Six_Shooter's money pit and time vampire... v.240Z

Don't know, but that's a part of why I did this swap, to find limits of the stock engine.

I haven't got back to you simply because I haven't been able to find any solid info on that cam.

[caffeine]

Is the stock cam even capable of power past 5800?

Yeah... so.....

This is definitely working better than the L28. A friend of mine has a '94 Supra, and while I would always pull on him from like a 40 MPH roll, I now pull away like he's standing still.

It's similar with a friend of mine that has an early '70's Cutlass that is pretty healthy, I have less difficulty getting past him now or pulling away than I did before.

Still some tuning to do, it doesn't like to pull beyond about 5800 RPM right now, which is up from the 5300 RPM or so it was stopping at before.

Boost comes on much sooner and much stronger than the L28. In 3rd if I'm at 2700 RPM, and put the pedal down, it's instantly 9 PSIG (where I have boost set to right now), and just pulls. In the L28, I would have had to wait until at least 3200 RPM before it was at the same point.

I'm looking at cameras to see which one would be good and affordable to get some video. I can't justify $400ish on a GoPro right now.

Also does this have an aftermarket cam in it? What size turbo? (Sorry if I missed it) And what rpm does the boost come on?

I forgot to answer the turbo question here. Yes it was already mentioned. :P

It's a Borg Warner from a GM 6.5L diesel, that I've been using on the car with the old engine for about 6 years. It spools so much quicker with the LX9, which is expected. It comes on so quick and so strong I haven't actually been able to determine an RPM at which boost starts to build. I'm also basically just running on the spring right now. I want to get a good tune into at "low" boost before I go turning it up, which I know once I start using the actually boost control solenoid it changes how the boost comes on, usually sooner and harder.

Need a turbo cam? I have one I don't need...

Send me the specs and we'll talk.

Failure is always an option

I have had one failure that had stopped the car from being driven so far, well, driven very far anyway. It would still run and move fine, but the coolant wasn't being circulated, nor was it charging. At first it seemed like it just spit the belt, which is one thing I was kinda expecting, because the idler pulley isn't perfectly straight, though it is better at the time of this posting than it was on Monday.

The failure? The alternator bracket broke. It seems there was just too much leverage on the bracket and it pulled the welds right out of the base plate. Which was another failure point I kinda expected, but expected it before getting the engine running.

Anyway, "carnage" pictures:







And the repair...

I reinforced alternator bracket with an internal support:



I then added a couple gussets:





That should work.

And back up and running;

[caffeine]

Six_Shooter's money pit and time vampire... v.240Z

Need a turbo cam? I have one I don't need...

Good work Chris!


Waiting for videos

You guys and your need for moving pictures...

Soon enough, once I get some good footage, and figure out why my phone wants to turn pictures and video 90*. *iFacepalm*

That engine bay looks gigantic. I guess that comes from being designed for an inline-6. Will you be taking this to a 1/4 mile track this year?

Also does this have an aftermarket cam in it? What size turbo? (Sorry if I missed it) And what rpm does the boost come on?

Yes, the bay is pretty large, but can be eaten away pretty quickly. I really thought I was going to have more space between the turbo and the rad, but everything fits, just snuggly.

I plan to get to the track at some point before the snow flies, I need to do some tuning on it first, before considering that though.

The engine itself is a stock LX9 internally, except for the valve springs, which are Crane Cams, but I don't recall the part number off hand.

[caffeine]

Also does this have an aftermarket cam in it? What size turbo? (Sorry if I missed it) And what rpm does the boost come on?

[caffeine]

That engine bay looks gigantic. I guess that comes from being designed for an inline-6. Will you be taking this to a 1/4 mile track this year?

[Superdave]

Good work Chris!


Waiting for videos

I really disliked the intake/exhaust unigasket. Who does that!?!!?! PITA design if you ask me.

While I agree it's an odd design, it had never present a problem for me. Any time I had to replace the gasket, I had both the intake and exhaust pulled off anyway. I only replaced it when I swapped from N/A/carb to Turbo/EFI and when I had to replace the head gasket. The part that I didn't like that allows a combined gasket to happen is that the intake and exhaust are on the same side of the head. This causes the intake charge to be heated from the exhaust, both in the head and from radiated heat to the intake sitting above the exhaust manifold.

I've already noticed that my intake temps are consistently lower with the LX9 compared to the L28, which I did expect, but it's great to see it actually happen.

[1988GTU]

Just curious why LX9 over keeping the L28?

I really disliked the intake/exhaust unigasket. Who does that!?!!?! PITA design if you ask me.

Getting To The Nitty Gritty

At about this point it's getting into the small details that just take time, like vacuum lines, plug wires, etc, etc. Not a lot of pictures of this stage, because, well, it's difficult to show these details in pictures. But I'll show what I do have.

For the PCV I kept the PCV that I used on the turbo L28, which is a Mitsubishi PCV IIRC, I've had it for 6 years, so I don't recall the actual application.



