My F20C swapped Datsun Z Build thread: "Project Z2000"

[clocker]

No probably not worth cutting it up for the change... and actually the bottom is the 260Z/280Z style which is what I already have.  I am probably overthinking it, and probably looking way too far ahead from where I'm at right now haha

The big advantage to the earlier 240 tails is that the trim panels are metal instead of the ancient plastic of the later cars.
Trying to refurb our 280 tails was a much bigger job than I'd anticipated...everything broke during disassembly.
And I hope your chromed plastic bezels are in good shape because they are a nightmare.

Our car is going to be the showcase for my junkyard prowess, so far it has parts from eleven different cars (ironically, no Nissan/Datsun donors) and tomorrow I'll get some pics to show you how we dealt with the rear sans bumper.
It involves the rubber bumper blocks from a Porsche 944.
I used the rear wing from a Saab 900 Turbo to mimic the BRE style wing in your pics.

We had assumed from the beginning that the drivetrain would be swapped but had hoped to get through stage 1 with our original.
Sadly, this is not the case and we're trying to figure out how to proceed right now.

[mattster03]

Made some mini progress today... much less than I wanted to because most of the day was taken up by fixing my buddies 2005 Xterra which got the dreaded "S.M.O.D" strawberry milkshake of death which is a pretty well documented problem with this generation of Nissan's mixing up A.T. fluid and coolant.

Anyway... I basically just pulled the motor today.  The stock L26 is a beast! Will be mocking up the F20 soon once I spend a few hours cleaning up that old engine bay... no bad though!

[mattster03]

And yes, I know my camera sucks... I'll do something about that for next time 

[Ebush]

Everything looks great so far! I'm also curious about the engine weights. I know the honda trans is super light.

[mattster03]

I played around with mocking up the engine today... the good news is the preliminary look makes me think it's going to be a great fit.  The engine fits completely behind the sub frame cross member, the shifter is perfectly centered and it looks like the valve cover will clear the factory hood latch.  The tricky part will be designing the engine mounts; I really hope I can find a way to use the Datsun engine mount locations but they are around 10in in front of the F20 mounts.  There is a mile in front of the engine for turbo goodies if/when I go that route in the future.  I am getting really excited about this!   

[digitalsolo]

Looks like a great fit.

[clocker]

Looks like a great fit.

Yes, it does, doesn't it.
I am wildly envious of the space in front of the block, I'm struggling to fit an efan in front of the straight six.

As for your rear end/bumper treatment...
It looks like you have the early (more desirable) 240 bumpers with the accompanying (unfortunate) body recess on the rear flank, so if your parts are in good shape, using them is probably the easiest option.
Even if you're willing to do good delete job on those, I think the resulting lower tail valence is kind of featureless and bare, it needs something.

Originally I wanted to try the bumperettes from an Opel GT but they are thin on the ground and I wasn't willing to invest real money on a guess.
These Porsche 944 bumper blocks were cheap and simple to adapt:




They add some form and shape to the featureless expanse but I doubt they're much use as protection.
Not that the stock bumpers are anything to write home about, every SUV in the world will go over your bumper and right for the taillights anyway.



(sorry for the highjack)

[N2v8fcs]

Wow all that room!
Being behind the front centerline should give you a good 50/50 weight balance.
I'm also interested in how much lighter the honda engine/trans combo is over the old datsun.

[mefarri]

What a perfect fit.

[WannaBeFast]

I really dig the setup. I have brought it up before that the K20 makes for an awesome builds.

Take lots of pictures man. I personally take a lot of pleasure when I see build pics of even little details that might seem uninteresting to post.

[mattster03]

Anyone have any good ideas as to how I should weigh the engine?  Is there a cheap chain scale on the market that I could use with my cherry picker?

[mattster03]

Looks like a great fit.

Yes, it does, doesn't it.
I am wildly envious of the space in front of the block, I'm struggling to fit an efan in front of the straight six.

As for your rear end/bumper treatment...
It looks like you have the early (more desirable) 240 bumpers with the accompanying (unfortunate) body recess on the rear flank, so if your parts are in good shape, using them is probably the easiest option.
Even if you're willing to do good delete job on those, I think the resulting lower tail valence is kind of featureless and bare, it needs something.

Car looks awesome Clocker!

[mattster03]

Who's got two thumbs and no life working on his car on Memorial Day... this guy  .

Spent this morning working on the car again... everything was going great until I laid my head in a puddle of gear oil... can't stand that smell of that stuff so the day was over right about then LOL.  Anyway, made some more fine-tuned adjustments to the engine trying to get it in it's ideal location.  Here are a few more pictures of what could be close to it's final home:



Frame rails are exactly 25" apart, so this is pretty well centered on the crank:



Oil pan is just above the cross member (despite what the angle of the photograph seems to sugges)



A close-up of the hood latch area.  The points of concern are the cam position sensor (cracked) and the oil cap.  Both are accessible

[mattster03]

And now to discuss what I believe to be one of the more complicated portions of the project.  The engine mounts!

Traditionally, it seems most manufactures who make kits for the SR-20 / KA20 engine swaps (closest example I could find to the F20C since they are both 4cyl engine which mount far back) make weld in mounts which tie into the frame rails and pick up the engine mounts well behind the original chassis cross member mounts.  The reason for this, although obvious I want to state it, is because the whole engine is now behind the stock engine cradle mounting points, so therefor the engine mounts are going to be even further behind.  Here is an example of the most popular "Mckinney" SR-20 swap cradle (he has removed the old engine mount points from the cross member):



I'm am currently not a huge fan of this setup.  Probably mostly because I would rather have a bolt-in solution that uses the factory engine cradle.  From what I can see, the F20 must have engine mount points on the block which are further forward when comparing to the SR-20 / KA24 which gives me the idea that I might be able to design mounts that just "bridge" forward the required distance to pick up the stock engine cradle.... clear as mud, right?

So here are the measurements that I'll be working with for starters... I'll be making up some parts in 3D CAD to post up later this week to see what you all think.

Stock engine cradle angle... I'll assume it's 45*:



The F20C engine comes from the factory in the S2000 mounted at a slight angle to help with hood clearance.  I am maintaining that angle which appears to be about 15* off vertical.



And this is how far my replacement "bridge" mount will have to span... from the front bolt it's ~5-1/2 - 6".  No easy feat, but I do have a design in mind (sorry about the blurry picture, it was an awkward position and I was all hopped up on coffee):



I have already posted this picture, but now you need to see it again to see the factory engine cradle mount points, the tilt of the engine and the aluminum mounts (which I will be re-designing/replacing):



Is this making sense to anyone?  Hopefully my 3D CAD mock-up will better help relay my ideas...

[clocker]

I'm only a shadetree engineer but your plan seems needlessly risky.
I can see such a cantilevered structure holding the engine in place but wonder about the effects of rocking couple/torque reaction as it actually runs.
Why not just make a bolt in version of the McKinney setup?