The following is a documentation of my installation of

The following is a documentation of my installation of a 2002 Camaro SS LS1
and T56 transmission in a 1973 Datsun 240Z using the mounts, driveshaft and hardware
provided by John’s Cars Inc (www.brokenkitty.com). I did not install A/C in this car as
of this time. I used a stand alone engine wire harness from EZ2wire to cut down on the
headaches of trying to recycle the original Camaro harness. Use this information at
your own risk and use common sense!!! I am not responsible for any damage to
your vehicle due to any information you take from this article. If you don’t like what
I did, then don’t flame me over it. I am, however, open to constructive criticism and
advice. This was my first engine swap and it was a learning experience.
First off, when ordering the kit, if you have a 240Z and are installing a T56 then
you will need to specify to John’s Cars that you need the transmission mount that bolts
through the floor. If you have a 280Z then you will need to ask for the one that bolts to
the frame rails. The 260Z was a mixed up year, you may or may not have deep enough
frame rails for the 280Z crossmember. The easy way to tell is to reach under your car
and feel how far the frame rail hangs down. The 240Z’s frame rail hangs about ¼” to ½”
down on the passenger’s side. The 280Z’s frame hangs down about 1” to 1 ½” on the
passengers side.
Below is a picture of the 280Z with a T56. See how the frame hangs down.
Here is a pic of the 280 transmission crossmember.
You also need to specify if the input flange to your differential is square or
rectangular(measure this, if it is rectangular, one side will only be wider by about ¼”) and
whether it uses 8mm or 10mm bolts to connect to the driveshaft.
Once you get your engine and tranny, clean it up! If you’re gonna do it, then do it
right. Remove the GM exhaust manifolds, then remove the power steering pump; you
won’t need it. Then remove the GM A/C bracket. I also took the opportunity to flush the
tranny. Don’t bother filling it now, all the fluid will come out the tail shaft housing as
soon as you tilt the engine. Don’t ask how I know this, let’s just say I learn fast.
The passenger’s side of your engine should look like this.
Remove any material left by the exhaust gaskets with a scotch pad (haven’t done
that yet in the pic above. Next you need to get a hacksaw and cut off the section of that
square sticking out where the GM A/C bracket was sitting so it is flush with the 2 bolt
holes it sits between. John’s engine mount will be using the front 2 engine mount bolt
holes in the block and all of the GM A/C bracket mounting holes to mount the passengers
side engine mount.
Here is a pic of the metal square after I cut it off.
Blow the dust and any water out of the bolt holes in the block or head before
putting bolts in. If there is water in those holes when you torque down the bolts the
pressure will crack the block (aluminum is soft).
Remove the EGR system (if equipped), AIR injection system and I removed the
EEVAP system. Then plug the holes leading into the intake manifold using rubber tube
block offs found at many auto stores like Auto Zone. Then go ahead and bolt on the
passenger’s side engine mount using 3 of the original GM engine mount bolts for the
forward most holes in the mounting plate and 2 of the 10mm bolts from John’s kit. Use 5
new washers from the kit (one on each bolt). Leave it loose for now so the mount can
slide.
Here is the passenger’s side with engine mount (one bolt had not yet been
installed in this pic).
Make sure you install the 2 spacers provided between the new mount and the
engine block. Look at the pic below.
Next you will install the water temp sender adaptor from John so that you can
attach the Datsun water temperature sender to the block and read the engine temp on you
Datsun gauge. To do this, remove the freeze plug located right behind the GM alternator
with a 17mm hex wrench.
Here is a pic of the freeze plug you need to take out.
Then install the JCI water temp sender adaptor in its place. It should look like
this.
Turning to the 240Z, I removed to battery, I drained the engine oil and coolant
and I removed the wires and hoses connecting the 240Z engine to the car. I did not cut
any wires. I never cut anything until I am sure I will not need it anymore. I also removed
the exhaust system, leaving only the header attached to the engine. I then drained and
removed the fuel tank (there is a drain bolt on the bottom of the fuel tank) and filler tube
since I will be using a fuel cell. I also removed the charcoal canister and as much of the
original fuel lines and line running to the charcoal canister as possible. I removed the
clutch master cylinder and corresponding lines. Then I carefully relocated the
passenger’s side front brake line to on top of the frame rail, the new exhaust header will
be running right there next to the frame rail.
