Chevy V-8 powered 280z

This was the 1977 Datsun 280z that I owned from Jan 1997 to August 1998.  I got the idea to build this car after reading a book my dad brought home one day in 1994  by Jaguars That Run which told of how to install a small block chevy into the little 240 to 280z-car.  I just had to build one.  So after learning how to restore cars by working on my previous '78 280z in 1996, I set out to find a suitable car.  What I found was what looked like the ugliest looking z around.  It was white and had a copper colored interior with black steel wheels.  However, the car was from out of state which meant that since I was planning on making the car California Beareau of Automotive Repair (BAR) legal, I could now start with a car that didn't have to have a catalytic converter since the federal cars were not so equipped in '77.  In fact, the car was originally purchased in Hawaii and brought over to the mainland by a sailor. 

The first thing that I did was to start rebuilding the chevy engine.  The engine was a 5.7liter (350) and I ported the 882 casting head myself and flowtested them on a superflow 600 flowbench.  I gained 22% volume flow rate on the exhaust and 17% on the intake.  The cam was supposedly from a 350hp/350 corvette engine and the compression ration was 8.5:1. It was not the best combination but worked well in the end.   I also acquired a T-5 5-speed transmission/bellhousing/driveshaft/clutch from a '86 Trans-am.  Next I sold the original 2.8liter engine and 5-speed trans.  Now with the engine bay empty, I began to make the necessary modifications.  The spot-welded trans crossmember brackets were air-hammered off and the front radiator support was installed.  Brake lines had to be re-routed to keep the radiated heat from the headers from boiling the brake fluid.  Then the front datsun crossmember was lowered 1" by using spacers and the engine locating holes were slotted to allow setting the engine as far back in the engine bay as possible to help with weight distribution.  With this and a whole bunch of othe things changed, such as the wiring, the engine/trans was installed with extruded aluminum engine mount spacers and setback plates to correctly locate the engine in the chassis.

After the engine was running with the headers installed, I drove it down to a fabrication shop to have the exhaust system built.  It was made of aluminized steel with dual 2.25" crush bent pipes joining into a single 2.5" where the catalytic converter (used because it made the engine run clean) started and then back to the Magnaflow muffler using mandrel bends.

Here you can see car in its nasty white/copper colored form