e30mclow's e30 #14 - Going 1JZ + 6 Speed

[jeenyus]

i've been working on patching rust on my car for like 2 months now and you finish it in an afternoon. lol. it's always motivating to see people knock this shit out in an evening.

[e30mclow]

Managed to drive the thing up and down the street and in/out of the garage this weekend after finishing the rusted out brake lines.







Loving how it sits on these wheels


Now that winter is looming, and driving this thing properly isn't going to happen until at least next Spring/Summer, I need to set sights on a new target.
I'm hoping to have it Autocross ready by the first local event next Spring. That'll help figure out the bugs before committing to the road.

That sounds boring right? Towing a car to Autocross instead of driving it?
Not with my new tow donkey!



1998 Pajero Evolution. It arrives tonight and I'm very excited. The e30 will look awesome getting towed by this thing

[tyeler18]

Jealous of the Pajevo. Just a few more years and theyll be legal state side. My tow rig is a Gen 1 montero LWB with a turboed 6.0L in it. The Paj is a bad mofo though

[e30mclow]

The Pajero Evo has been a fun distraction this winter





Bring on the track days!


Meanwhile, I continue to tinker on the 1J project

I have adapted an adjustable gear knob to work, which can be filled with weight to get things shifting perfectly

I've played around with a discrete hydro idea, but I'm undecided if I'll use it






Chop chop














Trimmed the front bumper for better air flow to the IC/rad








Trimmed the air con vent to fit around the intercooler




Made some cheap foglights fit around the 3" IC hoses




I finally fitted all of the intercooler piping t-bolt clamps, then finished off the exposed threads with vacuum hose plugs (you saw it here first)






Made a dump tube to divert wastegate discharge away from the engine bay






Changed out the rock hard engine mounts for the ole Canadian specials












Picked up a crack free dash


A Tech 2 Valance


MRT bump steer correction kit


Expansion Tank and Steering Bellows


The car is running and driving, so now is the time to take it all apart and paint it

[jeenyus]

that's a good amount of progress! great work!

[e30mclow]

Ate up the road on Saturday AM with a 450-500km round trip for some Style 42s. A good salt bath for the Pajero :(




3 split no issues, but one is cursed and a bunch of bolts snapped no matter what tricks were used.





No dice on the oven idea


They should look awesome once cleaned up through




Should have them split tonight and can get the barrels stripped. The faces are clean enough to reuse without complicating things.

[peteb3]

what happened to the Alpina Typ 162 front cow catcher

[e30mclow]

what happened to the Alpina Typ 162 front cow catcher

It resides in the basement as I cannot get the jack out from under the front subframe with it on. It is also so low that it barely gets in the garage, so it may just be for show purposes.

Wheels are turning out nice

[e30mclow]

Wheels came out nicely


The clutch situation in the car is frankly a disaster, as I have mentioned before. The pressure plate is an overkill item that I inherited from the donor car, and I've been failing to come up with a non-costly means of improving things. I noticed last week that just from running the car on the stands, the e30 master cylinder pushrod had actually began to bend with the pressure.

Options were:

1. Buy a new, less aggressive clutch & pressure plate, then pull the box in another Cirque du Soleil effort while balling crying at the $800-900 wallet bashing.
2. Fit a Tilton/Wilwood Pedal Box to facilitate a smaller clutch master cylinder bore. This gets expensive and negates all of the tomfoolery and success to date on the brake front.
3. Get a gym membership and concentrate solely on my left leg, then grow into it.

I had a plan forming in my head following the whole hydro handbrake episode.

Using the China master cylinder I had, which is a rip off of a Wilwood unit, I started making measurements to see see if I could make it fit in the OEM position.







Cheapo pushrod retainer


E30 Retainer



After some fiddling, I made a retainer to fit the e30 rod to the China item and was able to start lining things up
Ignore the zip ties, as I'm not set on the brake pedal position yet, so just have those in there holding the brake light switch off.



VS the BMW item


The sad news is that it interfered with the brake pedal and the throttle pedal linkage, so that if things were to go wrong, they'd go wrong at full throttle with no clutch and no brakes. Basically very wrong.

