lifeprojectZ

How many turns lock to lock do you have with your current config? Does steering with the 2.09 and short knuckles feel tighter than a porsche / vette / other OE sports car or about on par? With all due respect (most sincere!) I hope to do no more than about 30% of the customization that you did I am setting myself up for harshness as well since I decided on 18" wheels, but I am hoping that the AME suspension and adjustable dampening of the shocks will help me tame it down for street driving. It will never be a daily driver. What was your motivation behind the dry sump upgrade to the LS? Was this out of concern for oiling during cornering, or to gain ground clearance with lower engine positioning in chassis? As of right now I'm looking at the Holley 302-2 oil pan, which will probably still protrude a bit below my chassis. Crank centerline to bottom of the 302-2 is 8.25". I'm trying to go for a flat undercarriage other than that. All subframe connectors will be eliminated, and I will only be using the 280Z shell on top of the AME chassis. I do have the benefit of a wider trans tunnel for the exhaust.

I think I bungled/ swapped the words tandem and dual in my question about the brakes, but your answer is completely understandable! I am going with Wilwood SL6 calipers on front and still unknown rears, and am pursuing an option to keep a small, maybe the OE, booster, as I am kind of addicted to low effort brakes and mine will be mostly a street car. Woodward offers 2.09, 2.36, and 2.62 ratios (Flaming River calls it "rack gain"). I recently ordered an Art Morrison custom chassis for my project, and they only offer a Flaming River rack, of which they use 99% power racks with 2.27 ratio/ gain. When I looked at the Flaming River manual racks, the fastest ratio I found was 1.75, which I just immediately dismissed as too slow (maybe not?). I called Flaming River and wasn't really impressed with the guy's technical knowledge and also telling me that no one offers a faster ratio on the market today for a manual rack. ok, thanks. hang up. I told Art Morrison I wanted a Woodward rack, and they even mention them as available in their catalog, but after quite a bit of discussion and detail I won't mention here, they left me on my own to pursue the Woodward rack, and they will design the mounting for it. I'm not sure how your quick ratio knuckle pivot to pivot length compares to what I will have with the Wilwood pro spindles, so I will compare all of that before ordering the rack, but with your feedback it sounds like the 2.09 is the ticket. That is, unless I too quickly dismissed the 1.75 ratio Flaming River rack as inadequate.

Ironhead- I am a bit late to the party here, but also want to give congratulations on the result of all your hard work. That is an understatement. I can't believe how much custom work you did on everything. Inspiring. Don't be disappointed with the issues you are working through, these are the spice of life and no doubt are teaching you (and all of us) much. I have spent the past week reading intently through all 28 pages of this thread :-() and the posts have given me so much info on products I never knew existed but will now consider on my own project just kicking off. Thank you. Two questions I didn't see answers/ background on that I would love to hear your thoughts. 1- why did you decide to go with tandem single master cylinders w/o booster instead of a dual master with small booster and proportioning valve? 2- You mentioned that your electric steering assist was a bit erratic when you first did your road test. Did that ever straighten out, and is the assist consistent / predictable now? Are you using the road speed sensor or manual control to dial in the level of assist? Also, do you like the rack gain / ratio you chose from Woodward? That is the same rack I will be buying from Woodward in a few months, and I was thinking of the same ratio with electric assist in the column. Sorry, I couldn't keep it to two...

Thanks for your interest. I have spent the past several years trying to convince myself that I am not insane (though the project may be), and my move to the AME chassis was a big decision. It was a trade-off in spending money up front to save me time and ultimately get a car capable of handling the way I would expect after dumping tons of money into it regardless of which direction I choose. I have followed some of the other members' projects, and I see tons of work going into reinforcing the unibody which ultimately adds a lot of weight anyway. My goal with the AME chassis is that it, together with a minimally designed roll cage to meet NHRA / SCCA requirements, will provide all of the primary rigidity for the car, and the small remaining shell of the body I will use will just go along for the ride pretty much. I have struggled with coming to terms on a few aspects of the project. I don't like super wide wheels that protrude far outside the original body lines of the car. I wanted to keep that minimal, while recognizing that I would definitely need fender flares for what I have planned. Initially I wanted 17" wheels because I though 18" wheels looked strange on the Z car and was afraid they would just transmit too much road vibration to make it enjoyable to drive on the street. Plus, 17" tires now are relatively cheap. However, I also wanted to stick with a max tire diameter of about 25", so I came up with limitations on the 17" wheels and tire sizes. I finally decided on 18", and both front and back will be 25" diameter. OE Datsun tires were 24.6 I believe, and I felt it important to stay as close as possible to that. The narrowest track width (hub to hub mounting) that AME offers is 55.5 (OE Z car is 54.5), so I went with that on the front and rear, and am using 5.5" backspacing on the front wheels (18 x 9) and 6.5 backspacing on the rear (18 x 10.5) to keep the wheels tucked in as much as possible. I'll be picking up my wheels within the next 60-90 days and will post pics when I have them.

