 

Thinking of replacing it with a TechEdge DIY controller.

 

Once I have a working EFI setup and have a better idea of what I'm doing I might put together a write-up for a budget Megasquirt setup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alex_260z]

Gave up on the APSX wideband and purchased the TechEdge 2Y2 wideband controller. Took 6 or so hours to assemble the PCB + another 2hrs to assemble the cable, but quality looks a million times better than the APSX, yet try it though.

 

Fitted the 36-1 trigger wheel to where the external pulley would usually go on the r30 harmonic balancer. The Ford Crank angle sensor is mounted using a custom bracket made out of box section and angle iron. This bolts to where aircon would usually go I'm pretty sure.

 

Have since painted the body and installed the windscreen using some rope.

 

 

Still have to do the doors, guards, and all the small bits like the inspection flaps, headlight cones etc.

 

Painted the spare boot I had black for now while I fix the rust in my other which will be orange with a black wing.

 

While trying to get the car to start the original starter started shooting sparks then eventually died.

Swapped it over for an R31 starter. Found this one at the wreckers and was slightly larger than the other r31 starters. Part number mentioned GTS1, GTS2 so might be larger for the higher compression on them. Straight bolt-up as I found mentioned on another post here, with no issues.

 

 

 

[alex_260z]

Made some minor progress over the past few months as have been busy with fixing my Brumby.

 

Had trouble with mounting the trigger wheel in a way that it wouldn't jump out of balance.

 

Solved this by using an l24e crank pulley as it has a very larger back face.

 

I chucked the trigger wheel in my desktop scanner and scaled the image to the same diameter of the pulley face.

 

Then printed this out and cut the shape of the wheel out to leave the teeth.

 

This template was then glued lightly to the back face of the pulley and painted over with a rattle can.

 

 

This left the pattern of which I needed to cut out. Using both a grinder and dremel each tooth was cut out leaving me with a single piece pulley and trigger wheel.

 

 

Also scored what appear to be c10 skyline mirrors from a swap meet for $20. At least looks closer to original than the eBay set.

 

 

 

Other than that, have just been preparing the front panels for paint

Edited September 28, 2016 by alex_260z

[alex_260z]

Experimented with nickel plating some of the brackets and small bits in the engine bay. Finish came out reasonably well but could do with some better prep.

 

Cut a coke bottle in half and filled it with a vinegar/salt solution.

 

Used an old PC power supply to get a 5v DC source. Then connected some nickel strips I bought off eBay for a dollar or so to the positive end.

 

The part was connected to the negative and left for a few hours.

Some of the results:

 

Edited October 3, 2016 by alex_260z

[zeds4ever]

Great work Alex & congrats on your ingenuity mate ,very clever. Can't wait to see your handy work when I come over .

 

                                   Regards : Alan.

[alex_260z]

Great work Alex & congrats on your ingenuity mate ,very clever. Can't wait to see your handy work when I come over .

 

                                   Regards : Alan.

Thanks Alan

 

 

Managed to find this 280z airbox from the US via eBay which will be used in place of the pod filter to keep things tidier. Postage was a little pricey but a few can be found around the $150 mark Inc postage.

 

 

Painting more front end panels

[ilbert]

That nickel plating looks great.

[alex_260z]

That nickel plating looks great.

For something that only cost a few dollars, it turned out a lot better than I expected.

 

 

Have been playing around with drawing a few bits I'm missing, so that I can 3D print them.

So far have made up a base for the fender mirrors, started on a pillar badge and have also made a speaker grill.

 

Links for anyone interested in grabbing a copy to modify or print.

 

Mirror base for C10 mirrors. EBay thinks it should suit 240z/260z

 

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1836873

 

Speaker grill for 260Z 2+2

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1836822

 

Pillar badge, haven't yet put a logo in the centre and a few features that differ slightly.

 

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1836840

[alex_260z]

Also managed to fit the 280z air box to the engine bay. Some minor trimming of the rad support was required to sit it in the same place.

 

 

The two required holes required to mount the box are pre-drilled but covered by an alternative panel.

 

 

It was simply a case of drilling the hole put completely. Then a nutsert was used in each of the holes.

 

 

Photos of it fitted

 

[alex_260z]

Been a bit of time since last update. A lot of work done to get the car in a roadworthy state for All Japan Day in Adelaide over the weekend.

 

Made some changes to the EFI setup again and ended up going with an 83 280ZXT Optical distributor. Using this setup I managed to get a much cleaner signal than I was previously getting with the trigger wheel. This also required that I purchase a 280ZXT oil pump spindle to match the dizzy. I did see some mention on a very old post that the end of the dizzy could be pressed out and swapped to suit the old style spindle but this is not the case. Only the outer shell separates from the dizzy when pressing out the roll pin.

