wfritts911 Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Well first off I'm pretty new here, names Will, I recently had my 98 Firebird Formula wrecked by a lady in blazer(Blazer>Firebird). Needless to say the insurance company totaled it out, but I kept the car and got a nice check in process. So I begin looking for a good victim for an LS1 swap. My first choice was originally a square body S10, was also looking at some BMW E30s, weren't any Datsun's on craigslist so those didn't even get thought about more than once. Then a local friend mentioned that Mat (Known on here as FlatBlack) had a 280z he was selling. Long story short I ended up with his Z. Planning on having it swapped and driving at the end of my spring break (March 25th) as I bet my brother that I would. The bodywork and paint will come this summer, along with the interior. Just bumming off the parents ride until I can get the Z going as my DD. I'm currently a freshman engineering student at the University of Arkansas, so working on the car will be limited to weekends and spring break. Im planning on using as much as I can off of my Firebird, since its there and the parts are free. My current plans for the swap consist of the following: -Custom motor/tranny mounts (JCI kit is kinda of pricey, and I'm handy with a welder). Planning on going with solid motor mounts to simplify the mounts. Guys on LS1tech don't seem to have a problem with them and I have a high tolerance level anyways. -F-Body radiator/electric fan setup. Notching the frame is what I hear needs done to fit the fbody radiator, so that will happen if needed. -Custom driveshaft from Dennys Driveshaft. -R200 with OBX diff with the fixed gears and upgraded washers/bolts. -Rota RB-R 17x9.5 on all fours with 275/40-17s like Mat previously had on the car -Poly suspension bushings aside from TC Rod, Tokico Blues, Arizona Z Car springs -F-Body exhaust manifolds modified to work, or possibly the JTR headers if I can't find an Fbody set for cheap(Put on headers over the summer, and left my stock manifolds with my brother who scrapped them ) -Also doing a 799 head swap while the motor is out (Stock heads have some bent valves I believe after a nasty 2-3-2 shift at WOT). Heads are getting milled ~.035, shooting for about 11.5:1 compression. -Using gauges from Speedhut as they seem like a quality product, and have built in turn signals/high beams. -Swapping over the F-Body seats if they fit, if not Plan B -*Insert million other things that need done* -Throttle down! -Hopefully hit 9.xx at my local 1000ft track(Best time with the Firebird was 10.84), and then possibly enter the world of racing on tracks with turns in them(Boring right?). Waiting on the check to clear Tuesday, and my shopping carts from Summit, Jegs, Rockauto, SDPC, Ebay, LS1Tech, Rota, Discount Tire, and Speedhut will be getting ordered. Hoping to document the swap pretty well, with plenty of pictures. My budget for the project is around 4500, but any less than that just means the bodywork will happen sooner. Don't have many pics yet, but I got a few of the damage. Any advice you guys can give me would be very appreciated. The Firebird after it met the Blazer's bumper. The Blazer just didn't want to let go of my front end. -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dans toy Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Is it actually a 1000ft track or 1/4mi. Good luck with your project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Welcome to the club man!I believe you posted up on my build on LS1tech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Is it actually a 1000ft track or 1/4mi. Good luck with your project. It's actually a 1000ft track, I believe the owners have been trying to extend it to a quarter but the people won't sell the land they need to extend it. Its a good track for what it is though, just makes it complicated to compare to other vehicles when you only have 1000ft times instead of the 1320. Arkansas doesn't have any 1/4 mile tracks, just two 1000fts, closest would be Mokan in Missouri or Memphis. Welcome to the club man!I believe you posted up on my build on LS1tech. Thanks, and yes I did, I got in touch with Kim also, gonna get me a set ordered here pretty quick. Just man up and stuff 275s with some flares! On another note, I started to drop the engine today. Managed to get it all out, but I fubar'd myself as I just let the subframe down on a tire instead of a dolley, so now I cant get it out! Gonna have to get the tractor out tomorrow and get creative. It's sad that I have to do this on my driveway, as I have a large shop but its filled with to many other projects to fit this one in. Hoping to finish the trailer my brother and I started building over xmas break so I can get the Z in the shop to work on. -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 lol yeah i have a cart i built jut for that. a large furniture dolly works as well, just not as good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 lol yeah i have a cart i built jut for that. a large furniture dolly works as well, just not as good. Ya I had a furniture dolly, but it wasn't tall enough, so I just put the tire under there thinking "I'll figure out how to get it out later", dumb idea... -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Well I managed to get the engine out from underneath the car. Hoping to get it mocked up in the Z if I go home this weekend, if not next weekend for sure. Going to mock it up, figure out how I want to build mounts, and measure for a driveshaft. Going