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You deserve a Big Atta Boy. It is very heartening to see that someone has the courage to make these systems work together on their own. Cannot say enough good words about your work and the experience you will have gained by at least trying to make it work for you. Hope that you can sell the system to others and gain back some of your investment. Keep up the GOOD work.

Likely the turn signal switch needs to be repaired. Go to classicz Internet Site and go to the electrical section. There is a fellow in Washington state that repairs those switches. Make certain that the wiring has not been tampered with. Let us know how you make out.

How much Oil does the present oil pan hold? Just curious.

I used to own a 1994 Buick Roadmaster with a LT-1. At 100,000 miles it still passed emissions wherein they could not even detect any emissions. It got 24 MPG at 80 MPH on the road. The design of the LT-1 and LT-4 is far superior to any thing else. The reverse flow cooling with the cylinder heads getting cooled first then the block, is second to none in design. At 100,000 plus miles I replaced the Optispark distributor with a MSD unit, replaced the spark plugs and wires. Found out the real problem was the electric fuel pump wherein there was a DESIGN fault and bypassing fuel from the pump back into the tank right at the pump in the tank. Altered the design by putting a fixed hose and clamps between the pump and the outlet and the problem was GONE. Passed on the Car to our son and granddaughter and they are still driving it without problems. Cannot say enough praise for the LT-1. A 383 stroker LT-1 with AFR-195 cylinder heads and a more aggressive camshaft would be absolute DYNAMITE!

SUNNYZ: Thanks for the info. Its obvious the AFR heads, camshaft, FAST Intake and 90mm throttle body that really make the difference as the HP peaks around 6000 to 6500 RPM. Now let us see what the 1/4 mile times are with the 8.8 IRS and beefy half shafts and axles.

My thought are also with you and your son and I will pray for him. He and I discussed and came up with ideas for manufacturing stronger stub axles on the Datsun Z series vehicles. And I have them on my vehicle now.

If the Fidanza flywheel did not come with the dowel pins installed, try to obtain a second pressure plate and compare the two of them to see if they match up. If they do, take the pressure plate and flywheel back to the machine shop and have them bolt the two together and tweak the position of the pressure plate till the two are in balance and the pressure plate dowel holes are over undrilled portion of the flywheel. Lock down the bolts in the balanced condition and match drill the dowel pin holes into a small depth dictated by the 1/2 the length of the obtained STEEL dowel pins after sizing the dowel pin holes in the pressure plate then using a numbered drill about .002 to .005 inch smaller in diameter. Then mark the flywheel and pressure plate clocking to that it can be reassembled to the balanced configuration. Then remove the pressure plate, and drive in the dowel pins into the flywheel.

What non-stock components have been added to the engine besides Nitrous? What is the displacement?

Use fine thread bolts and clinched self locking nuts.

The Video is VERY good and effective marketing. What is omitted is the facts on the design. Aluminum has a habit of fatiguing and snapping into pieces. Steel or Stainless Steel is MUCH stronger and will last nearly indefinitely. I put stainless steel shaft rockers on my 383 stroker. Now it occurred to me that I don't know where the oil goes after coming up the pushrod. There is no oiling of the trunion nor the valve springs! I am getting rid of the shaft rockers and going to stud mounted roller rockers along with a stud girdle that have oiling to the rocker trunion and to the valve spring. If the valve spring oiling is insufficient, then I will fab a oil spray bar in the cylinder head. Spraying oil on the valve springs keeps them cooler and lasting longer.

It is fairly easy to stiffen up the rear portion of the unibody with round tubing and roll cage. It is going to take a lot more intelligent effort to stiffen the mid and front of the unibody. As far as SUNNYZs situation, a torque arm can be fabricated from the transmission to the rear differential to absorb some or most of the torque of the engine/trans combination and less to the integral frame rails.

Those appear to be the forward diff mount bolts which would put them under shear. Recommend going to fine thread grade 8 bolts and clinched self locking nuts and then torquing them to 50+ foot pounds of torque. Sent you a PM regarding the 8.8 conversion parts list. Need to know what part number bearings, outer half shaft CV joints/stub axle and hubs that fit onto the stub axles. Which shocks are used in the newer struts from TTT? Did you remove and throw away the 280Z mustache bar? Your pictures of the fabrication will really come in handy.

The Savana 3500 is a 3/4 or 1 ton Van. The L31 is the Gen 1+ Small Block Chevrolet (SBC) Vortec Engine. The Vortec heads are limited to .480" valve lift i.e. limited FLOW of air. The 4L80E is found mostly behind the Big Block Chevrolet (BBC). If you want 500+ HP, then purchase the Gen 1+ bare block from Summit Racing. This would save a lot of grief. Then purchase a Scat 9000 series 3.75 stroker crankshaft and 6.0 or 6.125 inch connecting rods. Then get SRP (JE pistons) Professional pistons (Flat Top) with 1.125 (for 6" rods) or 1.0 (for 6.125" rods) compression height. Then have the block final honed to fit the pistons (after purchase of them) and zero decked (top of piston level with block surface) or slightly .005" down from top of block. This will ensure good mixture squish. Don't mess around, get the good quality cylinder heads. Those are the Air Flow Research (AFR) cylinder heads. Order them with 72cc chambers and at least 195 or 200cc intake ports and angle plugs that are biased towards the exhaust valves. If you want the TOP NOTCH AFR cylinder heads, purchase the $2000+ competition heads. Then get 1.6 ratio roller rocker arms and compcams thick wall pushrods. Then get a good lift compcam camshaft. You can use either Hydraulic or Solid Roller Lifters. The latter will allow HONEST valve lift numbers and will tolerate a more aggressive lift camshaft. The AFR competition heads come with VERY good (stiff racing type) valve springs. Then purchase a rocker arm stud girdle to stiffen the rocker arm assembly. Then an intake manifold and carb or EFI. Lastly an Electronic Distributor with electronically adjustable vacuum and mechanical curves. Than you have an engine capable of 500+ HP and TQ.

