jtpaintballwdp's '70 240z build thread
 

I know I know, this thread is useless with out pics, hopefully this weekend I'll snap a few.

So my first car was a '82 280zx, I loved the car, and had hopes of restoring it blah blah blah, if you want details its in my build thread over on MT.net. Long story short, didn't have time/money so it rotted faster than I could work on it.

I originally wanted a 240z as my first car, but that never worked out.

Now I have my own garage, and my dad is giving me a really good deal on a '70 240z (one of about 4 he has in his garage). The car has been sitting for 10+ years, so it needs work, but before it sat, he removed all traces of rust, and its been sitting inside.

Short term goals:

Go over brakes and drive train
Get car road worthy and out of my parents garage in to mine (2hrs away)

Long term goals:

Redo entire interior
L28et swap
Mega Squirt (probably going to bug Scott on this one)
Suspension/brake upgrades
strengthen chassis
moar powah

Pics to come after the weekend. Although it wont be much, as I said its been collecting dust for 10+ years.

Such a sexy car, pics damnit.

I will get some this weekend! Ill take a few shots of the other he has too, keep in mind the one I am picking up is the best of the 4 Zs he has...

Here are a few shots of the Z. These pics make it look worse than it actually is.

Didn't have time to actually work on it this weekend. I will be going back down to my parents house on Sunday to try and get it running, hopefully just needs new gas, battery and oil (possibly a carb cleaning)

The main thing is that its 99% rust free, little surface rust, and battery tray is all there is. All the missing parts are around my parents house. More pics to come this weekend after its running!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294795278/http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294795278/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/34518940@N03/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294794972/http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294794972/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/34518940@N03/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294794150/http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294794150/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/34518940@N03/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294793336/http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294793336/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/34518940@N03/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294792766/http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294792766/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/34518940@N03/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294986828/http://www.flickr.com/photos/34518940@N03/7294986828/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/34518940@N03/, on Flickr

Retro, so the miata got put on the back burner didn't it?

I wish I could say no, but I am not going to have the money to do both. :sad2:

Yea ik what you mean, do I spy an 8track.

That's entirely possible. I want to say its just an AM/FM though. I wasn't paying too much attention to it.

Don't swap a good orig motor out of such a nice car. Squirt that one but don't swap it.

Well, the nice thing about the L28et is that its nothing more than a bored/stroked, lower compression L24 with a snail hanging off one side, and fuel injection. I'm really not worried about it being a "numbers matching" car or anything like that. I also haven't decided what i want to do yet.

A cammed L24 with nice header and exhaust with a little head work is good for about 200hp

bottom end on the L28et is good for close to 475whp.

Love this car!
I can't wait to get my hands on one to build on the side. I'm deff looking forward to your updates!

I personally, would love to just buy a shell. And swap a RB in it, but i don't know much about the l28et. Other than what I just read after a quick google search. It would be cool to keep it all "original" with a engine that was offered in this specific car.

Good luck!

I have a 76 280Z with a small block chevy in it. Simple swap... do it :)

Wow its been a while since I have been on here, much less updated this thread...

Haha I know its a very simple and well documented swap, for some reason it never really interested me. It is on the list but pretty low down there. Im thinking about staying with the L24, which mine is a '70 which has the E31 head, or the "high compression" head. With a cam, and Nissan motorsport header it should be a blast to drive.

I would run this for a while until I was able to refresh the L28et since its of unknown condition, I would rather refresh now, then swap, then have to re-pull the motor to rebuild it in 3 months or something. I should be able to get some of my money back selling the head and header that I would run for a bit.

Next up, brakes:

I think this has been the longest brake job I have ever done...

Ordered new wheel cylinders for the rear drums, as well as new rubber lines, and had the drums and rotors turned. I was planning on reusing the pads and shoes as they still have a good amount of meat left, so a slight resurface with a sanding block would suffice for a few 1000 miles until my rear disc/Toyota 4x4 caliper upgrade for the front.


Of course things are never as easy as they are planned to be. First I get down to MD and realize I forgot my front wheel bearing seals. DOH! Oh well Ill get the rears done and save the fronts for next time.

Alas, all of the flare nut wrenches are back in VA (both my dads and mine) we were able to remove the line off one of the wheel cylinders and replace that but that's as far as we got. That was about a month ago, at least at this point we were able to check the front calipers and realize they are completely trash so I went ahead and ordered the Calipers off a 79-84 Toyota 4x4 Pickup... $30/ea. Cant beat that.

These are a direct bolt on replacement for the factory 2 piston calipers, and are cheaper too. Also ordered some Axxis ULT pads to go along with these. In time I will be upgrading the rears to discs as well, and replacing the factory master with a 1" Wilwood to regain pedal feel with the huge increase in fluid being displaced, but for now with just the 4 pistons up front and drums in the rear I should be good.

Hopefully finishing up the brakes this weekend as well ans yanking the carbs off and giving them to a friend with an ultrasonic parts cleaner to get any gunk out of them and clean them up a little.

Sixshooter is wondering out loud if those calipers could be made to work on a Miata without too much trouble.

