80LS1T

The front 3 plugs there is plenty of room and the last plug is a little bit tight but there is still enough room. I'm just glad I'm done with this! It took a lot of time and a lot of patience(sp?) to make this! gUY

Well my drivers side header fabrication is done! Now all I need to do is send it out to "JET HOT COATINGS" to be ceramic coated! Here's some more info & pics... Exhaust/Header Page

Just out of curiousty.... why are you upgrading the brakes if your staying with the stock engine? Dont get me wrong bigger brakes are a good thing but when my 280ZX had the L28e in it the stock brakes kept up just fine. You could always upgrade the pads to some ceramic ones... Are you planning on using the car for autocross? Guy

Well after my stepdad took my header to work to have it welded he brought it about 3 weeks later and told me that the guys at work said that they couldnt do it! Although they didnt say why....? I was like "what they could tell you that the first day?!" I was pissed off to say the least! Well since they "can't" / are too lazy to do it, I dedcided to buy a MIG welder to do it myself! I really wanted MIG welder anyways so this just gives me an excuss to buy one! So today I went and bought a "Lincoln Weld Pak 100", gas conversion kit, and one of those auto darkening helmets(man if you dont have one of these, you should get one! It is money well spent!) All in all it cost me just over $600. The welder isn't a huge welder or anything but it can weld up to a 1/4" thick material, which I figured was more than enough for the stuff the I weld. And that auto darkening helmet is awsome! I wish I had bought one of those when I bought my stick welder! Tonight I was practicing welding on left over pipe pieces that I had from when I made the header. I haven't wire feed welded in a while so I'm going to practice some more and then finish welding up my header this weekend! I already have the "hang" of it so not too much more practice will be needed. Guy 8)

Yeah thats the manifold that you want. However remember that it is a D-Port design so if you have sqaure or oval ports you might have a problem with getting the gasket to seal... Guy

Well putting a T56 in my 280ZX wasnt too hard. I had the 3 speed auto in it before with L28, so I had to mount a pedal. That was the hardest part of putting a manual tranny in it. I use my car for 90% street and 10% track(havent had it at the track yet but this year I will be going) so I went with a T56 manual tranny because I like to shift my own gears. Now if your more serious about drag racing then obviously go with a auto tranny(4L60E....electronicly controlled 700R4 basically) Guy

How on earth did they fit the stock manifold on the passenger side? I sure as hell couldn't! That rear dump manifold landed right on the frame rail. Guy

SBC stands for Small Block Chevy.....283, 302, 305,327,350,383,400(Im sure there are more but those are the main ones) Now as far as engine choice it all depends on what you want out of your car.... 1.) Are you a EFI guy or a Carb guy? I went EFI because I never learned to much about carbs because they arent in use now on production cars, so we didnt go in depth about them when I was in Tech School for Automotive Technology 2.) Do you want a reliable street car that is fast? Go EFI. It is much easier to keep the car tuned once you have it tuned to were you want it. 3.) What kind of power are you looking for? 300HP....400HP....or even 500HP? 4.) Will this be a auto cross car/street only/drag car? This will play an important part in engine choice. If you want to auto cross it then I say go LS1, due to the fact that it will keep the weight down. If your going street car then I say LT1 or carburtated if you like carbs. The LT1 fits in the ZX like it was ment to be, it has the low profile intake so no hood clearancing is needed, distributor is on the front of the engine so you dont have to worry about any issues with the firewall clearance, plus its EFI. If your going drag car only then I say find a way to stuff a BBC(Big Block Chevy 427, 454, 502, etc) Like I said it all depends on what you want and what you know about certain engines. Remember that engines like the LT1 & LS1 are more expensive than a carburated engine, however in the long run I think an EFI engine will pay for it self due to the fact that they are easier to tune and stay tuned. Guy

You can get a set of late model LT1 manifolds off of ebay for about $25-$35. Hey Greimann! Long time no see! Since when does MSA have a 280ZX project car? Do have anymore pics? Guy

Im guessing you found that mouting kit at http://www.zcarparts.com? I bought mine from them(MSA) and they car nice mounts but I think that they are a bit over priced. You could easily make these mounts for about $30 in materials. I didnt use the tranny mount because I have a T56 and not a 700R4. Have a look on my website(click on the "WWW" button at the bottom in my sig) I have pictures of the mounts that they sell. I dont have a pic of the tranny mount that I made though. I should have a pic of it up some time in the near future when I pull the tranny to install a new throw out bearing. Guy

