plexus

i love my 82 black coupe! its awsome from the front to the rear it drips awsomeness everywhere. i like s30's as well. my uncle had one bad ass 280, me being the nephew and always loved that car it was like destined for me to have one but i needed the nexted gen (s130), hell i am the nephew. any who my first stick that i drove was a 84zx my first expirence with a z car was a 280. now i gots me a 280zx. see the pattern there.

I think im pretty clutch savy, been driving them for a pretty long time. I actually perfer them over autos in certain makes of vehicles, for me its the sensation that you get when driving a manual tranny, that i'm controling every thing feeling. not that the same in an auto or auto-stick. I will most deff put up mods that i do, when i have some worth mentioning. i just dont think flooding the site with the standard mods that every one does is worth while unless you open up a "my z mod thread" and list them all there.

not sure if there is a going rate per say, my mechanic charged me $450 total for my direct swap. however i bought all the tune up part plus new gaskets. i think it would have been evan cheaper if the tune up and gaskets were not needed labor. he all so put in a new clutch for an additional 200 bucks (parts and labor). the grand total came out to $650, i think it was pretty cheap and the turn around was pretty quick too.

nice prodject whyfeel. what part of CA. are you in?

thanks all, it was a great find i got the car back last night drove her around and pulls super hard....so happy with it! my machanic who did the swap was also impressed on the find and cost. to answer your question magnum, yes!. i do plan on doing the swap but now i can get back to the game plan with getting the suspension handled like i was doing before the engine problems.

My zx has been down for a month with a wierd problem. Since i didnt want to spend the money to fix the motor (on top of that i had 2 piston rings out) i was saving up to do the swap i wanted to do (sbc). one afternoon i was tooling around the net looking for parts (mainly shoping around) and low and behold i find a l28 in damn there mint condition for a cool $100 bucks (on craigs famous list). i reached out to the seller with some simple questions. it turned out, the guy bought the motor couple of years ago and had it sitting up still wrapped and covered. and just wanted to get rid of it. so i went to his house (evan better only 20 min away from mine)checked the motor gave it good once over. hoisted it up on my truck, slid him the denero and was on my way to the shop that was going to do the swap for me (yes i no it is an easy swap persay, i just dont have the time or space to do this type of job at my house, gated community rules apply ...lol). this was last Saturday and it is all complete, i evan threw in a new (not to mention gaskets, plugs, wires, etc. i mean it did sit for a moment in time) clutch to boot! so now i cant wait till this Saturday to go and get her (stupid job has me out of town this week). i am so happy happy joy joy ......warm and fuzzy feeling . sorry for the novel i just needed to vent it out....yeah!!!! long live the Z!!!!

and i thought i was the only one that did that! i would like eveone else says fix the garage then fix the car (every car needs a home so get to building it...lol), my z has been down for a month and everytime i think its over POW i got another fix to do.... i love my z. i think youll love it just the same once you start putting the elbow grease to it and your pops he'll come around. remember this is your journey with your car chart your on destiny with it!

THANKS! for the weather stipping, AWSOME!!!

I agree with you, however I find it a lil harder to find since my ZX is not T-Tops

like everyone else here says " suspension " its more worth than and exhaust system down the road. the question you need to ask your self is what would benefit your ride as of right now. if your ride is sagging then it would be a better repair/upgrade then the exhaust untill you get the motor up to par to truly benefit from the exhaust. if you cant inhale now then the exhale upgrade is not really an upgrade but a hole in the pocket that could have went else where. its no fun if you cant bend a corner!!!!

Thanks Phill, if i find it, you bett-cha i will let hybrid-z know. I need weather stripping like a addict looking for a fix...lol

I have looked all around and cant find the molded weather stripping for my 280zx(82). Am i to beleave that the weather stripping for the zx is the same as a z(280z,260,240, etc), since most other componets are interchangeable between the the different series of the two different body types.

