bigbore468

Am looking for a working stock fuel sending unit (3 wire) from 75-76 280Z. Drop me a note if you have one for sale / trade. Cheers!

Hey guys, My bad! The correct part number for the Hooker headers are 2147, not 2109...it is listed as one of their Super Comp line of headers. Sorry for any confusion.

Yeah...forgot to mention that if you have angle plug or 18 degree heads with raised ports, etc., the Hooker headers will not work. With stock hight exhaust port angle plug heads, the #4 pipe on the passenger side header needs mod to clear the plug boot.

The wrap will help control the under hood temps, as you already know; as well as doing all the other stuff you mention. My experience with different wraps on steel tube headers are they do cause the pipes to crack or fail over the years. My first three sets of long tube headers were wraped and they all failed. I was told the wrap put on too tight causes the pipes to deform when they get hot, and eventually cause them to crack at a joint or bend. As the other poster noted, the Jet Hot Sterling coating does almost nothing to help control under hood temps, and will probably fail due to overheating the coating. My current set of Hooker headers have the Jet Hot Sterling coating, and started to show signs of failure within a few months. My Z is only a weekend driver, and even that limited use caused the Sterling coating to fail. The people at Jet Hot Arizona are first class. They were willing to redo the coating for free, upgrading me to their Extreme 2000 or whatever their top of the line product is. But I never got around to pulling the headers and spending another few hundred bucks just for the shipping. When these go bad, my next set of headers will the stainless steel. I like the flow and sound of long tube headers. I did have excellent results with wrapping the exhaust pipes, from the collectors going back to the muffler. Hope this helps you out with your final decision. Cheers

The internals from a 77 280Z will not interchange with a 75/76. The glass, regulator and door panels are different, so would assume that they will not fit on a 73. Maybe the door locks and handles may fit, but I know for sure the window parts will not fit.

Would be interested in a pair of stock hight mounts for 280Z rear struts, with 1/8" - 1/4" longer mounting studs to accomodate a strut tower brace bracket. Let us know what you come up with. Cheers.

Yeah finally figured it out this past weekend. The stock tach was not damaged at all... It came down to being a bad MSD Tach Adapter that has been in the car for at least 10 years or so. It's their original model that has a bunch of wires to hook up. I took the thing apart and the circuit board was fried. The new model MSD Tach Adapter P/N 8910 works fine with the stock tach. For any planning to go this route, the signal wire that goes to the tach attaches to WHITE wire of the MSD tach adapter. I also used a 10K ohm resister in the signal wire as per the JTR book. Thanks for the replies.

Have been using a stock tachometer from a 1976 280Z with an MSD 6, points type trgger along with a first generation MSD Tach Adapter, which worked fine for the past 10 years or so.... Recently I think the stock tach has gone bad as there was that smell of fried transistors coming from the dash one morning, and the tach has not worked since. The signal indicators and lighting still works fine. Purchased a new MDS tach adapter P/N 8910, but see that their wiring has changed a lot vs. the model I have. Also have a new old stock tach on the way. My plan is to keep the stock guages as well as the stock look of the interior... The MSD 8910 has only two wires; one hooks up to a B+ ignition source, and the other (wihte) wire gets inserted into the white wire from the MSD and to the distributor trigger. My question is where does the stock tach signal wire hook up to. I think it gets hooked in series into the white wires noted above, but would like any advice from those that have used this set up. Have read a bunch of the old posts that suggest going to an aftermarket 5" tach, which I may do if this attempt does not work out. Appreciate any advice. Cheers.

Jason, Have been running a WC T-5 trans with a standard bolt pattern bell housing (straight up) for a few years without any problems. It is the same bell housing that can be used with all the muncie and borg warner 4 speed trans; they use the same 4 bolt mounting pattern. Choose a shifter that has a removable stick which you can either modify or purchase a stick that will have the correct offset for your needs; most of the aftermarket shifters for the T-5 trans should have removable sticks. Get a shifter that has a low profile if you want it to fit under the stock console and come up through the stock shifter location. The Richmond 5 speed will take some effort to fit due to the shifter and arms being mounted on the outside (to the drivers side) of the trans. Tunnel clearance will be an issue, as you need to get the rear of the trans high enough to get the proper driveline angles to the diff. All the other members that have posted here give you great suggestions. Building a hybridZ will take much effort and trial and error to get it right. It's not like swapping engines and trans in a Camaro.... Good luck.

Sean 71, dr_hunt gives excellent advice for engine build based on the 3.25" stroke crank. You probably know this combo is the little brother to the 377s that uses the 3.48" stroke crank and the 4.155" bore. Go with the largest piston size; with the brodix aluminum block, having a 4.155 bore should be no problem. Also, the long rods; 6"+ will be a good choice as it sounds like you will be buzzing this engine in the upper RPM range. This 348-352 engine will work great in a street driven Z; but if you are looking for all out performance, it's hard to beat the bigger cube engines. Never ran an aluminum block on a street car, but would assume it would have better cooling vs. a cast iron bow tie or 400 block. Good luck with your combo.

Thanks grumpyvette for the advice. Passed this along to my buddy and told him to do more research on his own; as you noted, there are too many factors that could have caused his piston ring problems...

