ericp501

Now that I landed my l28et donor I'm keeping an eye out for a holset. Found a turbo from a 2006 dodge 2500, I believe that makes it a HE351. If I can snag it for $150 and its doesn't have play would it be worth picking up? I was planning on going either HY35w or HX35w. From what I understand there isn't all that much of a difference between the HE351 and the HY35w.

Glad he didn't, the turbo was a deal for sure. The other one the guy has thats non-turbo has an awesome body with really good parts, I just have no use for it.

Here are a few shots

I found my donor finally.. Had been looking almost everyday on forums, craigslist, and ebay since starting his post. Finally found a guy about 90 miles from me with 2 z's for sale one of which was turbo. He was hoping to sell both as he needed them gone. I made him an offer on just the turbo for a fast pickup, cash, on a trailer. Shook hands well below what the junkyard guy wanted. Plus this car runs, has a title, and is in 10x better shape with tons of usable/sellable parts. Very happy the junkyard deal fell through, but sad a perfectly good turbo motor is rotting away in tall grass.

Parting out a donor I picked up for engine swap. I'm keeping the motor, 5spd, wire harness, ecu, etc. But everything else is up for grabs. Should start taking it apart as soon as the weather breaks here in NJ. Let me know if you need anything, all the parts are pretty nice, even has a body kit and spoiler. Everything will go on south jersey craigslist or ebay soon, but wanted to give you guys first stab at it.

Glad I didn't get that car/engine.. looking back on it, it was coming out of a junkyard with no title or anything. It was at a premium price, guy was a jerk, and I knew nothing about the history. I could have had a car shipped from seatle to NJ for about the same price as what that guy was asking. I've already found a few leads for running cars in better shape at lower prices with title.. so I guess it all worked out.

Lead fell through, shipping ended up being more than it was worth. Looking at another car I'd need to have shipped but this one is closer and hopefully realistically all in would be around $1,200. If anyone has anything cheaper I'm a serious buyer, not worried about the body or anything else really.. just looking for a solid, preferably running, engine. The one I'm looking at now has a rusted out frame, but most of the other parts look to be ok. Its a 5spd which is a bonus.. if you have something better I'm ready to move on it asap.

Following up on this in case someone searches and has the same problem. The headers where not perfectly lined up to the block. They were somewhat tilted (lower in the front higher in the back. It was hard to notice with the intake manifold in the way. It was so loud because 1/4" was exposed directly to the exhaust ports on the engine. Lined them back up and now it sounds just fine, louder than stock but in a good way.

I have a lead on a car I'll need shipped which looks like will cost me $1,350 all in. Still a serious buyer here if anyone has anything cheaper

Went to go have the nice guy in the yard pull the motor for me. The jerk was there again, used a ton of profanity and while speaking to the other person in the yard said something along the lines of "F@#$ that guy, I'm selling the f#$@ing car". The nice person apologized and I gave them my number and said to give me a call if anything changes. I'm just gonna take this as the universe saying I shouldn't get that motor. Something else will come along.

One of the fusible links looks to be shot. Going to work on getting that replaced and try again. Thanks

Sorry, nothing was working so I ran direct power to be sure it works, which it did so I disconnected the direct line to try to figure it out.

I've bypassed everything to the battery to be sure pump is working as it should. If I just turn the key I'm getting no power. If I put the key in the start position and push the flap on the AFM I hear the relay click but the pump doesn't run.. Thoughts?

Willing to buy just the engine or the whole car. Looking to swap into my 280z.

I went to another old yard today, had about 20 old Z's all rotting away, no turbos and the guy at the yard said he hadn't seen one in years. Kinda pushed me a bit toward this motor again

I said noon with the intention to pull the motor myself (figure 4-5 hours).. Called at 11:30 to say I was gonna be late and will get there at 1 and just take the whole car (30 mins.). So if I got there at noon he'd be there till 5pm for $600, if I got there at 1 he'd be there till 1:30 for $1,500. I got there just before 1. Guy was a total jerk. I might ask the nice mechanic who would pull the motor if I could be there for the first 30 mins to just give the motor a good once over. I'd pay him for his time of course.

Exactly.. I'll be doing that no matter what. So is it really worth dealing with this guy and in my opinion over paying by about $200-$300 just cause it's local, lower mileage and clean? Something else has to come up in the next year or 2

Fair point. There's another guy in the yard who is very nice. He's actually the one who would pull the engine anyway. Maybe I can go back and work with just him.

There it is.. $700 to have just the motor pulled, no wires, and no telling what type of hack job they'd do pulling it. I would not spend any time at that yard pulling the motor myself and I just don't think the full car is worth it, everything is rotted and rusted, interior is shot. Is it worth $700 to have this engine pulled not knowing anything about the history of the motor.. Or do I just hold off and wait for something to come up for like $2500 that runs, pull the motor and part the rest? My project car is prob 3 years from completion so I'm not desperate for the motor by any means.. Just don't want a diamond in the rough getting away.

