Phantom

I can tell you for certain that there was no thoughts about a turbocharged LS motor when the JCI stuff was designed. I worked with John back in 2003/4 to develop the components and the general guidelines were an easily maintainable engine position with OEM reliability. I had to twist his arm to go T56 rather than 4L60E. Thats one of the reason his header primaries are only 1.5". Things have come a long way since then as far as what is available to go into the cars. Actually - I'm waiting for someone to put a 640 HP supercharged LT1 out of a CTSV into an S30. I've seen it in a '66 Chevelle so why not a Z?

I'm using a stock 2WD '02 Suburban to pull a 10K capacity open tilt trailer and my 280Z. Trailer and car weigh in around 5,500 lbs. The Suburban handles it fine and has tons of enclosed space for all the stuff I take along with me and at least 4-5 passengers, 7-8 passengers if I don't have a lot of stuff, or me +1 if I lay them all down and load up with up to 1,000 lbs of "stuff". I've towed my Z from Ft Worth, Texas to Yakima, WA and it all went fine - even in the rockies and when I hit a snow storm. I think in the 13 years I've owned the vehicle I've put about $1,500 in repairs in it. My biggest expense has been tires.

If you go to a judged car show - stand by the car and talk to people. One of my favorite things is to watch the faces of young kids and see them light up when I tell them to go ahead and sit in the car. (Disclaimer: Don't let young boys under the age of 5 in your car. They will want to pull, twist and yank on everything they can get their hands on.) I had one young girl -roughly 10 years old - that her mother literally had to drag her out of the car. That made the whole show for me. For you young guys it's a way to start a conversation with some good looking chicks - seriously - I'm an old fart and it works for me. It sows good will into the community and a helps create positive attitude toward our rides.

As much as I enjoy competing my car -1/4 mile, autocross, hillclimb, etc. I've slacked off as my car has aged along with my budget. I do, however, get a lot of enjoyment taking my well thrashed daily driver to car shows and sharing it with other people. Disclaimer: I do not, however, go to Nissan/Infinity shows. I attend the good old local "anybody can come" car shows that are dominated by classic Detroit iron here in the NW. Here's what I've found out: 1) Most people either have owned a Z, wanted to own a Z or had a friend or family member that owned a Z and they really like them. 2) They actually think that an LS1 under the hood of an S30 is way cool rather than heresy. 3) They are impressed that someone has brought a "daily driver" rather than a garage queen and somewhat overlook the 96,000 miles of road rash on the 20 year old paint job. 4) They love the fact that someone stands up and shares their passion about all things Z and shares the story of their car. They even grin a bit when I tell them I just swapped one L series motor for another L series motor. Out with an L-28 and in with an L-S1. 5) Judges seem to actually add points to a car for being a daily driver. I'll never get a "best of show" but I've gotten two firsts and one second in class in the last three shows beating out a lot of cars that were prettier but didn't have the "character" mine does - or an owner that stands and talks to people and lets kids sit in the car rather than sitting in a chair behind the car and talking to his buddies. There are a few at every show that see an old S30 in a very new light and they more than make up for the guy that says: "It would be worth more with the stock six". That's not really true with a 280Z with 244,000 miles on it but to each his own.

I know several folks on this site (myself included) have experienced sinking feeling of pulling their stock hood release and having it just pull out and the hood do nothing because the cable broke. A hood that is stuck down is a major pain since the release is up at the firewall and a bit challenging to reach. FWIW for you 280Z drivers I got mine released this way: I removed the front turn signal lights and then went in through them and unbolted the two bolts on each side that hold the hood to the hinges. Once that was done, I got my son who has long arms and gave him a long handled ratcheting box end wrench the right size to remove the two bolts that connect the hood release to the underside of the hood. I then lifted the front of the hood until I thought something was either going to bend or break and that gave him just barely enough room to reach in and remove the bolts. Once that was done we lifted the hood off the car and set it aside so I could reach the underside of the release mechanism and release the hood latch from it. Once that was done I removed and disassembled the entire mechanism, cleaned it up and then reassembled it and reinstalled it. IMPORTANT: Once the assembly is ready to go back in thoroughly lubricate it with a good grease. Don't be shy about how much you use. Once everything is back together work the hood release cable/mechanism a few times before closing the hood to ensue that: 1) It actually works, and 2) that the grease fully covers the sliding plates in the latch mechanism. After that I went under the dash and unbolted the hood release cable mechanism, removed the rubber grommet from the firewall and pulled the broken cable assembly out. To reinstall a new release cable assembly it will be necessary to split the rubber firewall grommet to get the latch end of the cable through it as it has a mounting bracket on it. Don't worry, once you push the grommet back in place in the firewall it seals back up properly and holds fine. Attaching the cable to the hood latch assembly is a little tricky but straight forward. Just take your time. You'll see what you need to do when you get there. Once you are done with the entire reassembly - like I said above - actuate it a few times before closing the hood to ensure it is working smoothly and with little effort. When reinstalling the hood try to adjust the pin part of the latch on the hood such that it compresses the spring as little as possible. Look at the way it's assembled and you'll see how to do that. It should be just short enough to have the hood just barely even with the cowl and the corner support posts should also be adjusted so that they press minimally against the bottom of the hood corners. IMPORTANT: Any time the hood release mechanism seems to be getting a bit hard to pull, open your hood and regrease the mechanism - NOT the Cable - the latching plates where the hood pit catches. Keeping it greased significantly eases the work that cable has to do and will extend its life. I hope this helps.

