Capt_Zorro

Llama, Would you drive up to Tennessee to save $800.00? I picked up a HO out of a Lincoln LSC last month for $500.00. Had a guy at the local Mustang junkyard outside Knoxville, price an HO with 5 speed and complete wiring harness and computer for $1,200 to me last week. For the difference in price down there I'd rebuild a regular 5.0, just remember your engine balance will be different between the HO and generic 5.0 when buying flywheels or flexplates. This can be expensive if you are planning to use a 5 speed as the flywheel costs more for the 28 oz than the common 50 oz balance. Drop me an e-mail if you are interested in a HO motor and I'll check and see if Thomas at Mustang Madness still has that one available. Adios Amigos,

Bigshot, 305240 is correct, just review the previous posts in the Ford forum when you have time. I never could get the search function to work. He has some pics of his motor mounts and there are some pics and dimensions for the ones I used under the "help me before I screw up again" post by him. If you have been building Mustangs you shouldn't have any problems with the Z conversion. You'll need the Must. oil pan, remote oil filter, "tight tuck street rod headers", new radiator and electric fan, motor and trans. mounts, have a Ford yoke put on your driveshaft and it shortened, speedometer cable, adapters for the Ford to Z gauges and your tach. converted to 8 cyl. Depending on whether you are going with an automatic or 5 speed you will need shifter and linkage for the auto, or new hydraulic clutch master and slave cylinder for the 5 speed. My buddy with the 5.0 in the ZX has a set up using the original Mustang clutch cable with a quadrant on a 240 he's building that looks like it is going to work good but he hasn't got the car on the road yet to check it out. Adios Amigos,

305240, Don't know about "being the man", just have a lot of time on my hands to search the web and years of "wasteing my time" as my Father used to say. All you need is a ballast resistor 1.2 ohms is what the duraspark wiring diagram calls for. Jason Fletcher's webpage has a lot of good info on Ford applications. http://www.jason.fletcher.net/tech/duraspark/duraspark.htm You can get one at the auto parts or I got one with the wiring harness from an old Duraspark dist. when I picked it up in the junkyard. They are starting to get difficult to find around here. Adios Amigos,

Ground Rat, That's a "nice un", will make a fun project fixing it up. If I were you I'd replace the fuel filter. I had one that came apart and dumped fuel all over the engine a couple years ago. Being a Firefighter it would have been very embarasing if I'd burnt up my car. Started checking around and those have a reputation for either breaking or the threads stripping out which can be dangerous. Adios Amigos,

I already had all my wireing done when I put the mini starter on so I just jumpered the start wire from the starter solenoid to the large lug on the starter and used the original Ford solenoid that was already hooked up. Adios Amigos,

The air filter is an Afco #80550 Sure Seal housing W/Oring. List on it is $36.95 + shipping. It comes in Silver but they can anodize it in different colors, gold, blue, red, and black if you want. It does not come with the filter element, you can customize the height for your instillation. I use small pieces of modeling clay placed on top of the filter, when the hood is closed it will compress these and you can get an accurate measurement of your clearance. Their # is 865-546-3813 ask for Greg. Adios Amigos,

Anyone need a tight clearance air filter assembly? I was at West Haven Auto Parts (a round track speed shop) yesterday and they have a 14" air cleaner that will fit under a hood with only about 2.5 or 3 In. clearance. It uses a standard filter but the base is dropped down around the carb. to give more room. It's similar to one that I have on my Z, but I haven't seen one like it in years. If anyone is interested I'll run back by there Thurs. and see what they are selling for and get their phone # for everyone. Adios Amigos,

I bought a 280Z new in 1978 and loved it. I think the styling is timeless. My Wife wanted a ZX when they came out so we got one. It was a nice car but never the same as the Z. We traded it off for a Z28 Camaro in 1984. The Camaro was a POS, never was reliable. I found a '77 Z that was a one owner Doctor's car and bought it for $3000.00. Drove it stock for about a year and found an article about a 215 Buick V8 conversion and ended up doing it. I had problems with the hydraulic clutch and the shop that rebuilt the cylinder heads used the wrong valve stem seals. The inner springs cut the seals sending pieces of rubber into the oil pan that stopped up the oil pump screen. Pulled the Buick out and put a 302 with C4 in it and have driven it ever since as a "back up" car. When I was working on one of the drivers or when I wanted to take it out and play with it. I thought about selling it once or twice over the years but I'm glad that I never did. You could take the money that you get for your car and put it in the bank, but I don't think it would draw interest as fast as the Z will appreciate if you take care of it. Adios Amigos,

Zmettler, Go to the post "help me before I screw up again". There are plans for the motor mounts for a 5.0 in a 280Z. There are some pics of the mounts also under "pics of mounts and 5.0 motor". I've been driving my 77 with a 302 and these mounts for about 15 yrs. now. You will have to use a remote oil filter, "tight tuck" street rod headers and a rear sump pan. These bolt directly onto the motor, where the original motor mount attached and to the Datsun motor mounts. Drop me an e-mail if I can help you. A buddy of mine put a 302 in his 79 ZX with a similar mount but he dropped it down and moved it back some. He had to remake one of the "tight tuck street rod headers" also. He has recently retired and hopefully I will be able to get him online soon with some pics of his mounts for the ZX. Adios Amigo,

