LS400 Manual Swap

[nismo4life]

Ever since my early teenage years I always had a fascination with these cars. When my dad got one all I wanted to do is have a twin turbo one of my own. As I grew older and less naive I came to the realization of the cost, skill, and time required to do such things and my day dreams were then archived into the basement level of my imagination for more important things like girls, video games, attainable vehicles to take their place.

That was 11 years ago, and time allows for drastic changes to occur in ones self. These in my case came in the form of skill level, abilities, knowledge, funding, motivation, and desire. Unfortunately for me the last few, and most crucial changes were things I was lacking, and it took a pilgrimage on foot across northern Spain to pull the emergency stop cord on the train that was set on auto-pilot and make me realize that I was doing nothing more than just throwing away precious time to enjoy myself. When you have nothing more to do than walk for 33 consecutive days and follow yellow arrows, you start to reflect a lot on yourself, and at some point in that month I must of clicked the B button of the elevator and found all my teenage ambitions that I had long ago discarded so easily.

I'm now 25, have owned over 10 vehicles and in doing so acquired a large amount of knowledge and capabilities of working on vehicles from being too cheap to pay a mechanic :laugh:, so with a little help from some near and dear friends I am going to make 2 of my early life dreams happen.

1. I always wanted a 5 speed LS400. The cars were so awesome, aesthetically appealing, extremely uncommon in the tuning world (VIP is not tuning), and are mechanically a tank.
2. I grew up watching Initial D, and Option/Best Motoring dvd's. Drifting seemed like the coolest thing in the world to me.

There are 2 goals for this project:

1. Stay <$6,000 including the car
   and
2. Remove 500lbs while still retaining a semi quiet cabin.

Friends of The Car Lounge, I present to you my AARP Casino Cruiser.

1992 Lexus LS400
-165,xxx miles




The car is a boat, though it drives like a dream. The keyless entry still works. The power tilt column still works. The heated seats still work... This car is literally a tank, everything works flawlessly and it is in such good shape that I almost feel bad about modifying it and drifting it, but hey they're all pretty much mint so I don't have a choice haha. $2,300 is what I paid.

Update 12/27/2012

Today a big chunk of the swap kit arrived from Collins Performance in Florida. Kit included: Bell housing adapter for a KA24DE 5 speed/or Z33 6 speed, 1 piece Chromoly flywheel, 6 puck clutch setup, modified TOB, Pilot bearing adapter, and hardware for the clutch/flywheel. Total was $1074.13. Now at $3374.13.



Next week I'll begin pulling the 4spd Auto as well as doing some mild weight reduction and pulling the TRAC/ABS systems from the vehicle and I'll have many more photos. Hope you guys enjoy seeing this as much as I am working on it.

 

[nismo4life]

UPDATE #2 1/4/13

Ok so small update, have some good news and bad news. The bad news is I can't toss the Lexus on jackstands yet to start tearing it apart because my brothers rally car is in the garage and I'm not going to park the car all the way in the back, or on the other side of the garage (Its a very large basement level garage at the office my parents rent out) while my tool box and everything is in my bay which blocks his race car from getting out in the next week or two.

The good news is look what I picked up. $100 a piece!

Both are KA SOHC 5 speeds. The one in the back came complete with speed sensor, shifter, slave cylinder, and slave line. I needed one badly and both popped up and I figured since I pretty much grenade nothing but trannys in cars than I might as well grab a spare :laugh:.



Also ordered a Momo hub that should be here next week to toss my Monte Carlo 350mm from my MK2 on, as well as a SAGA digital scale with a 360lb rating. Want to keep a close watch on how much everything I remove weighs.


Now I need some help from those who know exhaust scavenging.



Thats the stock exhaust system in the LS400. I have a few ideas I was pondering with, but I don't know too much about exhaust flow for V8's.

First idea is to replace the stock Y right after the cats with a Magnaflow or similar X pipe and run dual's the entire way down with just a muffler on each side at the back. 2.25" the whole way.

The other is to replace the stock Y with a better flowing Y section and from there a 2.75-3" to the back with a single muffler.

Opinions on which would be best for power? The single would obviously save me a good amount of weight and money, but I'm worried as to if it would hinder my performance. Any opinions?

 

[nismo4life]

Update #3 1/8/13

Well I didn't get too much stuff done, but for the sake of having a consistent coverage I wanted to bump this. Momo hub came in so I went it and in the process attempted to see if I could keep CC. No luck on keeping the clockspring on the hub, though the MKIV Supra hub fit on the Lexus like a charm. Wheel does seem a little out of place, but its extremely comfortable compared to the boat wheel it came with >.<.



Now the next trick is to figure out cruise control. Double checked the cruise control and it still worked as it should even with the ground not connected on the harness, so I'm going to splice the wires to get rid of the clock spring. Just need to find a pin out for both since the wires going into the back of the clock spring are one set of colors, and the plug that goes into the other side are other colors. Nothing matches up which is un-japanese car like :laugh:, so off to clublexus to look for schematics.



