Linkstar

Good to see another one saved from the wreckers, it'll be nice to watch it come back to its best

Any one got a stock rb25 fuel rail lying around from a top feed conversion? keen to grab one and would rather see the money in someones project than the wreckers bottom line.

Just a quick update this morning. The good news is that lots more parts have been sourced in fact enough to be able to start mocking everything up very soon.... ie when I separate the respective drive line parts from each car. The new parts are as follows R32 RB25 head complete, RB25T turbo manifold, Q45 Throttle body, stock rb25turbo (too small but good enough for mock up) I've got an rb25det ecu can I just use the rb30 harness for a lot of the build and just modify that where required???? Or should I just get the 25 engine harness and be done with it.

I'm going to regret saying this but at the moment I'm hanging onto the crank. (like every other parts hoarder) I also have a set of stock 360 heads and given 318 blocks are still relatively cheap I'm thinking this combo would be nice in my hilux sometime down the track. The J's would go well, I've got J heads ported by JHH sitting on top of the 408 in my Coupe. Have you considered boost with the 318?

At the moment the parts hunt continues........... I'd love to have more to update today but unfortunately the daily drives have been using up a lot of spare time of late. I'll hope fully have some more interesting stuff to post later this week fingers crossed. Good on you and good luck on getting the 67 sedan Pre 70's is where its at! lol

The last shot with the welder is at my folks place. (where my chrysler coupe lives) They have a farm with a massive shed that I'd love to take over. At home I've got a 3 bay shed which is great compared to when I lived in a shoebox with a carport only about 6 months ago....

Figured I'd throw up a couple of pics of my parts progress.... Not as good as real progress but unfortunately the daily drives have been taking workshop priority at the moment. Grrrr Heres a pick of the donor............ wow boring! stock rb30,5speed peg leg third memeber & AC. Oh well still lots of usefull stuff in there to be salvaged for the cedric and the rest will be sold off for cheap to help fund the cedric. Now onto some fun stuff. Brakes: After going round in circles for ages and reading every R31 brake upgrade post I could find I've got my game plan down. Floating hub - cut disks off and machine whats left then re-drill for 5 Lug. This is a pic of a hub someone else has done (Not Me can't claim the work) before final machining to fit inside the R33 disk. This is to avoid spending time looking for rare parts and spending more money on something that can be made. Here are the disks and calipers waiting for their new home. Fuel reg for turbo conversion, got it for next to nix with the disks from another great member here on SAU not from the ebay mob in the photo. Underdash Ac: I actually bought this for a muscle car I'm building but then realised you have to be a complete goldchainer to want AC in a muscle car. The one on the bottom is the one I have. And most importantly the redneck welding cart (thanks woolies) for sheet metal work and tacking mock ups, obviously any heavy stuff will be done by a larger scale weder in the hands of a profesional welder. More bits to come soon

FWIW this one was saved from a scrap metal place as well and the 20L runs! crazy what people just throw away.

There you go, method to my maddness afterall. I did have a feeling that the track and width would be closer than expected considering the cedric was Nissan's first real crack a large family car but as I haven't starting pulling both apart I'm still on the fence about a lot of stuff. BTW you did so much better than I did getting that info I searched for yonks and could find anything as complete as that. Cheers

I hope the car is good in the corners because we'd definitely like to have some fun at track days but I figure by setting my sights realisticly dissapointment is less likely. Your point about the donor is definitely relevent, a car with a closer track would definitely make some things easier but as far as bang for buck goes the R31 is great. We can use so much of the car its not funny and given that diff shortening is not really that exotic I can cop that. The front is a bit of a challenge but by making the car a modified R31 suspension wise it opens up parts availablility considerably, and keeps it all nissan. (not that I really care that much my valiant has a ford diff, toyota brakes and a GM ecu..... lol)

That one looks great but I've seen a few garage built versions that look good and are supposed to work really well. As far as a custom suspension set up that has a bit of adjustment but isn't an engineering nightmare this seem like a good compromise. Once you start reading about 4 link design the more reluctant you'd be to try and make one. They are an art form when your putting one into a stock car with a floor pan and all sorts of things in the way.

Everything will be beefed up where needed, until I look at the car more closely I can't make many calls about that yet. I've been told that my cedric is a full frame car but I'm not 100% on that. If it is then life is good.

Firstly thanks for the replys, its funny how having people make comments on the project really pumps up the enthusiasm. One thing I'm surprised no one has asked is why I'm even bothering to attempt this, cause I'd be stuffed if I could answer that one other than why not. Ok on to business. Here are some of the ideas I've been working over in my head: Comments are welcome, ideas are appreciated but if you just want to rag on me expect a prompt negative response. As I have a complete aus spec R31 skyline I'd like to use as much of it as I can to update the cedric. In some ways this makes things twice as challenging because I'm working on ways to udate the cedric and at the same time ways to update the R31...... 1: Drivetrain: RB30/25det + 5 speed and R31diff. Alloy rad & intercooler both blacked out. 2: Front suspension: This is where it gets interesting the R31 has a strut style suspension where as the cedric runs coils. I'm wondering if I should bother try to improve the cedric's suspension & brakes using the stock running gear as a platform or do I use the whole R31 front end. ie struts, Lca's, cross member, strut towers, etc etc. As much as option 2 sounds like much more work I wonder if in terms of work vs reward it may be the better option. The second option may even mean grafting the R31 clip on to the stock rails. This kind of idea is done a lot with 40's & 50's customs that often have limited range of spare parts. 3: How the front brakes will be done will be determined by the factors listed above but I have a pair of R33 gtst calipers and rotors I'd like to use. (I know that they require adapters to use them with the R31 stuff) 4: Rear End: I'll keep the stock R31 brakes and convert it to 5 stud, until I compare track widths I won't know if the diff will need shortened. I'll try to use the stock geometry but a custom 3 or 4 link isn't out of the question. 5: Anything thats usefull from the skyline will be retained, ie fuel tank, brake booster & MC, clutch, dash with mods, front seats, main electrical harness, engine will be the RB25's harness and ecu. 6: The cedrics body is for the most part quite good and the car came with lots of trim. Here are the plans for the body work: Shave antenna holes, door handles & drip rails. Add a roll-pan to the rear and re-locate the number plate from the tail gate. Delete most of the trim. Of course all thats left to do now is everything but that outlines what I'm planning to do to hopefully create a tough street car that can also be taken to an autocross or drag day and be fun to drive.

Cool project, love the fact that you went with the 318 great little underrated engine. I've seen a few make incredible numbers when boost is applied. I have a stock 360 crank lying around out of a stroker engine I had built for my VF coupe that I'd love to use in a low buck 318 stroker. Its funny how people automatically think that a V8 will make the car unbalanced when all it really takes is a bit of planning ahead. If its good enough for Carol Shelby its good enough for the rest of us.

me too