Stock Car Mafia's '78 280z LS2 Build

[Stock Car Mafia]

I pulled all the supplies out of the back of the car:  spare tire, jack, tools, inflator.  Soon this stuff will all be for sale.

 

 

 

Next up I wanted to rip out the old tranny mounts.  I took a 4 inch grinder and cut most of the side welds before hitting it with an air hammer.  Picking that tool up really saved some time.  Hammering from the bottom of both mounts helped break them lose the best.

 

 

 

I dropped the front suspension, so I could get to the k member to cut off the engine mounts.  I didn't have a ball joint separator so I couldn't get the steering rack tie rod end off of the lower control arm.  

 

 

 

 

I cut the mounts off and ran out of energy for the day.  I will grind down the rest tomorrow.  I have the energy suspension bushing kit that will be going in, but I want to sand prime and paint all of the suspention parts.  I just need to figure out the best order of operations!  My buddy has a sawzall that I will be borrowing to remove the steel collars.  

 

 

I'm pulling the front brake lines tomorrow and potentially drilling out and removing some of the bracketry in the engine bay.  

Edited January 9, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[RebekahsZ]

Your car is so friggin' clean!

[98blackbell]

Project is rolling. Keep up the good work.

[Stock Car Mafia]

Keith, the more I dig in to this car, the more I am seeing that!  Of course there is only so much you can see when you look at buying one of these.  Really if the most troubling areas (battery tray, front frame rails, floor boards) are in relatively good shape, you can almost guess the rest will be fine.  

 

I have to keep my eye on the prize, so full speed ahead!  I will be out there again today with hopefully more progress.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

I didn't get to spend too much time in the garage yesterday.  I was able to grind down the motor mounts and smooth them out with a flap disc.  Those are the best inventions ever.  I cleaned up all the dirt around the mounts and coated it with 3 coats of primer for now.

 

 

 

The front brake lines were pulled out to make room for cutting and welding in the new mounts.  I then removed a few of the brackets by drilling out the spot welds and then air hammering them off.  These were sanded down and primed as well to protect them for now.  

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

I really need to figure out the rats nest of wires on the passenger side of the car.  The engine room harness has a bunch of fusable links, replay plugs, fuel pump, and wires for the coil, distributor, and such.  I'd love to delete what I can if anyone could point me in the right direction.

[Stock Car Mafia]

I called and emailed Bruce from Hawk's so I'll wait to hear back about any input he may have. I'm going to be picking up some 16 gauge and 1/8" steel for welding practice. I cut up some of the stock exhaust and tried doing some butt welds. Burn through is horrendous! I guess my welding experience from high school has faded.

Edited December 1, 2015 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

I am still waiting to hear back from Bruce on the Hawk's mounts.  I only was able to aquire one passenger size 300ZX turbo axle out of New Jersey, which is a good step in the right direction.  After work today I stopped at a local powder coater a couple miles away from work and I might be taking my suspenstion parts there.  I was going to tackle wire brushing/sanding, prep, prime, and paint those parts but ain'y nobody got time for dat!

 

Well, I was only able to get a couple hours of work in tonight.  But I got the frame rails ground down and cut out part of the frame to make room for the mounting brackets.

 

 

 

I ground off any burrs that were left hanging and bolted up the mounts to the "K" member.  Now with both mounts sitting in place, it's starting to look like it is coming along!  Still have a lot of ground to cover.

 

 

 

 

 

The mounts are now tacked up so I'll either throw the suspension back on tomorrow or lower the jack stands and drop the motor in.  Trust me I am dying to see an LS in this car!

 

 

Some things that I have been contemplating the last few days.  

 

1. I've read and dug a decent amount about what can be removed form the stock harness.  There really isn't much for posts out there on this.  If you have any insight please PM me or post on the thread.  I am sure I will have to pull all the wire loom off and delete the distributor and coil wires but could those be used for any power/switched power to my engine harness?  I am also sick of those god awful fusable link blocks and the relay box that comes on the car.  

 

2. I am debating whether to attempt my own hack job of adding the correct fuses, relays, OBD2 port, MIL light, and pedal wiring or sending it in to get it rewired.  If I did it myself, I would have to put down some cash to get the proper crimper, tools, and supplies or just fork over the money to someone else to also delete any unnecessary stuff and save a shit ton of time.  

