78 280z 5.0 ford T5 build

[hwvigo]

Love the work the car is beautiful and keep it up can not wait to see the end product.

[Namor]

Your build looks great.  Definitely see some things I like and will likely want to do myself.  

 

Could you possibly get some more pictures of your seats?  Also, did you modify the seat mounts (the part attached to the floorpan) at all or did you just adjust the hump on the driver's side floorpan?  I have been trying to find some seats to use since the originals were trashed in my car.  Thanks

[whatnow123]

I will snap a better photo of the seats installed over the weekend for you. They fit in there very well and are very comfortable. The seats are out of a Pontiac Sunfire. I had no idea what they were out of when I bought them, I found them on craigslist and wanted them for the shoulder harness for the seat belt, here is a photo of the seat not installed that I found on google so you can better see what I'm talking about.

What I did, I removed the seat rails from the 280z seats and bolted them to the Sunfire seats. The 280z seats are level where the rails attach, the sunfire seats are as well except for one corner, but I used a bushing (maybe 1/2 inch) to level it out. I wanted to use the stock seat rails so I could use the factory mounting points. The only other modification I did was to flatten out the cat hump on the driver's side trans tunnel. You probably don't have to do that to a 240z but I don't know for sure.

 

[Namor]

Awesome, thanks.  What is the clearance like between the headrest and roof?

 

I think I know what I'll be heading to the junkyard to get this weekend.

[whatnow123]

The clearance is about 6 inches.

[whatnow123]

Here are a couple of more photos of the seat for Namor..

 

 

[whatnow123]

So I got around to installing the accessories just waiting to see what else I'm going to have to modify for clearance issues and they seem fairly minor. I had to get 90 degree oil adaptor for the engine filter. Thought just a shorty filter would work, but the Subaru rack got in the way. Now I all I need is an alternator and a compressor pulley, the bearing in the compressor pulley sounds like it spent a day at the beach when you spin it and the alternator, well I don't know what happened to the alternator, but it's not good and one fuel injector is broken. It never ends!!

Edited June 20, 2014 by whatnow123

[Domzs]

Nice work !  .

[whatnow123]

Well, I got around to installing the wiring harness I bought from Summit (very cool harness) and the rest of the "bolt-on's". With the exception of finding and cutting a 2.5 inch hole in the firewall, it went pretty easy! I guess I will see when I try to start it!

The only hiccup I had was when I added the oil and primed the oil pump. I took off to the store only to come back and see a puddle of oil under the car. I almost had a heart attack thinking the worst and the thought of pulling out that engine again so soon. Turns out it was the oil pan plugs (whew). Had to buy a new oil pan (Summit) and I never tightened up the drain plugs.

I was freakin..

Edited July 1, 2014 by whatnow123

[whatnow123]

Just an update.

Well, I ended up buying a "universal" Lokar throttle cable and figured I would try to make it work with the Ford 5.0 intake and the Z throttle linkage and it works perfectly! I needed to cut off the "peg" that connected to the Z engine linkage and attach the "y" fitting that came with the lokar kit. I also picked up a cheap bracket kit and with a slight modification, it worked perfectly!!

 

 

I also got the clutch adjusted, first time I fired the car I wasn't sure the clutch set up I did was going to work as I couldn't get it to go into gear. Turns out the shaft I made for the slave cylinder, the outside nut was bottoming out on the bell housing towards the forward opening. Spent the morning grinding a U shape into the bell housing for the nut to clear.. and now it works perfectly! I didn't post any of the slave/MC combo I did when I did it as I didn't know it would work, but now since I does work and work well, here it is.

 

I took a heavy piece of angle iron and made an L shape, welded it, drilled two holes to mount on the bell housing and two more holes for the slave cylinder.

Slave Cylinder is part # 11887, it's for a Toyota Tacoma $11 bucks at the Zone. Long bolt, cut off the end, round it on grinder and use two nuts with washers to attach it to the clutch fork.

 

Wilwood master cylinder, part number 260-6765 Summit $49

 

Braided line from Summit 14" for $15

 

and couple of brake lines from the Zone.

The Wilwood master fits the Z perfect, (I did switch out the shaft from the stock master). The clutch petal is awesome, maybe a little firmer than stock, but very do-able.

So I can now recommend this set up if anyone needs this.

Edited July 10, 2014 by whatnow123

[whatnow123]

So today I finished up hooking up some hoses, filled the radiator and fired it up to check for leaks. So far so good.. so I then  got a wild hair up my butt and decided to zip tie some wires out of the way, secure a couple of sensors the same way (I will do it correctly when I start buttoning up the wiring) but I wanted to take the car for it's first spin.

 

All I can say is wholly sh--t this thing moves!! What a difference some HP makes to these cars! I bought the engine from a guy on craigslist (I was freaked out a little when I bought it as I trust few other than myself) but the engine was never fired and came with the build sheet to the tune of $2100 just for all the machine work, assembly and rebuild of the heads (the lower end was a sealed power kit supplied by the previous owner to the machine shop) so I took a chance on it and they did an awesome job!  The engine is very powerful and smooth as butter! Not to mention the engine came complete with all the brackets, sensors ect.. including new water pump, balancer, painted and all the parts sandblasted. So I think I scored!

 

I also wanted to check out how I would like the Subaru power steering rack I installed. Anyone considering this mod, I give it TWO THUMBS UP! It completely changes the car for the better! It's a quicker ratio than the stock rack, plenty of "road feel" but not to light, it feels more like power assist than power steering. Turning into the driveway is now a pleasure and I'm far more comfortable tossing the car around a corner as I'm not fighting the wheel.

