Phantom

It's been in Car & Driver and in Motor Trend. The Holden Monaro will be brought into the US as the new Pontiac GTO in 2004. It will only have the LS-1 5.7L V-8. The supercharged 3.8 V-6 will only be sold in Australia. The car will also be available with either the 4L60E automatic or the T-56. The write-ups I've seen on the car indicate it will be pretty sweet. The LS-1 will basically be in Camaro form with about 305 HP. Typical 1st year introduction stuff so that GM can sell future years with more HP, etc.

John's Cars in Dallas, www.johnscars.com, sells components to convert the 280ZX to an SBC. I took a quick look at a very old conversion last night and it looked pretty straight forward - used the stock Nissan motor mount towers, etc. The distributor sat about 2" in front of the fire wall so it's not as far back as some people like but it didn't screw the interior up.

Did a quick test last night. With LS-1 & tranny sitting in the car I leaned on the radiator support. My full weight of 220 lbs sank the nose about another 1/2". That puts it to right where it was with the original L28 stuff. The water, accessories, etc. that have yet to be added won't add up to my weight so it appears at this point the new combination puts less load on the front suspension than the original. Once it's all done I'll axle the car and find out for real.

Made huge progress on the conversion today. Lone Star 1 came by the shop and gaves us the opportunity to thoroughly crawl his car and see what he has done. It is one sweet conversion. He was able to keep the stock Datsun motor mounts and use them for one end of the LS-1 mounts. He used the stock LS-1 exhaust manifods and routed the exhaust down both sides to the back of the transmission to a 'y' collector and then out the stock exit spot. Missed his oil filter, starter, etc. Kept his air-conditioning functional and kept all the stock Datsun gauges except the tach. Everything was nicely done and well thought out. He has a very creative external fuel pump,filter, pressure regulator set-up that evidently works very well. He's set a real standard for LS-1 conversions. I only hope mine turns out as well. Thanks Lone!

My plan is to mount a CO2 powered BB gun behind the grill and just plink a few "dings" into rear fascias and tail lights of offending vehicle whenever they crowd in in front of me. Will make me feel much better and the "moron" will never know what happened thereby avoiding the possiblity of road rage on either parties part.

Know what you mean. My first new car was a '70 340 'Cuda. I used to eat everything on the road up to 400 ci except for Z-28's. They always had higher numerical rear ends than me and I wouldn't catch them until around 105-110.

MSA is www.zcarparts.com. There is a 280ZX sitting in the yard next to the garage at John's Cars in Dallas with a chevy V-8 in it. It is an old conversin, very nasty looking now as it hasn't run in years, but I'll take a look at it when I'm over there tomorrow evening and see if I can see anything worthwhile. You might consider contacting him for just the motor and transmission mounts and then go from there.

When I was geting my new 16" Center Line wheels and tires at Discount Tire the hydraulics on the lift failed and the car dropped about 2'. Both front ball joints left divots in the concrete floor. It was not a good feeling to come walking up to the bay where my car was to see a crowd standing around it and it flat on the ground with no wheels. Discount made it right. I went to a buddy who is a Z-car specialist, he replaced both the ball joints and the tie-rod ends, and discount reimbursed me for it. the car needed new ones anyway so I couldn't get too upset about opportunity dropping into my lap - or onto the concrete.

To translate a litlle further - If you have that R200 and that 4-spd or 5-spd then, in first gear, for every 1,000 rpm your engine turns, your tires will turn about 85 rpm. That equates to about 6.5 mph so at 6,000 rpm in first your car would be going about 39 mph.

The differential is 3.545:1, First gear is 3.321:1

1975 L28's were a bit weak but I think starting with the 1976's they were rated at 170 HP gross HP - I know my '77 was - which would put them at about 135 RWHP. I think some of the 280ZX's even were a little higher unless it was a turbo model not operating under boost.

Cyrus - are you talking about fuel lines or other? The fuel lines would have to be custom made to come from the stock Z tank to an external fuel pump in the standard Z location, through a fuel filter to a bypass fuel regulator - position to be determined. From the regulator the supply fuel line would continue to the fuel rail on the LS-1 and the bypass line would connect to the Z tank return line. I've gotten on LS1tech.com and asked for recommendations for external pumps & regulators. The Aeromotive model 1000 pump has come up a couple times along with an Aeromotive or Paxton fuel presure regulator. Using the fuel injected 280Z tank allows using the the Z fuel level sender and stock gauge in the dash. The water temperature and oil pressure are fairly straight forward. Need to install an adapter at or near where the Chevy picks up its respective information and install redundant Datsun senders. That way the original Datsun engine temp and oil pressure gauges work off their senders and the Chevy ECM also gets the information it needs. I don't have details on it yet but someone makes a "translator" that takes the electronic signal from the T-56 and converts it to a mechanical output drive for the stock Datsun speedometer/odometer. It costs about $400 but that is not really any more than buying new gauges. The tachometer is a straight forward "tuning" to adjust it to V-8 from 6. This way I get to stay with all the stock Datsun gauges, I don't have to mess with my dash, I don't have to worry about different spans, fitting aftermarket gauges and how they'll look, etc. Basically, the car will look completely stock inside the drivers compartment and the chevy stuff is kept pretty cleanly separated from the Datsun stuff. The only "custom" parts would be the fuel lines, the speedo translator, the fuel pump, and the fuel pressure regulator. Everything else would either be stock Chevy or Datsun.

