ZR8ED

GM Corvair turbo cars had no wastegate. boost was controlled by rpm and throttle position... the faster you drove the more boost you made..the more boost you made..the faster you would go!..till it would go "pop!"

You don't need a piece of L channel to do your test on the roof just in front of the hatch opening.. I have not tried it yet with yarn, but I took a piece of cardboart, and tucked it in through the top of the hatch, and closed the hatch to wedge it in place. it made a little spoiler at the roof/hatch area.. may work for testing. do the yarn test before and after. I used a piece of standard looking cardboard, the width of the hatch opening, and about 3" wide.. and I stuck half into the opening and closed the hatch to hold it in place. I took pics, somewhere..

Sorry man but no one else said it yet... We told you so! It was just a matter of time before you posted about this. Not trying to sound like a jerk man. I really feel sorry for you. You got caught in the trap I have seen many a Z owner make...and after 17 years of Z ownership and Z club participation, I've seen lots come and go, and sometimes come back!.. maybe you should just buy another Z! How about the Saturn Sky? eh forget it.. don't get yourself further in debt! dig yourself out first. Learn your lesson, and then get a Z !

Yes I would think the n/a vg30e will fit with no mods to the steering. It was the turbo that severly got in the way. you would still need to make the mounts for the motor, and the tranny mount only needs modding (it needs to be moved 1-2") It would have some wow factor seeing it in though, but It would not be a very budget swap compared to a l28 turbo engine. The n/a's can be made to perform very well. I know of a local n/a z31 pushing some decent power. There are still plenty of aftermarket parts avail, but not nearly like the l28 aftermarket.

Drool. Man I love 62-65 lincoln continentals! I'm jealous. If I ever do a 60's car, that will be my first choice. I once had a shot a purchasing a lincoln..problem was he wanted to sell me all three as a group.. 2 running one not..$8k. Way too big a project for me without at garage at that time!.. wife would have killed me big time!.. I already had 5 zed's in the yard!

I've switched to the electronic format of saving tech info website addresses etc. though I do have 3 3" three ring binders full of old Z tech stuff, that has long disappeared from the Web... old Z websites that are no longer on the web etc. Organizing it was a chore, and is in ok condition to this day. The electronic stuff has been more difficult to organize, and I'm sure will take some time to catagorize it into something that I can search from. I will try and fill my spare hd with as much Z stuff as I can before it disappears off the web like so many websites.

Hi Ben: I don't think that the crossmember swap will be of much help, as the steering rack and possibly the lower control mounts would be a problem, and it would also bring the motor further forward. I should take a top down pic of the engine position..it sits very far back..only the front of the pully is over the crossmember..more or less. Moving the engine forward is an option that I have heard done, but in the end it was a failure with the handling and steering effort seriously affected. With the engine in the setback position, hood pins are a must...or else move the engine forward 3 inches.. again not a good idea...let alone the shifter. If you could do custom manifolds that would be easier..IF you can build manifolds. As you bring the turbo higher, you'll find brake lines, m/c etc starting to become a factor. If you raise the turbo position up 1-2 inches, and bring it outboard from the engine 1-2 inches, you could probably make it work...as long as you don't want a large turbo there.. T4 is easy enough.. t66's and up...??? another story.