I second these comments form Pyro. The best solution for you would be to get an engine and trans mounting kit that would move set back the enging as far back to the firewall as possible. I started my SBCZ with a scarab kit and a 4 speed manual, and had to extend the shifer linkage and lengthen the mounting plate. Over the years, we continued to move the engine back, and now it is closer to the JTR position, maybe an inch or so forward. Am currently running a T-5 WC, and needed to modify the shifter in order to make the stick come out of the stock shifter position in the console. I think we had to offset the shifter less than an inch to do this; also everything fits extremely tight to keep the stock console and switches. If you keep your engine in the current position, a modified "s" shape shifter will not work with the T-5 as Pyro noted; the shifter angle will be too radical. If you go with the 4 speed manual swap, the longer linkage and mounting plate will work but you may run into clearance problems with the shifter against the tunnel. Use a Hurst super shifter or any other shifter that uses straight shifting arms, as this would be the most simple to modify. Good luck.

grumpyvette, Thanks for the reply. Here is what my buddy told me about the problem they are having: He said that 7 out of 8 cylinders had their rings stacked, and he could tell when that happened because the car would slow down. The engine has a .020 over bore. He is assuming that the power loss occurred slowly as each cylinder stacked one at a time.

grumpyvette, Can you share some insignt on what causes piston ring stacking; when the gaps in the 1st and 2nd piston rings line up in the bore. We see this usually starts after 100-150 1/4 mile passes. Believe the usual things that cause the ring gaps to stack is cylinder bore distortion, or detonation; however we still see this issue with SBC bow tie block using race gas; standard gap type piston rings; .043" Any advice will be much appreciated. Cheers

Thanks for the reply guys. Looking at using a stainless steel roller rocker arm with short polylocks, and Edelbrock stamped steel short valve covers. I think the Edelbrock valve covers have a little more clearance vs. the stock GM. I'm running a stock GM long style water pump, brackets and pulleys that were used on 1968 through 70's passenger cars, no power steering. My Hybridz is a 1976 280Z Coupe. I would not drive the car as much if it did not have A/C; so maybe some of you that have A/C with the compressor mounted on the driver side can post what model compressor and brackets you used. Cheers.

Grumpyvette, Thanks for the reply. Will probably go with the Comp Cams Pro Magnum roller rockers for generation 1 SBC, as they look like they will work with the short style polylocks. I got aftermarket steel valve covers, so hopfully I'm not going to run into the problem with having the locks hit the top of the covers.... I know exactly the problem you mention with the aluminum Corvette covers.

Had the same problem trying to get the circlips out of an LSD unit. Try using 2-3 small (.100" or less diameter) picks; start at center of the clip and put the picks between the spline and work your way towards the ends. Once you get a couple picks in place, you can slip a small flat head screwdriver between the clip and spline and eventually should be able to flip the clip 90 degrees and pull it out with a hook. Good luck.

Do you all know if there is an aftermarket roller rocker arm that will fit under low style early SBC valve covers. My issue is that I can't run the tall valve covers due to the A-6 A/C Compressor being mounted on the top left side of the engine; relocating this will not be an easy task... Thanks for any feedback. Cheers

AlwaysBroke, The JTR rear adapter yoke will work if you are using the stock Datsun front diff mounts. But if you have lowered the front of the diff for better driveline angles, etc., and have a big rear swaybar, you will run into clearance issues. You can lower the front swaybar mounts, or go to a rear mount swaybar setup; there is much information posted about this here. Also, if you got a rectangular style pinion flange yoke, make sure you mesaure the bolt pattern and center ID before ordering the flange from JTR. Good Luck

Zcarlover, You probably know this already but the BW Super T-10 went through a bunch of changes through the years. The experts say the best of the BW 4 speeds were from the late 70's; AKA: BW Super T-10 second design. These had a fine spline input shaft with an output shaft that used the yoke same as the Turbo 400 trans (same as the Muncie M22). These super T-10s were fairly strong and still very easy to powershift with a moderate HP SBC like you describe. There is a ton of information about this transmission on the net, and a bunch of guys that deal in parts or complete units. Search your local scrap yard for any 1976-1978 Camaro Z-28 4 speed manual , as they most likely would have come with this transmission. There are also a wide choice of gear ratios, as HarrisonTX notes he has a 3.42 first gear. If you are planning to install any Chevrolet 4 speed trans into your hybridz S30, you will need to modify the shifter bracket and extend the shifter linkage and stick if you want it to be in the stock location. Good Luck.

Hey All, I picked up this KAAZ unit and it DID fit perfectly into my 1976 S30 coupe with an R-200 longnose differential case. The unit had an open carrier with 29 spline stub axles and the stock u-joint half shafts. It was basically an R&R job. Something interesting is that this is the second LSD swap we have done on an S30 model Z; both being 1976 Coupes. The first one had the 10mm ring gear bolts which we put in a modified OBX helical unit; we did not use any bolt spacers, just followed proper torque specs and used loctite. The one we did yesterday had 12mm ring gear bolts, which as noted was a completely direct bolt in with the KAZZ unit. The KAAZ is a very nice unit, great workmanship and quality build; no need to do any modifications or swap in stronger parts etc. The 2 way LSD does have a high breakaway torque, so my suggestion is that if you drive on where the roads are wet or have ice/snow, you need to be light on the gas pedal. Here it is dry 90% of the year, so all I gotta worry about now is much faster wear on the rear tires. Cheers.

If you already have a GM transmission and the JTR diff flange adapter, you should not be using any Nissan U-joints. If you gotta use a Spicer 1310 size u-joint to fit the JTR adapter, I believe Spicer does make a 1350 to 1310 combo u-joint; PN 5-460X (don't quote me on the part number.). Good luck with your new driveshaft quest. Cheers

Mark Williams Corp. Top notch products, great to work with.

To any of you that have purchased the OBX LSD off ebay, did you get Part No. 10528. Please confirm that this diff will have the 29spline, 30mm gear that will work with our S30 axle shafts, and fit into our longnose R200 carrier. Cheers.