to start ordering lots of parts tomorrow! And the one and only picture I took The LS1 wasn't powerful enough, I put out 340fhp(Feet horsepower lol) -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted March 12, 2012 Author Share Posted March 12, 2012 Well I finally managed to get enough work done that was post worthy. Had lots of parts waiting for me when I got home, was like Christmas in March. Picked the 243 heads up from the machine shop after getting milled .035, shooting for about 11.5:1 compression. New 275/40-17s came in along with the Rota RB-Rs in 17x9.5 for all for corners. Got the motor in this weekend, fabbed up mounts that I think will work quite well. The motor fits really well, its a little tight side to side, but the space in front of the motor is ridiculous. Not a whole lot to talk about, pictures work so much better. First off I have this big shop that works perfect for a project like this, unfortunately its filled with 2 other projects right now Fortunately the Z managed to fit underneath the carport. And this is what happens when you order parts without measuring. Putting a 90 degree fitting on right after the slave cylinder fitting doesn't work lol Used this fitting to connect to the T56 slave cylinder, just knock out the pin, remove the GM quick connect fitting, and this thing goes right in. -#3AN Fitting. Going in! Drivers side brace, pretty much turned the cross member into a K member. Finally found a use for my 10ft stick of DOM tubing. Passenger Side. Motor mount plates, just welded some 3/16 plate on the stock F-body plates since I didn't feel like drilling 8 holes for totally new brackets. Motor mounts, used some 1.75/1.20 wall DOM tubing, Criticism is welcome if yal don't think these mounts will hold up. I'm thinking about bracing them over to the frame rail, but not really sure its needed. Can't ask for much better shifter placement than that! Don't know how low everyone else puts their LS1, but mine literally couldn't go any lower. Can't even fit a finger between the crank pulley and the rack and pinion. Well that ends this weekends work, Will only have Sunday to Sunday to work on it again before I will hopefully be driving it back to school, otherwise I will owe my older brother 20 bucks. Lot of work, but I think I can pull it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Wow, it took me 6 months to get to the point you achieved in one weekend! You don't mess around-looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 Thanks man. I bet my brother 20 bucks I would drive this car back to school in time for my 9:30 class after spring break which is the 19th-23rd. Sure 20 bucks isn't that much money, but its the principalities! If I don't have this car done by then its going to be because I won't have any springs. Tried to order Tokico springs but they won't have them in stock for 15-17 days :bang:. Ended up ordering parts to do coil overs, so hopefully the stuff I ordered fits, otherwise I will be in trouble! Expect some serious progress starting the 19th though as that is the next time I will be home. -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbirdz06 Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Good luck. Very ambitious. I hope you get your 20 bucks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlatBlack Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Can't wait to see this come back to Fayetteville with an LS1! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Can't wait to see this come back to Fayetteville with an LS1! Me either! I will have to come to the next race with you to see what she can do! On another note, I was billed for the Tokico springs I ordered that Modern motorsports didn't have in stock and I didn't think they would get them in stock in time. But they said they wouldn't bill me until they shipped, and I was billed Friday. So I might be able to just run the Tokico's for a little bit until I get time to do the coil over conversion(Which I already ordered the parts for thinking the Tokico springs weren't gonna make it in time). -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 My recommendations on what to do while waiting to do coil-over conversion: Stay away from "progressive" lowering springs. You will hate them. While you are waiting, you could just run your stock springs, lots of guys are racing with them...honestly, "lowering" springs don't lower you that much and they are only marginally stiffer. You will go an inch lower by swapping to 240z spring insulators (I think-double check me). Cut a coil (don't even have to remove the spring, put the cut end of the coil on the lower spring seat, and you are lowered without spending much money at all. If you lower via the spring, be sure to put a bump stop on the strut rod-you will bottom and that sucks when it is metal to metal-you could lose a filling. If you cut a coil, you CANNOT get air going over train crossings or dips, you'll drop the spring and kill youself. You can drag race and autocross. If you go to the track, you should be fine on cold street tires with lots of air, but you may want to stack a couple of bump stops on your strut rod if you are going to have much traction (drag tires, hot tires or low pressures) to keep from busting an axle. Then again, you could always just take a trailer and chance it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Thanks for the advice man. Although the Tokico springs for the 280z are linear 185F 200R, I knew I didn't want progressive rate springs, so I got that under control. Also I don't have