Tibby

It's a standard Stillen tuned ECU. 89-90 is build year for the car(and ECU) and TMF is Turbo / Manual / Fed. There are diffrent programs for Turbo/NA, Manual/Auto, and Fed/California in various combos. Stillen tunes tend to be very safe and if I remember correctly are done by Jim Wolf Tech. The Jspec nose is a 98-99 OEM Nissan part Ditch the mirrors and get a USDM set. I have some if your interested. Put a magnet on the hood and see if its steel. The factory aluminium hood is the lightest you can get and the steel hoods weigh a ton. For $2900 you got one hell of a deal.

Did you check the paint code to see what base color(if any) the color coat was to be sprayed over? If the purchased paint was intended to be a tri-coat and was applied without the corresponding base then it could explain why it doesn't match. It's possible it was intended to be sprayed over a red base and this is why orange came out to be the dominant color. OR the paint shop screwed up when they mixed your paint. I still think it looks killer no matter how it happened to get that way.

Now the billion dollar question is... Why does it take a few more psi to make the same power if the motor is still on the same 4.8l platform? Air leak, bad compression, change in intake tract? I don't want to pee in anyones cheerios but this just struck me as odd.

Good to hear. I really wanted to go with the 6.0 at first for the ease of getting me where i wanted to go with power. But the more I thought about it I'm not sure that the bigger cube motor will make my car more fun. Faster for sure but fun I don't know. Its easy to have your judgement clouded with big HP numbers and make your car more serious then a street car should be. Sorry to clog up your thread with my rambling but It's very hard to find any info on the LR4 motors outside the towing obsessed truck world.

How do you like the 4.8? I've been tossing the idea around of going with a 4.8 instead of the 6.0L. I have this tremendous fear of spending more money then needed just to make my car less fun. Most of the internet trolls peg the 4.8 as a dog. How does it compare to the 5.3 on and off boost?

I'm with Gothalosism I would bring it forward a bit. Much respect for taking on the job of fabbing your own cowl hood and not just buying one. Nice grille emblem How close is the top of the air cleaner to being flush with the hood without that spacer? Looks close in the pics but i could be wrong.

It's been a while but the Z32 is keeping me busy and I keep rethinking selling it. If I hold on to it I'll have to change my swap plans around. We will see. I destroyed my Diff mount... The Diff was sitting on a dolly with the drive shaft and mount still attached. I needed to make some space real quick so I grabbed the drive shaft and pulled the diff(on dolly) across the shop. The mount snagged a crack in the concrete and fell to pieces. If it wasn't for the bracket hitting the wheels of the dolly I might not have even noticed. It was that shot. Now, I was going to replace the part anyway so I was not heartbroken. What this did was give me something to walk over to my wife and say "It's broken, I need a new one." and not be accused of wasting money on performance parts. So I promptly ordered a R/T Diff mount from Roostmonkey. The mount is a fabulous piece that I would recommend to anyone. I will have my painter throw it in the booth with the next black car he paints to get some protection on it. Now the R180... There is no more R180. I picked up a R200 and mustache bar from a C/L ad and will be putting that in the car. I never did get a tooth count on the R180 and odds are I will not open it up again until I go to sell it. When I purchased the diff the seller (Thanks Harold!) had a set of brand new rebuilt Toyota 4x4 calipers that I couldn't refuse. He also tossed in a set of scrap yard 240sx rear calipers for free if I took the fronts. Done deal. The 280 will get 4 wheel disk brakes ahead of schedule. The other item he had to offer was a MSA SBC mounting kit. I passed on it at the time but am still tossing this idea around. I have a 350 TBI motor with 700r transmission available to me for peanuts if not free. The engine has 43k miles on it and only a few 1000mi. on the transmission. Now I really wanted to go with a gen III / IV motor for a more modern design but this would solve the budget crisis caused by keeping the Z32 and still allow me to go V8. Choices choices.

