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1992 Z32 300ZX LSx swap.

76K views 141 replies 58 participants last post by  alex300zx 
#1 · (Edited)
Well, here it is I guess. I'm still stacking parts but the build is up and running.

I have a 1992 Z32 that used to have a TT swap in it but the previous owner dropped the #6 piston in. I ended up trading my turbo civic for this and a ratty del sol that I daily at the moment.

My plans are to get the LQ4 (300hp/370tq) that I sourced from a 2002 Chevy 2500HD mated to my stock 5 speed from the old TT swap and all that good stuff.

I have the wiring figured out I think...I wired up a separate fuse box and relays to control the ignition power and fuel pump (bypassing the stock fuel controller but keeping the stock TT pump for the time being) I built a small sub harness to plug the truck EFI harness into the Z's chassis harness. I will try and get a simple diagram up soon to show everyone what I am talking about.

Not useful for me but I know there are some other Z guys on here that will use this:



Also, this helped me track down what wires went to the relays/chassis and is the factory diagram for the Z:

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f310/zductiv/VG-EFI.jpg

Here are some of the sites that helped me out immensely with the wiring:

http://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=798904&page=3
http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread/225172
http://www.lt1swap.com/

As far as mounting goes I ordered a set of universal street rod mounts from summit that look like they will do the trick:



Trans-dapt part # 4501

I'm figuring I can cut the legs down and put a plate on the end with a wheel studd so it can kind of act like the old factory Z mounts mounting in the subframe.

I also have picked up a new oil pan so the motor can sit a little lower and farther back:



Moroso 20140 (oil pan)
Moroso 24050 (pickup)
GMPP 12558253

I haven't hammered out the oil filter relocation just quite yet but will update when I do.

As far as my flywheel/clutch issues I have a stock LS1 fly wheel from a F-body Camaro that has the correct bolt pattern for my engine. I am getting it turned down at a machine shop and having the Z's old ring gear installed on it as well as the old dowels and all of the pressure plate mount holes transferred over. I am losing about a 1/4in on each side of contact space for the clutch because of the way the LS1 flywheel has a wider space in the center. (will get reference pics when I can get out to the shop again)

Here's a little teaser of the wiring madness I went through...



Also, a pic of the Z and my old Civic (94_teggyLs here on the boards has it now)



 
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#6 ·
I picked it up from a local yard for $1k even, it included the engine (no alt, PS pump), wiring harness, ecu, MAF. Not too shabby and has something like 80k on it. I was looking at a LY6 (353hp/373tq) but it was a little bit out of my price-range and I didn't want the headache of getting the VVT to work.

your going to love the clearance between the cross member and the pan with that new oil pan.. there is all of 2 inches with the TT motor lol.. that ecu pin out if a great thing to have also.. most pin outs just have the numbers and a description of what the wires are.. having the colors of the wires helps out a lot.. i do have a couple of questions for ya though.. did you already get rid of all the twin turbo stuff you had?? (if not i may know someone who may be interested in picking some of it up) and.. Wanna trade chassis?? lol my white 2+2 for your black one?? hahah
Haha yea. I will post up a few threads I found about clearance with these motors. From what I can tell the biggest issue is at the firewall when people use the T56. The bellhousing is just so damn big. I hoping to not have to worry about that with the reuse of my stock TT tranny. Yea, I dug that diagram out of the twinturbo.net archives (I HATE HATE HATE the way that forum is layed out. So gay.) I'm hoping to make a few of these kits when I am done to mount Gen III/IV motors into Zs with the stock tranny.

As far as the TT stuff, I have every bit of it down to the charge pipes and stock intercoolers. The block is semi torn down with piston 6 out. Surprisingly the broken ringlands didn't damage the cylinder walls at all.

I have found an LS1 mani from some Vette/Maro or whatever with rails and injectors for $50 locally so I won't have any hood clearance issues. I'm planning on going with a set of Fast fuel rails and larger injectors. (I have some future plans of boost ;) )

Also a question for those on the boards: Does anyone know of anybody locally who could tune my setup when I am done? I may send out for a map so I can at least start it and get that stuff ironed out, VATS is a bitch)
 
#4 · (Edited)
your going to love the clearance between the cross member and the pan with that new oil pan.. there is all of 2 inches with the TT motor lol.. that ecu pin out if a great thing to have also.. most pin outs just have the numbers and a description of what the wires are.. having the colors of the wires helps out a lot.. i do have a couple of questions for ya though.. did you already get rid of all the twin turbo stuff you had?? (if not i may know someone who may be interested in picking some of it up) and.. Wanna trade chassis?? lol my white 2+2 for your black one?? hahah
 
#7 ·
you could always take it to the guy who rebuilt my Z.. his name is mike petralia.. he wanted to do a swap like this in my car but i wanted the vg.. his usually does work on those kinda motors.. and he would be suprised if you rolled up in a z with that swap hahaha shoot me a txt if you want his number
 
#8 ·
Well, been a little while with the update.

I got the intake manifold from my friend. I crossed the numbers and injectors and it's a manifold from a 98 Camaro. The fuel rails aren't going to work because of clearance issues with the lines hitting the coils.



I started looking into what options I have for my fuel situation and have come up with what I think will work pretty well. I have the TT pump in my car from the TT swap it had before and from what information I could dig up it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 290lph (13.5v) so I think I'm good in that department.

I was going to try and get a set of adapters to make the stock rails from the LS1 fit but found out the FPR was missing off of the rails so I started looking around and came up with a fuel filter from a 99-04 LS1 that has an internal FPR built in that sets fuel at 58psi and was cheap (Napa part# 3737, $50.00)

The filter has a pressure inlet, return side, outlet.