The ones from a 87-89? Might work I'll double check the years... As those are ment for a vented rotor, you could also technically machine the slots in these to fit a thicker rotor. If I get time tomorrow I'll check tthe bolt spacing and such on my 92

good idea, +1 on that idea

The correct years for the vented caliper is from an 89-91 4-runner or 89-95 4x4 Pickup. The slot where the rotor runs thru is wider for a vented rotor. Of course none of this matters if it doesn't fit. Measurements tomorrow. Keep in mind these things are HEAVY 10lbs each
. These may not be the best choice for the weight concerned. I'm thinking backspacing will be an issue as well. The factory wheel on a 240 is a 0 offset with a 4.5 inch back spacing.

After looking at these calipers, it looks like the center to center spacing of the bolt holes is about 3.5 inches and I believe the spacing on the Miata is about 4.75, so they wont mount without a bracket for sure. I also think that the off-set is a much bigger issue.

I was able to get a few coats of Hi-Temp semi-gloss black on them, as well as load them up so they are ready to bolt on the Z.
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1345339213

Archie also came to help me load the calipers. (sorry for the super low aperture and high ISO on both shots, its pretty dark in my computer room right now.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1345339213

to bad those are not close enough to make work would have been a nice upgrade.

Another weekend, another day of 240z work.

Hopefully going to get a full day in this time, when I went down to finish the brakes, I had less time than I thought, and didn't get to finish them up. But as of now, just need to install the wheel cylinder on the driver side rear, connect all the lines, and bleed the brakes, and DONE.

Hopefully that shouldn't take more than an hour or 2, but the car is 42 so we know how that goes.

With the time I have left it will be spent dropping the gas tank to prep it to accept a 3/8" feed, and 5/16" return line that I will be running for the turbo swap, as well as start removing the L24E. We decided not to mess around with it any more.

So now the plan is:

Drop tank
Remove Engine/Trans
Run fuel hard lines (will be much easier with engine and trans out)
Drop L28ET and Borg Warner NWC T5 5 speed in.
Rent U-Haul flat trailer, tow home possibly weekend after next
Remove R-180 3.364 diff, replace with R-200 3.545 diff
Get drive shaft made for the BW trans
MS3+Sequential fuel/spark with LSx coils in place of distributor/coil
Lots and Lots of wiring.

Man after typing that out, that's a lot of work until I can even start the car!

Thanks, Ill keep it up to date as much as possible. The RB would be really snazzy, but the buy in on just the motor is terribly high, and requires a ton of fab work. In fact, the 2jz is a much much easier swap, but still the initial purchase of the engine/trans combo is too high.

The L28ET its self is a direct drop in swap, and if using a 5 speed out of an earlier car is even easier. Just requires a bit of wiring, and a fuel line mod.

Since I am going with the Borg Warner T5 that came on the turbo cars, its a little more involved, and the BW T5 is a few inches longer than the standard 5 speed, it requires a custom drive shaft.

I'm also going Mega Squirt, so there is a lot more wiring involved.

(sorry for the late response, just saw this post)

got a quick blog going to keep track of my progress

Datsun 240z Resto-Mod Journal

There is a guy running a 240z in NASA FL events with me who is pretty damn quick. He's running 3 Mikunis and it sounds great, but the suspension and brakes are where it really shines on the track.

Local around here just had her 280z featured. I really love these cars. They look awesome.

http://jdmchicago.com/wp/2012/10/chr...8-datsun-280z/

I would love to build a 3.0 or 3.1L stroker with triples, but talk about $$$... Datsun Spirit a local shop will build you one starting at $15,000 for a 3.1L The owners car is running a 3.1 making near 400HP

Car looks good! I wish I could get more done on mine faster. I have my 3/8" feed and 5/16" return hard lines that I need to bend and install. Everything in the engine bay is going to be AN and braided stainless. Should be ordering my MS3 and MS3x expansion board kit this month or next and start putting that together. Will be running full seq. fuel with ID1000s and individual LS coils in place of the single coil and dizzy. (dizzy will still be there with an optical trigger wheel)

Got some work done this weekend!

Datsun 240z Resto-Mod Journal

Alright, long time no update, well mainly because there hasn't been much to update =(

got the MS3 built:

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1374079872

Got my new Aeromotive FPR:
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1374079872

Replaced all of the fuel lines and got a new used gas tank that was in really good condition, all of the lines except running the length of the "frame rails" are braided stainless -8 or -6 lines and mounted the FPR:

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1374079872

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1374079872

Painted my intake manifold, and made a block off plate for the old idle control valve (going to replace with a GM Stepper type IAC). Still need to make a block off for the EGR on the end of the manifold.:

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1374079872

And then I decided to remove the head and replace the head gasket, glad I did.. When the car that this motor came out of pulled in to our garage it was running, granted we didn't do a compression test or anything. We pulled the motor and it sat for a long time, we never thought twice about it fast forward 6 years, I guess the owner of the car decided that you could turn up boost with out adding fuel... we all know how that ends:
Cyl#2
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1374079872

Cyl#1
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1374079872

And combustion chamber #1

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1374079872

So anyway, for now, so I can get the car mobile, I will be swapping the old motor back in. With my wedding coming up, I don't really have the spare cash for the machine work.

The plan is to have the block bored and the head cleaned up, new pistons/rings, have the conn. rods checked/replaced if needed, new bearings ect. so basically a rebuild/refresh. All in all not a bad thing, just money I wasn't ready to spend. Although you do know what they say, make a budget, and at least double it...

It's always more work than you plan for, isn't it?