rxKaffee

I bet it'd fit, but you'd be riding on your bumpstops the whole ride home if you don't have stiff springs, hehe. Or rent a U-haul? Also, with the m90s, you could do a little bit of internal work, and stuff in rotors from the m112 for some higher output. Perhaps something like this is possible to squeeze some more air through the m62.

If I were you'd, I'd try to get ahold of a complete VG33ER engine from a wrecked offroader. Nissanoffroad(.com?.org?) forums occasionally has one for sale at a decent price. The bottoms are interchangeable, and you gain a little displacement. I believe your heads will flow better. You'll probably have to use nissan supercharger to get it to work with the factory sc manifold. Atleast with the eaton m90s, output shapes/sizes seem to vary between ford and chevy, and even among different generations of either manufacturer. I'd imagine the m62 would have similar variances if you by one off a different vehicle. The m62 however would be kinda small if you're going for much of a performance increase. Those vg33er don't have a whole lot of output. If you use anything besides the m62 you'll likely end up having to fab the manifolds and pulley setups though. I believe some of the newer chevy's are using m62 as well, perhaps some have an aftermarket manifold adapter for taking a larger SC. I have seen some adapters for the buick 3800's manifolds to use a larger SC.

Has anyone worked on or desired to have reverse cooling for the L? Heads first like the LT/LS series sbc's.

My stepdad has a set of black 'n decker(or some similar brand) of multi-tool battery operated stuff. Has a flash light, a power screw driver, and a mini sawzall. I've been using the mini battery powered sawzall to remove the rusted half of my dash board, works decent for that. I don't think it'd have the juice to make it through a floor pan or rails though. Do battery tools really count as "power" tools though? They just have such little umph to 'em usually :-/

How do you power power-tools in the middle of a junk yard?

There are some kits for bolting in Buick 3.8's. And tons of people put in sbc/lsX engines, so they find some way to make it work. A fully loaded GXL or turboII model should "only" be about 2700 to 2800lbs. Ditch the leather and fancy doodads and it goes down pretty quick. Swap rear seats for storage bins, get rid of the solid composite underbumper, etc. Cheap lexan hatch glass works wonders. With a partially stripped interior my GXL was getting about 22mpg mixed on stock ecu running in limp mode with the O2 sensor disconnected. Rear gear choices are a little limited I believe, but there's a bit of choice. Semi OT here... but I didn't see any ZX data in the Aero section. Am I just overlooking it, or am I SOL with my s130 and aero data?

The s13 crowd are also using FWD sr20's with minor modifications, to power RWD drivetrains. There's also the SR16VE/SR20VE that is supposed to get awesome fuel economy and power. If you're looking for something this small though, I would probably go with an rb20. It'll no doubt be cheaper(well, I was thinking in comparison for sr20det when I typed that part). Many parts interchange with USDM engines, so there's not a whole lot of worry of maintenance parts importing. The valvetrain of ca and rb series are far superior to sr(with possible exception of the srXXve's complex variable valvetrain). There are two versions of the L-series(the engine that comes in Z), with 2.0L displacement that should be nearly "dropin". A 4cyl L20, and a 6cyl L20. The 4cyl L20 also comes in a diesel and turbo diesel model. The overseas VG engines came in a 2.0L option for a bit. I'm not sure if this was avail for the DOHC models, or strictly limited to SOHC. State side DOHC vg's had some variable cam stuff that should help fuel economy a bit.

Are you dead set on the Z its self, or more interested in this type of "80's fastback sport" styling? Or just after a cheap sporty Nissan chassis? Would a ZX fit your tastes? I'm not sure how significant, but the aerodynamics of the ZX are a bit better. If your desire is just this style, I'd suggest a 2nd gen RX7 chassis as a starting point. They have almost as low of Coefficient of Drag as a CRX.

