The V8 Owners Forum -

4.0 1UZFE, whoop!



Only running an alternator, engine came with Thor Racing idler pulley and is running a 1JZ alternator which is a lot smaller (lighter!) that the standard 1UZFE one


Drivers manifold modified to clear the steering rack


W58 gearbox and Thor conversion, this will get swapped for the R154


Thor extended shifter mechanism, very nicely done. I've got a shorter shifter kit as well to go with this. Note the pink gearbox mount as well, also very light and well made from lazer cut 5mm steel


Rear hubs are Driftworks Geomasters, I have matching fronts as well which need a lick of paint. These give 50mm of roll centre correction (basically drop spindles). Also got new hubs/bearings all round


Front LCAs are standard S14 Nissan extended 25mm. I will use these to get it running/sorted ...


Reinforced underneath


But I may use these instead, Driftworks rose jointed adjustable LCAs and tension rods


Suspension is Tein Flex all round, fronts have pillowball adjustable camber top mounts, very nice!


Spare room is a second garage!


Link ECU, Mocal remote filter, 5" tacho and Mocal oil pressure/temp (I have a Mocal water temp as well). I plan to only run these three analogue gauges to keep things simple and electrickerty-gremlin free ...


Oh and this, for the future....

Looks like the engine will be a tight squeeze with those huge tyre tubs ?

Yeah it will be, when it was in the s13 which is the same size, there was a couple of inches either side at the widest point of the engine at the heads. It's just thinner than the frame rails!

So the previous owner of the S13 had done a 'manual' rack conversion, the wrong way by looping the power steering lines from/to the rack:


So I dismantled the steering rack to do a proper manual conversion. The large alloy end cap was a nightmare to remove as it has ultra thin thread and I had to use a 1m length of 50mm intercooler piping as a breaking bar!


Once all the bolt on stuff was off, I had to drill the seal from the passenger side of the rack, as I couldn't get it out and the rack wouldn't come apart without this being removed.


Had to be careful when drilling not to damage the inside sleeve of the rack.


The main rack has a large steel double flange and plastic seal. Seal was removed and spacer cut with an angle grinder.



Rack was then lathered in grease and reassembled. I did not put the spring back into the rack, tried it with and without and didn't make any real difference. Given a coat of acid etch then black, and bolted to the restored crossmember with Superpro poly bushes. The rack fittings are a pain in the ass to remove as they seem to be made of cheese, so for two of them I cut the lines and crimped the solid hose, for the other four I managed to get out I just sealed them up with some tiger seal. Worked a treat



Then mounted the crossmember (after massaging the drivers wheel tub to enable the oem double-bolts to fit through the chassis rail.


After spending an hour (yes really!) cleaning four captive nuts in the chassis rail, I managed to get the drivers side tension rod bracket mounts and then bolted up the LCA/tension rod/hub

Someone had cut out the dash bar part of the roll cage, so bought some suitable cds tube, cut it to length and used a holesaw to fishtail each end. Came out pretty damn well for my first attempt. Used some zip ties to hold it in place nice and level, and welded it in. Sanded it back and gave it a lick of primer, hopefully the last bit of welding required on the shell.

Fishtail:


Lined up:


Welded:


Painted:

Took some shots of what I've been up to in the last few weeks, mainly first-fit of engine bay and interior.

First up is the brake system. Running braided Goodridge AN3 fittings throughout, except hard lines in the engine bay for the front brakes. Mounted the header tank (which came off a Nascar) and made a couple of aluminium bulkhead plates using existing captive nuts on the bulkhead. There is one behind the header tank for the brake link, and the one down by the steering column will be drilled for the gauge feeds (more on that later)


Ran the brake hardline under the lip on the bulkhead. I've discovered the awesomeness of Rivnuts, they're brilliant for fitting pretty much anything! Also mounted the Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator. I have some AN6 bulkhead fittings for the fuel lines but I may run them down the gearbox tunnel. Also fitted the wiper motor and tested the linkage, will be running single wiper conversion by moving drivers wiper to the central mount and turning it 90 degrees.


Ordered a 1m x 1m sheet of 3mm chequer plate, which was pre-cut to my specs. Used it for the drivers footwell (raised) and pedal box mount. Pedal box is an OBP bias box with the loud pedal already modified for the 1UZ accelerator cable.