I am touching the line with 2 fingers in this pic; see where I relocated it to.
This can be done by hand without removing the line from the car, simply unbolt
the clips holding the tube to the frame rail and carefully bend the tube so it us on top of
the frame rail. I did not re-attach it to the car with the clips yet in case more moving is
required. I want it as far away from the exhaust as possible.
Make sure you salvage the oil pressure sender and water temp sender from the
Datsun block. The oil pressure sender is the chunky thing screwed into the passenger’s
side of the block about an inch forward of the oil filter with a yellow/black wire leading
to it. And the water temp sender is located at the front of the head just below the tube
that leads to the top of the radiator with a single yellow wire attaching to it.
I also removed the tachometer out and sent it in to have JCI rework it to read the
LS1 engine. The tach is held in place by two wing nuts on the backside. I was able to
remove it without taking out the dash, however, this involved flipping myself upside
down and doing a contortionist act to reach the wing nuts along with a lot of choice
words.
Make sure you label all your wires even I you think you’ll remember. I used key
tags and a sharpie as shown below.
I had to use a dremel tool to trim the Datsun water temp sensor down a little to fit
in the adaptor. Originally the sensor had a wedge shaped section below the threads which
kept the sensor from sliding in the JCI adaptor.
Here is a pic of the sensor after I trimmed it down.
I then installed it in the LS1 Block.
I also Installed the JCI oil pressure adaptor just above the LS1 oil filter and
screwed in the Datsun oil sensor.
At this time I am still waiting for my custom wire harness to arrive as well as
many other parts so I took to time to use about half a gallon of “Herculiner” truck bed
liner and redid my engine compartment. First I had to use a cold chisel and chisel out the
battery tray since there was some surface rust there from battery acid dripping. I will
deal with the battery tray later and simply bolt it back into it’s original location. I also
took a few minutes to sand down and repaint the brake booster.
I know it is almost impossible to find those rubber insulators that keep tubes and
wires running through your firewall from shredding by rubbing on the metal. I used
some ¼ inch split wire loom they sell at the local auto store and ran some silicone along
the inside of the loom. I then put it along the edges of the holes where holes and wires or
hoses would be running.
Here are some before and after pics.
I had some down time while waiting for more parts to come in. So I replaced the
heater hoses.
I ran a large amount of 5/8 inch heater hose into the engine compartment so I
have enough slack to neatly run them along the fender. One of the heater hose outputs on
the LS1 is 5/8” and the other is 3/4”, so you will need to use a hose adaptor to convert
one of the hoses to 3/4”so it will plug into the LS1 I got one at Pep Boy’s in the self help
section. I also took the time to put bedliner on all the JCI mounts. There is nothing
uglier to me than rust! I took the time to wrap my manifolds with thermo-tec header
wrap.
Here is a pic of the JCI parts after I put bedliner on them.
I also put bedliner on the battery tray and bolted it back into position.
To run the serpentine belt system with no A/C, you need to remove the smooth
idler pulley that sits between the alternator and the water pump. The pulley will be
replaced with Goodyear pulley PN: 49003. The only problem I ran into was when the
pulley was mounted, it would scrub the mounting bracket. The pulley needs to have a
washer put behind it to bring it out enough so it doesn’t scrub the bracket (about 1/16”).
All the washers that fit in the confines of the pulley don’t have a hole large enough to
slide on the pulley mount. So I had to take a 3/8” washer and drill it out to 11/16”. After
I put the washer behind the pulley, it bolted up nicely and spun freely.
Here are pics of the washer before and after I drilled it out.
The belt you need to use with this setup is NAPA part number 060547. It is a 55
¼” 6 rib belt.
Here is a pic of how to run the belt.