The350Z - if you have the right engine mounts and oil pan you don't have to modify your steering rack. Get the right parts and you'll be fine. Don't get caught on the "modification" spiral where one bad part/decision leads to another which leads to another which.......

Jon, Understand. I actually double stacked some 2x10's, the bottom one 4' long and the top one 2' long to get my air dam clearance. I also duct taped some foam to the inside of the drivers side trailer fender to keep from banging it getting in and out. I also load the car a couple inches right of center to get enough room. I'm seriously considering putting hinges on the fender on that side so I can tip it out of the way when loading and unloading like the Uhaul car haulers.

So, last year I decided to spring for a trailer to haul my Z when taking my wife to out of town car shows.j If its just me i load what I need in the car and just take off but there is not enough room in the car for all the stuff required for two of us. I started looking at used but had no luck. People wanted too much fro trailers that were ragged out and would need a lot of repair. I finally saw an add at a new trailer dealer a few towns over that had a sale going. I went by and was able to get a really good deal on a 17' 7,000 lb load tilt bed. Nice looking trailer. Hooked it up to the Suburban and headed home. About 5 miles down I-82 I took an exit and went back to the dealer. at any speed over 60 the trailer would start whipping back and forth and it was nearly uncontrollable at 70. Dealer was very apologetic. They didn't have another one on the lot but said they could get another one for me the next day. Got a call from them that night and could out that particular trailer had a manufacturing flaw. The axle mounts had been installed incorrectly causing ALL of that particular brand/model to have the same tracking problem. Dealer was a stand-up guy so they replaced my 7K trailer with a 10K of a different brand no charge. One thing I took away from this, though, is that 17' tilt-bed trailers are very tricky to design to get tracking and tilting right where a 19' is no issue at all. It also doesn't help when you have a car that is tail heavy like mine. Makes it even more difficult to get the correct tongue weight. Oh - another thing. Even with a tilted my ground effects require me to carry "extenders" to allow it to clear the little wing ramps when loading and unloading. I imaging a splitter would make it even more difficult. My car is not particularly low. It's nearly 6" from the ground to the bottom of my air dam.

So, after months of sitting in my garage my son started taking the Z apart while running the engine to keep the battery charged. He removed the turn signals (280Z with signals in the grille). That gave him access to the front hinge bolts and then he removed the hinge bolts. He attempted to pull or push the hood release mechanism but was unable to do so. Just couldn't get a grip on it. He redid his tool and came back a few days later when I was in town. We tried that technique again and were unsuccessful. Finally I got fed up, grabbed the front of the hood, and lifted it as far as I felt I could without bending or breaking something. He was then able to just barely reach the bolts that hold the latch to the hood and remove them. One we got the right ratcheting wrench it went quickly and now the hood is off and I'm working on repairing the mechanism and the cable. The cable broke about an inch from the end. I thought the bulb on the end had pulled off but, nope, the cable itself broke. Not sure what my long-term plan is but I certainly want to have some kind of back-up to the standard release. I'me also going to adjust the latch mechanism so that the spring compresses less and therefore requires less pull to release it. Fortunately I have a spare hood release cable. I looked for them online and they were running about $250 when I could find them. I need to start hitting salvage yards and accumulating a few of them.

