Phantom

Totally sick! He must be the envy of his neighborhood.

You just gotta love RED! Looks like everything is being done right on this project. Excellent work guys. I'm actually a bit green. Keep up the great work.

I have about 18,000 miles n my LS1 / T56 conversion. The car averages 19-20 mpg in combined commuting driving and around 24-25 on the highway at about 70 mph. The aerodynamics of the Z offsets the lighter weight at highway speeds.

A Volvo P1800 - and you sold it?! Those are pretty rare and I always thought a pretty sweet car.

I did the basics first. Lifted both rear wheels, loosened and retorqued the lug nuts. Didn't fix the problem. Took the car in and had a top end dynamic balance done. Tires run really smoothly now but problem is still there. Rear wheel bearings were replaced on both sides about 30,000 miles ago. When they were bad the noise went away when I was in a corner. That doesn't happen now and this is a different noise/vibration than I had then. I don't think it's bearings but I will recheck them. The car goes on a lift the end of this week. Right now I'm thinking it's either the half-shafts or the differential but will go through everything after the transmission again just to be sure. In the meantime I'm an unofficial JSR member.

Logical - but this is a 280Z with u-joints (that are good by the way). Anyone else?

Well, something on the car has finally gone south. I've got about 20,000 miles on it since the conversion and now I have some seriously bad noises coming from the back of the car that are speed related, not engine rpm. It also is causing some vibration and I get a jerky feeling on accelleration or in sharp left turns. I've been under the car twice now and have not been able to find any loose bolts or nuts or any indications of misalignment / rubbing anywhere. I pulled out the FSM last night - last resort is always to read the manual - right? I think I may have figured it out. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what the problem may be?

you only get 12.5 miles per cubic foot of gas? WOW that's on par with big-rigs! You caught me! Actually it should be about 150 miles per cubic ft. I guess that Quarts would probably be the best English measurement displacement unit since it is so commonly copared with liters. That would give me a 6 quart engine. Somehow sounds better and is more easily compared with a 5.7 liter.

I was talking with a couple engineers today and was asked how many cubic inches are in a gallon. It was needed for a detail on a project we were working on. They were after a calculator to compute it when I said: "Well - there's 1728 cubic inches in a cubic foot and about 7.5 gallons in a cubic foot so there should be about about 230 cubic inches in a gallon". Well - it mathed out to an actual 231 cubic inches per gallon. Never underestimate a practiced estimate! Anyway, it suddenly dawned on me that I don't necessarily have a 5.7 liter or 346 ci engine in my car. It could actually be a 1.5 gallon or a 192 oz engine. Maybe I don't get 20 miles per gallon, but instead I may get 2.9 miles/lb of fuel or maybe12.5 miles/cubic foot of fuel. After all, it is all sort of relative.

Me neither - LS1 doesn't have a distributor and it was mounted far enough forward anyway so it cleared the firewall connectors for the heater and AC coils.

David, Happy Thanksgiving to you too. Chris and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary on Thanksgiving this year and had a housefull of family and friends. I actually started tearing up later in the evening thinking about how blessed I am with a wonderful wife, two great sons, a beautiful daughter-in-law and the cutest ever grandson who was asleep in my arms at that time. Bill

Let me weigh in on the newer vs older LS1's. Mine is the '98 which is supposedly the least desireable because of the LS1 intake and older head design. It does, however, have a stronger lower end in some respects than the newer ones and, interestingly enough, it dynoed at 311 rwhp with 1 1/2" shorty headers, a 'Y' pipe into a single 2 1/2" exhaust, and an intake behnd the radiator. It does have it's ECU "tuned" to 2001/2 parameters by www.chipsbyal.com. Bottom line is that these engines do well no matter what year they are.

buZy, You have some tough decisions ahead. Mine generally took years to make because my car is a daily driver. It took me to work every day 13 years ago and it still does today. I've put over 120,000 miles on the car while I've owned it. It has rebolstered and leather covered stock seats, a 4-pt. roll bar, and the standard seatbelt and shoulder harness. I just couldn't justify more since it's 99% a daliy and, at most, 1% on a track. Your physical size needs to be figured into the equation also. At 6'-4" & 230 lbs my needs and what can be done with the car are significantly different than someone of a different height & weight.