A good turbo 3 rotor install in an FC was quoted to me at around 10k$. This was for the total package to be installed into the FC GXL that I had at the time. I'm sure it could be done for less yourself but it'll take alot more fab on a Z. You can get a coustom E-shaft from a couple different people, to make your own 3 rotor. I believe most if not all of them use older 12A parts though. A well-tuned N/A 3 rotor should put you WELL over 200hp. A good tune on a moderate-to-heavily modified series5 n/a 2 rotor will get you to 200hp. Only people with poorly tuned or highly abused rotarys have to rebuild every 60k mi... My s4 had over 180k on the original engine and still pulled hard, with verifiable compression numbers for each seal. Only the oil rings needed replaced, but hey, just meant I could smoke it up like a diesel when I wanted Premixing isn't that big of a deal either if you decide to plug up the factory oil injection. It doesn't have to be precise, just close. Most people don't even drain their tank all the way down before refueling.

I too have been looking for a slightly more modern replacement for my L28E, which would give me similar or better power, and improved fuel economy. I thought about going cheap, and getting a 350 vortec engine from one of the pre-2000 chevy trucks. T56, gear the rear for low rpms, utilize the engine's torque. But then I realised I'd want light rockers, and roller "everythings". So the cheapo 350 idea quickly became not so cheap. Also more weight than I really "want" to have up there. They claim 30mpg in automatic Caprices, so I figure with some gearing, an economy cam, a manual tranny you could do pretty decent. A Buick 3800 series II is a little bit more expensive engine than an oldschool 350 with truck heads. Less weight. Could still get enough torque out of one of these to use a really low rpm rear gear for fuel economy. Why not look at a CNG powered engine? They get slightly less fuel economy than a gasser, but the fuel is DIRT cheap. CNG seems to have "similar" qualities to E85 in terms of power, torque, knock resistance and mpg. You could take your i6 L engine, bump the compression with some aftermarket pistons or shave the head, maybe touch up the quench areas a bit, and run it on some of this cheap fuel that is already being delivered to your home. Most CNG conversions can switch back to gas easily in any parkinglot that you stop at, but most of them don't expect bumped compression either... Honda actually has a CNG engine from the factory now, it looked to get better mpg than some other similar displacement gas engines. I wonder what all they do to tailor it to CNG. Over on zdriver, there's a few guys with tuned up L28 getting something like 30mpg city. By tuned up, I don't mean an L28ET with a turbo the size of a badger, putting out 400hp though I'm currently thinking of an LD28 for my Z. I'm leaning towards this one mostly because it should "almost" drop right in(oil pan is only fab that I know of being necessary). Being old indirect injection, pre-chamber design, it should beable to use WVO without too much fuss, but I've not looked indepth at this. I read somewhere that the LD has a couple organic gaskets/seals that do not like the WVO. They supposedly get 40mpg(pump diesel) highway in a 5spd maxima from the early 80s. Most claim only about 23-25mpg city on stock engines with the automatic 3spd in a maxima though. Using L28ET manifolds is supposed to improve fuel economy and power a bit as well. People are seeing these bad boys to 385ft-lbs(@ 2200rpm) on stock internals. In addition to Honda, Nissan has some 4banger lean-burn engines now as well. There's one in some of the Sentras, that also has a loooong stroke that makes pretty good torque for an economy 4banger. GQ Series or something I believe... I always get the Nissan i4 letters mixed up though.

Do we have access to any reliable dynographs for either the Rebblo or home-made stroker kits for the L-series? I'd love to see just "where" the torque is with these solutions.

How do these setups work? Does it require much modification to the overall brake system design of the car? I'm guessing you put a 1-way valve(diode for hydraulics??) somewhere in the rearward running brake lines, and T this thing in after(closer to rear brakes) that? rx

I'd still like to see this article, even though the original poster has taken a different direction. rx

Well that is no fun, where's the rust repair goodies?