Once again I had a surge of confidence and the thoughts of a manageable clutch were keeping me up at night. I ordered a ~16mm bore Wilwood unit and decided to go for it.


I used what I believe was an e28 pushrod that I had in a parts bin, as it is metal as opposed to plastic.


There was a c-hair of room to play with so I started "rapid prototyping" a bracket that would keep things as close as possible to the geometry of the OEM master.

Rev 0




Rev 1 - Note the little pokey hole for the blind side of the master. This buys about 5mm to squeeze things away from the throttle pedal linkage.






Rev 1 was a winner, so I started making it in steel using off cuts from under the bench.


For once, I didn't take any notable photos of the process, but I ended up with this




Someday, someday soon, I'll retire the flux core welder I swear


With the Wilwood unit in I was delighted to see that the clevis lined up where I wanted it, about 10mm to the left. From here, I can commit to drilling out the pedal and running a through bolt to catch the rod off to the left side of the pedal. I'll make a spacer to occupy the original mounting position..


With a slight bend of the throttle linkage, things are lined up 100% and the whole assembly is removable in minutes.

Did it all work? YES

I now have a perfectly operable 650LB clutch!
To celebrate, I drove it around a little bit





For some reason I can no longer embed videos..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kie9AwC9XE

With a successful number of 1st-2nd-3rd skiddy rips under my belt, I have begun buttoning things up.

The 3" midpipe is fully heat wrapped to reduce temps under the floor


I've made some ducting to channel air into the rad, rather than letting it take the path of least resistance. Why gold heat wrap? Well, I used a licence plate to make the ducting, which looked worse






The fan is now hooked up to an adjustable temp switch, and it draws a ton of air through the front of the car. Shop rags stick to the front end when you throw them at it.


I have a few more minor mechanical items to address, such as a stiffer rear trans mount, re-centering the engine and some small electrical things, BUT she is turnkey and running well.


Next is the body work, which starts soon.

[jeenyus]

that's awesome man! that feeling of thinking something through deeply and then manifesting it into reality is one of the best things, especially when it works! congrats!

[e30mclow]

I'm sticking 4-5 updates together here, so this post is a little haphazard..

My latest mind cruncher - how to latch the bonnet now that I've removed all of the latching mechanism?

To get the biggest radiator possible into the front of the car, while allowing room for a decent puller fan, I had to chop out the latch mechanism way back when.




I have a pair of really nice aerolatches left over from the SC300 parts car, but it is hard to take the drill to an e30 bonnet these days. Having spent so much effort hiding everything JZ related, it'd be a shame to have the race car latches suggesting there is anything more than an m20 under the bonnet.


Here is one I saw online, and I noticed that the latches force the curve of the bonnet flat, creating dimples..


Sooo...




I made a sleeved rod that is spring loaded towards open. My thoughts here were that in the event of the sudden onset of fire, it'd be nice to not have to fish around with one's fingers.





Video!

$0


To celebrate this zero cost solution, I ordered some e30 m3 bulkhead covers to hide the wiring/hoses I have nestled along there. The cycle of loosely controlled expenditure continues.






I picked up some alternate gauge pods on ebay last week. The ashtray one I intended to use is too out of the way for my paranoid eyes to see at a glance.
I also got a nice bolt-able replacement throttle pedal clip for the floor. This will allow me to realign the throttle pedal perfectly with the now thoroughly messed with clutch and brake pedals.





This was the useless rubber hammock holding the back of the massive gearbox in place, and it was also the cause of my shuddering driveline.


The last export out of China arrived, which correlated with a break in the weather yesterday and today. In it went, which allowed for some ripping around!
After some searching, I had found that a 240sx trans mount will bolt to the 350z box, after drilling out the tapped holes on the box.





The result is zero slop, so things are pretty dialed now from front to back.

I also got a higher rated BMW expansion tank cap, as the Toyota coolant pressure is seemingly greater than that of the BMW. I had gotten one before, but this one states "200", so it can only be betterer?


With those little things done, I've started getting brave and driving around the neighborhood.

BOOSTY NOISES - VOLUME UPPPPPP

I was then home for a few days last week, but left in a hurry for obvious reasons (covid). I did however manage to bring some nice items with me back to Canada, as there could be some downtime to fill for the next while.












