Phantom

Well - yesterday I remounted the dual fan relays to the shroud. The single screw kept coming out so I redid it and added a rivet at a second location to lock it down tight. Today I took receipt of my new Techno Toys suspension. Checking it out and then going for an install next week.

OK - so the shortage of Tokico Illumina's in the US has Techno Toy sourcing other mfg's. They have settled on the Koni 8610-1437. It is an infinitely top rebound adjustable strut cartridge. Anyone with experience with this strut? If not it looks like i'll be on the pointy end of the spear again. I'll have to map my settings carefully as they do not have "click' but are infinitely adjustable throughout their range. I need to determine the exact positions they work best for me. With the amount of track time I get that should only take maybe 10-12 years. At least they are top adjustable which works well for my 280.

I just ran across this thread. I've been pretty much off the site for the last 6 years. My son and I both have LS1 powered S30's. His is a wide body WIP and mine has been a daily driver for the past 10 years. His has an R230 with cryogenically hardened halfshafts and mine has an LSD R200 with U-joints - and I've broken one with only 325 RWHP. We've lived these cars for some time now and can talk pretty well about manners and oopsies. If you have a question PM either me or my son, DarthZ.

Check out Techno Toy Tuning and Arizona Z Car. I have no idea what your budget or your actual goals are but those sights will give you other options.

I went through a 2 year evaluation before I settled on my Dunlops. I looked at "street legal" track tires and the extreme performance summer tires. The track tires have the better grip but just didn't have enough "life" in them when driven on the street. I needed the stickiest tires I could find that I could expect to get at least 15,000 miles out of in combined street and occaisional track driving. I finally settled on the Dunlop Direzza and it seems to handle my 325 rwhp well. I still light them up big time in 1st but they hold fine in second and above. I'm upgrading from a stock suspension to a Techno Toy suspension in the next month so I'll see if that changes things any. Right now I'm pretty happy.

Ordered the kits. 200 front/250 rear since car is tail heavy. Height is going to be adjustable from stock height to maybe 2" lower. Since I didn't have camber adjustment I'll stay real close to stock ride height. Should have it on by mid July.

I have the 4 piston calipers on the front of my 280. My son has the 6 piston on the front and 4 piston on the rear. We both have stock 4-bolt lug patterns. I'm on 16" wheels and he's on 17".

Turns out the oil pressure problem is a faulty Datsun sending unit. I guess after 35 years and 235,000 miles it just went bad. Guess it was probably due.

I think it depends on if you have a 240 body or a 280 body. My 280 has a front strut tower brace that also ties to the firewall, a 4 point roll bar, and a triangular shaped rear strut tower brace. I just went through my entire suspension and drive train for the first time in 10 years - and 35,000 miles - and only 2-3 bolts took about a half turn. That includes several trips to a drag strip, two hours of running at Texas Motor Speedway, a day of running hill climbs on an asphalt road and the normal "spirited" driving when I'm driving the car anywhere. The only real issue I've had is that I'll lose the seal on my windshield for a while after some "sprited" driving. That was a hassle in Texas but not in Yakima, WA.

I gave similar information to Greg at Techno Toy and asked them for a recommendation. I appreciate feedback from folks on this site to compare against what he may recommend. I sent them the information the end of last week and I'm still waiting on a reply. They must be pretty busy or else not realize I'm serious about getting a set. One of my concerns is that the weight bias of the car changed with my modifications. I started out with 1,400 lbs on both the front and the rear. The drive-train conversion pushed it to 1,400 on the front and 1,430 on the rear - the T56 is a heavy beast. When I did the interior it added another 170 lbs and pushed it to 1,440 on the front and 1,560 on the rear. I would think that would call for slightly stiffer springs in the rear vs the front than a set up for the original weights.

