Phantom

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?

I agree that a 5-spd would make the car more enjoyable to drive. Get one out of a 77-78 280Z. The ratios will be more compatible with your existing r180 differential. You can go online at classiczcar and find the 4-spd and 5-spd individual gear ratios to do a real side-by-side comparison. If you have an OEM "oversize" radiator I'd stick with it. Early 240Z's came with 2-row radiators because they didn't come with AC from the factory. It was a dealer added option. Just for grins you might have your shop look at it and see if it's a 2-row or a 3-row. My '77 280Z had a 3-row radiator with AC and I never had an overheating issue in the DFW area.

Are you certain it's not leaking out the back of the oil pan and blowing onto the transmission while you're driving? If you're losing a quart of oil in 50 miles you should see a leak somewhere with the engine running. Also, are you talking about it leaking into the transmission or the bell housing area? If it's leaking into the bell housing you could possibly pull the starter and see if the flywheel has oil on it. It would also cause you to have a badly slipping clutch if much got into the bell housing.

I assume that you know that pipe sizes are based on nominal schedule 40 ID and tubing sizes on OD? a 1" schedule 40 pipe is slightly over 1" ID. A schedule 80 is slightly under 1" as the extra wall thickness is taken out of the inside. Also, tubing generally tends to be a better material than pipe. Have you looked at all your options on a pipe/tubing guide? It can be a bit daunting looking at all the options and trying to get the ID/OD that you want.