Not quite sure where to mount the Mocal remote filter yet, might be in front of drivers tub as shown. Running AN8 lines for the oil system, and the biggest Laminova oil/water cooler available. The reason I chose this over a standard bar oil cooler are for a number of reasons, firstly it's smaller, lighter, out of the way of any debris, highly efficient and look damn awesome! Plus I got it cheap as one of the fittings was damaged, just got to get larger water fittings for it. The Mocal filter head is tapped at the front - I will have the oil pressure and temp sensors mounted there.


Mounted the three OBP master cylinders off the dash bar on a piece of aluminium angle, held on tightly with two jubilees. Clutch line is braided AN4 with a bleed system.


Bolted another piece of chequer to the passenger seat rail for the batter box and twin extinguishers (one manual and one on twin pullcords). Found out today that the battery box is too small for the batter I have, so will have to buy another!


OBP hydraulic handbrake. The previous owner had welded a thick piece of steel onto the top of the tunnel for the hydro, but this put it right in the way of the shifter. I made a plate to move it out about 4", secured with 8mm rivnuts. It's solid. I also have a lever-type AP Racing brake bias for the rear brake line which will get mounted next to this.


Steering column is mounted using some Nascar billet aluminium clamps which weigh naff all, but had to make a couple of 3mm adapter plates. Left enough meat on them so I can change the steering column position if required. Love the look of these shame they will be hidden by the dash! Steering column has been completely stripped.


Lastly is the instrument cluster. The dash is a fibreglass copy of the RK Tuning dash and weighs absolutely nothing, plus it was a bargain. Chopped it about a bit and used some left over chequer for the binnacle (bit rough at the moment). I am only running a tacho and two Mocal gauges, one for water temp and a very trick oil pressure/temp combination gauge. These are both mechanical/analogue gauges using capillaries etc. Tacho is unbranded and came on a car I broke, but does the job. It has a useful mount on the back which is curved and fits the steering column perfectly, saving me having to make any more mounts, bonus! The last bit of chequer I have will be used on the centre of the dash for the ignition controls. All other switches/pullcords will be on the top of the tunnel next to driver.


Cheers

Past few weeks I have spent more hours than I care to count stripping the original S13 wiring loom of all the bits I'm not using (most of it!). I have also stripped down the engine loom, there were about 8 cut wires at the ecu end most of which went back to the diagnostics box - which I removed. Also removed all the 1UZ automatic trans connetors and the EGR bits and bobs. Wiring loom is about 1/3 the size it was and I still have some to go.

I also have to make up a new small fuse box and relay board for the twin fuel pumps, small interior fan, FIA cutoff and one or two other bits.

This is the loom just after I started


And this is about 1/4 the excess wires!



Decided to sort the doors out. I refuse to pay £450 for a set of fibreglass doors that weigh 5-6kgs when the factory doors will be a perfect fit and should almost weigh the same when stripped down.

Gutted the doors, but keepingt the interior door release and exterior handle/mechanism to save faffing about customising stuff. I removed more metal after this photo. The interior door reinforcements weigh an absolute ton, I still have a couple of kg of them to remove but ran out of cutting discs.


Bought three sheets of Foamalux for £8 a sheet, enough for both doors and rear quarters. Was dead easy to make the door cards, lined up one edge to the door top and feintly sprayed some primer round the rest of the door then just cut the shape out with a stanley knife. Held on with rivnuts.



Both doors probably took me about 6 hours total. Need a bit of finishing/trimming but came out exactly as expected, and they probably don't weigh much more than the fibreglass ones.


Only problem was the drivers door handle, I did the passenger door first then made a mirror copy, only to find out that the drivers door handle is 3" further forward than the passenger, doh! SO will need to fill this small hole before paint.

Elbow on the mend so managed to get back out to the garage. Also bought myself a proper Bosch 413 motorsport pump and will be going for AN8 fuel line, split to two AN6 feeds at the rail. Sold the W58 gearbox conversion as it won't be enough for me, so currently looking into BMW gearbox options, with a twin plate clutch. Also bought a ton of carbon fibre aero, more on that another time.

Decided to get the engine mounts sorted out. First decided to see if the engine would actually fit without hitting the massive tubs, it does.


Reminder of what the existing cross member looks like, this was previously modified by someone to fit an SR20 block in. It has a LOT of additional metal and weighed a ton.


