LiamR's 280z Restomod - SR20DET to RB25DET

[LiamR]

**PLEASE BEAR WITH ME, I'M CURRENTLY STARTING THE THREAD FROM SCRATCH SO WILL TAKE A FEW POSTS TO GET IT TO THE CURRENT DAY**

Hey all,

Firstly thanks for clicking on my build thread and taking the time to read/look at the pictures.

I thought it was about time I started a "build thread" to document the work carried out on it.

I'll start from the top... from the VERY first time going to see the car...

So I picked up this 280z from a friend in a trade deal whereby I swapped my home built Honda S2000 turbo (some say I was crazy to get rid of it but bah, what the hell.. I knew the s2000 was going to a good home and I absolutely love the old Z cars).


Here it is when I went round to view it at my friends house... I instantly fell in love...











I knew I just had to have it!

It already had the SR20DET swap which is a little rough round the edges, but in the PO defence, he had a 28 day warranty on the engine so had to get it into the car as soon as he could to make sure it checked out OK. This trade wasn't long after he had it all up and running. So props to him for getting it in and running in such a short time.


I drove home that night with a huge smile on my face knowing I would be a Z car owner!! My dream car was going to be mine.


So the day came to swap the cars, here is an image of the 2 cars together..

 

[LiamR]

So I drove it home, so very very pleased. It sounded awesome, popped and banged on the over-run, turned heads everywhere and all in all was a gorgeous drive.

I gave it some boost going down the road but it seemed a little slow, a little hesitant... I could only assume that as my s2000 was 550hp, this obviously wasn't going to feel as quick. So carried on driving it regardless.

I noticed that half of the dash gauges didn't work (he told me this when showing me round it) but now I got to have a closer look. The voltage gauge was reading off the scale with the charge lamp on constantly... I thought nothing of this as I he told me it wasn't wired up to the gauge so was showing incorrect readings.






Oil temp didn't work, coolant temp didn't work, rev counter didn't work... all making sense as the sensors were not hooked up or indeed calibrated for those gauges. Only the fuel gauge worked, this only worked upto half way though.. above half a tank doesn't show on the gauge.

Anyways... fast forward to a few weeks later (only driven the car once more since collecting it) and I pull up at my garage to hear a hissing noise (kind of like someone letting air out of a tyre) On closer inspection I hear that the hissing noise is coming from the engine bay. I think... possible coolant leak? Pressure escaping etc, so I look under the car, no puddles anywhere, what the heck is it? I open the bonnet to find that the battery is swollen like a balloon and the hissing is coming from there!! I managed to open one of the battery caps and release the pressure. Checked the voltage with a multi-meter and its kicking out 17.5v at idle! RIP BATTERY!

Found out the external regulator was still connected to the car and the SR20 alternator runs an internal one. A few days of wiring checks, regulator rewire etc etc turns out the alternator voltage regulator is dead anyways, so no difference made there

Looks like it's time for a new alternator!

OLD knackered SR one ripped out...



New Nissan Serena alternator purchased (90A) to replace the dead one. Mounting holes seem to match up even though the plugs and power are in slightly different locations, but no worries as everything will reach! Nice little upgrade over the stock 80A one too.



So whilst the alternator is out of the car, I decided to replace the restrictive "turbo elbow" that comes on the SR20. OF COURSE the manifold studs were going to be seized and come out of the head.. why wouldnt they? Had to be re-tapped, so new upgraded studs and nuts were ordered!



Oh and I think I found why the car seemed a bit sluggish.... exhaust leak city.





Now onto the turbo... that's right you guessed it... TURBO STUDS SEIZED TOO. Out they come, turbine housing re-tapped and new ones put in their place.








Whilst all this is off, I looked at the current exhaust.. It was a miss-mash of old parts. 3 inch tubing bashed in places to fit around the diff. A supra back box that the PO had laying around so decided to use on the Datsun. My friend who's into fabricating his own parts took one look at it and said he couldn't let it stay like that. So he gave me a shopping list and told me to go do a buy. He decided that he was going to fabricate me a custom exhaust which goes up and over the rear axle. Here's the back box...




Nice Jap style with a good location.

 

[LiamR]

This was the old Supra back box compared to the new custom made one.


Here is the routing of the exhaust, its a squeeze but it actually fits quite well with no knocks or bangs!







So next on the to-do list was to reposition the inter-cooler and replace the piping. After watching the Mighty Car Mods 240z episode I really wanted the piping to go through the holes in the radiator support. It looked so clean so that needed to be done. Looks SO much neater once it's done.