 

Installed a VT commodore idle control stepper valve using a proflow idle block. This allows you to use 2x AN fittings to run flexible hose between the intake manifold and the intake pipe

 

 

Made up a 2.25 exhaust setup using a magnaflow muffler and one of the spiral baffled resonators off eBay. Can say that this style of resonator makes a massive difference in comparison to the subaru standard resonator I previously was using.

 

The setup isn't too loud (definately below SA limit of 96db) but will definately be installing some sound deadening/underlay material beneath the carpet to try and reduce cabin noise as much as possible.

 

Car as it sits at the moment

 

Still a bit of work to go.

-Currently doesnt have a boot seal and the fumes in cabin are pretty unbearable so have ordered that off eBay.

-Will be retrimming the seats using covers I bought from Interior Innovations in US. I also found a cheap source for injection moulded foam inserts via Summit Racing.Will dig up the part number when I get around to buying them.

-Needs a few pieces of carpet cut

-Further tuning. Have used ignition table and AFR from posts I have seen on HybridZ which seem to run reasonable enough. Will need to do some research into tuning theory to better understand what I am doing first.

-Install central locking immobilizer etc

-Tidy up the engine bay wiring and remove redundant wiring from previous trigger setups.

 

Maybe later on down the track will change out dizzy cap and trigger wheel to DIY auto tune wheel so that I can run a coil on plug setup.

[PB260Z]

Also managed to fit the 280z air box to the engine bay. Some minor trimming of the rad support was required to sit it in the same place.

Hi

 

I did exactly the same on my Bus, well truthfully Lurch did the fitting while I did some wiring. Using the 280Z unit gives a factory look. What element did you install ?

 

Cheers

 

PB

Edited March 1, 2017 by PB260Z

[alex_260z]

Hi PB, sorry for delay in replying. I found it is the same as the z31 300zx part no a345. Got it for $12.50 from Supercheap's part finder online, but in store it's around $45 for some reason.

 

Alex

[PB260Z]

Hi PB, sorry for delay in replying. I found it is the same as the z31 300zx part no a345. Got it for $12.50 from Supercheap's part finder online, but in store it's around $45 for some reason.

Alex

Hi Alex

 

No worries about taking your time to reply, we all busy.

Thanks for advice on the A345, you have saved me some reseach.

Not sure if I will Ryco or another brand but now I have an Aus market baseline.

 

Cheers

 

PB

[alex_260z]

After a spending countless hours tuning and tweaking the EFI setup the ECU decided to die on me as far as I can tell(stuck in a reboot loop).

 

Decided to take the easier path and go with a triple carb setup.

 

I purchased a Kameari manifold and linkage kit from rhdjapan and solex addhe's off an alfa via eBay.

 

For the fuel setup I have ordered the Nismo high flow pump 17010-A7601 which mounts up to the original cradle.

 

 

Installing the manifold I did have some issues with it interfering with my thermostat housing which required a bit of trimming to resolve the clearance issues.

 

Purchased a set of velocity stacks of AliExpress for $70 which turned out to be of awful quality in terms of plating. I managed to obtain a partial refund so it doesn't really bother me as it will all be sitting within an airbox.

 

I also purchased ball style throttle levers to match the manifold's linkages. These ended up being for the wrong side of the carburettor so the components will need to be drilled out and welded to the opposite side of the plates.

 

 

The airbox will likely mock the s20 style with the filter being remote in the 280z usdm airbox. A box will be fabricated that encloses the velocity stacks runs air through the filter at the front of the car

Edited September 5, 2017 by alex_260z

[alex_260z]

A few pics of the box setup.

 

Made up using a sheet of cold roll steel ($20) + engine enamel ($10) +cost of mig wire/gas

 

[Cozza]

Nice work. I like it.

I notice screw fixings along the top edge but what did you use along the hard to get to bottom edge?

Also, have you plumbed the crankcase breather into the box?

 

10 points!!

[alex_260z]

Nice work. I like it.

I notice screw fixings along the top edge but what did you use along the hard to get to bottom edge?

Also, have you plumbed the crankcase breather into the box?

 

10 points!!

Used speed nuts across top, sides and bottom and then a screws through them. Bit tricky to do up the bottom side. I would probably recommend using some sort of clip arrangement instead though to make it easier to remove.

 

Bent up a piece of pipe the same diameter as the breather and welded to the top of the box to plumb the crankcase and keep it as legal as possible.