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A musician's therapist (The $300 Z)


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  • 5 weeks later...

Sad/happy news: I've accepted a job in Mount Vernon, Washington and won't be able to work on the car for a while as it's back in Utah. The good news is I'll finally be making money and sending parts back home for when I get back. I'm hoping to do floors and rails then sandblast or at least rattle can the car all black when I get back. 

 

If there's anyone in the Skagit/Seattle area that knows of any meets going on I'd be happy to go check stuff out and learn from people with more experience! Already found a lot full of old Datsun 620s here in MV. 

 

There won't be many build updates for a while, but when I get back and really work in the summer I'll have boxes of parts waiting for me. It'll feel like Christmas! :D

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Here's the last picture I took before putting it back in my garage. Not really put back together but tons of progress was made in the last year. The engine feels pretty good, huge portions of the metal have been fixed, seats reupholstered, nice fbody fuel tank properly installed, internal racetronix fuel pump running beautifully, carpet kit cut, door interior all there except the driver door panel not being installed. Excited to get back at the end of the school year (I'm teaching Music at a high school here in Washington) 

 

post-26977-0-22185900-1440270760_thumb.jpg

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Bummer to be away from your car, but gives you more time to plan :).

 

Absolutely! I'm excited to (hopefully) be able to ship parts back home and feel like christmas when I get back. 

 

Which reminds me, if anyone has tips on components to upgrade that would be helpful down the road regardless of engine swap I'd be happy to have some input. I've been reading through the forums and so far the big things I want to focus on once the car is moving semi-reliably are the suspension and brakes. 

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Mount Vernon is a pretty quiet place too so lots of time to think and assemble little projects.

 

Generally for suspension and brakes as long as the basics are done they are fairly easy to upgrade since the access is relatively easy. 

 

New brake lines would be my recommendations, a new kit costs 50-70$ and is pretty easy to plumb, and it would be a breeze to plumb while you do your fuel lines. 

 

New bushings and springs and struts will really make the car feel much tighter. The Tokico springs and KYB blue struts are a popular stage 1 combo and feel pretty good.

 

I would say the really time saving important things will be things you can address while the car is apart that will be hard to get to once it's put together. 

 

Build your fuel line for high pressure and volume within reason and you will thank yourself later. That doesn't mean you need expensive braided line and stuff, but good clean stainless or aluminum fuel line in 3/8 or 1/2 inch and even if you decide to throw a V8 or a turbo 4 or 6 you are going to have good fuel. 

 

Generally for suspension and brakes as long as the basics are done they are fairly easy to upgrade since the access is relatively easy. Depends on what engine you get that will kind of determine what  kind of activities you will be doing which will kind of point you towards your intended suspension setup. No point in having the best built track setup if you put a lawn mower engine in you know? On the flips side having a monster engine and not enough suspension is going to make it a real handful. I would say a nice stage 1 to start and then kind of go from there to determine what feels good or what someone who is running your activity recommends.

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Mount Vernon is a pretty quiet place too so lots of time to think and assemble little projects.

 

Generally for suspension and brakes as long as the basics are done they are fairly easy to upgrade since the access is relatively easy. 

 

New brake lines would be my recommendations, a new kit costs 50-70$ and is pretty easy to plumb, and it would be a breeze to plumb while you do your fuel lines. 

 

New bushings and springs and struts will really make the car feel much tighter. The Tokico springs and KYB blue struts are a popular stage 1 combo and feel pretty good.

 

I would say the really time saving important things will be things you can address while the car is apart that will be hard to get to once it's put together. 

 

Build your fuel line for high pressure and volume within reason and you will thank yourself later. That doesn't mean you need expensive braided line and stuff, but good clean stainless or aluminum fuel line in 3/8 or 1/2 inch and even if you decide to throw a V8 or a turbo 4 or 6 you are going to have good fuel. 

