e30mclow's e30 #14 - Now 1.5jz + 6 Speed

[e30mclow]

Lots of work achieved over the long weekend.

Friday afternoon:
- Engine and box out of the white car








Saturday:
- Air Con removals and major cleanup
- Removed sound deadening
- Addressed any surface rust
- Removed Servo
- Made room for the intercooler piping
- Re-wrapped the wiring harness
- Removed front subframe




















Sunday:
- Reinforced, painted and reinstalled front subframe
- Removed brake pedal assembly
- Removed interior









Monday:
- Modified the brake pedal to alter the master cylinder rod location (moving it over and up out of the way of the engine)
- Marked up and cut the trans tunnel
- Jacked out the tunnel for the CD009
- Removed the 1J and box from the test car
- Test fitted the CD009 into the white car (ran out of energy, but it'll eventually sit 3" further back)














I'm making a removable lower rad/IC support, which allows the engine and box to slide forward 5-6", making removing the gearbox easy.



Needs to be slid back another 3", but you get the idea


Head home for a wedding this week, then it'll hopefully be a case of servicing the 1J before dropping it into place.

[e30mclow]

I got some work done this weekend. I had to grind some meat off of the passenger side engine mount in order to clear the HKS wastegate, but I'm happy to see the engine and trans fully mated up and sitting in an e30.

The CD009 trans hangs a little low, but it should be OK.

I made up linkage to retain the stock e30 shifter position, so I'm now able to select all 6 forwards and reverse nicely. I'll refine things once it is time to drop it all in the white car.





I also fitted a set of smileys that I brought home from Ireland 2 weeks ago.


While there I checked on the e30s that I left parked.....10years ago now...










A quick Auto-X vid from yesterday:

https://youtu.be/itEzUjxEXZk

[e30mclow]

Some progress in the last week.

Managed to load up the sc300 and weigh it in for scrap. $99.90 in the pocket!
I don't know myself with the room it has created.





Of course loading it on the trailer was a little painful, especially when the drain plug snagged as I was winching it up, thus spewing lovely black oil all over the driveway.

My engine & trans mounts finally arrived, which allowed me to get things closer to the home position.
I'll need to grind a sliver off of one engine mount to accommodate the HKS wastegate, but otherwise it seems to all line up well.



I'm hoping to be able to cheat things back another 2" once I make an adjustment to the trans mount.



One solution to the shifter position is this setup, but the chap that makes them is notorious for taking people's money and keeping them waiting for up to 6MO.



After chatting with a guy in the Auto-X club (the chap with the spaceframed Ford Ranger pictured earlier in the thread), he reckons a very tidy job could be done to make up a center console to suit the alternate shifter position. things may need to go that route.

I'm home next weekend for 3 days, so I've been getting a few bits together to bring back to the US with me. I was on the hunt for some iS sideskirts, but I was so out of touch I had no idea that e30 parts are going for crazy money at home. I found a pair but the exchange rate made them uneconomical. Yesterday I was sitting in the garage wondering how I'm ever going to move ALL of the parts I've amassed, when my forgotten pair of Audi S4 skirts caught my eye. Just like everything else I'm hoarding, I'll NEVER do anything with them, so I decided to see how they lined up on the e30 - just for the craic.

Literally half an hour later I had one trimmed/shaped/painted and mocked up on the car. At the risk of being a chav I'm not planning on using them at this point, it was more so an experiment.

It actually lined up pretty well, especially they way I made it fit beneath the door and rest on the inner sill/door jamb. The underside rests right against the sill of the e30, so they'll clamp right up + the jacking points are spot on.
I may trim some more along the rear quarter and make them sit more flush like I did the fronts wings, but wanted to have a little front to back taper to start with.

The paint was the remnants of an old rattle can I had, so I could see the lines.











Not bad for costing $0. May make some automotive velcro mounts and see how I like them.

I was also doing a little driving this weekend. Of the 5 runs I had 4 passengers wanting to jump in and experience the sideways Irish flavor, which can only add time when you factor in the average weight of an American male in their 30s-40s. On the last run I had to say no and go solo.

Here was my first run with a passenger.

https://youtu.be/-_UjQ536kwI

[rturbo 930]

Oof. Yeah, that's a bit steep. Nevertheless, personally I'd be inclined to bite the bullet anyway, for the sake of getting the shifter into a much more ideal location closer to the steering wheel, and also for the sake of being able to have the interior look a bit more factory, with the shifter coming out where the stock one did.

[e30mclow]

Do you have a forward mount shifter on the trans? If not, that'd help a bit.

Never knew that option even existed! Upon google search and looking down through the stock e30 hole, the CBF Performance shifter would bring the shifter right out about there......$500 though....eeek

[rturbo 930]

Do you have a forward mount shifter on the trans? If not, that'd help a bit.

