Phantom

Drivetrain: a) 1998 Camaro Z-28 Aluminum block LS1 V-8 (390 HP) with K&N intake, custom headers with dual 2 1/2” exhaust through an ‘X’ pipe to a dual inlet/single outlet Dynomax muffler, 1999 T56 6-speed transmission with Hurst billet shifter with custom John’s cars modified torque tube transmission to differential driveshaft and mount with integrated driveshaft loop, c) CableX converter to drive the mechanical speedometer with the electronic T56 output, d) 1988 Nissan 300ZX turbo 3.70:1 R200 LSD differential, e) Centerline Trident II 16x7 aluminum wheels with 225/50-16 Dunlop Direzza tires. Suspension: a) Eibach performance coilovers , 250 front, 300 rear., Koni fully adjustable gas struts, c) Urethane bushings throughout the entire suspension and steering. d) Nissan front and rear sway bars with urethane bushings. e) Racetep multi-point strut tower braces, front and rear. Brakes: a) 1981 280ZX master cylinder, Willwood forged Superlite calipers in front with 12.19” x 1.25” slotted Spec 37 GT rotors c) 240SX calipers in back with 300ZX 11.38”x .81” solid rotors d) Adjustable proportioning valve. e) 280Z emergency brake Exterior: a) Motorsport Auto Type 2 ground effects kit including front air dame, side skirts , and rear valance, Motorpsort Auto one piece rear, hatch mount, spoiler, c) Motorsport Auto Sentra window frame mount mirror kit d) Chrome front grill. e) 1997 Cadillac Eldorado Pearl Red paint with white racing stripe and pin stripes. f) Tinted windows by D&D Auto Tint. g) Air conditioning: Stock Nissan except for s special high efficiency compact compressor and the use of “Freeze 12” rather than R12 refrigerant. Interior: a) Katzkin leather seats, door panels, headliner, sun visors, ‘A’ pillars, face of rear deck, and rear strut towers, Wavemaker “Chevis Regal” residential carpet throughout edged in Katzkin leather. c) Autopowr 4-point bolt-in roll bar coated in black bed-liner. d) Custom center console pad & cup holders – Motorsport Auto e) Motorsport Auto White-faced gauge conversion with higher wattage dash bulbs and green lenses removed. f) Bed liner coated ash tray with chrome trim. g) Cabin is fully lined in Dynomat for noise and heat reduction. h) Original Dash with no cover. Lighting: a) Dapper Lighting HID headlight conversion. ZLEDslights LED conversions on the front turn signals, side marker lights, and taillights. Front and rear turn signals operate sequentially. Sound System: a) Alpine CDA 9851 CD/MP3/WMA Receiver Alpine CHA-S634 CD/MP3 Changer, c) Alpine SDR-17LS 6 ½” component speakers in custom enclosures on each door with 1 soft dome tweeters custom mounted on each ‘A’ pillar, d) Alpine SPS 130A 5 ¼” side speakers, e) Alpine SWR-1042D subwoofer in a custom, ported, and tuned at 32 Hz enclosure, f) Alpine MRV-F545 500watt amplifier, g) Rockford Fosgate CPC-1003 capacitor.

So you're running a combination of Arizona Z Car and T3 suspension components? I can understand why you might be having issues combining two aftermarket parts suppliers whose units were designed to replace the stock but work with their own parts, not someone elses. I only have a few things from T3 at this point but have been very impressed with their work.

Tried to look them up. Couldn't find them on Ebay or in Vancouver phone pages. Do you have any more info on them? Thanks.

OK - you won't be able to afford mine either. Good luck with your search.

Pull your plugs and see if they have a clean burn pattern on them or if maybe they are running rich - black and kind of wet looking.

Fortunately for me my sone has some Rota RB's in 17x9.5 and 17x8.5 that I can try on my car to sweet the inside clearances are like. Then I'll have to figure out how wide my ZG flares will have be if I decide to go that way. I have the TTT coiler suspension so there is some extra room on the inside my stock springs didn't have.