I really like that front bumper design too. It closes up the front nicely, without turning it into a straight drop brick wall. I would never buy the car though, that guy is a slob. Who leaves trash in their floorboards during a for-sale photo shoot? And his bumper is mounted crooked... some great custom job there. rx

Well the immediate problem with the stock location is the severe rusting of the tray. Probably enough that a hard stop would break the battery loose of it. Definetly enough that I want to get that rust out of the engine bay so it doesn't spread. And it will definetly be in the way of plans that I have for the v8 conversion. I don't have the welding resources right now to reconstruct the tray. I'm thinking about passenger floorboard, pushed as close to the firewall as possible, right in the middle. It looks to go back pretty deep, but then again I don't have a seat over there right now to see just how much legroom it would kill. If I put it there, it will be running the longest part of the battery in parallel with the driveshaft, so the passenger could straddle it with their feet if its too long. rx

I have come to realize, that a biggest problem with my current electrical system is the rusted grounds, and corroded battery cables(big surprise? ). And like all of these zx's... my battery tray is completely rusted. So I'm thinking I will re-locate the battery somewhere out of the engine bay since I'm rewireing and busting out the tray. It should free up a little more room for when a V8 goes in . I've got a nice little plastic battery box with lid that I'm going to tap at the bottom for a silicone hose that will hang out underneath the body of the car. I think this should be sufficient for keeping the fumes out of the cabin. The big question is... Where should I put it? I'd like to not just toss it in the hatch, as thats a big chunk of weight to be so high up. I've been thinking about the passenger side spare tire well, but its got a fist sized hole from rust in the bottom that I haven't fixed yet. If it comes down to it, I guess I could sacrifice one of the behind-seat storage bins. Toss me some location ideas, and I'll tackle the ground-points part later rx

Great diagram man! Any idea how the dimensions.. compare for a ZX? I've got a pair of motorcycle mirrors that I'm wanting to fender mount. Its going to be a little difficult as they just have a single large stud with 2 nuts on it. I've seen some really cool black bullet style fender mirrors lately though so might change my mind if it proves too difficult to mount these I'm probably going to use some steel putty or something to form a mound that fits against the inside curve of the fender, and put a stud-sized metal tube through the middle of the mound. I think if I just used a large washer on each side of the fender's sheet metal it would probably bend under speed. Peace, rx

Looks like dallasturbo is running a special on the s400 right now too. rx

So by the list of things to take into consideration when purchasing a cam, I guess its one of the last items to pickup, if you want to get the right one?

WOW! That is a nice color!! I might have to rethink my plans on a "driveway flatblack" paintjob after seeing that. I guess you can order that color straight from nissan?

What is this drip rail I keep hearing so much about? Does the 280ZX have it also?

TMIC FTMFW!!! But seriously, I wonder why more people don't utilize those nice vents on the hood for moderate boost levels. ---edit--- Also if you've not choosen a fmic yet, I'd recommend reading the z32 performance sticky on intercoolers at zdriver. At a quick overglance, it seems that one was strictly about sidemount intercoolers, but there is another article in there somewhere about fmic vs smic. (hint: lots of aftermarket fmic perform more poorly than stock smic!)

I bet the whole thing is a custom molding job done to one of those kits they sell for chevy cavoliers in the back of Sport Compact Magazine Nah, I really like most of this. That bumper is awesome to the max!! I have some rather cheaply mass produced impreza-lookalike's in SC mag advertising and places like that. Alot of those cars would have about the same width nose as our s130's I guess... I also really like s130 bumpers that have that small area of "venting" between the hood and bumper. I saw a few I believe they were "G-Nose" styles on this forum not too long ago. I dunno if it really benefits the cooling system any or not... but it looks really f'n cool The non-Z3(Z3 vents go near the upper half of the fender curves) fender vents would be really cool if they had functional brake cooling, but whats the chances? They could have been a little better integrated with the sideskirts and door curves though. AND THE WING ON THE REAR GIVES ME AN UPSET STOMACH You can keep that for the Cavaliers, hehe. The redesigned hoodvents ... I almost forgot ... are really cool idea too! Just needs a 'lil bit more of a hump along the leading wind edge there and you'd have cool enough engine bay to keep even a rotary chilled Would be perfect to take out the heat of those additional 2 cylinders that we all need:burnout:

I've heard of these high-dollar aftermarket retrokits for fitting a roller cam to the older engines. And I've heard of using some non-SBC GM factory parts for retrofitting as well, using lifters from a V6 and such. I think both of these methods are used for older blocks. I'm not quite sure what you mean though. Are you talking about a direct piece-by-piece swap in from 87+ roller equipped block to 87+ non-roller cam?