VinhZXT

Guys, I didn't mean to step on anyone's toe. I wasn't criticizing your selection either. What I forgot was to explain my point and that is with a V8 Z why would you need the paddle shifter. It's not worth the time, money and effort IMO and you don't need paddle shifter to spank other people on the street. I could spend that money else where that makes it worth while. However if you decided to do it more power to you and I don't criticize anyone for doing that because of the reason you do whatever you please with your car. I know this first hand because in all of my Zs I modified them to my taste. Have a nice day.. V. PS. It was late last night and I had a few Heinekens lol.

Pop, He already decided to go with JCI. Zk, Just make sure you tell JCI which transmission crosmember you want ie 240Z or 280Z. I've heard a lot of people complaint about JCI sending the wrong crossmember and you have to eat the shipping. GL

I am not sure if I am drunk or not but what's the difference between putting paddle shifter into a Z compare to putting lambo doors into a Z? I didn't bother to read the ad but the ads are there for you to buys their $hit right? Sorry I am in the mood to tick some body off..

GotJules, Let me know if you need turbo motor. I know a guy close by in NJ and the last time I checked he got 5 turbo motors in his storage. See you Saturday. I will be bringing my son with me in my topless Z. Clive, What time do you want me to be up there?

Hey, Don't count out my topless ZXT. If the weather cooperates I will be bringing my topless ZX too. I have no idea where we are meeting. Clive, Can you tell me how far is it from your plalce?

If you want to "play" with the engine mounts why don't you just buy the C5 engine mounts and biscuits and make your own crossmember. There are several people on this site have made their own crossmember (including me) for their LS1 swaps. Can you make something like this? If you can then you just saved a bunch of money on the engine mount kits. BTW with this type of mounts you won't be able to use JTR headers. The driver side fits fine but the passenger side header will hit the mount. So you have to do some searching here. For myself I used the stock C5 headers and modified them to fit. I have done Ls1 swaps using JCI kits and made my own mounts but I never use the JTR mounts and the plates. GL Vinh

Here are a few pictures of my finished topless 280ZXT. Hopefully this will serve as a motivation for some of you who's working on your projects. Please feel free to email me with comments or questions. Vinh There are more pictures on my web site here: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/768663

Metal is not cheap now. You should be able to call a junkyard to pick it up for free or they might even give you $50. I get $100 a junk car here in Philly.

"I had the crank position sensor switched with the oil level sensor plug" You must be joking right? The crank position sensor plug has 3 wires and the oil level switch has 2 wires. Even if you wanted to you can't plug one into the other.

Sounds like your ignition #1 source is weak. You're suppose to get 12V to all the pink wires ( injectors and other sensors). There is a very simple way to check. Connect all Pink and Orange wires from the harness directly to the battery and try to start it. I know this can be very frustrating but if you keep everything simple it will help you find the problem easier. GL

Cameron, The crank position sensor is right next to the starter. It's very hard to get to but with small hands you can get to it. Otherwise you have to remove the starter to get to it. If you don't have this sensor hook up you won't get any spark. Moochie, For a quick test just connect all your orange and pink wires directly to the battery and see you get sparks. On Clive's car I mistakenly connected the pink wires to ignition #2 source and we didn't get any sparks either. The oil level sensor is on the right side of the oil pan. There should be a hole on the side of the oil pan and there is where the sensor is. On my swap (98 C5 motor and PCM) I forgot the hook up the oil level sensor and I couldn't start the car. I am not sure this is the same for the Fbody cars. The C5 has many little options installed to protect the engine from getting damage and this is one of them. No oil no start. If you talk to John at Spear Tech he might have different opinion on this one but this is my own experience with my C5 swap. The PCM doesn't go bad by itself. The PCM doesn't care about the manual or auto car. What matter is what program do you have in the PCM. You should have the correct program for what trans you have. Again I haven't look into how the auto tranny and the PCM on the Fbody work but I know how the C5 auto trans and PCM work. The C5 PCM actually sends out signals to lock and unlock the converter depends on what condition the engine is in and what gears it's in. GL Vinh

Just to make sure you are not making the same mistake that I've made on Clive's car. Connect all the Orange and Pink wires directly to 12V and see it starts. Orange wires go to constant 12V and all the Pink wires go to Ignition #1 source which should have 12 in the RUN and while cranking. Check to make sure you have all the ground wires behind the passenger side's head bolt to the head and your ground cable goes from there to the negative side of the battery. Check to make sure your crank sensor connector is plug in all the way. Do you have some type of scanner? If you do you can use it to read the trouble codes off the PCM. If you have bad sensors or unconnected sensors it will tell you. On my swap I used the C5 instrument cluster and I can use it to scan trouble codes off the PCM. GL. Vinh

Larry, I learned it the hard way. I ran 2 1/2" pipes on my friend's Z and it was rubbing every thing. After that I ran 3" pipes on my Z so I followed your advice. I got to find time to finish up my project car.

