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My uber rare jdm mad tyttteee 1973 240z build thread

21K views 100 replies 42 participants last post by  BURN UNIT 
#1 ·
No uber rare JDM parts will be in this thread, that was just a plot to get hipsters to make my view count come up. I am too cheap and broke to buy overpriced parts to impress someone on the internet that I probably wouldn't like anyways.

I have had a love affair with the S30 chassis for a long time and found a decent chassis with minimal rust. I had been talking about buying one for so long that when the opportunity to purchase the car arose, my future wife didnt even give me shit for buying it. I knew from the beginning that I wanted it to be powered by a Ka24de with some boost, and I wanted to set it up for some track days. Enough about my love affair, here as some pics of my limited progress....

First thing first I wanted to make the engine run in the floor of my garage. I figured if I could wire it up to run in the floor, then I could definitely make it run in the new car. It was surprisingly easy to wire and make run.

This is the car before I started to take things out


After a long day of cutting, tacking, cussing, and welding with my 8 dollars of scrap steel from clark I got the engine about where I wanted. BIG THANKS TO MIKE AT TRACK ONE FOR THE HOOKUP ON THE KA FOR CHEAP!!!!!!!!


I thought I had cleared the crossmember so my oil pan was not the lowest thing, but I then realized the corssmember was not fully bolted up......FAIL


I gave up for the day and tried again the next weekend with better results


Round 2....







I am going to run Megan S13 coilovers on this car using some ingenuity and help from Xylmer AKA Andy. Some people buy these conversion kits from a place called ZCCJDM.com but Andy and I thought that the design was not ideal and that we could do better. To adapt these coilovers to the 240z you cut off the stock strut leaving a little under 2" of post sticking up. Then weld these adapters to the LCA, that way you can thread the megan coilover onto the car. To adapt the top of the coilover you must cut out the strut tower and weld in camber plates. I got in a hurry and did not take photos of the install, but I will when I do the driver side.








I went ahead and did the mod to delete power steering and run the water pump and alternator off one belt. This is achieved by using a single cam KA alternator brackets, and running a different size belt. You also have to run the single cam KA thermostat housing to clear the now moved alternator brackets. Hopefully Ill get some time this weekend to finish some wiring and finish the drivers side suspension. I cant wait until this thing will move under its own power. I already have antique tags for it lolz!
 
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#8 ·
I can not take credit for this, The shop is Marty's Automotive in Rockvale Tn. If you ever need a general mechanic that does good honest work without breaking the bank give him a ring. I have helped him on race cars for several years and not charged him for anything so that is why he lets me take up rack space on the weekends

Very nice! I also have a love affair with s30's. Have to give you props for using the ka instead of a sr or rb.
Thanks, I went to the dyno with Andy when I first started using Nistune on his Turbo KA. After we made 420HP on a stock KA with the only mod being forged pistons I knew that this was the power plant for me.

Nice!!! Do it big Adam!

p.s. I saw my old slicks the other day over at Chris' house... It made me miss the days of going to the track LOL...
I wont do it too big, at least not like you. I just want something that burns oil and blows off...

Nice. I've had two, a 74 260, and a 73 240. I miss them and had no money ortime for them. My 74 had 19k original miles. =\

This build looks promising. Andy is a good dude, and very smart.

If you need some help, I'd love to come check it out.
Andy is a very smart dude. I have had the pleasure of calling him my friend for about a decade and it is always good to have someone like him to bounce ideas off of. I swear he and I talked on the phone about 20 times before I had the machinist make my adapters. I do believe they are a much better option that the other company and are almost 1/3 of the weight. As far as coming out and working on the car, misery loves company, I should be out there tomorrow welding away on my coilover adapters. PM if you really want to come check it out.

Wow nice work! I have always loved these cars but all I find are rust buckets.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
I do not think that there is an original z that does not at least have some rust. These things are made out of the worst steel ever manufactured. Even though there is not a ton of rust, I still have my work cut out for me.

Thanks for all the kind words!
 
#13 ·
I will, I would have updates from yesterday finishing my front suspension but I could not get the stock 240sx bracket that came on the megan coilover off. I spent 6 hours using, aerokroil, torches, grinders, clamps, a strap wrench, and ultrasonic cleaner, and lots and lots of disappointment. I finally got it off, from the looks of it it got something (salt is my guess) got in between the sleeve and coilover and corroded the threads. I used a thread file and cleaned all the threads and dug out the threads on the sleeve so all is well now.

Moral of the story is use anti-seize on your coilovers when you put them on your car.

Ive got an s14 ka24de block bored 20 over you can have if your willing to come to knoxville lol
I am always over that way to whitewater kayak. I will pm you next time I am in the area if you haven't already given it away. Thanks
 
#14 ·
Nice build man, i've always wanted to build one replicating the Devil Z lol. But if this is Adam Hopkins, im Tony Vongkhamchanh if you remember me? I went to school with Trent and drove the silver 240 with an sr and gold nismo lmgt2's back in the day. it's been a while so you might not remember me lol
 
#22 ·
Sorry I missed this earlier, I know who you are.

I have been working on my car lately, got some more work done, still tons to go....



Here is the rear lower control arm. I have obviously already cut and cleaned it up for welding.



Here are the sleeves that I had made. These are better IMO because I can thread the coilover all the way down, where as the other ones you can buy are stepped in the inside to prevent it from threading all the way down.





This is my sleeve pushed on waiting to be welded. I left about a 1/4 inch all the way around the bottom so I could weld the strut tube better.