 

Generally for suspension and brakes as long as the basics are done they are fairly easy to upgrade since the access is relatively easy. Depends on what engine you get that will kind of determine what  kind of activities you will be doing which will kind of point you towards your intended suspension setup. No point in having the best built track setup if you put a lawn mower engine in you know? On the flips side having a monster engine and not enough suspension is going to make it a real handful. I would say a nice stage 1 to start and then kind of go from there to determine what feels good or what someone who is running your activity recommends.

 

Thanks for the tips! Down the road I'm thinking L28ET (because I love the L6 engines) or just a pretty stock/rebuilt LS1. The car will probably never see more than 300-350whp. and that's only if I decide to go LS1. I'm glad you pointed me to the brake/fuel lines... I'll have to remove those anyway when I install the bad-dog frame rails. 

 

 

I can't wait to see this continue! 300 dollars is dirt cheap for what you got, sure it needed work but every z needs work. stoked to see another utah z!

 

I appreciate it! Yeah, it needs a fair bit of work, but now that I've been browsing around for parts I keep seeing cars that are only barely useful as parts cars go for $500-800! Plus, I think a lot of the work I've done has been useful. Some of it is needed even on Zs in the $1500-$3000 range from what I've seen, so I'm fairly satisfied. 

 

At the very worst I've learned A TON about how things really work and I've saved another from the scrapyard. Which is where this one was going when I decided to buy it off the guy. 

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A regular 5 speed should be a fairly bolt in affair. I think Zhome or Z garage has pictures showing the lack of any difference. There are some slight differences in the ratio's, but physically I want to say it is the same size. 

 

Here's one of the cross roads you will have to face.

 

If you are going to a l28et swap, you can try and find a nissan T-5 and the 280zx turbo flywheel and just swap in the engine at a later point. Or if you plan on going with an LS, then there is no need to build up your transmission and clutch flywheel to take additional hp and a regular NA 5-speed and clutch setup will be just fine.

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Aha... that's the real question. And one I'm hoping to answer soon. I know highway fuel economy on a stock LS would probably be better, but I really don't know which one would be the more practical option. I've never messed with turbos before, and as much as people say you can get the L28ET for dirt cheap, I rarely see any for sale. Closest one to me was way out in Reno last I was browsing craigslist or the forums here. 

 

I really kinda just want something that I can have some fun with while maintaining at least some practically since I want to actually drive it regularly.

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Do you sharing where you bought your patch panels from? Rockers and etc.. Quality? Fitment? 

 

I bought them from a few sources: 

 

http://www.blackdragonauto.com/

 

http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/classic02o04b

 

The rails, which haven't been installed yet because the floors need to be repaired were purchased from

 

http://baddogparts.com/

 

The rails from Bad Dog look extremely sturdy and well made and they're supposed to weld over the originals. 

If I remember correctly, both MSA and Black Dragon source their repair panels from Tabco, so it doesn't make too much of a difference where you get them from. The rocker panels and doglegs didn't need to much work to fit properly and weld in, but they're not perfect from the start. Still fairly easy though well... the modifying was just some trimming and drilling holes for the plug welding. The rear lower quarters were a really tough fit actually. I ended up cutting off the corners on both of them because it made the fitment almost impossible and just making little ovals to cover the holes from the old bumper shocks. 

 

Quality of on all of them is fine for pretty much any application. You have to remember though that none of these are perfect fits the way they arrive at the door. They always need a little bit of coercing and even slight cutting to make them fit your application. I spent probably 4 or 5 hours making them fit what I needed. That time doesn't account for cutting metal off the car then the welding done. They still need a lot of cleaning up to be presentable and ready for paint, but damn if it doesn't already look so much better than before. 

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The driveline in some cases can be the cheaper then the swap in some situations factoring in mounts, drive shafts, fuel delivery (pump, regulator, gauges, fuel lines, filters, a swirl tank, extra pump etc), turbo accessories (blow off valve, waste gate, plumbing, boost controller), etc. My friend spent almost the same amount as his block costs on a blow off valve and waste gate for an anecdotal example.