How I'd like to mount it. Tons of room in there and even an empty threaded hole I can put a bolt and nut through to not have to use zip ties.



Also started to do some gutting. Removed all engine plastics and did some observations. Decided that ABS, TRAC, EGR, A/C, the stock clutch fan and entire radiator setup are coming out. Found out MKIV Supra radiators fit with little modification needed so I'm going to run an eBay rad that comes with a sheet metal shroud with 2 10" fans mounted onto it. All in all I'm hoping to save about 150lbs from all that stuff combined. I have a good feeling that I should be able to get close to that goal.



Also gutted the trunk and cut 2 mufflers off. Just in that stuff alone I'm guesstimating ~100lbs. Only things I left in the trunk are the 1 piece of interior against the back because its covering the gas tank, and the floor board piece that I put back in. It folds like 6 times so its pretty small, but it provides a flat floor in case I end up wanting to carry anything and its only a few lbs. Worth it in my opinion.



Brother got the rally car registered today and he's going to emissions tomorrow, so after that it should be garaged in his shop and I should be able to put the pig on jackstands and start tearing it apart. Will update this either tomorrow of Friday with how that goes. Also ordered some poly steering rack bushings, and a MAF adapter so I can start figuring out a custom CAI. That stuff should be here next week.

 

[nismo4life]

Update #4 1/11/13

Well had a few things come in today.


Ricochet poly steering rack bushings, guys claim its 90 on the durometer. Who in their right mind would bother making and selling LS400 steering rack bushings...? I doubt they get very many sales of these, but hey I'm not complaining :laugh:.

RTec maf adapter. Stock is claimed to be the best, going to try and run a CAI in the wheel well like my old Honda's. Plus if I ever go boost, I'll use it for sure .

Some ricer LED license plate lights for my Mini and the Lexus, and the SAGA scale I've been waiting on to start my weight reduction progress log which I wasted no time in using.



So I weighed up all the stuff I took out the other day. Here's the pile, and the weight list.



Starting Weight: 3807. The 3820 I was weighed at included a few things of mine I had in the car so I weighed those and removed them.

Spare tire - 43.4
Rear mufflers - 11.1 each x2 (22.2)
Steering wheel - 4.6
Driver airbag - 4.0
Rad support plastic covers + intake scoop - 3.7
Intake box - 2.9
Factory sub - 4.0
Jack and crank handle - 5.7
Trunk plastic trim (one along the trunk latch on the body) - 0.9
TRAC cover - 0.3
Fuel pump relay cover and cruise control cover - 0.4
Spare tire bucket & tie down - 1.4
Spare tire foam cushion - 1.0
Trunk interior carpet piece (one that goes under the trunk latch) - 1.4
Trunk side piece w/ first aid kit box - 1.9
Trunk side piece w/ Toolkit box and tools - 5.7
Trunk lid carpeted cover - 2.7
Steering wheel clockspring - 0.4
Radio and brackets - 6.1
Wheel locks - 0.3
Momo wheel & hub + 3.6
-------------------
Total reduction 109.4lbs.

Curb weight down to : 3697.6

That's all I got done today, made the mistake of buying one of these so my brother and I built a couple of cockpits and now F1 2012 is even more of a crack addiction. Hopefully will get some stuff done tomorrow.

 

[nismo4life]

Update #5 1/12/13

So my friend made the stupid comment about pulling the dash to make more room for the clutch pedal install. Did some searching, and then he convinced me. So today, we pulled the dash! Should of taken photos for a DIY, I'll try when I put it all back together since I couldn't even find any decent photos of how to remove half of the dash, and there are plenty of sneaky "**** you" bolts.

Dash almost out.


SO much crap had to come out to take the dash out its ridiculous....


and here is all that crap.


Its surprisingly pretty light for how big it is.


And my helper for the day/******* friend (mike000 on here) who pulled an Inception and planted the idea. He was suppose to be building a 5spd/1JZ Cressida or a 6spd Q45 next to me but he's bitching out and just getting an E36. He ain't on that AARP status.



The whole job took us about 2.5hrs. This was mostly due to a lack of availability on how to remove things. Never appreciate DIY threads until you don't have them :egads:. Putting it all back together shouldn't take more than an hour, hour and a half tops. The positive side to this is my back will thank me greatly when I start to mock up a pedal setup, and I can do some extra weight reduction too like passenger side airbag and whatnot.

Next step is to yank out the TRAC/ABS modules, lines, and canisters in the brake booster area and get some fittings to clean it up like 3UZ did on his. We'll see how that goes :uh:.

 

[nismo4life]

Update #6 1/19/13

So I got a bit of work done yesterday. Just something so I could feel satisfied that I actually did some kind of progress that day and to prepare for the clutch pedal assembly.

Current state of the engine bay.


Whats coming out today. I relieved the pressure from the accumulator block, and I didn't have any fluid explode anywhere unlike I've seen on some other peoples build threads lol.


