280Z-LS3

I suggest Bring A Trailer too. Don't know if there are any fees for sale so check. If so, then there are other auction sites also. Facebook Market Place and Craigslist will broaden your market but that opens you up to flakes, and low ballers. Keep your contact info limited to email to sort out the jerks.

The clear coat looks really good in the pics. Did you figure out how to minimize runs?

A little up date. I have many irons in the fire, kind of jumping around. Still cleaning up the under side of car to install frame connectors and spot weld sheet metal seams. This will be a long and tiresome job so maybe that's why I keep moving around, lol. Used a ball carbine bit to grind away the spot welds on trans mount tabs. Name your poison on this job, angle grinder with flying sparks and almost uncontrollable material removal or the carbide which produces millions of little sharp needles that get stuck in my hands no matter how careful to avoid. Decided I had to be different and commit to using a SD7 mini A/C compressor mounted at driver's head. No aftermarket company makes this arrangement except John's Cars but he utilizes an SD5 with F-Body belt spacing and I have Corvette spacing. So custom mount it is. Hoped that some generic mount plates would work but they don't have enough material to cover face of head for bolt holes. Made some plates and now just need to drill some holes, cut away excess material and maybe even add a few large holes to lighten plates. Will fabricate spacers to locate belt 99mm to 100mm from face of head, that's what I measured with OEM alt mounted and worn belt that came with engine. For the re-located Alt I went with a 2006 Cadillac CTS-V 140 amp and bracket that has Corvette spacing. The bolt on the lower left will be used to mount a smooth pulley to add belt wrap around crank and alt pulleys. Almost finished welding up the 8.8 cradle and knuckles. Going to test fit kit so I can weld poly mount tabs and also check fitment for fabricating the rear subframe connector to tie the Bad Dog frame rails to the rear cross member that lower a-arms attach. Doing this to avoid clearance issues which I don't expect but you never know... Oh, waiting on the Techno Toy Tuning arms too so will hold off till they arrive, this week hopefully, so I can mock up the entire rear while at it. Have not spec'd the brake calipers yet so leaving the Mustang tabs tacked in case I need to fab new ones.

Ironhead, after you paint like 10 more cars you'll have all minor details/kinks worked out. LOL! I commend your efforts, looks great!

I have not purchased a fan or radiator yet. Will most likely go with the C7 fan because if the integrated PWM unit and 600 watt power, it's truly a beast of a fan. As for radiator that's still undecided. As I get close to installing will search out a good radiator to match with fan. Good luck with your build DonH

OK. Hope you never need them, i.e. crash damage.

Decided to make a tubing bender floor mount and heavily duty steel table after modifying the rotisserie. The top of the table will be welded on after installing casters which arrive in mail tomorrow. Started prepping for the sub-frame connectors.

$100 for left and right surround and center license plate piece shipped

Check if Viper motor fits in S30. If it does get the motor too! Mating the Viper trans to an LS block means different bellhousing and input shaft I believe, a major hassle. Google Viper and Chevy T-56 differences to confirm

Some car parts arrived today! Needed a seat and seat belt harness so I can start designing and fitting roll cage. Pulled the trigger on a Cobra Suzuka and Schroth Flexi Hans compatible harness.

My DIY rotisserie which I call “The Abomination” is a flawed design cobbled together from scrap oil field pipe and tubing lying around the ranch. It functions but had two glitches, no adjustment to move center of gravity toward rotational axis Making it very difficult to spin and the sliders would bind not allowing car to be lowered without a BFH. So decided to improve the design.

Don't think I am going to blast the body Richard. Other than the door and firewall there is minimal rust. That will save me some money I can put to other things. Next step is the Bad Dog frame connectors. While I'm prepping for the rails will poke around with the sander and screw driver just to make sure there are no hidden patches of rust.

Did you make that t-56 cross member or purchase it?

A small update. Finished the the boring tear down. Ziplock bagging all the parts, removing mastic sheet sound deadener and cleaning remaining mastic residue with Mineral spirits. The windshield seal became brittle over the years and needed to dug out with razor knife, not fun. The is body free of rust as I hoped except for the known areas, passenger door and passenger fire wall. Seems the car was exposed to a sprinkler or something in the passenger side for a time. My last build was a Mustang, see pic, and didn’t want to relive that experience so waited to find a body on good shape. I have a replacement passenger door which has some repaired collision damage. Going to strip the door, remove the collision bar so I can weld up drill holes used to pull the door skin and hammer it out to minimize bondo. Will remove the drivers door collision bar also. Installing a full cage so they would be redundant anyway. I toyed with the idea of using the spare door as a donor for the rusted area of the original door but the location And extent of the rust damage would make that job very complex. I can live with the bondo on the panel.