I'm on my second set of blown struts and my current springs have about 77,000 miles on them so it's time for some new parts. I'm looking at the front and rear suspension kits Techno Toy Tuning offers that utilize the Tokico Illumina's. My question at this point, and for Techno Toys is what would be good spring rates. The car is a 1977 280Z that weighs 3,000 lbs. It weighs 1,440 lbs on the front and It weighs 1,560 lbs on the rear wheels - yes, it is tail heavy. The car has an LS1 that dyno'd 325 HP at the rear wheels and it's backed by a T56 and an LSD R200. Tires are 225/50-16 Dunlop Direzza's on Centerline 16x7 aluminum wheels. Brakes are Willwood 4 piston calipers on the front on 12.2' vented rotors and 240SX claipers in the back on 11.4" solid rotors. The car is primarily a daily driver with occasional trips to a drag strip, a crooked track or a spirited hill climb. I do not intend to lower the car more than 1" from stock ride height to maintain it's drivability. I've read the FAQ's section on this and have seen recommendations of 115 to 200 lb/in in the front and 145 to 250 lb/in in the rear. Any experts out there that want to get me a little closer? REMEMBER - this is NOT a full time track car. I just want a good all-round set-up so I can have fun wherever I am. Thanks guys.

Good to hear. I've had the kit sitting in my garage waiting for me to get around to it for about 18 months now. I'm glad the website had good install instructions as I didn't find any with the kit and the company I bought it from no longer carries it. I would like to do the DRL's, though, as I like the safety aspect of them - especially since my 280 really has no safety equipment other than stock seat belts and a roll bar. Even the original steel crash bumpers have been replaced by the MSA type 2 ground effects kit.

I bought this kit a while back and am just getting ready to install it on my 280Z28. Their website has what appears to be a good pictorial set of installation instructions so I'm fairly confident about the install. Two questions: 1) Has anyone else installed this kit and did you have any issues? Feedback!?? 2) The headlight lenses come with built in DRL's. Has anyone hooked them up? If so, where did you tap into for your power source? I want mine to be on when the ignition is on but not otherwise and I don't want to have to switch them on and off. Thank you for any feedback.

Zfan, certainly remember you and the 383 stroker. Car really ran. I've been on the track twice up here. Blew a half shaft ujoint the first time and got rained out the second. Thanks for the tip on the oil pick-up tube o-ring. I need to check it.

I finally got a chance, after nearly two years, to spend some time with the Z. I started by replacing the original 1998 AC Delco plugs. They only had 37,000 miles on them but, come on, they were 15 years old. Anyway - picked up a set of E3's and installed them. After that I pulled the K&N filter to clean and re-oil it. It never did ring my bell as it had always seemed a bit small so I found a Spectre filter at Autozone that has about 3x the filtration area. The next day it got a Mobil 1 oil & filter change. The extra fire and breathing definitely brought life back into the car that I didn't realize I had lost. The conversion now has 10 years and 34,000 miles on it and it is still solid. I had it out today and garnered a couple compliments. Actually, it's a rare outing that doesn't get at least one good comment on it. The only thing that concerns me at this point is the oil pressure. It used to always be a solid 60 psi. Now the engine needs to be at around 1700 RPM to get that pressure. At idle the pressure gauge needle drops all the way to the left - then other times I'll be sitting at a stop light and the pressure will rise from nothing up to the 60 psi mark. I'm thinking at this point that it's an electrical issue with either the sender or the gauge as I'm not hearing seeing any mechanical secondary symptoms.

FWIW - the LS1/T56 swap in my 280Z only added 30 lbs. to the car weight - all of it on the rear axle.

Yeah, the Z is hard to walk away from. Too much personality. I'm still keeping track of what I have in mine but I used it as a daily driver for 14 of the 20 years I've had it so that's the argument I use with my wife as I remind her of how much we've spent on cars for her in that timeframe. What bothers me at this point, though, is the $500 in parts I've had sitting in the garage next to the car since last Christmas and I still haven't installed them - not to mention the new console my son gave me for it about 5 years ago. I underestand the German engineering attraction too. Once I moved to snow country I decided to get something with AWD so wife & I agreed on a little Audi A8L. One of the most capable cars I've ever driven.