Can't turn a wrench without my tunes. Today it was Doo-Wop channel on Pandora.


And final product. Now I'll admit something in which it made me feel REALLY stupid after the fact. I Took the cylinders out then the brackets. Some idiot decided it would be a great idea to put a bolt from the bottom going up so I smashed the **** out of my knuckles trying to get to it. Finally take the bracket off and I can see the main bracket on the bottom. I see 1 bolt, and 2 threads...the last 2 bolts go in through the mother-****ing wheel well. In other words I could have just undone 3 bolts, 1 hard line and 2 connectors and pulled it out complete. Oh well.


That was the extend of the work I got done on the Lexus, mainly because I felt lazy, and because I didn't have too much else to do while waiting for the clutch pedal assembly to arrive. However I did get a package in the mail that day for my other car .

DDM?!


Now supposedly this is one of the best fitting intakes made for the R53 platform. I call bull****. It fits like absolute garbage, and utilizes the bottom half of the factory air box. Thank god I didn't pay the full $255 they go for. Gotta love eBay, $123.50!

It is extremely loud and obnoxious, so I'm happy.

 

[nismo4life]

Update #7 1/22/13

Today was a good day, not very productive, but a very good day indeed and I wanted to share it.

To start the day off, stuff came in the mail.

I decided after seeing someone else use one with very little modification on an SC chassis, to use a MKIII Supra clutch pedal assembly. Snagged this thing up for $48 shipped from a Supraforums member.



Also managed to snatch up this set of M7 Sport springs for the Mini for $40!!!! Best part about these other than the 1" drop is that they're suppose to still maintain a comfortable ride for daily use, be stiffer for autocross or track events, and they're progressive.



Then I installed the BSH catch can I picked up for 50% of retail cost



And then the really good **** happened. I got a call back from the sales manager of the dealership I applied to...as soon as my drug test results come in I'll be signing the paperwork and be an official employee for Volkswagen . So to celebrate the good news, I went out and spent more money.

Let me state this since I haven't actually said it yet, I'm very cheap. Not to say that I don't like spending money, but I typically won't unless I find a deal of some sort. Its the same way in which I'll do my own work on cars because I can't justify paying a mechanic to do it. So I saw this thing in the used cabinet. The barrel was spotless, the slide still had the factory grease in it and there wasn't any gun powder in sight. For $450, especially the way prices are being jacked up in CT, I couldn't resist. I've wanted a 10mm for a while now, couldn't deny myself any longer.

Now tomorrow I'll be trying to relocate the fusebox, remove the emergency brake pedal assembly and start to figure out how I'm going to install the clutch pedal and where. I'd like to have it mounted by Sunday so I can start reinstalling the dash. Until then!

 

[nismo4life]

Update #8 1/23/13

Little bit of work done today. Got everything ready to start figuring out how to install the clutch pedal, and today is also the day when the realization of how much this is actually going to suck finally kicked in.

Started by pulling the emergency brake pedal assembly.



After. Surprisingly, it wasn't that difficult. I was expecting it to be a nightmare...coder pin holding the brake cable in, 3x12mm nuts and 1 long m12 bolt and it came off. Also surprised at how light it was :/, only 3.7lbs.


So now that the pedal is out, I have some more room to see how much its going to suck doing this swap. Oh look, MORE wiring and control boxes and such.


Decided to give myself as much room as possible to work with, so the fusebox came out.


While I was at it, I peeled the front half of the carpet out...its ****ing VELCRO'd on. THANK YOU, THANK YOU SWEET ****ING JESUS FOR NOT USING STUPID GLUE...stupid Volkswagens..
Surprised again when I pulled back the carpet at a few things. For starters the car has not 1, but 2 layers of sound deadening...awesome. Not taking it out now, but you can rest assured at some point in the future I will. Being that there is so much, I wouldn't put it out of the question to say there is a solid 30-50lbs of it. I believe S13's have somewhere around 30, and there is much more in this luxury yacht.




Ended up zip-tying all the fusebox plugs to the dash beam to get them out of the way. Now here is a shot of the firewall. Upon closer inspection it seems the highest stud you can see in this photo is the one you'll see in the next photo from the other side. So luckily, at least now I'll have a point of reference as to the general area I need to install the pedal/master.






Now as for the MK3 cluster...doesn't look good. I'm going to have to do some more researching, and beg some members on clublexus for some more info on their installs. That's all I got for today.

 

[nismo4life]

Update #9 1/26/13

So I was trying to find some more photos of clutch pedal's installed on a UCF10 and I stumbled onto this. This guy did a 5spd swap into an early GS300. He had the same problem with the firewall being angled so he rigged up something pretty neat.

That is a MKIV Supra clutch pedal assembly that has been welded to a plate spaced out with some box tubing and bolted to the side of the footwell. Brilliant.


