Dramier

Well the thing about it is I can understand why the S series prices go up. It doesn't matter if those cars are turbo or not for the most part as they are excellent drivers either way. But with the Z31's you have a car that's heavy, the automatics are notoriously bad, and the 2+2 body lines are still the least desirable. I mean in short, that Z31 is nearly the exact opposite of everything that is usually desired in a Z31. The only way it could be less desirable is if it was a slicktop, although that is certainly debatable. The only Z31's I could see fetching that kind of price would be pristine SS's or AE's. Maybe I just don't understand what makes a car desirable or valuable. In my estimation, a non-turbo automatic Z31 would never be desirable or valuable because it simply doesn't have anything going for it. Comparing it to 911's, even a non-turbo automatic (don't think those exist?) whale tail would still be desirable because it's a beautiful car. It's kind of like a classic muscle car that is a factory V6 to me. Even though it only has a V6, if it was a good looking car it's still desirable. I feel like the S30's are more desirable than the S130's because they look more classic and were lighter. The S130's are more desirable than the Z31's because they look better and had less BS electronics. I feel like the Z31's are the least desirable Z of all the generations, and I find it hard to see their value increasing. I say all this and my first Z was actually a Z31, and I've owned three of them! Once I bought my S30 I fully realized what I had been missing about the Z car experience. This is all of course personal opinion, but can somebody explain to me why the Z31 would increase in value from a market perspective? And beyond that, most of the Z31's I see for sale locally don't get higher than $2500 unless they are turbo. Oh sure, they try and sell these Z31 non-turbo's for $4k or $5k all the time but the reality is most of them go for $2k or less. It's weird to me. The S30's and S130's I can completely understand their value, especially the S30's with all of the options you have to restore it. It's really no different than a classic '60's American muscle car. On a related side note, I was originally searching for a turbo Z31 and finally gave up because I wasn't willing to pay more than $3k for it because honestly that's all I thought it was worth even to me. At the same time, I would give double or maybe even triple that for the right S30 because to me it's worth it. I'm wondering if the prices are not so much the car's worth as it is how much rarer they are becoming.

https://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/cto/6006800153.html In case you can't/won't/whatever view the ad... It's a 1986 300ZX, non-turbo, automatic. Their asking price is $12,500. W.....t......f..... Thoughts?

Completely forgot that it doesn't auto-notify of responses on here. Yes I would be happy to look up anything you need! You can post or PM me and I'll reply, much quicker this time too.

I think I need to go back and re-learn what I 'remember' about synthetics because everything I've seen mentioned so far seems to indicate I'm either not remembering things or I picked up some bad information somewhere along the way. Thanks for your input and helping me wade through this. I've decided to go to an Earl's oil cooler and figure out a good place to mount it. Might screw with the intercooler ducting a bit, but I should be able to figure something out. That explains to me why I keep seeing restored Z's with the oil cooler oddly positioned way out front of the lower valance area. Probably didn't have much room for it in the stock location. Now I've got to go do some re-education on oils.

I have two or three still in my garage. What did you need to know about?

That's odd, not trying to argue but I don't recall there being an oil cooler on my '85 300ZX Turbo. Maybe I just don't remember it but I definitely do not remember it having one. I did some searching and already found banjo to AN fittings so I'm thinking an Earl's oil cooler will fit the bill nicely. Just have to figure out where to wedge it in the front. Thankfully the factory banjo bolts are still there! Regarding oil, I was planning on running Valvoline VR oil as I've read a big discussion (possibly on here?) about it being the best for these motors. I've used Motul many times in the past on Volkswagen and Porsche projects so I'm familiar with it but I would think synthetics would be less desirable on this motor, especially since I live in Texas and we have some brutally hot summers. I used the ratios calculator outlined in Corky Bell's "Maximum Boost" book to arrive at a minimum 400cc injector. I actually calculated a 349cc injector when I did it but since I know that injectors are commonly available in whole number sizes I figured a 400 or 440 being a common injector would be a safe bet. I plan on tuning to a 70% duty cycle maximum and just see where that lands and call it a day. I figure if I'm running a 440cc injector and I'm not pushing 250HP at 70% duty cycle then I have something else seriously wrong. Either way I'm looking more at duty cycle, timing and engine temperature as my limiting factors than specific horsepower. If it puts down 320HP and everything else looks kosher obviously I will be okay with it. Hopefully that comes across correctly. I've heard of people achieving mid 200 numbers on stock turbo injectors with rising rate regulators, etc, but I don't want to be on the bleeding edge when I dial everything up. I want the engine to just barely be breathing hard. I'd rather daily drive a car with plenty of room than be constantly worried that any second there's going to be a new hole in my block where something violently exited.