I removed the throttle pedal and drilled out the nipple the original throttle rod
connected to and shaved the square edges off so the throttle cable could swivel. The
throttle cable you will be using is a Lokar throttle cable PN TC-1000LS148. It is a 48”
cable so you have plenty of slack.
Here are the pics of the throttle pedal connector before and after modification.
Then I trimmed of a bit of the throttle cable threads that pass through the firewall
so the throttle pedal rod doesn’t hit it.
Here is a pic of the cable after I trimmed off some to the threads (about an inch).
You will also need to bend the top of the throttle pedal connector (where the cable
will be connecting to it) about 1/4” up/back and another 1/4” to the right when looking
from the driver’s seat so the connection matches up to the hole in the firewall.
I removed the entire Datsun throttle assembly from the firewall to include the
small tower the throttle rod pivots on with a chisel. Seen below.
Then I installed the cable to the firewall with some large washers because the
original hole is about 1/2” in diameter; too large for the throttle cable to bolt to without
falling out.
Here is a pic of the cable attached to the firewall.
The baffle I used to connect the throttle body to the MAF sensor is the one used
on the ’93 – ’94 LT1 Camaro/Firebird (the ’95 – 97 LT1 has a vent hose connection for
the vented optispark you would need to plug.). The baffle has an oval connection, but it
is made of rubber and flexes to be a perfect fit for the round LS1 throttle body.
Here is a pic.
I also took the time to install some FAST fuel rails. The rails have a -8 AN
connection on either rail and a -6 AN connection on the front for the fuel regulator. They
really look nice and will work well with my custom fuel system.
Here is the radiator I will be using. It is sold by www.jagsthatrun.com and
specifically meant to be used for Datsun V8 conversions and will install with no
modification or even drilling. You will need to source your own radiator cap. The cap
from a 92 Chevy Astro van 4.3L engine will fit perfectly (sold at Checker’s)
I also had to plug some heater return holes in the radiator. I went to Checkers and
got some brass plugs (you got to look back behind the counter, they will not be on
display). The plugs need to fine thread; the usual NPT plugs will not fit.
Here is a pic of the plug (use Teflon tape on the plug to seal it).
I took a reciprocating saw (SAWZALL) and cut out the spare tire well to make
room for the fuel cell.
I then installed the sheet metal pictured below to fill in the hole and installed my
16 gallon summit racing fuel cell. The sheet metal was cut by my local heating and air
conditioning company.
I hung the fuel pump from a piece of sheet metal bent at a 90 deg angle right in
front of the fuel cell (one side of the 90 deg sheet metal bolted through the floor metal in
the hatch area and other side, where I mounted the pump, just hung strait down). The
fuel pump is an Aeromotive unit with -8AN input and output capable of supporting 700
HP.
After all this I towed the Z to the shop and ripped out the old engine, this only
took about 45 minutes since I already had the engine drained and completely
disconnected.
Now comes the hard part. After removing the old engine mounts, I had to drop
the crossmember far enough to wedge in the bracing plates. This took some time, sweat
and the use of my new favorite tool: a 3 lb sledge. There are 2 bolts in either wheel well
keeping the crossmember in place. ONLY DO ONE SIDE AT A TIME. Put a jack
under the crossmember to keep it in place and lower it in a controlled manner.
After installing the crossmember braces I moved on to the mount that the steering
rod goes through. One side of this mount connects where the control arm meets the
chassis on the driver’s side and the other end of mount slides INSIDE the old engine
mount tower on the crossmember with the supplied spacer above the new brace, yet still
inside the crossmember tower. Look closely at the pics below. Make sure you
disconnect and slide the steering shaft through the brace before you install it. The bolt
should pass through this series of braces and mounts as follows (described from top to
bottom).
1. The brace that sits between the cross member and the body (Top).
2. The Z crossmember tower where the old engine mount used to sit.
3. The large spacer.
4. The long brace the steering shaft passes through (Bottom).
In the below pic you can see the test fit of this mount. In this pic I still had not
installed the crossmember brace as described above, but it allows you to see how the
mount slides into the Z crossmember tower.
Here is a pic of the assembly with the brace and the mount installed.
