I thought i'd drop you a link to a slideshow of all the progress on the car so far plus a few new photos to show you where it's at at the moment.

 

Just having a mass ebay then ordering new parts in the next couple of weeks.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/600zx/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lol, sounds familiar. So pleased all my pipework is on JIC connectors, can dismantle it in half the time.

Yep, i'm running -6 aeroquip on all my fuel line and trying to keep all the connectors as simple to remove as possible really because i can guarantee i'll forgot to do something and have to pull the whole lot out again!

 

Just trying to get my head round all these thread specifications, american imperial fitments and trying to source suppliers!

My God!-you not done this yet??-Iv'e been to Spain for 2 years and it's STILL not done!!!!:tt2:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:rofl::rofl:

Shut it you - some of us have social lives! :rofl:

 

Plus mine's going to be faster than yours nanananana :tongue: lol

 

Hope you're well buddy, i'll be planning a trip down to espanol next year to pay you a visit with the V8 so hope you're ready :D

You could do Nick.................But I live in Nottingham now!:whistling:

Yes!------I'M BACK!

What the f***!!! Bloody hell mate, how long have you been back???

 

Give me a bell one evening this week when you can for a chat?

 

Drop me an email with your number buddy and i'll give you a call when suits you :hyper:

 

nick@delazo.com

Edited July 13, 201015 yr by bantambunny

Okay update for today guys, decorating was all done this week so I can devote every evening and weekend to the v8 now.

 

Spent today finishing off the mounting of the engine and box. Prop shaft is back on and now off to bleed the clutch.

 

Uprated oil connectors have been ordered and also should receive the lifters on Wednesday then can finally check the valve clearance after 12 months of waiting!

 

I'll get the pushrods ordered on Thursday and should get those ready for weekend.

 

Going to get the starter fitted over the next couple of days and next weekend I'll get the fuel/oil finished off.

 

Plan for the week after us get the water and electrics finished off.

 

Going to pressurise the oil system and check for leaks then fingers crossed I can turn the engine on the starter :)

 

More to come as it happens!

Edited July 24, 201015 yr by bantambunny

Busy day! Starter motor is now mounted, shimmed up, wired and wrapped with the heatwrap.

 

Fuel pressure regulator and filter mounted up along with the oil + fuel pressure senders.

 

Clutch is now bled and working properly. Going to mount up the exhaust tomorrow and connect the speedo sender.

 

Busy busy busy! :)

This is the secks!

 

Top job and no mistake!

 

So what's the weight difference between the VG and the V8? I'd have assumed the V8 would be considerably heavier no?

Cheers buddy :D

 

According to Keith5700 (http://300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=87443) when he did his without the turbos (NA) it was 8kg in it. With the turbos and ancilliaries you're talking a bigger difference plus this sits soooo much lower so the centre of gravity is better :)

 

Reading again, 270kg with turbos on for a TT engine and 198kg for the chevy yet small engine, 6.3 litres instead of 3 litres and no need for turbos... yet :rofl:

 

Good news! The BIG bit arrived today, my comp cams pro magnum solid roller lifters and bars along with the beefiest remote oil filter holder i could buy :)

 

£600 disappeared out of my sky rocket yesterday but these are the final 2 big things i needed to buy.

 

£525 for the lifters, £40 for the remote filter holder and £30 for the screw in brass line adapters

 

 

Edited July 27, 201015 yr by bantambunny

...and now add on another 18 quid for the oil pipes and luckily managed to pilfer 2.5m of black braided fuel hose :)

 

Tracked down which jag i need the filter from, found a jag specialist and he's getting on in tomorrow for £8.50 and it's effing huge!

 

Will be working on the car tomorrow night getting all the pipework hooked up and who knows maybe spin it over a couple of times to get the oil flowing through and measure the pushrods.

 

Just waiting to see if someone buys my spare set of zed wheels then i can afford to do it.

Wow... just saw this build... awesome!!! :D

Can't wait to see that finish, up and running.

 

If you need any help on the suspension side, let me know and I'll do what I can.

I'll be happy to provide a few different set of springs to help get the corner weight right with the engine conversion.