I also have an extra turbo manifold and down pipe I acquired before I bought a complete engine with both. If interested feel free to message me. I can send pictures, etc. I am going to de-rust and paint them and sell them on ebay at some point, and I will also have more parts from the turbo engine as I discard things such as the original intake J-pipe, etc. This probably won't be done until the end of the summer of 2017, but message me anyway and I can save stuff.

I picked up a 280ZX turbo engine complete to swap into my '76 280Z, and I noticed that it has an automatic flywheel on it and a gigantic oil cooler sandwitch plate where the oil filter is mounted. It has the two gigantic banjo bolts, but I didn't get the oil cooler or lines because they were crushed in the original car. My questions are pretty simple... First and foremost, is it worth it to invest in an oil cooler and the appropriate AN fitting lines on a sub 300 horsepower car? Plans for this block are just to run megasquirt, a good quality intercooler, some 400 to 500CC injectors depending on what I find, and run at most 14 pounds of boost. I figure the setup is going to end up around the 250HP mark more than likely if I'm lucky, maybe a little more. Second question, if I do not use the oil cooler, is that adapter removable like most aftermarket ones where I just have to remove it and screw the oil filter on it its place? If it's not a simple remove and replace with oil filter, is there a proper or easy way to adapt it back to no oil cooler? I prefer things like this to always be reversible, so I don't want to weld if at all possible blocking it up. Last thing, it's an F54 with a P90 head, and because it has an automatic flywheel I'm guessing its a pretty safe guess that it's an '81 motor. Is there any way to narrow down the year model by looking at the engine and determine if it's a CA model or not, etc? I've searched extensively but haven't really seen much on pinpointing by engine only as far as that goes. Going along with the above, since it was an automatic car, is there anything specific to the automatic engines that I need to address before I start the swap? I know there are supposed to be spacers on the flywheel that have to be removed and I figure those will be self evident when I have both motors out. I didn't see anything on the motor that looked automatic specific, but honestly I never look at automatic versions so I thought I better ask the experts. Thanks in advance and I hope to have a build thread up for the turbo swap before the summer ends. Hope everybody is doing well and keeping their Z's on the road!

Just went to look up some parts at BDA and found out they closed first of the month. Didn't see this posted anywhere so figured I'd post this just in case. I hope this isn't a trend that continues. If it's posted somewhere else and I missed it, I apologize and please delete. If this isn't the proper place to post this, I also apologize.

I had an '85 300ZX Turbo with an RB25DET swapped in, first in the nation as far as we could ever determine back in 2004, and I would imagine the L28 swap would be a nearly identical setup. It was a fairly straight forward fit with the only major changes being a little bit of hammering on the transmission tunnel to get it to fit. Keep in mind there was a factory version of the car called a 200ZR in Japan that featured an RB20DET, so it's not really a far fetched concept. I no longer have my RBZ31 having stupidly traded it in 2008 due to lack of funds to keep it going and beginning a career. However I do know there is or was a guy named Racinjitter or something close to that who was also doing the RB25 swap and he should be finished by now. You might also refer to him and see if you can get some more background. I have never seen or heard of anyone with a Z31 with an L28 block in their car and I would have thought at some point along the way I would have definitely heard of it considering how many people contacted me over having an RB25 in mine. Doesn't mean there isn't one out there of course, just trying to be helpful. I will tell you I got a tons of hate from Z owners over the swap I did, and I just ignored them. Made me slightly biased against most of the Z forums from it as I got really tired of hearing the negativity after the car was finished. I don't know if that has changed these days since I don't visit anywhere except here and Nico club now, but if you do move forward with this project just be prepared for it. One other tidbit: I never successfully got the speedometer working with the RB with the Z31 digital gauges, but knowing what I know today about electronics having self-taught and learned a tremendous amount, I believe it wouldn't be that hard to get it to work. Good luck with your project if you decide to do the L28 swap and I think you will enjoy it more than the VG, I know I did.

