VinhZXT

I got my friend's Z start up today. Here is a video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDTTHLnHkv4 Got the radiator and elec fan today. Will put them in tomorrow. Let me know if you need any help. GL. Vinh

damn those wheels look better without the stupid center caps. I will remove my center caps tomorrow to see what they look like. Nice.. GL>

The240guy, I just did this with 2 280Zs for the LS1 swaps and I didn't need any wiring diagrams. If you cut open all the tapes to expose all the wires then you can follow thru and cut everything except for: 1. The head lights wires- (the 3 big red wires) 2. The running and signal lights wires - (green wires) 3. The horn wire 4. Ground wires. 5. The wiring harness to the wiper motor. There are also wires going to the driver side along the firewall that are for the brake fluid reservoir and the windshield washer pump and a ground for the brake cylinder. I didn't need any of these on my car so I cut them as well. Also don't forget to run 2 thick wires to your electric fan before you wrap everything back up. You can cut all these wires all the way up to those connectors inside the car with the exception of the BLK/WHT wire. This is the ignition wire. You might want to leave 6" of wire from the connector just incase you need this for later use. Also there is another connector that leads to the fuse block you want to leave some slack on these wires for later use. I used 3 wires from this connector to feed the power to the LS1 harness. I think I have some more details on these wiring on my web page (page 8). GL Vinh

14.7v charging is too weak. I have a Honda alternator in my Z and it's charging at 15. something volts. You might want to try different alternator or get a hi rated amp one from Zman of washington. GL

I don't think there is any book explain this. What you need is to understand how relays work. There are 2 basic types of relays, 1 with 4 prongs and 1 with 5 prongs. The relays are basically serve the same purpose as the manual switches but you can control them electrically. Here is a basic layout of any standard relay: (if it's a 4 prongs relay it doesn't have pin 87A) 1. Pin 85 - coil 2. Pin 86 - coil 3. Pin 30 - common 4. Pin 87 - Normally Open (NO to pin 30) 5. Pin 87A - Normally Close (NC to pin 30). To activate a relay you need a 12V and ground to pins 85 and 86. Once the relay is activated it kicks the internal contact to connect pin 30 and pin 87. At the same time it will disconnect pin 87A and pin 30. There are numbers of ways to activate or control the relays. I will give you a simple example how you can wire up the electric fan. Connect pin 85 to ground, Pin 86 to 12V ignition, Pin 87 to Battery source thru some type of fuse and Pin 87 is the 12V feed to your electric fan. With this hookup your fan will turn on the second you turn on the key. Again there are numbers of ways you can think of to use the relay to control anything in the car. Hope this helps you a bit. Let me know if you need help or ideas wiring up something. Next lesson will be how to use pin 87A lol. GL Vinh

Careless, Thanks for the pictures but I already built mine and they are a lot simpler than that. These were built by using scrap metals and a couple of old sawhorses laying around my garage. Here are a few pictures

Jbk240Z, Thank you. I hope it will turn out nice too. David, Nice talking to you again. I talked to Dave from NY after I talked to you. He is using aftermarket gauges. I will need some help from you to get info on the water temp sensor and fuel pressure sensor. I've seen how DaleMX or Phantom adapt the Datsun oil pressure sensor in the stock hole. I think I can achieve this also but I don't know what to do about the water temp sensor. I will probably try to get a bung in the radiator somewhere to hook up the Datsun water temp sensor. I will use the aftermarket speedo and tach for my friend's Z. Please let me know if you have any info on the water temp sensor. About the JCI mounts, after I got everything in I think it is a really well design kit. The motor is sitting very low. The motor is sitting a little forward because I assum he wants the M6 sticks right thru the stock hole. For the maunal trans car you can definitely try to get the car sit further back. Hey look on the bright side you have plenty of room between the fire wall and the engine to install the brake lines and fuel line back when the motor is in lol. I have made my own mounts and now I am using the JCI mounts. I would highly recommend the JCI kit. Not only that you can get the JTR headers and they fit without a problem. On my other project I had to find my own headers to work with my custom engine mounts. Any question please shoot me a messgae. Thanks for viewing this thread. Vinh

I build a temporary paint boot in my garage and I will use it to sand blast the frame. I also build a cheap rotisserie that my young friend is using to do the repair on his Z. I just need to know techniques because I have never done it before. Thanks for the pics. Vinh

I got my selenoids and door poppers from A1electric. I've search around and they have the best price. I suggest you not getting the remote control module with the package. You can just buy a cheap remote alarm with 2 or more outputs and use them to open both doors. The alarm at the same can prevent people breaking into your car. I installed mine on 3 of my ZXs so I don't know which location would be suited for earlier Z cars. All I know is you don't have much room to work with for earlier Z cars. GL Vinh

Wickie, Wow I just finished watching those Videos from Mull production of some guys restoring their 240Z then I see pictures of your project. I know exactly what I have to do with with my project now when I get everything completed on my car. I am saving the body work and frame restoration for last. Nice pictures of the progress. Vinh

Motor is in. Not too hard at all. Everything went in smoothly. I would definitely recommend JCI LS1 Kit. The only thing I didn't use are those nutserts for the tranny mounts. I drill all 8 holes thru the frame rails and used nuts and bolts. Feel a lot more secure that way then using those nutserts. They look really weak to me and they are very easy to spin after installed. http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2079260/8 Vinh

Hi Larry, How is the sound with those side pipes? do you mind record a sound clip or video for us? I am in the planning stage how to build my sidepipes for my ls1 daytona coupe project. I have the stock SS C5 headers that I modified to fit into my Z now but I think I will custom build my headers to work with the side pipes. I want to build the headers to come straight out from the block and go thru the fender well above the frame rails. Then make a slight bend toward the back and down to the inlets of the sidepipes. On the driver side I have to move the brake lines and route them some where else. Other than that the passenger side is all open. The other concern I have is how do I reenforce that areas after I cut 2 big holes in the fender well. I have checked and I have plenty of room behind the front wheels for the pipes to come out in that area. I know it will be a lot of work and $$ but I want the sidepipes to tuck away and up high just like the original Daytona coupe. What do you guys think of my ideas? Thanks Vinh Surf, sorry for hi jacking your post.

