Stock Car Mafia's '78 280z LS2 Build

[Stock Car Mafia]

It fits pretty well.  I haven't figured how to get the hood to fully latch.  I had to slam my stock hood pretty hard to get it to close.  I'm sure this being lighter, it's harder to get it shut without feeling I'm gonna break it.  I'm gonna tweak it tonight to see if I can get it shut.  

 

I haven't measured the cowl yet but I'd assume 2-3".  I don't have a bathroom scale but it is substantially lighter than the stock hood.  I'd say about 40 lb lighter.

 

I should be there this Saturday!  Weather is looking quite cold but I like that.  

[Stock Car Mafia]

The cowl is 2". I dicked around with the latch 2 nights ago and cant get it to click fully shut.

[TheZkid]

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.

Hey man - unbelievable work you have done. What an inspiration to get mine done to HALF the quality yours is! Your build is literally exactly what I'm doing. I just pulled my L28 and following some auction donor GTO/vettes. My biggest dilemma right now is this. Did you take out all of your stock harness and start from scratch for your lights and turn signals? I'd love any help on this since I'm selling my engine and harness to another Z owner. I don't want to keep any of of and run that EZwiring harness for my lights and signals. I just can't find anything on it. Thanks a ton in advance brother.

[Stock Car Mafia]

Thanks Zkid!  It definitely isn't perfect but possibly some day I can make it such.

 

Honestly, I've kept most of the original wiring.  The body harness was left intact leaving all lights and blinkers alone.  I cut and capped off any live wires that ran to the old coil and distributor, etc.  

 

I haven't done the EZ wiring kit, but I do believe most of it is self explanatory.  It will just take a lot of time to run it all.  I will leave the stock wiring until there comes a need to run all new.  

[Stock Car Mafia]

The Z got new glass yesterday.  It was a long process to find someone that was able to replace it.  In the end the new glass is fantastic.  Can't wait to take it to work tomorrow

 

 

Not too much rust under the glass.  If I ever paint the car, she will get the best treatment.

 

 

[Stock Car Mafia]

After spending the weekend painting the kitchen and planting over 175 bulbs of tulips and daffodils, we were able to take the car out for a short cruise.  Car went in to limp mode and kicked a PO60e code.  I think it is something with the pedal or TB.  Cleared it and it went away for the most part.  Good thing winter is approaching!  Time to get my winter wish list of tasks to accomplish...

[fxbdydriver]

Just read your thread.. great job, Awesome! I just bought my first z this weekend, 1975 280z 2+2. I am very familiar with ls swaps in fox chassis cars, now looking to swap the Datsun. Those rota wheels you purchased, 17 x 9.5, what offset are those? Tire size?

[Stock Car Mafia]

Thank you sir!  I doubt it will ever be fully done.  What are you plans for your car as far as modding?

 

This is the offset off the Racinglab.com website where they were purchased:

 

17x9.5 4x114.3-19mm

[Stock Car Mafia]

Happy new year to everyone!  There has been a lot happening on the forums that I need to catch up on including some new builds that look really entertaining!  

 

From my end, things have been very slow moving.  I've focused on family over the holidays and through the new year.  What little time I have, I've been focusing on digging up information for a procharger install.  Any cage/chassis reinforcement is next on the docket as well.

[Stock Car Mafia]

With spring fast approaching and always seeming to have a lack of time, I believe I am going to cut my spring goal down and eliminate doing any motor changes or FI.  I'd rather enjoy the car again this year in anticipation of greater things to come next winter.  

 

I ended up finding a used set of shorter steering knuckles and bump steer spacers off of eBay.  I think it cost a total of $140 to get the Arizona Z Car knuckles to my door.   

 

 

I really need to finish my quarter panels to eliminate my tire rub.  I dropped the exhaust and fell victim to a seized V band clamp...