With the JCI mounts my car is running a stock LS1 alternator low on the drivers side. JCI did the install so they know what they used to make it work.

What is your budget to purchase the car?

Turns out it was the differences between the way 240Z headlights are wired and 280Z headlights. Once I redid the wiring to the headlight plugs to conform to the FSM and replaced both headlight fuses that I blew in the process of figuring things out the headlights now work fine. At the same time I upgraded the front brakes from Wilwood Ultralight rotors to Wilwood Spec 37 GT rotors and some new BP-20 pads. Front brakes are much better now.

The L28 stock fuel injection system operated off 35-40 psi. That's what you'll need for the injectors to do their job reliably. The OE system had a bypass pressure regulator. I see nothing about the particular vehicle you have the engine in so I'm not certain if it's an original fuel injected car with all the appropriate plumbing or not. Install a pressure gauge just before your fuel rail and see what it says. With the hood off you could even watch it while you're driving.

Check out the 5-lug hub set-ups at Arizona Z Car. You'll need to scroll down toward the bottom of the page to see them and I'm not certain they'll sell the hubs by themselves. http://www.arizonazcar.com/brake.html

Because everyones car is different. What works for a totally stock car isn't right for one that has suspension or body modifications. Also, because the cars are so flippin' old they don't always retain the clearances they came with from the factory. It's not unusual for the wheel well area to be wider on one side than the other or for an axle to be forward or aft of the original stock location. Stuff happens. It's better to get measurements off the car you're trying to fit wheels to and then do the research for yourself. The original wheels were 14x6" with 0 offset and 4x114.3 lugs. Original tires ran from 175/70-14 to 195/70-14. I have a 280Z and had Centerline build my wheels which are 16x7's with 0 offset. I ran 225/50-16 tires on them with a stock suspension. Some 8" wide wheels work too but that requires a different, and exact, backspacing with a stock body/suspension. Modify to coilers and it all goes out the window and you have to start over. Add ZG flares or a wide body kit and it all goes again. Do the work and learn something about your car rather than referring to a file and then blaming someone else when the wheel/tire combo doesn't fit your car.

I stand corrected. See any other errors?

OOPS - should be WILWOOD brake conversions Back in 2004 I did a Wilwood front brake upgrade on my car using JSK Innovations components. The kit used Wilwood Superlight calipers and 32 vane Ultralite rotors. It was in conjunction with a Modern Motorsports 240SX/300ZX disc brake conversion on the rear. It was recommended that I go with hard pads in the front and soft in the rear "to better balance the braking". After 27,000 miles the front rotors were badly worn - evenly worn - but needing replacement. The pads were about 60% gone. I contacted Wilwood and talked with one of their engineers. We went through what I had on the car, how it performed, etc., and he was totally on board when I said I was not happy with the durability of the rotors. After more discussion and additional research on his part he agreed that I could substitute the Spec 37 GT 48 vane slotted rotor for my Ultralites. That they were dimensionally the same but the Spec 37's are built to higher tolerances and can handle a lot more heat. He also recommended using the Wilwood BP-20 pads for everyday driving and occasional racing but, if I got into some more serious competitions, I needed to install BP-40 pads for those events. When I installed the original Ultralights they also had runout with resulting vibration when braking. I took them to Nissan and had them turned on the car and they worked fine after that, even though it was only for 27k miles. They also squealed horribly. The first thing I noticed about the Spec 37's was they have none of that vibration - and so far they don't squeal. I went to extreme measures to ensure all the mating surfaces were clean before assembly so a bit of debris between mating surfaces wouldn't cause me headaches. Evidently that along with the tighter manufacturing tolerances from Wilwood did the job. I also did a proper "bedding in" of the brakes right after their installation. Bottom line - if you have any of the front disc brake conversions out there that use the Wilwood Ultralite rotors you can replace them with the Spec 37's with no modifications. The Spec 37's are heavier so they increase unsprung weight but they should be way more durable - especially when run with the right pads.

