progress! :tup:
Rice.
Very rice job, I rike it!
dude, this needs to be burning fuel like NOW! 
good job mike and mike crew!
Looking good, that is more custom work than I would ever want to take on, especially with a deadline, hope you finish it
The deadline is the real problem, which as I said before became a problem after some parts delays and my shoulder injury.
Anyway, bunch more progress today, not much in the line of photo updates though.
First thing was putting the intake manifold on and checking hood clearance. This photo is SLIGHTLY tipped, but the intake with throttle body clears the hood JUST barely. The two evap rails on the top of the manifold touch the hood in one spot each, would be easy enough to fix but it’s not a problem so I’m going to leave it as is.
I’m using a combination of 350z and Titan parts for the entire build. Initially I’m running a modified 350z engine control harness so I had a stock 350z injector loom laying about, I then added two more connectors for cylinder’s 7 and 8 and wired them in.
Wiring, fuel system pretty much complete. I need to go back and tidy up stuff, install the alternator, finish covering a few wires, put an extended piece of fuel hose on one part, but it’s all there, fitted, etc. I need a new oil pressure sensor, knock sensor, and to notch the adapter plate for the trans to accept a crank trigger.
All packed up and headed back to my house to basically work on it every hour of free time I have. I’m sure the guys at Innovative Tuning are glad to have me out of their hair
Thanks again for the help!
I hate to admit it, but fuck me it looks GOOD with that gigantic ricer wing 
aw, buddy i was going to stop by. let me know when your coming back in town. i miss you. everything looks good!
<3
So been working on lots of little shit I didn’t document. But big things being that I cut down the oil pan, built a shitty trans mount, yada yada.
Photos.
Lower wet sump cut down, before it was sitting about 0.5" off the ground, completely unacceptable. I’d love to get a nice ARE dry sump cast pan developed/fabricated but it’s not in the cards right now. Maybe next winter.
The upper half I’ll be using. Still has a 1 quart capacity. (down from 1.9 quarts). I’m also going to be adding a dual filter setup (remote mount) and oil cooler, and possibly an accusump along with a slight overfill to prevent oiling issues.
Definitely going to have to modify the pickup hahaha.
Motor mounts pulled and painted. Nearly all of the wiring is completely done, just needs to be organized for neatness.
Trans mount, short pan (missing the bottom 3/8" plate) installed to check clearances. I should be able to put the big ass subframe back in for chassis stiffness and to use as a skid plate to protect the oil pan with some mild spacers.
Shifter is to far rearward, but it ends up being the exact amount that gets changed in the shifter kit for VQ240z’s so I’ve got that covered already. Just need to change it out when I next pull the engine. Need to finish up that oil pan, and waiting on a pipe from Vibrant that I ordered through Innovative Tuning today to finish up the driver’s header. Also have merge collectors on the way. Once that stuff is sorted later this week the motor will come back out, get all the clutch stuff put on it and reinstalled to get fired up. Also going to order a driveshaft tomorrow.
:tup:
Been working on this steadily every day, getting lots of stuff buttoned up. It consumes 100% of my free time right now. Here is some more stuff:
Shorty oil pan with 3/8" bottom plate, this got welded up today but I forgot to take a photo of it. Will put it on the motor tomorrow probably.
Motor stripped back down to come out one last time before it’s ready to rock knocks on wood crosses fingers slaughters cows as a sacrifice I love having a car that’s setup for the motor to drop out the bottom on two jacks rather than having to deal with a hoist. Just set a movers dolly down there and roll it out.
Cleaned and rebuilt my ATS/Carbonetics Carbon/Carbon Twin plate.
I decided since I needed to redo the driver’s side header I might as well put halfway decent 4-1 merge collectors on both of them.
Old passenger’s header, then with the new merge. Will make connections to the next exhaust easier as well as I’ll just need to trim it, put the 45° pipe on with the new flange and be done. Forgot a post welded photo, it’s obviously just sitting in the slips in that photo.
Making the first two bends to go around the steering shaft on the driver’s side.
First two pieces in place, working on mock up for the other 3 runners which had to be cut back extensively to keep things clear of the block, trans, and steering.
Last, but certainly not the least of my headaches is the starter interface. I removed (and then did the installation is the reverse of removal step FFFFFFUUUUUUU) the trans, around 13 times trimming the bell housing to fit the starter to engage the ring gear on the ATS flywheel (same as stock 350z location). But I still need to come up with a custom mismash of parts because the 350z starter engages MUCH further than the Titan one. I have both here so I think it’s going to end up being a modified Titan case with some 350z starter internals.
Pre-trim/Mid-trim. I stopped taking photos when my shoulder started acting up (yeah, it’s still healing).
As you can see, the Titan starter doesn’t actuate nearly far enough.
Titan (left) 350z (right).
Starters are overrated. Pop start it. :tup: Nice progress!
I would totally just go that route if it were allowed, rules state I have to have an onboard starter. Lame.
lol.
Does it need to be functional? Or could it have simply “failed” and need a pop start.
LOL
keep it in the trunk!
well technically with you in the car, you are the starter…
^^ Or just throw the starter on your passenger seat
How much practice time do you get to get use to the new setup before competition? Obviously it’s a monster change from last season right?
Paint, if I don’t shake the car down before the event, which judging by the lack of time and many things left to do… I’ll have three hour and a half long practice sessions to try and dial the car in and get used to the new setup. :bloated:
4.6.6 Engines shall be started with an on-board starter, and an on-board power
supply. A driver unable to start the automobile on the pre grid may get a
“push start”, provided the automobile is in position on the grid prior to the start
of the session. Push starts on the pre grid shall be under the supervision of a
FORMULA DRIFT official to ensure that they are done in a safe manner.
Push starts prior to the start and during the race are permitted only if
approved by the CHIEF STEWARD. NOTE: This does not change the
requirement that all cars must be equipped with an on-board starter and
power supply which must be in working order at all times.
Went outside today and finished the driver’s side header… only to put it into the car and realize it didn’t come close to clearing the steering shaft. There’s a few hours worth of work down the drain. D’OH! :suicide:
So here’s the “first” mock up of it where the collector is rotated and it hits the steering.
Sooo, since I’m trying to save pennies and I had only ordered a single U-J 1.6250" piece from Vibrant I then needed to reuse all the scraps and cut pieces I had already made to redo the headers rotating the collector around towards the block so it no longer interfered with the steering shaft.
On to the starter problem. I previously mentioned how the Titan starter didn’t actuate far enough, and how the 350z starter didn’t fit. I decided to go down a learning bit on starters today and tore them both down, learned how to rebuild all the components, and decided to see if I could mix parts together to create what I needed. While it was a great learning experience and I’ll probably never need to pay for a full starter anymore as I can definitely fix them now, I wasn’t able to come up with a combination of parts that’ll work for my application. Soooo I’m getting a small adapter plate machined to mount the 350z starter to the Titan block to actuate my ring gear on my twin plate. Also nice because Autozone, Canadian tire, Napa, etc carry this starter as it’s used on M35, Frontier, G35, 350z, etc.
Should have the header done tomorrow, maybe the crank trigger and starter plate as well (though more likely tuesday on most of that stuff). Once those are done it goes back in the car with the full clutch setup!