ZR8ED

I haven't been here in a quite a while, though I have been on Hybridz since the late 90's. I did a small stint with Porsches. (Daily drove a 944 and put 140K in three years up here in the Great White North!) Went back to Z's with a very low mileage 280zxt. I got tired of worrying about putting on mileage on it, so I sold it and bought a 370z touring. I've been mildly modding it over the last year. No more crazy turbo swaps into S30 series for me. I did move again and got myself a large detached 2 car garage that I have been upgrading it over the last few years with insulation, heat, lighting, flooring, tv and stereo (obviously lol). No more working on a gravel driveway for me! I actually enjoy having friends come over and wrenching on their cars for fun! I may be doing milder stuff these days, but I still have my hand in custom fabrication and porting/polishing, and generally working on stuff that improves general VE of engines, weight savings and parasitic losses. Stuff I can do on my own without resorting to expensive "bolt on's"

I've walked the walk with this. I have owned 18 early Z's over the years. I got tired of the smell, noise, no a/c etc and moved on to a few Porsches and then newer BMW 3 series coupes and loved all of them! My daily ride is a 3 series coupe with awd and a 6 spd auto. Great for my daily commute, it handles awesome, huge brakes, plenty of power, comfortable to take on long trips with my wife. It gets a bit of attention, but no where near what my Z gets. I am finally back in a Z again this time with some creature comforts (81 zxt) and this time the mods will be mild, where I am more interested in GT cruising than taking the car to the track like "the good ole days" It is more enjoyable to use this way. If you are able, consider modifying your car to be more comfortable. Life happens and our needs change. I spent 20 years making my Z into a track beast, and then stopped enjoying the car for any other use than on a track. Great fun when I was 20, but less so when my life changed direction and the track was no longer my focus and the car was too far modified to make it comfortable enough without spending huge amounts of money redoing the car. Good luck!

Nice car. I saw that listed on Kijiji. I am a long time Z owner, and I just purchased a low mileage 1981 zxt. This makes Z number 18 for me. The car was in NL and I was in ON. 2400km and a 16hr ferry ride to get the car home.

Nope not dead. I still pop in and read from time to time, and I've been around here a longgg time. I got into Porsche's for a while, but am happy to announce I am back in a Datsun. This time a 280zxt. Power steering and A/C and a turbo. I still get to drive a classic Z car, yet have a few more creature comforts.

Well Nissan did manage to make 1200+ hp with them back in their IMSA GTU/GTO/GTP hayday. They are getting a bit long in the tooth by today's standards, but they are still plentiful enough, pretty bullet proof, and make gobs of power over a nice wide rpm range.

Can't test a car, but you could test car "parts". IE mirrors, small fiddlely bits. Certainly models of a car if you fab it accurately enough. For 89 bucks if I was close, I'd buy for the same reason as Tony stated. Geewizz factor. I'm famous for it.

I looked at a sort of "barn find" 240...Thinking of buying it and getting back into Z's

The driveline is now 25+yrs old. There are lots of newer engines available. VQ's for example. Back when I did this swap. There was little to zero info about the swap, lots of custom fabrication required, where as there is a ton of documentation and even "bolt on" kits from standard v8's,to SR's etc! There is still no such kit for a vg30.

I wrote a basic "how to" or better yet "how I did it" to swapping in the vg30et. Over in the v6 forum I think..been a while since I checked in here.

Is it insured? Then invest in some gasoline, and a LONG piece of fuse cord, and light it up, collect the insurance and buy another vehicle..or a lawyer if you caught. Seriously 200.00? does it run? bondo/rustoleum some tools, and some parts to get the car to run well. Used tires if need be etc. If your VERY resourceful and have some connections/contacts in the car world or better yet, the Z car world, you may just get the car running enough to drive it. Goodluck, and make sure your brakes are working..Don't want to pollute the ocean with your car as you fly down a coastal road too fast around a curve!