After finishing off the vacuum lines, and wiring, I was able to perform some testing, like the fuel system pressurization, in which I found 2 leaks. One was an O-ring that got pinched upon install, the other was much harder to locate. It turns out that one of the welds was either a bit porous, or not completely welded. After running the fuel pump for a few minutes that end of the rail and injector #1 would get wet with fuel. After a while I decided to just go ahead and touch up the weld on that fitting and see if that would do it. Well, it did.

Time For The Big Pay Off

It was almost 8 PM on Sunday, Zfest, an annual event held by the local Z car club was long over, which sucks, it was the first one I missed since I got my car, and the first one that the car was not running for. The first year I had my car I got it running on the injection the day before the event, though I did start that project months before the event, but I digress.

Going through the check list, fluids (except coolant), wiring, mechanicals, yep, all there and in the right places.

I thought to myself "should I connect the laptop and make some changes or just see how it runs on the bin for the L28?"

I decided to just go for it and try to start it, it could only be better than starting from a "starter bin".

Turn the key on, the fuel pump primes, recheck for leaks, none, and hit the key...

"Vroom" is what I heard, and it was a glorious sound. The birth of a turbo LX9 powered 1973 Datsun 240Z. This made all the work worth it.

It sounded different than the old engine, as I would expect, but I wasn't sure if I liked or disliked the sound, I was undecided, but liked it just the same, because it meant the car was now running and that much closer to driveable. The engine ran for a few more seconds when I decided that I should shut it off, due to no coolant.

So at this point I haven't found a rad that I like, that has the inlets and outlets on the correct sides for the LX9, and has the right fit. So I use the old rad, and make some embarrassing rad hoses, just to get the car going. I will find or make a rad that is the way I want. I will likely need to make a rad. :/



Shift Me, Shift Me, Baby...

I also needed to finish off the shifter. I had built the base mechanism a long time ago, but not the actual shifter handle itself, since I wasn't sure exactly where the shifter mechanism would sit in the shifter opening. Now that it was the last detail it was time to get something that I can at least use for now.

I started with a stock 5-speed shifter which has a unique shape, this shape worked for me, when it came to cutting it apart and making a handle that would place the shifter where it needs to be. It worked out that the shifter came up through the stock trans tunnel, shifter boot, which was a bonus.

It actually works better than expected. I am still going to look into a different shifter, at this point I am going to look at finding a 2WD Pathfinder, or late '80's 300ZX that supposedly used the same trans, but had the shifter in a different location, which might work better in the end.









I did some drivetrain testing on the hoist. Checked that the clutch worked as it should, checked that the rear wheels would actually turn, etc. Did a little bit of AE tuning on the hoist.

While doing this I saw that the coolant temp was being reported as 60*, which was odd, it should have been much warmer than that. Unplugged the coolant sensor, same thing. I thought to myself that it could be a wiring issue, but didn't feel like pulling the upper intake manifold to check at the time, so I left it for the time being.

I was doing something else, near the throttle body, when I noticed that the TPS connector was disconnected, due to the blue wire, then looked at the TPS and realized that I had swapped the CTS and TPS connectors. *facepalm* connected them properly and now everything reads as it should.

It was too late to drive the car home, I didn't want to wake my boss (he lives in the house in front of the shop currently), and I wasn't sure how much tuning it would actually need to be driveable, so I left it on the hoist and drove home in my Yukon. :/

Just Like The First Time

Well, the next morning I go into work and put the car on the ground, and drove it out of the shop for the first time. It was great, the clutch engaged just as it should, no weird noises, no clunks, no bangs.

So I let it sit outside and get up to temp before taking it for a tune drive.

Just curious why LX9 over keeping the L28? There was a guy at the 1/4 mile event I just went to who was running around 11.5-11.7 with an L28 in a 240Z.

Because I bought this car 6 years ago to install an LX9 in, I only played with the L28 because it was there, and not an L24.

The L28 was starting to show it's age and would need a full rebuild pretty soon. It would also cost me a lot more money to get the power out of a the engine that I want if I stayed with the L28 than it will cost me with the LX9, probably by a factor of like 5 to 8 times more money from what I see other people pour into their L28s and still come up shorter than what I want.

The only reason the L28 stayed in the car for 6 years instead of a year or two as planned, was because it was just so bullet proof, it would take a beating and keep going. One of the most robust engines I've ever had the pleasure of owning, and I mean that sincerely. The L28 once it had the manual transmission behind it (my car was originally automatic), and then the turbo and injection on it impressed the hell out of me.

But now that I've driven an LX9 equipped S30, I have ZERO regrets in swapping the L-series out, the car handles and feels different. The way power comes on is much smoother and less labouring. It's also EXTREMELY unique, it's not another turbo L28, or LSx, or RB, or SBC, or any of the other multitude of engines that have been swapped into an S30. As far as I'm aware I'm the first to put one of these engines into an S30. Though I do have some pictures of an S30 that had what looked like a FWD gen1 660 poorly installed in it years ago. No one that I've found has actually installed a gen2 or 3 660 in an S30.