The other end of the mount that the steering shaft passes through is bolted to the
control arm mount. You need to take off the control arm bolt, large washer, rubber
bushing and use a chisel to GENTLY remove the other washer that sandwiches the
control arm bushing.
Here is the washer you need to chisel off.
And after it is chiseled off.
This has to be done before you install the other end of the brace as you will see.
As you slide the brace into the crossmember tower as described above, the other end of
the brace will slide over the control arm end where you removed the control arm washers
and bushing.
Here is the mount butted up where the control arm bushing was.
Now, re-install the control arm washers and bushing over the JCI mount
Then you drill the new holes in the control arm mount and bolt this end up. Once
again, my new favorite tool is a 3 lb sledge. Had to do some hammering to get the mount
to slide in.
Here is the pic of the mount’s trial fit. I had to remove the mount to put the
steering arm through the ears. In this pic I also still had not re-installed the control arm
washers and bushing. Hell, I hadn’t even installed the brace that sits between the
crossmember and the body yet. You can also see in this pic how little clearance the brake
line has. I notched the brace a little with an angle grinder for clearance.
In the mean time I had to split the LS1 engine and tranny to install the new clutch
line. Use Russell part # 640281 sold by either Jegs or Summit Racing to replace the
female side of the GM quick disconnect in the bellhousing. Part looks like this.
You will need to take a punch and drive out the rollpin holding the female side of
the GM quick disconnect inside the bell housing. I’m pointing to the rollpin inside the
bellhousing with a punch.
See the pics.
Attach the adaptor pictured above in my hand to a -3AN braided stainless brake
line made by Russell sold by Summit Racing. I used about a 32” line with one end being
a 90 deg end and it was the perfect length. The strait end connects to the adaptor the 90
deg attaches to my 7/8” Tilton clutch master cylinder (covered later). Connect the
adaptor to the new hose good and tight before you install is. You cannot get to is once
the bellhousing in re-attached to the LS1!
Here is the adaptor attached to the 32” hose.
Now you will install the adaptor with the hose running through the hole in the
side of the bellhousing. Put it in place and re-install the old rollpin.
It will look like this.
Now, re-attach the bellhousing.
I used a Tilton 7/8” clutch master cylinder. It installed in the original master
cylinder hole and even bolts up the same. No mods to the firewall needed. However, I
did have to take the part from the Datsun master cylinder that connects the pushrod to the
clutch pedal and drill it out to slide over the threaded part of the Tilton pushrod (the
threads on the connector are metric and the Tilton pushrod is SAE so it won’t just screw
on like it did for the Datsun unit). I then held it in place using a nut on either side. To
get one of the nuts on I had to bend the bend the mouth of the pedal connection piece
open (it’s shaped kind of like a squared off “U”, so just spread the “U” apart with two
sets of pliers. I can’t remember for sure, but I don’t THINK that I had to shorten the
pushrod at all, but if you need to then just use a dremel tool with a cutting blade and hack
off what you need to. One person told me after I did my install that he just swapped the
Datsun pushrod into the Tilton cylinder (wish I would have thought of that, DUH).
The rubber dust boot on the Tilton cylinder would not go through the hole in my
firewall when in place (just barely to big in diameter), so I slid the boot down onto the
pushrod, slid the pushrod through the hole with the boot (that way the boot would just
fold up and slide through the hole) and bolted the cylinder in place. Then from the inside
of the cabin, I slid the boot back up the pushrod and over the butt of the master cylinder
where it belongs. This is not easy to do because you will be at a very awkward position
trying to reach the back of that master cylinder. Some good old fashioned spit will help
you slide the boot in place easier.
I have received reports that the Tilton unit will not fit with the 280Z windshield
washer tank in place. I don’t know about the 240Z (when I bought my car, the
windshield washer tank had been removed and I haven’t got around to installing one). I
do know that the 240Z washer tank is smaller than the 280Z unit I would try installing a
240Z unit into a 280Z, it MAY fit. If not, then I would consider it a small price to pay or
try finding an alternate location to mount the tank.