I really wanted to leave it in the donor car all setup so I could get it running properly knowing that when I swap it I have a good running motor. If it wasn't running right after the swap I'd know it's the result of the swap itself and not the actual engine and I'm just spinning tires.

So I've been keeping an eye out for a L28et to swap into my 76 280z. So this weekend I decided to go to a few junkyards in my area cause.. why not. I couldn't believe it, at the 3rd place I stopped at an old yard all the way in the back, was a 280zx turbo.. exactly what I was looking for! It gets better.. The engine looked absolutely amazing, super clean with a newer battery in the car, last inspect 4 years ago, only 79k miles!!! I'm new to this particle yard which is full of overgrown grass, and crazy old cars, a true rotting junk yard. I find the old guy that runs the yard to ask him how much the motor with the wire harness would be. $700.. WHAT!? that seemed crazy expensive.. what about the whole car? $1,500 WHAT?! Tell him I'll think about it.. I think about it all night and decide I really want that motor, I'll take the whole car for $1,500 part it out and see if I can get close to breaking even. I call the yard the next day and talk to a very nice lady who says they're closed but she'll let the old guy know I'd like to come in. As far as the old guy knows I'm coming at noon to pull the engine myself figure 4-5 hours. I end up running a little late so I call the office again to give them a heads up. When I get there the old guy has no shirt on and yells at me "WHAT IS YOUR F*KING WATCH BROKEN?!".. I try to apologize and explain myself only for him to cut me off again and say "I'VE HEARD THAT BULLS*T ALL MY LIFE". He sees I have a piece of paper in my hand that says Bill of Sale and he says "WHAT THE F' IS THAT BULLS*T". I tell him I plan to just take the whole car now and wanted a bill of sale for the purchase.. (You'd think at this point he'd stop being such a huge jerk seeing as how instead of making $700 while I pull the engine over the next 4-5 hours, he'll make $1,500 and I'll be out of there in about 30 mins).. Nope he continues to be a total jerk, yelling at me about being to close to other cars, and to stop messing with the car until I own it. I finally had enough and told the guy that $1,500 for a junkyard car is a stupid high price, and I was willing to pay it just cause I've been looking for so long. But after the way that guy acted he could tell me the car was $100 and I'd still have to walk away because he's such a jerk.. to which he said "YOU DON'T WANT IT, I DON'T GIVE A F*K, THE INTERNET WILL F*KING BUY IT.. IDIOT" I hate to know that perfect engine I just happened to find is going to rot away cause that guy is trying to charge these sky high prices, and is literally one of the most rude people I've ever come across in my life.. I guess its back to trying to find the perfect L28 for my swap.. Any suggestions on where to look? I've checked all my local yards and I'm keeping an eye on Craigslist and eBay.

So far any donor 280zx turbo I come across seem to be around $1500 best price. Never sure the shape of the motor, plan on updating the turbo anyway, and apparently my current 5spd trans and ecu can be used easy enough. So am I still better off with a donor car or should I just look at a remanufactured crate type engine that comes with a warranty for around $900 and just put new parts around it? I'm not all that interested in parting out a donor to make money back either... though I guess I'd consider it. Are there parts I'd get from the donor I could really use that I likely wouldn't get from just buying a fresh motor?

I've done custom motorcycle tanks and seats for cafe style bikes in the past just using fiberglass and bondo and never seem to really have a problem.. I'm no pro by any means, just a fun hobby I've enjoyed. But now that I got my hands on a Vela rossa I really want to be sure I'm not going to be hurting myself in the long run. The kit is fully mounted and frame reinforced (convertible), so all the hard work is done. Kit was done well and lines up for the most part. Where the top of the rear fender and the door meet sat up quite a bit too high so I worked it down to get it more level with the door, looks great but the glass did get thin in few spots with some small holes. I've figerglassed under the holes and was just going to do a few thin layers of bondo to smooth it out. The hood is also slightly off near the doors. It looks like I can level it all out, so I put a single layer of fiberglass down and again was just going to build with a 2-3 thin layers of bondo and sand it all smooth. I've had success on motorcycle seats and such, but its only been about 2-3 years. Will this all start cracking and falling apart on me in 5 years? Is there a better way to build up these areas a bit other than fiberglass and thin layers of body filler?

Having a really hard time getting the fill bolt out. I keep spraying it with PB and letting it sit, then I'm hitting it with a prybar and tapping a wrench with a heavy hammer. This combo usually gets anything out for me, but I'm having no luck. I'll keep at it, but I'm wondering if I can slowly fill the trans by adding fluid at the shifter?

Turns out my project car had a clutch that was rust welded to the flywheel (SURPRISE!).. The car came with a set of aftermarket headers so I figured while I had the transmission out it would be a good time to put in the headers. Kinda wish I hadn't now because these things are really loud. I'm not talking from the exhaust end, I'm saying from the engine bay.. I pulled both the intake/exhaust manifold and put in a new gasket.. I tightened down the bolts really well too.. 1 bolt on the very end of the header is broken, but it was like that when the stock manifold was on there so I don't think that much noise should be coming from that area.. Anyone else put on headers only to find it sounds like someone running straight pipes coming from the engine bay?