any stock springs that are even in usable shape, the few I have a rusted really bad. I wasn't planning on doing coilovers, but once I found out I couldn't find any "bolt-in" style springs in half decent rates that were available to me, I decided to go coilovers. I wasn't going to coilovers for lowering, I don't plan on going very low, can't stand scraping everywhere. Hopefully the Tokico's will come in so I can just run them and have one less thing to worry about next week. My plan for the coilovers was just to use coilover springs, because then I can run spring rates that I want(I ordered 200F 225R QA1 springs from summit), I wasn't going to section the struts or anything because I can't afford new inserts right now. Oh and this won't be a "race" car for me, once I get it going, it will be my new daily(Currently driving my dad's Ford Freestyle...what a drag!) Question for any other LSx swapped guys, did any of yal make a skid plate or something for the oil pan? It definitely sits below the cross member more than I would like, I might fab something up down the road sometime. -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yiannit280z Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 So did you get it done in time to win the $20?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 Unfortunately I lost the 20 dollars . I worked from Monday to Monday, 12+ hour days, and even stayed up for the last 48 hours straight and still failed...I got everything besides the part of the wiring done. 5 o'clock rolled around Monday morning, I had been up for 40+ hours, and the plug for the coil pack harness wouldn't reach to the frame rails where I had to relocate my coils, was about 3 inches to short, and I didn't have time to extend about 14 wires so I had to call it. Needed one more day worth of work. Only thing I didn't have done besides the wiring was the throttle cable, but I knew exactly how to do that, just needed to make the stock Firebird cable work. I will get lots of pictures when I go home next weekend to finish it up, and I will document everything I had to buy and what I had to do. I will make one recommendation, I don't know how Vinh made them work, but the 97-98 C5 vette manifolds do not fit worth a damn. The passenger side would have fit but would have been really close to the starter, but thats just cause I used F-body style mounts instead of the frontward vette mounts. But the drivers side, I notched the hell out of it, bent it super close to the block, and it still didn't come close to clearing the steering shaft. Had I cut it completely off and hacked it up even more than I did I MIGHT have been able to make it clear the shaft. I ended up flipping the manifolds upside down, and ran the exhaust to the heat extractor holes on the hood lol. So much for sleeper status, it looks nasty with the exhaust through the hood. Its just a temporary fix though, I will probably just buy the stuff to make headers with and make some headers that fit. Thats why I had to relocate my coils, the wires wouldn't fit with the upside down manifolds. I ran into a lot of hold ups with the suspension too. First I was missing one gland nut for the tokico struts, so I ordered one, only to realize one of the gland nuts I had wasnt for Tokico's, so I was still short a nut. I ended up using stock style rear struts filled with power steering fluid (Same as ATF right?). Second I didn't have any of the rubber brake lines to go form the chassis to the struts, I ended up finding some hoses from the parts store that fit with a new fitting on the body side. Third I didn't realize til it was too late and I was just going to go with it, the tokico red springs when I jacked up the front LCA to torque the LCA and TC rod bolts, put the strut less that 1/2 inch from poly bump stop I installed. Has anyone else had this problem? Should I just not have installed bump stops or just cut them down a lot? The only thing I noticed was the wheel well with the 275/40-17 on the Rota's was still quite big, so it wasn't like the car was slammed. Well I've typed half a book here, and don't have any pictures to go with it, so I will wait till next weekend and take lots of pictures and document everything I did. I'm still reasonably proud of myself even though I didn't get it running. I went from a shell with nothing but no good rear uprights bolted up to make it rollable, to an LS1 swapped ready to drive chassis just short of wiring pretty much in 2 weekends worth of work, and 7 days. Not too shabby I guess. Sad thing is, the actual LS1 swap didn't take up most of my time. Stay tuned 'til next weekend. -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 Amazing! You will make mistakes working tired, oh wait, how old are you? That's right, you are still at that indestructible age where you can eat anything, do anything, heal-up from any injury and last on no sleep or food for days. Well, just in case you really are human (and most of us are), be sure before your put electricity and fuel pressure to it that you re-check everything. Leave your connectors off (disconnect) your computer until you are really ready to burn something up, so you don't fry your computer or the wiring. Have a trusted buddy go over it once even after you have, kind of like proof reading and peer reviewing a paper before turning it in. Look for new or used JTR headers in the for sale forum. Mine fit perfectly with only one exception: I had to grind a little off the back of the long JCI mount on the driver's side, then it fit like a champ with NO other conflicts. I