1973 S30 + 1973 S30 + 1998 Z28SS = the "over my head" project

[drvrswntd]

I'm planning this as something of a blog; hopefully frequent updates of what I have been workign on in my seemingly never-ending quest to get a simple 1973 S30 with LS1 swap up and running.

 

The Background:

 

Got into cars in my late twenties, started modifying cars in 2005 (mostly bolt-ons), and this is my first major project.

 

In late 2008, I bought a 1973 240Z with the express intent of putting an LS1 in and using it as a summer fun car. Sadly, I didnt really know what to look for, and wound up overpaying for a car that was a looker from 10', and had a bunch of positives, but had so much curious bondo throughout that a consultation with a local restoration shop convinced me to scrap its build. Fortune seems to have favored this idiot though, because said local shop had a straight, mostly rust free 1973 that they sold to me for $500.

 

The Looker (now parts car):

 

 

The second attempt:

 

 

Decided to have it painted Nissan Solid Red A54 from the new 370Z - modern color I can duplicate with ease, and keeps it in the proverbial family.

 

Engine bay painted:

 

 

Engine and trans in place, still not hooked up:

 

 

Body work finishing:

 

 

 

 

Which brings me to this last Sunday, May 15:

 

 

As you can see, the white Z has had to make some sacrifices along the way, mainly a nose job, loss of a driver door, and the rear hatch.

 

Next up, what is done, what is in hand, and what needs to be ordered and/or completed.

[sq_creations]

Nice, looking forward to seeing it come together.

[drvrswntd]

Been too busy working to take pictures, but thus far I have had the fuel tank dipped and cleaned and a sump welded on, have all of the fuel lines/pumps/filters awaiting install, cut the hell out of the camaro fan assembly to fit the JTR radiator, ordered and received my tap/die set and bolt extractor set (hooray!) and received what I believe to be most of the electrical crap that I will need.

 

Instead of dropping the trans, I am having a custom clutch line fabbed using the male end from the GM quick connect master to slave, and the other end a standard 90* AN fitting at the Tilton. Hope to have it done for less than McLeod charges for a similar part, and with less hassle than seperating the trans and engine. This weekend, weather permitting, I am hitting the local pick-a-part to grab some weatherstripping, fan connectors, and any other goodies I may come across. Also hope to have the fuel system installed, so that wiring and interior are my only remaining tasks.

 

Electrical is daunting-a) I know just enough to be dangerous, and the red car has all of the old body and engine wiring intact but disconnected, so I will have to trace wires from start to terminus, and use the white one as a reference when I am stumped about connections.

 

Has anyone made a tachometer adjustment that doesnt entail sending the tach to JCI for conversion to read the camaro data?

[drvrswntd]

Long overdue update.

 

Finally got it on the road yesterday. As to how it got there:

 

Got the stock LS1 fan shroud trimmed and mounted:

 

 

Got my fueling routed and installed.

 

Running -6AN from the sump to a pre-filter, filter to walbro exterior, walbro to corvette FPR, and FPR to rails, with return to either a pick up or vent tube on the tank.

 

The filter and pump on the right, FPR on the left.

 

 

Mid-plumbing process

 

 

With relay powered on, steady PSI at the rails!

 

 

 

Next was finishing the wiring. Oh. My. God.

 

First, we elected to have two curcuit breakers, one for constant power, one for switched:

 

 

Next we had to pick apart the wires needed for the body, and the wires for the LS1, wire up fuses and relays to run the fans and fuel pump, and select a location. I chose the passenger footwell for the relays, ECM and fuse block. The rat's nest when we started:

 

 

(sadly, I haven't taken a picture since it was cleaned up, I should do that this weekend)

 

 

'Course, I dont want to drive a car without windshields or hatch glass, so I ordered the MSA gaskets and had a friends "glass guy" install the glass from the white one into this one. He insisted that he couldnt do the chrome trim, so for the rear, we put it in without the trim first. I insisted on the front, and he acquiesced, so in it went, and sure enough, the front glass mounted more easily, and the trim was fine. I wound up having to install the rear trim after-the-fact on my own, but he only charged me $80 to do both windows, so I can't really complain.

