Guest Anonymous Posted January 7, 2002 Share Posted January 7, 2002 Hi, In the course of my research, I am becoming more confused. What other alternatives to John's cars and the MSA kits are there? I see that there are number of members of this forum that have done this swap. How is the handling of the converted ZXs in spite of the firewall/hood clearance issue? Can these issues be resolved by front-end weight reduction alone. (aluminum heads/waterpump/battery relocation, etc.) The car I am thinking about converting is a 79 5 speed with no power options and analog gauges. I want to use a 92 Z28 drive train with an automatic transmission. Is it possible to run the FI without using an aftermarket engine controller like an Electromotive tec2? How? Thanks, Warren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greimann Posted January 7, 2002 Share Posted January 7, 2002 A very reasonable alternative to purchasing a kit is to do it yourself. If you have a steering box rather than a rack and pinion, then the engine mounts can be just a flat plate to adapt the bolt pattern. This setup puts the distributor about 1" from the firewall and there is enough room under the hood for a 3" high drop base air cleaner. You will have to run down a mid 70's Camaro exhaust manifold for the drivers side to clear the steering box. Aluminum heads and manifold will help weight distributuion, but when I was running iron heads on my '79 V8 the handling was not noticeably different except for the ample availability of power on oversteer. There are a few pix here of my setup: http://zdriver.com/rides/detailride.php?cat=2&relIdx=2&vehId=571 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted January 8, 2002 Share Posted January 8, 2002 I don't think one can give a generalization about handling of the V8 converted ZX's. Here's why: they are not on the same chassis as a 280Z, period. They are different, yes, but even when converted, they still handle well. Ross Corrigan is the only guy I know personally on this site who has a very nice converted ZX that he takes to the track on occasion. His car is set up very well and apparently handles very well too See pics at http://www.modern-motorsports.com/miscpics/mycar/aug19.htm HTH, Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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