Took the old engine mounts off the 1UZ. These are really nicely laser cut steel, but welded together by a blind monkey. I did try these with some Hardrace engine mounts and the x-member, but it didn't quite work.


Went full retard with the angle grinder on the xmember, and cut off about 4kg steel.


Fitted the Lexus cast alloy engine mounts (which weigh nothing!) to my spare block, and bolted on a pair of genuine Hockey Pucks. These are polyeurethane and cost me a fiver ... ;-D



Got some scrap 2.5mm steel plate, cut two strips off it, drill a hole and bent them. Flipped the spare block upside down, fitted a spare sump, lined it all up using a spare bit of steel and a pencil (seriously, it was exactly the right size), and tacked it all up. Bolted it to the shell and refitted the engine. Went in easy first time, and engine mounts bolted up - took me 5mins to fit the engine! Sump cleared, everything without needing to modify.






Took it all off again and blitzed the welding. Added a few small reinforcing brackets adn welded the back of the new engine mounts. All done and dusted in about 3 hours, so quite happy with the result. Needs a bit of tidying and a few more brackets (ran out of gas) then off to get blasted/powdercoated.

Coming along nicely!

Chris.

Decided to save a bit of cash so painted the subframe with Hammerite Smoothrite, came out really good. Except I realised I forgot to add a couple of brackets on, so will have to sort that when I get new gas.


Started to sand the doors with an orbital sander, drivers door coming along nicely considering it had about 10 layers of paint on it. The vertical line on the front end is where I grazed it with the angle grinder, so need to weld that up as well. I think the doors are going to be a smidge over 5kg each, plus windows/mirrors when finished.


Passenger side not so. Had a nice thick layer of filler on it to cover up a slight dent. Needs a lot more work.


I have two boots, so pulled the one out of the corner of the garage with the least damage, looks good.


Test fitted it to the shell, fits great. Sitting a bit low in the pic as I removed the rubber stoppers at the back.


Also bolted the wing together and test fitted. Haven't decided on it yet but it should be big enough. Weighs in about 5.5kg including all uprights and bolts etc. It's a bit different to normal, as it has a rose joint on the rear mount so is adjustable. I'm going to be playing about with this as I've got a really good idea for a home made DRS .




Took the grinder to the boot. Removed 2.2kg of weight including the barrel lock and rubber glue/crap that holds the frame on. Will be bracing the wing mounts using some 3mm carbon sheet I have so the metal doesn't bend under load.


Sanded the old spoiler holes. Offside is fine, nearside has a very clear bump in it. Also noted that whoever sprayed it last fitted the spoiler while the paint was still soft lol. I may just fibreglass the holes up to save faffing about with the welder as eventually I want to go for a fibreglass/carbon boot.


Removed the plastic Nismo badge and sticky crap using good old wd40. Unfortunately there is a small paint chip, but other than that and the old spoiler holes the boot is in really good nick.



Cheers :wavey:

Took another 0.5kg out of the boot, making 2.5kg off total. Also fibreglassed up the old spoiler holes and boot lock hole. Finished sanding the doors down, had to use a flap wheel in the end there was so much paint on them. One of them has a couple of serious dents that will need skimming, and both will need a decent coat of filler primer to sort them out, but shouldn't be too bad.

Started sanding the sideskirts. Managed to get hold of a genuine pair of TBO skirts, in very good condition. Not seen many of these about so at least they're a bit different. Started sanding them down and give them a good key ready for primer, mainly just road rash on the paint job, couple of minor cracks to sort out on the leading inner door part but no big deal. Might not use these depending on how the diffuser goes.



Fitted up the rear end. Tein coilovers, geomasters, driftworks arms and cheapo camber arms. Toe rods and new hubs not fitted yet, just getting it rolling so I can wheel it out for paint. Gave myself a bit of a scare as when fitted, the nearside was so low the shell was resting on the tyre ... turned out the coilover was set at at a different height! Bought myself a couple of tein spanners and wound it up 25mm to match the other side, although it's still a bit off? Hmm. Anyway, pic of drivers side to show final ride height. Wheels are my spare set of Rotas, 18" x 10" ET15 with 235 wide track tyres (these are actually the front tyres). Have GTR fenders to bolt over the rear end



Finally, after I bolted up the rear suspension I noted that the welds on the reinforcing plates were interfering with the suspension top mount bolts, so out came the trusty grinder and all was good in the world again.