That's a beautiful engine bay! I have a modest budget so need to "value engineer" a few things. I get what you are saying about sizing the system properly. The two fans I listed move massive amounts of air and are OEM durable. Just need to spec a quality radiator with 1" cores. Will post what I eventually get in my build thread.

Love the paint scheme!

Yeah, the car is gutted now and making rotisserie mounts to connect to bumper brackets today. A HybridZ member sent over a link with chassis measurements to double check the chassis is square before welding in SFC.

First thing I am doing to my 280Z is install the Bad Dog frame rails and have a question on how the car should be supported to limit chassis flex as I weld in the rails. Should I have the car supported by all four wheels or is it okay to have it supported from bumper mounts on a rotisserie? The car is rust free and in good shape with no apparent collision damage

I will be using Tilton 72-607 pedal assembly, dual master cylinders (size to be determined) and 72-509 bias adjuster. I chose the Tilton pedals because modifying the stock pedal assembly with balance bar for dual master cylinders requires some work which I'd rather put into installing an aftermarket pedal system. Also, since I will running manual brakes Tilton has the option of 6.2:1 pedal ratio giving added leverage over the modified OEM pedal which gives just under 5:1. Putting off purchasing the calipers and rotors for now because plenty on the "build plate" right now. After I get the engine/trans, suspension and roll cage installed will get brakes and wheels.

That's really a hard question to answer in absolute terms. From what I have learned 70/30 is a ball park with any car. There are variables such as tires, brake pads, track conditions, etc. that will necessitate altering brake bias. Use a brake calculator to size master cylinders to system then use a remote adjuster to dial in for certain conditions. This is assuming you are going with dual master cylinders. Below is link to Tilton's remote adjuster. https://tiltonracing.com/product/standard-remote-brake-bias-adjuster/

Good advice everyone and leaning toward replacing body harness. Cary makes a convincing argument with good points on age of wiring, what OEM harness was designed to handle and, most convincingly, what as necessity will need to be replaced as I modify and swap engine, gauges, heating and A/C systems. There is not much left to replace after all that is taken into consideration. Even though my car was well taken care of and unmolested throughout it's life, having been carport or garage kept in San Diego area, the electrical connectors are brittle with corrosion present as Cary mentioned. This is concerning then add the specter of work hardened wire breaking in unknown locations is telling me to ditch the OEM harness. Also, my alt is a 140amp from a 2006 Caddy CTS-V so I will have some amps! Only question now is who makes the best quality harness that can be mounted in the passenger kick panel area? Someone mentioned the EZ and/or Painless are designed for American cars locating the fuse box in the driver's kick panel which makes a few wire runs too short for S30. Maybe an extra long option is available from EZ?

Tearing down my 1975 280Z car to prep for my build. It's getting an LS3 and will most likely use Holley Terminator Max X wiring harness and ECU. The OEM harness is massive, a ton of wire branching out from the passenger kick panel, see pic. I have read some threads of guys with 240Z using EZ and Painless universal body harnesses with some success while others suggest staying ith the OEM body harness. In either case they will be integrated with what ever engine harness I end up using. My issue with the OEM, although it's in great shape, is it's a ton of wire, connector and brackets located in the general area where I'll need room for a roll cage. I hope to fit a small universal heat/defrost and A/C unit under the dash above the passenger foot well. Looking for some guidance from those that have tackled the 1975 and newer EFI 280Z cars. Does it matter what year, the applied principles being the same? Should I attempt to strip the OEM harness of what I don't need to get it to a manageable size or would it be easier to just get a universal harness? Stripping the harness seems a daunting task while converting over to a universal harness not that much easier if at all...

Can anyone offer advice on using an aftermarket body wiring harness? My 76 280Z EFI has an incredible amount of wiring on the passenger kick panel that is going to make fitting roll cage, engine ecu, etc difficult if not impossible.

All info you need for Super 8.8 swap

Need the three piece plastic set that surround the tail lights and hold license plate. I believe the tail lights for 260Z and 280Z are the same so anything from a 1974 260Z thru 1978 280Z should work.