GoGoGo Posted December 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 Engine came with a Fram and it stayed on to act as a temporary paint shield when I sprayed the engine. I've been around the block enough with the M3 to know that the Fram is crap. Coming off before the engine is fired up again. 1 Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted December 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2014 Oil plan on after being thoroughly cleaned/painted and new factory oil drain plug and copper washer installed. Old drain plug and remains of the washer Primed After 2 Quote Link to comment
Ranman72 Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 use the parabolic spacer with the fuel pump and it should have a gasket on both sides Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 use the parabolic spacer Phenolic. "Parabolic" is for mirrors and microphones. ^_^ 2 Quote Link to comment
Papi Slicc Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Nice ride brugh. Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted December 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Documenting the current condition of the car before I started any of the significant project work i.e. engine/tranny swap and interior refresh. Looked long and hard for the right base and I think I got it. Was the first person to see the car (guy listed it on CL with no pics!) and didn't haggle a penny. Knew it I did get it the next guy or gal would! Let the picture overload commence... 1 Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted December 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Hope you like pics... 3 Quote Link to comment
qwik510 Posted December 28, 2014 Report Share Posted December 28, 2014 Wow, sweet car. Very nice. Great starting point. Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted January 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2015 After looking around for a while I picked up most of the parts I need for the auto-to-manual swap (Thanks Jay from Ripon!). Going to document it as well as I can for the next newbie (like me) to follow the basic steps. Definitely need the pedal box from a manual 510 so that you had the tab for attaching the clutch pedal return spring. I know that some people just weld the tab onto the existing auto box or connect the spring to some other random spot underneath the dash but I feel that it's worth the extra effort to swap the boxes. Here is the return spring which I actually had to get seperately as it didn't come with the pedal box (figured that out after I bought the box) The gas pedal from a manual car is important, but not essential. Once I take my gas pedal out you'll see the difference in the shape. This one is bent more to the right to accommodate the clutch and brake pedals. Picked up the shifter surround from an early 510 (round instead of oval) Will be replacing my steering column cover and get rid of the automatic gear selector + housing. This one was in very good shape with no broken tabs inside. The transmission going in (1977 200SX dogleg) came with a "short shifter" meaning the top of it was hacked off so needed a new shifter. Not part of the swap but Jay had a few of these lying around so I picked up the cleanest one. Should help keep the engine bay a little cleaner after I put it in... Finally a hard clutch line. Strange that when I mocked it up for fitment it just doesn't look right...maybe after install it will be fine. Anyone think it looks off? 1 Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted January 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 Went over to Dean Sherman's last week to sandblast some of the parts I picked up and ran into an old friend and his recent 510. On the way there I picked up my latest purchase for the car...280zx struts and brakes. The entire package is pretty much ready to bolt on even though I might just get the rotors turned before putting them on. Nice little 510 Clean parts Will get around to putting these on probably over the summer 2 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted January 25, 2015 Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 Well done. :thumbup: Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted January 25, 2015 Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 This car is in amazing shape!! Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted February 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 Current state of the interior... Found out that to completely swap pedal boxes the dash needed to basically come out. What a pain but as someone with OCD it gave me a chance to clean really well behind everything. 1 Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted June 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2015 Took some time off from working on the car. Busy at work and not finding much energy to deal with the car once the toddler was down at 8pm. My biggest decision was to just hire Troy Ermish to do the auto to manual swap and also install the new engine. Since the car was in just great shape I came to the conclusion that I didn't want it to be the guinea pig while I attempted the conversion and hacked holes in the wrong place. Plus it was almost summer and I really wanted to start driving it again. So here are some random pics of some of the work I did to prep it for Troy over the past several months. Stripped, primed and painted the new manual pedal box with Eastwood Chassis Black Same with the pedals Disassembled and cleaned the 240z SUs (originally was told they were SSS) Drilled the new holes to mount the E30 Sport seats 2 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 15, 2015 Report Share Posted June 15, 2015 biggest decision was to just hire Troy Ermish to do the auto to manual swap... Stripped, primed and painted the new manual pedal box... Same with the pedals Kooky thing is, done 5 conversions, never changed the pedal box once. ^_^ Quote Link to comment
