northwoodz

I have an all stock 04' 4.8L drive by wire under the hood of my 2+2. The stock intake clears the hood (barely) with home made engine mounts and I retained drive by wire. It is very fun to drive, very much a budget build, and is very good on fuel. Good luck

I think you can rig up a dummy light instead of a resistor if you wanted. As long as its an incandescent one and not led, it would have enough resistance and would lite up whenever the alt wasn't charging. Not sure if the factory S30 one would work or not.

Awesome paint work! I like the PO's version of a rotisserie lol very inexpensive I might try that! (kidding) I bet nobody else can say their car was on it's side for 20 years.. Keep us updated looks great so far.

Ben A, I think the other show you are talking about is Roadkill and the car is the 'Rotsun'? It just started airing on velocity tv but has been an internet show for years that is very popular, look them up on youtube or social media there is lots of great content

I might be interested in this if you still have it and are willing to ship? Thanks

Rest in peace. My condolences to those who knew him well.

AWESOME! I want to build a set of wheels like that so bad! I've been looking for a used set of 3pc to bolt bigger lips to but hard to find and lots of $$$. Totally worth it though when you have a Z and your tire size starts with a 3.... Thanks for the inspiration.

I don't know. But I DO have a 78 ignition module for sale if you are in need

Gus, After you had posted I had to stop over and read your build very nice! How is the tune coming? I may have some questions about tuning my 4.8 in the future. Also I have never heard of using chevette springs definitely will research that and you've made me even more excited to get my lift! -Joel

I've spent some time lately organizing the garage in preparation for the 2 post lift I bought for the center bay. I'm excited to not lay on a creeper under the Z anymore. I have delayed any serious progress like the transmission swap or rust repair until the lift arrives and is set up. The company gave me an expected ship date of dec.20th I did remove the repulsive purple tint from the rear quarter windows. Took a couple hours with a hairdryer and a welding glove. I also removed and cleaned up the coil packs and valve covers. Failed to take a picture.

I am rookie with the spray gun too, but for orange peel the old guys said turn the air pressure up and it works!

I'm into 4wheelin as well. Have a 97 jeep TJ, 89 Bronco 2 rock buggy on tons, 71 chevy K10, 04 duramax solid axle swapped,,, Here's a pic of the fleet Cheers!

Its a good running little motor for sure. Good amount of power for stock suspension and brakes. In the garage for more work this winter

I agree neverdone completely. It is everything we all would like and very well done. I wasn't trying to bash the car at all. I do find RR and GMG irritating, though, just my opinion. Would love to have the $$ however. It also just happens to be a green 2+2 with zg flares, black bumper, and bronze wheels rwl tires (was my plan) lol

Nice collection of parts, exactly. I'm sure it doesn't have 1 mile on it since the build, but somebody will buy it from Barrett Jackson or off their EBay and give it a loving (albeit rich) home. I'm sure his mechanics googled something along the lines of "how to build a Datsun with unlimited budget" and came up with a plan in less than a day including every part from AZC and the Q45 diff swap. It's not like one of those builds like many of our own cars that we've derived from experience with z cars and years of planning to fit our budget. Did you see the fast N' loud episode where they explain that the numerical gear ratio (ex. 3.54) refers to the actual SIZE of the ring gear?!?! I almost died. And thanks I just realized the link I put up is just to a bunch of pics, no info.

I searched around and didn't see any mention of it yet (on hybridz), Although I am not a fan of Richard Rawlings and his show since Aaron left, I really like this car ever since I saw it on social media. I was like awwww when I saw the A$$ monkey plate. Still, the exact direction I was going with my 2+2, and now I feel like i have to switch things up to be accused of copying this celebrity Z. Little run-of-the-mill, but very sharp and tasteful. And its good to see the 2+2 body style getting some more attention! More pics & info here: http://www.speedhunters.com/2017/11/gas-monkey-garage-goes-jdm/2017-sema-gas-monkey-garage-datsun-280z-speedhunters-by-paddy-mcgrath-5/ -Joel