So I went to look at the car today, and realized this is a possibility. I put the fusebox back in, removed the dash beam to get some more visibility and tried some test fitting to get a general idea how it would fit. Toss the gutted e-brake foot bracket back in the car and positioned the pedal assembly next to it. MKIII Supra one was WAY too huge, luckily my buddy had a pedal assembly from one of his old cars in his trunk....thank you sweet jesus, this can actually work. And its from an S13 too haha!!



Grabbed the bracket and the pedal and ran over to my brothers house. I haven't set up my compressor yet, and he has some power tools that I have never had the need to buy yet. I should get on that.



So the idea was to remove a bracket that held a sensor on the pedal assembly, and a second piece on the e-brake bracket that was riveted on so that I could move them closer together. Job successful thanks to some help from my brother.





Ran back over to the shop to see how it would fit...great success.



Plenty of room to put the fusebox back in place with its original brackets too!




Will try and start welding if not tomorrow next weekend. First day @ VW is on Monday. Will post more updates on the progress of the LS400 manual swap.

 

[nismo4life]

Update #10 2/3/13


So I was able to finally get some work in on the car. Been slaving away at VW the last week. Long hours suck, but I got my first sale! Woohoo! Anyway, my brother came through big as I cannot weld whatsoever and helped me almost finish what is the most difficult part of this swap. Here's how today went.

Held up the pedal, made a few marks, ran back to his house and welded in a few spacers.




Went back to the car and noticed this would work, but the pedal say too far back so he cut a notch and bent it up. It worked though we later had to extend the pedal itself by 1 1/4".



2 hours later....









Could of absolutely never done this without my brother. Not to find a VW master cylinder that will let me run a remote reservoir and once I get a hole in the firewall to have clearance for it, interior can go back in!

 

[nismo4life]

Update #11 2/17/13

Been a few weeks since I updated this build. I'd like to have more consistent updates but I've been slaving away at the new job and between training, getting use to the long hours and the freak apocalyptic snow storm we had here in CT I haven't been able to get any time until now to make progress, though I have good news. What I've been told is the hardest part of this build is over.

Snow hit up hard here. We're use to this amount of snow as the TOTAL accumulation for the entire season, not a 20 hour time span. That lump of mirror and roof is my Mini. My parents have a guy that does out yard work and plows the driveway when it snows. Guy decided to not come until Sunday @ 1:30pm. It snowed Thursday night into Friday. Thanks guy.



Work update. Enjoying the new job quite a bit. Selling is fun. Meeting new people and genuinely helping them get into whatever it is they need/want/can afford is fun and its never the same thing. Pay is decent so far though I've only sold a couple of vehicles. Hopefully traffic starts to pick up soon. Came into work on Monday to the same amount of snow in my driveway on every single one of the 100+ cars we have on the lot. Mon-Wed = shoveling, Joy.





Also spotted this. USDM B5 S4 Avant with an RS4 full body conversion, and Tial 605 kit. Awesome.



So back to the build. I had the pedal all set now I just needed to figure out the master situation. Talked to Mike and he said he used a Tilton 75 series so I looked into it and decided to go with one of those as well. 2 days later Summit Racing had it at my door. Love free fast shipping.



So now I had to figure out how to attach the plunger to the pedal and mount it. My buddy had let me borrow a 240SX Master cylinder so I took the bracket off that and tried to use it on the Tilton master, didn't fit. Thread pitch on the Tilton is 5/16th x 24, 240SX is M10x1.5 I think. So I re tapped the bracket, but since I didn't have a vise I had to improvise.





Progress!



Next I drilled some holes to mount the master and see how much of the plunger I needed to cut off if any. Again no vise, so back to the cupboard door.





Almost finished product.



And vouala!











Next was to get through the firewall. Took that stud you guys saw before and put a huge 1/2" extension on it. Hammered the **** out of it and finally I was able to get the stud out. Gave me a nice pilot hole for the hole saw. Used a 3" hole saw to make the hole.







Shot from the inside of the pedal mounted. The nipple was hitting the firewall and I wasn't going to be able to put it through the firewall like I wanted so I had to rotate it back and loop the line out through the big 3" hole.



Can't believe how well it ended up working out. Realistically I could of hammered the crap out of the firewall and it would of fit because there's maybe 1/8th of an inch sticking through the hole of the master and its exactly the part where the clutch line is going to go. Awesome.



Now came the tricky part, what the hell am I going to do with that annoying fuse box. Started trying out certain thinks and ended up with this. Used the stock bracket with some spacers because the insulation and whatnot spaced it out before. Bolted it on and beat the **** out of it to twist it towards the passenger side. Resulted in the following.



Call it ghetto, I don't care. Its mounted, its solid, its not going anywhere and its not going to get in my way.

Took a Honda Ruckus crankcase bolt and threaded it into the stock mounting location for the fuse box but since I had the clutch pedal in now I had to put the outside hole to the inside threaded hole and to give myself a bit more clearance I bent the mounting location. Success!





