Mikey303LSZ

Nice work! Keep the photos coming. A turbo will be my next upgrade.

Looks great! Keep the photos coming.

Regarding testing brakes... I would if I could but the whole system is worn out so I'm going to replace it all at one time. All parts I'm buying are OEM (except for the master cyclinder) so all parts are easily replaced at any parts store. Toyota 4X4 calipers, 300ZX rotors etc...

We're serious... Got the green light at work and my wife. One of my buddies is coming over after work so we can make hotel reservations this Wed. night. Just not sure which car I'll be taking. I hope to have the Datsun ready - I'm trying hard to have it road worthy by June. The LS1 is in - but haven't fired it yet. I'll need a few weeks to shake out the bugs.

It was ~$130ish with a lifetime warranty (the receipt is in my truck as a reminder to pick it up in a few days so I don't have the exact figure). I asked for a replacement booster from a 1976 280z (my car is a '73 240). The options were an 8" (or maybe 8.5"?) and the 10". I ordered the 10". I suspect I will have to re-drill the firewall mounting holes. My dash is out so it makes that task easier. I have a 4L60E trans so I don't have to worry about clutch MC interference. Today I'm going to place an order with Silver Mine Motors for the front brake kit. I figure I'll go with the 1" Wilwood MC and a prop. valve for fine bias tuning. I was thinking of pulling the trigger on the Silver Mine Motors rear disk kit too but need to get my coil overs, struts, camber plates ordered so I think I'll sink the $ into the suspension for now. I can always do rear brakes later.

Amen RebekahsZ... Variety is the spice of life. It's nice to see everyone's different work. Gives us all a large pool of information to draw from for ideas, suggestions and help. The car show analogy got me thinking... Wouldn't it be cool if we really did get together for a car show or a simple get together? Maybe one of these years we could all try to do part of the Hot Rod PowerTour in June? This year the venues look like this - * Saturday June 1: Arlington, TX, * Sunday June 2: Texarkana, AR, * Monday June 3: Little Rock, AR, * Tuesday June 4: Memphis, TN, * Wednesday June 5: Birmingham (Hoover), AL, * Thursday June 6: Chattanooga, TN, * Friday June 7: Charlotte, NC. Read more: http://www.hotrod.com/powertour/hrdp_1206w_2013_power_tour_dates_cities/#ixzz2No93jKDC I've gone 6 times now and it's a blast. I've never driven the Datsun (I've had it <2 years). All cars are welcome. With an LS motor installed, our Zs will be even more welcome (especially @ the 1/4 mile track and autocross events)!

I went to Advanced Auto Parts today and pulled the trigger on a 280z 10" booster. Special order - should arrive on 3/20/13...

John's Cars in Dallas, TX sells a pre-formed lower radiator hose for the LS conversion. I bought it but did not install it yet. Be careful to measure the OD of the water neck (thermostat housing outlet) and the lower radiator fitting to ensure they are the same (mine were not). I bought an aluminum radiator with the original 240z fitting size (small OD). As a result of my mistake I bought a hose reducer adapter from Jaguars that Run http://www.jagsthatrun.com/Datsun_Order.html to work through the error. In hind-sight I should have bought a different radiator... Sounds like the the Jeg's straight out option might be the cleanest way to do it depending on the radiator setup. Hope this helps.

Domzs - Did you try the 10" booster yet? What year and model vehicle 10" booster did you buy or were you considering? The brakes on my '73 are completely stock and original (40 years old) and everything is pretty worn out. Instead of replacing with factory 240 replacements I was going to move forward with the Silver Mine Motors stage 4 front brake kit, Wilwood 1" MC, and perhaps a larger booster (stock unit is 8"). I'm looking for input on a 10" booster unit (just like you in your original post). Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks - Mike

Explain the hard start condition - I would be interested in hearing what's going on. Slow rotation of starter after x days? Extended crank duration prior to start-up etc.?

Thanks for the quick response! What camber plates did you use? If you could do it again would you use the same plates? Coil-overs are on the list of things to do in 1-2 months.

Cool story... Thanks for the photos. RebekahsZ... I love the way your car sits. What size rims do you have? What size and brand street tires are you running in the photos above? How low did you drop the car? I would love to get my stance looking like yours... Thanks in advance for the help.

The stock LS motors have injector retaining clips. Try Googling "LS fuel injector retaining clip" and look at the images for an example. Good luck...

Meaty... I would love to have a run down on your car if you are willing to share. Cam, trans, converter, gears, weight and any other mods. Thanks! Mike

FWIW... Stock injectors and stock fuel rails have injector retaining clips to prevent the injectors from popping off...

