Slammed68 Posted September 9, 2007 Share Posted September 9, 2007 Hello all, im new to the Datsun world, so new that i don't even have my 280z yet, just waiting to pay off the last 200$ of it. Anyways, I have been doing alot of searching and have came up with the idea that everyone here likes the JTR stuff more than anyone elses. If i'm wrong, please correct me I am pretty set on doing a LT1 swap, because I dont fancy the 5.0's power, and LS1's are too expensive. I would like to run an auto behind it also. I really would LOVE, just a complete sort of in depth write up, on how to swap a LT1 in. I would just like to know what people are using electrical wise, and any problems they encountered while trying to do so. Im just getting down to the nitty gritty on this because it will either be a carbed dinosaur 383 stroker or the 95+? LT1. Are there any cheap stand alone systems or do most people just use the stock wiring harness? Im just looking for soo many answers, and im not really having too much luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted September 9, 2007 Share Posted September 9, 2007 Welcome and good luck. Two words of wisdom, watch the comments about the carbed 383's... and use the search feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slammed68 Posted September 9, 2007 Author Share Posted September 9, 2007 383 stroker The downside of that to me would definitely ONLY be the hassle of tuning the carb all the time and the gas mileage I have searched and can only really find small portions of the LT1 swap. I have yet to find anything with even pictures of one being swapped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COZY Z COLE Posted September 9, 2007 Share Posted September 9, 2007 PM member 78zlt1.....http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=111183 LARRY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted September 9, 2007 Share Posted September 9, 2007 Well from what I understand the LT1 has the same mounts as a traditional sbc so you get the jagsthatrun mounts and there you have that. The wiring is probably the only other thing that's different. Order the conversion manual and read it first then buy the mounts. https://shell7.tdl.com/~jags/Datsun_Order.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators RTz Posted September 9, 2007 Administrators Share Posted September 9, 2007 Click the link in my signature that say's LT1/T56 240Z. As was mentioned, the swap is very similar to a traditional small block conversion. Buy the JTR manual if you don't already own it. ...and yes, the biggest difference is the EFI system. You have many choices. The cheapest... utilize a stock harness. The easiest... is probably a Painless Wiring harness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jays64II Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 carbs are easy and don't need much maintenance...just keep them clean and properly jetted. I put 300+ passes a year on mine and about 2000 street miles and rarely have to touch it. An inexpensive 383 with flat top pistons and a decent set of alum. heads and matching cam with a good single plane intake and double pumper carb will make 500 easy horse on pump gas all day long. If you are concerned about gas mileage .... well.....then maybe you should re-think the whole thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 IME, inexpensive and 383 can't be used in the same sentence. 500hp and inexpensive don't work in the same sentence either.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jays64II Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 what is so hard about building an inexpensive 383 to make 500 horse ? Please...do not confuse inexpensive with cheap. They are 2 totally different things. My current 385 makes 720+ horse and i have $9000 in it complete...granted...if i were to pay someone else to build a motor like this it would probably cost alot more. It takes some money but more knowledge to buy good parts and the right parts and make them all work together effectively. I'll give ya a tried and true 383 combo that i used to run in my Nova years back and since have duplicated for others....and for example this combo typically runs mid 10's in a 3500 lb stock susp. 80' Malibu ::: flat top pistons with 2 valve reliefs , 6" H-beam rods , 3.75 stroke eage 4340 crank , AFR 227 heads , Crane cam saturday nite special solid cam .555/.578 , vic. jr. intake , 950 holley HP , TH400 trans , 5000 stall conv. , 4.11 gears , 28x10.5 slick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators BRAAP Posted September 10, 2007 Administrators Share Posted September 10, 2007 Looks like you guys have nailed down exactly what “Slammed68” was originally looking for, or at least the 383 part of his original question. Sounds like a nice 383. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zwitha383 Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 Would you mind disclosing the contents of your 385? Inexpensive to me and inexpensive to you are two separate things my friend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jays64II Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 Well.....ya gotta spend good money on good parts but you can get away with some stock pieces and go cheap and get to the same power level but you have to be able to do most of the work yourself and be prepared to tear it down if you lean on it to hard. I have some other cheap combos for those only looking to make 400-450 horse. I'll talk about my 385 at length when I have more time....off to work at 6:45 am I go ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slammed68 Posted September 10, 2007 Author Share Posted September 10, 2007 Well looks like you answered that with the price part, looks like it would be more cost effective in my situation to just get a LT1 donor car and go from there. Anyone have any good leads on a LT1 with full wiring harness and transmission? I found a 95 Formula Firebird with a 6 speed, just has a blown head, not willing to take it as just a blown head though, im sure theres ♥♥♥♥ tons other things wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators BRAAP Posted September 10, 2007 Administrators Share Posted September 10, 2007 Well looks like you answered that with the price part, looks like it would be more cost effective in my situation to just get a LT1 donor car and go from there. Anyone have any good leads on a LT1 with full wiring harness and transmission? I found a 95 Formula Firebird with a 6 speed, just has a blown head, not willing to take it as just a blown head though, im sure theres ♥♥♥♥ tons other things wrong. Yeah, it did seem like this thread was starting to be "pushed" down a path you were merely inquiring about. For more information on LT 1 conversions, using the Google version of our search engine, perform these three searches, LT1 LT 1 LT-1 (Search button is at the top of the screen in the blue bar, the lower search option is the Google search option.) That will keep you busy for quite a while. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress and if you have any more questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slammed68 Posted September 10, 2007 Author Share Posted September 10, 2007 Thank you very much. That helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jays64II Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 o.k.......here's my old 640 horse combo that went 9.82 at 137 mph on motor at 3000 lbs.....383 , stock block notched by myself , billet splayed main caps , eagle 4340 crank , eagle 6" H-beam rods , block and heads were o-ringed , 12.5-1 comp. ross pistons , cam was a custom grind solid roller .688/.672 small base circle on a 108 , Brodix Track 1 23 degree heads heavily modified by myself with with .200 offset on the intake valve and angled milled to 21 degrees and a 60cc chamber , Super Vic. Jr. intake that was ported by mayself and a Ray Barton 4150 to 4500 flange carb adapter and a 9375 Holley 1050 dominator prepped by myself. The 720 horse motor is basically the exact same motor block .040 over with 14.8-1 comp , a lil more work to the heads , 6" Oliver billet rods that are 90 grams lighter than the previous H-beam rods , a custom ground solid roller cam that is .736/.718 on a 106, jesel shaft rockers that are now for a .240 offset intake valve and a 9377 holley 1150 dominator also prepped by myself. As a matter of fact I put this carb on my friends 540 BBC and he went 9.07 with it. He bought a high dollar Chuck Nyuten 1150 and went 9.03. I have a total of $400 into my carb and he spent $1200 on the new one...i like my $400 carb...lol ! I hope the "push" comment was just a joke. I was just giving examples of what i have built and past experiences with results. The best testing is your own real world. Not word of mouth of what worked for some other guy or what is in the Mags Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators BRAAP Posted September 10, 2007 Administrators Share Posted September 10, 2007 Sounds like some nice engines, thank you for sharing. ……I hope the "push" comment was just a joke. I was just giving examples of what i have built and past experiences with results. The best testing is your own real world. Not word of mouth of what worked for some other guy or what is in the Mags The “push” comment was meant as more of a friendly nudge from one professional engine builder to another in an effort to remind us all that one mans "HOT street/strip 383" is another mans "monster race engine" and may not be within the scope of the project at hand. I couldn’t agree more with your last statement of first hand experience being paramount, not just stories, especially from Magazine engine builds quoted as gospel! Don’t get me wrong, so far in your short time here it is apparent that you have some valuable insight with performance V-8 builds to share with the HybridZ community and we do appreciate your willingness and wanting to share all that experience with us. It does seem as though your posts are coming across as if you are in a hurry to share “all” of your knowledge and experience with us all at once. As a professional high performance engine builder myself, I sometimes find myself doing the same and have to keep reminding myself to keep the original “intent” of the thread in perspective when replying and not to dominate or take over the thread and push it in a direction the originator wasn’t wanting to go in the first place. Definitely a delicate balance for sure. Again, thank you for you sharing those impressive build ups. Maybe we could get you to write up a few more of your successful build ups in detail as you did here including the end result, i.e. vehicle weight, tranny type with the ET/MPH, and post them in either the members project section or in a dedicated thread for "tried and true performance builds"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jays64II Posted September 10, 2007 Share Posted September 10, 2007 awww heck.....no insult taken at all. i'd hardly call myself a professional engine builder or i'd be doin it for a living. The race motor stuff is fun but to me the low comp. pump gas stuff is more fun especially in these lil' cars. But...the most fun is building one that lasts. I've seen alotta people claim combos with "X" amount of HP and feel bad when someone unknowing gets taken by one of these scam artist type claims. I just like to share old combos that have worked great from mild to wil but for some reason even some of my pump gas mild stuff people think is wild. I'm just trying to help some that may not have the experience and may get misled by someones claim of a .500 lift hyd. cam as being "a big cam". You know what i mean. Hey...lets sit back , open some beers and share stories and knowledge. I'm all for it ! Yeah....I am a lil' gung ho....ehh....can't change that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slammed68 Posted September 11, 2007 Author Share Posted September 11, 2007 I give great respect to all those people out there building 700+ 383's. I'm definitely not bashing on a monster 383, I was just making a kind of biased choice, saying that the LT1 or any FI motor would be better for me. Even though a nice 383 would rock, carbonamuration just isn't for me Ive made my choice on what I want to set my mind to and follow through with, which would be the LT1. LS1's are just too expensive to buy and to mod. There is a picture of it sitting at the guys house, where it is right now Cant wait to bring her home but until then And guys, did I get jipped for paying 1000 bucks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbc3 Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 To do any of these swaps right, it is not cheap. I went with a 385 stroker LT1. I prefer the fuel injection and computer control for all around drivability. I like driving mine around on the street, with A/C, as well as racing it. It is still basically a SBC as far as the physical install... with a few more wires. A laptop, LT1-edit or Tunercat and Datamaster are your friend. Many people here did their own wiring harness conversions, and others (myself included) sent the stock LT1 harness out to be modified. The information you need is here, just buried in the searches. Search for the LT1 people and then search their posts. Jody Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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