Phantom

JSM - If you liked the way the TA went think what it would have been like if it had been 800 pounds lighter. Then you might have an idea of what an LS1 Z is like. If anyone has questions about the LS1 car just PM me. With 10 years and 35,000+ miles under my belt I have a lot of experience with the conversion. Oh yeah - I've also driven the car on the Texas Motor Speedway combination oval and SCCA infield track and on a few different 1/4 mile tracks. I will admit that I was not faster than a Ferrari Testarossa - but -in my last 30 minute session at TMS with a passenger on board I was the only car that he didn't pass.

Grayson260Z - LS1 will be way cheaper. If you keep the electronic ignition and fuel injection it will be ABSOLUTELY reliable day in and day out and it will put about 325 HP to the rear wheels without any internal work on the motor. All the swap parts are readily available and reasonable in price. Compare the cost of Chevy parts and Toyota and you'll be surprised at the difference. Just plan the swap ahead of time and do it right and you'll be a happy camper. Michael - you obviously have a carburated SBC. I've had the LS1 in my car for 10 years and 35,000 miles. In that time I've changed the oil and filter annually, the air filter once, the plugs once since they were over 10 years old, and cleaned the MAF once. That, in my book is almost no maintenance at all over the 10 years. Oh yeah - I forgot - I had to replace the Datsun oil pressure sender because it was 35 years old and went bad. All my window and door seals were replaced when I did the build plus I dynamited the interior and installed a thick house carpet instead of the thin automotive carpet available. Is the car still fairly loud inside - yup - but I can talk over it easily and the 500 watt sound system drowns it out easily. Besides - with that motor under the hood I WANT to hear it as it runs up in the revs. It is such a sweet sound!

You're kidding? 1. How do you run regular gas on a 10.5:1 compression engine and not ping like crazy at low RPM? That ignition system must dial the timing way back. 2. Best I've ever gotten out of my LS1/T-56 on the highway was 24. What is your gearing? Do you have headlight covers? Anything else to improve aerodynamics.

Spend a lot of time researching on this site. Look at drivetrain options, suspension options, braking options. Put together a plan that will allow you to do it in an order that won't have you spending money on things you're going to throw away later - like a stage 2 clutch if you think you might do a change to a higher output engine that the clutch wouldn't handle or fit. Be smart and make your money go as far as possible. Consider the posts that guys make and evaluate their thought process. We all have different goals for our cars and some are much better at executing a project than others. Find out who wants a similar set-up on the car and thinks things through clearly and then ask them a lot of questions,

Welcome aboard sailor. Retired Navy myself. Norfolk - been a long time since I was last there. You've received a lot of good information in the previous posts. I'm actually quite impressed with what I read. As already said - do a lot more reading and asking questions before you launch into this project. It will save you time and money in the long run. Body wise - Find the best, rust free one you can and then fix it before doing anything else. Repair the rust, reinforce the welds, add frame rail connectors if it's a 240, and locate some good front and rear strut tower supports. One thing I do know from personal experience is that my LS1 will twist my car - and it's a stiffer 280. I've had to reseal my windshield several times. The original 240Z had the nickname "flexi flyer" by the guys who used to road race them years ago. I personally agonized over what I was going to do engine wise on my car. I looked at an L28 stroker, L28ET, RB26 and V8's. I settled on the LS1 because I wanted a solid 300+ HP to the rear wheels with OEM maintainability and reliability. That said - to thine own self be true. As you decide on your drivetrain upgrade (you'll also need an R200 LSD with CV's or an R230 out of a turbo Z32) don't fail to make decisions on the suspension modifications you want to make and braking upgrades. Trust me, when it comes to braking, stock just won't cut it if you start getting heavy handed with 500+ HP. What you do for suspension will also affect what you can do for wheels and tires as coil overs will give you more room under the stock fender well. Then, of course, you could go with a fiberglass wide body kit like the ones from Reaction Research and be able to run huge tire widths. Thousands of decisions to be made. Develop an outline of what you want to do and then figure out the most efficient order to do it in. Have fun!

Here is a better seat photo. It is black outer with red insert panels in seat and back with a red "Z" on the headrest area of the seat. The stitching is also in red to contrast the black.

Dreco - You've seen my car. We were at a meet one night in North Texas not long after I did my LS1 conversion. If I had known at the time you'd be going this way I would have given you a ride. That would have eliminated the indecision. Your results will be as good as the effort you put into it. My drive-train is still rock solid and the car pulls like a freight train. Since then I've upgraded both the brakes and the suspension so it stops and corners better now. Don't remember if I'd done the red/black interior when we met or not but I also did that and put in a nice sound system. Car is not only fun to drive but it's actually downright enjoyable. One thing - The AC system works but don't let the car sit out in the sun all day and then hope it will be cool anytime soon. The old Z's just weren't serious about AC.

Beat you! Pulled mine out this week. Snowed a week ago but it was 60 today and we had a few really nice days this week. So good to be back in the saddle!

1977 280Z, LS1/T56. Interior is all stock components but all soft surfaces are Katskin leather. Carpet is a house carpet - Chivas Regal Alpine sound system - 7 speakers with 500 watt amp.

Heck - cut yourself a piece of 1/4" birch plywood to the shape of the bottom. Mount it with screws from underneath. You could even cut holes in the plywood ahead of time to fit a piece of PVC pipe the size of a cup holder and glue that in place in the wood, spray it all black and then attach it to the console. If it's only temporary have some fun with it.

