jeromio

I'll go out on a limb here - the difference is not with the differential, it's the pinion flange that varies. There are (to my knowledge at least) 2 different flanges. The one I am using with the Neapco adapter came from an 85 200SX turbo. The one from the 75 280Z does not work (I had one of these). The flange I have is round, vs the rectangular one from the 75. Davy is right, there is a pretty extensive thread on this - not sure if it was in here or in the Chevy forum. Try searching for pinion flange.

LS6 is not a 454. LS6 is an LS1 with head/cam/intake mods. Cameraobsess, I'm probably gonna come off as a jerk for saying this, but if you have not been able to find any info on the LS1 - especially answers to these questions you have just posted, then you have not even tried to look. Try searching here for LS1 and also check out http://ls1.com and http://ls1tech.com for a start. The LS1 is completely different from the 350. It's an all new engine with absolutely no interchange to the 97 and older engines. There is no carb manifold nor will there ever be one (why would you want a carb?)

You could try someplace like Budget or Triangle that rents pickups with unlimited mileage and rent a tow dolly.

I recommend aluminum line. Just make sure it is mounted nicely every few feet or so (if it vibrates it will fail over time). I started with steel line. Ugh. That was a nightmare. Too rigid. Broke my tubing bender. I think stainless braided line would be too expensive.

Phantom, as far as I know, all of the problems you mention (wiring, acc. brackets, guages, etc)are true of both the LS1 and LT1. The primary difference is the actual engine mounting. The LT1 can use JTR, the LS1 cannot. So it becomes simple kit, versus hand made fabrication. The major pluses for LS1 are lower weight and more refinement. But the mounting puzzle is a tough one. FWIW, the T56 for LS1 seems to be less expensive than the one for LT1 - higher availability and less demand apparently. I think at this point, an equiv. mileage LS1 will likely run slightly cheaper than the LT1.

I don't recommend using barstock unless you bolster it orthogonally - in other words, make the flat parts into a channel. I think it would be easier to just start out using tubing - square or round. Also, keep in mind that you will need to bolster the frame rails where this crossmember attaches. That's ~20ga metal there - not too strong.

What I would do is get a set for a Camaro and modify them. I seriously doubt you will find a set that works as is - exhaust is really tight in the Z.

That be a beefy stub. I would try using the stock Z31 bearing and mod the housing. My logic being that machining the one part is cheaper and also bearings are wear items, housings are not.

There's an RX7 guy on LS1tech.com who made some wierd adapter to the GM stuff with the help of a hydraulics shop. He recommended against anyone following that pathway. Too much hassle for no added benefit. I bench tested my setup and it held nicely with no leaks. I used one of the "extra" braided lines that came with my MSA 280ZX line kit. It had femail fittings on both ends. The stock 240/280Z SC hose is male female if I recall correctly. Not gonna be helpful. I have hard line from the MC to the braided line, then hard line from braided line to the SC. The SC fitting is a mostly standard one (although a longer fitting woulda been better) which is larger OD than the ones that come on preformed 3/16 inch line. (I had a bag of assorted fittings for 3/16 inch line.) I drilled out the SC hole a bit and tapped it for the fitting. Do yourself a huge favor and just remove the GM stuff and toss it.

Check out TerryO's website (I have a link off my website below - look for Vented Front Rotors). You can use the calipers but with 84 Z31 rotors. It's a very well documented swap and works really well.

There's a coupla posts mentioning that the C5 manifolds will not work. Do you also have the steering shaft in place? It really does sound like you have an oddball car. You are mounting it quite a bit farther forward from where most people are putting it. But that doesn't explain the A/C. I have my engine shifted over to the passenger side about 1/2 inch. The A/C is about 1/2 inch into the frame rail (slightly less) so I'm taking 5/8 out of each side of the bracket (1/4 on one side, 3/8 on the other). Leaves me with a whopping 1/8 inch clearance and I'll probably have to unbolt the motor and lift it up a bit to actually mount the compressor. So, yeah, 1 inch is really a huge difference. This is with the stock FBody bracket??

You'd have to modify the floor. 280Zs have a pocket in the floor behind the seat for the spool to mount to. I guess you could mount it directly to the floor somehow, but your seat probably wouldn't go back as far. Besides, if you're going to upgrade your belts, you may as well get something brand new - old belts may not work as well when you need them most. I've been looking for new belts myself and their pretty painfully expensive. Not a very helpful reply, I know...

Jester, from which vehicle did you source your LS1: FBody or C5? I ask because if you have the FBody accessory brackets and everything fits with no mods, I am VERY interested in seeing pics. For my install, I had to remove the Datsun towers and I am having to mill the A/C bracket to get the accessories to fit (removing the Datsun towers was not done solely for accessories, but it they were in the way). For exhaust, I am using the 99 sheet metal manifolds. I have welded up all the fittings, including the driver's side O2 bung. I lopped off the flanges and welded 2 1/2 ich tubing on the tail ends of each manifold. I then used standard 2 1/2 inch 3 hole flanges on both. There's not a whole lot of room, but both sides fit.