I've heard constantly about the mythical cheap turbo Z's, but I spent nearly two years searching for a turbo Z31 that wasn't $5k+ and finally gave up. I don't know where people find these supposedly cheap cars, but from what I have seen most junkyards have little to no Z parts much less turbo Z's. I've been watching CL ads for about a year now and two turbo ZXT's popped up for $2500 each, different sellers. Neither car ran and from the pictures they were both severely rusted and I doubt either one was worth it. There were no other ZXT's for under $9k. Then a few days ago an ad for "Z parts" popped up and I texted to find out if they still had a turbo zxt engine and tranny they were advertising. The transmission was already gone but they still had the engine. They were asking $500 and I didn't even hesitate. I got there as fast as I could and loaded it up. I've spent a fair amount of time on craigslist and ebay hunting parts, and maybe ten years ago some of these deals could still be had. But I think the days of these $400 turbo Z cars are long gone. Kind of pisses me off when I'm researching my turbo swap and they talk about they picked up a turbo distributor for $40 or some crap and I have never even seen one in a junkyard, CL ad, or ebay at all. The guy was a jerk, no doubt. But honestly, based on my experiences hunting parts, I would have given him $2k for the car to shut him up and taken it and still felt pretty lucky. Maybe I'm just not lucky searching or maybe it's just Texas.. The guy I just bought my engine from was an amazing man that I thoroughly enjoyed talking to and was a pleasure to see his Z cars and just talk about our experiences. That was definitely not my normal experience with trying to get Z parts. Sorry to hear what happened to you and hoping you find what you are looking for! I definitely know how it feels hunting and coming home empty handed. Best of luck!!

I've decided that I don't want to turbo the stock L28E after all. Not too big of a deal, I only had collected the turbo manifold and downpipe so far so no big loss. The car in question is a '76 280z. Without going into too much about it, I just really loved the RB motor. That being said, I'm having a rough time of choosing which RB combo. This is NOT my first RB, I had the first Z31 with an RB25 in it here in the States. My choices are as follows, and I'm very curious for input from those who are currently running or have made these decisions and might have ideas or suggestions I had not considered.. Goals are streetable, 400HP maximum, that's it. Nothing fancy. I'm trying to decide between going with RB25DET regular or the Neo motor. If I go regular RB25DET I would just do the 5 speed transmission and leave it at that. However, I am kind of interested in doing the Neo engine instead, and using the Collins adapter and going with a CD01 350Z transmission. The only real benefit to it I see though is a stronger transmission and six speed of course. But with the problem of having to have the bell housing milled and possibly having it not fit in the tunnel it sounds like I'd have to do fabrication to get it right. The RB25DET transmission I had before in my '85 was pretty damn tough, so I can't imagine the 350Z transmission could be much better. I'm not afraid of cost although cheaper is obviously always a benefit. I'm more initially concerned about getting it to be as close to drop-in as possible. I can fabricate and weld, I'm just trying to get this done in my garage. I was initially planning on just going with McKinney's kit, but I don't think that's possible with the Neo/CD0 combo. Has anyone here done that combo? I did a quick and dirty search but didn't see anybody with it in an S series, and it wouldn't let me just search "Neo". I'm very interested in trying to go with the Neo, just not finding much in the way of transmissions or information on whether it matches up to the regular RB25. I found one or two references to it in regards to 240SX swaps, but that doesn't really help. If I'm being stupid here and it's way easier/cost effective to just do the normal RB25DET don't hesitate to say so. I won't be offended. Just don't bother trying to tell me to turbo the stock L28, I'm not interested. You can buy mine when I pull it and do that if you'd like. Realistically what I need is the absolutely closest to drop-in route so I can do this in my garage. Worst case scenario I can fall back on a shop if I need to, but I just -want- to do it myself. There's a ton of information on here, but it gets a little convoluted trying to find some specific answers. There also seems to be quite a bit of conflicting information regarding the Neo engine. I hate asking but wasn't turning anything up through searching so I might as well ask while I keep searching. Thanks!

Nice find six shooter. I searched forever for that scene! I agree though, it doesn't look like a Z now that I can see it for more than a hectic few seconds not expecting it. The headlight buckets don't seem to have enough space in front of them and the front grill doesn't look right. The hood also doesn't seem to have that point in the center. It's too hard to tell from the screen caps, I can't honestly say one way or another. I guess the real question is what could it be if it's not a Z? MG's don't have that bulge in the hood, although obviously they could have added that.