Straight off of the plane and into quarantine for 14 days.
Anyway, I've gotten a few things done still..










It is slowly coming together, but I have so much bodywork to do :(








Then yesterday, the damn plastic clutch pedal finally snapped. I've ordered one from FCP for $30USD, which when you factor in the $CAD exchange rate, shipping and duties is almost $100. FML.
Thankfully all of the replacements are metal now


---------------

That brings things up to date, which equates to the following spec - you'd never think it to look at it lol
ENGINE
Toyota 1JZ-GTE non-VVTi: Cold Compression Test Readings (155,160,155,160,160,160)
Custom Aluminum Engine Mounts with Hockey Puck bushings
Driftmotion Single Turbo Manifold
Driftmotion 40-1 T4 Single Turbo (Garret GT35 Core) with Polished Compressor and Ceramic Coated Hot Side
Turbo Blanket
3" V-Band Downpipe (bunged for ECU o2 and Aem AFR o2)
-10 AN Oil Return
Braided High Pressure Oil Feed Line
3" Custom Stainless Steel Exhaust to APR resonator and back box
3" Inlet/Outlet Large Front Mount Intercooler (maximum size that could be "hidden")
2.75" Intercooler Piping
Genuine Tial BOV
Genuine HKS External Wastegate with homemade screamer pipe
Painted Cam Covers and Hydro-Blasted Intake Manifold & TB
Shortened Throttle Body (to allow for IC piping + rad)
Custom 2 Core Aluminum Rad - tucked into the front core support
14" Spal Slim Electric Puller Fan + Shroud (made from baking tray)
Wiring Specialities Plug & Play Harness
Patch/Jumper Harness
6 Point Grounding Harness
Apexi Neo AFC (fuel controller)
HKS FCD
AEM Tru Boost Controller/Gauge
AEM AFR Gauge
Ford Mustang 5.0 3 wire o2 Sensor
Mustang 5.0 o2 Sensor plug spliced into JZ Harness
Aeromotive Stealth In Tank Fuel Pump
440cc Injectors (JDM 2JZ)
Aeroquip Fuel Pressure Regulator modified to fit end of OEM 1JZ fuel rail
Chase Bays JZ-BMW rack High Pressure Line
New OEM BMW Rack-Reservoir line
Oil Level Sender Delete Plate
1JZ Water Neck Drilled & Tapped for e30 Water Temp Sender
Water neck also tapped for air bleeder screw, to avoid common air pocket/cavitation
New Behr Coolant Reservoir

DRIVETRAIN
Low Mileage Nissan CD009 6 Speed Transmission
1JZ Adapter Plate + Custom Flywheel (Collins Engineering)
ACT Stage 4 Clutch & Pressure Plate (650ft/lb)
Braided Clutch Line
Custom CNC'd Shifter Adapter to relocate Nissan Shifter to e30 position (via CD009 transmission service opening).
Homemade Transmisison Mount/Brace utilizing the e30 Bolting Points
Nissan Titan Slip Yoke
Homemade conversion to a Wilwood small diameter clutch master cyliner.
Custom Front Half Shaft (a single piece won't clear the petrol tank)

CHASSIS
BC Racing Coilovers with front Camber Plates
Garagistic Front & Rear Sway Bars
Garagistic Front & Rear Adjustable Sway Bar Links
Garagistic Front & Rear Strut Braces
Front & Rear Subframe Reinforcements
Front Subframe modified for External Wastegate clearance
Powerflex Purple Subframe, Trailing Arm and Differential bushings
Adjustable Camber/Toe Eccentric Rear Subframe
3.73LSD + 2.91LSD (final to be decided)
Treehouse Racing Increased Caster Front Control Arm Bushings ("Lollipops")
New Front Control Arms
Braided Brake Lines X 6
New Wheel Bearings x 4
Garagistic Solid Steering Column Bushing/Guibo
e46 "Purple Tag" Steering Rack
New Behr e46 Steering Rack Bellows
SRS Concept Inner Tie Rod Spacers (increased lock)
MRT Roll-Center Correction Kit (not fitted yet, waiting on spare arms)
Oversized PS Pump Pulley
Modified Brake Pedal Ratio for improved feel/feedback
Brake Booster Deleted (no room with the stock JZ inlet manifold) - Massive Motorsport
VW 17mm F/R Master Cylinder - best compromise for pedal acctuation and feel
Homemade Hardlines from ABS Pump
E30 front Spindles converted to 5x120, thus retaining the e30 camber/caster settings
Z4 Rear Hubs pressed into e30 rear trailing arms - 5x120
e46 325i Front & Rear Calipers (with new pistons, seals, bleeders and guides)
e46 325i Vented Front & Vented Rear Rotors (300mm & 279mm drilled & grooved)
New Brake Pads
Stop-Tech e46 Front Braided SS Brake Lines