The 90 deg fitting on the 32” hose will attach to the new master cylinder and give
you a nice clean appearance when it is all said and done.
Here is a pic of the Master cylinder with the hose attached.
Now you will need to grind off the old tranny mounting ears in the tranny tunnel.
I used an air chisel, but you can use an angle grinder also. You will need to make a good
size dent on the passenger’s side in the very front of the tranny tunnel for the reverse light
switch to clear. Added Pics:
You will also need to make a dent in the tranny tunnel on the driver’s side about
one inch below the shifter hole to clear the reverse lockout solenoid.
Also I had to remove the old skipshift solenoid, grind it down to be nothing but a large
plug for the hole and fill what was left of the solenoid with high temp silicone. Do that or
you can make a large dent in the tranny tunnel for the useless solenoid.
I also found out that I had to grind off some of the plastic air tube on the back of
the alternator to clear the engine mounts. Grind off about 2” of the air tube that sits
farthest from the engine. You will need to make it flush with the rest of the back of the
alternator.
Time to drop in the engine for a test fit. Make sure your radiator is removed. I
had to really angle the engine and tranny in there. While you are test fitting the whole
thing, make sure to look and see where you will need to make more clearance with the 3
lb sledge.
Once your clearances are good and the engine is set in the mounts you will need
to bolt the engine in place and tighten up all the mounts. Install the tranny mount after
you get the engine mounts bolted in, this is because you will need to raise and lower the
engine and tranny to get all the engine mounts to line up. This sounds simple, but believe
me, it tool hours of painstaking “up and down” to get it all bolted in. Now, you will
install your tranny mount through the floorboards. This is pretty self explanatory.
Install your exhaust headers and torque them down. I discovered the O2 sensor
on the driver’s side was hitting my oil sender, so I went to Ace hardware and got a 45 deg
1/8” NPT brass fitting to angle the oil sender up to clear the O2 sensor.
Now I installed the driveshaft. I had to get some longer bolts, the stock ones were
a little too short. Get these from NAPA, they have a complete bolt section with bolts that
are made from allow and get the strongest rating you can find. I used 10.8 rated bolts. If
you don’t know about bolt ratings, LEARN! There are different ratings of bolts. If you
were to use regular old bolts from Home Depot they would sheer off like a warm crayon
in this type of use.
Here’s a look from the bottom of the car.
For the radiator
I then installed the radiator I ordered form www.jagsthatrun.com along with a 16”
Black Magic cooling fan rated at 3000 cfm. Believe me, this engine needs to stay cool,
the Auto Zone fans just won’t cut it here. I had to use a different radiator hose on the top
than was supplied with the JCI kit due to the different dimensions of the radiator. I just
went to Autozone and looked around the hose section till I found one that was correct. I
took the JCI hose with me to do this. The JCI hose would have been perfect, but it
needed to be about 4” longer to reach far enough left to reach the radiator opening on top.
The other hose from JCI will work fine, you just need to cut off about 6” form the end
that attaches to the radiator.
A word about cooling: I made great efforts to make sure the engine stayed cool.
The aerodynamics of the Z are not the best for keeping the engine bay cool for some
reason. So I used a 160 degree thermostat, a $300 cooling fan that could suck a midget
through the front grill (3000 cfm being pulled by one fan is a LOT of air), I heat wrapped
the exhaust headers to help keep heat out of the engine bay and used high heat paint to
seal the wraps (recommended by thermo-tec), used a high heat wrap on the wires running
close to the exhaust headers and the radiator I used is one core that extends from the front
of the radiator to the back (a very wide core that displaces heat very well (seen below).
Here is a pic taken from the jagsthatrun.com conversion manual.
I ran my fuel lines using -8AN braided stainless steel lines to supply and a -6AN
line as my return line. I put Jegs fuel filters in line before the pump and just before the
fuel rails.
Once the engine and tranny were filled with oil and coolant, the fuel lines were
hooked up and all the wires were hooked up, which only took a few minutes thanks to my
stand alone engine harness, the engine cranked right up!!!!!!!! YAHOO.
