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z :: veteran's day

Here's a picture that I didn't get to post last time of my fuel pressure regulator, mounted to it's aluminum bracket. I love teh look of steel braided line and AN fittings.


Woohoo! For a savings of 70 dollars, I picked up the 150 dollar "Street Fire" MSD ignition over the more popular but more pricy 6AL. I didn't want to have to buy this, but I couldn't find a wiring diagram that had the right wire colors for my "stock" ignition box, which was probably an aftermarket piece.


I spliced together two flexible radiator hoses to fashion the lower hose, which had some crazy bends to it. It's very interesting - the flexible hoses maintain their diameter with the help of a visible coil inside the hose. It looks like spring was shoved into the hose. As you may be able to see, I zip tied the hose to the sway bar to prevent it from bouncing into the drive belt setup. There's a fair amount of tension in the hose, I hope it doesn't cause the plastic radiator end-tank to crack over time.

Also picked up a shorter fuel filter. This inexpensive piece saved me the 75 dollars it would have cost to buy a ford motorsport right angle adapter.

Obligatory "old and busted, new hotness" shot.
Here you see the wires "test routed" to the various engine components. I want to try to start the car first, then splice the wires to length, in case there's any issues.
And a post-cleanup shot of Yvonne hanging out with Jeff's beautiful bikes!

I feel like I'm within spitting distance of test-starting the engine now. It's very exciting!

z :: old shots

yay.

z :: big bracket business

I actually did this about three weeks ago, but I didn't get a chance to update until now. After the debacle with the Holley mounting bracket (that I could not machine with ANY tool in my garage, something that's never happened before), I rummaged through my scrap pile to find a piece of aluminum angle that, shockingly, had two holes drilled it that fit the mounting holes on my car perfectly. Check it out:

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I'm not sure what this bracket was originally used for, but it came out of the scrap pile ready to go on one side. I just had to machine it to fit the fuel pressure regulator.

The new bracket is a little bit bigger, but will be much easier to machine. Drilling the small holes on each side of the giant hole was easy, but I had to figure out how to do the big one. It's probably about 1" in diameter.

At first I tried to make several small cuts with a dremel then grind out the difference, but the 1/8" aluminum didn't grind well - it was too soft and too thick.

After some head scratching, I decided to work on my accuracy with a .22 rifle, and by .22 rifle I mean drill press.

I again tried to use the dremel to clean up the difference, but it turned out that a curved file worked much much better.


I then cleaned the bracket up with my new favorite tool, a gasket cleaning disk. Nice brushed look.


Here's a decent shot of the product. Stupidly, I didn't take a picture of it all mounted up, but you get the idea.

Stay tuned for last weekend's progress: I got the upper radiator hose sorted and the new custom transmission bracket (possibly a prototype) finished.

z :: radiator hose adapters

They is here.

My first goal this weekend is to pull my head out of my ass.

My second goal is to get my radiator hoses properly sorted out.

My third goal is to find out who fucked up my blogger settings.

z :: wires, couplers, and solder oh my!

After a few days of drinking and enjoying my week-long Fall Break, I finally got two solid days of wrenching done. I'm going to let the pics tell most of the story:


Got the JTR radiator mounted up. The Taurus fan fits the brackets perfectly and looks super clean. The whole engine bay is starting to look great.


Phong overlooking our "handiwork."


Yvonne is a classy girl and deserves nothing but the best.


I'm almost done sorting out the fuel system. The bracket that you see pictured here must be made out of diamonds; none of my diamond dremel bits or tool steel drill bits will get through that galvanized steel bracket. I am still working on a mounting solution that doesn't require me to buy a frickin plasma cutter or something.

The next few pictures are of the heater hose trim piece. It looked pretty grody so I pulled it off and cleaned it up for the engine bay:

Before:

During (after gasket prep disk, before paint)

After: (forgot to take a pic before we screwed it back on)

This is one of those "little" things that goes a looong way towards making the final product a good one.


Bought this overpriced Flex-a-lite thermostatic switch. It comes on when the temperature probe reaches a set temperature. I'm not so sure about the build quality of this little guy, and I hope it holds up to the "high speed" amp draw of this fan.


Phong recommended I mount it lower so the fan shroud would stay clean...an awesome suggestion.


Jen Chien came over and helped me install the plug wires yesterday. Take note also of the air filter, which goes a long way towards making the car feel like it's getting closer.

Other things completed: trimmed the oil pressure switch adaptor to fit and extended the stock wiring so that it would reach the new mounting location.

chicago at night

Fall break is less than a week away!  Yes, the car will be running soon...

z :: I couldn't resist

I couldn't resist taking the fender protection off and snapping another pic. She's still far from running, but sometimes it helps to remember that it's a car I'm working on and not just a big bathtub with wheels and various home appliances thrown into it.

The radiator looks like it's sitting too high because it is - the mounting bracket is sitting on top of the frame rail rather than being bolted underneath it like it's supposed to. I just set it on there for fun.

z :: wowwie wow wow

I'm too goddamn tired to write anything since I've been studying for almost two days straight. Saturday though, I spent 14 hours straight in the Future (Phong came over to help about halfway through) and this is what I ended up with:

z :: putting the hammer down

Well, school has started and I've been studying over three hours every day just to keep up. It has become clear to me that each week I might only have 4-5 hours to work on the car, so I must maximize my time.

It's HAMMER time


Phong and I had a good day in the Future today. We started off by pulling the motor out of the car to make a number of changes. First, we reinstalled the smog air "hose" on the back of the motor. This forces the motor to have to be mounted a little bit farther forward than on Brian's car, pushing it up against the back of the front crossmember. However, we used the heat gun, which we turned all the way up, heated up the thin metal pipe and hammered it towards the front of the car to improve firewall clearance.