Wiring is nicely tucked above the pedal assembly and won't be in the way or exposed to anything that can cause a break.




Aaaaaand drum roll....

Tadaa!



The only thing that's in the way is a black control box labeled Theft Warning. Car won't run without it so I'll have to find a place for it, but for now the car is pretty much back together. It started first try without any issues or hesitations and revved without any hiccups so it looks like I didn't break any connections thankfully.

That's all for now folks. Hope to have the rest of the kicker panels back in this week and start pulling the motor and trans together on Friday or Sunday since those are my days off. Fingers crossed!

 

[nismo4life]

Update #12 3/4/13

Progress has slowed due to work, but I have managed to get some time in over the last few weeks. Started like this,



and progressed through the following.



Decided to pull the harness from the dash rather than off the motor as per PureDrifters suggestion. MUCH easier.



Bumper, headlights, radiator, centrifugal fan, a/c condenser, cooling fans, abs accumulator, TRAC module, and a few other odds and ends are off.



Had to pull the carpets up to unplug the o2 sensors so I could take the Y pipe off..what a nightmare -_-.







Now for those of you who payed attention, those are Evo 8 Recaros. Snatched them up for 400 bucks from a local guy, can't wait to toss them in. Weigh in @ 29lbs with rails. Winning. Also found out my cats are shot. The platinum cores are toast and rattling around all loose in the cats, so I'm thinking about gutting them and shoving a straight pipe in and just welding it in place. Only concern is it being stupid obnoxious loud, thinking about running a pair of 22" Cherry Bombs in the straight section of the exhaust and then the Titanium muffler out back on the Pass side.

 

[nismo4life]

Update #13 3/9/13

So last night my friend and I went to town after I got out of work. Motor and trans are out!



My goober of a best friend.



The hoist was able to get high enough to clear the oil pan over the rad support. Chris had to jump in the engine bay and pick the motor up by the prop shaft to level it out and get it over the rad support.



Woohoo!



Since I was on a roll, I decided to pull off the auto trans and weight it. This is without fluid, without the flex plate, but with the torque convertor.

Lighting sucks at the shop, but thats 185.1lbs. The KA trans is 92 on the dot. Automatic 100lb weight savings. 3200lb goal still possible!





Today I'm going to focus on cleaning out the grease and grime. Hopefully start removing more garbage I don't need like A/C lines and brake lines.



Next step is EGR delete, and some basic gaskets on the uz. Till next time!

 

[nismo4life]

Update #14 5/12/13

Well, let's just say that slaving away at a job with a terrible 50hr week schedule, coupled with the inability to weld, and my brother also having a ****ty scheduled job = Rod can't learn how to weld. Between that, and having almost no motivation or energy left after getting out of work the progress has crawled to a minimum on the Lexus. Good news, I quit my job! haha. I'm going back to working part time at my parents business until I finish the car, and I also may be pursuing a job opportunity in Miami so this car NEEDS to get done. I have registered for a drift event at Lime Rock on June 22nd. Time to go balls to the wall!

So since the last update, next to nothing has really been done on the car. All I have so far is I did in fact get around to making EGR delete block off plates on Wednesday. Also sort of solved my parking brake situation. Purchased an SC3/400 handle, and cables. Found a somewhat easy way to use half the parking cable from the SC, and the handle with the LS stock parking brake cables. Hopefully it works out :thumbup:.

Said block off plates, don't hate I've never really fabricated anything before, and the table grinder kind of sucked.


Now I had questions. Hoping the tech savvy people could chime in.

My intake manifold is disgusting. It has a solid layer of grime inside the upper plenum that I can see. Am I better of just taking it to a shop to get hot tanked, instead of investing the time to clean the individual runners? Should I even bother cleaning it, and just Seafoam the car instead?!

As for the differential/subframe bushings, no one makes any poly inserts, or replacements. I checked and the diff bushings are open style bushings to allow for flex. I am assuming the subframe's are as well. I have filled motor mounts before with windowweld with great results, I imagine that doing the same would only benefit the car to help the rear end not slop around everywhere? The only other option is to lathe hockey pucks to size and use them, but I don't have a lathe :/.

 

[nismo4life]

Update #16 5/23/19

Got a lot done in the last 5 days.

First the ASD handbrake came in. Christ is this thing beautiful.





Test fit it to see if I could find a place for it that I liked. Looks like I'm going to be losing the cup holder, center console vent ducting, and the arm rest since my elbow hits it when I pull the brake.



Also realized I hadn't done anything for the parking brake, so I got to work to see what I could figure out. Turns out it was rather easy. I purchased the handle, and parking brake cables from some guys on ebay. I used the SC handbrake lever, and the front half of the SC parking brake cable to get this to work. First I drilled some holes into the tranny tunnel after mocking up the height I wanted it to be at. Then I picked up some hardware to install it. used 2 1/2" bolts, and some large 5/8" nuts as spacers.