Some parts you are going to need if you want to connect rubber hoses to it (cheap):

3/8" (pressure): DOR-800-121
5/16" (return): DOR-800-120

You can get those fittings from any auto parts store and are fairly cheap. To get a line out of the outlet you have to get a fitting from russel which effectively turns the oulet to a 3/8 NPT fitting or hit the junkyard and grab a line off a late model Chevy and make your own fitting.

Russel Part numbers if AN fittings are your thing:

3/8 tube -> 3/8 NPT: 640690
3/8" -> -6an: 640850
5/16"-> -6an: 640860

I found a fuel rail kit from Professional Products that I plan on using (part#10612) it includes rails, crossover, line that goes to the fuel filter.

I'm also intalling a set of Bosch 0280155811 (42lb @ 58psi) injectors. It's a bit overkill for a cam/headers/intake car but gives me a bit of room to grow later.

Research I've been doing for my PCV setup since the manifold changes everything. I'm plugging up the old PCV hole in the driverside valve cover and running something similar to this setup (GO GO LS6 valley pan!):



Also, I found this vacuum routing diagram I figure is good for reference.

 
#11 ·
Well, ideally, I want to have it up at the end of January or early February.

As soon as I can get my flywheel cut down and setup for the Z clutch I should be able to start fabbing up the adapter plate. I have the steel just need to make sure it is going to do the trick when the flywheel and clutch are bolted on.

I think I have most everything figured out so far except the headers. I'm pretty sure a set of block hugger headers will fit with everything in but they aren't going to cover what I want performance wise.

I found this kit that I may try and put together to make it fit:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Chevy-LS1-Header-Kits,6600.html
 
#13 ·
we are actually doing the same thing with an lm7 in my dads 39 ford
we are using the same intake mani and fuel rail i have already modified the coil packs to where the fuel inlet will clear the coil pack on cylinder # 5 we are using a street and performance wiring kit and also using their pulley kit. prolly gonna have carma retune the ecu to get rid of the vats. but will be a fun build non the less heres a link to their website they deff know their stuff http://www.hotrodlane.cc/
 
#15 ·
Haven't been able to work on the car for a bit.

I've got some money saved, but my biggest snag is I've had to help some friends out of hardtimes so the car got put on hold.

Hopefully, within the next month I can go ahead and get my adapter plate made so I can get the engine at least in and figure out my driveshaft situation and all that good stuff.

I have decided not to go with fuel injection just to keep the project simple. I've decided a carb'd Lq4 is probably the way to go and with a decent cam will get me in my 4-500hp range. More pics and updates coming soon.
 
#19 ·
I'd gladly give anyone a ride if I was in town for a meet or something haha.

Update:

Ordered my clutch from Southbend, also ordered an engine cradle stand so I can mock up my adapter plate and hopefully have one CNC cut soon.

We need heat in our shop so bad. I may have to breakdown and get the gas turned on.
 
#20 ·
oh damn im sure mfg will be in here to nutswing the southbend clutch. Seems every time a clutch issue comes up he always tells me about southbend haha. GL need to get some pictures up when pregress comes.
 
#22 ·
Well, it's certainly been a while since I've been able to do any updating. I picked up a second job to try and speed this process up a bit and get this car to IA this summer.

I am currently waiting for my machine shop to finish up my adapter plate and I can get it all bolted together and ready to drop in.

I ended up with a 1" spacer between the flywheel (Custom length M11 bolts FTW, fuck you chevy) The space between the motor/tranny worked out to be 3/4" thick, so far so good.

I ended up picking up a Mishimoto radiator and strapped the SPAL fan I had on the old TT radiator. I did some rough measuring and I think I am already going to have some clearance issues with my crank pulley/water pump and the radiator/fan. Depending on how changing the balacer/pump gives me clearance I may have to cut the radiator support and lean the rad forward. On the plus side I get to reuse my coolant hardpipe kit. It looks like it will line right up!

I found the Corvette harmonic balancer actually sits a good 1.75" closer to the block than the truck one I have. As far as the water pump, I'm looking for one from an LS3 because of the outlet coming out of the front like the rest of the F-body/Car pumps and the fact it has a single belt pulley.

This site is awesome for LSx info and the differences between the engines:

http://www.nookandtranny.com/Info_LSx.html

Gonna try and get some pics up tonight/
 
#23 ·
I live on nookandtranny and ls1tech. Idk how I missed this build, I've been working on my ls1/t56 s13 coupe for a few months now...should be on the road in the coming months. Regardless, awesome looking build!
 
#27 ·
Well damn. I'll figure something out for the tune I suppose.

Did some work on the car today. Cut the top of the core support out and notched it so the Mishimoto radiator can do a little bit of forward gangster lean. I should have clearance now as long as the fan is strapped to the front and pushing and the crank pulley gets changed to one from a vette.

I'm finding that I need a few parts for sure to get this thing going once it's in. LSx alternator, LS1 map (truck one broke and won't fit), larger LS1 style injectors/plugs.

I am also going to have some issues finding a set of longtubes that will fit. Anyone around that can help me build a set for cheap? I will pay well, I just can't pay 1k well if you know what i mean.

I've started unpinning the harness I worked on previously so I can do a wiretuck when it's in and to just clean it up and shorten everything anyway. I had the harness set up to fit under the Vortec cover on truck manifold. fun fun.

Still waiting on the adapter plate to come back from the machine shop. Took the tranny over this week and had the guy reference the holes for the cnc machine. Also took over the M11 flywheel bolt so he knows what to make, gotta love needing a longer bolt but not being able to get one off the shelf.


I promise pictures are coming! I keep forgetting to bring my camera home. Should have a ton of them loaded up soon...
 
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