qwik510 Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Kooky thing is, done 5 conversions, never changed the pedal box once. ^_^ Not all of the pedal boxes have the arm for the clutch return spring. You can fabricate something easily though. Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Not all of the pedal boxes have the arm for the clutch return spring. In my experience, none of them do. But there's a hole in the box right next to where it's supposed to go. I hook the spring to that. Works just fine. :thumbup: You can fabricate something easily though. Then there's that. Beats the heck out of changing the whole box. ^_^ Quote Link to comment
DUBL ZERO Posted June 20, 2015 Report Share Posted June 20, 2015 Heretic, I love the Meticulous Clean Detail !! Very Nice to see. I bet you wire wheel clean and paint bolt heads too. So many people Cluster F dirty parts and wonder why their shit runs and looks bad. Lol Disassembled and cleaned the 240z SUs (originally was told they were SSS) 1 Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 None of the automatic pedal boxes have the clutch return spring tab so I could have fabricated one up but felt the right thing to do would be to swap in the factory pedal box. Yes - it was way more work but I enjoyed it. I'm keeping this car forever so this was an investment of time that mentally made me happy. Almost got both seats in today so hopefully tomorrow I have so more pics to share. Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted June 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2015 Finished up most of the carpeting and interior on the passenger side this evening. Got the carpet kit from one of guys on here (can't remember his name?). Its was pretty good quality and since I wanted to keep the original floor mats it ended up being mostly soundproofing. Installed the E30 Sport seats with all new stainless steel hardware and even replaced the dried and cracked rubber washers under the stock brackets with new rubber washers from Ace Hardware. Probably makes no difference but I'm hoping it will seal both noise and moisture from the floorboards to the brackets. My 2-year has made the project more fun (and challenging) as I have been teaching her all the tool names and having her get them for me. Today she actually remembered where a certain screwdriver was that I couldn't find! Then proceeded to almost wirebrush the side of the car to "clean" it. LOL. Alright...pic time Laying the rear carpet Needed to trim the sides to fit the floorboard About to tuck the carpet under the firewall insulation. Why? Wanted to use the original snap grommets for the floor mats. Removed control switch box for automatic transmission/ignition setup. Don't need it anymore! Cleaned and sprayed the kick panel satin black Used some extra rubber sealing grommets to plug the holes left by the control switch box Reinstalled kick panel Reinstalled original snap grommets on top of the new carpeting Installed E30 Sport seats and the passenger side is completed! 2 Quote Link to comment
GoGoGo Posted July 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 With 100+ temperatures we've been having lately I started to get a little concerned about the cooling system for the new(er) engine. The original radiator had already sprung a leak in it a few months ago and I have been running the radiator that was a basic toss-in when I bought the motor/tranny combination. It was ok but had been repared before and several times last week the car started to get uncomfortably close to the overheat line on the temp gauge. Getting that one tanked and turning it into a 3-core was going to be about $350+ so I kept looking around. Lots of questionable radiators on Ebay but then I found that Koyo makes a perfect replacement so decided to order that one for around $250. It finally came in all its glory... First thing first, get rid of the logo (sorry marketing team at Koyo) Then take stock of current setup and location of radiator. The existing radiator hoses are only about a month old so I will definitely reuse those but the heater hoses were old and didn't fit that well. The clamps had also seen better days and probably were a little oversized for the job. Will be replacing them with NOS heater hoses and quality clamps from Jegs.com After about 2 hours (cleaned the engine bay also), much better! The engine definitely runs much cooler now so I feel more confident about taking it to the canyon or any lite track days. It needed a little spacer at the back to fit perfect. Exhaust washers to the rescue! 1 Quote Link to comment
Dime Dave Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 I've looked at the Koyorad, but was leery on fit because of how the eBay "Champion" radiators have had clearance issues between the lower hose and alternator "fan". How is the clearance between the lower hose to the alternator pulley/fan on the Koyorad? 1 Quote Link to comment
r0p0doe Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 I've looked at the Koyorad, but was leery on fit because of how the eBay "Champion" radiators have had clearance issues between the lower hose and alternator "fan". How is the clearance between the lower hose to the alternator pulley/fan on the Koyorad? I didn't have any clearence issues when I installed mine but I'm also running an electric fan... 1 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Very nice install and car, 1 question though if your running the stock fan were is your fan shroud ? Does it cool better with out one I figured if you go electric then push or pull fan and your good but with stock fan shroud is needed. Car looks awesome very nice I am doing the same Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted July 5, 2015 Report Share Posted July 5, 2015 were is your fan shroud ? Does it cool better with out one Nope. ^_^ 1 Quote Link to comment
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