Hi guys, this is my first post but i've been reading the forum for quite a while.

Well, as the title says, i'd like to do a few swaps.

I have 300zx tt manual road car, but now i'd like to built a 300zx drift car out of 2 cheap cars i bought.

The first, is the donor car, a 92 300zx na manual, the timing belt broke on the last owner 6 months ago, but the car had been lying up for 2 years before hand, it's rough but i bought it cheap, for parts, for my road car, if i ever needed them.

I've now bought a cheap 94 300zx tt auto, the car is in fair enough condition, the sill's are a bit rough (rotten) and a few cosmetic touch ups needed. I'm not really bothered about the appearance of the car as it will be the drift car.

So, i'm guessing you know what i'm planning. I've read bits and pieces about people doing an auto to manual conversion and i've read about people swapping the rear end.

I'd like to swap everything from the manual na to the auto tt from the flywheel to the rear wheels.

I'd like the drift car to be manual (ofcourse), faster acceleration with the R200 (4.08 final drive) and the Hicas removed, i think i'll be losing the tt rear brakes (am i right?)

When i was a kid i did a bit of work on cars around 15 - 20 years ago, so am a bit rust now. Will i need to send the cars to a man who knows what he's at? Or can an average minded man like myself attempt it?

Anyway, i'd be delighted to hear your views...

is it a bigger job than i think?

Where would i start? lol

Pro's and con's, ie what's best to do and what not to do.

Anything really, if you have any ideas please share them with me.

Thanks in advance,

Alan.

Welcome to the club Alan and good to see another N.I. member :thumbup1:

Thanks Gary, i see you're from Belfast.

Yes and we have another member Derek who lives near you. He has his Z for sale on here.

Oh, i seen that advertise on gumtree, hope he has best of luck with the sale.

Gary i saw you had a lovely black Z for sale couple months back, only i had already bought mine i would've fancied yours, did you buy yours from a friend cause i saw your red and your old black one together in a photo somewhere.

The manual conversion itself it's hard, it's literally a case of changing the gear boxes. Then there is some wiring to modify, the worst bit by far is the clutch pedal, access is tight. Here is the issue though, your going to want the power holding ability and choice available for the TT, this would mean sourcing a tt clutch and flywheel, then the bellhousing needs some tweaks to accept and allow engaugement of the starter, as the tt fly is a larger diameter.

Subframe will mesh up without a hitch bar the disabling of the hicas which will be fiddly tracing lines and pulling them out. You can then use your NA powersteering pump and bracket for simplicity. You may decide that you want a cooling facility in the PS lines if your going to be doing some hardcore drifting, PSF may over heat being engine driven(it was an inbuilt facility on UK models)

If your going to be using the car in anger regularly the likihood is you will break something sooner rather than later, so aside from obviously ensuring your basic service items are serviceable replace all coolant lines with fresh. Furthermore I'd delete absolutely everything you don't need, cruise control, AC all the junk that doesn't make the car faster or more reliable. It will make working on it 100% easier and obviously save weight.

Thank Bolt, yeah i'm expecting to break a few things lol.

I was thinking the manual conversion will be the trickiest bit, i have a list of 22 items that needs switching over.

I'm swaying in the direction of getting someone else to to the manual conversion and tackling the rear end myself.

I never thought of the power steering fluid over heating, i'll need to think of a way in cooling it (any ideas?).

Is the na power steering pump easy enough to swap over with the engine in the car? I think it's at the back of the engine.

Yeah, i'll be replacing all the line and installing a front mount intercooler. I'll be ripping out whatever i can mate, so if you need any extremely cheap parts give me a shout lol.

Can i put the tt rear brakes back on the na hubs?

Honestly you will be fine, it's only a case if changing a gearbox, the wiring it's complex either it's essentially a link, this shorts out the inhibitor for the starter, the thing that stops it starting in gear. Then using the existing power supply to reverse switch to make them work. Easy.

PS pump is situated directly below PS resivoir, it can be done in situee but removal requires the anti roll bar to be moved out the way, four bolts and swing it out the way to get clearance. I believe you have to use the NA bracket with the NA pump and vice versa. A small oil cooler would do it.

Oh, i seen that advertise on gumtree, hope he has best of luck with the sale.

Gary i saw you had a lovely black Z for sale couple months back, only i had already bought mine i would've fancied yours, did you buy yours from a friend cause i saw your red and your old black one together in a photo somewhere.

 

The black LWB I bought many years ago from a guy from Ballymena and after about three years of ownership I sold it on when I went to England for the red SWB. The black one went threw a few owners then Stephen from Bangor bought it but he then sold it on to a member here from England.

 

Nice one Bolt thanks.

Lovely motors Gary :thumbup1:

Welcome to the forum fitcy, that's two of us in Enniskillen with z's.

Edited September 10, 201411 yr by derek

It is Derek, i haven't seen any Zs about this part of the country in years.

I see you're selling up mate, will you buy another in the future?

By the way, did you do the manual conversion yourself? If you did, do you fancy a job? lol

Hi Fitcy. Give me a ring on 07909972990 and I'll give u the phone number of the guy in trillick that done it for me. Cheers

 

ps not bothered if it sell or not now, as the other car I wanted has the dread rust worm in the critical places, so decided to let it go. If I get a decent offer I'd sell the z as its not the most comfortable car in the world I've driven and very sore on fuel.

Edited September 11, 201411 yr by derek

Thanks Derek, I meant to ring to today, i'll give you a ring tomorrow mate.