Phantom

My tank is 17 gallons. They went to 20 gallons with the 280ZX in the US. BTW - the 280Zx I have weighs 1,430 lb on the nose and 1,450 lb on the tail. Both my cars (280Z and 280ZX) are coupes.

Dan, It seems that I am no longer getting notified at my email address that I have a PM or that there has been a reply to a thread I have posted on. Is this a temporary thing with the site or is it me?

Unbolt T4 and bolt in T5. Get a T5 from an 81-83 ZX. Those are the years for the best ratios.

Hit the "edit" button and when the screen comes up look at the bottom. The last "Options" will be to "delete this post". You may have to turn off some of the other options to get it to work but work it does.

I guess he just likes to see his car in a magazine. I was talking to a guy yesterday with a '84 Z31 with only 48,000 miles on it. Beautiful car inside and out and he wanted $8,500 for it. Told him it wasn't worth over 5k to me. He told me he had local dealerships that would give him 8k for it as a showroom queen. told him to go for it - also pointed him toward a '84 Turbo Z31 on ebay with 46,000 miles that had its reserve met at 4k. Told him he should buy that one too and sell it to a dealership for 8k.

I weighed my '77 280Z on a an axle scale when it had the friberglass ground effects kit onit. It weighed 1400 lbs on each end with 3/4 tank of gas. No power steering, no electric windows, no cruise - just the L28 and a 5-spd.

I finally gave up last night and assaulted the rear fender wells on my car. I'm now on my second set of tires that rub the inside of them and I need it to stop. I have a decent Makita hand grinder and several grinding wheels I got for free from work. After grinding for a couple minutes - safety glasses, long-sleeved shirt and leather gloves in place - I stopped to look at my progress and basically there wasn't much. That was when I took a hard look at my grinding wheel. Holy carrot sticks Batman! The wheel was a masonry wheel with a max rpm of 8,750 rpm and I was using it on metal with a 10,000 rpm grinder! Fortunately nothing detonated before I wised up. Quick run to the local True Value hardware yielded a 4" diameter, 15,000 rpm rated metal cutting wheel, and I was in business. Almost cut enough away but not quite. Need to trim a little more tonight and I should be OK - It only took about 1/8" of material to cure the problem but I just didn't remove it far enough around the fender well.

The most common ratios were 3.36, 3.54 & 3.90 with a 3.70 LSD being the hardest to find. The 3.90 with the 81-83 5-spd. gives the best all round performance. If you are going for flat out accelleration with OK highway speed rpms then opt for the 76-79 5-spd. It has higher numerical gearing in 1st, 2nd & 5th with 3rd & 4th being the same as the 81-83 T5. It wil get yo off the line a bit faster but with a .86:1 OD 5th the engine will be a bit busier at highway speeds than the .745:1 OD 81-83 T5.

Click on the link below my signature and see if the car shape is the same as yours. If it is then you do have the 280Z body style vs. the Zx. Then go back up and read what I said in my previous post about why the 280Z is heavier than the 240Z. An adder to that - Nissan changed the basic body mid year 1974 during the production of the 260Z. The early model 260Z had 240Z type construction and the late model 260Z had 280Z style construction. the biggest obvious difference in the US 280Z vs the US 240Z is the big chrome plated crash bumpers front and rear. I removed them from my car and replaced them with a fiberglass ground-effects kit that shortened the car oveall by nearly 8".

Be careful in your Octane rating comparisons. The US octane ratings are an average of the research and measured R+M/2=93. We used to go off Research octane only and that is how the old leaded fuels were able to attain 100+ octane ratings easily.

How about a red car with a white racing stripe? Does that count as two-tone?

The MSA kit that used a bracket to mount to the window frame used a mid-late 80's Sentra mirror. I sketched up the bracket years ago but have never done anything with it. I think the kit, including new mirrors, was about $130 when I bought it. I would think someone could scrounge the mirrors from a salvage yard and make the plates themselves for about $50-60?

Motorsport Auto (800) 633-6331 also carries one similar to that but not quite as tall. It mounts from underneath so there are no exposed fittings.

Leaving the LS1 fuel rail in the "stock" position allows bringing the fuel lines up the firewall on the passenger side and then over. The advantage to this is two-fold: 1) It gets the fuel lines away from the headers/exhaust which is a very tight fit on the passenger side, and 2) It allows mounting the fuel filter on the firewall high on the passenger side where it is really easy to get to and will have minimal fuel leakage when changing.

Are we talking a 280Z or a 280ZX? I thought in '79 Nissan went to the 280Zx which is a totally different body than the 240Z. The 280Z is heavier than the 240 because of larger fuel tank, fuel injection system, and beefier sub-frame connectors and floor pans with the last being the biggest contributor. The 280Zx is just plain a totally different body and weighs in about 40 kg heavier than the 280Z. The US versions, though, have power steering, power windows, cruise control, bigger, heavier seats, & T-tops. Those can easily add the extra weight over the 280Z.

Totally depends on what you are doing with the rest of the car. Going +1, +2 or +3 on the wheels and tires has no effect on your gearing, speedometer wise, if it is done right because the rolling diameter of the tire remains essentially the same. It will have an affect on your braking and accelleration depending on the wheel-tire combination and it's inertia vs stock. I've had 3.54, 3.90 and now 3.70 R200's. The differential changes had nothing to do with going +2 on wheels & tires but everthing to do with changes in the rest of the drive train. My rear brakes are stock and the front have the Toyota 4x4 upgrade. For daily driving they are plenty adequate. I expect I'll notice a lot of fade in them when I start working them hard at Texas Motor SPeedway this Friday.

Don't blame you one bit. You've been waiting a long time for this. Going to have it together in time for the club meeting this week?

Touch the starter and he starts, clutch goes in easily and smoothly and transmission with stock shifter notches into gear. Start off in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th - pretty much whatever gear I'm in the mood for and how much shifting I want to do. 2nd, 3rd, 5th or maybe 1st, 4th, 6th - possibly WHOOHOO! 1-2-3-4-5-6!!! ride is pretty decent, wind in the face is nice with the left harm on the window ledge, left hand guiding the steering wheel and right hand resting lightly on the shifter that was custom located for my seating position and arm reach. Stereo is playing my favorite tunes (Son's christian rock 'n roll band) and suddenly the road and my concerns from work are both winding down behind me. Whoops - is that an '03 cobra up there?!?! Time to downshift. Yes the car is a joy to drive around town and very short road trips that are entertainingly crooked. It is not a lot of fun on long Interstate runs as I have not yet figured out a cruise control system.

That probably best describes my LS1 conversion. The fact thtat I want the car to be my daily driver has forced me to make a bunch of compromises. Many of them after months and even years of research and agonizing. Examples: Fuel System: I kept the stock tank so I could keep the stock level sender and simplify the installation and repair parts. Gauges: I kept all the stock gauges so i wouldn't have to find a place to mount the gauges that would no longer fit in th estock locations because of no longer having "split" gauges (or just eliminating a couple) or having to develop new turn signal indicators. Exhaust: The primaries and collectors are the size they are to reduce other modifications that would have been required to fit in larger ones. The exhaust combines into a single 2 1/2" because the stock gas tank precludes duals and maintaining a driveable ground clearance eliminates larger a diameter pipe. (Dr. Gas may et me past this one) Tires: I just decided to buy some 215/55-16's going away from some much higher performance 225/50-16's because of camber and toe problems the car currently has and also to eliminate the fender well rub problem I have in the rear with 225's. In a few years when I repaint the car I'll have the fenders pulled out a bit and go to either 225's or 235's. Wheels: I'm at 16". 15" would be better for getting good sidewall flex fro drag racing but then I'd have too much for hard cornering. 17 or 18" would look better and the real low profiles would really help with cornering but would be detrimental under heavy accelleration and definitely not much good pounding across the two sets of railroad tracks I cross twice daily. Ride height: I've kept it stock. I've got enough problem with the 2 1/2" exhaust clearing speed bumps and driveway break-overs without lowering the car. Roll bar: Not a roll cage. The bar stiffens the chassis in my 280 enough and it's not obtrusive like a cage would be. I still get in and out with no controtion and can actually put some groceries in the back. Seats - Stock but leather covered. Look nice and sit pretty nice. Not as sweet as many of the aftermarket seats but easy to get in and out of multiple times a day. Seat belts: stock rather than 4, 5 or 6 pt. They are a hassle and since I'm not racing every weekend I would end up not wearing them properly most of the time. Air COnditioning: I have it. This is Texas. It's no fun driving the car to work and ariving sweaty. Give up some performance for comfort. Stereo system: I have a decent one and someday it will be even nicer. Brakes: Toyota 4x4 upgrade on front and drums on the rear. Will lock all four tires up from 80 mph and down - the first time. Cna't really justify $2K in brake upgrades when they won't stop me any faster the one time I need them on the road. If I raced all the time it would be different. And the list goes on.

Add my "Congratulations!" to the list. Always good to see another Hybrid on Zcar.com and it even got good reviews by the website patrons that commented on it - even better!!

OK - Knowledge is power - someone once said. At this point it appears to lead to a feeling of helplessness. I think the plan will be to start running some Kuho Ecsta 712's and just not worry about the alignment issues that much. I do note that the Nissan specs for the 280Z call for positive toe which, combined with the larger tires, I would think would cause an increase in scrubbing on the front tires. But then, they are compromise set-ups for what my car primarily is - a daily driver.

So now comes my conundrum. Everyone seems to think the numbers really aren't that bad but, in 7,000 miles I've taken the inside edge off all four tires (rotated them once in there). 1/32-1/16 tread on insdie and at least 3/16 on the outside & center. Since the car "squats" when power is applied - and a lot more gets applied now than before" the car will naturally go to a negative camber in the rear every time I accellerate onto the highway, down the street, into my driveway, etc. ???

OK - I just got the actual alignment numbers. Here they are. ............................Camber------Caster--------Toe Front Range____0.3 to 1.8__2.1 to 3.4___00 to .13 Left Actual_______-0.6_______2.9________0.08 Right Actual______+0.2______3.3________0.05 Rear Range__-0.01 to +1.5_________-0.22 to +0.22 Left Actual______-1.0________________-0.27 Right Actual_____-0.7________________+0.41 I think just shifting the front cross member will correct the front camber problem. The rear is a problem though as the bottom needs to come toward the center on both sides and the toe needs to go out on one and in on the other. Wouldn't adjustable control arms be the answer for the rear? I really don't want to slot the upper mounts for camber because it will screw up my strut tower mounts too. Besides, that won't fix the toe problem. I need a fix that addresses the specific problems and cures them without creating others. In other words, I want the right fix even knowing it won't be the least expensive. You guys are the best - point me in the right direction.

Thanks Tim. Any suggestions for the rear?

Put the car in the shop this morning and toe and camber is out everywhere - front and rear. Got the toe adjusted properly in the front but camber is still -.6 left and +.2 right. The rear camber is -1 left and positive 1.5 right. Toe is +.4 left and -.3 right. Looks like I need some adjustable control arms in the rear for sure and possibly in the front. Suggestions?