Phantom

Gary - you got it!

OK Gary - as long as I get to draft I'm willing to take it up to 160.

Which MSA springs? The lowering springs or the "euro" spec springs. THe euro's are Nissan springs and work great along with the KYB struts.

John, My LS1 is currently trying to exhale though a single 2.5" exhaust and it's like trying to breath thru a straw! Plan is to go to 3.5" exhaust and install Kumho Ecsta V700's. On 225/50-16's my best 60' has been 2.0 but that is on some rather hard Yokohama's. I hope the Kumho's will hook better and then the exhaust will help on the top end. I just want to get down in the 12.2-12.4 range so I have "same as Z06" bragging rights on a stock LS1.

Rick - good work on the mascot but probably should have some food drooling out of mouth instead of a cigarette - unless it's smoking to try to lose weight - NOT!! Keep it up guys - good ideas but just not the right one yet - don't give up. John - looks like our ET's are within .04sec and .14 mph of each other. It would be an interesting match except mines going to get heavier & faster. If it gets 'heavy' enough around here I may have to add some boost!

ZR8TED Whoops! You may hold the title! Mine is WITH the spare tire and about 1/2 tank of gas. Add the tire and about 4 gallons of gas at 6lb/gal and you've got me beat. The king is dead - long live the king!! On second thought - maybe not - I forgot about the roll bar and strut tower braces I've added for another 45 lbs. Time for a weigh off!?

Welcome to Bowtie land! Good choice on the LS1. I love mine. I'll second Gary on his comments although I went with the 3.70:1 R200 LSD. For guys with 240's there are a few things you need to do rather than just bolt up the R200. There was a very recent thread on it that you shoould be able to easily find in the drivetrain forum. That was what was nice about my 280Z. It was so set up already for the FI LS1 that not a lot of modifying had to be done.

OK - OK anyone who can catch Rick can make fun. The rest of you shut up and eat our dust!!!

I'm with you Rick. Let's see, now how can I pork it up a bit?

Speeder, Rick Bowers, has suggested having another club similar to JSR (Jack Stand Racing) for those of us with heavy cars. P-I-G. We'll probably have to do it by vehicle model. I think I currently hold the crown for the 280Z at 3,085 with driver. Rick is second at 2,950. Any other fatties out there that are willing to admit it? Anyone got a scale slip to dethrone me?

Tough decision. Old saying - you can do it the right way the first time - or you can do it again - and again .....

Mat73GNZ - excellent link on aerodynamics. Thanks. To date I have only gone 3,000 rpm in 6th - that's 120 mph but car had plenty left and still seemed stable at that speed. I will be out at Texas Motor Speedway on May 14th for a track day and hope to get it to 140 mph. All depends on the track, the car, and me. The car has the Motorsport Auto Aero II kit complete with the small spoiler on the rear. It also has the European spec springs (stiffer but not lower). Hood is vented and vents are wide open - no rain tray under them. Click link in signature for more specs on the car.

Take your original radiator to a radiator shop and have it recored to a four row. Will cool much better and will obviously fit. What are you running in the car? NA L28?, turbo?, V8?

The real problem with the open exhaust is that tracks now have sound ordinances and you can't run the car if it's too loud.

There is a zcar club in the Atlanta area. I don't know their web site but if you go to http://www.zcluboftexas.org and go to th elinks you can find them. You can also locate them using your web browser and "z car clubs". If you go to them they will have some decent cars for sale and probably some good leaads on others in the area. Good luck!

Sounds like neat stuff. I was considering using a spray-in bed liner to seal & sound deaden my 280Z. I figured that, if they can do it in Jeeps & other off-road vehicles that are always getting exposed to moisture and a lot of body abuse, it ought to work i the Z.

Interesting as to the small differences. My alternator just rubs the motor mount very lightly so it was installed with no trimming at all. Maybe there is a slight difference in the mounting points between my '98 LS1 and your '00 LS1? From what I have seen on these cars the fits are so tight that just the standard OEM manufacturing tolerances can cause some interesting opportunities to overcome.

Pop N Wood - LS1 has most recent GM technology which gives it the highest specific HP output per ci of any stock GM motor. It also has a slew of aftermarket parts now and the prices are coming down. This is a fun motor. It revs like crazy, actually improves your handling, and has boatloads of torque.

Click on my link and look at the way mine is set up. All straight hose but adequate room for gentle bends.

Joey, Wow! Sounds like you really got a deal there. I'm green with envy! JCI stuff should work very well for your car since mine also is a '77 and it was his development mule. Let me know if you encounter anything unusual and I'll do what I can.

Jeromio, You must be getting a good deal on gauges where you can get a speedometer/odometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, oil pressure gauge, voltmeter, and water temperature gauge along with any necessary senders for around $250. What kind are you using? Also, what have you done to replace the turn signal indicators that are on the stock speedometer? I guess since the cost is about the same I made the right decision for me though. I wanted to have a very OEM look and most of the gauge conversions I have seen have looked very "after market". I also didn't want the additional effort of identifying additional gauge locations, manufacturing the housing and then wiring them in to make up for the double OEM gauges. This is all opinon though and each person has to do what they prefer for their specific goals. It all depends on whether you're going for a fully custom look and wanting to change everything - Maichor is a great example there with his Vela Rossa configuration - or just a drivetrain swap which is what I went for - or something in between.

I am currently running 225/50-16's on 16x7 rims with 0 offset on all four corners. The car, however is not lowered. With what I have seen with my suspension members and fender wells you should be able to run those tires and wheels with the lowered suspension with a 25-30mm spacer. Split the difference at a 27-28mm and they should fit right in.

LS1Z - JCI kit was intended for you to reuse the senders from the original engine. In my car the Speedometer sender is mounted behind the kick panel on the drivers side where the Datsun ECM currently is in the 280Z models. Wrap it in some foamed tissue to sound deaden a bit and encourage a snug fit. I'm using the original T56 shifting mechanism and a shortened and mofified Datsun gearshift lever. It was "adjusted to put the shift knob right where I wanted it for my seating position, arm reach etc. Not sure about the tach as I have never even looked at the JTR manual. Depending on how much you've purchased from John he may do it for free or at a reduced price. At least with JCI it will be guarnteed to work. JCI headers - spent some time looking at those this week. These are very custom for use on the Gen 1 Z cars. The passenger side header ends about the level of the front frame rail which allows the starter to be accessed easily by just disconnecting the tail pipe at that point and lowering it a bit. John used a 3-bolt flange and used double-length brass nuts with lock washers to ensure easy removal at a future date. On the drivers side the header comes all the way down and the collector turns 90° aft to allow tailpipe to come straight into a properly positioned 2-bolt flange - again with the brass nuts. this was well thought through and will save some folks some fabrication headaches and exhaust pipe expense/work. I had the car in a shop in Irving, TX looking at the exhaust this week with the thought of going to a single 3.5" and they raved about the install on the engine.

Yeah - don't forget about Hans. His beautiful machine is making 800 HP!

MAS280 - Are you sure about not needing the oil pressure switch? That is tied into the ECM and is one of the things it monitors and will alarm you on through the engine warning light. I made sure it and the engine temp switch are functional on my system so I have a redundant idiot light in case my cabin gauges fail or I forget to look at them often enough. JCI sells an adapter that will take an input from the electronic output of a T56 or 4L60E and use it to control the speed on an electric motor that will drive your stock speedomenter & odometer. I believe, however, that some of the older 4L60E's can be set up with a mechanical output that would eliminate that. That is the way Lone Star 1 has his car set up. The 4 row Datsun radiator with the Camaro fans & shroud have handled 105° Texas weather with the AC on full bore on my car in stop 'n go traffic with the engine never exceeding 195°F. Can't really talk down that combination with that kind of proven performance.