RebekahsZ

Ooops. Duplicate post.

Z-cars are only worth something to those of us who have drunk the Koolaide. On the open market, the more you modify them, the less they are worth. Most responsible adults look down on them as cheap and sophomoric. I've had a "for sale" sign on my car permanently for 4 years, but haven't gotten a single sincere offer. Maybe they know I wouldn't part with it for all the money in the world... Anybody know how much Dave got for his 6-second LS-turbo car when he sold it on ebay?

Josey-post pics of the headers-I'm dying, here! Blake says he wants to wait to send my headers off for ceramic coating until he has all the other headers done and shipped (I guess he is in a groove and doesn't want to get detoured).

Just went by my buddy's house to double check some wiring on a stock Z-car so that I could un-snarl the rats nest I'm fighting with. He had just finished putting in the lowering springs and shocks I bought him for Christmas (outside on a rainy day in January). He took me for a test drive and it was great. He had previously cut his stock springs and the car was slamming all the way down the road-now it is smooth as silk. Same guy I gave my old L24 to, so I got to commune with my old L24 motor as we rolled down a country road to the sweet sound of triple webers and a single turbo muffler. Now we've got to get him defrosters so we can see where the h*** we are going! Not only is it fun to fix up our own cars, but it is really rewarding to watch others succeed. Thanks to everybody who is helping me finish this project. Thanks to whoever sold me those springs for $100! I think I'll be turning the key on the LS in the next few weeks.

Thanks everybody. I am pretty sure that I had the red wires plugged in and just had the green wires wrapped up and not connected. Is the neutral switch an auto trans thing or a manual trans thing? If I remember correctly, I could start my z with the car in neutral or in any gear if the clutch was in. It was great! I hate my modern pickup that requires that I have the clutch in to start the car. I cut the red wires to length (to add a weatherpack connector once engine is out again) and cut the bullet connectors off the green wires and put heat shrink over the cut ends. I'll just tuck the unused green wires inside the loom that will run down the side of the frame rail. Thanks to everybody who came to my aid (like knights of the round table or minute men). I'm gonna let this thread pass on into history for the next guy who finds himself in this position. Keith

Uh-oh! I've got one vote for long green wires and one vote for short red/black wires...what to do? Anybody feel like climbing under and checking?

The car tapers down toward the back bumper and that makes the tires look "toe-d in." If you look at the front tires, they look toe-d out because the front tapers toward the front bumper. Go to an alignment shop and confirm that all is OK.

I'm trying to finish up the wiring on this LS swap and I didn't mark wires well enough before removing my L24 last year. Car is a 1972 240z, manual trans. There are 2 sets of 2 wires on the passenger side of my engine compartment that go back toward the transmission. There are two short red wires with a black stripe and two long green wires. QUESTIONS: 1) Which of these two sets of wires goes to my reverse lights? 2) What is the other pair of wires for?

You know you own a Datsun: when your 2-year-old daughter says "Daddy's home!" when you are still a block away. Rebekah is 18 and leaving for college soon; those were sweet days.... No lie: this morning, my Sunday school teacher saw me nodding off and asked why I looked so tired. I told him I've been staying up all Saturday night for the past 3 months trying to finish up my Datsun. He says, "You have a Datsun?! He goes on, "I've had 4 of those: (3) 240s and a POS 260!" I didn't have the heart to tell him that my 240 is about 50% 260 (floor pans, hood, etc)-you know, the conversation was going so well and he thought he was finally breaking the ice and gaining insight into my inner most being-my very soul...Neither of us really said POS, it was church and all...It really stinks that people so totally blame the 260 for something that was easily fixed with a carb swap. We'll see if he shows up this afternoon to hold something for me and give my wife a break.

