What mods recommended to do before putting the LS1 in?

[johnnyddn]

I have a pretty much stock 1978 280z I would like to later put a LS1 in. In the mean time I would like to do as many mods that I can and keep the car running before actually pulling the engine and dropping an LS1 in. Some of the things I've thought of are:

 

1. Brake upgrade - Probably the Toyota 4x4 upgrade and a 15/16 master cylinder and maybe do the rear disc conversion

2. R200 diff - From what I read everyone is recommending the one with 3.90 gears

3. Electronic Tech - Probably gonna get an Autometer

4. Better fuel pump - I'm guessing a 255 Walbro

 

Anything else you guys can recommend I get done? I wanna try to get all the little things out of the way before I go and pull the engine because the car is still running good.

[SSflyer]

You may want to replace all the bushings too. Then there's the old favorites....dash cover, door panels, stereo, HID headlights, billet grill, seat covers, carpet.

[bschiltz]

Coil overs or better struts/springs is a good idea too.

[RTz]

Then there's the old favorites....dash cover, door panels, stereo, HID headlights, billet grill, seat covers, carpet.

 

[Armand]

Look into new Baddog frame rails if the original ones are not in good shape. Strut bars also help with the torque flexing the chassis. Look into ones that either triangulate from the strut towers to the firewall, or an 8-point style strut bar from PDK would be ideal.

[Bartman]

I have a pretty much stock 1978 280z I would like to later put a LS1 in. In the mean time I would like to do as many mods that I can and keep the car running before actually pulling the engine and dropping an LS1 in. Some of the things I've thought of are:

 

1. Brake upgrade - Probably the Toyota 4x4 upgrade and a 15/16 master cylinder and maybe do the rear disc conversion

2. R200 diff - From what I read everyone is recommending the one with 3.90 gears

3. Electronic Tech - Probably gonna get an Autometer

4. Better fuel pump - I'm guessing a 255 Walbro

 

Anything else you guys can recommend I get done? I wanna try to get all the little things out of the way before I go and pull the engine because the car is still running good.

I'm going to go against the grain here and recomend you only do the things necessary for the swap. Once you complete the swap then you can figure out what you want to upgrade and what can stay stock. Sure you can upgrade the brakes with the Toyota 4x4 disks and larger master cylinder, but that doesn't really give you very much benefit. If you really want to get serious than you'd be much better of with a better setup. So you may just wind up doing things twice.

 

Get the swap done, keep your cost down, have some fun with it - and then start making other upgrades as needed. Most of the upgrades your talking about are just as easy to do later than they would be to do now.

[Phantom]

Do a search on this forum for LS1 / T56 Update. It should bring up a series of posts I did while doing my conversion which covered many of the decisions I made along the way. My car is a late model '77 so it is the same body as the '78. Things I can tell you:

1) The Toyota brake upgrade is not sufficient for the type of spirited driving you can do with the LS1. I burned mine up the first time out on a track. Ended up with the Modern Motorsports 240SX/300ZX upgrade on the rear with the larger master cylinder and 12.2" willwood superlites on the front.

2) The motor torque will twist the car. I've never been able to keep my windshield sealed since the engine went in. I have a 4-pt roll bar and front and rear strut tower braces and it still twists. i would suggest welding clips to the roof of the car that can bolt into the roll bar to make the body even more rigid. That may solve the problem.

3) Unless you are going to run slicks or seriously widen your rear fenderwells I would opt for a 3.70 LSD over a 3.90. 225/50-16's cannot handle the power in first and a significant portion of second with the 3.70 so a 3.90 would be even worse.

4) The more you modify things in the car the more you will have to depend on yourself to fix anything that breaks and the more complete your build sheet will have to be to remember who made what and where you can get it.

5) Changing the gauges in the car to electric will really complicate your life. No one makes dual gauges and the Z has two of them. Where do you put the two gauges you no longer have a home for? The clock hole could be one but what about the other? What do you do for turn signal indicators and the e-brake warning light? All these decisions eliminated by keeping the stock gauges. Do a gauge face color change to white, change the transmission over to a mechanical output, have JCI recalibrate the Tach to a V8 input, and keep your life simple.

6) Your '78 is already EFI so keep the same supply and reture fuel lines. Use the pump from JCI as it's designed to work with the stock fuel lines.

7) Have your radiator recored to a 4-row and use it with a stock fan and shroud set-up off an LS-1 equipped F-body. It will plug into the engine harness, control off the GM ECM, and fits the Z radiator beautifully with a little trimming. Makes cooling a no-brainer.

8) While you have the car in pieces do a complete suspension refresh. At the minimum you'll need new springs, urethane bushings throughout, and gas struts. Type of struts & springs depending on the type of driving you intend to do. I'd also refresh your ball joints and replace the boots on your steering rack. For extreme upgrades go to the Arizona Z Car website. They have neat stuff.

You can go to my photo album and see some of the stuff that was done to mine during the development work for the JCI kit.

[Blown77Z]

I'm going to go against the grain here and recomend you only do the things necessary for the swap. Once you complete the swap then you can figure out what you want to upgrade and what can stay stock. Sure you can upgrade the brakes with the Toyota 4x4 disks and larger master cylinder, but that doesn't really give you very much benefit. If you really want to get serious than you'd be much better of with a better setup. So you may just wind up doing things twice.

 

Get the swap done, keep your cost down, have some fun with it - and then start making other upgrades as needed. Most of the upgrades your talking about are just as easy to do later than they would be to do now.

 

EXACTLY the plan I took

[heavy85]

Keep it simple so you dont get frustrated looking at it on jackstands. My LS swap took ~1 1/2 years of downtime because I also replaced the subframe and added a bunch of chassis bracing & misc other stuff. Also if you get a late '80's 300 ZX R200 it will come with a 3.7. From the old L6 days I swapped this to 3.9 which worked good with the L6. I just switched back to the 3.7 since as said above the 3.9 was just silly with the LS and I want higher speed in second for autocross.

 

Cameron