Spraguepsycho1

Thanks for the responses, a turbo isn't likely going to happen around here unfortunately. All the local junk yards are highly overpriced, and won't seperate a turbo manifold from the engine, they want to sell the entire engine instead for around $1500+. I think my only option for now is probably going to be to shave the head to bump the compression a bit, then change the springs and struts. I know I'll lose the drag race portion of the challenge, but if I do anything to improve the already decent handling it already has,and make it look better with a cheap paint job, I should do well in the rest of the competition. I think I already have the ride and handling pretty secure, along with the gas mileage test (30-32mpg right now). I'm hoping to do a RB swap next Aug or Sep, after I get my summer paychecks comming in again, then I'll hit the other guys up for a rematch lol.

Actually the first thing that went through my mind was the designers ripped off Fisher Price's toy box design lol.

How about the new Honda Puyo? Seems to be the worst looking car I've ever seen. Gives new meaning to the term "Econo Box". lol

I'm setting my '82ZX up for a "Cheap Car Challenge" against some guys on a local tuner site. $1500 limit including purchase and mods, then we're going to have different events next June including drag strip, autocross, show and shine, driveability along with best gas mileage etc. Safety items like $250 for tires, stock replacement brake parts, and stock replacement steering parts don't count in the totals. So far I've only got around $350 into the car including purchace, seat covers, steering wheel cover, and rear floor carpet. We also get extra points if we don't spend the full $1500. Is there a noticeable power increase with the 60mm throttle body, port matched intake and a header on an otherwise stock engine? I'm getting ready looking for a junkyard throttle body and header now, but I don't want to run up my modifications total on parts that make me lose power, or don't make any improvements. I thought about doing a L28et swap, but I can't afford it right now, since I only work in the summertime (not to mention the local junkyards are highly over priced). I also plan on doing a more expensive swap next summer after the Challenge thing, once my paychecks start comming in again, so swapping now would just be double work. Any ideas for other cheap/free mods that show a real improvement? I thought about having my flywheel lightened to help it free up some response. Right now the car runs nearly perfect, it just runs like a stock '82 280ZX 5 speed lol. Since the Challenge is a bunch of tuner kids, some of them are doing ebay purchased engine swaps. One kid got a steal on a Toyota V8 off E-bay that he's planning on stuffing into a first generation Celica for the Challenge. I've been kicking around the nitrous idea to help on the drag strip, any thoughts on the most affordable dependable wet system available? I don't really expect to win the drag racing portion, or the show and shine, but I should do fairly well in the ride and handling events, and might actually win the gas mileage event (I'm getting around 30-32mpg right now). So give me some of your thoughts, ideas, or past cheap mod results

I noticed there seems to be a little bit of confusion about reed valves and what they actualy are meant to do. First off 2 strokes can run without reed valves, they did it for years all the way up into the early 80's. Most snowmobiles and dirtbikes didn't have reed valves until then. The reason for reed valves is to narrow the intake passage to increase intake velocity at low rpm, which helps bottom end torque. They were not primarily designed to stop airflow from reverting back through the intake. I'm sure with modern porting especialy aftermarket port jobs, the reed valves may actually stop some reversion, but if it wasn't for the higher intake velocity given by the reed valves, a highly agressively ported 2 stroke engine would be very sluggish and would most likely just fall on it's face as soon as the throttle was opened. just my .02

At least a repaint should finish it off nicely, much better than having to completely redo the entire enterior too.

Looks great, interior looks exceptionally clean.

I pulled a stub axle nut off my '80 2+2 parts car just using a breaker bar with the parking brake pulled real tight. A good impact gun might be easier though. Getting the nut loose was easy, getting the shaft to move to pull it out was another story. With the bearings being in place for 27+ years, it took a few good smacks with a 3 lb hammer to get the shaft to pop loose from the backside bearing (I left the nut on enough to protect the shaft).

Awesome project, I love the street cage you built, and the swapped suspension. I noticed it's a lot harder to find modified 280zx pictures online, makes it a lot harder to try coming up with ideas.

Wouldn't the flames out the tailpipe be a sign of raw fuel running out the exhaust do to missfiring? I remember reading years ago about some rev limiters that cut every other cylinder's spark once the preset rpm is reached. Sounds like this system might be based on that operating principle.

Oh well no biggie, the wife would most likely divorse me if I brought home another Z right now anyways lol. I might just wait until next summer and do a RB25DET or RB26DETT 6 speed swap. That would also give me time to get rid of some of the parts cars I have lingering around here.