In case you haven't seen or don't plan to see the new Mad Max movie, just figured I'd give a heads-up that there's a Z car in it. It isn't prominent, but appears in the middle of the movie for several scenes, possibly more before I caught it. Appears to be a 260 or 280Z, and doesn't look like there's much changed about it. Just flat black but I wasn't prepared to study it so I didn't get a great look at it. Made me -really- glad I chose not to drive my Z to the movie, considering it's all flat black. That would have been awkward. =P

This is in my '76 280Z L28 fuel injected, 4 speed car. Long story short, noticed on the drive back from Thanksgiving that the temperature gauge got higher than normal but went back down. Didn't think much of it. Five days later, drive the car to work this morning, temp started pegging out and I pulled over and checked... sure enough radiator is venting along the seams. It's probably the original radiator or close to it, so not really surprised. I'm guessing that the thermostat is stuck and that's what led to the failure because the hose was stiff going in. So I hopped on MSA and checked on radiators and was surprised to see that the aluminum radiator under performance was cheaper than the stock unit. Normally upgrade parts are more expensive, which makes me wonder what the deal is here. I've searched the forums, but didn't find alot of information on anything other than electric fan issues, so I thought I would ask and see what is recommended at this point. Should I go to the aluminum radiator and do an electric fan conversion, or stick with the stock radiator and leave the clutch fan? Are there any problems/adjustments that will need to be made to the replacement radiators that I would need to order parts ahead of time for? Brackets, etc? Just want to make sure I can order everything at once and not run into any snags. In the future the car will be running a turbo on either the L28 block or a swapped in motor, so it will see higher horsepower but probably under 400, so need to keep that in mind that this radiator setup will need to be able to support that.

I vote V8. I base my reasoning on having owned an RB25DET powered car before. The problems I had with parts availability both in repair and upgrading, particularly fuel management systems, etc leads me to say that although the RB is an amazing engine and a joy to drive, I would rather have something well documented with parts on the shelf anywhere and everywhere. The RB is fun until you break down in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere and realize there isn't a parts store in the continental 48 that can help you. Sure, it's cool to watch people's expressions when you pop the hood and there's that RB block sitting there, but it is much nicer to drive without ever having to worry about parts. Then again, if you have no problems with waiting for parts or the extra expenses associated with an RB, then I would vote RB all the way, especially if you aren't daily driving it.

Here's my '76, will have owned her for a month in two more days. My fourth Z, previous three being Z31's, my first S30 car. Already love it. I haven't had an opportunity yet to take some real photoshoot photo's of her, still trying to find a good backdrop in my area. Have a long long long way to go with her.

Also in for carmonkey reference info.. Very curious to see if that's a reliable site.

Denton here, finally came back to the Z family and would love to meet some fellow Z owners and turn some wrenches on the weekend. Clucker, dreco, from the looks of things this thread was last replied to in 2012, so it may be up to us to just network and meet up. I will PM you both.

Turned out to be a combination. Water temperature sensor was way way way out of spec. Corrosion on the wires as usual. That's was one part. Second part was return line was clogged. Got that blown out. Last part was fouled plugs from all the rich running. Occurred to me last minute that they might need a good cleaning, so pulled all six and cleaned them and she broke the tires loose first time. The mechanical throttle linkage also stuck and she bounced off the 8k rev about fifty times in the eight seconds it took me to get my hand unstuck from the keychain and finally get the key off. Cleaned and lubricated the linkage and got that fixed. So if anybody else searches and finds this, they will know what fixed it.

Long story short, owned a few Z31's, this is my first 280Z. Car is a '76 280Z L28E 4 speed, all original FI doesn't appear to have been modified at all other than emissions deletions and a muffler. Currently the car idles a little rich, but perfectly revs and holds idle. In 1st gear it bogs out under throttle, so much so that it is undriveable. Strangely, it runs nearly perfectly in reverse with none of the same bog. It is definitely flooding and running stupid rich. Plugs are fouled black, lots of black smoke from the exhaust. Is it safe to purge the return lines to the tank on these cars with shop air? From what I've read, the tanks are prone to rust and debris, so I was thinking the return lines may be plugged causing over pressure. I've replaced the plugs obviously, replaced the fuel filter, checked each of the fuel injectors by using a stethoscope while the car was idling and listening to each one individually. All clicking away just fine. I replaced the FPR as well. Still no dice, can't accelerate. Inspected the cap and rotor, looked fine no carbon tracks, no damage, no unusual wear that I could find. Unplugged the cold start injector as well just to make sure it wasn't somehow being kept on through a fault wiring or other reason. Didn't check timing yet since the distributor is secure and doesn't look like it's been moved in probably the last fifteen years at least. I have a new water temperature sensor on hand, but how on earth do you get to the sensor to replace it? My 3/4" socket won't fit over the sensor end of it, and I can't get a wrench in there, so I'm asking if there's a trick to it or it involves removing a whole bunch of crap to get it out. From the glance I had over the car this afternoon before I left work, it seems almost like you have to pull the whole distributor out... Does the thermostat housing unbolt? I have a fuel pressure gauge and tap coming in the morning and will take that with me to the shop tomorrow and test fuel pressure. I just went through the FSM and the bible and read 26 pages of hybridz threads, as well as did my mandatory searching and I'm going to try and get some hard numbers on what the fuel pressure is doing and how the sensors look tomorrow. My questions are the following... Will the water temperature sensor being out of whack be able to pig rich the car so hard it won't even accelerate? If so, according to what I've read then I should be able to disconnect it and run the car in limp mode and get acceleration, correct? Apparently these Z's also have a flap in the AFM which I was unaware of, and after finding that out I strongly suspect a binding flap would be making the car way too rich. If I understood everything correctly, then at idle in neutral it could rev and idle just fine even with a sticking flap, but under load would definitely fall on its face. I didn't see any threads mentioning people with a binding flap, so I was led to believe maybe that doesn't happen very often. Is that a common problem or a possibility? If anybody has any suggestions or additional checks I can do that I might have missed, please let me know so I can do that tomorrow. I just really feel like there's something I'm missing on this car and didn't find through searching because I don't know these cars yet. I have my Z currently parked at work since all my tools are there, and I get to work on it about once or twice a week when I'm not completely exhausted after work. So I've been doing a lot of homework learning about the car, taking notes, etc and then going to work and spending an hour or two with it here and there. I'm just a little stumped at the moment considering it idles fine and accelerates in reverse.