Then I grinded a little off of the back of the front crossmember. Yes, it's a highly important structural piece, but I just took a little off of the back of the front jacking plate to clear the front sump:



Then we turned our attention to the front sump. Not wanting to disturb the newly installed gasket, we decided to psychically determine that there was nothing behind that part of the sump (OK, we looked at the manual to, but it was unhelpful) and began heating it up and hammering it in. It looks crappy, but it ended up clearing very nicely and looked better after some primer. As Phong joked, "it looks like the motor stayed in the pool for too long:



We then turned our attention to clearing the driver's side header of the steering shaft. Brian also had to do this on his swap, so it wasn't just our love of hammering that lead us to do this. We did this by first putting the motor back in the car in it's final position, marking where the steering shaft hit the manifold, heating it up, putting a pipe over it, and hammering the pipe. We ended up having to dimple the header twice to get it right, but we got it eventually. Sorry no pics.

The cradle, while beautifully made, does not have provisions for these strengthening bumps on the compression rod mounts that are found on the 280z but not on Brian's 240z. Thus, we'll have to cut out part of the cradle where it intersects with these bumps:


We made marks to see where we will have to cut pieces out for this.

Finally, we got the motor out of the car again so that I can

1. cut the cradle to accommodate the compression rod bumps
2. install the clutch slave cylinder

Motor should go into the car for reals next saturday. Here's what it looks like in it's "mounted" position (but not actually mounted).



In conclusion, I did more hammering (although this time, legitimately planned hammering) than I've ever done in the Future. Good times.

z :: more progress

test fitted the cradle today with Phong. Was tough to get in, and I'm going to have to modify some stuff.

Phong did help me with the clutch situation though. A lot. Master cylinder install...CHECK!

EDIT: notice how I've cleaned up that area of the engine bay. w00t.

Also finished figuring out how to mount the slave cylinder. Need to buy parts tomorrow.

z :: d-day part II

Lots more progress.


Finally pulled the motor off of the stand today. It was pretty momentous.


Used a tool that Joey lent me to pull out the old pilot bearing (this bearing holds the input shaft of the transmission on the "motor" side so that it's not only supported on one side). Then tapped a new one in. Well, more like banged a new one in, but it seated flat so I think I'm OK.


Then I cleaned up the flywheel, clutch plate, and pressure plate, and in stalled them with the help of a plastic clutch alignment tool (not pictured), which centers the clutch when you're bolting on the p. plate so that it's directly in the middle. Without it, it'd be almost impossible to get the trans on.


Received the cradle but didn't test fit it yet. It is beautiful (upside down in pic).


Motor and trans bolted together, 95% ready to go!!

z :: d-day part I

Removed the stock speedometer cable and the stock master cylinder. The JTR speedometer cable doesn't fit with the Mustang T5, and the Wilwood master cylinder shaft has a different thread than the stock Datsun piece. I'm going to find a tap and retap the threads on the datsun piece today.

I have heartburn now. Should not have had a can of Diet Coke for breakfast.

z :: finish the fight

It's so close I can almost taste it.

I have almost every part I need to complete the car. The engine cradle arrives tomorrow. Lots of progress has been made since the last post:

ENGINE



The first pic is the plate that goes between the pump and the block, the second is the bolted on water pump. You can see the oil pressure sender on the right side of that pic.

The engine is pretty much ready to go. The gauge senders, and water pump have been bolted on, although admittedly I had a rather crude moment where I impact gunned a pair of water pump bolts into the block. The threads were so gummed up on the inside, and there was no way in hell that I was going to pull the entire cam chain cover off to clean them up. In retrospect, I should have cut groves in an extra bolt, then used it to "clean" the hole like I would have with a tap. No guarantee that it would work, but at least I wouldn't be going at it with the caveman method. -1 style points.

TRANSMISSION



Went to Carquest and bought a new transmission mount today, although the JTR crossmember (which has also arrived) will have to be drilled out to accommodate the two-hole setup of the Ford mount. I also ordered a new speedometer sending unit, which should arrive in the next day or two. Not sure if it'll get here in time, but that's ok...speedometers are for wusses.


More importantly, I have to figure out my clutch setup. I got the parts in today, now I just have to figure out how to get everything mounted up to the car, including the custom work on the clutch slave cylinder. This is the biggest thing that remains to be done.

CHASIS





Made huge progress in this department, and damn did it take a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Yesterday, I spent lots of time on the creeper and in the engine bay pulling the front crossmember off. When I finally got it off, I spent more time cutting off the stock mounts and grinding the welds off, then painting the whole thing with 4-5 coats of primer. Today I bolted it back up, again with lots of swearing, as the front sway bar apparently has some preload in it and is almost impossible to bolt on without being detached at all its points. The good news is...it looks great! No L6 mounts...no problem.

Other than that I'm just going to show off a few parts I got in the mail:

JTR radiator setup. Sexy!


Driveshaft flange. Oh Frank Wallace. I miss you, and will see you soon:



14" three way catalytic converter with air pipe, Hooker Aero-Chamber 3" muffler. The muffler came with heart shaped stickers that read "I love my HOOKER headers." Excellent. I'll be going with a 2.5" into 3" single exhaust, which may end up being excessively loud. Time will tell




This is a new sticker I bought in Taiwan! It reads "NEVER GIVE UP. Life will find its way out." I hung it by the clock in the Future to remind me never to give up!!