Thanks Jared. Name of club is Chariots of Light Christian Car Club and it is going national like the similarly named Biker Club sponsored by Kenneth Copeland, Jerry Savelle & Jesse Duplantis. They are enroling members now and the first official activity will occur at the 2nd anniversary celebration of Jerry Savelle's church, Heritage of Faith, in Crowley, Texas. Stay tuned, you'll eventually hear about them. Had a guy up in Michigan donate a car to the club - fully hand finished '72 Nova with a supercharged 454 in it. Car has won numerous awards for fit & finish, etc. Also have so far a 57 'Vette, '57 Belair convertible, '61 Vette, 2000 ' Vette convertible, two 2002 Z06's, and, eventually, my Z28 powered '77 280Z. There are many more joining up but I haven't had a chance to meet them and their drives yet.

OK - let's split hairs - the actual R200 gearing is 3.545:1. The gearing on the other 4-spds is for the earlier 240 & 260 models that used the R180 diff's. The manual transmissioned 280Z Coupes (75-78)sold in the US all used 3.545:1 R200's and used the 4-spd. I mentioned above and then, starting in '77, you could get the 5-spd. I mentioned above. The automatic transmissioned versions had the 3.36:1 and the 2+2's I'm not sure about. I don't have my manual in front of me this morning to confirm them. Haynes and Nissan FSM both agree on this.

Clever. They'd all have primered ground effects on them in the DFW area though - and the cars would be a few years older and definitely uglier.

Questions: 1) How much more do the cast iron stock exhaust manifolds weigh than headers? 2) Why did Chevy use cast iron on the Corvette Z06 LS-6 enginer rather than headers? Just trying to figure out why the OEMs always go with cast iron when the aftermarket seems to go for mandrel bent tubular steel headers.

So wouldn't it be easier to use a fuel injected Datsun 280Z tank with a compatible sender with an external pump & pressure regulator, install secondary pick-up points on the LS-1 for the water & oil pressure and buy the converters for the speedo, odo & tach? That way you wouldn't have to touch the dash or original gauges and all the components would probably not cost more than about $700 - and take a lot less work.

So wouldn't it be easier to use a fuel injected Datsun 280Z tank with a compatible sender with an external pump & pressure regulator, install secondary pick-up points on the LT-1 for the water & oil pressure and buy the converters for the speedo, odo & tach? That way you wouldn't have to touch the dash or original gauges and all the components would probably not cost more than about $700 - and take a lot less work.

So wouldn't it be easier to use a fuel injected Datsun 280Z tank with a compatible sender with an external pump & sender, install secondary pick-up points on the LT-1 for the water & oil pressure and buy the converters for the speedo, odo & tach? That way you wouldn't have to touch the dash or original gauges and all the components would probably not cost more than about $700 - and take a lot less work.

1st - 3.321:1 2nd - 2.077:1 3rd - 1.308:1 4th - 1.000:1 Reverse - 3.382:1 Amazing what you can find in a Haynes manual.

Not sure where this should really be posted. For those of you that are using the Chevy fuel tank, in-tank pump, etc. on your V-8 conversions - what are you doing for a gas gauge? Is the Datsun gauge compatible somehow with the GM sender? Is there a translator?

Cyrus, Check with Motorsport Auto out in Orange, CA - (800) 633-6331. They have all the stock components plus several non-stock upgrade items. I redid my '77 with KYB struts (get them from anyone), urethane bushings, and the European spec. springs from Nissan. They are 1/4" lower than original but 15-17% stiffer. When the LS-1 was put in my Z the nose basically settled back to its original position so the euro springs should handle your fine - unless you want to lower the car.

The manual trans. 1977 280Z came with a 3.54:1 R200. Gearing in the transmissions are identical for the 4-spd and the 5-spd. except, of course, 5th which is .86:1. 4th is obviously 1:1 in both but I don't remember the other three. Go to zcar.com and get into their links section. They will be able to get you to an area where you can find the numbers you're looking for.

Oh yes - and on the 23rd of this month they are having a street car night at Ennis dragstrip - only $15 to enter - and my car isn't ready. Embrace the "team building crap". You're being watched and evaluated. Your responses to the orientation will affect your immediate future. I've been onthe other side. Play the game and you'll come out ahead.

The 4.7L Dodge motor is the same engine that has been used in the Jeep Grand Cherokee since 1999. There are two versions. The standard has 235 HP and the HO has 275-280 HP. Neither is a Hemi but rather a takeoff on the 3.5L V-6. The 5.7L Hemi is its own engine and is being introduced in 2003 in the Dodge trucks. I'm sure the Jeep folks will be clamoring for it as soom as it comes out as it is rated at 357 HP in automotive configuration - lower, 345 HP, for trucks but with lots of torque.