Edited January 9, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

A little update for today.  I got home around 5 but I did manage to stay awake working til 9.  I scrambled to get the suspension bolted back on so I could drop the motor in.  The front is so damn easy to disassemble!  I just wish my crap wasn't so damn greasy.  All the ball joints are blown out so I will be getting new ones.  Is there any good recommendations out there besides Moog?

 

 

I bolted up the engine plates and mounts.  The passenger side was a little finicky and required most of them to be loose so you can start them all before tightening.  

 

 

I put the engine on the hoist and wanted to check fitment with the motor and headers.  First thing that was noted when dropping it in is the front of the pan on the drivers side contacts the steering rack U-Bolt.  I am not sure if this is needed but I just removed it for now.  I figured I can position it differently at another location if it is necessary.  

 

 

After hoisting it up and putting it back down it became aparent that the steering rack wouldn't clear the pan on the drivers side either.  It is on the inside portion of the steering collar where the bushing is.  I just took a 4 inch cut off wheel and notched it a bit for now.  I'll need to dremel it smooth and sand before it gets powdercoated.  

 

 

Just so everyone is aware, this little bracket on the passenger side will have to be removed as well for the headers.  I definitely tore a larger hole in my engine bay by just air hammering it off.  Oops.  I guess I will get to patch a panel in before the engine bay is finished.  

 

 

Now there definitely was a technique to dropping the motor and the headers in.  They fit really nice and aren't that hard to get in and out.  I would expect this to be a little harder once the tranny is bolted to it as well.

 

1. Drop motor in.

2. Slide passenger side header in.

3. Drop it a little further, almost to the mounts.

4. Slide the driver side header in and bolt up the front bolt.

5. Lower the motor and put the passenger side motor mount bolt in.

6. Lower the motor more and put the driver side motor mount bolt in.

7. Bolt up the rear header bolt.  

 

Since the passenger side is a little tighter with the starter, it seemed best to get this in first.  The driver side fits quite tight in the rear and the collector contacts the side of the tranny tunnel.  

Edited June 10, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

So after doing all of this, there are a few things I noted to take care of once I take it out soon.  

 

 - The driver side trans tunnel needs to be pounded out.  I want to make room for the V band on the collector.  I will be taking headers in once everything fits to have the V band tig welded on.

 

 

 - The brake line bracket will have to be moved to another spot.  I need to find some one hole brake line brackets anyways.

 

 

Here are some photos just to show you the routing and how close everything is near the block.

 

 

 

[Stock Car Mafia]

And really the end result was this....

 

 

I definitely wanted to see the motor sitting in there!  Ahh what a relief to see that monster waiting to feel out its new home 

[Stock Car Mafia]

I also pulled the driver seat tonight and got 3/4 bolts on the passenger side.  The one damn bolt with the littlest room is the one that is the most seized.  I am getting rather frustrated with it as none of my sockets/wrenches/ or swivels work to get enough contact with the bolt to break it loose.  I even tried putting a socket in a vice grip to get more leverage...no go.  

 

I pulled the carpet up to really see underneath for the first time.  I am REALLY liking how little rust I am able to find on the floor boards!  I still don't regret getting this chassis!

 

 

I did get Bruce's cell phone number and was able to call and talk to him for a good 15 minutes.  He is a pretty down to earth guy and really stands behind his products.  He did mention that the tranny mount is a little tricky.  The floor needs to be cut out where the mounts will be and wedged in.  He welded them to the frame solid and then stitch welded the frame to the floor.  Following that a healthy coat of seamsealter did the trick in his application.  He also said if you remove the foam padding from the x-member portion of the carpet, you will never notice the mounts sticking up.  I will be sure to post up pictures of this as I go.

 

That's it folks!  Until the next day I can find some time.  We have year end inventory at work, where I will be staying late to make sure everything gets accomplished.  

