northwoodz

Richard, Absolutely I agree. I was speaking to the couple that replied here earlier in the thread saying their main reason for not doing an LS swap was the cost of the T56. I was just trying to point out that there are less desirable transmissions you can run on a budget. By all means, If one fell in my lap for a deal I would run home and swap them out. Rot rod power tour is a dream of mine! But I'd be lucky to put 1300 miles on my z in the next 2 years..

Made small progress tonight. First I investigated the noise I was hearing. I found it wasnt the bolts but the bigger ears of the driveshaft flange hitting the sway bar. So obviously my diff mount is toast. As a temporary quick fix I heated the sway bar and bent it out of the way a little. The noise is gone. Then I ran a 12mmx1.5 die over the end of the z temp sender, and screwed it right into the head. This I had seen in another thread (get it?) and worked out great with some thread sealant.

The truck fuel rail has an integrated regulator yea. Makes the fuel system stupid easy. A good inline pump with stock lines and you're done. Not sure how much hp that setup will support with boost though. And if you can find room for turbo(s) than I'm sure you can get the truck intake to clear, and with MS a manual throttle body would be no problem! I'll have to check out and follow your build thread.

Remember that with the vortec you are limited in how much lift you can run to about .470" without interfering with the stock valve guides!!! That cam you have chosen is probably right on the edge of what you can get away with. Those are nice motors hate for you to mash yours up!! EDIT: according to this article you can only run .420" so I would do some research. http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/148-0208-vortec-heads-valve-lift/

Cool! don't see many going with the little unloved 4.8. I like em they like come set up for a manual, are cheap, like to rev and don't make trans exploding torque I can tell you the only thing that doesn't perfectly clear on the truck manifold is the fly by wire throttle body. I realized this too late to make a change so I'm stuck with DBW. If you go with a cable I bet it will clear. You do have to shave all the little do-dads off the top, which is easy. My hood is on the car and it closes within 1/2" of latching. I just bungeed the hood down for now (looks kind of cool popped up a little). But in the future I'll make a speed bump in the hood for the throttle body or try to shave it some. I was also considering the oe competition hood scoop. Keep in mind that when you go to a fbody intake, now you need fbody fuel rails, you don't have a fuel press regulator anymore, you'll need a car water pump, which means you'll need all new pulleys and accessories. I would of rather gone with a carb setup at that point. OH and, just for reference, my oil pan is about 1/4" above the cross member and about that far from the steering rack. The crank pulley cradles the steering and the whole setup is pretty low in the car. So low that the driveshaft has to travel UP to the diff from the back of the trans. If you buy mounts I doubt it will be low enough to get away with the truck intake but I don't know for sure.

I realize there isn't much in my thread so far that hasn't been done or is of any use. So I wanted to post how I got the factory tach to work for free since I wasn't able to find this on hybrids. Most just send it out to JCI I guess. See below. My first step was sending my PCM out to ls*thunder on ebay. His name is Leonard and he is a little dry to talk to but did a great job. He was able to edit the tach signal the computer generates for a 6cyl tach. I guess in stock form the pcm generates a 4cyl signal. My understanding is that anyone with hptuners can change this easy and he didn't charge me extra. He also removed vats and the usual stuff for just $45. Then, after hours or searching around I found this over at lt1swap.com and it worked For this, you can use the stock resistor for the tach behind the glovebox (its a little black plug on the main harness going out to the front with two blue wires) Just connect the white wire from the pcm to the tach side (blue&white) and switched power to the other (solid blue) side. I'm not sure what the value of that resistor is but I think its quite large. For switched power you can use the switched + going to the old ignition module which is right handy. Not sure the color of the wire I just used a test light to find it. I have some run time on it now and the tach works like a charm and seems accurate! Not a penny involved! Note: I also tried this modification before I found the trick above but I don't think it has much to do with my results http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/66137-how-to-modify-a-280z-tach-to-work-with-msd-for-free/

Got the exhaust hung on the car. It sounds great but is too loud. I ordered a 3" resonator to go in the straight section hoping that will make it just right Then I went for a test drive! I made my usual test run loop to the water store and back. I had two major issues: I need to bleed the clutch more. I also was having a noise in reverse/decel/downshifts. I'm pretty sure its the bolts I used in the driveshaft flange hitting the sway bar when the diff torques down. I will try moving the lock washers to the front of the flange and shaving some off the bolts. No pictures of it on first drive, sorry, it was dark.

Clutch, flywheel and pilot bearing from the 4.8 is a direct fit for nv3500 also old 4 speeds and the like. Just bolt the tranny on and go.

^^^^^^^^^^ +1 I am running an old school saginaw 4 speed in my z. I paid $20 for it from a coworker and I put another $80 in the rebuild. These have been used in heavy cars with healthy small blocks for 40 years. No reason it won't hold up well in the z. Same as the nv3500 that is being discussed, these cheaper options may not hold up forever in a 4500lb pickup or or 4000lb car, but we are talking about a light car with limited traction in most cases. And for a guy like me on a budget, a T56 is never going to happen. It is simple, I can work on it and if I blow it up i'm out $100 OP has found his transmission so my apologies to him for dragging this thread on..