 

As for items that I don't have pictures of but were done to get it on the road:

 

1. New soft lines for the brakes, as well as new pads and rotors front, and new shoes and a drum rebuild kit in the rear.

2. A McLeod racing master to slave connector

3. A driver's seat from the white one (needs to be refinished at some point), a new battery hold-down tray from MSA, MSA 3-point belts (kind of iffy on these, but they work, for now), and reassembly of the body panels.

 

When I finally got it off of jack-stands, I attempted to take it on its maiden voyage, and, whoops, I cant get it into gear. However, as I pushed it into first with the clutch in, the car started to creep. Being alone, I thought I would try to extend the rod on the clutch master instead of bleeding the system, and sure enough, extended almost to the very end of the rod, I now have enough travel to shift freely.

 

Pleasant surprises:

 

The reverse lock-out solenoid seems to just work - I dont have anything wired to the solenoid, but without power, I can hardly get it into reverse. When on, I can get it into reverse easy as pie, unless I am moving. No idea why, but I'll take it.

 

After switching to the mustang reverse light pigtail, and happening upon a few wiresthat seemed to be in a perfect place for the reverse sensor on the stock Z (and confirming color match with the FSM), we took a chance and wired the reverse pigtail to the Z wires, and sure enough - reverse lights work.

 

Oddly, the bumper on the white Z is an early 240 model, which explains why it was never fastened very well to the later 5mph bumper beams on the car. For now I am running the late 240 series on the car that it same with, but ith an order of MSA early brackets, I should be able to run an early 240 bumper with ease!

 

Dissapointments:

 

I didn't clarify with John of JCI where the speedo conversion box was to be placed, so we wired it for the engine bay - the speedo cord is binding, so I need to relocate it to the driver side kick panel.

 

Myself, for putting a few nicks in my nice paint job during reassembly.

 

A BIG myself, for failing to observe that I was missing a brake line when I was replacing the rear brakes, and flushing brake fluid through the system onto the car and floor.

 

First drive observations:

 

Ok, this thing is LOUD. And HOT! granted it was 110+ degrees yesterday, but that, combined with the headers opening right at the floorboards, cause the interior to run into what I can only guess is the 120-130 range. Still, I made it 45 miles, some stop and go traffic, with nary an overheat or mechanical issue.

 

I didn't get on it - lacking a speedo, I went with the flow of traffic, and lacking a tach, and considering how loud/hot the car is, i was probably granny-shifting the entire time, but I can sense the fun to come.

 

Next up, aside from finishing some of the above details, a suspension refresh and alignment are in my future, and giving my wife the first passeneger spot on the car this weekend.

 

Edited July 22, 2011 by drvrswntd

[boyracer]

Congrats! Hoping my build goes as smoothly as yours.

[drvrswntd]

Thanks.

 

Finally figured out the cable-x speedo from JCI, just need to dial it in. Not sure how to calibrate it for a different differential and tire size than stock 98 f-body; the first portion of the instructions talk about calculating exciter geer teeth x final drive x tire RPMile, which yeilds 49,672 pulses per mile. Later in the instructions it says to use 4,000 pulses for VSS-driven signals, which actually get the speedo working, but doesnt factor the final drive or tire revolutions.

 

My suspicion is that if a camaro calculates out to 46,xxx pulses using the first portion of the instructions (or 8% higher), but is really at 4000 ppm, then I should be at roughly 4320 ppm. I will try it first and see how close I come on a mile at 60mph, and go from there.

 

Second longish drive today, 15 miles in stop and go, temp climbs to what I can only guess is about 200-215F, which puts it higher than halfway on the stock temp gauge, but within operating standards for an LS1.

 

Still loud, and still a heck of a lot of fun.

[gandapanda]

Looking good... hope to get a ride in it soon!

 

Sonny

[drvrswntd]

Thanks, and thanks so much for your help in getting it to this stage!

[drvrswntd]

At the request of RebekahsZ, I am outlining my steps towards converting my 240Z to Fuel Injection. While this was an LS1 swap, the process should work for most FI applications.