 

 

Good thing is the exhaust literally takes 5 minutes to drop.  Since my rear sway car is really damn close to my driveshaft it rubs on hard decelleration.  I probably need to ungrade to reverse mount setup like the Arizona Z stuff.  This has got me considering doing a Q45 diff swap and selling my existing rear drivetrain.

 

I unbolted the strut mount and pulled the strut tube out to remove the spring.  

 

 

In the process I ended up pulling the inner CV apart instead of the axle coming out of the diff.  I kind of cussed a bit and threw it on the bench.  The inner's are the least amount of fun especially when they are covered in damn grease.  

 

 

Moral of the story is.....I believe my flares are mounted about 1/4" - 1/2" too low....  The bump stops were compressed a bit while doing this as well.  I cut closer to the rivet nut.  I really knew this is what I should have done from the beginning.  

 

 

Call me lazy but I came up with a short term solution to my problem.  Hell I know I will ultimately need to mount the flares higher but I want to try a little extra bump stop.  

 

 

 

I'm going to see if this gets my by for now.  I don't like the idea of losing some of the shock travel but I can live with it.  More updates to come.  I got some more work done tonight but have an early day ahead of me tomorrow.  

[RebekahsZ]

If you re-cut your rear flares, put jackstands under the front to level the car.  I had mine jacked up just in back like your photo, and my flares are rotated toward the rear a little and it looks "off" now that it is on level ground.  All because the car was sitting at a nose-down attitude when I drilled for the mounting bolts.  Longer coilover springs are available on Speedway.com for $55 each.  Just figure out how much you need to raise the car and order longer springs.

[Stock Car Mafia]

Leveling the car is a good idea.  Here I thought I did the right thing by setting the car to ride height before I mounted them.  But with it at full weight, you can't remove the spring to check how far the wheel tucks when cutting.  Can't have my cake and eat it too!  The good thing is it is close...

 

I would consider getting longer springs.  But I do have a lot of travel left in the coilover in case I want to raise it.  I will get new springs when I can reinforce the chassis and raise that spring rate

 

Keith I need to set goals and time frames like you have year in and year out.  I have been behind the 8 ball for 2017!

[RebekahsZ]

I did only one race last year. I've fallen off pace lately.

[Stock Car Mafia]

A few days ago i pulled the dash out to fix two of the gauge lights that didn't work.  I assumed the issue was I piggy backed two lights from one power wire.  I ended up cutting the oil pressure and water pressure lights and rewired one to the cigarette lighter bulb.  I put dash back in and the lights weren't fixed.  

 

I pulled the dash once again and took the LED bulbs out and revered the 2 pins.  Voila!  The bulbs now work!  What I don't like about the Autometer LED's is they don't mark which pin needs the positive feed.  So the side stamped "12V" I figured was the hot pin.  This worked for 4 out of 7 of them.  

 

The next task was to wire a 1000 ohm resistor to power up the tachometer signal wire.  The first time I had the dash out I  just crimped the wire to see if that resistor was enough to get a signal.  

 

 

The gauge worked!  But not perfectly...The rpm was off by a factor of 2 and read low.  I looked at the back gauge and it was set to 8 cylinder mode.  I flipped the second pin down to 4 cylinder mode and that took care of it.  

 

So right now it's more or less waiting for spring.  I could easily toss the car together in a night or two and take it out.  But we haven't eluded winter as we have more snow coming in tonight. 

[Racer X 69]

 

 

 - Trim Clips and Pins - I need to find a bulk pack of the pins!  Everytime you push them through to remove some interior they get lost or stuck in a spot you can't reach.  These have to be sold somewhere.

 

 

The dealers used to carry them, but I suppose that none do for such old cars anymore. Motorsport Auto used to have them too.

 

I've used an air vacuum to retrieve the little buggers from cavities. Air vacs use a 3/4" vinyl hose, and I stick one size smaller inside of that to get some reach into those deep places around the wheel arches.