Final result is this. Funny thing is with the ****ty lighting I have at the shop, I never realized the handle is brown until I finished haha. Guess I'll have to get a darker handle cover from the pick and pull sometime.



As for how I rigged it to the stock assembly, I routed the SC cable through the factory hole in the floor, and put it through where the stock one would go. Since the SC has a flat long piece at the end of the cable I put a bolt, lock washer and nut at the end so it wont back out. Couldn't fit the bolt from the top otherwise I would of put it that way, but it won't be backing out ever. Love that loctite! Simple solution and it works great. Used the ebrake today to undo the bolts on the axles.



After that I got to doing the rear main finally. Gross and dirty. Got it done and reinstalled, and moved onto the radiator.



Issue I had with the MKIV Supra rad is that the dowels it has welded on the bottom don't sit into anything on the LS bay. I needed to find some kind of bushing to put at the bottom of the dowels to prop the rad up slightly so it would rest on rubber and not metal to metal. First thing was to get rid of the factory rad resting plates. After trying to drill out the spot welds I got tired and just grabbed the tiger saw. 8 seconds later....



So once that was done I needed to find some kind of bushing to have it rest on. Don't ask me how this came to be, because honestly I have no idea why I even thought of doing it, but **** it works so who cares! haha.



Yup, thats the factory exhaust hanger, and sleeve that goes on the metal hangers on the chassis. I cut the very end off one side since it had a stepped lip to make it easier to put the hanger over it. They prop the radiator up just enough so the factory stay's grab it almost like it was meant to be in this car.





Just the right amount of height. **** spending money on more stuff, just reuse what you got! So far, reused factory exhaust hangers, a 240sx clutch pedal assembly, Honda Ruckus crankcase bolt. What else can we recycle? hah.

I then took a break, and went out to a shop in Manchester, CT called Fluid Dynamics. They carry EVERY oddball fitting you will ever need. Snapped a photo of the small assortment of AN fittings they had. They were the only place in CT that could get an M10x1.0 brake tee fitting, and it was $7.xx a piece vs over 20 online..if I could even find it anywhere in the states.



So I got talking to the guy, and he told me they make lines on the spot. I needed 2 x 4ft -3 female to female braided lines for the hydro brake, with a 90* fitting on one side of both lines. Summit would of cost me $74, and I would of had to wait until Tuesday. These guys made them in 5 minutes, pressure tested them, and I left with them for $83. I'll pay the 9 bucks for instant gratification.

Guy making said lines.



I now have everything I need to run all the brake lines, so I can get the motor back in hopefully next week.



Later I had a couple of my buddies stopped by to hang out, and see the progress. Ended up lending a hand. Helped me figure out where exactly the hydrobrake is going, and how exactly to make a platform for it. Then they were a huge help pulling the rear diff out so I can get it welded.



And that's where today ends. Hope to have more updates soon, but my brother has a race he's leaving for on Wednesday in northern PA so I'll be helping him get the car ready. We'll see what happens!

 

[nismo4life]

Update #18 6/29/13

Huge update. So in the last week and a half I've gotten a bunch done.

First and foremost, here are some terrible photos of the meh brake lines I promised. Again, I didn't have a pipe bender until the last 2 bends, and I know they're ugly, but they're functional. That's all I care about.













Ended up having some bad flares on the same line, so I had to get creative afterwards since I had already flared the longer one. Its not the "right way", but it works. I'll fix it some day.





Was able to reuse one of the factory unions that has a little bracket on it. Bolted the line to an threaded stud for the plastic brake line holder that was there.





Alright. Now onto the stuff I got done since the last update.

My welder finally came in! Went to Tech-Air, got a 80cf tank, then to Harbor Freight for a welding cart and some gloves, and finally Lowe's for a Lincoln Electric mask. Even got to give it a shot laying some beads down. I'm still a noob so don't hate too hard >.<






Next, this little gem came in the mail after empty promises of shipping by a certain date, and avoided phone calls for >7 days. I should of just made my own >.<.





With the TOB finally in, I rushed to get the trans on, and the motor/trans into the car to take the measurement and get a driveshaft ordered. Explain later why.









FINALLY in. Thank GOD. Never want to do that again, at least not alone.



Next I tended to the trans crossmember. I got it from a Odyssey Parts Shop (thanks again Cashflo!). Gave it a quick spray with truck bedliner before tossing it on. Fit like a glove btw.







After that, I noticed the shifter didn't line up with the hole like the swap kit builder speculated it would, though it was close. Quick use my new favorite tool and it was no longer an issue.



Next I decided to install the rad to try and figure out the hose situation.



Stock hose isn't going to work...



Bingo! Fixed it!!!



Seriously though, I hacked the stock one up to have something to take with me to Pep Boys..boy was that a mistake...



So after a quick glance and realizing I'd be there forever, I did some quick googling at the SC400 upper hoses and it looked like the radiator flange was closer to the center much like the MK4 supra radiator, so I found one off the shelf and bingo, that's gonna work.