Hello all- I started reading at hybridz somewhere around 20 years (+/-) ago and took a break for many years while my '77 280Z sat in storage and I traveled the world for work, all the while never losing the passion to continue with and finish the project. Haven't had much to report until now. I am trying to read up on some of the incredible projects posted here which have similarities to my own, and I am certainly interested in any comments / advice as I go forward with my project over the next several years, hopefully to complete within the next 5. So the story starts in 2001 with buying a clean original '77 280Z from original owner in San Jose, CA, and driving it across country to Indiana with 220K on the odometer. Fortunately I made it back without issues, but the original engine died within 3 days after arriving and suffered from random shut-downs while driving without being able to immediately restart. As I had plans at the time to install a '95 LT1 turned 383 stroker, I just parked the car. Fast forward 21 years through work, life, wife, kids, and the car sitting in garages / storage in Indiana, West Virginia, Ohio, and now S. Carolina with all expense paid (by me) trailer tows between these states, I finally decided to say screw it with spending gobs of money to modify the existing suspension and still be left with the original suspension geometry. I just put down my deposit on a full Art Morrison custom Max G chassis with sport IFS and compact IRS, built to my specs. Should be done and shipped in 6-8 months. Here are the specs. Will share more detail as it comes. - 1977 280Z - Art Morrison Max G chassis, 5.25" ride height (floor to bottom of 2x4 rect tubing). (I chopped my OE springs in the photo attached to lower the car to the height I want for the purpose of taking measurements) - LS376/480 crate engine + T56 Magnum - Forgeline 18x9" fronts w/ 255/35R18, and 18x10.5" rears w/ 295/30R18. -13" front brake rotors w/ Wilwood calipers, 12.4" rear rotors w/ TBD calipers -Strange Dana 60 IRS w/ Eaton Truetrac diff, 3.54:1 -Strange Ultra double adjustable coilover shocks, 350lb springs (to start) - Woodward manual steering rack (rack gain TBD) - Electric power assisted steering installed in column I have some parts up for sale now in the Parts for sale section which I acquired over the years and am no longer going to use in my project. Other parts will be added over the next year, including Ford 8.8 rear diff, Cobra CV axle shafts, and a lot of OE suspension etc. parts Greatly appreciate all comments / advice / questions / interest. Steve

I decided to buy a custom chassis from Art Morrison for my '77 280Z and the last measurement I am finalizing is the overall frame width, which I am planning to fit right in between the lower vertical lips of the outer rocker panels. I am going to drill out all of the spot welds holding the rockers to the OE floor pan, and plug weld those holes to the 2" x 4" rect tubing of the frame. I was curious to know if anyone has tried to take this measurement inside to inside between rocker panels, and what they got? Or has anyone else built a frame with this fitment in mind, and what overall width did you use / how did it work out? I took the measurement in about 6 places and consistently got 51.25 - 51 5/16.

Price lowered to $50 for both, plus shipping to your location from zip 29303

I have two brand new in box Tokico Illumina adjustable struts p/n BZ3099. These are for the Toyota MR2 1987-89, but have been popularly used in sectioned struts for the 240, 260, 280Z. I bought these several years ago and never installed them and now my 280Z project has taken a different turn, and I will no longer be needing these. I will only sell both together for $250. Buyer pays shipping from Zip 29303. Please do not request a shipping quote unless you accept the purchase price already. I will need a few days to box these properly and securely including adding packing material to protect these parts for you before I can get the quote from UPS. I am attaching an article I printed from HybridZ forum many years ago that explains the sectioning in case you can't find it here doing a search. Strut sectioning.pdf

5 lug front hubs (4.5" bolt circle) from the 84-85 300ZX Turbo. These can be used over the 240/260/280Z spindles, but they have a 20mm greater offset (outboard) than the original 4 lug hubs. These hubs also do not provide the inboard housing for a seal to cover the inboard seal step on the OE 240/260/280Z spindles. You could have a machine shop machine these slightly, and then press on a collar which could hold that OE seal. This would be a very simple job for a competent machine shop if you take them this hub and your original 4 lug hub. I bought them from a salvage yard to convert my 280Z but have since changed my plans and no longer need them. $75 for both plus shipping to your ZIP.

I just signed up today and made a donation, but my account shows no donations. I am trying to post in Parts for Sale, but it won't let me and I assume this is why. Does the donation need to be manually verified by an Administrator, and does having marked the "anonymous" boxes have anything to do with this? If so, how can I get it recognized by my account now so that I can post? Thanks.