Haven't seen the BRP mounts but the JCI puts the engine in the right place and also accommodates the steering gear with no required rerouting. My engine sits with decent firewall clearance but only the accessory drivepart of the engine is forward of the front axle. Car handles very nicely. PMI is less than that of the L28 and center of gravity is slightly lower.

Mike, I haven't been lurking around the forum in a long time. Last I remember you were infatuated with German engineering and out of the Zcar business. Good to see you back. Quite frankly, after having driven my son's stripped 240Z with about 354 rwhp I would have real trouble imagining one with more that didn't have a gazillion dollars in handling improvements, brakes, and tires on it. I think mine is going to be on the receiving end of some TLC this winter. It's been 9 years since the build and I've basically had to do nothing to it. It even has the original 1998 spark plugs as they only have 36,000 miles on them. Yeah - i know.

240Z7273 - You're going to love your project once you get it going. Interestingly mine has a '98 motor out of a Z28 Camaro that was factory rated at 305 HP at the flywheel. I kept the motor completely stock but had the PCM reflashed by "ChipsbyAl" to the 2002 parameters and the motor made 325 HP at the rear wheels. My son has a 2002 motor in his '72 and it dyno'd at 354 rwhp but his motor has some mods. Needless to say his 2500 lb stripped 240 is a bit more of a beast than my 3,000 lb 280 with all its creature comforts. Not surprised the JCI mounts went smoothly. A lot of effort went into developing his components and he's had time to refine out any little problems. Most issues folks encounter is because their car has gotten tweaked a bit over the years and isn't exactly at OEM dimensions.

A few things. The T-56 was installed in GM automobiles in two configurations. One configuration was used in F-bodies up through 1997 while the newer version was used in 1998 and newer F-bodies. It is the newer one you want for your 5.3. The older one has a smaller input shaft and 6th gear is a .62:1 ratio rather than the .5:1 found on the newer ones. My car was the prototype for the Johns Cars (JCI) kit at www.brokenkitty.com for LS installations in the S30 body style. Mine is a late model '77 so all the dimensions would be the same as yours. You can save yourself a lot of headaches by using components that were specifically designed for your car. The installation manual you see as a sticky at the top of this board was developed using JCI components on a 1972 240Z by Grenade 300. He later sold the car to my son, DarthZ, and now that car and mine share a garage here in Yakima, WA. Anything you need to know for your conversion can be found here on this site. A word of warning, however. there are a lot of opinions expressed in the posts and some are not based on solid fact. Take your time and weed the fact from opinion and ensure a smooth project. Best of luck.

Concurr with Leon. You'll be fine with the standard pump if you stay with the stock injectors. If you go bigger, you'll need a bigger pump. You're also planning on a larger TB, larger intake, an increase in flow capacity on you heads, at least 1 3/4"!headers, and a minimum of dual 2 1/2" exhausts - right? Either that or bolt on a supercharger or a turbocharger. You won't get the bang for your buck on the larger injectors of you don't improve the engines ability to breathe.

Now for the other half of the equation. Fuel injectors are normally rated using pounds (lbs.) per hour so the that rate will have to be divided by 6.073 to give gallons per hour. At that point you can get a true relationship between the pump delivery at the rated pressure for the injectors and what the injectors will actually require at their maximum rated flow.at that pressure.

FWIW - my completely stock internally '98 LS1 dyno'd at 311 rwhp on a single 2.5" exhaust. That would equate to about 390 HP at the flywheel. Since then I went to dual 2.5" exhausts and I have never had insufficient fuel from the pump.

Pump is designed to deliver the 38 GPH at the fuel injector design pressure. The pressure regulator maintains the pressure by bypassing excess fuel and returning it to the tank. Problems occur when fuel demand exceeds what the pump can deliver at the rated pressure. As long as the engine demand is lower than the 38GPH at the rated pressure everything will be fine. One thing that can be done is to size the pump off the rated flow of the injectors. That is what JCI has done - for LS1's using stock injectors.