used MSD wires with the gumby-like flex in the plug end and I'm having no trouble with the wires burning. It seemed to me that the closer I got to the end of the project, the more difficult it got, kind of like shoving your head thru a funnel. mnoel did the swap in one month, you may wind up being the new champsion. Can't wait for pictures! And I'll give you $20 when I come race in Little Rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 Ya I'm still young enough to where being up for that long didn't hit me 'til I started to look at the coil pack wiring and realized it wasn't going to work. Then it was like well I don't have anymore time...and damn I'm tired. I am either going to try and buy the 98-99 F-body manifolds, because I'm pretty sure they will fit, or just go ahead and buy stuff to make my own headers. Now that I have an entire weekend to finish it up, I think I'm going to go ahead and strip out some of the unneeded connectors in the harness, and clean up the wiring. You mean there is a record for an LS1 swap time frame? I am most definitely under one month. I think the most disappointing thing about not getting it done was I worked on all the suspension and chassis stuff first, so I didn't even get to hear it start up . But there isn't much left to do aside from wiring, throttle cable, and a seat bracket. So one weekend is more than enough time to get it going. I'm so freaking excited to get back home its not even funny, I love college life, but damn I want to drive that car lol. A note for anyone looking to do the LS1 swap. I don't think it ended up being that expensive. Most of the money I spent was on wheels, tires, head swap, and chassis stuff that anyone with a driving Z wouldn't need. I will make a full list of everything I had to buy for the actual LS1 swap and try to tally up the cost if I still have my receipts laying around, but I'm pretty sure I didn't spend that much. Granted when you fab everything you can yourself, that saves a good amount not having to buy mounts. As for it getting harder and harder the closer you are to done, that is absolutely correct. The closer I got to "the end" the more stuff that popper up that I still needed to do it seemed like. It was kinda like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but every time I stepped forward, I took half a step back because I realized there was more stuff to do. If I had to pick one part of the swap that would be the hardest, for me it was probably the exhaust. I spent lots of hours trying to make those manifolds fit, only to eventually turn them upside down and run them through the hood. I'm not done with the wiring yet, but it seemed really easy once I figured out how the Z chassis wiring worked. The radiator brackets were really tedious just because it involved lots of small pieces and what not, which is a lot harder to work with than motor mounts and such. Had JTR or whoever still been making them, I definitely think I would have opted to purchase their brackets. -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wfritts911 Posted April 2, 2012 Author Share Posted April 2, 2012 Well I'm a week late and 20 dollars short, but she made it back to Fayetteville! Drove it for the first time Sunday afternoon, put the hood back on, bled the crap out of the brakes, and drove it back to school Monday morning. Drove great, except for when I got to Russellville, which is about an hour from my house, I stopped at a gas station to check things out, and the battery was dead when I tried to start it. Got a jump and managed to make it about halfway to the next exit before it started dying again. Managed to limp to a gas station and started checking the wiring on the alternator. Come to find out on the 98s at least, you cant just plug in the single wire plug into the alternator and call it a day. That wire didn't have any power going to it, and the alternator needs to see around 8 volts or something. Searched around to find out that most people put a resistor in the path of ignition power and it works, I didn't have any resistors, but I thank God Datsun engineers put that fasten seatbelt light where they did, yanked the bulb out and used that as my resistor. Push started it and didn't have a single problem after that. Oh and that fact that I forgot to torque down the differential cover bolts after letting the RTV set, so I was dripping diff fluid when I stopped to check it the first time, tightened the bolts and I don't think It really leaked again. Didn't many pics of the stuff I did during the swap like I said I would, I was to busy working! But I do have some pics to prove I'm not just making this stuff up! This build thread is going to be way out of order, but whatever. The engine bay: The outside (It really needs washed): And the proof. Promise I didn't tow it to the gas station, I believe this was in Morrilton, which is about 30 minutes from my house. I will get some more pictures today after I clean it up, and will try and get some pictures of the actual work this coming weekend. So do I get a trophy for doing the LS1 swap the fastest? From actually starting work on the car, to driving it back to Fayetteville, I have 3 weekends and 7 days of work in the car. Say 2 days each weekend plus the 7 days, I have less that 14 days of work in the car. Granted I probably have like 150+ hours in it, but whatever lol. P.S. To anyone who is in the middle of an LS1 swap...GET TO WORK!!! This thing is awesome!! -Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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