Here's a YouTube video of what we did. Pt1 & Pt2

Whilst putting everything back together post inter-cooler mod, I couldn't stand how untidy the front looked. I had the original 280z grill in a spares box, tried to fit it up and was wondering... why on earth does that not align up properly, it must be the grill is all bent out of shape. It didn't occur to me the real reason why... but later on I would find out the exact reason... All will be revealed. So with this I decided that it just needed a lick of black paint to darken the area. I decided to go with the black and silver number plates for the classic look. So glad I did, they look 10x better! Also decided to treat the paintwork to some ceramic coating. Probably the cleanest the car has EVER been.

 

[LiamR]

With its clean shining paintwork freshly ceramic coated, my mate Ste asked me if I fancied taking the car to a local car show. It was the first meeting type thing that the car had been to in my ownership... It only went and won 1st prize.. I didn't even enter it into anything and the judges loved it haha! Awesome!



So from that I was happy with how it was (except for the wheels), it just needed tidying up here and there... (especially under the bonnet haha!)

I got asked if I would allow my car to be placed on a "Stand" at Japanese Performance Car show. I gladly agreed and it was given even more cleaning... mostly by my friends son who loves it. Free child labour! haha. No prizes at this show unfortunately, but then again its not a show car... even though it has "Blingy sticky out wheels"



The next thing to change was infact... "The blingy sticky out wheels". Never really been a fan of these but they were on the car when I got it and thought, ah why not stick with them and see how I feel. They work... for now. So I decided to go down the route of Atara Racing Pisang. I'd seen a couple of Datsun's on Instagram (mainly Tony's orange Z) with the wheels and fell in love. They had to be ordered. Shoutout to Preet on here for sorting me out a set! They suit the car so much better. I went with the 15x9J et-13 for the front, and 15x10.5 et-32 for the rears. Running r888's all round with 205/50 fronts and 235/50 rears.






I wasn't keen on the 280z front end AT all, and lets face it.. the 240z front is the look everyone likes and remembers. So with that I purchased a set of front indicators from Japan, the MSA/Devil lip whatever you want to call it.. and a huge list of parts from Skillard (including a 240z style front grill).




Just looking at this picture of the front dam near the car, you can tell instantly the look of the car is going to change drastically.

 

[LiamR]

So we aimed to get the 240z front end conversion done in a day as I was back from Saudi and the missus allowed me to have a garage day during my time back at home. We managed to do it... fitted, sprayed and everything wired in and working perfectly. THIS is where we would find out the problem with the earlier "Twisted Grille".

After getting the front air dam fitted and fettled nicely, we then decided to crack open the Skillard box and fit the front grille. All straight forward, he has videos on his website/youtube of how it all goes together nicely. Great I thought, here we go.... I go to fit the brackets and guess what... it DOESN'T fit. The mounting holes are about an inch out. I was scratching my head thinking.. WTF is the issue here? It should all fit perfectly, I messaged him to double check he had sent the correct brackets. Yes, everything was correct. On closer inspection, it turns out that the car seems to have had some sort of front collision! The bracket that holds the 280z indicator lamp was completely pushed over towards the bonnet hinge. The 280z indicator lamp still bolted in fine, but the whole thing was shifted and twisted over. It had me confused as the bonnet lined up, the wings lined up, so it has to have been a minor shunt, but still. GUTTED. In the end we had to adapt and make an extension bracket for it to center the grille. It turned out well and the results speak for themselves but now that makes me want to get it all repaired properly and work out what else needed replacing.











Whilst the front end conversion was going ahead, I also remembered I had ordered some proper wing mirrors for the car. I hate those cheap eBay things. Absolutely no use to man nor beast. If anyone is thinking of getting them... DON'T! The proper metal ones look nicer and actually work properly!! Luckily the previous owner had put the eBay ones in the correct place so I just had to enlarge the hole to accept the new mirrors.





Here is a picture of them in action. Awesome.

 

[LiamR]

So the 240 front end was done and I was MEGA happy with it. A local car photographer reached out to me and asked if I'd like some pictures taking of my car. I agreed (I've never had any decent proper pictures taken of one of my cars before)

Here are a few of my favourite images;

 

[LiamR]

The next thing was something that I wasn't planning on doing but thanks to Ian's group buy, I had to grab a set. They were the headlight covers. I got a set and didn't have the intention of fitting them just yet, but my mate Ste was too excited and surprised me with installing them whilst I was back working in Saudi. I wasn't too sure on them at first, but the more I saw them the more they grew on me.. and when I eventually got back to the UK again on leave, I was in love. They look awesome and finish the front end off nicely. Gives it a smooth classy look.

This was the image I received from him once he had put them on HAHA!





I had to take advantage of being back in the UK and driving the car, so I took it home with me for a few days (always lives with Ste whilst I'm away) and managed to snap a moody weather picture of the car at home. I absolutely love it.



Had a few issues with the indicators and the lights being intermittent, a bit of fault finding later.. it was the fuse box causing problems. So I changed out all the fuses and cleaned the contacts. Problem sorted.




I drop the car back to Ste's after a few days and head off back to Saudi for work. Whilst I'm at work, I get a few messages about parcels turning up at his of things I've ordered for the never ending project (Complete EZ wiring loom - due to the horrible glass fuses and me wanting to update the electrics eventually) some genuine Datsun and FairladyZ badges, and a nice box which contained some carbon arches/flares. Very nice, but waiting nearly 4 months for these was ridiculous.





Now, the VERY next day... I wake up to a message saying "Someone has crashed into the Datsun and driven off". My heart sank and I feared the worst. I thought it was a complete write off, but luckily they had only hit the front wing and damaged the wing and smashed a cheap eBay arch. Still to this day have no idea who it was, but karma will get them eventually!

 

[LiamR]

So with my wedding looming.. I was adamant that it needed to be repaired ASAP as I wanted to use the car for my wedding to get me there and to look good for the pictures that I have paid a ludicrous amount for, but with good old China.. that was soon stopped quickly in its tracks. The wedding had to be postponed which made me sit down and think... Now... do I leave the car as is for another year... or do I do what I have always wanted to do and take the car off the road and strip it back to a bare shell and start all over again.

As you have probably guessed I chose option number 2, and after talking about it with the future Mrs Liam, she agreed I may as well do it now. So all good there.

So it has begun. It was time to source a new power plant, I managed to get hold of a complete S2 RB25DET with manual push type clutch box from an R33 Skyline from the USA of all places. Using Ron Fenton @ STS Imports he made it possible to get it over here.

The engine arrived safe and sound and sits with the car.







With the ordering of the engine, I also managed to snag a few shiney bolt on bits for it to keep me motivated whilst I'm away. I ordered a Walton Motorsport exhaust manifold, and a Chinese made billet intake manifold. I managed to find the manufacturer of all these intake manifolds you see popping up (Otaku, ZeroFab etc) so ordered directly and saved about £150. The quality looks spot on and was different to a Greddy intake so appealed to me. We will see how it goes later on.







So with these new parts arriving, the engine has had some of its bits taken off ready to start the strip down... of course, you can't have these bits laying around and NOT test fit them on the engine right?! haha.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

 

[LiamR]

So with taking stuff off a used engine, you are always going to run into problems, this one was the manifold studs. Notorious on the RB for snapping.. and guess what... we got lucky and only had 2 snap! Strangely they where both Upper row and both Outer studs. Basically first and last stud on the manifold.



Luckily I have a friend with an R33 next door to us in the workshop who has just rebuilt his car and he said he had 5 snapped in his... so being the nice guy he is, he got them out for me without me even asking. He said they were easy to take out so all good. Crisis averted!



Just looking at the engine on the stand I couldn't help but stare at it and started to realise that I actually hate the look of the RB25 Covers... so with that.. I got on t'interweb and purchased some goodies.



Those badgers arrived from Australia in 5 days!! Even during this crazy pandemic... madness. Of course, Ste had to get them fitted to the engine straight away to see how they looked. The difference is NIGHT AND DAY. Don't worry, I have a cam gear cover and RB26 backing plate coming for it. I got a Greddy clear one with the covers I bought (can see in pic above) and not too keen on it, so decided to go for the OEM one (which will need to be modified)



So I couldn't help myself... I had to go ahead and order the next piece. Managed to get a good deal, so couldn't say no really... its a Garrett GTX3076R Gen2.





I told myself that was it for things for the engine, and I must concentrate on the shell side of things from now on (unless something is too good to miss out on haha) so I purchased a new MIG welder as we only had a TIG at the workshop. The MIG is in the box but its a RTECH MIG180 which goes nicely with our RTECH TIG170.




We have also managed to grab a couple of decent welding helmets from someone who was having a clear out. They are a pair of 3M Speedglas 9100FX's and an air feed.



So that's it for now... I think I'm all caught up... no doubt I've missed a few things but I'm sure I'll remember one day haha!

Thanks for reading and looking. It may be a slow to do project as Ste wants to do his own RX7 but he says he will start the strip down of the Datsun shell in 2 weeks. That gives him some time to do his own things. Once the international flights resume, I'll be heading down the workshop to speed things up.

If anyone has ANY tips, tricks, advice or relevant info then believe me I'm ALL ears. I keep an eye on a few build threads on here and have learned a lot from everyone so thank you for sharing what you have already.

Liam.

 

[uk66fastback]

Great stuff, there's been a lot of work done there.I'm much more in the keep it original camp having been down the restomod route with other cars but I can appreciate all the thought and planning which has to go into something like this. Front look is much better. So the front is being stripped and measured? Then this engine goes in when any remedial work is complete - is that the next course of action? Engine looks so much better as well!

 

[LiamR]

Great stuff, there's been a lot of work done there.I'm much more in the keep it original camp having been down the restomod route with other cars but I can appreciate all the thought and planning which has to go into something like this. Front look is much better. So the front is being stripped and measured? Then this engine goes in when any remedial work is complete - is that the next course of action? Engine looks so much better as well!

Thanks bud, appreciate it.

Well when I got the car, I went underneath and noticed that the frame rails were dented and the floors had been patched up. Apparently when this car arrived into the UK, someone picked it up on a forklift and damaged the rails. It has always been my intention to get them replaced at some point as the car was stupidly low before and it beached itself on nearly every speed bump. I raised it a little when I did the wheel swap which seems to have cured the scraping.

My intentions are; a RHD conversion, as I have all the bits laying around which I have collected over the last few years for that.. and whilst at it, strip the car back down to a complete bare shell with a media blasting, assess anything that can/needs replacing and then repair it. I've been in talks with Andy from APS and he said he can do me a complete new front end, I just have to see what needs doing. I think once it's all apart it will become apparent where there are any problems. The shell will be stitch welded and strengthened in the areas needed for the engine swap.

If anyone has any measurements or guidelines on what reference points to measure then feel free to whack them up.

Cheers

 

[Mark N]

Nice project!
What are your plans for the engine? Forged bottom end?
What turbine A/R did you go for?

 

[LiamR]

I'm still unsure about the engine. I'd be happy with 400/450. I'm definitely going with a long nose crank collar, upgraded oil and water pumps, head drain, ARP head studs and a MLS headgasket.

I could go with GTR rods and stock pistons, but whilst the rods are out you may aswell go all out and forge everything. It's just a matter of how much I want to spend I guess. Which let's face it.. noone wants to spend too much haha.

I went with the .82ar t3 housing with a vband exhaust flange.

 

[Rob Gaskin]

You guys amaze me. Things have certainly changed in the years I've been in the Club. Your ambitions are huge and a full strip-down and blast seems the norm!

 

[LiamR]

You guys amaze me. Things have certainly changed in the years I've been in the Club. Your ambitions are huge and a full strip-down and blast seems the norm!

Haha well it's just like a huge mechano toy right? The more the years go on, the more and more rust forms etc. The car was originally from Nevada so hopefully not too much rain on it and I'm hoping.. fingers crossed that it doesn't require too much work. Obviously I'd just love a whole shell that's already done and just needs building but where's the fun in that

I think the time and effort is worth putting into these Z classics. I'd just like to do all the work now and not have to take the car off the road again and strip everything in a few years time.

 

[Garaculas]

Great thread so far Liam, been keeping up to date with the build on Youtube and Instagram and nice to see you’re doing a proper job of it.

Also nice to have another companion in the RB swap camp as there’s a few of us in the club at the moment (waiting to start my updated thread shortly)! Look forward to seeing how the progress goes and sharing ideas, keep up the good work

 

[status]

Yeah your right there Rob it use to be a old rover V8 or some lazy yank V8,back in the day

 

[LiamR]

I think as the parts become more readily available it seems a lot easier to do. Gone are the days of mocking up and testing everything when there's companies who make bolt in stuff as the conversions become popular.

It's all going to be a huge learning curve for me as it's my first proper restoration type thing, but I'm happy to get hands on and learn as I go. The engine stuff I'm more than happy with, it's purely the bodywork. Only one way to practice though eh!

 

[bigh]

Nice work so far Liam. Another RB25 thread, I will be following with interest.

 

[Ian]

Nice work, another one to follow.