Wolfie, See the post "help me before I screw up again" below. It has the plans for the mounts that I used in mine that fit the criteria that you want. Adios Amigos,

Does anyone still use the C9AE or DOOE 351 Windsor Cylinder heads with the larger valves? I was cleaning out a cabinet in the old garage and found one set that I had ported & polished and rebuilt years ago also a couple more cores. If I remember correctly I need to mill about .200 off the top of the mounting bosses for guideplates and then drill and tap them for screw in studs to make them usuable. Gracias Amigos,

Check in the phone book for "paintless dent repair" I had a huge dent in my Wife's SHO that the body shop wanted $2,500 to fix. I found a guy locally that did it for $150.00. He'll have to drop the headliner, but I was amazed at what they could do. Adios Amigos,

Mateo, If the wireing is burnt and it is a carburated car it would probably be a good idea to pull it all out and start over. One of the wireing kits from Painless would be a good start. I've wired several Street Rods over the years and it is not a problem with one of the new wireing kits. What is hard is trying to find a problem in a harness that has been burnt. Datsunlover covered the basic tools that you will need, he is correct on soldering connections. Also make sure you have good clean ground connections. Adios Amigos,

"You've done well Pilgrim", I'm like you I'd almost hate to change it over to a V-8. Well the key word is "almost"... 8) Adios Amigos,

While you all are telling racing stories, I'll tell you one. About 15 yrs ago when I changed my 280 over to a 302 I was sitting at the light when a kid in a black 65 Falcon pulled up. He had a big cam and loud mufflers on it. When the light changed he got on it and pulled me about a carlength. I nailed the Z and caught up with him, when it shifted out of low it pulled ahead about a fender, and when it shifted into high I had him about a car. I was ahead about two cars when I slowed down to turn into the subdivision. Fast foward about 10yrs. I had the Z at the Firestation cleaning it up one day when one of the new Firefighters floated in to take the place of one of my guys that was off. He said "how long have you had that Z?" I told him and he started laughing. He said "you're the SOB that ruined my Buddy". He told me that after getting his doors blown off by what he thought was a 6 cylinder he had completely redone his Falcon. Made it into a pro street with 460, tube frame and all the goodies... said that he wasn't ever going to get smoked by a 6 cylinder again. Adios Amigos,

Muscle, Checked with my buddy today, he used something similar to my mounts but moved the motor back and down. He doesn't have any plans for it anymore. Has gone through a couple divorces and moves since he did the conversion. I know it fit in nice, but he had to remake one of the tight tuck headers to get it to fit on one side. He's wanting to change out his clutch soon so I may be able to get some photo's of the mount then. Adios Amigos,

There's the other side mount, you can torch cut these from 2x4 channel or 2x3 angle. I cut mine with a band saw when I did them. The Driver's side can be 2x3 I believe I cut mine from a piece of scrap that only had 1 1/2 on the short side to keep as a template (that's been about 15 yrs. ago). These mounts give good clearance all around as you can see in the pics of my engine in some previous posts. I'll scrounge around and see if I can find the trans. mount. I have it somewhere but when I cleaned out the garage I didn't see it the last time. I always put stuff up where I can easily find it, but when I go to look for it the "garage elves" have hidden it. I usually spend more time looking for parts and tools than actually working on a project. If I get the AOD project off the ground I'll have to take the trans mount out for the C-4 so I'll be able to get the measurements off it then. Adios Amigos,

Dlover, Depending on what type of paint you used you can color sand and buff out the dust in the paint if the painter put enough on it. Did you use basecoat clearcoat or acrylic enamel with hardner? My Z had some orange peel to it, but color sanding with 1500 grit and polishing took care of it. Check with some of your local detail shops, they may be able to do it for you. Adios Amigos,

I'm a newbe, oldbe. New to the site, did the Z car V-8 conversion thing years ago. I didn't know anyone was still interested in them. I've only seen three of four around here in 15 yrs. I was excited to find that I wasn't the only one that saw the potential of them. I'm happy to answer any questons anyone has, but I'm no expert and my info is probably out of date. I tried to get the search function to work but it never did for me. I read all the posts on the Ford conv. pages for AOD info. Only found a couple of posts, one said it would work, one said that it wouldn't.. Keep up the good work. Adios Amigos,

Mark, Do you have a yoke that will fit on the output shaft of the trans? If you do see if it will turn with the clutch in. I originally had an Aluminum Buick V-8 in my Z with the Datsun 5sp. a conversion by D&D fab. I ended up changing it out because of the constant struggle with the hydraulic clutch. That was about 15yrs. ago so hopefully there are solutions to these problems now. Adios Amigos,

Yea, it's for the hard of seeing... I used the "street rod tight tuck generic headers" and have plenty of clearance. If I did the mount again I'd probably move it back about an inch more and drop it about a half. This one is just simple to make. I had to make a new trans. crossmember but used the original mounting points. Just sat the motor on the mounts and then made the crossmember out of 1" square tubing. Had to weld a piece on angle on the back to catch the ford trans mount. Adios Amigos,

Engine looks great.. One way to check the clutch engagement is to put the car in gear, depress the clutch and have a buddy try to spin the rear wheels manually. If they will turn the clutch is OK. Keep us updated on the installation. Adios Amigos,

That was a little large, see if this works better...

Here's some drawings of the driver's side motor mount if they will be large enough to see.