My new Willwood rotors and pads came in a short while ago so I got with a buddy in his shop and did the brake swap and also worked on the headlights. I pulled out the FSM and rewired the headlight plugs per the manual. The only issue is that the drivers side was supposed to have a red/yellow wire and mine was just red so I wasn't sure if the red was the substitute for the red/yellow or the red/white which was maybe the red/yellow? Anyway, wired the red/black and red/white where the FSM said to put them and then put the red where the red/yellow was supposed to go. Fired it up and got low beams and no high beams.j Crap! So I switched the red and the red/white and tried again. Blew both the headlight fuses. Double crap! Put the two wire back where they were and then went to O'Reilly's and bought a box of 10 amp fuses. After I cleaned all the repair parts out of the car I opened up the fuse panel again and replaced the two fuses, started the car and then the lights worked on both low and high beam. YES! Only thing i can figure is that one of the fuses was already blown and some power was bleeding through the system to one of the sides and allowing me to have low beams but not high on one side. Anyway, the Dapper lights seem to be good so now I can see in the dark and stop if there is something in front of me.

Actually either Marvel Mystery Oil or WD-40 would be best in case there is a concern about it being frozen up. Pulling the plugs first and then trying to turn it over with the crank pulley would be the first move, though. If that doesn't work then use the oil. If it's the stock motor then it's an L24 (2400 cc) not an L28 (2800cc). I notice that it has dealer added AC. I'd be sure to keep that function but replace the compressor with a new style that will be more efficient and a LOT smaller.

Where in Washington are you? My '77 280Z is the car that the JCI kit was developed on back in 2003. If you have any questions give me a shout.

Wow, I've thought a few times about getting rid of my CableX box and doing that. Good to know there is someone just a few miles from my house that can provide the parts. There is one of the best LSX tuners in the NW in Vancouver also, Wong's Performance. I've been running my LS1/T56 combo for 12 years now and the CableX is still hanging in there so it will be while before I get that done.

I hope they are helpful. If you need anything else let me know. Do you have a Factory Service manual for your car? A lot of the information on the AC/Heating system should still be pertinent to your installation.

Here are photos of the routing of my AC hoses and position of the compressor and drier. Flow on the condenser is from the driver's side (compressor discharge) to the passenger side through the drier.

The nickname for the 240Z was the "flexi-flyer" because of it's lack of torsional rigidity. The 280Z has more steel in it and is somewhat stiffer but will still flex. I would strongly recommend front and rear strut tower braces and at least a 4-pt roll bar. If you can tie the roll bar to the roof of the car that would be even better. I have this without being tied to the roof and it has survived an LS1/T56 installation for 12 years of driving. The 280Z has full length frame rails where the 240Z did not. If you're going for torsional rigidity then stronger frame rails really aren't going to contribute to that all that much. If your stock frame rails are in good shape you shouldn't have to do anything there. Look at Racetep strut tower braces. They are not adjustable but are very sturdy.

I'd say you had a prophetic dream and that it occurred because you care so much about your daughter. She's obviously OK but you somehow picked up on the fear she felt at being left alone. It's a scary thing when our kids start to go out on their own. It's really tough let go - actually - you'll never fully let go and you'll always worry about her. It's just being a good dad.

I guess that makes me weird too. What size wheels and tires are you running? I'm looking at the ZG flares for my car and really want to run 275/40-17's on all four corners on Rota 9.5"x17" wheels.

Motorsport Auto sells a pushbutton start kit for the Z. You might check it out.

Haven't had a chance to check it yet but spent some time with the headlight circuit diagram that Ben at Dapper sent me. Shop wired the drivers side per the 240Z installation instructions that is on they Dapper website. Problem probably is that the 280Z wiring is different. Now I need to pull both front wheels, fender liners, and all the electrical tape off the wiring and redo both headlight plugs per the 280Z circuit diagram. That will probably fix it. Don't you love self-induced problems?