30 years? That's going to be a short list. I bought my first Z in 1989... 23yrs this summer. It doesn't seem like its been that long though. Time flies when your having fun I guess.

Naw don't think of it that way. This stuff ALWAYS happens eventually. We love the car at first, see the potential for mods, spend many years modding it to the point where you want it, then find out, now you have a good job/wife/family/kids, and realize that you modded the car for the needs you had years ago, and now those needs/wants have changed. I never cared for a/c when I was in my 20's, but 20 years later,I DEMAND air in my car. I also demand to not smell like fuel/exhaust once I reach my destination. If it is not comfortable enough for my wife to enjoy it as well, then the car gets used less and less while you drive something more comfortable. That is why I always encourage people not to do a 10year race car resto on these cars, because by the time you finish, it will not likely be what you want anymore. Drive them, mod them, and keep driving them. Mod them as your life changes, or else you are doomed to sell the car for something that does fit your life better. Cheers!

Ouch! I loved the GeeWizz factor of my VG30ET swap, but for what it cost me, I could have had a nice ls1 with a/c and forgotten about it and just drove it. I may have the opportunity to "do it again", so I'm considering my options, and will not rush into something. For the time being, I'm still playing outside of the Z car realm.

Throw a yellow slip under the wiper, and you may get some free parking with it in which ever city uses those types of locks for folks who neglect to pay their parking fines or move their car! (The parking police may think it is one of theirs!)

Hey no matter what, a brake job will cost a whole lot less than the "blue beauty" at the top! $40K for a full job I think..Darn Ceramics.

Fisheyes in the base or clear? Can you see down to the primer? If so, repaint. If they are shallow and in the clearcoat layer only, you can wetsand them out. You may not be able to totally erase them, but certainly minimize them.

Sell it. There are lots more cars out there. If you have a strong emotional attachment, then bring it with you (where ever you live) and fix it and drive it. There are way too many cars sitting rotting in peoples driveways, sheds/barn and back fields with intentions to "someday" fix it up. Learn to let go. Good luck with whatever you choose to do with the car.

I'm not entirely sure which forum this should go into, as this is may end up more of a theoretical type discussion. I am currently working on a Non Z, but the principals are the same. I am working on low budget modification that I can perform that require little $ investment (tools/equipment not included as I am already well equipped to work on the car) but may require much more extensive knowledge and skills. I have currently pulled off most of the intake system on the car, and have noticed that the afm does not perfectly line up with air box, it has casting marks and poor transitions, the tb doesn't line up/match the intake manifold, and the intake manifold does not match the cyl head ports, and is rougher than a 5 o'clock shadow inside with thick casting marks through out. Some of the gaskets don't match the ports either. I brought out my die grinding tools, and smoothed out the insides of the manifold as far I could practically reach (70% of the manifold is now polished up (not too smooth to hurt flow ie not shinny/mirrored or anything like that) I then matched the ports on the tb to the manifold, and smoothed out the transitions, and removed excessive roughness, and sharpend the leading edge of the tb, (the connecting pipe fits over this, and this edge was very thick and blunt). I did this same work on all connecting pipes and afm where appropriate. Am I crazy? (I'm told that it was a waste of my time) but I feel that every small tweak can only help. I imagine that this would not be a cost effective modification if you had to pay someone to do this (race cars excluded) as any gains would be minimal. The car was rated at 150hp, so I think we would be talking 1-2 hp at best, maybe more in the top end. I am not quite finished as I have a spare manifold that I have been working on so I can take my time, and not hold the car up for what little driving season I have left this year, but the other modded components are installed and in use. I'm not sure I can feel a difference yet, but I only have a butt dyno so no dyno charts to check on the effects. I plan on doing the same thing with the exhaust system when I replace it. I will make sure rough casting/welds are cleaned up, and the ports match (and gasket) I'm keeping the system stock, and am not interested in installing custom/aftermarket parts in this car, so if I can eek out a few more hp "while I'm at it" cleaning and refreshing the engine bay with relative ease (easy for me anyways)I can accept that. Anyone else doing these kinds of small details to stock engine components? Its easy to go aftermarket these days, but I'm sure some of the racers that are "rule limited" must use these little details to improve all that they can. Anyone have any comments on their results? Engine builders?