 

And look for the weep holes where the quarter panel skin is spot welded to the inner unibody structure.Sometimes you can blow shop air into them and find all kinds of stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 - Trim Clips and Pins - I need to find a bulk pack of the pins!  Everytime you push them through to remove some interior they get lost or stuck in a spot you can't reach.  These have to be sold somewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 - Fender Flares - Who makes a good set of plastic molded ones?  I got the fiber glass ones from TheZStore and ended up returning them because the fitment was pretty bad.

Instead of flares, why not fat fenders? Like these:

 

 

I have this bodywork for my GT2 car (not mounted yet). I've seen a few cars running on the street with the same setup, like the one in the picture. Looks nice, and makes room for big tires and wheels.

 

https://www.ztrix.com/fender-kits/280yz/

 

You know you want it.

 

And fiberglass doesn't rust.

[MRGierut]

Wheels and RHDJapan flares are on order.  Now to decide on what kind of rubber to throw on them...

Which flares did you order from RHDJapan?

[Stock Car Mafia]

The dealers used to carry them, but I suppose that none do for such old cars anymore. Motorsport Auto used to have them too.

 

I've used an air vacuum to retrieve the little buggers from cavities. Air vacs use a 3/4" vinyl hose, and I stick one size smaller inside of that to get some reach into those deep places around the wheel arches.

 

And look for the weep holes where the quarter panel skin is spot welded to the inner unibody structure.Sometimes you can blow shop air into them and find all kinds of stuff.

 

 

 

Instead of flares, why not fat fenders? Like these:

 

 

I have this bodywork for my GT2 car (not mounted yet). I've seen a few cars running on the street with the same setup, like the one in the picture. Looks nice, and makes room for big tires and wheels.

 

https://www.ztrix.com/fender-kits/280yz/

 

You know you want it.

 

And fiberglass doesn't rust.

 

I definitely need to get in there and see what I can find.  I have taken the air compressor many times to no avail.  Trust me Racer X, that is one of the cars that I drool over!  I would love to get that kit some day, but I am waiting to do all the body work, until I am "happy" with the car.  Who knows if that day will ever come.  

 

Which flares did you order from RHDJapan?

 

That is where the flares came from.  They fit the best BY FAR.  I had another set (can't recall who) and they fit like crap.  If you are looking for the right choice, go with RHDJapan.  

[MRGierut]

That is where the flares came from. They fit the best BY FAR. I had another set (can't recall who) and they fit like crap. If you are looking for the right choice, go with RHDJapan.

Gotcha. I checked their website and it looks like they carry a few different types/names. I wasn't sure which set you bought.

Edited March 6, 2017 by MRGierut

[Stock Car Mafia]

Well it turns out, we finally had some free time this weekend and I was lucky enough to get out in the garage.  

 

I have the exhaust off, waiting for the new V band bold to show up, so I went ahead and welded all the pin holes shut.  There was probably 8 spots total.  

 

I also rewired and extended a handful of wires that run to the positive post on the battery.  I wanted to try to hide them so it doesn't look like a rats nest.  It is "better".  Down the road I still plan on hiding the whole body harness underneath the fender so the engine bay has that cleaner look.  

 

I got a request on Friday from someone wanting to buy my stock steering knuckles.  I asked $40 so he took them.  I needed to get them off for Monday so I took the time on Sunday to replace them on the car.

 

 

It was a pretty simple process to get everything apart.  I had to lower the threaded coilover all the way down so I could compress the shock and get the strut housing off the knuckle.  

 

 

The tie rod end and ball joint took some convincing to get free.  The only problem I really ran in to was figuring out how to get the castle nut secure...

 

 

There is no room to add a cotter pin, so I just added red locktite to the nut and torqued it to spec on the higher end.  Will this be sufficient guys, or is there another route I should take?  A regular nut and a locking washer???

[Stock Car Mafia]

When I dropped the car, the toe was WAY OFF.  It only took 5 times or so to get it dialed in.  I haven't test drove the car yet since I don't have my full exhaust.  The car really runs like shit with open headers now, and I believe it is due to the lack of back pressure and the camshaft I have added.