Hey Andy, Craig here....nice to see the progress on your car!!! Cant wait for you to post pics and a step-by-step procedure of how its done. As I will probably go that conversion for under 2 litre racing her in Oz. Anyway, the last time you saw my car it just got a new coat of primer...now its 90% complete and should be ready in about a month. Love to seeya out here again or if I travel to Japan Id love to pop in have a cup of jasmine tea and have a rip in your car.
I should be definately be taking it to Bathurst this year so I cant wait.

Thanks for the compliments guys! Craig, good to hear your car is finally almost finished, I bet it's gonna be great! We actually might be back in Australia again in December but right now I am not sure. If anyone ends up near Yokota/Fussa, I'll be glad to show you around. I usually find out about the really awesome Datsun car shows and such after the fact in magazines. One of these times I hope I can get to one.

So back on topic, today I had all the intentions and resources to get the engine and transmission mounts finished, but the guy that's going to weld it is busy this weekend, so I went ahead and just cut out the old engine and tranny mounts to help clear the way for next weekend. I wish I could work on it during the week, but there's just not enough time. As soon as the mounts are finished I'll start installing the fuel system and other components (intercooler, battery, radiator, fan, etc) then the car is going to get delivered to Matsuoka to get the exhaust and wiring done. After I get it running and all set up, everything will come BACK out again and the car will be delivered to the body shop to get repainted...hopefully that won't take very long cause then I have to put it all together again. Well anyways that's the plan, and I have about a year to finish it all, slightly less actually. Well, until next weekend...see ya!

-Andy

As some of you know, I haven't gotten to do much on the Datsun since my last post. This is because I'm waiting on someone else...we all know how things slow down when you're waiting on someone else.

A few things did happen though. The Apexi Power FC and Commander I bought for the Datsun turned out to be no good or for the wrong car cause it didn't work at all, I'm just thankful I was refunded my $700!

I FINALLY received my front suspension/brakes for the Datsun. I bought it all last year October and had to have my friend send it to me cause I couldn't take it on a plane with me...I just got it yesterday. It consists of 280ZX front struts and vented disk brakes, a 280ZX master cylinder (15/16's), and a B210 power brakes assist (don't know if I've got the room to use it though). I'll be buying a new set of rotors for it as well as an entire rear disk brake setup for 82-83 280ZX for the back of the car.

After I clean up and cut off the spring perches, I will be dropping off the front struts to Matsuoka where they are going to cut them down to fit AE86 inserts and then weld on an adjustable spring perch. I'll be using 6k springs up there and pillow ball adjustable camber plates. Should be a nice setup when it's done!

This is the best update I can do while I'm still waiting for the dude to weld up the engine/tranny mounts. Later everyone!

-Andy

Quote:
What rear end are you planning on using?

Well, rearends in Japan aren't cheap or easy to come by. So for that reason I will initially be running an H165 and LSD from a Ute. I still have to pick one up, but they surface every couple months. I figure it will at least last me until I get to the US where I can have a REAL rearend made up for it. I'm probably going to get some 280ZX rear disk brakes on the H165 while I have it too.

So today I got my EFI fuel pump in the mail...I posted a picture of it HERE I ordered one on Ebay back in May from a CROOKED company and never received it, AND never got my money back....what a bunch of criminals! This weekend I will be going home for my sister's wedding. I will also be picking up some necessary items for the conversion such as fuel and brake lines. Yeah, the automatic tranny tunnel is big enough for the 180SX 5 speed, but it looks like it might be pretty tight at the rear on the sides...if anything a very slight amount of cutting and rewelding on the tunnel might be necessary, but not a big deal. It also looks like it'll be a little tight in the front by the crank pulley. There's room for it, but it'll keep you from running any kind of decent sized electric fan. Also, it could change once the engine is in, but I'm 99% sure that the engine and transmission are going to have to be installed and removed together as one unit. There's just not enough room to be able to do it seperate, so keep that in mind when you do your conversion! HINT: Make sure you put a NEW or resurfaced flywheel, clutch, pilot bushing, and throwout bearing in the first time!!!! Also, the stock fuel and brake lines are routed through the transmission tunnel, which is already pretty crowded and the stock lines are too small anyway, so you'll have to install all new lines and route them differently. You will probably also have to re-route some of the coolant hoses on the SR20 engine too....they're routed all funky and behind the block for the heater and turbo inlets. I just took all that piping off and will route it differently anyway. The Greddy intake, water outlet, and header are also finished, I'm waiting to get them back in the mail too. It's slow, but it's coming! See ya!