Edited January 9, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

Well I couldn't find my printout from which sensors had been deleted from the stock harness so I had to reach out to the guy I bought the motor from.  He was nice enough to email me the list:

 

 - VATS Security 1 & 2

 - Fuel Tank Purge

 - Fuel Tank Evap

 - Torque management was reduced

 - Rear O2 sensors

       - Bank 2 sensor 2

       - Bank 1 sensor 2

 - Clutch pedal input switch

 - CAGS/Skip shift

 

With the skip shift eliminated, I did a little digging on the LS1Tech forums and figured out you could use a drain plug from a 1983-1986 Plymouth Horizon 1.6L 4 cylinder.  It's got the M20 x 1.5mm thread pattern (Dorman Part #090-040).  Most people take a dremel/carbide bit and shave off the steel collar on the plug so it can thread in farther. Since there is a larger O-ring in the tranny I didn't want to chance it leaking so I left it as is.  You can get a little more than a full turn on the threads, so I just threw a good chunk of blue loctite on the threads and Vasoline'd the O-ring.

 

 

I also removed the stock slave cylinder that was on the tranny and got it ready to be bolted up and transplanted in the car.  

Edited January 9, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

I ended up getting that one little pesky rear passenger seat bolt out as well.  I didn't have a 1/8" drive socket and ratchet set but I knew the sockets would be more shallow than what I have.  I had to use my large flashlight as a breaker bar too since I couldn't get anything else under the seat.  I have to thank my engineering buddy Mike for his in a pinch ingenuity!  

 

I got the kick panel bolts and door jam pieces out so I could pull the carpet out.  The parking brake light was disconnected, and a couple snap buttons for the parking brake boot and out it came!

 

 

The only rust I really could find was on the passenger side under the seat.  There is a quarter size spot that when you push on it from above and below, you can tell the cancer has gotten to it.  NOT WORRIED however, because down the road this will get rectified.

 

[Stock Car Mafia]

I figured dropping in the tranny/engine combo would take more effort to slide the LT's in and get the motor mounts in.  I had to set my engine leveler pretty far forward to ge the tranny to dip in to the tunnel but once I had that set, I never touched it again.  I lowered it in to the engine bay and once the tranny got low enough, I put a jack underneath of it.  I used this to keep the tranny at a decent level and dropped the bad boy in!  

 

 

 

It got to midnight last night, so I didn't get any measuring done for the x-member but I would have to say the tranny fits in there quite well!

 

Edited January 9, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

I also dicked around with alternator fitment on the car.  The alternator does have enough clearance from the steering rack.  Keep in mind this is the LS1 alt. and I have not wired the harness for the plug yet.  You have to cut down the exhaust port a good amount to clear the steering knuckle.  If you cut it off at a 45 deg. angle and flush with the inner semi-circle it fits perfect.  In the pic below, I hadn't cut enough off yet.

 

 

 

[disepyon]

Looking good man.

 

Any chance you can get clearance pic, perhaps a measurement included of the front pulley to cross member or better yet, how low does the pulley hang down from the top surface of the oil pan ( i have the exact same oil pan as you). Making my own mounts and i got stupid and took engine apart and junked my harmonic balancer cause it was no good with out thinking about what is need to make my engine mounts.

 

Tried looking around for measurements or a good pic on the web, but nothing gives me a good reading. As of now i have my motor setting higher than it probably needs to be on the safe side since i dont have that measurement.

[ladams17]

I admire your documentation. I enjoy reading through this build thread.

 

You have been blessed with such a solid car to start with.

[Stock Car Mafia]

I can definitely get more pics of the clearance between it and the rack and also provide some measurements.  Right now the motor is out so I can find the time to cut up the floor and weld the tranny crossmember in.  When I throw it back in I'll put it on my list to take care of.

 

Thanks ladams!  I plan on keep adding to it each day I work on the car.  I just want to provide as much feedback as I can for other people looking to do the same.

Edited January 9, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia

[Stock Car Mafia]

I was able to get an hour or so in the garage tonight.  I finally got my Roloc grade 50 bristle disc to clean off the old gasket material on the heads.  

 

I started cutting through the floor after I had marked where to cut for the transmission xmember.  The rear brake line had to be pulled out of the way so it didn't get cut.  I drilled a couple pilot holes to give me guidance for where to cut.  I used a 4 inch cut off wheel and then a sawzall.

 

This is the pass side.

 

 

 

And the driver side.

 

 

 

The floors have some thick spots of the sound deadener that I scraped away.  I haven't scraped the underneath but i got it close enough for tonight.  I'm probably going to work on widening these holes just enough so the mount can be pushed in and held.  

Edited January 9, 2016 by Stock Car Mafia