NWA 280ZXTD

The weight difference isn't bad at all, around a 100lbs, the only addition of weight comes from the taller deck, and the head being cast instead of aluminum

I've got the head back from the machine shop and also picked up a clean low milage 4N71B from a 83 Maxima, so now I just need to get back on building that engine so I can start the swap. Pics will follow in the next few days.

Waiting on the head from the machine shop, I should have it back monday or tuesday and I'll get the rest of the engine put together so I can start dropping it in. Also I have a perfectly good L28ET that I have no use for it'll be a complete long block minus the oilpan. I can't post in the Classifieds, I'm not sure if I don't have enough posts yet or if I haven't been a member long enough or whatever the case maybe, but I'm asking $350 for the engine with just over 100K on it. PM me if your intested.

How does the Liberty like the fryer oil? I've always liked those diesel Libertys but there is so much unkown about the engines used in them, so I never ventured into it.

I'm not sure of the specs on the internals, but its the stock tb03(i believe) turbo from the L28ET. I got my gasket set finally the day I took the head in to get reworked. I wasn't going to and was just waiting to put it together when my headgasket finally showed, but I decided to go ahead and get the head re-worked since I had done everything else.

LD28T in a 240sx, that would be nice.

Yeah I'm a huge diesel fan, so that would be hard to see a perfectly good diesel engine tore apart for its crank. I'm really excited about this project I've always wanted a Z car, and once I found the possibility of a easy diesel swap it seemed like a perfect daily driver for me to keep the miles off of my two 1-tons since I'm not always needing the diesel for pulling but for running my fuel mix. I'll beable to build this for a third of what I could buy a Mercedes diesel(or equivelant), and have a killer looking one of a kind car that'll be fun to drive and save money at the same time.

There's a couple of guys over on nissan diesel that have done it and have a small wright up about it. To use the L28ET exhaust manifold is nothing more than port matching and relocating a couple of holes. A few guys say its easier to build your own "kit" with the factory LD manifold, rather than to go out and buy one that you'll have to manipulate to get to work, but I have it, so I'm going to make it work. All else fails I'll make my LD manifold work and use all the rest of the turbo set up.

Going with the L4N71B transmission, over any other O/D transmissions including 5spds, was simplicity of the swap. If going 5spd I have to get all of the associated pieces for the car(pedals, console, driveline, etc.) its near impossible to find a LD28 flywheel being that they're near double the wieght of a factory gas version, but also getting a 5spd that's not going to go through bearing ever other year. I can find L4N71B's locally and build them with the guts of the turbo tranny and I've got a transmission that would more than meet my needs. The 280zx that all of this is going into has a r200 3.55 diff, which is about the best I can see going with, unless my revs do drop to where I'm out of my power band I'll look at stepping up to a lower gear ratio. If you know how to work with the Mechanical injection diesels you can fine tune them to get as good if not better mpg #'s, All I've done with my cummins is a fuel plate, tuned the smoke screw, and bumped up the timing and I have a heavy truck with a big motor getting almost as good a milage as most 4cyl or 6cyl cars. The Maxima's don't have tachometers so the rpms I was referring too are purely off of a gear ratio calculator and from other maxima diesel owners, and at those speeds the engine is really humming There are guys that will stuff a 215/75/r14 in the back with out an over drive and can get their rpms down to 2700 @ 60mph, but I drive all interstate to work and back and you get run over at those speeds. Also if you look at the LD28's power #'s its peak hp is made at 4,400rpm's but its peak torque is made at 2,000rpm's, so this engine should be right at home between 2-2,500rpms.

double post

The LD28 engines in the Maxima's were epa rated for high 20's low 30's with no O/D, and if you can get 40+ MPG's out of one you need to tell the guys over at nissandiesel.org what they're missing. The highest one over there I've seen is mid 30's that's with a 5spd non-turbo setup, I have no idea where you're getting your numbers from any diesel running high rpms will not return good fuel milage under any circumstance. 2500rpm's is probably a better RPM to shoot for, but I can fine tune it with tire size. The way it is now with out an overdrive I would have to run a 31" tall tire to hit 2,500rpm's @65mph, where as with an O/D and 215 65 R14 tires I can run 70mph @ 2,500.

I've got the short block assembled, and most of the other parts ready to go together, just waiting on my headgasket to show up now.

I understand your point, but I drove the Maxima for a month before tearing it down, and with the factory R180 3.55 diff, I was turning 3K rpms doing 60mph and burning lots of fuel at those revs, by going with the O/D I can drive 70mph and be doing around 2,100-2,300 rpms. Even though its a higher reving diesel barely getting 27-28mpg, your optimum fuel efeciency range is going to be under 3K which would mean driving it under 60mph all the time. O/D will primarily be for highway use to get the fuel consumption down. My Cummins diesel has a 3.55 rear with 31" tall tires and it gets its optimum fuel effiecency at 1,900 rpms at 65mph, its in and out on the turbo but still manages 24mpg in a 7,500lb truck with almost twice the engine. And if it bogs down or is burning more fuel boosting in O/D I can always kick it down to 3rd. But being in a lighter, more arrow-dynamic car and turboed, I don't see it being a problem with the experience I had with it in the Maxima, having plenty of power at those speeds, and really feeling the need for the extra gear and that's without a turbo. Also it won't have any provisions boost compensation, it will have a set fuel rate like without the turbo, I'll turn the fuel up a bit to compensate for the added air but not alot as my Fuel mix is thicker than diesel and will naturally run richer. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention in this thread that whole purpose behind me converting it to diesel is to run it off of my used engine oil fuel mix that I make. I've ran three trucks on it for years with zero problems in mechanical injected engines, its a 85% UMO and 15% gasoline mix and I can make it for $0.30 a gallon.

Well I've been doing alot of research on here about the L4N71B Transmission and figured that you guys would want to see what I'm workin on. It started out when I bought an 82 Maxima with the LD28 Diesel and the L3N71B, and I then found an 82 280ZXT with a bad ECU and was able to pick it up for $550. Here's a run down of what I'm doing: Pulling out the L28ET and replacing it with the LD28 and fitting it with the turbo setup, and tracking down a L4N71B to keep down the revs on the highway. A few more details on the swap can be found over here http://nissandiesel.dyndns.org/viewtopic.php?t=2850&sid=9ca988e437ad19222572e33fc5d29844 Comments and pointers are welcome let me know what you think!