Ahhhh! Never even considered the AC system. Been so long since I had an AC... Thanks, that's exactly what I needed to know!

A quick second to "reintroduce" myself.. I previously owned an '85 300ZX Turbo with an RB25DET swap, was the first one here in the states. That's how I came to be a member of Hybridz. I've owned three Z31's, then was without Z for the past six years. Well I cured that problem last week when I purchased a '76 280Z that I'm super excited to start restoration and work on for the next few years. That being said, I've perused the FSM and the fuel injection bible, started getting myself familiar with this engine and car since I haven't owned one before, and spent a good day searching the forums learning and reading. So far so good, I haven't had any problems figuring out the new ride until I hit this one part I've never seen before on any car. Now please understand this is my first L28 Z, and I've never owned a car this old before and have worked on only a handful of cars this old. So here's my question: On the fuel rail, there is a diaphragm (I think) operated part that has a small arm that looks like it should be activated by the mechanical throttle linkage. From what I can tell is seems to be only operated when the throttle is completely closed, and basically a tab of metal on the throttle linkage is supposed to push the diaphragm arm inwards, which makes some kind of adjustment to the fuel pressure or possibly air intake, not really sure since it was dark when I started looking at it. Without having any clue as to what it might be called, I had a hard time searching for it. I have no doubts it's been posted about probably dozens of times here in the forums, but since I don't know what it is or what it does, I haven't had luck finding it. The FSM didn't seem to list it, but since it looks just like the pressure regulator I'm sure I must have missed it. If somebody can just identify the name of it that's all I need, I can easily reference it online and through the FSM and figure the rest out myself. Thanks!

You'll need engine mounts, crossmember and driveshaft modified or made. Some advice.. unless you have a decent budget to throw at it, don't bother. You'll need the cash for when stuff starts breaking. In particular the coils are expensive and hard to get. In the end, by the time you have an RB swapped in, the money you spent on that motor, that work, all the fabrication and crap, you could have a VG30 making twice as much power, twice as reliable and probably even a second block sitting around just in case. The RB swap in the Z31 in the United States is cool for sure, but just not really practical for a daily driver. If you're wondering how I know, I've had both an RB20 and an RB25 in my old Z31. As far as I've ever seen, I was the first to ever have an RB25DET running Z31. In hindsight, completely not worth the trouble. That's why I'm building a VG30 in my next Z. Stick with the old maxims... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." and especially: "Keep it Simple Stupid." Best of luck if you do try and swap.

Well after a long hiatus from the world of Nissan, I finally got a Z31 turbo again and this time, I'm not doing an RB. Well, at least not yet. Some of you may remember my last Z31, which was an RB25DET swapped car, and the first one running and driving in the United States. I still regret trading that car away. I have no plans at this time to do another RB25 swap, but who knows what might happen if I should blow this engine up. 1988 Nissan 300ZX Turbo, T-Tops, two seater, 5 speed. I've got a long list of things to do to it.. so expect more to follow as the months roll by. All I can say is nothing puts a huge smile on my face like a Z31. Pics of my new pride and joy: