Phantom

Actually I'm feeling more like the kid on his way to Grandma's house. I sent an email last week saying "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

So I'm taking a new fusible link holder to the shop last night and I drop it in the parking lot - breaking one of the mounting tabs off. Fortunately it looks like they'll be able to use the one I took along out of a 280ZX. Car was basically a pile of pieces. Engine in one corner of garage, transmission in another, rear sway bar out to be "kinked" to miss part of drive train, torque tube out to modify to provide clearance for reverse lock-out switch, new clutch in a box, clutch master cylinder out, fuel lines out, alternator & one header off the engine, tachometer in pieces on the seat, and a great big hole in the front of the car like it had for 8 of the last 9 1/2 months. It was depressing to see. Also encountered the typical problem of mating the Chevy fuel & hydraulic lines to the Datsun lines. The good news was that it is still on schedule to be on the street the week of May 5th.

LS1 plus new injectors, ECM edit, and procharger makes over 500 HP. Lets, see - $6,000 for another 200 HP. That's about $30/HP. Anybody know where there is a wrecked LS1 with the procharger already on it?

Give him a month or two and John's Cars will have motor mounts for the LS1 in 280Z's. The prototype units are in my '77 280Z now. They work in conjunction with the original Datsun mounts and they bolt in - no welding. They do not require rerouting of the steering gear arm or any suspension component. They also allow access to the heater connections and AC connections and will properly locate the shifter in a T56 or 4L60E.

I don't even have my LS1 Z yet and I was looking through a procharger catalog last night. This definitely is a disease.

Back to the insurance issue briefly. I just talked with my insurance company, USAA, and my premiums for full coverage will be $540/year. It's $712 on the '83ZX.

Don't know how much the insurance will be. I have it through USAA which has the best rates in the country so it probably won't be too bad. I think the fusible link assembly out of the ZX will probably work. It has survived for 20 years without disintegrating on my '83ZX. I think I'll also take a fusebox I have from an early 240Z along too in case that would be preferable.

Starting to get a bit excited here so here goes an interim post. Getting insurance, registration, and safety inspections in order. Engine should be cranking late next week with exhaust system going on the following week. Also having to get some new fusible link covers and bases. One of the bases is broken and, of course, the covers have rotted out - again. Has anyone ever tried using a fusible link assembly from the 280ZX? The 280Z has four links in two boxes. The ZX has five in one box and it has a cover with carbon black in it so it won't rot out. As of right now I should have the car on the road the week of May 5th.

You have to determine your budget. Then you have to answer a lot of questions like: Do I want an automatic or a standard? Do I want to go carburated or fuel injected? Do I want to install all new gauges or try to use the ones I currently have? How much HP & torque do I really want? Am I going to do all the work or hire much of it done? If you don't have the JTR manual - get one. It will give you a much clearer picture of what lies ahead.

Found a black '77 coupe at Jerry's that was manufactured within a month of mine. It was intact under the hood so took a bunch of pictures and emailed them off tonight. He also had several 2+2's in his yard. A couple 280Z's and a couple ZX's. Looked like a decent car could be made out of any of them.

Maichor, See email I sent you. Don't have the part numbers of the hoses. They are not universals.

I'm really glad I got a digital camera a few months ago. I encountered a bunch of questions last night as to where all the various portions of the Datsun wiring harness routes and what each connector was for. The good news is that I had already provided my Datsun Factory Service Manual that has lots of good sketchs/photos in it along with some decent wiring diagrams. Tonight I'm going by the All Z Car Specialist salvage yard and see if Jerry has a 77 in the yard that I can get a bunch of digital photos of to email to Johns Cars. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. We were looking at my '83Zx last night to see if anything on it was relevant. About the only thing I could use it for was to identify the location of the alternator wiring and where the original coil had been mounted. Not quite sure why we needed the coil location since the LS1 has a coil-on-plug configuration but at least they know. Amazing the number of things we found that had come loose or were falling off the ZX while we were looking at it. Spent time in the garage tightening stuff back up last night and still didn't get all of it.

Install still progressing well. Z radiator back from shop where it was converted to 4-row unit and installed. Stock Camaro Z-28 fans & shroud modified slightly and looks like it was made for the install. Beautiful fit. Permanent AC compressor mount installed and complete accessories with original Z-28 drive belt installed. Original LS1 vacuum hose for vacuum assist on brakes routed to Z booster and fits like it was made for it. Wiring harness starting to go back in. Upper and lower radiator hoses installed. Heater hoses routed. Took measurements to ensure shifter locates exactly where I need it to work with my seat position perfectly. It is really starting to look like the real thing!

