Started the L20B conversion yesterday - finally!
Pulled the A12 & 4spd out.
Towed the car over to a mate's place - he's a welder and has a hoist in his shed. :)

Trial fitted the engine and marked out where we wanted to notch the x-member to clear the step in the L series sump allowing us to mount the engine as low as possible, like I did with my old 1200. I'm not bothering with the restrictive 3J rules or anything. We have classes for road registered cars at all our hillclimbs and sprints, so modifying the x-member is no problem. NCOP requirements are just that strength is not compromised, and we'll be replacing the factory 2mm steel with 3mm in the section we notched.

Removed the engine, cut the notch in the x-member, and also cut out the hump in the radiator support panel. Plenty of room in the engine bay to do the x-member mods in-situ which saves alot of time removing it, and will prevent any potential for warping when welding it up.

Next steap was to mock up fitment with the whole driveline, so I swapped the H145 for the BW68 and fitted the Stanza 63A 5spd to the engine, and lowered it back into place. The reverse light switch and speedo cable were just fouling on the mounting brackets in the transmission tunnel, but we got it all in the right location for the length of the 120Y BW auto tailshaft. Sump to x-member and sway bar clearance, and head to firewall etc is all good. Shifter location is right in the factory shifter hole in the floor, so it's all pretty easy.

Took the engine and box out again and cut the gearbox mounting brackets off. We'll make a new x-member sandwhich plated through the floor.

Should have it all mounted up today :) I'll take some pics of the mods as we go today - didn't stop to take many yesterday, but here's one of the x-member notch.

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Nice. Would be a lot easier in a 120y seeing have bigger tunnel than 1200 too.

doesnt a 180b crossmember slot an l series right in there?

or not low enough for your liking?

It stuffs the steering geometry ange.

I've got a stanza crossmember in mine with 180b mounts seems to work well
look forward to the progress pics.

yeah the massive tunnel compared to a 1200 makes life alot easier! As does the longer and wider engine bay.

A few reasons for sticking with the 120Y x-member. The 180B suits mid-rear sumped engines - L18 and early L16. I'm using an L20B with a front sump, like the A12 had in this car. So its probably less mucking around to just modify the 120Y x-member. Cut the notch to get the engine as low as possible and to clear the step in the L20 sump.
180B x-member also means cutting part of the castor box which doesn't leave much material around one of the mounting holes. Question marks over steering geometry and geting a sway bar to fit as well. I've also already got S13 brakes to suit the 120Y struts.

So a notch in the x-member to clear the sump. Can't really modify the sump there because the step is to clear the oil pickup pipe.
Withthe engine mocked up and sitting firmly in place resting on bits of timber and stuff, the mounts come pretty close to lining up on the passenger side, so we've used the original passenger side x-member mounting bracket, just enlarged & slotted the hole to suit the L series rubber mount, turned 90 degrees. And cut'n'shut the L20 engine mount bracket. Looks pretty ghetto at the moment, but we're not finished with it. We'll make a bracket from scratch if it still looks dodgy when it's done, but i think it wil be OK. It's certainly strong - Nissan went ape-shit on these brackets using heavy 6mm steel with heaps of gusseting...

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Driver's side mount uses the L20 engine bracket just shortened and re-drilled for the rubber mount. And we cut off the 120Y x-member bracket to move it forward to suit, giving more room for fitting the starter motor. Also had to cut down that x-member bracket to get it low enough. This is a work in progress shot...

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Gearbox mounts - we had to cut off the 120Y transmission tunnel mounting brackets for clearance to reverse light and speedo cable. Were thinking about making the usual box section mount sandwich plated through the floor, but it turned out the Stanza x-member is spot on the right width, so we used that and mad some L shaped brackets to weld into the tunnel, with captive nuts. At a glance you just see a factory gearbox -xmember and it give much more room for the exhaust to be tucked up too.
Shifter is bang in the middle of the factory shifter hole too :)

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did a little bit of seam welding in the bottom of the engine bay while we were under there, mainly because the factory spot welds looked a bit dodgy.

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then we got a little bit distracted with this thing Nev had lying around in all his 240Z parts...

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