VinhZXT

Ken, This is from the top of my head: 1. Anything coming off the ignition switch can not be ground. If I remember correctly the black/white is the ignition wire. Black/Yel is your starter wire. Both of these wires can be found at the White plug on the passenger side tunnel. 2. To actuate the AC compressor you just need a 12V source. You can use any simple push/latch or a regular toggle switch will work. 3. You can hook this wire to the wire that activate the AC. 4. Hook one side of the charge light to 12V ignition. The other side go to the output wire of the alternator. When the alternator dies it will pull to ground and will turn on the charge light. GL I had this stuff explained in one of my web page b4 but I can't seem to find it any more. V.

Guys, I am having a little problem with my 80 280ZX NT. This car has 35K miles and it has a small running issue that been buggin me. The water temp sensor gauge could never reach the middle (operating temp). I have tested the resistence of the sensor and it definitely reach the operating range according to the manual. But yet the gauge inside the car never reach the middle. Therefore the car won't pick up as fast as it should. I've the Haynes manual on page 108. It says that the computer uses the water temp sensor to calculate the injector pulse. I am suspecting a bad connection from this wire going to the gauge and the ECU. I have not have time to trace it thru yet. I was just wondering any body has the same issue like I do and possibly someone has found the problem area. It would be nice to know if someone knows exactly where the problem is. Thanks for any info. Vinh

Let me get this right. You have sparks but the engine won't fire correct? Open up your valve cover and set the engine at TDC and check the markings on the timing gear and chain. Make sure they still line up. I rebuilt my engine before and had the same problem. It was the timing issue that it didn't start. Good luck.

Dom, did you have to cut the front of the oil pan? If you don't your motor should be sitting against the fire wall. I hope to get back into my ZX swap very soon.

Here is my late Brucemobile.. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/721840/2

Did you try on a set of headers before you made the mounts?

Guys, I am about to buy an LS1 motor off a friend. The compression readings are not what I expected. A coupld cylinders have low readings and a couple have very high readings. Please tell me whether it is safe to buy it. Cylinder #2 reading is 150 dry and 175 wet. Cylinder #3 is 165 dry and 200 wet. Cylinder #5 is 225 dry. Cylinder #7 is 215 dry. The rest of the cylinders are around 175. Thanks for any info in advance. V.

Holly cow. Those gauges when the signal is grounded they will diplay full. This means if you leave them disconnected they will display empty. You must have F'ed something up really good in the meter. You should have addressed the light/key on issue instead of digging into the meter. The light and key light is trigger by a switch attached to the side of the ignition cylinder with the 2 wires coming out. If you want to disable it just disconnect the 2 wires. Open up your meter to make sure you didn't leave anything in there that could ground some signal out. If you can't find anything then it's time to start shopping around for another digital cluster. GL Vinh

The ZXTs are very famous with this backfire problem and the problem is all originated from the bad connections at the ECU connectors. With many years of experience with these turbo ZXs I bet you anything that all you have to do is clean the connectors or replace those with the later 300ZXs connectors and it will fix ur problem for good. I had replaced these connectors on mine a long time ago and never had the same problem again. GL

I've done some search and there are quite a few places sell kits to build custom headers for cheap. So it looks like I will go with custom headers. If you plan to do this swap I suggest you start shopping for the manual rack & crossmember from a 79 ZX. The manual rack and crossmember go together FYI. With the manual rack you will more room to run the header on the driver side.

The trial out was with a car with the power steering rack. Mine will be the manual rack. I don't see how this going to work with the steering box.

I agree with Frank on this. Unless you have an all original and in show room condition ZXR then it have some values. Otherwise it's just another ZX. This goes the same with the 80 AE eddition. I have a red/black one in show room condition sitting in my garage and it's nice to bring it to car shows and all but it's still just another ZX.

Too lazy to type. PM me or call me and I can help you solve ur problems 215-880-9557. Vinh

Here is the result and thi is with the Auto trans. Stick the motor in and jack the trans up and the motor was stuck in there. The front of the oil pan is wedged agaist the crossmeber. We pulled the motor and cut the front of the oil pan and put it back in and now we have some room to move the motor back and forth. Now it's time to trial fitting the headers. We have a few set of headers and all of them fit OK on the passenger side. The driver side is not the same. I slide the motor all the way back against the firewall and none of the headers fit. I tried on my 98 C5 header, JTR header and the stock Fbody header. So it looks like custom header on the driver side is the way to go if you want to keep your original firewall. Since my ZX won't have heat and AC I really don't care about the firewall. So my plan is to cut the fire wall and slide the motor back some more and I should be able to use the JTR headers. The other option is to install a ujoint in the steering shaft to clear the driver side header. I have some pictures but from a camera fone so the quality is not that good. I will post some pictures after this weekend when I snap with the real camera. GL.\ V.

Just curious,how much are you charging for something like this? I am assuming you are doing all the work to get the engine running and everything hooked up. If you don't feel comfortable please PM me. Thanks

I used the C5 shifter but I used the stock datsun rod to connect the 2. You just have to create a linkage between the shifter and the rod. The indicator on gear 1 and 2 is a little bit off but 3, D, R and N are right on. GL

How about move them to the right some more and under that metal piece in the second picture? The 280Z has these 2 pockets on both sides. But running the coil wires could be challenging. Seriously if you want a clean look the place to put them is behind the firewall. Run all your coil wires thru the fire wall just like how you run the EFI wires but seperate them out. Otherwise you might get interference. GL

There are 2 problems: the C5 drivetrain is too long and too wide for the Z. The length you can cut the torque tube. I've heard someone had successfully shorten the torque tube. For the width you can use monster flares. The difficult part is to fab up the rear frame so that the rear cradle can be bolted to it. Take some pictures of the C5 rear frame so you have an idea of what to do on the Z to create the same mounting points for the cradle. Nothing is impossilbe. GL

Here are some updates on my project. The frame work has turned into a big project itself. Look like I have no choice but going all out with this car. Here are a few pictures of the frame work. More pictures of the process on my web page.