Yes you can. Well sort of. Richmond made a 4.11(or was it 4.08?) gear set for the R230 for the Z32TT crowd a while back. I think they stopped production early 2010. They are out there but It might cost you a few limbs or maybe a kidney to get a hold of one. If someone put in the legwork they might be able to have a small run made for a group buy.

I'll check my 73 parts car tomorrow. I think this part might have escaped the cancer.

I have one and I'm local. Let me know what you need and we will work something out. Thanks, Ron

Shoot me a PM with details about the adapters.

Progress: I got the front suspension swapped over to the 77 last week. Everything went pretty smooth except for the tie rods. Stubborn little buggers. The poly bushings went in without problems. I went with the burn and sawzall method as it was familiar to me from doing the solid sub-frame bushings in the Z32. It took about 10mins per side to remove the old ones. I had hoped to do more freshening up of the parts before bolting them back in but since I will be pulling it all out again soon I decided just to let it ride. When I finally pick out a Spring/Strut combo I like it will all be pulled and painted correctly. The rear came out faster then the front but has yet to go back in place. I will be spending Extra time here as I do not want to pull the diff again. After cleaning the diff I was surprised to find a big "K" cast into the top of the diff housing. This puppy has been swapped. I'm assuming its a 4.11 2 pinion open diff but I will open her up next time I'm at the shop to verify. I'll be praying for a Subie LSD. Between the "K case" and the MN47 head I'm starting to believe that one of the PO's knew what they were doing. Opinions wanted + some rambling: I'm trying to decide on some suspension mods. I will not be doing any track days so I tossed the coilover idea out the window due to the higher cost. I like to set it and forget it for a street car. The obvious choice was the Tokico Advanced kit for cost and simplicity but I'm not a huge fan of progressive springs. The only linear springs I can seem to find are the ones offered by AZC. Most of the info or pics I can find are for 240's and from what I can tell from the spring rates it was designed for the 240. With the 280 being a bit heavier I would expect a slightly higher rate offered. I could very well be off my rocker and the springs could be a perfect match for the 280's heft. I just cant seem to find definitive info. If anyone has some experience With the 280 and AZC springs please let me know. The other issue I'm running into is wheels. I absolutly love the 5-zigens on my Z32. I keep finding myself trying to make them work on the 280z. The wheels are 17x9(+35) in the front and 17x10(+40) in the rear. This leaves me with 6.4 and 7.0 back space respectively. I would have to go with a adapter to make the lug conversion. Most adapters I find are 2" thick. Adding the adapters would bring me down to 4.4 and 5.0 effective BS. I'm pretty sure that the fronts will clear a stock spring perch but the rears will not. From my understanding anything over a 4.5 will not clear the stock perch. I'm iffy about using the adapters as it is, and the thought of putting a spacer on top of that terrifies me. Even if I bit the bullet and went with the coilovers to get the space I'm not sure this combo would fill out the ZG flares I'm planning on. I'm still doing research on this but if anyone wants to throw me a fish feel free That's it for now, Ron

77-78 280z autos came with the R180 Your would want the R200 out of the parts car while you have it. Or you could just send it to me. I'll pay shipping AND give you a case of beer

The oil pans are the same with the exception of the turbo drain tubes. The heads have slightly different runners and exhaust valves but are externally the same. The pistons are different. Turbo pistons produce 8.5:1 comp and NA pistons are 10.5:1. Turbo engines have oil squirters designed to squirt oil onto holes on the bottom of the pistons to cool them. NA engines have traditional oil squirters. The only major item that makes a TT engine different is the lower comp ratio. If ran NA I'd imagine it would feel gutless with the 8.5:1 compression, but I have no experience to back up that assumption.

Hooray! The Z32 is painted and back to the shop. Most of it anyway. As soon as the 99-spec fascia is done getting shaved all of the remaining parts will be brought in and she will become whole again. My painter still needs to wet sand and buff but it looks far better then most factory paint as it sits. I will try to get better shots up soon.

How do you like the stage 2 clutch? I have a DxD FE full face in my Z32 that I love but I think it might be to aggressive for a light s30.

Picture update: 1/23/11 Z32: I went to the shop today to check on/play with my Z32 before work. It is a 91' Slicktop. I've had it striped all the way down primed, smoothed, re primed, dried for 6 months, then wet sanded. It's at the storage shop right now in travel form with glass and lights installed. I will bring it to the main shop on Thursday to pull the glass and lights, strip that last bit under the rear lights, then let the painter take over. Before anyone asks I requested that the lower valance area be left untouched for me to work on. I never got around to it. I'm such a slacker. 77' 280z: Here is the new 280 that I picked up. No interior. No drivetrain. No suspension. Good motor. Good wiring. The chassis is rust free with the exception of the floors. They will need patch panels. All of the other damage is isolated to replaceable(non welded) panels. OMG No rust in the dogleg / rockers! 73' 240z: Ah, Here is the sacrifice to the Z gods. My parts car. Everything that can be striped and reused by the 2 280's will be kept and everything else will go up for sale. Bumpers are OK but I've see much nicer. Interior is Fair for a 40 year old car. Carpet is junk. Console is not cracked but dash is. Carbs have been rebuilt. Driveline and suspension are complete. Chassis is shot. Amendment to "The Plan": <--- told you this happens a lot. The 77 will be getting the suspension and drivetrain from the 78 and will be built up with the stock L28. The best condition parts will go into it after a good freshining up. The 78 will get the suspension and drivetrain from the 240 to get it rolling. The 240 will either be scraped or turned into some odd creation yet to be determined. This will give me 2 running 280's. Then the modding will start. Ron

The 280z is still sitting in my driveway except now its sans a motor and transmission. The engine turned out to be seized so I yanked it. Upon searching for a new engine I ended up buying a 73 240z and a 77 280z bring my Z total to 4. Between the 3 s30's I should have 2 280's to mess around with. The 240 that I picked up will be stripped and parted into the other 2. My PS floor pan is warped and I have no idea why. It looks like someone tried to jack it up by the pan because it bows up a slight bit. I will have a bigger update soon. I'm on my way to the shop to do some work on my Z32. I need to clear it out one of my bays so I can get all my s30's in one place to start working on them. While I'm there i'll have the camera with me Ron

That too.

Removing the A/C is no different then removing any other part. Just vent the line by loosening a connection (wear gloves just in case) and letting it sit for a while. This is really bad for the planet but it will get the job done. The other option is to take it to an a/c place and they will charge you $65/hour to pump out the R12 then sell it to the next guy in line for $53/ lb.

Is you door/window frame bent? I used to break into my wifes neon when she would lock her keys in the car by bending the upper door frame out to slip a broom handle in and pop the lock from the inside. It worked great but bent the frame out about 1/2 an inch away from the seal each time. To fix I just grabbed the top of the frame and put my foot on the door panel and bent it back. I don't advise this treatment to a Z but I had little care for the Cryplodge Neon. If the gap slowly gets bigger from bottom to top then your door is out of alignment. If its tight on the lower door and and gap starts to widen at the window frame then your window frame is bent. Either of these could be caused by the fitting of other seals pushing on the parts. Let us know what you find.

Small rust update The good: I pulled the carpet and the false floor out to check everything out and it turns out the floors are in great shape. What I thought was rot at first turned out to be the sound deadener peeling up with what looked to be kitty liter under making the crunch noise when I pressed on the carpet. After some metal prep and some POR-15 the pans should be good as new. Besides the surface rust this chassis is turning out to be quite a gem. The bad: Something in the wiring is stopping the starter from working. Even after fixing the obvious wiring problem the ignition will not trip the starter. I re-wired the push button to try to get it started but the engine won't turn over. I will put a wrench and a breaker on the crank pulley bolt to see if the engine is seized as soon as I pick up some of my missing tools. Plan changes: (<- I do this a lot) Depending on the outcome of the engine test I might be swapping sooner then planed. In the mean time I will be stripping the interior down to recoat in POR15 as well as add new sound deadener in prep for its DD duties. I plan to keep this car for a while so the more rust proofing that can be done the better. Any questions or comments are welcome.