A little story of my Swap of a Z31 turbo engine into a 78 280z. I figured I would post this to help answer questions for the Newbies to the site. If you have thought about swapping in a VG30ET engine into your Z because you "just" have one laying around.. read on.. I am ZR8ED aka Scott from the Ontario Z Car club in Canada. This swap was performed in 2001 by Dieter Roth. A long time mechanic, friend, and co-founder of the Ontario Z Car Association. Assistance, research, and of course funding was provided myself. The donor car was a 1986 300zxt 2+2 Automatic with low mileage and lots of rust! I had lots of spare parts from other 300 zx turbo's I'd owned and parted out including a 5speed. It took one day to pull the motor and the harness, and I spent the next two weeks cleaning, painting, taking inventory, and removing unwanted gear..."Who needs air and power steering?!" I had a tune up done to the motor with lots of new parts and gaskets. The Z master located and installed a larger throttle body, and also installed a manual boost controller. I painted everything I could and had everything assembled and ready to do trial fitting of the driveline into the car to design motor and tranny mounts... With the motor in the engine bay for measurements, some exciting developments, as well as several challenges were uncovered at this point. First, the motor can sit completely behind the front crossmember! hmm a mid engine Z?! Well it fits. The hood will close, and the oil pan is near stock in ground clearance. The first thing we measured was tranny position and gear shift lever position. Once that was determined, we noticed the very close proximity of the stock transmission mounts, and in the spirit of Nissan engineers, we were able to fit the stock 280z tranny mount by cutting and offsetting the stock tranny mount less than an inch. The darn thing looks almost factory. That became the "key" measurement reference point because for each Re & Re the engine and transmission assembly would wind up in exactly the same position. Now some challenges. The stock hood latch needed to be removed, so hood pins were purchased. The alternator braket hit the frame...a new one was made. The stock oil filter does not clear the frame, so a different style was found. The last major one, was that the turbo interfered with the steering...That required cutting of the frame to allow room for the steering to get around the turbo, also neccessitating fairly serious steering shaft mods. We had to remove the engine/tranny assembly several times for these mods and measurements, and the stock top rad support was in the way, so we removed it to speed up that process. We replaced it and tied it into the rest of the roll cage after the final installation. Custom engine mounts were fabricated, as well as the frame strengthened to support the motor in its new location. The mods to the driverside frame for the steering became much more involved than anticipated, and an additional steering knuckle was added, with a heim joint to secure the shaft at the second knuckle point (to keep the steering shaft from moving and binding on itself) It was only neccessary to move the shaft over approx a half inch!.. all this to clear the turbo. There may be lots of room for a V8, but with a turbo hanging low on the side of the block makes for a tight fit. Many hours of testing went into this. Because of the cutting of the compression rod mount and lots of the frame, considerable bracing was needed in the redesign of this structurally important area. Safety at 150mph was a driving force throughout the entire transplant, and we did not compromise on that point. In fact "Stronger and better than stock" was our motto! While this was being done, I started to assemble needed parts. 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... More "to do" lists were made, and lots of erands had to be run, as well as shopping on the net for hard to find critical parts which were handled by myself. This took up lots of my spare time to complete. I took on this task so as to keep ahead of Dieter and have as much ready for him as possible. This was not always the case, as sometimes things took weeks to arrive, and some parts upon inspection invariably needed other specialized parts to complete a segment of the installation. During these delays, Dieter would work on all the electronics that needed attention. Most complicated of all was "blending" my stock 1978 280z electronics, that had already been modified for my carb conversion, and had been upgraded to a Jacobs electronic ignition, to the 300zxt turbo FI ecu. The brake and clutch and fuel lines needed re routing as well, and this was easiest to do while the motor was out. With the frame mods done, and the steering mods complete, all the new work was painted. After 4 more engine install/removals for more measurements, the motor was sitting on its own mounts, and everything lined up! In case you are wondering the motor went in and out a total of 16 times for the entire project! Now was the task to attach all the wiring, fuel lines, vacuum lines, throttle cable, speedo cable, as well as an oil cooler. Reinstalling the front rad crossmember and bracing was also in the design phase. To compensate for the removal of the strut brace, we added 2 more tower braces that tie the towers to the reengineered front rad support, that form an "X" infront of the motor. I already had the tower to firewall bracing long ago. My 280zx 2+2 rad was put back in the car, and lowered a half inch to make way for the extra bracing. The T5 tranny from the 300zxt is slightly shorter than the normal tranny for a 1st gen Z. So the shifter needed to be modified, and moved back 1 inch to clear the interior console (and so I could reach it..hehe) a new shift knob and boot are other little items I took care of. The throttle linkage was also a fairly easy project. We simply took the whole pedal assembly from the Z31 and put the whole thing in my Z!..it was pretty much that easy! The speedo cable, and clutch slave were also pretty straight forward. The very last things to do were the rad hoses. The 300zxt rad have the inlet and outlet on the same side of the car..mine doesn't!..Looking through parts suppliers stock of hoses was the only way. The motor was ready at this point. Sure there was wiring to be cleaned up, the ecu needed a point to mount to, and a few other asthetic details, but it was ready to fire. Dieter did an awsome job of solving these problems, and no problem stopped us for long. His previous experience building championship racing Z's, and my lack of fear of "custom mods" and not being concerned with keeping the car "stock" enabled us to find unusual solutions to seamingly impossible problems. After triple checking, and testing every component and connection to verify its operation, With a single turn of the key, the motor roared to life instantaneously!!!! What a rush of excitement..and relief..that all this hard work, checking, and rechecking all of the many many connections and modifications. We had a working oil pressure guage, alt, boost guage and temperature all original 1978 equipment (except for the boost guage) all working together with a 1986 300zxt turbo FI system, blended with an aftermarket ignition system, with aftermarket fuel delivery, and pressure controls!! and it worked!! All that was left after this, was to 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 and a a test cruise. Once again it was brought back for a good once over to recheck every single item that was modified. Which is as you can see, was a very large list. Lastly, it was off to the track for testing "spirited" driving conditions. It appears that traction is my newest challange. Z31 Swap list of tasks and challenges. Custom transmission mounts. (must consider shifter location) Custom motor mounts. ( steering linkage clearances) Custom exhaust (possible downpipe mods?) Custom driveshaft (driveline specialist) Upgrade fuel system back to high pressure (new routing?) Transmission speedometer cable Custom throttle linkage Clutch flexline to slave New clutch Routing of rad hoses Routing of heater core hoses Hooking up of guages (speedo, tach, oil, temp, boost, alt) Wiring in of ECU..(including placement of ECU) wiring of alt/charging/battery/grounds Custom intake piping/routing/ and air filte wiring of ignition (still use Jacobs ignition?) This is an exerpt from an article I wrote on my swap almost 5 years ago. The car has dramatically changed since this was written, but the swap has been reliable. Not a swap for the faint of heart. I "coulda had a V8" for a fraction of the cost.