The alt is from a 91-93 Honda Accord. If you run the mechanical water pump and putting the alt on the lower passenger side you will run into another problem with the belt routing. I used the electric water pump and it simplified my belt routing a lot. GL

Pop, I almost forgot. I did had the GM alternator mounted on my motor at one point. Here is a picture of it. I found that it was sitting too close to the frame rail and the strut tower so I moved it down low to the passenger side. The GM alt is too big to fit there and that's how I came up with the Honda alt. If you move your motor any lower you will not be able to fit even the Honda alt there because of your stock crossmeber. It's not that difficult to fab up the mounts for the Honda alt. GL

Went out to my garage and complete the mounts into the car tonight. The result was much better. It wasn't that bad. Yeah my fault for not reading carefully. Time to paint the engine compartment and all the mounts get ready for the motor to go in this weekend. Thanks again for the pix Lason. Should be able to start this car up in a week or 2. Vinh

Pop, yep I noticed the 2 side pieces are too thin and looks like you gave it a lot of room to swing from side to side. I used the same 1X3 tubing on my mount for the side pieces. Here is a picture of my mount. Also why did you have to drop the crossmember so far down and then have to build the 2 metal cups on it? Was there something rubbing from the bottom? Vinh Edit: Nevermind yeah I see you used the thin biscuit mounts that's why you had to build the 2 cups. BTW this is not the final piece. I will rebuild this piece later on and I will make the 2 top pieces that sit on the frame rails much stronger.

Man I feel really stupid now. I should have figure it out since the hole won't line up. If I slide it under the stock mount then the hole would have lined up. I've made my mount for the C5 style engine mounts and now I am using the JCI kits, if I have to do over again I would go with the C5 engine mounts style since I have all the measurements. One thing IMO is that the driver side JCI mount should be redesign to be a little more compact and easy to install. I have not drill the holes on the TC cup yet but I know it will be a bear to do that. Thanks again Lason. Vinh

Lason, Thanks for the pix. Now it makes sense. Thank you much. Vinh

Lason, Thank you very much. There is something wrong with my driver side mount. I will call JCI tomorrow. Here are a few picture of mine mount. Don't look like yours at all. What's wrong with the hole here?

PopNwood, I just put in a perfect condition crossmember from my other 280Z. As far as I know this car was never got into an accident and everything looks straight. Lason, Can you show me some more picture of the driver side mount from the side view. I notice your new mount looks parrallel to the frame rail from the front view. On my web site you can see the new mount doesn't look parallel to the frame at all. Doesn't matter which angle you look at it, either front or the side. Is it suppose to look like that? There's got to be something wrong. Do you see how far off the hole off from center on the new mount? Did he send me the one for a 240Z maybe? Vinh

Lason, Thanks for the picture. It helps a lot but here are my problems: #1. I need to cut a boss off on the passenger side in order to install the passenger side mount. This doesn't mention in the manual but this is a no brainer to figure out. #2. The driver side mount is a complete crap. The hole in the new mount won't line up with the old mount. The new mount won't slide onto the old mount. I have to grind both the upper and lower lips of the old mount in order for the new mount to slide on. #3. After I slide the P mount on it sticks straight out the back and the back piece just hanging in the air. In order for me to bend the back of the mount onto the tension rod mounting cup I have to hammer the old mount on both top and bottom to make it skinnier. So that I can wiggle the back of the new mount toward the tension rod mounting cup. Once I did that the new mount look crooked compare to the left frame rail. I got some pictures to show what I am talking about. #4 the manual said using the old bolts to hold the crossmember in place. The bolts are about 1" and there is no way you can use the stock bolts. You have to use longer bolts to hold up the crossmember. I have to go now but I will put up some pictures on my web site and I will put the link here later. Here it is http://www.cardomain.com/my/edit_page?page_id=2079260 Vinh

You got it.

You can see that I had the lift to work with and it was easy. It will be a little tougher to work without a lift. GL

Guys, I test fit the left engine mount and it doens't look good. #1 the manual doesn't mention anything about grinding my old left engine mount down for the new engine mount to cover it. Without grinding the new engine mount will not completely cover the old mount. #2 the damn hole in the new left engine mount is not lining up with the old mount. ( I will take a picture tomorrow, This is really bad). Also I have to hit the ♥♥♥♥ out of the old mount just to let the new mount sits on top of the old mount and be able to adjust the rear mount to fit the back of the tension rod mount. #3 the bottom hole of the tension rod mount is right on the corner so how are you suppose to mount the nut and bolt for that? The right mount looks like it suppose to go smooth but so far the left one is a PITA. Anyone got any comment on that? I haven't put the motor in yet but so far it a ****in PITA already. I am probably be better off redesign the left mount. Thanks for any input from the guys who had done this before. Vinh PS. I know JCI probably put a lot of time into designing this kit but the left mount to me could be done better and simpler.

SummitRacing. Trust me I did a lot of searching and I came up with this. If you want more close up pictures of it let me know. I haven't run my LS1 with it much yet but I built the fan shrould for it and it shouldn't be hard at all. Let me know. Vinh