 

NOTE: I have driven this car for one week, and while I have not had any fueling issues, I have not tracked it or spent any time under lateral acceleration, so I cannot comment on this method as a perfect fit for harder use applications.

 

I started by selecting the fuel line for my application, and 3/8" seemed to be acceptable. As such, I purchased a weld-in sump kit from Summit Racing (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CEE-4040/). If you are handy with welding, you could certainly make your own. I have never held a welder in my life, so I paid other folks for that.

 

Next I dropped my tank and took it to a radiator shop to be cleaned/boiled and have the sump welded on. Again, you can do this all yourself, but I would be doubly nervous of welding a fuel tank that has ever held fuel.

 

It goes without saying that you want your tank to be sound, and if it is not, now is the time to do so. Mine was solid, so all they had to do was weld the sump on. Between the sump ($65) and the clean/weld job ($90), I was at $165 for a tank that should support FI. Sadly, I had them center the sump on the tank, not on where it would fall under the car, but that is just an aesthetic issue that may or may not matter to others.

 

Make sure when they weld the sump that they drill several holes in the tank to act as baffles - the sump came with a template, but if you are making your own or use another brand, several small holes, not one large opening, are needed to connect the sump to the tank. See here: http://www.competitionengineering.com/catalog/images/c4040-c4041_inst.pdf

 

Next up was finishing the tank, since in the process of cleaning and welding, they will expose most if not all of the original steel. I had to sand the tank and then hit it with 3 coats of rustoleum black paint. I will eventually get it powdercoated, but I wanted this thing on the raod before winter.

 

Next I had to decide how I wanted my fuel, evap and return lines to be routed. I knew that the stock hard lines would be fully taxed if not overwhelmed on an LS swap, so I chose stainless braided lines for ease of use, limited weather and time of use (3-5,000 miles per year, April to October mainly). I am sure that people would push me toward new hard lines if I let them, but I know a lot of high performance, high power and hig mileage guys using braided lines with no ill effects, and they are MUCH easier to work with IMHO.

 

I also chose to keep the evap canister in the passenger c pillar area, since it is rumored to make filling up easier. This meant I needed the following connections from the gas tank:

 

1 Outlet

1 Return

at least 1 evap line

 

Obviously the sump will handle the outlet, but I didnt want the return line at the bottom of the tank - no reason other than my own concerns about cavitation or pressure on the system, and probably unfounded. Still, that meant chosing a return location on the upper side of the tank.

 

Since I was workign with -6AN lines, I figured I would use the most closely sized bung on the tank, which happened to be the topmost, passenger side evap tube line, facing the bottom in this picture.

 

 

Using this meant I had to cap the corresponding hole on the evap tank itself. JB weld and a fine mesh screen for durability worked fine.

 

That left me with two choices for the evap tank line, and again, I wanted the highest point I could, so I chose the highest remaining bung, the "L" shaped on the bottom of this picture.

 

 

I routed that through the existing hole and grommet in the rear to the evap tank.

 

Since the lower evap line was in the middle of the tank, and would therefore have fuel in it, I opted to delete that line as well and just run one evap line. Again, JB weld sealed both the gas tank bung and evap tank bung. I capped two of these three lines:

 

 

I still had two openings, the original outlet and return lines. More JB weld, and those were capped.

 

So now I had a tank with an outlet, an inlet and an evap line, and an evap tank with one connection to the gas tank, plus the stock connection to the filler neck. I also had an extra outlett on the sump, but a threaded plug from summit fixed that.

 

So how do we get fuel to the front of the car.

 

I planned out a prefilter, a walbro 255 lph in line pump, and a corvette FPR. As it happens, the 1973 model already had wiring for an external fuel pump, and while I wasn't going to reuse that wiring, that location already had a bracket that would fit my Walbro 255lph pump nicely.

 

 

 

However, the pump and prefilter wouldnt both fit.

 

 

So a $5 piece of steel from home depot, some cutting, bending and rustoleum yielded a bracket that fit in the stock location and fit both the filter and pump.

 

 

The PO of my Z had put a small hole on the support bracket for the dirver side lower control arm, which would accept the crovette FPR perfectly.