1 single cut and it was essentially perfect.





I then took a break from that since I had to wait for the Radiator temp. sensor adapter to come in to figure out the lower hose, so I went and got a clutch line made. Back to Fluid Dynamics!



And this is the final product. The giant grommet is from a B13 Sentra engine harness. Was almost the perfect size, but I put a little bit of window silicone just to fill the little gap. Tilton reservoir mounted nicely out of the way too.



Then the only other thing I got done was test fitted the shifter to see what kind of shift lever modifications I'm going to need. Definitely going to have to cut and reweld this to get it to come out centered. Fun. (its in neutral)



Aside all the shown, I did a bunch of smaller things. Removed a bit more weight, started modifying the center console because the stock armrest hits my elbow with I rip the hydrobrake, installed the wideband in the ashtray, plumbed almost all the vac lines, reconnected all the plugs/grounds/lines in the engine bay, and did some more cleaning. I did also end up ordering the driveshaft this past Monday, though of course it would be my luck that this ass took his sweet time so when I called to give Driveshaft Shop the measurements they informed me all of this week (June 29- July ) they're on vacation. It most likely wont get shipped out for another week after they get back. FML. Oh well, more time to finish tidying everything up. More to come soon!

 

[Spinnetti]

Nice Job... Some similarities... I have a gutted 91 LS, and IIRC its at around 3000lb... I corner weighted it, but can't find my notes. I stuck with the auto though. I also have Audi/vw's, and a iMac/iPhone! (but Miller welder and Buckmark pistol

 

[nismo4life]

Nice Job... Some similarities... I have a gutted 91 LS, and IIRC its at around 3000lb... I corner weighted it, but can't find my notes. I stuck with the auto though. I also have Audi/vw's, and a iMac/iPhone! (but Miller welder and Buckmark pistol

Haha awesome! Yeah I've checked out your facebook gallery. Love the car, though you need to update that with some new photos!

And yeah, I would of gotten a Miller, but no 220 outlet and well..I'm ballin' on a budget lol!

 

[nismo4life]

Update # 19 7/16/13

So I've gotten a lot more done on the car. Its almost road worthy.

Well for starters, I got the reverse lights working with the KA trans! Found a website that sells Nissan harness pigtails for dirt cheap. Ordered one for the speed sensor and the reverse lights. Mike helped out a lot with this, thanks again man!



Next I moved onto tackling the lack of armrest. Now I feel like an idiot that I didn't really take any photos of the process of building it. It happened over the course of a few months, but here is the finished product. Reason I had to make a new one was that my elbow would smash into it if I pulled the hydro, and it was too tall for the shifter. Just leaving the armrest in the open position when I want to use the hydrobrake wasn't a solution for me.



If this at all makes sense, I started by taking apart the armrest. I took the plastic piece that sits on the inside of the armrest, cut the plastic hump off so it was not a flat piece with a big hole in the center. If you lift up the armrest and look at the inside of it, its the big plastic piece. I turned it upside down so what was before facing the inside pocket not faced up. I then took the stock hinge, removed the springs, and installed it on the plastic piece with some small screws that came out of taking everything apart. I took the latch which mounts to the armrest mold itself and put it on the plastic piece. I had to JB weld it on, no real other way of mounting it. I then took some thin 18G sheet metal and cut a piece out to fill the open hole from cutting out the hump in the plastic piece. Bought some foam at Jo-Ann Fabrics, as well as some black headliner material and used some Loctite spray adhesive from Lowe's. I have to say, it turned out a lot more legit than I thought it would have.



Next I decided to finish figuring out the cooling system. In the process of removing the entire fan/rad/ac system i tossed all the OEM sensors and relays for it. Didn't care for the weight, or bulkiness of it. With the MKIV rad in place, and having figured out the upper hose I realized I never even bothered to look at the lower..LOL. Well, I lucked out. The stock one fits almost perfectly.



A buddy of mine was over and mentioned to me a possible solution for the radiator fans. Now, if I haven't made it apparent, my philosophy behind this entire build is that I want a turn key daily drivable car that anyone could get into and just drive. I don't want any special procedure for driving the car, just turn the key put it in gear and go. That meant no interior rad fan switches that I'd have to turn on at xxx temperature. Solution, universal thermal fan switch. Got a 200*F on/185*F off kit after doing a lot of research and seeing what people with 1UZ swaps are doing for temps, and wired it in. Took me forever to figure out where to mount the sensor, and my buddy came through to save the day again! $9.68 on eBay for a "radiator adaptor". I should add that it did say universal fits most models, yet the ONLY 1/8" NPT sensor I found was nowhere near what I needed for the 1UZ. EVERYTHING ELSE IS 3/8" NPT. I figured okay, no big deal I'll just bore it out. Is there anyone who can rationalize why exactly a 3/8" NPT fitting is in no way 3/8's of an inch? Sorry, that does not compute.

Anywho, here is the adapter and the amount of hose I had to remove. Ended up having to take off an extra inch or so to make the hose fit correctly.