I bought a '79 ZX auto for my son to use as his first car/project car, along with a /80 2+2 5 speed T-top parts car. A few months after I brought both of them home, a local told me he noticed the Z's in the driveway. He told me he had an '82 T-top 5 speed sitting in his yard that he was going to strip a few parts off of to fix his wifes 2+2, and that I could have the rest when he was done for free if I wanted to tow it home when he was done. I ended up swapping him the parts off my parts car (1 rear stub axle and brake diff, hood hinge/spring assembly, and the fuel pump for his "parts car". I put a battery in it, started it up and drove it home. I've changed the fuel filter, swapped 1 fender and the hood from the parts car, new tires (it had been sitting on the old flat tires for several years), and put in new spark plugs and an air filter. So far over the past 6 months it's been running like a new car. (was reading 88,000 miles when I picked it up, possibly original miles, now reading 95,400miles). Both cars are works in progress, but someday they should be as nice as some of the cars on here. Between the 2 running cars and the parts car (including 8 tires) I have right around $1600 total invested. Here's my son's 79 as it was when we brought it home. Today My 82 day 1 when I first swapped the fender, still on old tires Today

Just wondering, how much would you let the whole car go for before it's stripped?

Zcarsource.com lists those gears.

I used to give my Chevy loving friends a hard time when they would ask me why Ford engine parts were so expensive compaired to parts for Chevy's. I use to tell them "It's because if you build a Ford engine right the first time, you never have to buy most of those parts again" lol. If I could find a '69 or '70 bigblock Mustang that I could afford to buy, I would love to build the engine up, but the prices for any of the old bigblock musclecars seems to be rediculous anymore. Building a bigblock to use as a transplant into another car of no collector value just seems to be impractical anymore since as mentioned above a small block can make plenty of usable power without having to deal with the size/weight issues, not to mention usually most built small blocks seem to get better gas mileage than even stock big blocks do. I'm hoping to get my hands on one of Fords new 396 Windsor crate engines sometime within the next year or so to drop into my '65 Mustang coupe.

I notived you are only running 3.50 gears in the rear, have you thought about possibly just trying a set of 3.90's or 4.11's in the diff? Is the rear diff a limited slip unit, or an open diff? IS it unloading the tires when you launch, or does it hook up hard and just rocket off the line? From the discription you gave of the engine, it sounds like you should easily have enough power to get into the low to mid 11's with the full exhaust hooked up as long as the rest of the drivetrain/suspension combo is set up right. I'd look for other more cost effective ways to make the power you already have more efficient.

Is there any way you can connect a guage in the line that you are running to the carb, or plug the line to the carb for a few seconds then start it and see if the pressure still surges when the fuel isn't able to flow? Maybe it's just showing a surge on the line with the guage because the other line is flowing and holding constant pressure? Since you're naturally aspirated I wouldn't worry too much about the pressure as long as it stays where it is now, the flow volume is more important and being a Holly pump, flow most likely isn't an issue. Is the engine surging at idle or holding steady? Is it starving for fuel at full throttle or high rpm? Is the pump new or something that you've been using for many years, with the pressure surge being a new problem?

I would guess ignition timing as a possible problem. You might want to try dropping it to somewhere between 8-12 degrees initial advance with the vaccume advance disconnected and plugged. Then hook it back up and test drive it again. Most 5.0/302's like to top out around 21-23 degrees total advance if I remember right, starting at 15 degrees you might be jumping past that. I'm not familiar with tuning the edelbrock carbs, but on Holly's with the vaccume secondaries, timing the secondaries to open at the right time is just as critical in getting any kind of performance as proper jetting is, and powervalves usually need to be changed to one that opens at the right vaccume level. On a vaccume secondary Holly if you can hear them open and see black smoke in the rear view mirrors, you're way off on the tuning. I'm assuming you adjusted the valves so they have the recommended lash when they are closed, not sure why the valves would start to open and close slightly before they were supposed to start opening, what brand of camshaft did you use?

For a mild daily driver, any year Ford 302/5.0 with a carb should be right in the 330hp range with the Edelbrock Performer RPM power package. The cast vs. forged pistons issue might be worth considering if you don't plan on rebuilding it before installing it, but if you're going to rebuild it anyways, most rebuild kits for either engine have forged pistons as an option. As mentioned before the main thing to watch is the flywheel/flexplate balance, and firing order. I believe it was either '80 or '82 that the HO came out with both changes. Ford sells flywheels and flexplates to match old-new engine and transmission combo's. Ford also swapped to the roller lifter camshafts on '85 and later Mustang 5.0 HO's, but the trucks kept the flat hydraulic lifters. If you use a truck engine you can use either the 5.0 camshafts, or cams designed for the older 289/302's by simply changing the firing order at the distributor cap. The roller cam engines use a different distributer drive gear to compensate for the harder materials used in the roller camshafts. If you pull both the engine and transmission from the same car there shouldn't be any issues with either style engine. If you decide to go with fuel injection, Ford also sells a universal stand alone wiring harness to retrofit the newer engines into older cars. If you want to go wild on a fuel injected engine (huge cam, supercharger etc), it would be easier to start with a engine out of a Mustang instead of a truck engine since the trucks didn't have Mass Airflow Sensors. The strength of the 5.0 engine block shouldn't be an issue on any street drivable car, since many Pro 5.0 class cars are running over 1000hp without having them "split in two".