Wynona the wagon's resurrection!

[Laecaon]

I can confirm I bought a bunch of M10x1.25 from belmetric...

[HRH]

Lol, in my head the "VG30!!" alarm is going off.

[HRH]

Ordered some more parts, talked to Ricky at Raw Brokerage. He said basically any of the Japanese engines you get can be condsidered a black box. Some are good, some look like garbage, just depends. Confirms my theory. Anyway, stud kit is coming and some various gasketry. Just as well it's late, it's been super cold here lately. Next week should be a bit warmer where I'll actually want to be in the garage. As it was, I've been playing outside melting ice dams on the roof and picking up frozen dog poop. Whee!

[DRIVEN]

If you get bored you can always come down to my place and kick tumbleweeds off the hill and watch the wind stack them against the fence. It's already 33 degrees here. Suns out guns out.

[HRH]

Lol, it was 8 degrees this morning when I woke up. It's a warm 24 degrees now! Tonight should be the last of the super cold, then we get back to the 30s.

[HRH]

Ah yes, boiling out water outlet pipe connected to intake manifold. Fun fun, finding lots of pits and can't find a replacement part online! Boooo! Can't bypass either, it's the upper radiator house outlet as well. Really cockward design.

[DRIVEN]

Yes. Because Nissan.

[HRH]

I sent an email to rawbrokerage tonight to see if they can locate a new water pipe. Either that or I'm going to have to replicate it. I'd just weld onto it, but it's so damn rusty, I'm thinking a new pipe would be a better idea.

[DRIVEN]

Wow! Where is it leaking?

[Laecaon]

Yea, luckily for me that stuff on the manifold/block are fine. The rest of it looked like shit, So I went full stainless on my coolant system.

[HRH]

Can't tell, it's very small. I have dad working on it since he's a hell of a lot better welder than I am. The outlet tubes are pock-marked to beat shit. I filled in one hole already but pressure bleeds off ever so slightly. Think I'm going to have him re-weld where it's soldered or whatever. He should be able to turn some new outlets on the lathe.

Oh yeah, part is NLA from Nissan.

[HRH]

The RB is getting closer to being finished! Finally got all the water lines sorted, intake and exhaust is back together. Working on the Nissan Quest 110 amp alternator swap, then onto fixing the wiring harness where it got drug around by the engine supplier.

I have the next two days off, missing a few pieces, but if I get lucky, I might get the engine actually in the car minus transmission, flywheel, ps setup and ac. Time will tell! Then I still need to get a new fuel pump, aftermarket intercooler setup since I didn't get an intercooler with this engine. Boooo. Wish I would have, the old airbox space would have been perfect. Looking at a frontmount for cost and simplicity, though I would like to hide it and a front mount is pretty obvious. Or I could go Subaru and take Ugly Betty's old hood and make a cutout for the intercooler on it? Probably not, but you never know.

[HRH]

Alright, finally got to test fit the engine yesterday. No go. Mounts are about 2.5-3" off. Engine mounts that came with the RB are good on one side, the other has a rip at the top, so can't use it. So we dicked around with making some mounts, which is certainly possible, and I checked the 910 RB swap thread on Ratsun, but his car had the diesel and I suspect it's much different. He said he used the RB20 mounts and it fit in with some minor modification. I don't see how that's possible, or the diesel Maximas have a different crossmember.

Either way, he did mention the similarity of the 240sx to the 910, oddly. And sure enough, it looks pretty close on the crossmember, rack set up to me. And knowing the Z24 block and KA block use near the same spacing in the hardbody, and they fit for the KA 240, I figure it's a pretty good bet if I buy a RB mount kit for 240sx, it should work with or without minor modifications on the 910.

So I ordered the kit and some 240sx mounts, we'll see if my theory is correct. But as far as a near drop in, nope! At least it's getting closer though.

[wayno]

My SD series engine mounts are farther forward(4"???), and my oil pan doesn't look anything like a L or Z block oil pan, it actually has 2 drain plugs as the oil pan has 2 sumps, one on both sides of the cross member, Nissan just made the diesels fit into the chassis, same thing your going to have to do.

[Laecaon]

My CA bolted onto the 510 crossmember just fine. (Oil pan problems aside).

Considering the Maxima is L series, it should be pretty similar.

[HRH]

Yes, I know I'm going to have to make it fit Wayno! That's why I ordered the S13 mounts. I suspect they will make it fit perfectly being it's the same behind the crossmember for length and the similarity of the crossmember to the 910. I do suspect the diesel crossmembers are different though as the previous builder said he only had to modify the mounts by about a 1/2". Not anywhere near as much as I'll have. And as far as I know, there's only that one other wagon that has an RB installed.

[HRH]

So yeah, S13 240sx to RB mounting kit: I was looking at the transmission crossmember. As for the regular mounts, I have an idea how they work, but the Black Path kit I got has no instructions, just a sheet that says take this to a mechanic or machinist for install. Motherfuckers. I'm trying just about every possible option but still haven't found a logical way to put them together and make them work.

[HRH]

Figured it out, but don't like it. Cheap mount set, go figure. And it's not an S13. There's a semi-box section of the lateral adapter that has a hole in it, it looks like as if to tie into the front side of the crossmember, but I'm not sure. I emailed the company, see if they get back to me in time. I watched a kid's video of it on youtube and he puts them on, and the semi-boxed section isn't tight up against the crossmember, so I don't know. Apparently if I want nice conversion mounts, I should spend $400 on them. Yeah, fuck that. I'll bitch and make it work instead.

[DRIVEN]

I feel like I got off easy with my swap.

[HRH]

Yeah, I'm at work today, it's slow given the holiday weekend and it's rainy-ish. Started doing some forum digging and it appears that's exactly what the hole is, get everything squared up, then drill the extra hole through the front of the crossmember to anchor the mounts, provide extra stability.

Only problem I have is they're not as large a horn as the S13, which means I'll either have to relocate the holes in the mount, or make a spacer sandwich adapter so the semi-box section can be tightened appropriately to the crossmember. Good news is that's a bit of adjustment, which means I should be able to squeak the downpipe by the steering shaft. If I can't, then I'm going to have to do a top mount turbo kit, and I really don't want to do that, because it's going to interfere directly with hood and A/C lines.

Did I mention if I do this again, it's going to be an LS swap? Lol. I'd probably have just as many issues I'm sure. Either way, it looks like the kit I got will work with a little finessing.