Sorry for tooting my own horn I suppose, but for those who gave up waiting for the vid, it is now here in the hybridz video section.

I got the vid posted here at hybridz. It is in the video section. Check it out.

Ok. Its winter, the Z is long stored for the winter now, and I am dreaming of driving the Z. I didn't even make it to February this year!! So I pull out my most recent collection of videos that I have shot this summer. I then fire up the computer and my favorite video editor, and wala! a quick video to cheer me up. Ahhh. Ummm. Could someone host it for a while so people can take a peak? 7mb long. oh.. its a vid of my VG30ET going WOT in car footage @13psi approx when this vid was shot, so it ain't long! EDIT: Video has been uploaded to the Hybridz video section. Drop me an email ZR8ED@hotmail.com Thanks. Scott.

The story goes: I have a killer L28 fully prepped, tuned to the nth degree. Fast, Reliable. Did I say fast?.. well it was FAST. Ok so if it is fast with 40mm dcoe's, then a set of 45's would be faster right? So I thought. During some tuning with them, go out for a drive, and only use a few screws to hold my air box lid on... Well that and I left a spring steel clip still on the air box...which vibrated loose and fell into the air box. Then into #5 cyl, then puked back out into the box, and then back into #6cyl. So much for my killer 6cyl.. it turned into an expensive 4cyl. Dumb Dumb Dumb. After an expensive repair, on go the 40's again, because the car was faster with them than the 45's.

Well I have owned and driven several models of S30's, S130's, and Z31's. They are all slightly different, yet have some level of similarities. My S30 280Z was my first and is still my fav. While it was in the shop one season, I drove a limited ed 84 300zxt 50th anniversary car. (pewter/black two tone) It was the first car i ever drove that made me actually think about selling my 280z! Decent handling, power, and very comfortable compared to my 280. I would say they are all Z's.. they are just an evolution of design. The 240 is sporty for the young crowd, then they bring out the 280zx for the same crowd that is slightly older, and wishes more luxury, then they bring out the Z31's for the same reason..to keep up with their growing/aging market. Now you can pick and choose your model of Z to fit your lifestyle! Not too bad of a deal. I have owned multiple Z's at once, and found that each filled different purposes. Ok and now I have blended a couple together to pick up some of the benefits of each. Now I have a Z that is truely meant for me!!!