Cheers buddy :D

 

I was very very tempted to buy a set of the ones you've got on offer but i had to choose: get the parts i need to finish the engine or buy suspension for a car i can't drive yet :D lol

 

Although - suspension is on my list of things i'll be doing over the winter months so i'll definately be in touch over a nice shiny set of those meister zeta Rs with the pillow mounts to go along with lots of adjustable suspension parts and some beefier brakes front and back :)

 

Had a little bit of a disaster last night :( Tested the clutch to see why there was so much resistance from the actuator and "pop" hydraulic fluid everywhere under the car so gearbox is going to have to come off again to see what's wrong. Have a sneaking suspicion that I didn't check how tight the hydraulic lines into the slave cylinder were and one's dropped off when i assembled everything. Also thing the slave needed some grease inbetween the gearbox shaft and the bearing. Luckily thing i should be able to just unbolt the bearbox from the bellhousing from the back and do it that way rather than pull the engine for the 4th time!

 

Will let you know how it goes anyway, more concerned about getting the engine started in the meantime so i'll be cracking on with pipework and mounting up the oil cooler, etc tonight when i get back in finally.

Okay, spent tonight pulling the engine. Must admit i'm getting good at it now: 30 minutes flat :rofl:

 

Managed to get the damaged bolts out the back of the bellhousing (i'm getting dad to buy me some stronger hex bolts from the bolt place down the road while i'm at work) and separate the gearbox from the block.

 

Looks like the resistance was an incorrectly seated seal and it just blew. I've reconstructed the slave cylinder and everything seems nice and free now but i'll hang the engine in the bay and test it first to make sure it works before going to the trouble of bolting it all back in properly and wasting more time.

 

Hopefully that should be the end of it and i can get back to the engine again now!

 

The other half has just arrived back after 2 weeks in Cuba so I can't do anything till Sunday now when she goes back home so more updates sunday night folks

 

 

Hi Nick, that seal blowing looks very strange. Is the orange thing the actual hydraulic seal or is it a dust seal over the top. If it's the actual seal then to me it looks like the piston was maybe at the very end of its travel and the seal then blew out as there was nothing left to constrain the inner diameter of the seal.

I can't remember how it was in my car but should there be a spacer behind the hydraulic unit to bring it closer to the flywheel?

When it's fitted you only need, say, 6mm of gap between the bearing and the clutch fingers, with the piston fully home. You have to have some gap 'cos as the clutch plate wears the fingers move closer to the bearing.

 

I'd double check the gap before you bolt everything back up.

You should be able to see how much gap there is by looking through that square hole in the bellhousing where the clutch fork used to go.

 

Did you dismantle the piston or just fitted it as it left me?

 

If the gap is ok as you had it, and you didn't dismantle it before it was fitted then the only other thing it could be is if the seal stuck to the inner piston over the last 18 or so months, athough that's a long shot.

I'd go with the gap being wrong at the moment.

Cheers, Keith.

Hiya Keith, I was going to give you a ring today for a chat :D

 

Okay behind the piston there was a black rubber seal which had dislodged then this orange one was the dust shield. Reseated both of them and replaced the piston. Then on front of that was the metal face with the ring bearing that was held on with the rubber band type thing.

 

What happened was when i pushed down on the clutch the first time there was alot of resistance on the clutch pedal and at the beginning of the travel even after it had eased off. I'm thinking the metal sleeve that it sits on had rusted over so i've applied copper grease lightly to everything to see if that fixes the problem (the car did sit out all through the winter to be fair)

 

Also the two retaining bolts that hold it in place had moved and the spiggot sitting out to the side had fallen out so it could have been sitting slightly askew and that might have made the rubbing noise.

 

Here's a pic of the position of the hydraulic unit as it sits now:

 

 

And before I bolt everything back in I think i'll be testing how far the travel of the pedal affects the hydraulics travel through the window.

 

In the meantime before i put everything back in I started work on the remote oil feeder. The adapter plate seals on the outer ring and the flow was being impeded by the excess metal so ground and smoothed it off to help improve the flow before attaching new brass unions with PTFE tape to get the oil out and to the side of the block.

 

 

 

 

 

Just going back out now so more photos and news later

Well got the engine nearly in, hooked up the clutch cylinder and guess what - no grinding squirting hydraulic fluid all over the floor so out it came again!

 

Found the rubber seal wasn't quite seated right, placed the cylinder on the front bulkhead, stood on top, got dad to operate the clutch and hey presto no leaks and went in and out perfectly. Double checked with the engine hung over the bay and perfect nice firm clutch! Yippee!!!

 

Engine's back in now and just the selector to refit, and then mount the gearbox and job done!

 

More to do later but glad I've sorted it out finally! :)

 

Cheers Keith! :)

almost there mate :dance:

It's getting exciting! :dance:

 

Tomorrow night I'll be hooking up the oil pipes and wire up the sender, pressurising the oil system and turning the engine over with the starter motor if I get enough time.