 

Be careful chasing "cost," it might push you off the path of "want" and at that point you have something that didn't cost very much, but you no longer want.

 

Is there a certain power level you would like to hit? I mean as far as practicality goes, a well sorted L28 will last quite a while if you replace all the wear parts.

 

A V8 is going to be "shaky" in comparison to a L6, but if you want a V8, you don't necessarily have to go aluminum LS. You can go (my terminology might be wrong since I'm not a big domestic guy) LM out of a truck? Same bore and stroke and power out put, but iron instead of aluminum. If you really want cheap you can go with an older carb'd small block chevy.

 

Rb25 is a much smaller fraction of swaps, I don't think there are any off the shelf mount kits, so fabricating one will be needed. It was really only used in the RWD gtr for a couple generations so everything you buy is going to have to be shipped unless you have a really good performance shop that stocks regular japanese performance parts. The turbo is also going to end up real close to the shock tower depending on what you run. On the flipside it is going to be almost 20 years newer then the latest produced L28, it still is a nissan motor, and it still is an L6. 

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Yeah, I'm aware the motor/trans are usually only half the cost, but that's still cheaper than the LS1, and I do love me some Nissan straight-6. As far as fuel delivery is concerned I've already taken care of a good chunk by swapping in that F-body fuel tank. Internal sump pump, racetronix high pressure fuel pump. I already have to change most of the fuel delivery anyway as a result of that decision. \

 

I don't think I'm necessarily chasing the cheapest options, but I didn't know I could get an RB25 for around $2k these days. 

 

I know McKinney makes just about everything you could need for the swap these days. It would probably be around $3k on top of the motor/trans if I was only using their options. I wouldn't run a  huge turbo since I'm going for fun while maintaining a fair amount of reliability and practicality. The engine would really be an almost stock RB25. The biggest appeal is exactly what you said.... still nissan, still L6, and waaaay newer. 

 

As far as power is concerned I'm going for right around 250-300. My oldest brother who's helping me with a lot of the more technical aspects (since he's actually studied auto-mechanics and would know his way around engine rebuilds/wire harnesses more than I do), has a V6 swapped MR2 making just over 200. Very streetable but still really fun. I'm hoping to beat him just by a bit :P

 

 

Why not turbo the L28 that's in it?

 

I had honestly never considered this. At that point wouldn't it just be easier(cheaper?) to buy an L28ET from a newer zx model? I'm not sure how reliability would stack up on my stock engine. If I'm going to have to get into internals, at that point I'd much rather just leave the L28 as it is and throw money into collecting all the parts I need for a swap down the road. 

 

I appreciate the feedback guys! These are exactly the sort of questions I want to be thinking about while I'm away for the car. The next steps in the build (probably for the next year or so), are still just going to be patching the floors, installing the frame rails, finishing the rust on the doors, probably por-15 inside on the floors, then sound deadening and the carpet I cut, and then some undercoating even if just some basic bedliner for under the floors and wheel wells. Then it's taking off the old paint and repainting it on top of upgrading the brakes just a bit, replacing the hard lines while I'm getting at the framerails, and some mild suspension upgrades intended mostly for street use. Basically just making it more comfortable and usable and ready for whatever I throw at it in the future.

 

The RB25/L28ET are definitely fun ideas to be talking about, but they're not for at least another year :)

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Well as far as budget builds go LS is damn cheap.my all aluminum 5.3 was 800 Canadian (600us) 6 speed trans and stock clutch was 1300 cad. Rewired the harness my self which was time consuming but easy. So for about 1600 us plus I bought the cx swap kit. All is pretty damn easy and as cheap as your going to get

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Well as far as budget builds go LS is damn cheap.my all aluminum 5.3 was 800 Canadian (600us) 6 speed trans and stock clutch was 1300 cad. Rewired the harness my self which was time consuming but easy. So for about 1600 us plus I bought the cx swap kit. All is pretty damn easy and as cheap as your going to get

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