With that said, the car feels way more modern now! I haven't driven it more than a few miles, but I'm quickly forming an opinion this might be the most fun car I have driven! I can't wait to button her up, work a couple of bugs out and drive this thing! A V8 and the Subaru rack is how they should have built the Z in the first place!!

Edited July 10, 2014 by whatnow123

[whatnow123]

Not to much to update. Haven't done much else to the ride other than "fixin".  I took her out for a drive and the summit shifter I bought got jammed into 5th gear and I had to limp her home. I thought it was something in the trans that went south, I was relieved when it was just the shifter. The shifter had great reviews on the mustang forums and Summit, turns out it wasn't machined enough on the ball to handle and the "half moon" from the transition to the flat part of the shifter got caught. Cheap and fairly quick fix and I don't have to pull the trans.

Anyway, welded all the holes shut in the 240 bumpers and laid some very nice black paint on there. Going to get them installed this weekend and hopefully get the fan, tach and possibly the AC hooked up this weekend so I can take her down to get an alignment.

[whatnow123]

Well, I finally got around to installing the 240z bumpers that welded all the holes shut and painted, also painted the grill while it was off as well as the underside of the hood and the rear taillight cover. The rear cover I'm going to have to remove and re-do as I took a short cut and rattle canned it and the nozzle was messed up, but that's what I get for thinking I could do a "short cut". I just hope I can get it removed without braking it.

 

Anyway, I've taken her on a few short trips around the hood as I didn't really trust everything yet, but today I installed the hood and took her for an actual drive and I just LOVE this car. It's just awesome to drive, handles great, stops great and sounds mean!

 

I do need to get the AC hooked up and running and I'm going to have to Dynomat the interior as it's a little loud as well as find a home for some front speakers as the little 4 inchers that I replaced in the factory location behind the seats just aren't enough.

Edited October 11, 2014 by whatnow123

[RebekahsZ]

That's one classy chassis!

[whatnow123]

"That's one classy chassis!"

 

Thank you!  I have really only driven it around once (which was yesterday) and can't believe how many thumbs up, looks and "nice car" I got. I really wasn't expecting it to draw that much attention, but I guess it does!

[RayJ]

any updates?

[BluSkyLightning]

Very clean and well done build! Congrats on an awesome car!

[whatnow123]

Just an update.

Well I hush matt'ed the interior, pretty cool stuff but hope I never have to pull it up for some reason as it will be PITA. I was also happy to find ZERO rust on the floor pans. Got lucky finding a car garaged it's whole life!

 

I've been driving her around bit and happy to report that other than a loose radiator hose and a slight leak on the power steering rack fitting (both easy fixes) she is running like a champ! She drives awesome, goes right were you point it and is surprisingly comfortable. I could drive this car everyday and have ZERO issues doing that, which isn't what I will do, but I wanted to build something that could be driven daily, or anywhere for that matter. Also, again, anyone considering doing the Subaru rack swap, I highly highly recommend it.

 

I also love how she sounds, good deep rumble and sounds like road race car! After driving it about 500 miles or so and getting the engine broke in (as well as everything else I changed), I found (and after doing some research on the mustang forums) that the stock intake for the 5.0 was limiting her full potential. The bottom end has been fully machined and balanced, bored, squared and zero decked, the heads have had some work done to them including milled and a small bump in cam over the HO version, the intake was keeping her "flat" after about 4700 RPM and couldn't keep up.

 

So I found a tubular GT40 upper intake and matching lower, (the stock GT 40 lower intake doesn't flow as well as it could, so it is also now ported and port matched that as well, again thanks to the mustang forums). So I installed the intake, got a 65mm throttle body to replace the stock 60mm and also 70mm MAS (mass airflow sensor) to replace what looks like a 30mm stock unit. I also installed some crane 1.7 roller rockers to get a little more lift at the valve.  Fuel injection is a whole nother animal but I think I'm getting it. These mods most definitely woke that engine up after 3000rpm! I'm guessing I'm close to 300hp now cuz she flies and my fuel mileage hasn't suffered at all. I'm still pulling 25+ on the freeway.  I will be honest, it's nice driving a "hot rod" that can pass a gas station unlike my other cars I have built.

 

The last thing of note that I'm still experiencing.... I can not believe all the people that not only know what the older Z's are, have some sort of connection to them, but appreciate them as well! There isn't a time I drive it that someone doesn't give me a nod, thumbs up or rolls down the window at lights to complement the car (or ask what in the hell is in that as it doesn't sound anything like a Z they remember). I find it funny since there aren't a lot of them running around and aren't as common like old Camaros!  I actually had a Harley dude who looked like The Count from the show Counting Cars (and acted like him as well) come over while I was at the gas station and just gush over the Z and then freaked when I popped the hood. I will admit, I like the attention.

 

Anyway, here are some photos!!

Edited October 26, 2014 by whatnow123

[RayJ]

Sick car, I'm hoping to buy a 240z and swap a 302/t5 in it too.

Edited October 12, 2014 by RayJ

[Ryan Merrill]

Awesome. I just picked up my plastic 01 camaro gas tank today. You used the stock camaro tank straps and made new brackets? I have one with the regulator, pump, charcoal box, etc. its a complete unit. Did you use tthe stock fuel pump and regulator?