What was supposed to be a “show quality” car turned out to be a poorly constructed hack job. Now I get to start back at square one and rebuild from the ground up.

A little history…

This car was in AZ listed at $21k with a forged 370 on LS1TECH. The previous owner put the car up for sale with old pictures from when the car was originally built. The car was built by a guy in Georgia who knows how many years ago. The title is still in his name. Seller claimed this was a “Street” car and driven on the street regularly. Seller blew the 370 engine and claimed to installed a healthy stock 5.3 engine bolting on all the old engines “goodies” Seller implied the car “Just needed tuned.” Price was dropped to $15k and didn’t’ sell. I offered $12k and paid $1000 for shipping. (I live in KS and had never seen the car)

These were the pics in the FS AD and the description.

 

When the car arrived it was nothing like the car in the FS AD pictured!

Cracked bumper (missing fasteners on passenger side), hood cracked and damaged in many places, hood pin mounting points cracked out and barely hanging on torn sheet metal, multiple scratches, dints, dings, paint chips , Weather stripping dry rotted, interior dry rotted, AFT windows spray painted, garbage DIY tint job, No brakes, brake accumulator full of brake fluid and leaking in the car...etc.

I also noted that the car looked like it had been stored outside for a few years…in desert wind storms. Found multiple mud dauber nests, engine bay and undercarriage were coated in grime. (Looked like a destruction derby car)

I understand a nice 280 is pretty rare these days so the value may be a little higher than I’m estimating. Also not sure how much of the body is full of filler. The floor boards are rusted through in few places, but not too bad. On the “upside” the 4 link/mini tub is very nicely installed. The trans and motor mounts appear to be sturdy as well.

Chewed up bumper





Hood damage






Paper towel fun!











Spray painted windows!




Neato tint job!




This is what was holding the hood down...




Electrical..

The wiring on the car was a joke. It looked like a 4 year old wired it. The claimed “street car” had no working brake lights, tail lights, headlights. (Wires had been diked.) Original fuse panel in the car was removed bare wires everywhere. Multiple wires twisted together and taped with no crimped connections or solder. The tail lights (well only one of them) is constantly “on” anytime the battery is hooked up. No signals. The Fuel Tech ECU (FT350) installed was setup for a gen4 engine and could not recognize the 24x LS signal. I removed the ECU and harness and sold it. Then purchased a micro squirt and harness and installed it.

Check out this sweet wiring job....




Bare wire leads for the head lights. The + wire was hot a swell, just wait'n to short out on something.



Weather trim/rubber on whole car is shot.

[img]https://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b100/Hybridgnx/280z/IMG_5629_zpspceai6wa.jpg[img]



Moving on to the engine bay…

Upon pulling the charge piping off I noticed burnt paper towels stuck in the throttle body! I then found similar burnt paper towels in the intake manifold, intercooler, and in the head ports themselves! After removing the paper towels the engine fired right up… and started tapping immediately. I pulled rockers, inspected pushrods, tried some oil additive in case it was a “stuck lifter”. Idled it around the block a bit. Tapping never quieted. At this point I also noted the brakes didn’t work…at all. Pulled the brake vac line and fluid poured out of the booster… Also noted the transmission didn’t shift.

So I decided to pull the motor. Pulled the passenger side head off… and found MORE PAPER TOWELS stuck in the coolant passages of the block. Not a little bit, but multiple full size squares of paper towel blocking coolant passages around the cylinders. Then inspected the radiator and found it too had old towels that had broken down into a paste blocking all the coolant passages. I go to disconnect the transmission and find 2 bolts holding it on. Incorrect length bolts with only a few threads on one side… and an overly long bolt that bottomed out before snugging up. Also the 2 engine mount nuts were finger tight. Dropped the trans and pulled the motor. At this point I also noted the turbo return fitting was stripped loosely into the pan and JB welded. The JB weld looked like an attempt to stop the oil from seeping around the fitting, but wasn’t actually sealed to the pan. Just hardened around the fitting. Drain line was also laying on the hot side along with multiple wires.

When I tore the motor down I found a wiped cam lobe and 2 very loose (fell out of cap) chewed up rod bearings that were about to spin. The discoloration in the cap is where they were getting way too hot. All the bearings showed signs of heavy metal contamination.








I was skeptical about the TH-350 transmission the owner had behind this “1000” HP 370 as well. So I called up “Performance Automatics” and spoke with them. It appears this is their base LS conversion TH350/converter. Both of which are Rated at 550 crank HP.



So for my 13k I Basically got a junk motor, junk trans, in a junk car put together by an infant… I spoke to the seller about this and brought up everything I found. He stopped answering my calls/emails. User name “Skrilla” on ls1tech if anyone wants to kick him in the a$$ for being the world’s largest douchebag hack I’ve ever known.

Still a cool car, just a little beat up.




So history aside this is where the project sits as of this weekend. I scrubbed it down for hours and started to paint the engine bay.

 

Bolted on some spare LS parts I had laying around and sold the damaged 5.3 that came with the 280z for $400.





Blew that money on some china valve springs and an Edelbrock 2215 cam ($312.) It's a -2* @ .050 overlap cam, shouldn't be too bad with boost. Has really low lift and tight LSA similar to the GM "Hot cam". They sound really mean on you tube. 220/220 @ 111 .510 lift. Throwing in my old 06 4.8. Plan to run pump gas and low boost, shooting for 500whp or so.