39 spline? Holy cow, that ought to be indestructible. Who makes them? I'm gonna keep the 280z stubs i just changed to-if I don't get this car on the road, I'm gonna shoot myself!! Maybe a future mod.... Yesterday's progress: Wired DBW pedal using weather pack GM-style connectors. Ran all wires intended to go to driver side of cockpit too: tach, speedo, line lock, idiot light and something else I can't remember...have only done the firewall side of these, just measuring engine side and I'll cut and add weather packs next time I pull engine (hopefully for the last time). Don't really like GTO gas pedal with the hinge-it may be more comfortable for the general public, but it seems funny to be heel-toeing toward a moving target-it just feels funny; will likely try to make that pedal solid in the future. All of this psycho OCD wiring perfectionism is intended to make it easier to service and remove engine. Located OBD/Data port on passenger side since I always see people putting their laptops in the passenger seat. Ran fuel pump relay activation wire with remoted battery cables along passenger side rocker panel. Spend several days running back and forth to exhaust shop to make some side-exit dump tubes. Don't freak out-these are just to allow me to start car with O2 sensors installed and to allow me to keep some fumes out from under car when working out the initial bugs and fixing the fluid leaks that I anticipate upon initial start-up. Also will allow me to either nurse the car to the muffler shop or to the alignment shop, whichever comes first. With my 145/80/15 front tires and 26" rear tires, there is about 2-1/2" of clearance to garage floor-not near enough to keep on a street car. Heck, the return road at my local track is too rutted up for me to keep these side exhausts, but they sure look cool for now. I bet they are going to be loud. Learned about a big problem with the JTR short headers: it is a real PITA to get a wrench on the collector flange bolts. I'm in the group buy for long tube headers, and if the long tubes allow enough ground clearance, I'll just swap to them when they arrive. If they don't allow enough ground clearance, I plan to re-sell them and switch to some sort of ball/socket collector connector on my JTRs-I just can't see that I'll be able to tighten the collectors enough to prevent recurring leaks. Will post more as I get work done; changing clothes to get out in the garage now.

If you are on a budget, just get any old running COMPLETE L-series motor you can and swap it in. The cheaper the better. And stock, they all make about the same power, roughly speaking. Be careful buying something with an unknown history because you can either buy another broken motor, or a really nice one, for the same amount of money. Sorry, I recently GAVE a good one away. Snoop around the forum where guys have recently put V8s in their cars and you might find a motor just collecting dust in somebody's garage that they would part with. You should be looking at $1000 or less for a complete used stock engine. Rebuilding what you have will cost at least $600, depending on what is broken. Once we cut out our transmission mounts for the V8, we can't use an L-series motor anymore, anyway. They aren't worth that much money, so we shouldn't ask much. Put an add in our PARTS WANTED forum and you might get lucky and find somebody sympathetic in your area.

Before I put my LSD in, I took my car to an autocross specifically to play with the rear sway bar. I have a 1" front sway bar and a 5/8"(?) rear sway bar. The inside rear wheel spun exiting turns with the sway bar. I took off the sway bar in the pit area and tried again - no difference whatsoever. Next time I went to the autocross I had a Wrx CLSD and I could hammer out of turns with no spin at all. I was so much faster and the car was so much MORE predictable and much more "neutral" where as it used to be pretty bad about pushing the front end. In my mind, and LSD makes the car safer. If you are in a turn and you break traction on one tire, the car spins out virtually as easily as it would with two tires breaking traction. Think about it-with one tire spinning you have 1/2 of the contact patch of your tire working while the front wheels still have both tires stuck to the ground-it sucks! With my LSD, I am much more able to "modulate" the amount of slippage I have and am much more controlled when intentionally creating some oversteer. If you want to keep your wife's speed down, put an MSD rev limiter in the car. I love my LSD so much that I would recommend it BEFORE putting a V8 in the car. Don't worry about the sway bar it is the least of your issues. If it is your wife's car, start auto crossing and go to some schools together (that would be so totally hot) and you might find that she's a pretty good driver, or can learn to be one, and may even like it. My wife hates EVERYTHING automotive except her minivan and her cell phone (which really shouldn't be an automotive accessory). I'm jealous for you. On a side note: going off track backwards is SO much more fun than going off track forwards. But that requires that you are driving in a safe place like a road course or an autocross/drifting lot. In a safe and legal place, you can lose control all day long and it really doesn't matter. Cool it on public roads-it sucks to see a beautiful Z-car wrapped around a tree-these cars are getting rare, as are the people who appreciate them.

Build your car the way you want to, but I don't understand some of your comments. I tried removing my rear swaybar to improve rear end traction-it didn't help-I still just spun one tire all the time. I also have run my car with and without LSD. LSD rocks! I can't understand why you think NOT having an LSD will give you MORE control. My car is a daily driver and it will always have LSD and front and rear swaybars. It doesn't beat me to death-it drives great. A small block V8 weighs close enough to an L24/L26/L28 that I wouldn't change the suspension a bit just due to the engine change.

