ZR8ED

I'm not engineer, but why are you all assuming that there is even a glass? "Life can be like a brown trout down a rabbit hole until you see that the hole is a sea, and you are not a rabbit."

I have never had my Z out of action for very long. In the past, when it was sitting too long during our short summers, I would get frustrated and think about just getting rid of it and buying one already fully built so I could enjoy it. The longest time it was out of action, was almost 1 year, and I lost the summer season. I knew I would be in trouble with this before the project began, so I bought another Z to enjoy during the project. It made the project more enjoyable and not so tense to "finish it" I have bought several project Z's in my day, and many of them from owners who had their Z for many years, and had never driven it! Too many people pick up one of these cars, and want it all RIGHT NOW! If so be prepared to spend big $$$$$$ Just enjoy it, and do a bit each year. No point spending 10 years to build a track car only to find out you don't enjoy it, or can no longer afford the time or money or both to do it. I spent many years turning my z into a "racer", only to never drive it due to comfort, and spending just as many years making the car more streetable/comfortable. I learned the hard way.. Scott.

Ok Ok.. You are all over the map here. Big turbo v8, small high strung L4, different body kits etc. I think you need to just drive the car for a bit and have some fun, and do some more reading. For instance. You mention that you want 15x10 and 15x12. Have you looked for those rims/tires? I know I have, and they are not easy or cheap to find. Tires are another thing. Even if they are still available big enough to fit the rims, your selection is quite small, and most likely an older tire design. If you want that kind of wheel setup, expect to pay 3-5 $K for anything decent, and if so, you may need to swap to a 5 lug setup. (unless you buy custom wheels with our bolt pattern, and in that case you will be on the higher end of my scale) Now I may not have the most wild body kit out there, but I CAN tell you it ain't cheap. No matter how good the kit, expect 3-6 $K to get it installed properly IF the rest of your car is in EXCELLENT shape. A nice paint job will be another $1-2K. Minimum upgraded brakes. $1K in parts Suspension. $800-$1000 parts Driveline? motor/tranny 3-??? $k I list those a minimum due to the fact that you want 400+hp in a 35 year old car. NO labor on the mechanicals are included, so that is where the whole "triple your estimate" comes in, because once you get into it, who knows what may turn up, and "while your at it" can also creep in. Soooo even if you do all the work yourself, including body/paint/engine/wiring/suspension/brakes etc, you could be looking at 7-10 $K in Parts!! I don't mean to sound like a know it all, but I have had my Z for 20 years, and have owned another 17 Z's, and I can pretty much say that "I have been there and done that". For every car like Blue Ovalz, there are a 1000 that never leave the garage. You can pretty much double your tripled estimate for anything over 600HP in our 35 year old cars. BTW I like daydreaming too...but mostly about dropping another 50 $k into my beast. Scott

Have a read of this thread were we discussed modern cars vs Z's vs spending tons of money to achieve what many modern cars already have. And as for spending big $$ on Datsun's. It is totally possible to spend more than buying a new car even if you do much of the work yourself even more so if you want to compete in more than just acceleration vs a vette/viper (insert extreme car of choice) http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=116924&highlight=modern+sports+cars Scott

Ok this may be a bit much, but its winter and all I can do is theoretical bench race/planning etc.. Has anyone thought of removing the side mirrors and replacing them with a small ccd camera? I have a very small camera (golf ball size) that I attach to various parts of the car and run it into my video camera for future z vids, and I thought that it could work as a sideview mirror. This may be more "geewiz" factor than anything, but it would reduce aero drag. A small monitor on the dash would be all that you need. If the right type of camera or multiple cameras were used, you could have a display that replaces the rear view mirror. I know more vehicles on the road sometimes have these backup cameras, so it may even be legal? Somtimes on the track, I have placed my video camera facing backwards to film out the rear hatch, and it worked pretty good. I didn't have it setup for me to see while driving, but it sure looked good in a video. I know that cars require at least a drivers side mirror, but not a passenger side mirror, as it is/was an option on many cars. Just thinking out loud.

I prefered the 3.54 diff, but it was an open diff. I now run a 87 LSD 3.7. I needed the traction. I can snap a picture of the firewall placement, but I recall that the crossover pipe is one of the first parts to hit the firewall, and then it is a few of the waterlines under the intake plenum, then it is the plenum itself. (That is assuming you already moved the hood latch) I used a T5 from an 84 300zxt. I will dig up some current links, to link some related information that may be usefull. I will also add some current info about my car as it is today, with a dyno graph from my first tuning session. Any suggestions, please PM me, and I will add it to the sticky.

I am going to be in your exact boat. Buy the seats first. If you still have your old seats, you may want to use those sliders. You will likely have to make a bracket to attach them to the seat, and then some kind of bracket to mount to the floor no matter what seat you choose. Don't be fooled into a universal bracket unless you can see it for yourself. The universal bracket does not fit "ALL" especially a narrow floored s30. I have been looking for seats for quite a while, and have not yet found what I'm looking for. Let me know about the seats you are looking at..sound like a good price to me (if they fit) Good luck Scott.