WOW that's quite the picture. And to think (rubbing salt in the wound actually) Up here in the Great White North, I had my convertable out yesturday for some top down driving, and took a leisurely drive up to Mosport to see the construction on the track, as well as the fall colours! Now that I've said that, It'll be our turn soon.

Any updates to this project? Its nice to see another one started. Yes that alternator clearance is/was a pain. More so I think for me, as I pushed the motor as far back and as low as possible, and made the car accept the completed engine,as opposed to making the engine fit into the car. In other words, I modified the car instead of modifying the engine components. (as much as practical that is) A hand made turbo exhaust manifold was out of my reach back then.

Quick update. I've held off buying the car. I've had another recent deal not go so well, so I'm going to have to cool my jets for a bit and let the dust settle. No worries about losing the zx. It is going into storage any day now, so it will still be available next season. (the owner is a friend/coworker) Its not like I don't have anything to tinker with for the winter anyways, so unless some deal falls into my lap (they seem to happen to me every now and again) I'll wait out old man winter working on the Porsche. This would be the first winter in 22 years that I have not worked on a z!

Yes they were both z31's though the NA had a 4.11 rear end. The NA is an 87 with an agressive cam, and heads that were like a work of art once completed. Polished, shotpeened, lightened, balanced internals etc. larger injectors, engine management,custom intake and throttlebody,flywheel, driveshaft, exhaust, blah blah blah. You know what I mean. The suspension is upgraded, the brakes are stock, it would be a nice cruiser on its own. A real sleeper. The guy got a major deal on that motor. Robello etc would have charged much more for this job. I'm going to see the car tonight.

With high RPM and hp levels, I tried to minimize the risk of excessive wear and tear by running a hollow cam setup AND a spray bar for extra insurance. (I've had good success with Shneider cams in the past)

Yea I don't post here regularly since I sold the vg powered monster, and started playing with P cars. (seems to be a common theme for long time Z owners) Anyhoo. I've recently sold what I hoped to be my second last Z project, and now I'm thinking of changing my plans for my next Z. I was going to go for a stock clean 78 280 in light blue metallic with white interior, and then modding the car in a more "old school" retro feel, with just enough hp to make it interesting with out having the racecar feel that I enjoyed when I was younger, but am no longer prepared to live with now. I know of a 300zx locally with a very nicely modded vg30e to the tune of 250+hp. I can get the car for a decent price (I have a very good chance as the car is just sitting now, and I've known the owner for decades.) I'm thinking of taking the car, drive it for a bit to sort out any bugs from it sitting, then source a clean 240-280 that is near stock, and drop this entire driveline into it...Possibly taking the a/c with it as well. Seems a shame to junk a good 300zx, but as I said, I KNOW this motor as I know the engine builder very well (he was my engine builder), and it was a $8k motor job. Very serious. His car was faster than one of my 1988 300zxt's running 9 lbs of boost! Feels like it would be a lot of work, as I would be doing all of it at home, but it would be a lot simpler than my turbo vg swap was by a long shot. Any thoughts? Worth the effort? Or should I stick with my original plan, and keep it simple. Finding a decent car is much more difficult than worrying about the condition of the driveline. Lots of rusted cars with good drivelines. I'm still on the fence, though I have contacted the owner, and will go check it out and see its current condition.

I've seen a hot rod where they bolted/welded two big block v8's to make a v16. Ever see a tractor pull? 5 and 6 5000hp big blocks all working together...Ok I'm getting a bit silly here, but hey why not?