I picked up a new project to go along with my Z32 that is currently waiting on paint. I found this 78' 280z in Orlando for a good price so I'm going to try to rescue her. Rust wise it's not in to bad of shape. It is rotting in the usual areas with lots of bad rust repair attempts. The PO had the car shipped down from Michigan but did not have the time to give it what it needed. From what I gathered from the conversations with the PO is the car was destined to become someone's race car. After it was sent to the body shop to be fixed up it was then abandoned by the body guy part way through the stripping. The PO had it shipped here to finish it up. He made some attempts to fix her up but just didn't have the time with his schedule. The PO decided to let the car go for a little more then his shipping cost so someone could enjoy it. I hope to rescue her. The Plan: Step 1: get it running on the L28 and swap in a 5-speed if the auto is toast. Step 2: Rust repair (cut and weld) Step 3: Body and paint. Currently planing candy red with black powder coated trim. I'm tossing around the idea of ZG flares. Step 4: LQ9 / T56 swap; I would like a mild 400/400 street car. Observations so far: Passenger side floor is rotted but the drivers side looks to be salvageable with patching. I will be gutting it to find out. Frame rails have some soft spots but not nearly as bad is I've seen in the past. Both doglegs are rotted and have been been filled with Bondo. There is some rot around the lower rear. I have not found any deal killers in the body work so I hope to keep this chassis on the road. There is an incredible amount of surface rust! The electronics need sorting. The ignition is wired to a push button start. The engine loom is in rough shape and I have't even looked over the body wiring yet. I kind of like the wheels, but the tires are shot. The interior is also rough but not unfixable. The carpet is gone and the dash has a cap thats cracked and a mat covering the cap. It will need a new cap. I might swap a new dash or leather wrap. I have't decided yet. I will try to document each step of the way and keep everyone fed with lots of pictures -Ron

If I remember correctly he blew the first one up... so emphasis on "CARFULL TUNNING" On a serious note, the 10.5:1 compression leaves little to be desired in terms of peak power. Unless you’re trolling around on race gas you can't turn up the boost without some seriously efficient (big money) turbos. The first build peaked at about 350hp (7psi I think) with stock turbos. This new build with GT28RS's went to 13PSI but I do not believe that I have seen any dyno charts posted. Personally, I would sacrifice some spool to get the extra 10psi of grunt and power that come with it that those turbos are capable of. The Turbos required to try this out would cost more then the front clip Calico was trying to avoid buying in the first place. Convertt's idea is not necessarily a bad one but it is far from the answer that is being sought in this post.

The TT chassis is the same with the exception of the Radiator mounts. NA Tranny, Driveshaft, Clutch/Flywheel (I wouldn't), ECU, Wiring Harness, can all be retained. The only things that have to be changed are Radiator, A/C condenser, chip program and the addition of the intercooler and piping to go along with the TT engine. You do not NEED a front clip but it is more cost effective to buy one. As for Calico's plan, I believe the intake ports on the DET heads are different so you would be stuck with using the DET intake mani. I’ve never seen it done so I do not know if it will fit but NISSAN did a bunch of crazy stuff to make the DE and DETT intake fit under the hood and I doubt this mani would. The DE and DETT blocks are identical with the DE having more desirable oil squirters for Forged pistons. If you do not want to buy a clip or complete engine just buy some forged pistons for $650 and have the motor rebuilt. Without touching anything else mechanical in the engine will be good for 650hp. The heads are comparable. I prefer the NA heads for velocity over volume (don't ask this always turns into an E-fight) but both flow great. DETT's had inconel exhaust valves but I wouldn’t worry about it. Cams, valve size, sensors, intake mani, crank, rods, Same. You would need bigger injectors and a Chipped ECU and of course all the Turbo hardware. If you use the J-spec downpipes you can even retain your NA mid-pipes.