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HybridZ

A big thank you - 240 LS Conversion


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Somewhere around this point I fired the car and put a few hundred miles on it (no issues, no problems except for a turn signal switch, a bad ground on the horn and a little leak at the water pump).  What a BLAST to drive.  It ran good but felt like it could use more power. 

 

Since I was getting ready to do a 4K, 9 day road trip I was going to have to replace the water pump.  About that time a buddy of mine was upgrading his LS2 heads on a Corvette to AFR ported heads so I grabbed them for this car.  The heads had 25k miles & were the right price so why not?  

 

During the water pump R&R "while I was at it" I installed a TexasSpeed 224 cam, LS7 lifters, LS2 heads, matching springs, retainers, push rods and updated the problimatic LS1 oil pump with a Melling.  My intent was to do my own tuning but ran out of time.  I took it in for a dyno tune - ~340HP at the wheel.  Not too bad for a cobbled car/engine.  I suspect the cam/heads added 60 to 75HP making it a wanna be an LS6 with a slightly larger cam.

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Thanks for the kind comments.  The build took awhile and WELL worth it in the end. 

 

The HybridZ posts kept me inspired and up to date on options for the car. 

 

In a few of my posted pictures you will see pictures of cars taped to the side of the blue two post lift (next to my car).  Each day as I walked through the garage to go to work, take out the trash etc. it reminded me of the hard work you folks put into your cars and the outcome I would have if I just stuck with it.  It was equivilent to the skinny bikini girl posted on the refrigerator door as a reminder to stick with the program.

 

I hope my photos inspire your builds as they progress and hopefully inspire to keep plowing ahead in times of low motivation.  I'll try to finish the post this weekend.

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Along the way I bought a few different tire sizes, brought them home, checked measurements and made the commitment.

 

Along the way I took the car to a friend's shop for a 4 wheel alignment.  Even with the rear camber plates I was not able to set the camber up for a street setting.  It works for now and it's great for the track - ultimately not the way I would like it.  I'll looking at some adjustable rear control arms as an upgrade at some point. 

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Edited by Mikey303LSZ
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When I first started driving the car I started out using stock rear axle shafts.  I never had a problem with them but from a risk perspective they can be problimatic.  I swapped them for a set of Wolf Creek Racing axles prior to the Power Tour.  The new axles feel smoother on the highway and I'm sure they're a little stronger.  :-)

 

Upgraded the headlights to Truck Lite brand LEDs.  Wanted to take the current load off the old wire harness/switch - they are really nice and bright.  Investigated the wire harness/relay setup but figured I'd put the money into LED technology vs a wire harness/relays.

 

Along the way I took the car in for Colorado pre '81 emissions testing.  Passed with flying colors (these results were pre heads and cam).  MUCH cleaner than a stock '73 240.

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Edited by Mikey303LSZ
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Had about 500 miles on the car, upgraded heads/cam put another 75 miles on it and decided it was ready for the 2015 PowerTour.  We were on the road 9 days and logged 4000 miles.  As part of the event I ran it a few times at Memphis Speedway.  Just wanted to get a feel for what it would run in the 1/4 mile.  It was a ~95 degree day.  It ran a 12.6.  I was pretty happy considering I had about 150 lbs. of misc. luggage, tools, cooler of water, 33PSI in the tires etc.  In comparison there were 2 Hellcats running (12.4-ish) and a few new Corvette C7s running 12.8's & 12.9s.  The car made it back home unscathed to the exception of a blown A/C fitting (didn't crimp it tight enough) and a REALLY leaky windsheild gasket.  I had to bail out what seemed like 1/2" of water on the floor boards one morning after a full night of rain.  I pulled up the front carpet and set it on top of my luggage to dry for a few days while driving with the window down.  NOTE:  For those of you with old windshield rubber you may want to replace it before you experience rain. 

 

The car draws a lot of interest and lots of folks talking about their old 240 or someone they knew who had a 240. 

 

A few friends including HybridZ member 75280z got me excited about taking the car to a 2.5mile track for a little road racing.  One main point in terms of preparation for the first time racing was to upgrade the brake fluid to something better than standard DOT4 to reduce brake fade. My intention was to upgrade the fluid prior to a local Datsun club day and I ran out of time.  I spend the better half of a week trying to find a local store where I could buy a helmet for the event and didn't get to the fluid.  The day was AWESOME.  What a blast.  On the back stretch the car hit ~115MPH (per GPS) and surprisingly zero brake fade with regular DOT4 fluid.  I'm really happy with the Silvermine brakes and the coil over/suspension upgrades.

 

Next year I'll try a set of sticky tires install the rear sway bar that never got installed and see how the car performs. 

 

I also owe my dog a ride.  She was patient during those long days in the garage...

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Edited by Mikey303LSZ
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SunnyZ inspired me on the winter turbo project.  

 

Picked up a set of used truck exhaust manifolds last weekend.  Keeping the A/C - hoping to sneak the left bank hot side between the F-body alternator and the A/C compressor.  Time will tell.  6psi should wake it up and keep it reliable.

 

Wife says, "why do you need to make it so fast?"  Reply - I enjoy fabrication and learning something new.

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Edited by Mikey303LSZ
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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Beautiful Colorado weather today.  Got the car out and logged 60 miles.  Was driving by a gravel yard so I decided to pull in to check the weight of the car - I've always wondered but never verified.  The scale read 3040 lbs with me and my wife.  I decided to drive by the local landfill on the way home so I checked the weight there too - 3020 lbs. Subtract my wife's and my weight and the car is ~2710 lbs +/-20. 

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