Update. I've put over 400 miles on the Z this summer since the 4.8 swap. Which is a lot for me. No major issues to speak of! lots of fun memories already. You can see in the pic I went to the local pick n' pull and found the tallest 14" tire I could find for the back. They ended up being $5ea snow tires lol. Something like 235/75x14. Just to help out with high cruising rpms. it did help a bit they are about 26" tall. Last weekend I bought a trans for it. Its the oh so rare NP440 aka MY6 aka A833 overdrive 4 speed used in 81-84 gm c10 pickups. I picked this one up locally with a nice clutch, sbc flywheel, the weird belhousing, and the factory hurst for $300. With a .73 4th and the very same ratios as a 700R4 coupled with a nice shifting factory hurst unit I think it is going to be a HUGE upgrade. Plus the aluminum case makes it a lot lighter than the saggy-4. Maybe too good for the ol' rusty Z

Haha tell us what it was!!

Alright this post is pretty good. I got my parts from summit tonight. Installed a 16" 2100cfm spal fan. They are on sale this week, btw, 10%....This one barely fits on the radiator core and moves some air. Pretty quiet too. Wired through a fused relay triggered by pcm pin #42. Then I installed a vss (speed sensor) finally. The car runs WAY better with it. Dont think you can go without it like I did. I got under the car and found the source of the vibe I was having - a pooched ujoint at the outer right half shaft. I notice the left side had been replaced. Makes sense, and not life threatening. The prothane mustashe bushings will stay in the box for now. Then - then i went and fell in love with my z again. I went on a 30 mile cruise on back twisty roads taking it sort of easy. What a car! It is worth ALL the work. EDIT: fixed images

I've also read that if you kick the exhaust out to the side of the car it helps because it keeps fumes away from the low pressure area behind it.

Another small update The clutch action was never right with the stock clutch M/C so I swapped in a wilwood 7/8 MC which was practically bolt in. I also replaced the factory 3/16" clutch line with 1/4" for a quicker action. Added my little resonator which did quiet it down some but is still rather loud. I think the next step addressing that will be some interior sound deadening and carpet. I updated the tags and insurance on the z so we took it for the first real drive and put it through the paces. I was having too much fun but I did come to the sad realization that the car still requires a lot of time and money to be a daily driver again. -I can't get by without a VSS sensor. The car has the typical chugging idle and stalling condition that everybody has without the speed sensor. -the diff mount bushings are bad. This I already knew. Under heavy acceleration there is a harsh vibration/pounding that I can't deal with. It gets worse the longer I drive the car. I will start out by replacing the mustache bushings and if that doesn't work I will get the RT mount. -I still need to install a fan setup. I might trim the fan blades on the mechanical fan until I find an electric fan setup at the u-pull.

Typically you run coolant through a passage to keep the throttle blades from icing up in cold weather. It hurts performance in the summer months by heating up the intake charge.

I never tried this with my L28, but when I was into older BMWs which have the same solid rocker ohc noises, using a heavy weight oil like 20w-50 seemed to help quiet them down a lot.

I was looking into 18racing just a few days ago. It is worth noting that their EBay username is 'wheelbay' and their pricing on there seems a little better than the website. They disguise this info but the phone number and location is the same in the listings.

I got a new phone!!! No more hazy pictures with black dots everywhere after this post. So Saturday the girlfriend and I took a 400-mile road trip in the jeep to go 4-wheelin at the terrain park and then further north to a concert in beautiful Rangeley ME. Sunday I fooled around with fitting a makeshift air filter and getting the factory hood latch to fit in it's home again. I adjusted the hood to stay open just a little to give clearance to the truck intake and I hope will allow a little more flow through the engine bay. I don't mind the look of it too much. The z is a 78 but has a 77 hood with no louvers. I hope to add them someday but man! $$$ Also replaced the fusible links with some new ones from zcardepot. The old links had pulled their tricks on me too many times. Last I took her outside and washed the greasy fingerprints and dust off. Oh, and I had to celebrate the success of the swap a little