I've been running a CableX box in my 280Z28 for 10 years now and it still works fine. It sometimes is a little lazy coming off 0 when I first start out but then it pops up and works fine. I mounted mine behind the driver footwell kick panel where the old 280Z ECU used to be. Wrapped it in one layer of foam to keep it from rattling around and reduce noise. Evidently that works because I've never heard it when I'm driving. Then again an LS1 isn't all that quiet and the 500 watt sound system also makes it difficult to hear much of anything.

Stock Gauges - fuel gauge no issue., oil pressure gauge - JCI makes an adapter that allows mounting a stock nissan oil pressure sender by the LS oil filter. Water temp gauge - same deal. Tachometer-several places, including JCI can modify your tach to take the LS input. Speedometer - You either need a tranny with a mechanical output to drive the cable that normally drives the Z speedometer or you need to get a CableX box that takes the electronic output from the tranny and then sends a signal to a small electric motor that drives the speedometer cable. I've had the latter in my car working successfully for 10 years now. It also allows you to adjust for different gear ratios in your drive train. If you need a T56 do a google search. Lots of them out there for between $2300 & $2500. Some are used, some are rebuilt. New ones will cost more. Mine is a rebuilt '99 and is still doing fine - but then I'm only running about 370 HP. Comment about droning with the .50 overdrive on the T-56. Wonder what differential ratio he has. I have a 3.70 R200 LSD and have never had a drone. I've run as slow as 50 in 6th which is about 1,250 RPM. Yes a 98-02 F-body T56 will work but one from an 04-06 GTO will also work.

Two things. If you go with a differential gearing of 3.545 or lower use option 2 for your tranny. If you go with an R230 with the 3.69:1 gearing found in most turbo Z32's then I'd go with option 1 or 2 depending on what you are planning for tires. Option 1 has tighter gear ratios but the Z is light enough and the LS motor torquey enough that the wider ration Option 2 will also work well. The only real issue is 1st gear which smokes tires in option 2. What are you using for gauges in your car? If you're trying to stick with stock then get a tranny with a tails haft that has a mechanical speedometer output. If you're converting over to all new gauges then stick with the electronic speedo output.

What engine is this with? Stock L28 or something else?

new one $90 at www.thezstore.com

Look under the carpet behind the passenger seat. The leads for your fuel pump run through there and there are some aluminum bullet connectors there. Pull them apart and clean them. You may be getting interrupted power flow to your pump randomly. I had a similar problem years ago but it was my young son, who was riding behind the seat, scuffing his feet around causing the problem. How do your plugs look? Are they black and wet or normal in appearance?

California dreamin' dude. Don't know what they're smoking but that's more than I'm willing to spend along with all the other expenses of not being local. I think I'll wait until 2015 and head down for the MSA event.

Install an R230LSD, Coilovers and an upsized sway bar and it's not going to cost $13k. Check out the Arizona Z website and save some money.

If you can talk yourself into 17" tires and wheels - do it. Both are more readily available than 16's and also less expensive. The downside is that you'll have to go to a 40 series profile rather than a 50 series. It will ride a bit rougher but then it will handle a bit crisper. That being said i bought my set-up 15 years ago and went with 16x7 Centerline Wheels with 0 offset. That allows me to run 225/50-16 Dunlop Direzza's with no fender modifications. That was the best I could do with a stock suspension and still feel comfortable. I have since installed a TechnoToys coil over suspension and have more room on the inside. Once these tires are worn out - in about 6-8 years, and if I can still remember where the car is, I'll probably go to 17's and have 8" wide wheels with somewhere around a +10-15mm offset. I'll measure it out when the time comes.

Go to www.Tirerack.com and see what they have. You're going to want anywhere for a 0 to a +10mm offset depending on your suspension and tires you want to run. You will need at least a 16" wheel for those calipers.

Redzee - Not sure if RebekahsZ might be onto something. One difference between my car and yours is that I'm running a 3.70 LSD R200 rather than a 3.545. I have always been pleased with the performance I've gotten from the car. I have never seen an acceleration drop-off in 4th. It just keeps pulling like a freight train. I'm running 225/50-16 street radials so the differential sounds like the only big difference in our drive-trains. I'm thinking the slight RPM difference might be keeping the LS1 in a sweeter spot on the torque/HP curves? There might be a reason other than just weight that GM usually equipped LS1 cars with 3.73:1 differentials.

Totally agree. I studied my dyno pulls when I first got them and realized everything dropped like a rock after about 5,600 on my stock LS1. I figured cam and heads would give me some more but probably not a lot. The runs I've made, confirmed by the but dyne and ET's indicated that shifts at 5,900-6,000 was where I got my best performance. It also keeps me out of the 6,200 rpm rev limiter.

Slow78Z - What does your car weigh? Your 1/4 times are great on the stock tires. I'm trying to figure out why my LS1/T56 that dyno'd the same as yours is a full second slower on 225/16's.

I read an extensive article on the LS series motors a while back and noted the comment on the one hole not drilled and why. The comment there was that the remaining bolt holes were sufficient to handle pretty much anything. Have fun with your build.

No it doesn't - Wish it did. You would have to get creative with the controls and add a separate A/C switch to get that. Mattd428 - My answer to your question is that after living in Arlington, TX for 23 years I now live in Washington state - and that was with a Z with A/C.