Brought the TH350 to my Trans guy. We opened up and it looked pretty good. Had a decent aftermarket sprag, shift kit, clutches, and a few other aftermarket parts. 2nd gear clutches looked like they got hot and slipped a bit. Put in a new clutch pack and I’m calling the trans good. He thinks it will hold 500whp or so without issue in a 2600lb chassis. (for a while at least)



Ordered a new rod to replace the one I bent last year in the 4.8. New GM rods show up "un-cracked". Kinda weird, but you literally have to stick the cap in the vise and yank on the top of the rod to crack it. Threw the rod in on my old piston.






Found an old set of roller rockers in the bottom of spare parts bin. Tore each one down completely. Cleaned, wet sanded, reassembled. Took about 3 hours. I think I'd just spend the $100 on a new set rather than doing that job again, but they turned out really nice. I did find one that was “stuck” so I’m glad I took the time.



Cleaned up the heads and deck. Going to reuse one of the many LS9 head gaskets I have sitting around. I also have some china studs that are going in.



Threw the oil pan in the dish washer. Cleaned it up pretty good!




Also replaced the brake master cylinder and accumulator and bled all the brakes.




Noticed the tires look to be about 100 years old up front, big chunks missing from the tread. I get to buy new tires now too... joy.

 

Sorry about getting screwed man, looks like it's is good hands now though. Good luck with it.

 

Tossed the 2215 cam in.



Cam was a bastard to degree. I wasn't even going to do it, but I'm glad I did. Little note in the cam box said you "MUST" degree in cam if you don't use the edelbrock timing set. With a cloyes timing set installed "Dot-to-Dot" I was 10.5* advanced from the card. Used this same timing set last year and dot-to-dot was damn close to the timing card on the ISKY cam.

Retarding the cam 1 tooth and advancing the crank gear 4* net me 1* retarded from the card. I'm gonna roll with that.




Copper coated the LS9 gaskets and installed them with some COMP studs. Torqued to 75ftlb and nothing broke… always a good sign! Threw on the stock springs for now. I ordered a set but they won’t show up until next week.






Motor and tran's in. Fixed the hack job of a motor mount. Then had to modify the driver side turbo piping. Had a spare flex section laying around so I added it. It was rigid before.

 

Fired it yesterday...

Never used a Gopro before, I think I covered the mic pickup at one point.


Still need to get the radiator flushed and run a vac line to the trans. Then grab some new tires for the front, and it should be road worthy at that point.

 

Hate that it happened to you like that, but that's the gamble you take buying site unseen. Still a super cool project

 

Yup, live and learn I suppose. I’m over it. Getting it running sure felt good. It sounds mean for a turbo car, hoping this will help the resale. Once I get it tagged with some lights, I'm hoping to get my money back out of it.

 

Something about hack jobs and 280Zs, man. All the welds broke on my ladder bars when mine was on the dyno. The rear end fell out...it fell the **** out. At least mine was just a roller when I got it.

I remember this car and I am glad to see you are setting it straight. I have been fucked before as well, it really sucks.

Mike

 

Sorry about the bad car deal. It is always exciting to be waiting for the car to arrive and then pretty maddening and frustrating when someone lies about it.

Glad to see you are making the best out of it.

 

Did you buy it with intentions on selling it?

 

Sucks about all the bad. It is a great looking car though & it will fly by the
time your finished with it. Also crazy about the "cracked" cap.

 

Nope bought it to replace my "fair weather" C5. They are a pain to work on/modify. With the original 21k price tag on teh 280z I was thinking it was more of a "show quality" chassis. I thought at worst It would need another short block... which I didn't mind too much.

 

Sucks to hear about your luck man. Looks like it just sat beat to **** for years and when it finally sold he threw it back together in a hurry and shipped it to you.

But still a nice looking car.

I'm about to put my spare 4.8 in my camaro after melting a piston on my 5.3.

Maybe you could give me some pointers? My first time building/changing an engine.

Good luck with the car.

 

Sucks man, but it's good that you stuck with it and gave the car a second chance. Definitely in the right hands now. Good luck with the remainder of the build.

 

Is that *** still on here?

 

Believe so... he stopped answering my calls/emails a long time ago.

 

I've been burned too. I would recommend in the future is anything site unseen, you have a skype call with the person or have someone local check it out. Sucks what you went through.

Love these cars! they are getting up in age though...hard to really find a clean one after all these years.

 

I've defiantly been in that boat, not as big a hit $$, but regardless it still infuriates you when you have to spend a boat load of money to fix a POS that you expected to be nice or at least a solid runner etc.


I feel like Karma will eventually come around. Mine took about 2-3 years before I ended up ahead or even on my bad transaction.


Glad its in good hands now, I looked at that add several times. It was portrayed as obviously a way nicer car than it was.

 

Picked up the radiator last night after having it cleaned and installed it. Was a little nerve racking waiting on the thermo to open. Didn’t pop till 205*ish indicated on the Micro squirt. Drops to 178ish and the thermo closes. Previous owner has a poorly designed cheapo 16” fan mounted on some tabs in front of the radiator with no shroud. Seems to cool fine, we’ll see how it does in heat/traffic. I’m assuming I’ll have to “fix” this as well.

Also had some people ask about burping an LS cooling system. I always use a huge funnel, run the car up to temp and watch the funnel till the bubbles stop. Usually takes a good 20 minutes.