I mounted up my Aeromotive fuel regulator with my Autometer pressure gauge
sender installed on the passenger’s side of the engine bay. I used an Autometer fuel
pressure gauge. Once the engine was running, I adjusted my fuel pressure to 60 psi.
If you are using the stock fuel tank and lines combined with the JCI fuel pump,
John at JCI recommends that you use a GM filter GF822 because it has a built in
regulator/return line. This filter is mounted in the engine bay. I would use a filter before
the pump as well, to protect the pump. FYI - This filter uses the GM “push to connect”
connectors. I have no personal experience with that setup.
Once the engine starts, you need to be looking for leaks, I found a few in my
install, 2 in the heater lines, one on the fuel lines, a slight oil leak coming from my sender
and a bad one coming form the Datsun coolant temp sender. Most of them were simple
fixes, just tightening up the connections. I also used some wire loom to cover the
exposed wires seen in many of my pics and even rerouted some of them to clean up the
engine bay.
It turns out that when I ground down the Datsun coolant temp sensor, it caused the
sensor to leak and I had to replace it with an Autometer unit. I was going to do this
anyway. I plan to replace all my gauges with Autometer units. I used a series of brass
adaptors from Ace to get the 1/8” NPT Autometer unit to adapt to the hole.
I then ran a thin piece of 1” wide metal from my engine compartment to the filter
to hold it steady so it wasn’t bouncing around my engine compartment. I ran a bolt with
some large washers through the rubber end of the filter. I secured it to the filter with a
locknut, locktight and some silicone in the threads. I don’t want that bolt to come off
inside the filter and get sucked in the engine!
I also took the time to wrap my wires that were running close to the headers in
thermo-tec heat tape.
I also took to time to remove my interior and chisel up all the sound deadner with
a putty knife and a hammer (I found some surface rust under my sound deadner). I then
proceeded to put bedliner all over the interior. This involved ripping out the carpet, vinyl
and seats. At least I don’t have to worry about rust on my floorboards.
Being that I did the whole fuel cell thing, I now have room for duel exhausts.
Soooo, I cut out a second exhaust exit in the rear of the car. I carefully cut both sides a
little so the exits match; the original exit had a rolled lip for a smooth appearance. I cut
the rolled lip off to match the other side.
Here are the exhaust exits I cut.
The exhaust system consists of duel 2.5” mandrel bent, stainless pipes with a
Magnaflow stainless X-pipe and Borla mufflers. I had the entire exhaust system TIG
welded and man it looks good, not to mention it sounds really mean. I love the sound of
Borla mufflers!
The exhaust tips were tricky to pull off. Since the mufflers are in the rear of the
car and very close to the rear, tips longer than 5” would have cone out too far and looked
out of place. To top it off, I had to attach the tips directly to the mufflers. Why is that so
hard? Because first of all, exhaust tips that are less than 8” are hard to come by unless
you want a tip with a resonator like what lots of people put on their ricer cars (no thanks;
not for a V8). 2.5” exhaust means that the pipe is 2.5” outer diameter (O.D.) and muffler
has a 2.5” inner diameter (I.D.) so the pipe will slide inside the muffler slightly and is
welded there. Likewise, exhaust tips you buy are 2.5” I.D., so when trying to attach them
to the muffler exit directly (also 2.5” I.D. also) I discovered that the tip will not slide over
the muffler exit (like trying to put two female electric connectors together). I ended up
taking some up the spare 2.5” O.D. exhaust pipe and cutting it to the length I wanted and
even cut them at an angle so I would have angled tips. Then I polished the metal with a
wire wheel to create a satin but shinny appearance. My TIG welder guy then tacked them
in place, so if I want to change the tips later, I just cut the tack welds and remove the tips.
Wiring notes:
I am adding wiring notes as I go along. There are PDF’s that show these good but
I plan on taking pictures too.
http://www.4moores.com/280z/files/
Here are the pins on the stock wiring harness. Pin 1 is on the smooth side away
from where the wires come in. Pin 80 is on the "tooth" side away from where the wires
come in.