Ditto! I was in the Dallas area 3 months ago and stopped in his shop to meet him. John is a great guy, genuinly interested in helping people build cool cars. He will stand by the parts/products he sells and will ensure he does what it takes to make things right. I used many of his LS1 240z parts with great success!

Regarding o-rings... There are two o-rings per injector. The lower one has nothing to do with a fuel leak issue. The upper one (interface between the injector and fuel rail) could be leaking but if they were you most likely would see/detect/smell a fuel leak at the top of the injector (without removing anything). I got thinking... an OEM/factory fuel injection setup will have a check valve located in the system (typically located in the in-tank fuel pump). This is done to maintain system pressure to ensure quick start-up w/o excessive key-on prime delay. Depending on your fuel pump/regulator selection your system may not hold pressure therefore the OEM/stock way of monitoring pressure at key off (as mentioned above) may not be valid for your vehicle. In other words... Try pulling the injectors out of the intake manifold (as mentioned in the post above) to determine if any of the injectors are leaking. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Another way to check for leaky injectors is to perform a leak down test by installing a fuel pressure gage onto the schrader valve located at the front of the LH fuel rail (assuming stock fuel rail). Turn the key on to build pressure (values that come to mind are ~50-60lbs) then turn the key off. The owners manual has a spec. for the pressure and duration the system should hold pressure/bleed down. If it bleeds down quick additional diagnostics would be required to determine where the leak is coming from (fuel lines, check valve, regulator, injector etc.). Pressure will slowly bleed down when everything is ok, but it takes anywhere from an hour to 3 or 4 hours to do so. If after 15 or 30 minutes all your pressure has bleed off you have a problem. A leaky injector should/could throw a code that could be read from the PCM (one bank or perhaps both running rich). You can also check for leaking injectors by unbolting the fuel rail and pulling the rail with injectors out of the intake so you can see the ends of the injectors. Do a key on prime and watch for injectors that are leaking fuel . If they don't leak within a few minutes, check every 10 minutes or so for about and hour to make sure. Also have a fuel pressure gage on the schrader valve to see how fast pressure is bleeding down. Good luck...

RebekahsZ - Thanks for the photos. Simple, low cost, strong... That's what I'm looking for.

It appears the lowest part of my car is the LS1 oil pan. I'm curious what others have done in terms of protecting the pan with a guard etc... I have a few ideas and before I start I wanted to see what others have done. I could probably find a different pan to improve clearance but I'm really looking to do this w/o messing with the pan etc. Thanks - Mike

I can't speak for EFI Live but... I bought HP Tuners a year ago and the program comes w/ enough credit to plug into 3 or 4 GM vehicles (perhaps less for something other than GM). Once credit is applied to a vehicle you have unlimited access to the vehicle. There are tons of pre-made HP Tunes on the HP Tuners board (run at your own risk). I've been super happy with the program and it saved my brother in-law $150 the price of tuning at a local dyno shop when using my HP Tuners "Dongle" and passcode. The data logging feature is really nice and makes it easy to troubleshoot problems that occur during drivabilty and WOT runs. I'm also using it on my Datsun to disable the rear O2s, the VATS etc. and tune/dial-in the motor/auto-trans. If someone didn't want to drop the $650 for unlimited access to multiple cars I would suggest going to a local tuner and paying them to troubleshoot/repair the issue (this route might cost $250 to $500).

I mounted the PCM and fuse/relay box under the dash on the RH side. I have a photo under my username in my gallery (the second photo).

EvilC - My parts list looks exactly like yours listed above. This is where I'm at with the A/C install... * Bought - * Vintage Air GenII Mini * JCI compressor, mounting brackets * Vingage air 4 knob controller * Vintage air 4 way firewall bulkhead * Installed - * GenII Mini - made custom brackets similar to Litman * JCI compressor and mounting brackets - they fit great (needed to dust off a few interference points at the water pump but no big deal) * Need to buy this week - * Vintage Air Condenser * Vintage air hose kit * Hose crimp kit Not sure how I'm going to like the appearace of the 4 knob controller so I bought another used vent control panel to play around with if I want to go back to a stock appearance. I modified my own LS F body harness for my project and removed the A/C circuits as well. My understanding is... 1) No idle increase (not that big of a deal because I think the computer will compenstate the RPM to hit the target value regardless of the reason for the decrease/load) 2) Turn the fan on when the A/C is turned on or when the A/C pressure switch requires incremental fan adjustment (regardless of engine coolant temperature) I may add the A/C circuits back to the harness to address #2 for better A/C performance.