I was just trying to save him some grief and extra work about changing engines from one type to another. I am also preparing a 383 SBC stroker, with all forged bottom end, with a T56 transmission for road racing. Found a baffled racing pan with 2 kickouts and 6 one way trap doors and will back it up with pressurized reservoir. Have run it on engine run-in stand and have not had a bit of trouble but I did all the assembly work so I know the level of quality parts and workmanship that went into it. In this day and age, trusting others to do quality workmanship when rebuilding an engine is not being realistic. Hopefully Mike will be able to get a true dry sump system on the LSx and hopefully has a good (low mileage?) LSx short block assembly to work with.

For the amount of money spent an a take-out LSx, installing same in place of the SBC, tuning the LSx PCM, modifying the PCM harness, changing the engine and trans mounting hardware and hassle, would be MONEY ahead to repair the 383 SBC stroker. For the money saved, an Electromotive EFI/Ignition system could be added. Then INFINITE tuning ability is available. If the weight of the SBC is an such a large issue, then purchase an Aluminum SBC block and build up from there.

It is going to cost LESS time and money to fix the 383 stroker himself. For quality of parts, quality of workmanship and displacement for displacement, there will be NO difference in longevity, HP and TQ between the 383 SBC stroker and the LSx. In order to get top performance and emissions out of the LSx you have to run a GM PCM. That will require a harness, PCM and software to tune the PCM. That will be a CONSIDERABLE chuck of money. I came real close to going that route with a 383 SBC stroker. I have the PCM, wiring harness and needed to purchase the software which would run about $800.00+. Then I discovered Electromotive. GM stole their technology from these folks just like they stole LT-1/LT-4 technology from others. For size/compactness and performance of the design engine design, the SBC is really hard to beat.

There is NOTHING wrong about having a 383 SBC stroker! Displacement for displacement the SBC will be equal in HP and TQ to the LSx. If the machine shop assembled the lower end, then they did something WRONG. Do a leak down test. NOT a compression test. With a leak down test it can be determined if it is truly piston rings or something else. Disassemble the thing yourself after locating the leak to see if they busted a ring at installation or did something else wrong. If they busted a ring or rings and the cylinders are not scored and still have the honing cross-hatch new rings and maybe a piston or two can be installed after checking weights of pistons coming out against what is going in. Use that powder from Total Seal to assist new ring seating. Only one way to make certain that is done right and that is to do it yourself.

Suggest a cylinder leak down test. Need to get at the root cause. May not need to apply a bandaid.

There must be too much oil slinging or piston rings installed upside down.

There is some aspect WRONG in the engine rebuild project. There should not be that much pressure in the crankcase. Unless the oil is being slung from the crank up the dipstick. I assembled a high performance 383 stroker and do not have that problem. Used a big block high cap oil pump and racing pan with kickouts both sides in my build. Have run it on a run in stand, with EFI, and had no problems. The EFI is not near a final tune but the engine ran fine on the run-in stand with it.

It would be GREAT if someone came up with modular retrofit harnesses. Wherein options in configuration and supply of compatible components would be supplied based on a questions posed to the customer performing the rewiring. I eliminated the headlight/Wiper stalk on the right side of the steering wheel. Purchased Painless wiring headlight and wiper switches to replace that stalk. Incorporated 10 relays for EFI, hazard lights, 2 speed radiator fan, high/low beam headlight switching and accessory buss switching all in and on one box. Still not done but not in a big hurry.

If you are in any way serious about rewiring, I recommend that you purchase the following tools IMMEDIATELY from Ebay: Item number:251095090154 Item number:400441203422 Item number:151045133190 Item number:271200073580

Sure would be nice to get that summary of a parts list you used.

By the way, for a LSx engine a PCM that can be modified is the xxxx0411 unit. Craig Moates can modify it for on the run tuning.

You were correct before about the wiring. This is the most difficult task of the conversion. This being the case, recommend that the conversion be kept simple and use a Generation 1 Small Block Chevrolet engine with a carb. Start from the bottom up with a Summit Racing bare SBC block already machined. Once EFI is involved, things get much more complex. Need to know what year and model Datsun you are converting. I am presently in the process of completely rewiring a 1971 240Z with a 20 circuit harness from EZwiring. I have Electromotive EFI and harness for same on a 383 stroked SBC. Incorporated many relays to handle the heavy current loads in the electrical system.