[e30mclow]

The guy that is fabricating my engine/trans mounts is a little slow, but things are getting there.



So as to not delay things any more than they have been, I decided to go ahead and make some moves on getting the 6 speed box to at least fit in the hole.
I bought a little dolly to make moving it around a little easier, which was a back saver.



This is a far as it'll fit up into the standard tunnel.




Interference on both sides




After about 200 slaps of the mallet, it was time to grab a porta power from work and get serious.




I was careful to not overdo it and hamper the important things like room around the throttle pedal and seat rails/seat belt sockets.

With that, it went right up into place


I knew the shifter position was going to end up much further back, which it obviously did.
(this is just a mock up)


I then heated the 350z shifter and bent it, which moved the gearknob about 2" closer to home. Forgot to take a photo.
It is a really comfortable position, just a pity the trim pieces are now redundant.
I had been planning on spacing out the steering wheel and lowering the column about an inch, to allow me sit further back as I'm lanky.

[e30mclow]

I never imagined that an e30 rear wheel bearing replacement was this much of a sore arse ordeal. What a job.

I thought my pullers was all I needed, but I had to go MacGyver on it.

No bueno


$25


Mucho success



Horrible effort.

With what energy I had left I decided to try see if the intercooler I had would fit behind the front panel. It isn't apples to apples, as the US pre-facelift panel is very shallow & short, but if it'd fit with that version it'd fit the '90+ panel easily.






Seems like a good fit! The facelift front end doesn't have the 2 x tow loops, so I should be able to tuck the IC further up. With 2 x 90deg couplers it should line up nicely without impacting the ABS and A/C items.

It is also now looking like I won't need to sacrifice the rad support + I may also be able to neatly mount 2 X brackets to hold the IC in place. Next step is to order the Nissan s13 rad + a 16" Spall.

[e30mclow]

The ole girl was fastest Street Mod + 15th fastest RAW out of a field of 75 this weekend.
Had a blast!

[e30mclow]

Yeah, this wheel and tire setup is right where I wanted it to be. Perfect stance/comfort compromise.

I don’t plan on getting it running in the donor. I just want to figure out the trans tunnel mods/rad/IC/driveshaft length.
I’ve got 2 days of Auto-X this weekend, then it’ll be back to the swap next week. My custom engine mounts should be ready soon.

[TimKninja]

i was going to suggest 205/45/16 federal 595 rsrs but you figured out your tire solution.

Great thread. are you planning on getting the donor car running ? Or is it just for mock up?

[Plan.B]

nice job.

[e30mclow]

Out with the awful carpet and in with the red

[e30mclow]

Made some progress this weekend (long weekend here).

As mentioned, I managed to get the m20 out of the dummy car late last week, so then set about test fitting the 1J in an e30 bay.
Just to see how much of an issue the servo would be, I test fit the engine with it in place - a no go.

I removed the servo and dropped the thing in as far back as it'd sit.
This shows the space behind the head due to the adapter plate on the block hitting the transmission tunnel:




I marked up the tunnel and proceeded to persuade it:




Heater core hoses also needed to be bent slightly so as to avoid hitting the head.



That all left it sitting pretty, with the wastegate clearing the subframe, the steering column obstruction free and the 3" downpipe in a pretty manageable position:






My initial plan, in order to save money, was to reuse the 30" wide rad from the sc300 and section out the chassis legs on the e30. I proceeded to chop the chassis legs, then said F this, so I'll be ordering a Nissan s13 rad soon. It should fit nicely and allow for a slim pusher fan, rather than the twin pullers I was going to try and use.

Work area to the front.


The weather turned wet so I couldn't try and wrestle the CD009 in, plus I was pretty tired.
That'll be a bigger challenge, as I've seen that this was another e30 owner's solution to the tight space :(



So the main things on the list right now, in order of ball ache:

1) Figure out if I can offset mount a Renault Clio brake servo in this space:


2) Fit the Nissan box and see where the gear lever comes out (I reckon 3" further back than the e30)

3) Start figuring out if I want to totally/partially strip the e30 wiring loom, in case I ever want to revert back to an m20/m50.

4) Shorten the Nissan Titan driveshaft and have the e30 UJ welded on the diff end.

5) Figure out turbo sizing....big & laggy or small and violent?

[e30mclow]

I got home last night to find my 1JZ front sump swap waiting for me. Feeling inspired, I whipped the engine and box out of the dummy car so that things are lined up heading into the weekend.







A solid target for this weekend will be to get the following done:

- Remove any non-applicable items from the dummy car's bay.
- Swap the sump out on the 1J
- Set the engine in the car for the first time, so as to get an idea of what I need to do to fit a rad+fans+intercooler in the tight space.
- Measure up and order engine mounts.

That'd be a huge victory!