When I went with my staggered setup. 315/35/17 Rear, and 235/40/17 Front (My tire OD's are not the same due to the differences in width vs sidewall ratios.) I found I had to increase the ride height of the car to get a balance between ride height and tire clearances. Mine is primarily a street car, and when I do get it on the track, I am not able to drive the car to 9/10ths of its limits, so I have encountered zero issues due to the different tire sizes. It looks good with the wide meats out back, but I can't rotate my tires around. It is a bit of give and take if you catch my meaning. Scott.

Comrade_Charlie Before the initial placement measurements, We had already had the drivelines side by side, and realized that there may be issues with the shifter placement, Initial testing was to determine Shifter location, oilpan clearance, hood clearance, and firewall clearance. With the engine fully dressed and with the accessories that would be used, we placed it in the engine bay, and managed to get the shifter up through the hole in the tranny tunnel. What we did notice was that the shifter hit the centre console when placing the tranny in 5th gear. I'm not entirely sure of the differences between the 240-280, but I am aware that they are slightly different in regards to the tunnel. If I had removed the brake lines from the firewall, I could have pushed the motor further back, but I decided that it was already mid engine placed, and it was not worth the extra work. (It also makes working on the back of the engine possible.) With some work to the firewall and fittings on the engine, I could have moved the motor back another 1-1.5 inches. I think for long term, it is better in this position, as I have been able to replace the cross over pipe with the engine still in the car. I removed all of the ecu harness from the z31. It took a lot of work to do it, but it does come out. I did not use all of the wiring, as my 280 doesn't support a lot of the electronics that a 300 has, and I eliminated most of the wiring that was not critical for the ecu to function. I was scrapping the car, and I don't recall specifics, but I was more concerned with getting what I needed off of the car, and I may have cut the car/parts to get at the wiring just to make it easier. I could have notched the passenger side frame for the alternator, but it was easier to just make/mod a new bracket, and my frame rails were in excellent condition, and I didn't want to cut them just for the alternator. As far as the feel of the new powerband, my last engine was practically a barely streetable race engine, and i can tell you that the vg30et was very smooth, with a very flat power band. I tested 4 differentials in one day. A 4.11, 3.9, 3.7 and a 3.54, and the car just got quicker as I transitioned from a 4.11 in order to the 3.54 I really needed to add "load" to the motor to get better performance. With the vg30et in stock form, it was only slightly quicker in the quarter. Once I modded it slightly, it was a different car since then. So to sum it up, a turbo engine requires a totally different setup than a peaky high reving N/A. With only minor mods to the suspension to correct the weight balance shift due to the setback position of the engine, the handling radically changed, and I found that I could dive deeper in to a turn, and the car "felt" like it pivoted around the corner. I couldn't feel the weight of nose of the car go around the corner. It was quite shocking, and I had to totally adjust my driving style to take advantage of the new handling characteristics.

The tranny mount was positioned this way to get the engine moved as far back as reasonable but the tranny was still too short to line up the shifter in through the hole in the tunnel and offer full range of movement. I did modify the shifter lever slightly because it would touch the console slightly in 5th gear. I had it moved back about 1/2 inch. moving the engine further back would have required more mods, and reworking brake lines etc along the firewall. It also leaves clearance for the crossover pipe, and leaves enough room to not cook the brake lines/firewall. Scott.

SS rad pipe Engine bay as it looks 9 years later

Custom alternator bracket for frame clearance. Vg30ET positioning

Passenger side motor mount. Driverside motor mount Steering relocation, turbo clearance, and reinforced compression rod mount

This is the engine bay prepped for install trials. Note the front rad support is removed, as well as the stock L28 engine mounts. This is the stock S30 tranny mount modified to relocate the Z31 5spd. This was done first to be able to have a fixed reference measurement point. This is the Z31 5spd installed.