Just looking around the stock room today. Whoa Caught a look at the new special edition Chromallusion colour for the 06 350 z. $1500.00/gallon..and that ain't the cost for the regular "shmoe" off the street. Purple/red..gold and green look. Kewl! They had some in to paint some parts for a photo shoot of the car. There is 20 gallons of the stuff here...hmm wonder if i could borrow a bit for my Z's next repaint? hehehe Can't say much more though. Just thouht I'd share what I could.

Well I missed a shift once on a raceprepped engine built specifically to be safe to 8k. Well at 7k in 3rd, I shifted into 2nd instead of 4th, and floored it! The instant I did it, I kept my foot on the gas, and stomped on the clutch. (so the engine wouldn't reverse torque as it slowed the car down) the car was ok, but I pulled the oil pan at the end of the year, and we noticed that one of my rods "walked" forward on the crank and rubbed a bit on the crank journal. We figure I hit 9k + I ran that motor for another 4 years no problem. But in your case...a vg motor with a slight knock at 2000rpm..if it makes noise as rpm goes up?...you've got a bad rod bearing. It happened to me with one of my vg's Hard cornering onthe track, ran the oil dry for a sec, finished my lapping session with a very light ticking noise, that turned into a very loud knock on the way home... it was fine till I got off the throttle, and spun one of the rod bearings, at which point, the knocking really got noisy. (piston was now hitting cyl head too) Sorry about your situation, but I think you need to inspect that bottom end.

Well it sounds like you have sorted this out at least partially. I have spare jets, rebuild parts etc. for DCOE carbs if you need something, drop me an email and I'll see if I have what you need. I also understand about "using what you got" Get them up and running, and keep your eye out for someone who has 40's and wants 45's. I have run both the 40's and 45's on the same engine, and I have run from 34mm- 38mm chokes, and have come to a few conclusions about 45's on a Z. Yes 45's work pretty good on a Z. If you need to run anything under a 36mm choke, then run the 40's. (36mm is the largest you can run on a 40dcoe) The 45's are obviously needed if you are running larger than a 36mm choke, BUT. I would not recommend 45's for a street driven Z. Full race only. They are just not needed. Run some CFM calc's on a set of 36mm chokes on 40mm dcoe's, and I think you end up with 1100cfm (if my memory serves correctly) So if you think you need more than 1100cfm worth of carburation, then more power to you, but I highly doubt that your average Z needs that for the street. Like I said I ran the 45's on the street (38mm chokes), and the car was fast and strong. BUT it pulled harder when I swapped back my 40's with 36mm chokes. And this was on a overbored L28, 240 rods, 10.5:1 compression, 495/290 cam, nismo headers, FULL port polish job on an N42 that was done to rediculous extremes. The block was race prepped beyond rediculous. ie rods, crank, etc were almost mirror polished. The engine was built to shift at 8k, and I drove it that way.

I guess it depends on your area. I paid $1000.00 for mine (with halfshafts) I have had several and routinely sell them for $600.00-800.00. They are quite rare around my parts (Toronto, Canada) I even purchased an entire 300zxt this summer just for the diff!! (Yes that means I have a spare diff at the momement)

I bought my drivers side hinges right from Nissan. Not too cheap if i recall, but no problems getting them.

oh and yes I did say Chevette springs in the back. They fit very nice in there. 1980 front chevette springs 4dr heavy duty with powersteering. (please do not quote me on this.. I'd have to look it up again before I said this was the "be all end all" I have a few friends running hopped up l28's in 280z's with identical brake and suspension mods brakes/sway bars/urethane and shocks.. except they are running chevette springs on all 4 corners. I had stock cut springs, but had better rubber. I have chased them around the track (back when my car was l28 carbed) When we swapped cars, it was surprising how similar, and neutral feeling each of the cars was. I really thought that was a killer street setup. not too harsh on the street, and plenty of handling for my skills at the time.