INTERIOR
JDM Integra Type-R Recaro SR3 Reclinging Seats (Similar to SportEvo Seats)
Massive Brakes Seat Mounts
Cardinal Red Door Cards, Carpet, Rear Bench
Sparco Steering Wheel
Momo Steering Wheel Hub
Homemade super tall shifter
3D Printed Center Vent Gauges
Tach/Coolant Temp/Oil Light working with the Toyota ECU
Delrin Solid Throttle Pedal Bushing (0 Play/Slop)
Crack Free Dash (awaiting installation)

EXTERIOR (Still looks horrible and retains all of the rust noted within the original post)
New iS Lip
New Oem Lip Clips
"Euro" Grills
Genuine Euro "Smiley" Lights
Genuine Tech 1 Rear Spoiler
Euro" Rear Plate Surround
Homemade quick release bonnet latch
Rear Arches rolled, but not pulled
"Pop Out" rear windows (Awaiting installation)
Genuine Alpina 162 Front Valance (Option 1)
Genuine Mtech 2 Front Valance & Clips (Option 2)
Rare NOS Heckblende

WHEELS
5x120*
Pontiac GTA 16x8 et0 & et16 with modified hubs (increased bore)
4 x 205/45r16 Firestone Indy 500s
BBS RS720 17x8 et20 (slowly being refurbed)

[e30mclow]

What's that? You're bored? Stuck inside? WhY DoN't yOu PaInT 'Yo CaWwWw!

Sure thing bwain!



The last car I painted was over 12 years ago, so time really does fly.






At that time I was 22, living at home and driving an e30 m3. What a baller young man.



Fast forward and instead of rolling into a spray booth with a Devilbiss gun, I'm operating out of a clutter shanty with ma rattle cans.

The real story is that I'm done spending money, but not spending time. This particular e30 isn't for the show and shine life, but I plan to daily it in the summer months so I at least want it presentable.

I only started a few days ago, but things are going really well. I'm still doing all of the rigorous prep of staged block sanding etc, only the paint itself is bottom shelf stuff.

Some shots of what I'm working with, and where I'm getting to:

BEFORE - Some PO's efforts..










IN PROGRESS - my own efforts

















Pre-wet sanding and clear






During wet sanding




Post-wet sanding, but pre-clear (the panels are sponge wet to see what lacquer should look like)








So...it'll be a panel at a time before hitting the door jambs and unibody in the coming weeks.
I think Youtube does an injustice to what can be done with no tools, as the Youtube Rustoleum Brigade general have a dip in and do zero prep.

No, it isn't Alpineweiss II, but the thing is already missing a BMW engine and has Pontiac wheels, so it is par for the course.
Could I have rented a booth? Sure, but this way I can prep & paint as I go. If I mess up, it is so easy to fix. Fender bender/drift damage?......click-a-click-a-click-a-fixed!

[e30mclow]

Of all things, the weather has stopped me in my tracks. Snow yesterday and consistent negative temps in the garage.

Nevertheless, I'm getting through things and believe I'll be all done within the next 3 weeks.








The absolute atrocity that has been rattle can 2K clear


Wet sanded and quickly buffed - much better!


I'm also picking up some staggered 17X8 and 17x9 Style 32s. These should go well with the Alpina themed front

[2mAn]

The best thing quarantine has given us is this car getting painted in the garage with rattle can and looking damn good

[e30mclow]

I still need to wet sand and clear the body, as I only painted it yesterday, but looking good so far.