I have the same problem, I just disregard it for now (socal weather). However my system does work to some extent, the fan motor cuts on but no heat, AC "forget bout it", got's no belt on the pump, so whatever. I would like to hear any suggestions on making my heater work correctly, it would help with defrost issues later on in the rain. Like I mentioned above the thing works (yes the plumbing from the motor to the core and back to the motor is fine) just not kicking out any heat, never had. I thought maybe it was the H-core but I didnt get any leaks in the cabin(so I am told with Z cars). H-fan clicks on when engaged, its evan blowing through the ducts. Since I have had cars with no working AC but the heater works fine, I disregarded the fact that the AC pump was not engaged with a drive belt (76 firebird, I dismantaled the AC pump out the car but heater worked fine). any ideas on the matter would be helpful. 82 280zx coupe l28 all stock, no mods to the engine.

i love my blower motor on my zx. the way it cuts on everytime i cut her off it sort of like my zx saying "thanks for driving come back soon". god i love my ZX...YEAh. however if i were to throw some upgrades on the current motor i would design some cool looking blower shroud to coinside with the upgrades, to bad i dont need it for a v8 but then again.......... naw forget it

I've worked in the auto repair industry (tow truck driver, ins, body shops) and looking at your damage it appears to be only cosmetic (sheet metal) however the pictures are not very clear on how much damage is truly there. from your first picture, the inner tire well seems to not have any buckling, what about the roof line and corner panel line leading to the roof? from your post regarding the door, you will need a new one and i would suggest a new rear corner panel (sheet metal, i think black dragon sells the replacement). the one thing that would consern me, is the door jam(door striker side), if this has been buckled or crunched in then the repair is going to be high in cost, that door needs to be opened before you can evan think of buying it, unless you got the skill to repair or the money for it. by the way it looks like it was lathered before with a nice helping of BONDO before the collision. i would also check for rust in all the major areas. one other thing is you can get it then use it as a donor to a better z. bottom line: 1) yes this can be repaired but the damage cost may be greater than you expect unless you can do the man hours yourself. 2) yes the door can be opened and used again aswell.

I like the look and over syle of the car, fact that he's got a BBC is a wow factor but I cant get my head wrapped around the fact that there is no way you can drive that car in Los Angeles, Ca. as a streetable car. i would love to see the build up on it though just curious to see the mods/fab work that was done to stuff the BB in that z engine bay

thats a nice fined

dont mean to thread jack but Gollum that last line in your sig is flipping halarious:) 80' 280ZX - NA - FREE! 205k and burns rubber and oil at the same time!

you should post this type of question in the v8 section.

Thats like a Oxymoron. But you should do a tune up, check all vac lines and rad hose and replace with new ones, flush all fluids (oils & coolant), fill with fresh new fluids, change fuel filter/s including air filter, then fill the gas tank up an run some injector/fuel system cleaner through it. Doing that should at least put you on a base level to start thinking on hp gains, with out that, youll break it. Those things should be done before thinking about puting hp though that motor, regardless if it was kept by a little old lady who drove it to church on sundays, it is a twentysomething yr old car. If memory serves me correctly I beleave it is 179hp, but then again i could be wrong.

As Woldson has stated that information is needed, however since you are a local like me in SoCal, I will share some info that might be of some use. The grinding sound could be a main seal starting to fail in the tranny, if you are running an Manual. Ive heard of them failing differently some grind at idle some grind on deceloration some evan grind between shifting (not that put the clutch in idiot type of grind). The wheezing could be a mutitude of things from loose belts loose or worn timing chain, TB problem etc, or it could be from the grinding sound you are hearing. First thing I would do if you are running the 5spd is have your tranny checked, hell have it checked if its auto too, couldnt hurt.

Ok I have done some searching to no luck, does any one here know what the overall length of the steering column, minus the SW and linkaged. I got a 280zx 82 n/a, and no I dont want to swap in one from a donor car. I plan on get a hole new set up, if possible, to go along with my motor swap.

get the motor + tranny and build around it. you dont need to slap it in as soon as you buy it. take your time and piece it together. if you dont want the auto trany sell it and put that money to good use else where in the build. get every thing that your gonna need to get the project off the ground floor then dismantle your Z. if you do it yourself youll save a ton of cash on labor. dont forget to sell your l6 after you get the v8 in and blamo more cash to dump in the build. these are my plans and hopfully i'll land this 5.7 for 500 bucks and start my own waiting game. sorry for the lecture, it just sounds like you dont have a plan of attack. hope it works out for you

yea i looked at it an I feel the same way as you, I would like to know more about it!

search and you will receive