 

More news to come tomorrow :)

Edited August 1, 201015 yr by bantambunny

Well the other half decided to say over a couple more days so didn't get a huge amount done sunday night or last night. Got a couple of hours in and came across a couple of problems which i'm hoping to sort out today.

 

The pipe is so thick to curve it take up so much space i think i'm going to have to buy some corner pieces to get the pipe to lay right, i didn't want to force it and fold the walls in so hopefully get that finished tonight.

 

Secondly the radiator has been the bane of my life since i used keith's pulley system. His was made to fit around a Koyo zed radiator whereas mine is a jegs thick core one thats about an inch wider either side. Great for cooling but not so great for fitment. It fitted fine before but with the layout of the pulleys the bottom left pipe won't get past the power steering pulley by about 10mm.

 

I was originally going to have to unbolt the PS pump each and every time the radiator came out but i've decided i'm just going to cut the pipe shorter and flute the end so i'll need to buy a fluting tool and still not sure if it's going to clear when it's underneath but we'll deal with that when i get there. Might end up that i have to cut and reweld the pipe the other way round to get it to fit.

 

Anyway so i'll go and get some corner pieces today at lunch from the hydraulics supplier then i'll be back on it tonight.

 

Fingers crossed that should go smoothly and more news to come as it comes! :)

Glad you're getting there with it Nick,

 

Hopefully not too long befor you can while away many hours sat revving your V8:drool:

 

Still undecided what action to take regarding your wheels. Those others I was waiting to see weren't what I was expecting so, not found an ideal solution yet. Might just stick with mine.. will let you know.

 

Anyhow, hope it gets a bit more straight forward for you now! If you need any help with turning the key, then let me know! I'm not very mechanical, but I do have a very strong forearm and wrist!

 

Cheers bud.

haha cheers buddy, was going to drop you a message to see if you still wanted those wheels - every penny helps :rofl:

 

Well those unions should make everything slot together extra quick tomorrow night but it's another night i'm missing out on working on the car.

 

The other half is coming back on Friday so only going to have an hour tonight, Wednesday and Thursday evening to get bits and bobs done but can't order the pushrods until I get the oil filled up and primed to protect the bearings.

 

I'll keep you in mind for starting up the old boy when it's time - even more so if you get those wheels out of the shed ;) lol

Okay, quick update from work last night:

 

Spent the evening sorting out all the niggly details to set my mind at rest, the radiator has been bugging me ever since i put the new pulley system in as it was designed for a KOYO rad whereas mine is about half an inch thicker and 2 inches wider (manufactured by JEGS).

 

The bottom hose inlet was being blocked by the power steering pulley and I had a sneaking suspicion that even if i did get it past a. it was going to be a pain to get it back out if ever i needed to change a belt etc and b. that when everything was bolted back in the pipe wouldn't clear underneath the pulley.

 

And i was right! :headvswal

 

SO i've lopped the pipe off the front of the radiator, it's going to be plated off, the pipe then moves to the front out towards the bumper where it fits through the gap and i'll have to run a pipe through under the light and in over the power steering pump. This does mean that the two 13 inch electric fans won't fit any more, the right hand one will do but the left won't have enough space so going to have to fit a 6 inch fan as a secondary to fill the gap at £54 + delivery.

 

Annoying but at least i know for sure it'll fit and when it comes to maintainence i'll be able to take the rad out without disturbing the pulleys and can pull the bottom hose off for coolant changes from under the bumper easily.

 

Oilways i've worked out where i'm going to route everything tonight, pipe goes from engine along the right hand side of the engine bay under the light and down into the remote oil filter, from there to the oil cooler in the nose panel, from there back under the right hand beam and back under the light and down the side.

 

Oil pressure gauge is all hooked up ready and the starter motor is bolted into place. Just need to run a cable from the ignition barrel to the engine bay and we're ready to go.

 

More updates after tonight boys and gals!

Edited August 4, 201015 yr by bantambunny

Finally an update with some photos! :D

 

Oil system is now finished :hyper:

 

The spin on filter bypass goes to the oil cooler then to the filter before returning to the block, all 1/2 inch pipe so plenty of flow front to back. I've tried not to use sharp corners bar the one under the oil cooler to the left to tidy the pipe's route up.

 

Next job is to get the radiator rewelded to bring the pipe out to the left of the radiator gap then get a smaller secondary fan for the left hand side and wire them up with a thermostat (merlin motorsport £40 and the fan is £42 for a 6.5" to go alongside the 13 inch one next to it.

 

More to come tomorrow when i pressurise the oil system and turn the engine on the key! :hyper:

 

 

 

good luck nick tis looking good !!