 

 

 

 

Next up was ordering all of the fittings and hose, and for that I used Nate from Nasty Performance on LS1tech. He was fiendly both over the phone and email, and spent a good hour clarifying everything I would need for the swap. He gave me a kit price for the lines, fittings and filter (I already had everything else), and when it arrived I was pleased to find that each fitting was assembled, bagged and labeled seperately (Tank to filter, filter to pump, pump to fpr, etc...); all I had to do was measure and cut the stainless line.

 

A dremel, some masking tape and a vice to keep it all steady made easy work of the line, and assembly was much more pain free than I had been lead to believe. just make SURE that you get a nice clean cut on the lines, and take your time in fitting it.

 

The only concern I had was in connecting my return line from the FPR to the tank - I knew which bung I wanted to use, but I wasnt sure how to connect the stainless lines to this bung. Turns out, they make a part for that. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EAR-165056ERL/ - the brass ferrule in the middle cruches the pipe and forms a tight seal between the fitting and the tube, while the other side is a standard AN fitting. easy as pie!

 

From the FPR, I ran fuel lines (using supplied moutning clips) along the trans tunnel driver side. Because it ran so close to the exhaust area, I wrapped the lines in thermotec head tubes. In the engine bay, it was a simple matter of removing the stock GM fitting at the rails, and adding the fitting that Nate had provided.

 

 

I also took time to add a pressure gauge at the head of the rails; removing the schrader valve and adding a gauge in its place.

 

 

All in all, I spent roughly $750 on my fueling, as follows:

 

Tank - Free

Sump - $65 (Summit)

Welding - $90

FPR - $40 (Rock Auto)

Walbro Pump - $115 (w/ mounting kit DIY Autotune maybe?)

Filter, Lines, Fittings, pressure gauge - $400 (Nasty Performance)

Heat Tube - $20 (Amazon)

JB Weld, Misc Fittings - $30 (misc)

 

I am happy to take more pictures or offer more suggestions as needed.

[rsicard]

Better go easy on that R180 Rear Differential with that LSx V8!

[drvrswntd]

Better go easy on that R180 Rear Differential with that LSx V8!

 

Yes and no. I know it is old, and the mounting points are suspect, but there are countless import guys running 300-400 HP/TQ on R160/R180 rear ends. Hell, I had a 325 HP/TQ subaru forester that gave me 50K good miles and lots of hard driving with no rear end complaints. Yes, I know the AWD takes some torque demand from the rear diff, but an R180 isn't as weak as people think. That said, open diff FTL.

 

And I have an extra diff in the white car just in case, so I can blow two open R180s before I have to worry about upgrading.

[drvrswntd]

Finally had a chance to make an extended drive, and took it to Byron Speedway drag strip yesterday.

 

There is something very empowering about building a car that can drive 75 miles, run 5-6 times at a drag strip, and then drive 75 miles home. Yes, I have done it once or twice with other cars, but never one that I essentially built.

 

So, the 1/4 mile. First, this is my third time at a strip, first time with a RWD car (both others were AWD). Second, I babied it a little, since I was worried about the rear end and frankly my build overall. Lastly, even babying it, I am traction limited.

 

First run, I didnt warm the tires, slipped the clutch at a normal start, and once I floored the gas pedal, I spun 1st to the limiter, shifted into second and was bogging at 1800 rpm. 14.2 @ 104

 

Second run I started in second, ran a 13.4 @ 106

 

Third run was with my wife in the car, warmed the tires in the box, and had a decent launch feathering the throttle. 13.2 @ 106, 2.2 ET

 

Another solo run, 2.0 60', but third was notchy and I had to double clutch and reshift. Also topped third at the 1200 foot mark, so I backed off instead of shifting. ran a 13.9 at 103

 

Last run was with a friend in the car, decent start, 103.5 at 109mph. Best trap of the day.

 

With better tires, better driving (or a better driver) I should be able to break into the 12s.

 

Some media for you:

 

Video of 13.5 @ 109 pass - announcer has already announced my car prior to recording.

 

 

Pictures: