slyhog22056

yeah i already sat in it and looked, at first i had it 2" higher to run gauges all the way across but lowered it and the top of the steering wheel from my point of view in the seat is at the same height as the dash. I think what you are seeing is the hump on the backside of it, i had to go back about 4" before tapering it off to allow room under it for the wiring and gauges. Got it covered in the 2nd coat of plaster to sand it out before painting it. I will take more pics after it is dry and sanded.

The foam was some we had left over from where i work, it was from a old sludge seperator we removed about 9 years ago, dont know where to find any more of it though the sheets were 4" thick and 2' x 6' long and i got 15 of them and about to run out from different fiberglass projects. I am going to have to start lookin around for some industrial foam because i still have a lot more fiberglass stuff i want to make.

no, i just figured out how much room i needed for my gauges and switches and just started cutting it out, shaped the lower half with a home made hot rod then glued 4" foam on the and just went to carving with a grinder with a wire cup on it. Made some changes since then i covered the sutout onthe passenger side since i wont be able to see those guages over there. Got it covered in plaster right now trying to even things out and see how it looks. I thought about making a female mold out of plaster in case someone wanted one but... nawww

I had some wheels made a while back for my datsun, i wanted to run 295-50-15 tires on the rear but had a hard time finding anything that would allo me to do that. I went to the place that makes my race wheels and they make wheels from 8" wide to 15" wide in 14" thru 17" any backspace any bolt pattern. they can chrome them, or paint them for you, i ordered mine raw and powdercoated them myself. I paid 180 for a pair to fit my datsun and i love them. http://www.mrt-wheels.com/circletrackwheels.htm

A few weeks ago i began forming the foam mold for my dashboard. I figured i needed to take some pics and share them. This is only the foam rough in. I plan to fill everything in with plaster to smooth everything out then paint it with several coats of enamel paint before i start laying on the glass. When i get it all done (3layers of glass) then i can melt out the foam with acetone and get rid of the remaining plaster with plain water. I still have to build the center section that goes down the front for the heater controls, radio and heat outlet. Bu that will be a seperate piece so i can remove it if needed. It was difficult to try and incorporate 9 2" gauges and the 5" tach and speedo into it all.

Just have to look and see whats out there. the setup i had came from my 84 633 csi. maybe the 3 and 5 series are smaller sized units, not sure. they are a pretty simple operating system. Just be sure to document make year and model of what you got it from so if you have to buy replacement parts you will know what yoyu are looking for. the good thing about the bmw systems is that there are built in switches for low fliud, low pressure and some have temperature monitoring for brake fluid temps. but you might not want to hook all that up

Just had to chime in here ... another option you may have is to go to a salvage yard and find an old BMW master cylinder, proportioning valve and power steering pump, and its resevior. the BMW is a hydraulic boost system and Works great. You You also have seperate reseviors for front and rear brakes and is designed for 4 wheel discs. That was the way i was going to go if i had problems with my 5.0 install.

When my son and i gutted my 75 280Z for racing it weighed 2285 with the 2.8L 4 speed before the 5.0 swap. after the swap and before i started making it streetable again it was 2175. no interior at all, no dash, 1 gallon radiator, 1 seat, 8 gallon fuel cell. when we stripped the car the dash and heater assembly was over 325 by itself. My 23" x 13" wide slicks and wheels weigh less than the datsun tires and wheels at 28 lbs, my fronts, 20" x x9" are 22 lbs on steel wheels. All the interior plastic, carpet and pleather was over 250 lbs. But now i am having to put it all back in or fabricate it all.

When i put my 1988 5.0 in my 75 280Z i fabricated a crossmember similar to the JTR one but i built mine out of 1" schedule 40 pipe and made the lower center section so it can be removed to pull engine in and out with out having to remove the side pieces. My biggest challenge was fitting the oilpan around the datsun crossmember and steering shaft. machining the adapter for the driveshaft to diff was a bit of a challenge with the close tolerances around the outside diameter. Have fun with it once you get it going, in case you are wondering you actually lost over 100 lbs of front end weight by getting rid of the original datsun engine, makes autocrossing a lot more fun.

I tied the original 8 ga white wire that runs from the alternator to the datsun starter back into the battery terminal on my solenoid. 1 to solenoid and the other end onto the charging post on alternator. kept the factory fusable link blocks on the datsun intact, just relocated all the wiring, including my voltage regulator, 12V distribution block, and fusable links to the spot where the battery used to go, but you wont have a voltage regulator. so i dont know what you will have to do with the datsuns volt reg wiring. I put 3 terminal blocks there too, 1 is for when key is on and the other is 12V continously, the last one is a ground block for anything else i might have. My battery is located in a box behind the passenger seat.

there might be some terminals that will also hook to the positive terminal, like fan relays and other stuff, the key switch inside the car also turns on power to the relays, to engage them, all my fan and other relays are hot continiously by using the battery wire, the key switch sends 12 volts during "run" to the relays, the ground side of my relays are controlled by sending units mounted on tha oil temp, trans temp, and water temp fittings, all ther things for the car are controlled by the key switch within the original car wiring, fuel pumps, lights, wipers, gauges, etc.

ok, i dont have any of the bumpers or bumper hardware, dash, interior, fuel tank, spare tire well, i forgot about those huge heavy bumpers and their hardware. Guess all that stuff does add up...

Well if you are using a ford starter there is a 3 or 4 pole switch that mounts on fender or firewall, it has 2 large and either 1 or 2 small terminals. 1 larger terminal goes to the battery, 1 to the starter and one of the smaller terminals marked "I" to the key switch to engage starter. [/b]:;"] [/b]:;"]

Your 280 Z weighs 2850??? mine only weighs 2470 with a 302 and AOD. that is on a CAT certified scale. but i dont have the factory dash and interior either, and i already thought i was over weight

When you use the 1 wire alternator with a ford the 8 guage wire from the alternator goes to the side of the soleniod switch that foes to the battery cable NOT ste starter cable. Make sure you run at least a 10 guage ground wire to a good ground, not to the engine, unless the engine is directly grounded to the battery. Cant help with dizzing problem, i went with HEI style distributor

Hi there people, have a predicament, I built a carbureted 302 ford motor from a 88 efi engine and used a procomp hei style distributor in it. now i have a different intake and the hei distributor wont fit because it hits the intake runners. I do still have the old ford distributor which came from a 88 lincoln. what do i need to hook up and run the old distributor. wiring, ignition box....etc. any help would be appreciated... my direct email is slyhog22056@tx.rr.com

Recently acquired a R200 long nose differential. It has 4 spiders and a tooth count of 47:12 which makes it a 3.92. Cant find any info for this gear combination and as to whether or not it is VLSD. Was told it came out of a Subaru something or another, but was also told it was a 4.11...NOT. any way i am putting this under my 76 280Z that i just put my ford 302 into and want to know if the axle shafts i now have will just pop into the housing. it has CV housings on it now. I also figured out that i can put either my 11 tooth pinion in it to get different ratios but 11 would give me a 4.27. anyway does anyone know about this gear set 47:12 and is it lsd??

According to the calculator i looked up 25' of 3/8" steel tubing running 7 psi will flow 7 gal/minute, with a pressure drop of about .5 psi, 25" of 5/16" steel tubing running 7 psi will flow 4.8 gal/minute with a pressure drop of about .65 psi. If you have a motor that can run that kind of flow through it even with a return line i wanna see that intake system...lol

Well i talked to a few racing friends of mine and they suggested putting a 7 or 15 psi N.O. pressure switch through a relay to the ignition system, that way it doesnt fire ignition until it reaches 7 or 15 psi. That will also cut off the ignition in case oil pressure drops beloe that point for some reason. Simple and easy. and i will have to let it run for a while before i can drive it... no choke....

My fuel lines on my 76 are 3/8" feed and return, the line that ran from the evap canister is a 5/16" line, that was what was in the car when i got it, only 1 of the 2 larger lines were hooked up to fuel system when i got it, it had already had the fuelinjection removed and 3 webers on the motor when i got it.

Since i will only be driving the 500Z 1 or 2 days a week would it be possible to put a oil accumulator inside the cabin to eliminate dry startup? My dad used to have them on his race cars but i am not sure where to hook it up on the 302. Would it go in at the oil pressure gage hole on the block?? does this go direct to the crank bearings??.. Not sure, that is why i am asking coaches.... Any thoughts about Z-max instead?????

I just used a procomp 7 psi, 180 GPH pump and their regulator with return line off of the regulator back to the take, my holley 650 only needs 5 psi to run right and the 3/8" lines are good for that much. Make sure you run a return line so the pump can run continously, making the pump cycle on and off with the internal preset pressure relief is bad for a fuel pump and it relies on continous fule flow to cool the pump., i know, burned up several pumps that way. all pump manufacturers recommend this.

I still have everything from the top of the engine. All just sitting around. The only part i need to keep is the TV cable. harness is still there too.

My 1988 lincoln motor uses a clockwise rotation pump with serpentine belt to run crank, water pump and alternator with no tensioner, just the curved brackets that i extended to make the belt tight, BTW if your alternator mounts con the passenger side just below the head you will have to find a serpentine belt mine ended up being 39"

I built my 5.0 from a 88 lincoln towncar engine, heads milled .030, fully ported, port matched, polished, removed the smog bumps, used edelbrock torker high rise manifold with 2 1/2" spacer, Holley 650 cfm carb, E303 cam, timing gear set, balanced internals to within 3 grams, kept roller lifter setup, HEI ignition and took it to a friend of mine to put on engine dyno to break it in, first pass before and real tuning...351 HP, setting ignition curve and timing set....388 HP.. reset carb and jetting ended up with 438 HP. Dont let anyone tell you carbbed motors wont tune well, cant tune a EFI to get these numbers with out spend mucho dinero on injectors, throttle bodies and lots of puter reprogramming... besides when your efi screws up on the raod whatcha gonna do?? carb screws up you can make drivable in most cases.