Look on my site for the clutch MC/SC mods. remove the GM stuff and throw it away. There's a small pin holding the funky fitting to the SC housing. I drilled and tapped that hole (details on the site). It works, I hope. Worried about the bleeding since there was fluid everywhere. I have comprehensive GM manuals on CD. Diagrams are sorta spread out into individual component diagrams and it's sometimes hard to link them back together. I only have the engine harness. Are you planning on using the clutch depressed switch then? I had John at Speartech reprogram my PCM - reflashed it from A4 to T56 and removed VATS. But there are still some complications for the wiring since I have the A4 (auto trans) harness. I have the pinouts from the PCM for instance, but I hate to have to tear apart the whole harness just to track down the 3-4 wires I need that concern the transmission...

I've left the passenger side bleeder screw open with the one-man-bleeder bottle attached. The caps are on, but just sitting on top (so no gook gets in there). Just sort of hoping for magical fairies to fix it I guess. I didn't think that all that much fluid got out of the MC since the reservoirs were not completely dry. It does seem like that front circuit is full of air. I had considered bleeding the actual cylinder, just hated to do that since invariably fluid gets all over everything.

So, I'm procrastinating on my wiring situation by doing some of the odds and ends work, such as finally bleeding the lines. I had replaced all of my brake lines and also installed my proportioning valve. I started with the right rear and it took many, many, many pumps (like maybe 100?) to get fluid back there. But, for the fronts, I am in mystery-land. I have pumped a buzillion times and the reservoir level has not gone down at all and no fluid has come out of the bleeder screw. Any ideas? I certainly hope that my emergency valve hasn't gone south since they seem to be unavailable...

I'm hoping Cyrus sees this post (I think it's cool to have all the LS1 info in this one thread). I'm tracing down my wiring and I am wondering if there are any time (and headache) saving short cuts that I could take. For example, I started trying to trace out the grey clutch switch wire hoping it would end up somewhere int he neighborhood of the transmission harness (although my engine harness is for an A4). But then I am wondering if it wouldn't just be easier to patch that in with another engine cut off ground signal. I hate that clutch switch on my Contour anyway. Also, in bleeding the slave cyl, I got real worried. I loosened the bleeder screw about 1 1/2 turns and pumped the pedal. Most fluid came out the screw (or appears to have), but a WHOLE LOT is in the bellhousing and dripping out. So, A) I hope the clutch disc isn't wet with fluid I hope my homemade fitting arrangement is not to blame C) why would the fluid leak past the screw? D) I HATE THIS DESIGN!@#$%& If I have to drop the trans cuz of this I will be so unhappy.

Man. I was just looking thru this thread again. Terry, you are chock fullo talent. That car is just the best looking car ever - Z or anything else. And of the pics from the link that Tim posted, I stopped on this one: Very mesmerizing. It's like this really amazing set of wheels (HRE $$$ ?), with a S30 bolted to them....

I drilled holes in the wheel wells and have the lines going directly from above the frame rails in the engine bay thru to the wheel well (rather than wrapping under and around the frame rail).

The only turbo V engine that I've ever heard of with only one bank feeding the turbine is the Saab (2001 model ?). All other turbo engines have all the exhaust piped to one or more turbos. IOWs, if it's a V engine with one turbo, there's a cross over pipe somewhere.

So, yes, exactly. You're planning to shorten the strut housing. So, what cartridge are you going to put in this newly shortened housing? In the rear, you can use Front 240 cartridges (Presuming you have a 240, if not, I'm not exactly sure what you use for a 280. Possibly front 280 carts?) You'll need a spacer because the front cart is about 1 3/4 shorter than the rear cart (and you're only talking about removing 1 inch from your strut tube). I'm not sure of the exact lengths or differences. In the front, there are Rabbit GTI carts and there are MR2 carts (rear, I think, it's mentioned someplace). These are carts that are the same OD as the Datsun ones, but shorter. But again, you're only taking 1 inch out of your tube, and either of those carts are more than an inch shorter than the stock units. So, you have to make up the difference inside the housing. I used plain old 1 1/4 ID inch pipe (the OD is pretty close to that of the cart), cut to length, (almost an inch) as a spacer. In the rear, I was able to use the washers that come with the carts, but I shortened my tubes by 1 1/2 inches. So, to re-iterate, I'm talking about a spacer inside the tube so that the cart is nice and tight in the housing.

What cartridge are you going to use then? The Rabbit carts I have are over 2 inches shorter than the 240 units. IOWs, you'll have to use a prett big spacer to make up the difference there. Also, I presume you're contemplating this route to save some dollars. In that case, last I checked (a while ago) lowering springs for 240/280Z were pretty expensive. It ended up costing about 20% more to get the complete coilover kit. But with coilovers, you gain room in the wheel well, have ride-height adjustability and you can pick from a wide range of fairly inexpensive spring rates. However, if your current springs are still good (which is not very likely), you may be able to use them - maybe cut out a coil to stiffen them up and shorten them. You'll lose some rebound though.

I started with a 4L60E and switched to a T56. That Auto is crazy fat. Really, really alot fat. And once you get thru beating the crap out of the tunnel, then you have to deal with exhaust clearance. T56 is much narrower.

I stand firmly by the wheel spinning test. You can't count on a 17 yr old car having all it's original parts. Also, I'm pretty sure that no 300ZX ever came with a 4.11 (Stock that is). I also don't think 200sx V6 or NA models had the 4.11 R200.

We started to put together a FAQ, but unfortunately we didn't get very far. Here it is: http://240z.jeromio.com/faq I started with a basic framework and people like John Coffey added lots of info. There is some good information there, it's just not comprehensive. My offer of adding any and all info to this document still stands. Just email it to me. (And if you did, and I didn't get around to adding it, you can harrass me about it.... )