Thanks. I started on June 17th with the swap and have about $1500 invested so far. The car really isn't worth sinking a whole heck of a lot into with the rust issues and our limited nice weather driving season up here. But I will keep plugging away at it I just didn't have the motivation to work on restoring it with the stock l28 in it. Hopefully after the conversion I will keep going with it until its something worthwhile.

Hi all I decided to post up another build thread. Facebook and youtube is blocked at work now so I think this is a good chance to interact with people with similar interests and keep this site going. This is actually my 2nd attempt at a LS Z car. My first one didn't get very far. 1978 280z 2+2 -04 4.8' vortec from manual trans truck - all stock -4 speed saginaw rebuilt myself -aluminum hydraulic clutch bell housing with advanced adapter spacer on bearing retainer -home made motor and trans mounts -shaved truck intake that clears the hood (kind-of) -modified truck oil pan & modified pickup tube -3-row ebay champion copy -stock pcm and modified stock harness -pcm edited to send 6cyl signal to tach -EBay stainless block hugger headers -2.5" to single 3" home fab'd exhaust -255lph inline fuel pump -stock gauges all working -shortened 77 nova driveshaft at home (say a prayer) to 36" -adapter flange from zcardepot non-engine swap stuff I've done to the car: -replaced windshield & seal -replaced brake master cyl. & wheel cyls -repaired huge leak in the gas tank -repaired fuel guage -repaired broken connection in ignition relay -removed goofy bumpers Still need to: plumb intake tubing install electric fan (pcm was edited to control this, relay and fuse already wired) finish installing driveshaft build 2nd half of exhaust replace brake booster rust repair in drivers floor, floor support, everywhere really. paint & body tires & wheels ~~~this list never ends!~~~ Thanks for viewing!

And remember if you get a fly by wire style intake make sure to get the TAC module (little computer for the gas pedal) and the pedal assembly along with the short harness between the two!! You can easily retain DBW and modify the gas pedal to fit nice in your 280 just as I did. Keep in mind if you go with a truck intake you will probably have clearance issues with the hood and won't be able to run a strut brace. Also it is good to know that if a factory computer is set up for fly by wire, it can't be converted to run without it, and vise-versa according to that LT1 website. You'd have to find a different pcm that was intended for the throttle body style you want to use. The harness is also a lot different.

Yea I have no idea if the 60e or 80e will actually fit in a stock z trans tunnel I was just throwing ideas out there not speaking from experience. I've only messed with manual transmissions in s30s. I modified a stock EFI harness in my z, it isn't bad at all. You can have the stock computer tuned to remove vats and modify any other parameters to get it running cheap, I sent mine to a guy on EBay for $45, had it running 2 days later. This is an extremely helpful site: http://lt1swap.com

If you go back to efi you could run a 4L60E or better yet the 4L80...they are plentiful and work with almost all oem and aftermarket engine management setups. Stock intake and harness and stuff could be had dirt cheap and offers plenty of options...and the carb setup is worth some $$. You could also sell your TH350 conversion stuff (if that is a thing I'm not familiar) and the carb setup for some good cash and almost come out even I bet. I had the stock 4spd in my 78 (same 1:1 high gear as your TH350) and with the 3.54 gears it wasn't bad at all. LS motors like to rev and are fairly efficient at higher rpms if there isn't much of a load on them. For these reasons with my 4.8 swap I stuck with a 1:1 top gear transmission and it kept the cost way down. just my $.02

I have sent everyone PM's. Much appreciated, everyone!

Thanks for all the replies, I am busy at work but I will make sure to PM everyone who has posted soon. The project still has not gotten off the ground but the LS motor (yes going a different route now) is going to be dropped off today. Just need some warmer weather!

Trying to make my parts z complete again, *all parts wanted are for 78' 280 I will post things in reverse order of rarity to make life easier. Have paypal, everything will have to be shipped to 04474. **Looking for** -'Z' sail panel/quarter panel emblems -'280Z' lower fender badges -Steel 'Datsun' hood emblem -Mirrors -Horn Button -Center Console (black) -Steering column clam shell -Rear view mirror -Hood (shipping may be outrageous so I might fix mine, dunno) -Typical rust repair panels (floors, frame rails, fender bottoms, doglegs) -LS Swap parts -240z bumpers -ZG flares -'Spook' air dam -Spoiler (OEM, MSA, 432, etc) Anything that is not found I am willing to purchase new from MSA, JTR, etc. I realize some of these are not realistic. It will be a while before I start this project, so throwing this out there can't hurt right? I appreciate any help guys! You may PM or for faster response email jcrawford@autodist.com