You definitely have to remove these calipers to bleed them. Use a block of wood to simulate the rotor, then move the caliper around and rotate it as you bleed them to get every bubble of air out. It is a real PITA, but it works. Nice looking car.

I've had to deal with this same issue. I would use the Tokico gland nut since it is made for your inserts. Save all gland nuts because they are hard to find when you need one. If you need more space, many struts cartridges have a little cup welded to the bottom of the cartridge (tube). I have had to grind that little cup down to create the proper length to make the strut tube, cartridge and gland nut all work together. The converse is true as well: I've had to put fender washers or even cut sections of steel tube in the bottom of the tube to add to the length. It all needs to fit and fit tightly!

Does it matter whether they turn on together or one at a time?

No AC, but I could envision a day when I had forced induction.... Do you think it will hurt anything to leave the fans as I have them? Thanks for your advice-keep it coming.

Making up some "start-up head pipes" just to get car started with O2 sensors installed so that I can take car to exhaust shop. The group buy for longtube headers is going well, so I may just wait for that to be completed.

All my fittings are from Speedwaymotors.com. Alainburon-I sent you a PM. There is a big drawback to mounting the fuel pump in this location: If you want to run dual exhaust that turns toward the stock location for the muffler, all this fuel pump stuff is in the way. That is forcing me to use single exhaust prior to going under the rear suspension/diff.

I'm starting into the exhaust portion of my LS/240z swap. Currently have JTR headers. I found several scorched wires on the donor car wiring harness to include the knock sensor wires and O2 sensor wires, and I want to keep that from happening again. There's not a lot of room under the car, so I'm torn about where to put the O2 sensors, and I want to figure it out before I finish the wiring harness, in case I need to move the O2 sensor wiring. Please post the location of your O2 sensors and post a picture if you have it, and it will be a big help to me.

Wiring. The first pic shows the engine harness with all the split casings removed and organized with zip ties. Next is the passenger side of engine: since I moved the cold air intake to the passenger side, the MAF wiring needed to be moved from the driver side to the passenger side-perfect length, no cutting. Found out that my engine supplier gave me an LS1 MAF instead of an LS2 MAF because the plug doesn't fit; LS2 MAF ordered (whats ANOTHER $100?). On the left side of the engine I made a little harness that re-routes the knock sensor wiring via the front of the engine to avoid the direct heat of the exhaust. The water temp wire was added as was the oil pressure. That is routed along the alternator wire from the drive side to the passenger side of engine to mate with the 240z engine bay wiring. I re-routed the alternator and LS2 water temp sensor to be more neat as well. Finally, all the wires that will enter the cockpit were relocated to the drive side in order to pass them into the cockpit via the existing choke cable hole in the firewall. Not depicted is a jumper wire off of the transmission VSS high speed wire (blue and white) to send a signal to the Cable-X. I plan another test install of engine into car (I'm getting pretty good at it) before putting split casing back on the harness and adding weatherpack connectors.

Ask the local guys at the drag strip in your area to see if there is a local guy who does it. I sent my harness off for a $450 modification and it came back all screwed up and the computer was reconfigured incorrectly. Asked the guys in the local AC Cobra replica club and found a guy 1 hour away who re-did it all for $250. This sort of service is becoming more and more accessible even here in po-dunk Alabama. PM me to find out who I used the first time so that I'm not critical of a business on the general forum, but I would not use them again.

Get a traditional (not high performance) muffler from an old Cadillac, run single 2" exhaust pipe and put ram-horn style cast iron exhaust manifolds on it. Wrap entire exhaust system in fiberglass heat wrap, insulate cabin of car, especially the firewall, floor and floor of hatch area. Get rid of fancy cam, add skinny tires and discount brake pads, change rearend gearing to 2-something, make sure auto trans has no fancy stall converter or valve body so it slips a lot. Drive really slow. Other option is to spend a year doing an engine swap-my car has been quiet as a church mouse for 12 months. I go out to my garage and all I hear is crickets chirping-it is kind of relaxing and peaceful like a camping trip. My neighbors love it.

Going today to pick up engine harness and computer from tuner about 2 hours away. He has fixed the burned ground wire and worked on the PCM tuning as well. Says the computer is OK, but that the previous tuner had failed to turn off the security system! He says he car would never have started! I guess I'm glad I burned up that wire - every cloud has a silver lining.

Check your wheel back spacing. Anything with more than 4.75" back spacing is going to rub on coilovers too.