Phantom

'77 280Z, NA with '83ZX 5-spd and 3.90 R200. Never got better than 24 MPG. I log every fill-up at the service station - #gallons, cost, #miles driven, and actual calculated MPG. I've done this for over 40 years with all my cars starting with my 1970 'Cuda. The interesting thing is that the same 280Z, 200 lbs heavier but now running an LS1/T56/3,70 R200 LSD, gets the same maximum 24 MPG. Guess it's pretty much about aerodynamics.

What is the gear ratio in your differential? the 79-80ZX T5's were designed to go with a 3.54. The 82/83ZX T5's were designed to go with a 3.90. Don't remember what the 81 was paired off with. When I converted my '77 over to a 5-spd zI got a T5 & R200 out of an 83ZX - better overall gear ratio than the earlier years. Really livened the car up.

I originally set my '77 280Z up running 225/50-16's on 7" wide, 0 offset wheels when I had a stock suspension. I just cleared the fender wells on the outside and the suspension by maybe 3/8" on the inside. It would have been better if I'd had 5mm of offset. I guess I'll have to remeasure and see what I can get under it now that I've gone to coil-overs. Anyone want a relatively new set of Dunlop Direzza's?

Look at my engine bay photo above. It was taken this year. Body was painted in 1997 and the engine bay in 2003. It can be done.

Hmm - let's see if I can come up with a photo for you.

ZCCW rented the loop this past April for $250 and they joined with tNOrthwest Z club to field about 20 cars. They let me join in and I had a ball. It was very informal. One guy at the top and one at the bottom with radios. One car at a time ran the hill at about 90 second intervals and then everyone would caravan to the bottom and start over. My son and I both drove my LS1 powered 280Z and had a blast. I was told the 300ZXTT's were hitting 85 before the cattle guard on the one semi-straight so that became my goal. On my second run I hit 100 and the gauntlet was down. I was running Dunlop Direzza 225/50-16's and they held well. My old KYB's were shot so right after that I got the Techno Toy coil-over set-up with Koni's all the way around. Been a long time since I've had that much fun. Looking forward to doing it again. I wonder whatever happened to the old Cabbage Hill road in Northern Idaho? It's part of the original I-95 north of Lewiston where the Winchester grade is now. It's a great hill climb road. The U of Idaho Sports Car Club - back when it existed - would get releases from the folks that live along the hill and then run it on a Saturday/Sunday. It was about 4.2 miles of straights and some hairy corners.

My only hill climb experience was Cabbage Hill in Northern Idaho and then the Maryhill Loop here in Washington. Both times I had to deal with some seriously tight corners and relatively short straights. Torque was king and being able to keep the engine in the fat spot of the torque curve helped me do well. The first time out I was 1st in class and 3rd overall but that was another time.j The more recent one at Maryhill was just a fun outing but JohnC's words really ring true. Diminishing radius corners can really ruin your day. tube80z - you ever run Maryhill?

Look at what Koni has to offer. I have a set on my car and they seem to be pretty good so far.

Aaahh - this is the swap write-up originally done by Grenade300 on his '73 240Z. Thanks for making it available in electronic form again. The car and the original digital copy of this manual was sold to DarthZ about 3 years ago.

I used the stock OEM dust boots for my '77 280Z. The reason that worked is because I modified the 280Z shift lever to work with the Hurst shifter I installed in the car. I also "customized" the lever so that the knob was in the ideal position for my arm when I had my seat set right where I always drive the car. 3rd and 5th no longer force me to lean forward to hit them right. I just sit in the seat and row away. There's always a way to beat them!

Get the 260Z as cheaply as possible and swap all the VIN plates between it and your 280Z? You do like wearing stripes, right?