This is the sleeve welded up for good.




I forgot to take a picture for the cutout for the camber plate on the top, so I snapped one from below. I didnt want to lower/raise the car again.... Sorry



Here are the tops of the rear after I welded and faded the into the body. It came out looking pretty good If I may say so myself.

Thanks for looking!
 
#16 ·
as soon as this build is complete, I call shotgun for first ride! I have a passion for the Z's, especially the 240s-280s.
 
#17 ·
Ok a little more progress today....


First thing you do to put these coilovers on is sawzall straight through the lower strut.


In this pic you can see the sleeve that was stuck (after it has been cleaned and loosened). The sleeves I am using in the front of the car are actually the megan ones that come with the 240sx coilover kit, but I cut all the brackets off because they are not needed.


Here is me holding the sleeve ready to be beat on using a big hammer and a wood block (so I dont damage the threads on top). I went ahead and beveled the top of the cutoff strut and also beveled the bottom of the sleeve to help assist it to go on straight.


This is the top of the strut tower where I cut the hole so my coilover will clear and be able to slide so I can adjust the camber. You can see where some of it is cut through and some of it was just scored. I found the best method to cut the rounded sections was to score it the best I could with the cutoff wheel, then use a body saw to finish it. This method actually worked very good.






Here is the front after I got everything welded up.


Now I just have to finish the rear.....

I also almost finished running the fuel supply line and am getting close on the wiring to at least hear it run. I just want to get all the work that I need a lift for done so I do not have to drive 20 minutes every time I want to work on it. To be honest I am a little overwhelmed at how much has to be done to this car to get it where I want it.... one day.
 
#18 ·
I looked up NisTune since I had never heard of that. If you have a lot of experience with them, you need to tell them to do a board for the Z33. they everything for just about every Nissan engine except for the VQ....wtf?! But my question is after you added the NisTune, could you have another piggy-back system on top of that like Osiris (for the Z's)? just reading through, it just seems like an ECU reflash without really tuning, is this correct?
 
#21 ·
It is, which leaves room to work on it and you can also stand in the engine bay while doing so, not to mention you lose around 200 lbs and have the same HP ( a little less torque).

Nice man shes looking really good
Thanks!

I looked up NisTune since I had never heard of that. If you have a lot of experience with them, you need to tell them to do a board for the Z33. they everything for just about every Nissan engine except for the VQ....wtf?! But my question is after you added the NisTune, could you have another piggy-back system on top of that like Osiris (for the Z's)? just reading through, it just seems like an ECU reflash without really tuning, is this correct?
This basically turns your factory ecu into a standalone. Depending on which ecu/chasis/several other factors, depends on just how much you can adjust. So no it is not just a reflash. I do not think matt form nistune gives two $hit$ about what I suggest to him, but I can tel andy and he might have a little more pull.....
 
#24 ·
I would like to say thanks to Adam for motivating me on my 240z project and also that I hate you..... for beating me to the punch!!! J/K I have had my Z for almost 5 years and you have had yours for a few months and it's almost road worthy.

Car looks great... and I need to get my happy ass over and take a look at it in person. I am gonna let you make all the screw ups so I don't have too! bahahaha! Keep up the good work. I need all the motivation I can get!

-Andy
 
#27 ·
I'm definitely not trying to be negative and I appreciate what you are doing... but the other sleeves are stepped to help hold the force applied to the suspension, i don't think the threads are strong enough to hold your car through a really high speed turn, just kinda safety heads up... Good luck :)
 
#29 ·
I am no engineer so I can't explain the science behind it, but Adam and I looked into this for quite sometime. These adapters are not weak, not even close. If you compare the thickness of Adams adapters to the rear lower section of a Megan coilover, you would see that his are thinker and made from steel. The Megan lower sections on the rear are made from aluminum.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I haven't seen any Megan coilovers with busted rear lower sections. The aluminum is plenty strong for a S13 240sx, which weighs more than a fully loaded Z car.

I was not the machinist that worked on the original set, so I can't speak for him, but I can say with certainty, these are plenty strong and the extra metal is not needed. The parts were inspected by a local machinist and he basically told us that boring out the extra metal would required more time. I guess this is something the original maker deemed unnecessary.

I am not trying to start a debate, but I felt the need to support what Adam and I have discussed over and over.

-Andy
 
#30 ·
I have been really bad about updating the build thread. But fortunately I have been pretty good about working on it when I have a free moment. New job + getting married + selling/purchasing a new home + working on z = no Tennspeed updates. Sorry. I did finally get it to a point where I can drive it on Thursday and I was pretty excited because I wanted to take it to the ZATTACK show today.

I had a good time at the meet. I saw a bunch of nice cars, got a ton of compliments from all different types of people, and got to meet several local z enthusiast that can help me source some of the hard to find parts I will need to complete my build.

Enough typing, here are a few pics Xylemer shot in his driveway. Dont be too critical of the pictures, he shot them in about 2 minutes while trying to diagnose an idling issue on my rusty junk. Enjoy!











Here is the spook spoiler that I am thinking about trying to get from Xylemer. He put it on a timer so we could hold it in place to see what it looked like. I am too fat to be laying on the ground....

 
#31 ·
No talking about my bald ass head either!

I got to take this thing around the block today and it was fun as hell. I can't wait to get mine on the road. Adam motivates me every time I talk to him.

It was very cool to see the Z roll up in my driveway. Adam has brought this car a long way, especially since it was in pieces when he bought it. Way to go man! I am very happy for you!

-Andy
 
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