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

[Ghosteh]

Already made.

There's a lot of detail items I haven't mentioned, because the thread would get even longer and boring if I did.

I'll likely post some of that detail stuff if there is interest.

Believe me, there's interest! For guys like me who are struggling through this, seeing & hearing what others have done before, specifically when it's a LX9-to-RWD swap, is VERY appreciated! And I have to say, I really admire the fabrication skills of some of you guys! Wish I had the ability, tools, and creativity to do that!

And photos are great! I can't tell you guys how much time I've spent studying the photos posted & comparing it to what I have.

I just realized there isn't a good picture of how it sits right now.

I'm thrilled with how it fits so far.





I'm using the LA1 upper intake because it's easier to get everything to work, than it would be with the LX9 upper intake. I also prefer the LA1 upper for looks. I don't think I'll really be taking that much of a hit in performance either. If I do, it wouldn't take long to swap the LX9 upper onto the engine, once I made a few modifications.

Don't forget that you need to make a 9/16" shim for the starter to use it with the RWD/F-body flywheel. Or do you have a different plan for that?

Already made.

There's a lot of detail items I haven't mentioned, because the thread would get even longer and boring if I did.

I'll likely post some of that detail stuff if there is interest.

[caffeine]

Don't forget that you need to make a 9/16" shim for the starter to use it with the RWD/F-body flywheel. Or do you have a different plan for that?

Here's that Tight VSS clearance.



Here is a picture of the engine to trans adapter I made, remember this is the second one, the first one will become wall art, to remind me to make proper measurements and calculations. lol

The Next Day

So now it's Saturday morning in our story.

After contemplating what I was going to do about the trans mounts over night, since I discovered that there is a physics issue with the transmission and the car itself, only one object can occupy the same space at a time. The trans is just freaking HUGE, compared to the old trans. I decided the night before to cut out the old mounts and make new, since I didn't really have a choice, and even trimming the old ones wouldn't have been enough. If I wanted to leave the engine and trans more forward I could have made it work, but that just wasn't an option to me.

I get the grinder with a cutting disc out and start cutting away the driver side mount.




Point of no return:


I spent most of the day designing and fabricating the new mounts.



Sunday, Bloody Sunday

I then moved onto boxing the old mount brace and then tying the new mounts to the old mount brace.




New mounts tied to old mount brace:




Notice that the right side tie in plate has a notch, yeah, that's to clear the VSS, and if I hadn't put that notch there, the trans would not have fit. It's THAT close to the brace. I'm contemplating notching that brace a little more to give a little more clearance, just for peace of mind.

Happy with how the trans mount has turned out, I move onto the front mount. Now here is where I break from conventional wisdom in a typical longitudinal layout. Most people would make some plates that attach to the side of the engine block and then tie them into the existing mount pads, or a new crossmember. Not me, nope, I'm going a different route.

Go back to how the LX9 is mounted in a transverse application. There is a mount attached to the oil pan, just below the crank pulley. I like this idea because I can remove the mount pedestals from the crossmember and open that area up for other things.

I had planned for this weeks ago and bought a universal Energy Suspension mount that looked like it should work. I had fabricated the plate that attaches to the oil pan a few weeks ago, in preparation. Now to finish it off and make something to attach it to the car...

Some time later:





Comparison of modified crossmember to original crossmember (With steering and lower A-arms still attached):


And the engine supported by the car.


Tomorrow I will be making some struts to keep the engine upright, since I only have the two mounts holding the driveline right now.

So, since I now have the engine mounted in the car I figured it was time to share with the rest of the 60 degree V6 community.

Where it began

I'll start back a few years though.

I originally bought this car to swap an LX9 into, since I had the engine already. Instead I turbocharged the L28 that was in it when I got it. This was not the original engine to the car, but original type and fitment, kinda like going from a gen2 2.8 to a gen 2 3.1 in a Cavalier, or the 3.4 swap that is popular in the S-10 crowd. Same engine design, just larger displacement, though there were many head and block differences between the L24 and the L28, but that's not important to the story.

So I BEAT the hell out of this L28, 17 to 20 PSIG daily. Yes, this car is basically my daily driver in the spring, summer and fall. I only planned to keep the turbo L28 in the car for a year or two, but that was like 6 years ago.

