RebekahsZ

Thanks, Mikelly. Good advice. I'll try to find something else to rheuminate over. I'm a worry wart.

I'm also concerned about the strength of the small bolts that connect the uprights to the unibody (and the unibody steel tearing). However, what is the worst that can happen? It breaks and Josey goes to a back-halfed straight axle? Gonna have to cut all that sheetmetal out then anyway. As long as SUNNYZ is doing all the work, I'm all-in and axious to see his first trip down the 1/4-mile!

Unless you are using nitro, does it really matter how many quarts the oil pan holds? I've been using Mobil1 synthetic in my LS2 and that stuff costs like gold! This is an honest question, not a smart alek remark. I'm using a stock Camaro pan. It hangs an inch too low, so I put a 1" bar on my crossmember to break bottles or any other trash in the road before hitting the aluminum oil pan.

Zfan, how long do you think your primaries will be?

I'm subscribed to see how this works out and how that tranny fits. IF I build another z I plan to use the same setup vs a powerglide or a t350 which seem to fit the tunnel easily. You will love the Ls platform. Biggest reason I can see to use the tranny you are using is to be able to buy motor and trans as a unit just to keep things simple.

That's kind of where I am. I sold off my long tubes after reading the write ups from guys who installed them (and went thru a lot of pain to do it). Then it took me about 20 minutes to install my JTR "headers." Easy serviceability has become a consideration for everything. Listening to opposing points of view.

You are doing AMAZING work!!!!

If you are serious about this car, you gotta go thru the painful right of passage: stripping the tar off the floors.

Can't get videos to load in the thread, but the Videos section of hybridz let me load them right up. Visit the Videos section and look for my screen name. Enjoy.

Have you changed tires recently? I recently went on a road trip and switched from my race tires to my wide street tires. I have no sound insulation in the car. The tires howled the whole trip. Tires can make a lot of noise and this is very easy to check if you have a spare set of wheels and tires.

Ask wfritts911. I swear he did the whole LS swap in 2 weeks. But he's 19 and has the skills to fabricate just about everything himself in his front yard under a tree.

But how long is long enough? Easy boys, I'm talking about headers.... Honestly, what length should we be builing for? I though 36" was the goal, but how the heck do you install those? Seems like ya gotta compromise at some point to allow fitment. The long tubes 1tuffz got made were 24". The Kooks that rags' friend had made were 29". Thoughts?

I would go fiberglass, if they are a quality piece and look like they would fit properly and have ALL the right bolt holes and flanges for things like airdams and headlight buckets. I had my metal fenders fixed (it was 17 years ago) and I've got bubbles popping up - I get discouraged fixing the same thing twice. If you decide to go metal, please PM with a price for your fiberglass ones. The only reason I can see to not go fiberglass is fitment issues. So, try them on. If they don't fit correctly nobody is gonna want them. If I knew of a source for carbon fiber fenders, I'd look into them - I have a carbon hood and it is super light. Light weight wins everytime for me. Now, if I knew of a source for fiberglass doors that allow the use of roll-up windows and standard window frames....

Finally figured out how to insert video. Dellorto DHLA40. Stock (Autozone) fuel pump, Holley bypass fuel pressure regulator to allow return line to tank set at 3psi on gauge, stock distributor with vacuum plate delete mod, dirty gas tank:( Sold on ebay about a 6 months ago for $1500 (I think). Wish I could remember who I sold them to so we could see what parts I had in them. http://youtu.be/dZy8kg6K2Oc

What stall did you use? Did you have any trouble with your 300zx axles being too long? Where did your CV axle break? Not meaning to thread jack-you want me to PM you?

Damn thats fast. If you can, measure how tall that pan is. With the stock f-body pan and JCI mount system, my pan hangs 1-inch below the crossmember. You can use that as a reference for ground clearance. I'm always pretty apprehensive about when I'm gonna take that pan out on a rock. Next build I'm gonna look for a corvette pan to help with ground clearance. I'm scrapin on some of the junky return tracks around here. Could always get longer springs. What rearend you running with currently.

My pretty wheels are 16X8 Rota RBRs with +10 backspacing. They clear the front fenders fine (I'm non-flared and lowered quite a bit), but would rub on bumps in the back if I had not narrowed my rear track. I have T3 control arms and I can't remember where I got my adjustable TC rods (they were recommended by johnc), but I think I'd be happy with the T3 TC rods just the same. My TC rods use inner tie rod ends where the rod attaches to the frame. The tie rod end is the wear component and when I called the vendor to findout where they get the tire rod ends, they wouldn't tell me. Perhaps they thought I would try to steal their product, but I really just wanted to know how to keep my car running forever should they go out of business (as seems to be happening a lot lately). The T3 TC rod uses rod ends that you can get just about anywhere. On my winter work list is putting clamps on my steering rack to limit how far I can turn the wheel (thus limiting my tire scrub on the TC rod). The TC rod scrub is a result of wide wheels, not caster. Be advised that the combination of wide wheels and increased camber significantly increases steering effort (probably why you see the racers on this forum going to power steering). Even with the increased camber, the car likes to follow cracks in the pavement due to the wide tires. When I put my skinnies on for drag racing, the car stops following cracks. In fact, for a long drive on the highway I prefer my narrow tires, which make the car dart less and require a lot less steering effort. If you drive your car on the street a lot, or if you ever want to be able to sip a cup of coffee while driving, I wouldn't worry with increasing the caster - it is mostly a race car thing. Try not to go crazy with super wide wheels/tires.