It's a bit more challenging for me with an LS1 and a triangulated strut tower brace but the front hood bolts sound like a good start. After that I'm going to hood pins. It'll never happen again that way.

At a car show and pulled the hood release to open the engine bay and the cable pulled out. It broke right at the release mechanism. Anyone else had this happen? Suggestions?

Going through the zillions of offerings on Amazon I think I'll try the Veepack. It has a high consumer rating, over 1k reviews, and is compatible with my IOS devices. The BAFX is as good but not compatible with IOS at this point.

Good to know. Thank you.

One of my issues is that a unit that connects via WiFi is not usable where I live. It needs to be a standard handheld or connect via Bluetooth.

I've been reading a lot of reviews about them. Lot's of good stuff about the Bluetooth units but one site did bring up connectivity issues and lost data if the smart phone goes into "sleep" mode. Have you experienced any of that?

My son is moving out and taking his OBD II scanner with him so it's finally time to get my own. My issue is that there are som many options it's not clear which way to go. Here are my general guidelines: 1) I really don't want to spend more than $100 but want to be able to get as much diagnostic information as possible in addition to the "code". 2) Do I go with a standard style hand-held unit or one that is bluetooth compatible with my smart phone? What should I get and why? Pro's & con's either way? Thanks.

Loving the Braille. Car fires right up. Lights are nice and bright ( but I do have LED/HID) all around) and all the other electrical seems to be fine. I just don't run my 500 watt stereo or lights for any length of time without running the engine.

Now you just need to replace the massive Allstate battery with a GU1R Braille lithium!

Ben at Skilled just announced that he has developed a splitter designed specifically for the Type 2 air dam - thanks for getting the ball rolling Gary. He has a group buy currently in progress so, if you have a type 2 air dam and want one of these splitters, now is the time to jump on it.

The air conditioning system on my 280Z quit working recently so I took it into the shop. The unit had been flawless since the LS1 was installed in 2003/4 and had not even needed to be recharged. I assumed that the system had finally leaked enough refrigerant that it needed to be recharged so agreed with the shop owner to update the refrigerant from R-12 to R-134. They did that and it still didn't work - the compressor wasn't engaging. After a little intelligent troubleshooting (with the help of the FSM section on AC I provided them) they determined that the microswitch in the dash that the select lever on my climate control system engages had failed. Rather than tearing into the dash and then trying to find the switch we went for what I considered an upgrade. They installed a separate AC on/off rocker switch on my console so that I can now engage the AC with the climate control system in the AC (recirculate), vent (fresh air) or defrost modes. Having experienced the issues with trying to defrost a windshield in a humid and warm environment this is a huge step forward. It now functions like modern car systems.

I have 10,000 lb rated tie straps with good sized hooks on the end. I tried them on the LCA's and there is a spot they hook in real well so I'll try that until I can get some hooks on the rear. The front row hooks work well but result in a really short strap. The good news it's more of a horizontal pull on them rather than a vertical.

Good information Jon. Thank you. I crossed the straps to keep the car from moving sideways as I could see that being a possibility on the roads up here. Any spots at the rear of the car that can be safely tied to if no hooks installed? My trailer has D rings at the outside corners on the rear and on the tongue in the front. I replaced my 280 bumpers with the MSA type 2 aero kit.

Well, found out my front is low enough to require a 2x12 under the ramps on the back of the trailer. Also found that my Z needs to be within 3" of the front of the trailer to get it to come up off tilt. It pulls fine at 70 with the car in that position. Bolted a 4x4 across the front of the trailer where the tires will be stopped in the right position. I'm using 4 straps in an X pattern to hold the car down.

So I'm practicing loading my car today and I'm wondering where y'all attach your tie-down straps at the back of the car? The front has the tow hooks but what about the rear?

Yes Tony, I figured that out. I also decided it was a Rube Goldberg approach to the problem and that it would be much safer to just get a tilt bed trailer Where all the wheels could stay on the ground and my tow vehicle - that's steadying the trailer - doesn't have it's rear up in the air with the potential for tipping. I'm sure folks have done that thousands of times but I don't want to be the once that it didn't work right. Agree - If I'd had the cash to get one of those air bag kneeling trailers I'd have gone that route in a heartbeat but, at 4x the cost, it was not a consideration. Jon - evidently 16' is the length where it becomes an issue and requires very careful design.