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That is an impressive repair. You can clearly see where Adrian beefed up the weak points and that strut bar is nicely done.

Yes, you can use either the 4-speed that's already in the 240Z or you can use the 5-speed from the '82 280ZX. You'll have to pull the dowel pin out of the flywheel though. It's only used for the autotragic and won't let you properly mount the manual tranny. Otherwise it will take hours to figure out why the damn thing won't push up that last 1/4"... ask me how I know...

Well, the results are in. After having run as high as 6th place, some non-mechanical problems in the last 30 minutes of the race resulted in us finishing 11th overall out of 121 cars. Still a respectable finish (my highest finish in 7 events!). To top things off, the car was signed by Pete Brock at last weekends Historic Races at Laguna Seca! It's going to be hard to change the paint now that it's been "endorsed" by Pete himself! John Morton was going to come over in the afternoon to check it out and put his signature on it, but was interrupted by an unplanned trip to the hospital when he was t-boned by another car and flipped while driving 1 of 3 existing 1958 Scarab race cars! We'll get him to sign it when he makes his way back up here to NorCal. Here's a great pic of us "leading the pack" during one of the infrequent yellow flags:

HAHA!! Well, you're right, we have a different perspective on the definition of "Rust Bucket" out here in the saltless streets of sunny California.

Unfortunately, it's nearly a totally stripped rust bucket that was given to us for free. The paint looks WAY better in pictures than in person. The car was originally red already so we just scraped off the edges of the flaking clear coat and sprayed over it and the rest of the rust that's holding this thing together. It's got no drive train and only came with an intake manifold, a pair of SU's and a radiator. Virtually every interior part is missing with the exception of the dash and pedal assembly and it's completely impractical to restore, so it's gonna get raced. To save money, we're going to use the drive train, wheels, tires and roll cage from my 280ZX LeMons car that was totaled in May. We had to cut the roof off of the 280ZX to get the cage out and we obviously had to cut the roof off the 240Z to get the cage back in and re-weld the roof on when we were done. It did give us a chance to re-weld the cage to make sure it's totally safe. We've now got 4 weeks to get the driveline transplanted, all the wiring done and get the alignment string boxed. It's going to be a fun month of late nights after work!

And yes, our race car # is 46!

Thanks everyone! Stravi lives in the next town north of me, so he's definitely the closest. I'm going to try and get with him to test it out and if it works, we'll be ready to rock Sears Point!

The ECU in our 280ZX 24hrs of Lemons Race Car bit the dust after the event at Sears Point and our entire 2010 schedule is at risk unless the ZX community can help us out! I don't have any spares or I'd take care of it myself. Do you or does someone you know have an ECU for an NA 280ZX?! If so, can or will you donate it to a good cause? Ok, I realize a "good cause" is a bit of a stretch, but we're desperate here! The March 6-7 event is rapidly approaching and we'll be a DNS (Did Not Start) unless someone can pull through for us! I've scoured the local Craigslist postings with no luck... If you've got one PLEEASE email me as soon as possible! We still need to re-tune the car before the March event! Cheers, WW P.S. We're based in the SF Bay Area in CA.

Haha! Good point, given that no RB motor was ever federalized in the US, there are NO "legal" RB swapped domestic cars in the US! What I should have said was "registered" and functional... I also like the "wow" factor that the RB26 gets, but I won't do another one. It's just too complicated to do the TT right and if you want REALLY big power, you have to convert to a single turbo anyway, so you end up with an RB25 with 0.1L more displacement... It was fun, but definitely not worth it. That's why my current Time Attack project is getting a crazy RB25DET build. The RB26 will stay a very regular driver and is always a crowd pleaser at the car shows.

This poll is for those who've actually "completed" their swap. In other words, you have a street legal running car with an RB motor. I'm curious how many people have completed the swap and what was your motor selection. I'll start with my RB26DETT powered 1972 240Z: My "other" RB swap in progress is an RB25DET going into a Dodge Hugger Orange 1972 240Z, but it doesn't move under it's own power yet, so it doesn't count!

Without a quote, I have no idea which post you are referring too.

Come on slow! The 81 Turbo's came with "Snow Flakes" and the 82-83 Turbo's came with "Swastika's"! The 82-83 Non-Turbo's came with the 6-spoke wheels shown in the picture. The 81 Turbo was the first to have the "turbo" hood but it was made standard on all 82-83 cars. The 81 Turbo only came with an automatic from the factory and the 82-83 turbo's came with the T5. If you just need a 5-speed, unless you're making big power (and even then the Nissan T5 is questionable) the Non-turbo 5-speed should work fine.

Just call and tell them it's for the Nissan/Datsun T5 and they'll get you the correct one: http://www.pro50shifters.meridian1.net/default.asp?S=E3&Document=Contact+us&NID=2884314 I use the Pro5.0 shifter on my T5 280ZXT as well.

Next time, get a "pre-test". I think you're stuck with "gross-polluter" status for at least 6 years or 3 more tests. I've passed every "official" smog test rather easily with basic tune-up's. Once you have all your vacuum lines working properly, electrical connections cleaned and making good contact, pretty much everything else is a cake walk. For future reference, the cats on these cars are bolted on. Congratulations getting it back on the street!

Yeah, I believe Jeff had to "massage" some areas to get the TKO to go in.