LOL/Ragequit moment - So I was an idiot and thought it would be a good idea to reuse the stock spring clamps. I compress one with my channel locks and start lowering it to the bottom hose, it snaps off and ****ing hits me square in the goddamn face. Left a bruise, that's how much freaking tension they have. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. Pure rage moment.

So even after eating a face full of clamp, I continued to use it. Filled the rad and it started to leak. Tried to slip it off and put a hose clamp on and ended up pouring coolant ALL OVER ME. Down my arm into my shirt, over the creeper, over the floor, in my hair, on my glasses. Theres days I want to just unload my 1911 into the side of this ****ing car. This was one of those days.

Moving on, I realized I still had no coolant overflow. You can think this is ghetto, or trashy. Frankly, I don't care. I'm way over budget on this car, its a purpose built vehicle, and hey...it works! Was at Lowe's buying some bolts, and saw my buddy who works there. He was drinking a Rockstar...yup. Immediately walked over to the plumbing section. $3.52 for 2 plastic fittings, and made him pound the rest of the can and give it to me haha.



Tossed that on and all was well. While all this was getting done, my intake parts came in! I love eBay. Literally, everything you'd ever need made by some child laborer in China and sold for next to nothing. $55 total cost, that 45" 3.25" elbow was NOT cheap either. It came in ugly raw aluminum finish too, Truck Bedliner fixes everything.



My hoodrich coolant overflow.



So engine bay is mostly done for now. I should add, I did fire up the car. First try, the thing fired up with no hesitation. It did stall out, and gave me some issues, but I quickly tracked that down to vacuum leaks, and now its just like stock, except 7000% louder.

So after having started the car, I realized it got insanely hot in the trans tunnel. In order to keep the heat out, and reduce the noise I need to close up the original shifter cutout. That sheet of sheet metal my buddy gave me just keeps on giving.



Put a beat of silicone underneath too so it had a nice seal. Went back the next day and put some self tapping screws through it.



Then 2 really good things happened, 1st was this bad boy came in!



LOL moment/Ragequit #2 - Driveshaft Shop FORGOT to send the Toyota 3 bolt -> 1350 diff adapter. AWESOME. It shipped out immediately, should be here today at some point.

Good thing number 2, my exhaust parts came in. I was on the Ruck when I got the call...I use this thing for everything, 0 ****s are given.



So I spaced on taking a picture of the stuff I bought, but it was; 4x 90*, 2x 45*, 2x 18" straight sections all from Napa in 2.5" diameter to make the y-pipe.

What the Y's looked like when I got them, and how much I had to remove to make them work going into the Magnaflow 2->1 collector.



Final product!!! At first I was really proud of myself. First time I've really ever fabricated anything! It felt so awesome.







Unfortunately, my excitement didn't last long. I wire-wheeled all the weld sections and started to weld. The welds came out like ABSOLUTE DICK. I don't know why, maybe I was going too slow, I know I had the heat right, maybe the speed was off? It looks like total butt now, but its functional :/.





And that's it for the last 2 weeks folks. Goal is to drive the car to the Wednesday night get together at Dunkin Donuts. Should be able to finish the rest of the 3" section of the exhaust tomorrow, or at the very least buy it and finish it Wednesday. I have a 3" high flow cat coming in, already have the reasonator and muffler. Going to use some band clamps to put the cat on just in case I ever want to run a straight pipe, a install the driveshaft, cut and reweld the shifter and I should be good to go!!! I'll update at the end of the week, hopefully have some videos too!

 

[nismo4life]

Update #20 7/26/13

Alright so I've been tidying things up since the last update. Still haven't figured out why the car runs like dog dick, but I think It may be old leaky capacitors...we shall soon see.

So I started by correcting the shifter. It came close to coming out center, but it was about 2" off with the angled pitch the shift lever already had.







I eyeballed this...perfect.



Now I just need to find some thick rubber to self tap to the floor over the opening to keep the heat, and noise out. My buddy is going to get working on making me a shift boot soon too.

Obviously you saw the car is driving, but in all the excitement I never got around to posting the photo of the delayed diff adapter...this thing is HUGE.



Next I tackled the exhaust. Decided I wanted it to be very ricer and come out sideways.






Yes, these stickers really are going on once the car is cleaned.



Extra jack stands came in so handy doing this.



Now THIS is what I'm talking about!!!! And that is welding mild to stainless...





And here is the final product, next to the stock crappy luxo junk exhaust.

Stock exhaust: 2 cats, 5 mufflers.
Rod's custom exhaust: 2 gutted cats, 1x High flow cat, 1x Magnaflow resonator, 1x no name jdm titanium farm cannon

Solid 40lb weight reduction too!



And I got the wideband wired in.



Aaaaaaaand here's the much awaited exhaust video. Just for reference though, here is a stock UCF20 exhaust (still the same 1UZ).

And my slightly less than stock sounding one.