The ZX kit that they offer is for a small block chevy conversion. You can use any GEN1 or GEN2 SBC engine, just not the GEN3(LS1,LS6, etc). MSA(http://www.zcarparts.com) also sells a conversion kit for the ZX. Guy

Thats sounds right to me! Guy

Where can you get an adapter like that? I havent seen them in the summit or jegs catalogs? Guy

The T56 is rated at about 450FT-LBS of torque. So it will be border line depending on what you do as far as a supercharger or not. Guy

WOW!!!!! Look'n good! 8) Seeing as how my car will finally see paint this spring, I was wondering about a few things...... 1.) Did you remove all your door weather stripping to paint the door jams? 2.) Did you remove the weather stripping on the doors and the door panels to paint the inside of the doors? I am not a painter so these may seem like simple questions but Im just curious since you just had yours painted. I will be haveing my brother paint my car. He has been doing painting and restorations for 15+years. I know he will know what to do but Im curious now! Thanks, Guy

Man how long did you have the LT1 in there, was it even a month? You didnt even have it in there long enough to work out the bugs! LOL So why the swap over the LS1? I know the LS1 is a great engine but the LT1 isnt that bad! LOL Guy

Congratulations !!!! 8) Gotta love the first drive.....and 2nd......and the 3rd......and well you gotta love'em all but the first is deffintely the best! Gives you satisfaction that you just cant beat! Has everyone run their car with out an exhaust and just headers!? I know I did Man that was FUN!!!!!! Nothing like a 400HP 355ci LT1 roaring down the road with open headers! I felt like I was in NASCAR for like 2 minutes LOL Guy

Thanks icice9! Thats just want I wanted to see! I had no clue who made those mirrors. Guy

Its called weight transfer. The Neon being a FWD car ha no weight transfer to the front wheels. When you gun it all the weight comes off the front tires and goes to the back which in turn makes it a lot easier to spin the tires. Your car is actually putting the power on the ground where as the Neon is just burning rubber!(I can't beleive I said "Neon" and "burning rubber" in the same sentance! ) Guy

What do these guys just have extra sheet metal laying around to make up body panels and put them on? They must be really really bored! I have never seen more ugly cars in one place at the same time! :malebitchslap: Guy

From what I know it wont help a stock engine. Are you planning to modify the engine anytime soon? If not then I would say spend your money on something else, for now atleast. You could just buy the "NOS" TB that is already plumbed for NOS which is a 58MM TB. They are kinda pricey though, last time I checked they were about $560.00 or so. Guy

Wow that is a great link! Now do the Miata seats fit in the 280ZX? So in other words will this chart be useful to me? Guy

Oh dont get me wrong for a hair shy of $20K you cant go wrong but I dont care for FWD as a performance car. Another thing that I didnt like was the exhaust, since its a turbo they decided to keep the muffler off for better flowing exhaust so has a very annoying drone when coasting down from pretty much any RPM range. Too loud for me I guess? I mean its ok to have loud pipes but make sure they sound good and not like a big fart! Guy

I thought they were already putting down 245 to the wheels? Atleast thats what I heard/rumors. So if thats true you get 15-20HP for 2K? LOL Actually I just remembered something... I was reading an article in some MOPAR magazine at work and some guy took a mid to late 90's Neon and put about $10,000 worth of work and parts into and he got 33HP!!!!!! He had intake work done, full 2.5" exhaust(madrel bent) and it was coated all the way back, 3 angle valve job, compression raised to 10.5:1 and a bunch of other stuff. He also added a NOS system (100HP shot) I am not kidding about this....$10K for 33HP? What a joke! I hope he build that for show and not go! I thin the SRT-4 has some potential but I for one am not willing to find out, just not my "cup of tea" Guy

My service writer at work (Dodge Dealership) let me dirve an SRT-4 Neon today. So I jumped in and took a spin down the road with it. The road conditions were not favorable due to it being really cold and some snow flurries which turn into slick roads. Not to metion there was no way I was going to be able to warm those tires up. So I pull out of the parking lot an punch it.....I was smoking the tires in first, shifted to second still smoken the tires....then I hit third at about 55 and then she grabbed. 1st and sencond are fun and third is ok once you get back into the 3000-5000 RPM range. I would say this is a good daily driver for a guy who isnt too crazy about having tons of power but for most of us here the power would get old real fast. I got bored with it and I only drove it like 5 miles. I think it would be a good beginners car for someone who wants to learn how to drive a car with "some" power. My girlfriend would have a blast in this car and never get sick of the power it has. Just thought I would share this info incase someone was thinking about buying one! Now if I can just convince my boss to let me drive the Viper or the SRT-10! Guy