Let's see. My dad always had cars with automatics but I learned how to drive a "three on the tree" during driver's ed when I was 14 -that was in 1962. I've driven a standard transmission car ever since I bought my own new car which was a 1970 'Cuda. My oldest son nearly had a coronary when I told him he was going to take his driving test in our '83 Sentra which had a 5-spd. manual. It took him about 3 days to master it, passed the test with flying colors, and has driven a standard transmission car ever since. Younger sone thesame thing. He got stuck in a Bronco II with an automatic for a while and hated it - even though it was a super clean and well kept vehicle - so I sold it and gave him my old '83 280ZX with a 5-spd. and he's happy now. Something about guys and manual transmissions.

Why not just rebuild the Datsun seats? A bit of extra bolstering can go a long way and there is no doubt about the sliders and fit in the car. See photos of what I did with my seats in my photo album. My set-up is great for daily driving and occaisional track use. They would not offer the support you would want if you're building a track car.

The 4 lug, non-turbo 300ZX rear rotors are a nominal 11 3/8" in diameter, 290mm. That is the rotor that goes with the 240SX calipers if you bought the adapters from Ross Corrigan at Modern Motorsports. That is the same kit I put on my car so I could retain the parking brake function.

The difficulty in mounting the T56 varies by body. The tunnel on the 240Z is narrower than the 280Z and requires more 'adjusting'. My 280Z required only a small dimple in one area. The shifter location is dependent on location. A V8 located in either the JTR or JCI location will bring the shifter up no more than 1/2" forward of the stock Z shifter location on a 280Z. Not sure about the 240 or any ZX models. Look at the cost of the mechanical speedometer adapter for a T56, parts & labor. It's not cheap. Then look at using a CableX unit that takes the electronic output from the T56 and uses an electric motor to drive the mecahnical speedometer. It has a few tricky requirements to ensure it works right though so it would be a personal preference item. I think if I had it to do over again I'd spend the extra money an go with the mechanical output from the T56.

The LS1 / T56 conversion added 30 lbs to the back of my 280Z. It started at 1400lbs front / 1400 lbs rear and ended at 1400 lbs front and 1430 lbs rear. THe extra weight and rear bias came from the T56. The LS1 was lighter than the L28. Going with a T5 and a standard cross member rather than the modified torque-tube design used on my car would probably end up with a slightly front biassed wieght distribution that could then be adjusted by moving the battery - mine was still in the stock location. Go to my phot album and look at the dyno run. Of specific interest should be the torque curve. You can see that it is massive and relatively flat from 1500-5500 rpm. Another point - most people talk flywheel Hp when they discuss engine output rather than wheel HP. I assume that is what you meant. My LS1 - straight out of the box - is making 365 flywheel HP out of 346 cubic inches. Racing classes are another story. If you just want to go out and tear up a track and not seriously compete in a specifc class then I'd seriously consider a V8. If your goal is some serious SCCA racing then I'd stick with the stock I6 and put the money into race prepping the suspension and brakes that allow you to compete in a stock class.

Hmmm - I guess my decision to go with the Modern-Motorsports 240SX/300ZX rear brake conversion that retains the handbrake was a good move - especially since mine is a daily driver and has to pass inspections.

Thanks guys. I had the additioanl pleasure at the Cowtown Z Club meeting last night of having one of our members stand and receive some heartfelt applause. He is a veteran of the WWII Pacific Campaign and still going strong over 60 years after the end of hostilities!

Engine Transmission ECM ECM/Engine wiring harness 02 sensors radiator fan shroud and fans fuel tank if you want to go that way fog/driving lights AC dryer & other components if you're planning on running AC

Right - and have the wind blow it back all over my car.

I'd settle for a compressed air pellet gun behind the grill I could use to plink the butt-hole that just cut me off in traffic.

Other option would be to attend the 2006 ZCCA convention in the Dallas Fort Worth area end of May/first of June. Hybrider's could have a subset of activities as well as attend any of the regularly scheduled activities. go to www.zcca.org and check out the schedule.