This is the turbo L28, that served me well, and pushed the car to a 13.0 ET and many, many miles of smiles:


So earlier this summer I decided it was time to swap an LX9 into my car. I got another one from the local wreckers, along with some other parts.

I started by building some of the parts needed to install and attach parts to the engine, to get it ready for the swap. Things like alternator mount, headers, modified front cover, etc, etc.

The plan was to swap in the new engine over my holiday week, since the shop (where I work) was not being used, and had 10 days to use the hoist. That didn't work out...

My original plan was to keep the original (type) trans that was already in the car. A little more back story, the car was originally automatic when I got it, then swapped in a 4 speed manual, then a 5 speed manual, both manual transmissions were either what would have been it in originally (the 4 speed) or direct replacement/upgrade (the 5 speed). Anyway. I did some measuring for clutch depth and such and it seemed like it was going to work perfectly, depth wise anyway. So I made an adapter plate, but then noticed that the depth didn't look right when I placed the adapter plate on the back of the LX9. Measure again and sure enough I was off. *facepalm*

Note of advice, make sure you only remove the width of the ruler used for making a straight edge once, not twice... So my depth measurement was off by 25mm :/

Back to the drawing board

So I remembered that the 2.8/3.1/3.4 in the F-body used a thicker flywheel, so off to research if it was thick enough. I found one picture online that looked like the flywheel would be a very promising part. It was Sunday of my holidays week, so I couldn't find one that day and figured I'd get one the next day from the wreckers. Think again. Arg!
There was ONE in Ontario, at another wreckers not too far away, but it was still in the car and they were "short staffed". So I waited, until Wednesday when it finally arrived. Great, I can continue on and hopefully be able to get the engine in.

Nope.

As I test fit the thicker flywheel, it became apparent that the increased diameter was too large for the trans I had planned to use. Arg! What to do?

Plan C, maybe D by now. I had waiting in the wings another trans that I had planned to swap in at a later date. I decided to explore the option to put it in now, even though I didn't have a clutch, shifter or driveshaft for it. Turned out that the bellhousing was large enough for the flywheel, the input shaft is IDENTICAL to the old transmission (Thank you Nissan for keeping some things the same!). Make a new adapter plate, for this different trans. It was Friday of the holidays before I got the engine and trans mated, so I decided it was too late to take the car apart.

Engine and trans mated for the first time:



So now I just needed a shifter and driveshaft. Driveshaft was pirated from a Nissan Pathfinder, because they use the same trans, though configured a little differently, but still no shifter. New one is $148 from Nissan, and I would have needed to modify it before I installed it anyway, due to chassis fitment. I also didn't like where the shifter would end up in the shifter hole and I knew I wanted to push the trans back farther than when it is mated to the L28 in these cars. So What to do? Make a shifter using parts from a 4-speed trans original to the car, why not? lol

So now I have a clutch (Which still needs some verification on exactly how I'm going to piece the clutch and pressure plate together. More on that later.), a driveshaft to use for the yoke, and a home made shifter.

Not complete, since it seems I don't have any pictures of it done, but you get the idea:


This might just work

So there is a civic holiday here in Canada, on the first weekend in August. It's not a mandatory holiday, so some places stay open, other places do not, luckily, we do not. So I decide that as of Friday of that weekend it would be go time for the swap. That's this past Friday, for those keeping track.

The car comes apart pretty typically. I was trying to drop the entire driveline out the bottom of the car, but due to the engine sitting at quite an angle, this proved to be more difficult than it was worth, so out the engine crane comes and the engine and trans are removed through the top. I then remove the front crossmember, so that I could lower the car over the new engine and trans.

I HAVE to see the new drivetrain sitting between the frame rails before I go home. Keep in mind I've already mocked up the LX9 in teh car a few years previously, when I pulled the L28 for some maintenance, so I know basically what it's going to look like, but I need to see the headers, and the belt system in there, I just have to.

Oh yeah, I like it

It looks great in there, and it looks like I will be able to push it back as far as I would like.



It's still on the engine dolly at this point and decide to use a chain between the trans mounts and the engine support to lift the car up and really inspect what I'm going to need to do for mounts.

But I think this is where I should make it a new post for a new day...