I haven't made sending you that Dellorto book a priority. I'll try to get it done after the holiday. The Des Hamil book is worthless, as most of the books by that publisher are: pretty, glossy cover with nothing inside. How about you post the part numbers of your current venturis, main and idle jets? When I got my carbs from the junkyard (I got them in trade for the old Anson slotted mags that were original to my car), I replaced all the parts that had melted in the engine fire (which started in the aircleaner) , simply making all the part numbers the same for all three carbs. Then I cleaned and rebuilt them using new gaskets, accellerator pump kits and o-rings. If you look in any of the books I've found, all the calibrated part numbers that were in my carbs were wrong. Well, would you believe the darn thing started right up? But, it had that pesky little backfire. So, then I spent thousands of dollars on parts to find the "right" combination. Honestly, it was never really any better than it was on that initial start up. Why don't you just install them and see if you can get what you have to run? If it doesn't run, screw your idle jet adjustment all the way in and back out 2.5 turns counter-clockwise. With the new updated hybridz format I can't seem to put my youtube link in a post. To see my Dellortos running from a cold-start (not in the winter mind you-cause then you would see me cussing and having to jumpstart the car off my truck because in the winter trying to get the car started usually took more cranking than one battery could supply), go to youtube and search RebekahsZ + 240z + Dellortos and it should come up. I ran a stock distributor with the vacuum plate delete modification. The car had the little backfire before and after the vacuum plate delete. I think you can run any old distributor just to get it running. PS-once you have the carbs running, be sure to remove the venturis every couple of months and clean the corrosion off that builds between the venturi and the carb body - getting those venturis out can be a real bugger if they corrode in. But, boy, do those carbs look and sound sweet at full throttle! In this day and age where other alternatives exist (like fuel injection), triple sidedrafts are so much like porn (so I've heard): they look and sound good, but they burn up a lot of time are hard to live with.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'd like to say "Thank you" to the admins who keep this super international community up and running. For the past two years I begin and end my day with HybridZ.

With a MSA airdam and in-cut fenders I'm maxed out at 4 degrees with 225/50/16s. My tire rubs the tc rod before full lock. I have lots more room for mor caster with 225/50/15s but my setup is based on my tallest tire combo. If you ran 13s you could run lots of caster.

johnc probably remembers me asking all these same questions when I bought my tokicos from him about 2 years ago. I was a tokico virgin till I met johnc, but now I'm changed forever<3. Somebody hand me a sledge and an angle grinder!

I concur with the above. You need an R180 mustache bar (the R200 mustache bar won't work) and Betamotorsport output flanges. You need to remove the STi input flange and replace it with one that will fit your driveshaft. For me, I just swapped the stock 240z R180 input flange onto the STi diff and used my stock 240z driveshaft. You need an impact wrench to swap the input flange. If your 280z had an R180, you are in good shape. If your 280z had an R200, I don't know if that input flange has the same spline count as the STi or not.... It is a good time to go to an RT front diff mount too. You definitely need the Betamotorsport flanges - the STi diff has a unique spline and nothing else will work to allow you to use your stock axles.

Try to fabricate a tool that will fit your gland nut like a wrench. You can get some steel plate stock from the hardware store and cut it into a wrench with a cutoff saw or angle grinder (Harbor Freight $49-gotta have one). Channel locks or a big pipe wrench work, but you will slip off a lot and may not get the gland nut very tight. I don't know the torque setting, as if you could ever get a torque wrench on it! Lubricate the gland nut with some anti-seize first and put a little (a few table spoons) of motor oil into the strut tube so your shock doesn't rust into it. Then, put some paint or torque seal between the gland nut and the strut tube so that you can visually inspect for loosening in the future. I've had the same trouble that you have with shock length. The bottom line is that the shock manufacturer can't make an infinite number of shock lengths, so they make a few that are too short for the intended purpose and let you use spacers as needed. If your shock is too long, you are screwed, but if your shock is a little short - just use a custom spacer (that you make yourself). I've used some shocks that come with a little cup welded to the bottom (KYB) and I've had to grind a quarter inch or more off that little cup to make the shock fit. Just do whatever is needed. It is kind of the hybridz philosophy. You need to use the gland nut that came with the new shocks - it should be made specially for the top profile of that shock. Unfortunately, unless you race your car and are a super good driver, you probably won't be able to notice a big difference in your new shocks over old ones (unless the old ones were totally worn out). For street cars, the high-dollar shocks are a little overrated, IMHO.

Time to buy a miter saw and put a metal cutting cutoff saw blade in it. Most valuable tool in my shop. Just cut down the spacers they sent you and move to the next part of your build. We should publish a list of tools every hybridz owner should have. This is about number three on my list.

I got a seconds-quality carbon fiber hood when I tried to order a fiberglass hood. The company sold it to me for the fiberglass price. I can't find any flaws in it and it is as light as a potato chip. Removing the stock hood was a 2-man job. It is now an easy one-man job with barely any back strain, just awkward due to the size.