'77 280z aka Project Tetanus (LS6 383, T56)

[SH4DY]

Making some progress again. I've spent the last month trying to get the body sorted out and painted. It has definitely tested my patience. First time I sprayed it, it came out like shit because I didn't spend enough time blocking the primer. Sanded it all back flat and sprayed again. Was pretty happy but burned through the paint prepping to cut and buff it. Wet sanded it all with 400 grit and pictures below are the 3rd try. It's a single stage so there's orange peel put plenty of paint to cut and buff it after it cures. 

Started working on a fiberglass/ carbon dash skin.

Motor runs: I ran it out of gas syncing the throttle bodies and thought I had screwed something up. Definitely need to get the gas gauge hooked up. I did learn than the lines hold roughly a gallon of gas...

Still a long way from driving but she runs and she's all one color so that's a plus.

 

MS3Pro and engine fuses/ relay panel:

[SH4DY]

Not much has been going on with this lately. My cheapo eBay radiator has a leak in the core (Champion 3 row ordered) and my Speed Hut tach was doing some crazy things (they sent me a filter I have yet to try out). I wound up having to use the '10 Mustang GT e-brake lines to get my parking brake to work with the Silvermine BBK (SN197 Mustang rears). I'm also converting all the brake lines to -3AN (hard line) ends. Car still isn't close to driving though as I'm STILL (7+ weeks) waiting on my shortened axles from WHP. Supposed to be here sometime next week. We will see. Brakes should be done by then and hopefully I can get it on the dyno some time in December. 

Starting to get burned out working on this damn thing. This car has been nothing but delays and problems. 

Gave up on the custom dash for now, went for function over fashion:

 

Got the exhaust finished:

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by SH4DY

[SH4DY]

Lot's of changes and developments over the past few months. Lot's of Skillard stuff, Redid the headers/ exhaust (single side exit now), went to the dyno.. All kinds of stuff.

Oil Catch can I made to fit in the factory washer reservoir spot:

 

WHP axles (left) vs ZXT remans

Skillard front splitter (2") and the side market deletes off eBay (I think a member on here?)

Interior shot with the dash I made using the factory substructure:

I changed up the headers/ exhaust quite a bit - now they are 1.75"->1.875" with multiple merges. I went this way because the old exhaust was rubbing on everything even tucking it up as high as possible. To get it to fit under the car I would have needed to oval the entire thing which I didn't want to get into. Luckily with all the merges, it's actually pretty quiet even without any real muffler. 

What it looks like all together. It's completely heat wrapped now. 

And finally:

 

I finally made it to the dyno. It was kind of bittersweet. Who am I kidding - it was a kick in the dick. My Speedhut wideband started reading erratically and the MS3Pro followed suit making changes to the fuel map that made the car undrivable and caused a backfire through the intake trumpets that melted one of the screens on the ITB's. So that was fun. I disabled the wideband corrections, cleaned up the fuel map and changes the spark plugs all while still on the dyno and it was a brand new car. I just used the dynos wideband the rest of the time as the Speedhut unit continued to be flaky and erratic. At the end of the day I called it quits at 390rwhp SAE uncorrected - the fuel was pretty spot on and timing changes weren't making any difference in power. Yes, for the parts that are in this thing I had expected much, much more - I was thinking 500-520rwhp. So I was pretty defeated until the next car that went on only made 276rwhp and it was an LS1 with Intake, headers, full exhaust and tuned. Soooo, to be +40% over that... that's actually probably about right for a 383 LS with ported heads and a cam. You just get so used to internet heroes with bolt on LS's making over 400rwhp, you forget not all dynos are the same. 

I'll post the graph later on - peak power is around 5,600 and it's pretty much nosed over by 6,800. With the cam thats in it I was thinking it would carry the power higher but the 52mm ITB's might be restricting it up top on this size motor. Overall, I'm happy with it. It sings a sweet song. 

 

[Neverdone]

Good lordy, the exterior on your car came out fantastically.

 

Bummer about the electrical gremlins you're dealing with, but it sounds like you're heading down the right path to fixing it.

[caperix]

Are you running speed density with the ms?  If so how are you feeding the vacuum to the map sensor?  I saw a build on another board that was using a board with multiple map sensors to get a clean signal with individual throttle bodies.  I think it came out to about $20 per cylinder.  I will post it I find it, just a thought on your running issues.

[caperix]

https://github.com/jharvey/MultiMAP

This is a link to the design for the multi map sensor board.

[SH4DY]

I took it to the first cars and coffee meet of the season and a photographer there got some really good shots of it on IG: https://www.picuki.com/media/2346689941668111156

 

Some more exterior pics after wet sanding, cutting, buffing and waxing:

 

 

As far as the MAP signal: I tapped every runner and have them run to a vacuum manifold on the firewall. Clean signal. I'm running in "ITB" mode on the MS3Pro - its blended between MAP and TPS. On my car pretty much anything over 15-20% throttle is 90+kpa so the tps tuning is a must.

I lowered the coil dwell to 3.1 from 4.0 and that seemed to help the popping through the intake a good amount. 

I'm also in the process of lengthening the intake trumpets, for two reasons. One, I don't like drawing in hot air right off the motor and two, all the calculators I can find say the intake tract length is about 8" too short. Two birds with one stone. Maybe 3 if it helps the filters last.

 

I also re-did the exhaust. For the 5th(?) time. Trying to quiet it down and get the damn fumes out of the car. 

[grannyknot]

@SH4DY, nice colour!