Went and got my bodykit for the front end last week. For a replica kit it's not actually too bad, needs a bit of work to get a decent pics.

Used a set of old hinges, bolts went in no bother and hold well.


Bonnet fitted


Wings bolted on roughly


And bumper roughly fitted up, looks great!!!


It's really wide, almost 70"!!

Righto finally got out to the garage again today. It's taking me ages to try and fettle the wings and bonnet to fit, after closer inspection the fit isn't that good ... and I need to do some major surgery at the front end on the wings as they don't meet the bonnet. After about 3hrs of doing that I got fed up and decided to do some more mechanical stuff, so started on my BMW gearbox conversion, using the Zurawski Motorsport kit.

First up was clean up the Toyota flexplate spacer and fit that


Then clean up the Toyota flex plate, and fit it. It only goes on one way as the ring gear is bevelled on one side, line it up with a couple of spare bolts. Also test fitted the crank adapter which allows the fitting of standard BMW flywheels.




Then got onto the adapter plate. Made from high quality aluminium, the machining on it is very good. First off, part of the wiring loom was in the way so had to whip off a securing bolt and move the wires 5mm up. Secondly, the two bolts that hold the starter motor on need grinding back about 2-3mm in order for the plate to sit flush - this has to be done and I was told about this when I bought the kit. No problem there. The adapter plate lined up perfectly, and every single bolt went in first time no issue (apart from one of the smaller ones due to a previously snapped bolt - not my doing). Then did a dry fit of the BMW single mass flywheel I managed to get for £100 (with an almost new sachs clutch!).







Dug out one of my spare blocks, fitted a spare set of heads / old gaskets and test fitted my Zurawski single turbo, twin scroll turbo manifolds, which look great! They have a prototype single/twin scroll valve but I will be getting that welded up and running twin Tial wastegates rather than farting about with a boost actuated valve. The welding is ridiculously good and I am well chuffed as I got them for a bargain price! Only problem is that they really hug the block and I'll have to relocate the alternator higher up on the drivers side.

So, got the gearbox mocked up to the engine now, all went on ok. Need to buy a BMW spigot bearing, slave cylinder and release bearing now plus some flywheel bolts and the manual conversion will be complete.



Decided to start on the rear radiator setup. I bought some ex-Nascar AN20 hoses from the US, they both have the lightweight crimped AN20 Pro-Lite fittings. One consists of lightweight stainless braided hose (half the weight of normal stainless) and the other super lightweight Startlite kevlar hose (half the weight again). Got them roughly placed in the car; one has heat protection (shall this be the hot or cold hose?) and the other has bin bags to stop it getting dirty haha:



Radiator also turned up the other day. This is an ex-touring car item so the build quality is amazing, and came with all the brackets I need as well. I chose this as it is thin and long and perfect size for the boot with good cross-sectional area and had all the fittings in the right place. Just needs AN20 fittings welded on. There is a small fitting in the top corner where I can put a bleed takeoff to a small expansion tank. So made a few brackets and got it mocked up roughly. It is slightly angled to the rear, brackets are adjustable to give me more/less angle. I have managed to keep the whole system pretty much on a horizontal plane with the top of the boot/gearbox tunnel, minimising head so I shouldn't need a remote water pump.




So this is the rad fully mounted, with minimal brackets required (less weight!). The ATL fuel cell I bought also came with a hand base mount and ratchet straps, so got that roughly in place as well. The 20mm box section it is sitting on will get welded to the chassis rails but it's roughly in the right place. The tank has been modified to have an AN6 fitting on the bottom, so the lift pump and filter will be mounted underneath off the box section. Again, managed this without a load of additional brackets/cradle. Pretty happy so far. I'm going to cut up my spare bootlid and use the metal to make a big air intake to take advantage of the low pressure zone at the base of the rear window, very much like the Brill Steel S14 LS1 turbo. I'll be making a sealed enclosured for the rad to direct airflow down and over the carbon diffuser (rear boot section has been gutted as well).

Really interested in this one! I remember the TaffTune build from years back! Does it still have the R324 front end on it?

The handling should be TRANSFORMED with the amount of metal cut out of the front, and the far lighter engine!