Do you still have the stock suspension in the front? you must because the car is sitting very high. Trust me, if you drop your car down where a lowered Z supposed to be those pipes will be 2" off the ground. I did the exhaust on my friend's LS1 Z without cutting the frame and he drove it for one day and I had to cut it out and raised it up. Also in order to save your leg from burning you can tug the pipe as close as possible to the lower rocker. Here is a picture of mine without the shield

Where did you get the 6 bolt stubs from? If you get them from a 280ZX turbo then you are Ok. Just buy the 280ZX turbo half shafts and they should bolt up fine. Good luck removing the big nuts holding the N/A stubs.

Look like I will have a long drive with my topless Z. I will try to make it without the wife. Just incase it rains I can continue to drive lol.

The 280ZXT are known for having bad starter relay. I had to run new wires and new starter relays for all of my 280ZXTs. The best way to verify this is to get a jumper wire then remove the spade terminal at the starter and jump it to the battery. If it cranks over then your starter relay is on its way out. For your idling problem it sounds like you have a leak between the AFM and the turbo. I had my intercooler hoses blew before and the car would idle fine but when I gave it gas it would died. I am giving you this info anyway but I don't think that's your problem. If you've done a search you will find out these turbo ZXs are famous for having bad connections at the ECU and caused all kind of running/idling issues. So I suggest you to get some good electrical contact cleaners and clean the ECU plugs and put some grease in them then try to start it up. So fix your starter issue first then move on to the running issue. On all of my ZXTs which I still have the stock EFI I used the newer 300ZXs ECU connectors and they work well. V.

There is a bolt underneath each engine mount. You can loosen them to get some slack. If that doesn't get the holes lined up you can loosen the 4 bolts under the engine frame rails to loosen the whole crossmember. That should give you some more slack there. Don't forget to loosen the steering rod to allow the crossmember to move. BTW I suggest you to bolt up the engine to the mounts first and then work your way to the tranny mount. The tranny crossmember will flex and it will give you some slack to get it into the mounts. Good luck. V.

Clive, Sorry I had to leave early that day because I had my topless Z with me. Plus it's tough to entertain my wife for 10 hours plus when she just sat in the car lol. She could have taken the car and drove to Brooklyn to go shopping. I will definitely come out for another trip to finish all the wiring and reprogram your PCM before your first drive. I hope you finish the exhaust, driveshaft and the rear's front mount before Aug 4th. I will come out to meet everyone and finish up the wiring for your car. Qwik240z/David, I am hoping to bring my friend's LS1 280Z to the convention also. It's been in the paint shop since June. Vinh

Clive, The pink wire is going to the ignition wire which is the black/wht wire coming off the ignition key. I believe that it runs thru those big connectors on the passenger side. Sorry I over look the connection to the pink wire. That was all my fault. I can't believe that I make that silly mistake. I still need to reprogram the PCM one more time to disable all the other unused functions like EGR, rear O2 etc. I only disable the anti theft system that night. Don't forget you still need to run wires and relays for the fans. I will probably have to make another trip up there to finish up the wiring and reprogram the PCM. Tell me what settings do you want for the fans so I can program it into your PCM. Too bad I missed the big moment where the engine runs. Alright time for you to get the driveshaft and exhaust completed and test drive the car. I probably don't want to miss that first drive. Vinh

You can just cut a nice 2" round hole where the switch is and put a rubber plug in it after you are done. Massaged tunnel looks very unprofessional. GL

The first thing you need to worry about is to convert everything to power ie power window, power lock, power trunk release. The hook up to remotely control them is easy. Let me know when you get the first step done and I can show you how to hook them up. pS. Most of the newer alarms now a day has up to 7 outputs. So you can control everything with one remote.

I believe the power steering without the pump connected is actually alot heavier to steer compare to a regular manual rack. This was the reason why I swapped out my power rack and crossmember for the manual rack set up. Give it a try with your method and see what happens. Worst come to worst you will build up some muscle in your arms afterward. Good luck

Please read his question careful before reply. The axles are the same for both models. I just installed the stub axle from a turbo car into my 79 ZX. The splines are the same. The big nut on the N/A axle is pinched onto the end of the axle. Just use a flat head screw driver to pry the 2 tabs out slowly and you should be able to get the nut off. Good luck.

Clive, Do you plan to have heat in this car? If not you might as well remove the heater core. If you remove the heater core you can just put the PCM sitting on top of the trans tunnel. With where the PCM is now I don't know you can put back the blower anyway. I will be back from my San Diego trip the 13th. If you get all the mechanicals done and ready for wiring let me know and I will head up the 14th. V.