Guys - that car is from Binghampton, NY. I lived up in that area for three years. That car is probably a total rust bucket. They salt the roads heavily each winter and it's difficult for anything that old - especially a rust prone Z - to escape the assault.

I opted for a used engine with only 3,400 miles. Discount for only 3,400 miles was too good to pass up.

I don't know. Even doing all the work yourself. Need to think about new radiator, cooling fan, motor mounts, transmission mount, exhaust, fuel pump & filter, adapting gauges, custom driveshaft, wiring harness, etc. Then, as brought up earlier, what about brakes & suspension improvements. An iron block SBC is going to load your front springs and, if they are original, your handling will be in the toilet. Even assuming you are able to find all your parts in a wrecking yard, I wouldn't start it unless I had at least $4,000. Too many surprises - like finding rust in a front member.

Pete, Right now it is designed to work with a T56 & '88ZX R200. Length is easily adjusted if the two major components remain the same. If either the tranny or diff are changed then all bets are off because then the mounting mechanisms at either end will require some amount of modification.

Pete: It is a very slick design. Two problems, though. I don't have any pictures of it as yet and I promised John that I would keep the design proprietary since I'd be messing with his bread 'n butter if I published photos. Once we've proven that it works (it hasn't gotten the lead foot test yet) he'll decide how he wants to proceed in relation to marketing it.

My install has a modified torque tube design between the transmission & differential that basically encases the driveshaft.

The ECM is back from the editor. The clutch has arrived. Worked out the cooling and will be using the Z28 fan assembly. AC compressor bracket is at fabricators. Motor & tranny to come out one last time (I hope) to final weld all the brackets, trim a few pieces of sheet metal, paint it all up, install the clutch, and then put it in for good. Target date is still the first week in May.

I'm actually in two clubs. One is the Cowtown Z Club n Fort Worth and the other is the Chariots of Light Christian Car Club. Chariots of Light Christian Motorcycle Club is hosting the big 3-day rally at TMS and the car club is tagging along with the car show that Saturday morning. If the car show is anything like the one we had last October there will be a lot of really sharp hot rods and classics as well as sports cars.

Thunder Over Texas is a huge motorcycle rally that occurs at Texas Motor Speedway each May. This year it is May 8, 9 & 10 and on Saturday the 10th it includes a car show from 9AM to 2 PM. I will be working the car show as a member of the club sponsoring it. also, that evening from 6-10PM. Texas Motor Speedway is having charity lap day which will allow anyone to run three laps on the speedway in their own vehicle for $25. For a few bucks more you can get your picture taken in the TMS winners circle with your car. John Radevich, owner of John's Cars, is a perfectionist and very creative. As a result I'm going to end up with a very nice conversion. It has, however, now been nine (9) months since it started. If it had been a Jag conversion it would probably have taken less than a month. The next Zcar conversion he does will probably only take a couple months since now all the difficult details have been worked out on mine - as long as you don't ask him to do a drivetrain conversion he hasn't done before - like I did.

Oops! You caught me! Should have said LS1.

The updates will be coming weekly now. I had quite a review with John at John's Cars this evening. The plan is still solid to have my 280Z ready for the Thunder Over Texas event on Saturday, May 10th, at Texas Motor Speedway. I will be running it that evening on the speedway if everything holds together. The accessory drive is now designed and the trial install complete. The alternator is low on the drivers side and the AC compressor is above it. It used the standard LS1 drive belt. I got a good look at the troques tube design for the transmission/differential mount. Sweet design. Jeromio - I yield some onthe shifter location. The T56 comes up probably 1/2" in front of the stock 5-spd. location. Also - I think I'll be OK on the dipstick and the strut tower brace but it sill interfere with the oile filler cap - just barely. I'm going to wait a while and, once it's all done, revisit the situation. I may still get the Top End one and just modify it a bit. Really busy in the transmission tunnel. Actually had to pound on one area about 4x2" to improve clearance a bit. Not a lot but it needed to be done. Again - a few of the earlier photos are posted in my personal album. Has anyone had to modify the front differential cross mount member or the rear sway bar in these installations? Mine have been just a little bit in the way and had to be "tweeked" a bit.

Looked over your photos. Nice install. Am I correct in that you've forgone having AC? It looks like you have an idler on the drivers side above your alternator. That is the same location where my AC compressor is mounted. Also looks like you used the stock exhaust manifolds? I know Lone Star 1 used them on his install. How did you work out the interference between them and and the steering arm? Keep it up! I'm now just 5 weeks from mine being fully operational.