I was in the same position 12 years ago with my '77 280Z. Do I do a stroker L28? Do I turbocharge the L28? Do I do a V8 conversion? If I do a V8 conversion what kind of V8 do I do? My goal was to have at least 250 HP and have the reliability you'd find in a car fresh out of an OEM showroom. I made the decision to do an LS1/T56 swap. There hadn't been many done at the time and a lot of mistakes were being made by those doing them. I opted for the LS1 because it was lighter than the L28 and would move my CofG down and back. It also was reasonably priced and parts were relatively inexpensive and plentiful. I opted for the T56 because I like to row gears and the T56 was already mated to the LS1. I then went to John Radevich at Johns Cars in Dallas and, over the course of a year, convinced him to do the swap and develop a sellable "kit" for other enthusiasts. The LS1/T56 swap added 30 lbs to the weight of my car - all of it on the rear wheels. The car handles like a dream and is really quick. Years later my son, DarthZ, ended up with Grenade300's '73 240Z who published the "how to" manual referred to in this forum. I've driven mine and I've driven his. His 240 is 500 lbs lighter than my car and his LS1 puts out about 70 more HP. Where mine is a beast, his is an absolute HP monster. My 2 cents for what it's worth.

A few points. If you lift the fiberboard deck in your '77 you'll find a well behind each seat. They are the same wells that the earlier S30's had but for some reason Datsun decided not to continue using them as storage compartments. I redid my deck and gained those storage areas back. I put my '77 on certified scales and it weighed 1,400 lbs on the front axle and 1,400 lbs on the rear axle with 3/4 tank of gas. The battery also helps offset the drivers weight a bit -which is also why the engine is slightly right of centerline - to improve the left-right balance of the car. I corner weighted mine once but forgot to write the number down. I'm kind of a minimalist when it comes to modifications and what you are planning sounds like a huge amount of work for very little gain - if any at all. The under hood area of the Z is huge so I'm at a bit of a loss as to why you would have to move the fusible link box. I'd do a standard fuse box swap that takes up less space if it were me and I felt a need for more space there.

Are you wanting advice or are you wanting someone to do it? If you want someone to do it then I would highly recommend Johns Cars, 800 Jaguar Lane, Dallas, TX. John's shop is where the JCI swap components for the LS1 swap were originally developed on my car. They primarily specialize in Chevy V8 & transmission conversions into Jaguars and their finished product looks totally OEM. That is the look I was going for which is why I took my '77 280Z to them back in 2003. The rest is history. I have about 35,000 miles and 10 years on the conversion he did on my car. I could not recommend any shop more highly. Go on line to www.brokenkitty.com to learn more about them. John is a no nonsense guy and some people get offended by how straight he says things but no one can do a better job. If you are looking at a V8 swap the simplest and easiest is the small block Chevy. The LSX swap, however, is far superior if you want maximum reliability and maintainability. It has all the modern technology that allows the new cars to pretty much run 100,000 miles with nothing but oil and filter changes. The all aluminum V8 also is lighter than the L series straight 6 original to the Z and will move the center of gravity of the car lower and more toward the rear. Before you go into a shop, however, you need to have a plan as to exactly what you want to do with the car. To do it right you don't just shove a V8 in the engine bay. You upgrade the differential and half shafts, you put in disc brakes all the way around and you replace the stock suspension with coil overs and adjustable struts - and that is just for starters. How much are you planning to invest in the car? Set q budget and then develop the plan around it. If you do that you won't end up redoing things like so many of us here on the forum have. Good luck.

Get a factory service manual. They are available on line. I got one years ago for my '77 and, even though there is not a lot of the '77 left, I still refer to it for a lot of miscellaneous things. By "oddly shaped piece" do you mean where the seal flattens and flairs out? If so, that is down below the window frame on the front of the door. The rest of it fits in the lot on the SS frame.

So this is a stock 280Z? No electrical modifications, correct? The battery turns the engine over but you have no spark, correct? I'm assuming that you checked to be sure that the fuel pump is providing fuel pressure and that the injectors are actually firing? If all that is true and the only problem is no spark then work backward through the system. Check each plug for spark. Pull the distributor apart and check the internals to ensure nothing is cracked or broken. Even a cracked cap could cause the system to not fire. You're positive the coil is good? You could have two bad coils if you're trying used ones. Don't remember but I think you should have a fusible link in the system there somewhere so check them to make sure it's not burned through. Hopefully iyou won't end up back at the ECM or the ignition switch on the column.