Well the car handled very well. (experienced 240 autox'r) when it had the 280 motor, the tokico shocks and large bar that I have on now, and my cut springs. (it had a fairly neutral feel to it, and was pretty fast considering the mods) I now have the vg30et motor in there, and it is stuffed way back in the engine bay. From day one after that, the car pushed like a son of a bitch on the track. I immediately loosened the front bar endlinks, and the car got very neutral feeling.. Time goes on... Front springs start to show signs of sagging.. car starts to understeer at next track event. I have a my old rear cut springs (280 springs) I swap them into the front to raise the front of the car back up a bit. I had already did my chevette spring swap into the rear to keep the car from bottoming out with all this new hp and torque. The front of the car is now sitting just about where I want it. Problem is I now carry much more speed at the end of any straightaway. (brakes are the toyota s12w with 300zx vented rotors.) It hauls down just fine, but I do notice now that I can lock up the back wheels sometimes. I also notice the feeling of the car diving nose down more than it maybe did in the past. So. I want to stiffen the front springs, and possibly raise the car another 1/4 inch to make it nice and level.. I know its already pretty close. I have no spare bars or springs. So when I do this its gonna cost me, and I don't want to do it wrong and have to experiment too much. Should I weigh the front of the car? would this help me figure out some spring rate requirements? Its easy to just say "switch to coil overs", but what rates? and If I do, I may need to upgrade my shocks as well. (shocks are a several years old) I can try and find some locals with other bars that may let me try out. I know I know my suspension seems weird, but Trust me.. the car handled very predictably and very tight, and I could dive in deeper into a turn than your average Z with a set of kyb's upgraded lowering springs, some urethane and some nice wheels and rubber and similar braking setup. (lots of Z club lapping days under my belt with lots of Z cars to compare with..)

I currently have a set of tokico sway bars on my 280. 1.25" on the front, and 1" on the rear. I have a stiffer rear spring than the front..maybe more differential than I want. (rear is good.. front maybe a tad light) The car handles very well. It pushed like a son of a gun until I loosened the front sway bar end links. (urethane bushings) I'm wondering if I should stiffen up the springs a bit more, and switch back to a stock bar. (urethane bushings still) I heard that you are best to put in stiffer springs, then to compensate by increasing the sway bar to help cornering. I ask because I just raised the front of the car slightly (old stock cut springs had sagged too much) I now running my old rear cut stock springs in the front. (all I had on hand) I'm still not entirely happy with the ride height, and I think if I change them, i should maybe stiffen them, and reduce the bar at the same time.. It is time I revisit some of the older mods on my car..the car is starting to surpass the performance capabilities of my older mods. This mid engine placement, is making searching for a spring combo very difficult. There is just not as much weight on the front of the car compared to stock. this is why I've been able to get away with stock springs that are cut3-4 coils (can't remember for sure) How would I intelligently figure this out without spending huge$$$$ on trial and error?

Well Tim. The way my Z has evolved over the years...I'll take your 2.5 years, and up ya another 13 years of Z ownership.. A bit sentimental yes. I cam dam close to buying a viper...but I just could not sell my 280. but for all that sentimentality, I say fix that B**ch into what you want, instead of selling and getting something else.. It never stopped me..

I love halloween. Setting up the front yard for the kiddies is great! A buddy of mine and myself were taking some pictures in this little town in a park next to a cemetary, when this dude just came out of nowwhere! hehehe

HOLY F*** *&$%^##@*&!!!!! I had to keep my eyes shut during part of that video! Fast enough to make a dead man scream! What the frig type of BMW was that? I hope that is one of the fastest cars ever! cause I hate to think that thing is slower than some of those old CAN-AM cars, or old Porsche 917's or any number of those insane race cars back in the day before they had to put limits on hp/displacement/rpms/weight because the cars got so dam fast! Whoa! I've driven Mosport many times in my Z now, and it is a heck of a track, but other than being local to me (25min) it can hardly be compared with the likes of that track!! Geesh!