This is an attempt to document some of the major steps of performing a driveline swap from a Z31T into a 280z. It is not meant as a step by step manual. I have written this post after the fact. I completed this swap in 2000. Some of the pictures are from the original swap, and some are from the current setup that has received many upgrades, modifications, and asthetic work. Please let me know if I have missed anything or some additional details should be added, as this will likely end up a sticky. The donor vehicle was a 1986 300zxt. The recipient was a 1978 280Z. Both vehicles were completely driveable at the time of the swap. For the initial swap, it was decided to use as much of the stock components as possible to make it easier to diagnose and troubleshoot getting the engine up and running again. It took one day to pull the zxt motor/tranny and the harness, and I spent the next two weeks cleaning, painting, taking inventory, and removing unwanted gear...â€Who needs air and power steering?!†The old driveline was removed from my 280z and most of the wiring was removed, and the engine bay stripped and cleaned. Trial fitting the placement of the vg30et was done as a complete unit with major accessories, and the 5spd transmission attached. This was done to determine placement, and clearance issues, as well as the shifter location. A low and setback position was a primary goal. With the motor in the engine bay for measurements, there were some exciting developments as well as several challenges that were uncovered. First, the motor can sit completely behind the front crossmember, the hood will close, and the oil pan has plenty ground clearance. The first thing to sort out is the tranny position and gear shift lever location. It can fit in the stock location and still have clearance for the engine in the bay, and a very nice setback position. The tranny mount on the transmission is very close to the stock 280 mounting tabs. I cut the stock 280 tranny mount, and offset it less than 1 inch, and welded it back up. I used this as the primary locater for pulling the motor in and out for trial fitting. The stock hood latch needed to be removed, so hood pins were a simple solution. The alternator bracket hits the frame so a new one was made. It needed to be relocated about an inch for clearance. The stock oil filter does not clear the frame, so a different style was found. I used a filter for 90’s Toyota Celica. Custom engine mounts were fabricated, as well as the frame strengthened to support the motor in its new location. A major issue was that the stock turbo interfered with the steering. This required cutting the frame to allow room to mod the steering to get around the turbo. I Added another Ujoint that I picked up at a local race shop, and used a heim joint to secure the shaft to keep the second Ujoint from binding, and maintain smooth steering. The engine/tranny assembly was removed several times to take measurements, and the stock top rad support was in the way, so it was removed to speed up install and removal. It was replaced after completion of the swap and it was tied into the rest of my roll cage for added strength. This was a real learning experience, I knew the top rad support was important, but did not know the extent till now. Even with an extensive roll cage already installed, the front end of the car still flexed when the car was on the hoist (no driveline). It flexed enough that when the car was on the hoist, the front rad support had room to spare on either side. When the car was on its wheels, the support could not be moved at all!! I had a custom driveshaft made that uses replaceable ujoints. I ordered a high pressure fuel pump and regulator, aeroquip fittings to handle the high pressure, various pipe, lots of plate steel and aluminum plating, tubular steel, etc... The brake and clutch and fuel lines needed re routing as well, and this was easiest to do while the motor was out. The throttle linkage needed to be setup. I simply took the whole pedal assembly and cable from the Z31 and put it in my Z!..it was pretty much that easy! The speedo cable, and clutch slave were also pretty straight forward. I had to have a custom SS rad pipe made. The 300zxt rads have the inlet and outlet on the same side of the car a S30 doesn’t. All that was left after this, was to wire up the ecu, attach fuel lines clean up the car, take care of some oddball asthetic items, and start and move the car under its own power to make sure everything was tight, and that all clearances were maintained. After that, it was off to the exhaust shop for a custom exhaust. Lastly, I took it out for a cruise, and brought it back for a good once over to recheck every single item that was modified.

Well a good driver with a good record with only 3rd party ins, no collision, or theft, you can look at approx 500.00 per year if for a non daily driven (second car) It will be more if it becomes a primary car ie one car per driver in a household. Getting it insured may be more difficult due to the age of the car. I am not moving my car insurance because I have a good deal with mine for my Z, and I'm not messing with it. almost 20yrs ago, at your age, I was paying about 1200.00 per year with no collision etc. just the min. The car is not worth anything to the ins co., and if you get it appraised, they may not want to insure your car at all. BTW, that was a daily driven rate. Scott.

If you spend big bucks on brakes, you had better spend big bucks on tires to get the full benefit. I run an excellent street tire, and those tires can only stop my car so fast, bigger brakes will not help. I run the larger Toyota 4piston on 300zx vented discs, and a 240sx caliper in the rear. I have pushed the car pretty hard on the track with no issues to date. I did the front swap more than 10 years ago, and have been pretty happy with it. I can lock the front wheels, so I suppose I could lock them easier? with a bigger brake/cailper??? I'm not running a track only car, so repeated hard stops are not the norm for my car. I think the term "REPEATED STOPS" is the key to making the right decision on a braking system. Good luck with whatever you choose.

I painted the rear half of my car with a 2.5 peak hp compressor with a 20 gallon tank. I used a small cup gun, and ran the compressor at about 25psi to the gun, and the pump ran about 70% of the time. I paused in a few key areas to let the compressor catch up. I wouldn't recommend doing it this way, but it is what I had, and I made it work. From my understanding, it is not so much the size of the tank, but the ability of the compressor to keep it pressured under constant use. Depending on the type of tools you are using, this ability will vary. My compressor will not keep up with much more than a hobby spray gun on a constant basis, but it is sufficient for my current needs.

I have a vg30et swapped into my 78 280. Look up some of my posts. I have pics posted throughout the site. You can PM me for details. There are a couple of others on the site working on theirs. I did mine back in 2000, so its been thoroughly tested. Scott.

This is and can be a real problem for some people. Sometimes I think the same thing (sometimes I miss my triple weber setup). Stop tinkering and enjoy the damn thing for a while. In my case, I will probably just buy another stockish N/A, because there is no way in hell I will give up my Z after all of the blood sweat and $$$$$$ I've put into it. Morale to the story. Don't get caught up in modding for moddings sake. Develop a plan, stick to it, and enjoy the car for a while, then decide on the success of your plan. Adjust if needed. (In the northern climates, we only have so many summers in our life to enjoy, don't waste too many with the Z out of action) Gets off of soapbox.... Scott. Good luck.