As intimated above the wheels need to be matched to the size tires you are planning to run. The wheel width affects the sidewall fexure of the tire. An an improper match can result in a sidewall flex that changes the contact angle of the tread with a resultant loss in total traction. Kind of like when the rear end squats during heavy acceleration. There are so many factors involved that it drives most folks nuts when they try to determine the best combination.

My first new car was a 1970 340 'Cuda. Yes, I cry every time I remember selling it. Anyway - it came with a pair of round "fog" lights suspended under the front bumper. They were controlled by a toggle switch to the left of the steering wheel. I tried them one night in a local park and couldn't even see the road in front of me with the headlights off. I started calling them my "glow in the dark" lights as they were worthless for anything else. One day I got a wild hair and went to a local aircraft supply house with one of the bulbs in hand and asked if they had any landing lights that size in 12 volts. Yup - that was what was used on a Cessna 150 and they put out about 1,000,000 candlepower. Bought two and installed then. Also changed the toggle switch out for a three position toggle switch so that the new "driving lights" would work with my headlight dimmer switch. Noticed two things right off - my battery was getting drained if the engine was under 1500 RPM and it did a great job of turning the interiors of cars in front of me white when I turned them on behind them. Usually got an interesting reaction from the driver, too. I found out later I could pick out a bridge clearance sign (black letters on white background) at just over a mile away and that they literally would burn through rain so I could still see where I was going in the dark in heavy rain. Starting to think about putting a pair on my Z for driving the roads around here with all the deer that come out in the evenings. Need to figure out a way to dim them quickly though.

I don't understand. If you have a 280Z and your turn signals are integrated into your headlights why don't you just put some standard rectangular fog lights where the 280Z turn signals were? I realize that's a bit high if what you truly need is fog lights. I don't see why you would need them in El Paso. You really don't get much fog there, do you? I'd be opting for some driving lights to extend my night vision farther out on those flat desert roads.

Just can't get worried about it here in central Washington. Roads are covered with restored classic Detroit iron that is bound to pollute more than my Z. They start picking on those guys and it will get ugly really fast.

Jon, my son, DarthZ, has an LS1/T56 240Z and he also is thinking about tipping his radiator forward to lower it. His reason, however, is to allow him to use the Corvette style intake that runs over the top of the radiator directly to the MAF. He has a crossflow single row aluminum radiator. I know he'll really be interested in your progress.

OMG! - Yes, pusher fans are mounted on the front of the radiator. I'll bet someone has installed one behind a radiator and then complained about overheating problems and wondered what the problem was. I can see the post.

Dang - I think I'm glad I went with the MM 240SX/300ZX rear brakes. Not as pretty or as powerful but they get me stopped and my stock ebrake works fine. :-0

One of the things not addressed was where the specific tires on the Audi, combined with his gearing put him in his engine RPM range. If the the narrower tires were the same series as the fatter ones then the narrow tires would have been a little smaller in diameter and raised his engine RPM at any given speed. That, combined with the total greater contact area for power transmission would have helped him in the acceleration/maximum speed department. I ran a hill climb recently in my 280Z and was running 225/50-16 Dunlop Direzza's. I was faster up the hill than the twin turbo Z32's that were running wider tires. The basic reasons were: 1. It was a hill climb and the need for power is amplified. 2. I was probably 5-600 lbs lighter than the Z32's 3. I was running an LS1/T56 combo so I was always in the right gear to maintain maximum torque/HP and my torque range was huge. I was also a little crazy too so maybe that helped.

240Z72 - YOu mentioned something about 250lb springs being really stiff. Depends. I have 200 front and 250 rear with the Koni fully adjustable rebound shocks. At full stiff it is a brutal ride but perfect for an autocross track. At the mid setting it's a very comfortable daily driver. Full soft in the front and firm in the rear sets it up for the strip. Qualifier, however. My car is a customized 280Z That weighs 1,440 lbs on the nose and 1,560 lbs on the tail so it's probably 500 lbs heavier than your 240.