Hey AFRacer,
Awsome project. Let me know if you change your mind about setting up a webpage about your project. I'd be happy to host it for free at Datsunprojects.org. Plenty of space for pics or whatever and very simple to upload and edit pages. Send me a pm or email if you're interested. One benefit to moving it to a webpage is that it'll be more accessible to search engines so the average user could find it without searching this site. By the way, I'm also considering doing a swap like this with my '79 210. But I'm just starting to think about it now and am not sure where to even start. I can't even figure out what engines are in what cars here in the US. Anyway good luck with your projects.
Michael

I wouldn't mind putting the whole conversion on a separate webpage too, but I don't have much time to do anything like that. Anyways....

So tonight I FINALLY got to do some real work on the car again. We figured out how we're gonna do the engine mounts and have them partially constructed. All we are doing is taking a piece of L shaped 2 inch wide steel (THICK) about 8 inches long and welding it to the crossmember at the proper angle with a slotted hole in it for the engine mount stud/nut. This is such a challenge because where the car is, we CANNOT weld, so we have to measure it up, cut it up, remeasure, recut, go to my friend's house, tack weld it, come back to the car, check it out and make adjustments, recut/remeasure, go back and retack it again, come back, check again, then finally we'll weld it on! We're about halfway through that process right now, we just ran out of time today to work on it. Next week we'll finish it up and then work on the tranny mounts. Also I can then redo the brake and fuel lines and get the fuel system going too. Once that is done I'll start looking at wiring and getting an H165 to throw in so I can send off for the proper driveshaft to be made up. Then comes intercooler/radiator/fan mounting and piping. I also just ordered a set of BEAUTIFUL (and expensive...$380) Unorthodox Ultra SS Underdrive Pulleys for it, but they are on back order so it'll be a few weeks before those show up. I shouldn't have ANY problems finishing this thing up before I have to leave here! I'm soo excited!!

Motor mounts...DONE! I will take pictures tomorrow of how we did it...I can also take measurements if anyone is interested. It turns out I've got a lot more front/back room than I thought I would have, which is a great thing! I trimmed about as much as I want to for the intercooler and put it all in place...looks like I'll have enough room to keep it all behind the grill and even have room for electric fans and everything. Keep in mind, I'm using the stock 180SX radiator too, which is really thin to give me max room, but there may actually be room for something thicker.

It's going to be a little tricky to get the tranny and turbo/exhaust manifold in. With the engine on the mounts, there isn't enough room to angle the engine back far enough to bolt the tranny on, but I think you can do it if you pull out the mounts. The other option is to bolt the tranny/engine together and lower it in together, which is a pain! I tried it out and found that you have to get the engine at a 90 degree angle pointing straight up to be able to fit it in there that way.

Other good news however is that I will be able to use the stock turbo location and manifold or bottom mount header. It does come close to the steering gearbox and brake master cylinder, so a couple heatshields and header/turbo wrap will be in order. Also, you can use the stock (or aftermarket) turbo outlet pipe AND front 2/3rd's or so of the 180SX exhaust pipe! This is awesome! After that front part you'll have to customize your own exhaust to mate it to that, but it helps to already have about 2 feet of the hardest part done!

Tomorrow I'm going to bolt in the transmission, figure out where I need to modify and how I'm gonna build the mounts for that and get rid of the old fuel lines, and try to relocate the rear brake line and handbrake. I may also mount up the fuel pumps and surge tank depending on the time. I NEED to find a stupid truck rearend (H165) soon so I can send off to get the driveshaft done up and start getting the rear brakes/suspension situated. Anyways, look for pictures tomorrow night! See ya!

-Andy

Hey andy great progress. Here's a ute diff. And here's a serious H190 if you think you'll need it.