Pharaohabq

Not to mention you can load 3.5 of your friends in a 2+2 as compared to a coupe which you'd be lucky to get 2.5 people in... No really. I was serious when I was saying you shoudl upgrade the brakes before you spend much on the engine. if it runs don't Fark with it, unless you have reason, such as smoke or roughness.

Yep, Back from the Dead. But this thread is still on Topic. A lot of advances in 3D printing have come about. Obviously the high dollar machines like the Zcorp machines are able to do a nice job printing. But it's worth mentioning that Smaller hobby level printers are able to do quite a lot of work for VERY cheap. a Prusa i3 RePRap cost about $300 bucks to build and then you can create your own parts in plastic for about .10 cents a cubic cm. There are obvious constraints to size but the machines are getting better everyday. I've begun recreating different small Z parts already on my printer, such as the 240Z horn mount ring, which are near impossible to find, but that I can now print out for a low price. I've also recreated a few other parts and would be hapy to create more if someone had a need. Just let me know.

Hey if it's been sitting a long time, try these things: I'd recommend pulling the plugs and spraying a bunch of wd40 or other penetrating oil into the cylinders and let it sit a while. That way you won't scar anything up if things have gotten dry. It would be a great idea to change the oil out BEFORE cranking the engine over. Ideally you should get a big wrench and crank it over manually the first couple times after the WD40 and the oil change. It won't guarantee anything, but should help prevent anything from being stuck and causing any damage. The WD will smoke a bit if the car starts, but don't worry it'll burn off pretty quickly. I'd also drain any old gas and put in a couple gallons of new before trying to start it, but that's not required. It'll run a bit easier if you do. Other than that, there's not a lot of preventative measures you can take. Be sure to check that the tires aren't all dry rotted to hell, they may have good tread, but dryrot could make a good looking tire blow out pretty easy.

Wow, that's some crazy stuff. So what are your plans for the S30? Aside from slamming it down and putting on long cray cray pipes? I love the afterthought oilcooler/intercoolers. I can imagine how many people would step on a front spoiler like that. I'd want to put some wheels under it just incase the downforce was too much. Those vans are some real serious guys. I can't imagine how much people have spent on these.

Yes, the 280Z L28 is an easy swap to the 240Z, but you'll lose the EFI unless you swap a lot more than the engine over. Swapping to the 240Z SU carbs will fix that and allow a little more power. BUT, You're 16, so unless you've got some $$$ to blow, then I wouldn't suggest you take that route. Remember Mr. Myagi's words" Drivers license is not replacement for eyes, head or heart." Just driving your 280Z 2+2 is going to be plenty of fun, and not that much different than the 240Z for the $... If you were going to be looking into autocrossing and such, Then Sure go ahead blow the $$$ on the 240Z and swap and upgrade and all that to your hearts content. BUT for a 16 yr old Daily driver to school and occasionally racing (in a safe controlled manner on a track) that 76' 2+2 would be fine. You'd be best off Upgrading brakes and suspension BEFORE changing around your engine. The Toyota 4 runner brake swap is really good and worth it for the cheap price. especially if you get the cores from the junkyard. You shoudl also look into better seats and belts if youre going to be going very fast. Remember these cars are 30+ years old.

Well that's no fun about the Rust, but hey, Upgrade opportunity. The Bad dog rails will take care of those rusted rails and add a lot of rigidity to the frame. It's easiest just to buy the replacement floor panels from Tabco or others rather than fabbing your own, but you've been there, Looks like you got an idea. Now for the engine, that stock combo isn't bad at all though it might fall a little short of your power goals in EFI NA form. I'd heard that a cam won't do you a lot of good with the intake restrictions on the NA manifold. BUT if you switched to SU's or Mikuni's they breathe a lot more easilly and thus the cam will have a greater effect, though you'd lose EFI. With the stock EFI system I think you're going to be limited to around 200HP in NA stock form. That's not to say that there's nothing that can be done about it, just the intake runners are a little restrictive. There's a lot of guys on here that know a lot more about building an L28 than I do. Staying NA is what hurts.

Well So far as swapping the two, You should look at the steering column, How compatible is the whole thing with the S30. If not, is the hardware compatible with the existing S30 column. I'm just asking because it might be easier to swap the whole column over rather than making the S130 stuff fit on the S30 column. That's what I'm doing with the Z34 column. I'm just going to swap of the whole deal. This way, not only do I get all the Z34 components I want, but I also get the tilt steering as well. On the engine compartment side I have a little adapting to do with the shaft, but that should be pretty easy. It's the wiring that gets a little crazy. It's easiest to get some generic connectors and setup your own plugs to adapt one to the other. Oh, and Yes I can print smaller plastic parts, if you know know what you're looking for, So a simple adapter may not be a big deal. I haven't tried fixing the contacts in an existing S30 combo switch yet, I just need to find one to take apart.

Nice! Sponsorships rock! I need to get sponsored, Then I'd have my paint all taken care of, not to mention whatever bling they wanted to throw at me

Hey not bad, but definitely you've got some rust issues. You're going to need to do a bit of welding. since this is a father/son deal I'm not going to tell you to go find a better body, I'm just going to say you're going to spend a bit of time fixing that rust. The Wheel wells are important to address, the rear more cosmetic, but that front area that's rusted through is structural. You're definitely going to want to fix that. Also look at the frame rails, if yours are rusted through anywhere, then you should probably replace them with Bad Dog rails. Lift your carpet and see if you're driving a flintstones car. I would not be suprised to see daylight by your feet after you remove that carpet. The other places to look are the spare tire well, and the rear deck, It's common to find rust there. Now don't worry. All of these locations are replaceable. Tabco.com makes most of these panels, and MSA or others (I think I bought my rear arches through Rock Auto cheap) can sell you the rest. Once you get the body in decent shape, then look deeper into the engine etc. The interior is cosmetic, so don't worry about it till you get there. Brakes and suspension should come before any engine upgrades. You said this is a father/son deal so keep our advice in mind, but what's important is that you're spending time together. Some inspiration for this can be found on YouTube, look for "I blame Chip Foose for this" series of videos.

Again, I'm trying to tell you, Don't put money into your NA engine if you're planning on swapping to a Turbo. THE COST TO TURBO AN N/A MOTOR IS MORE THAN BUYING A TURBO MOTOR. I don't know how I can make that more clear. If your NA runs and has good compression, then keep it until you've got your Turbo motor ready to go. Yes, if you buy an L28ET then get the harness AFM and ECU at the same time. You can swap to Megasquirt later. (note on MS, I've seen it done in diy basis for less than 500, but $1000 is a good average including parts) The 82-83' Turbo engine is already pretty well built. likely any junkyard engine you find will need work, but it you can find one that starts up before you pull it, you'll be better off. If you want one that's built, running with warranty, you're going to pay a lot for it. These are 30 year old engines. The F54+P90/P90a combination is awesome for turbo and is already setup with lower compression and stout rods and pistons. Just buying the turbo parts separately (manifolds, turbo, oil lines) can easilly cost what you could buy a donor for. Yes I admit that a Donor would likely need to be rebuilt but you're still better off not spending $ on something you'll swap out later. You can spend all sorts of money on Cams and stuff, but you're still going to be best off starting with a Turbo motor unless you REALLY know a lot of what you're doing. Turbo's on NA engines really need to be carefully tuned, or you'll get detonation due to the higher compression. Tuning is expensive if you can't do it yourself.

Those Hoshinos are interesting... Not for me, but cool in their own right. What I'm wondering about is that exhaust stack, What's up with that? Is it really up almost even with the rear deck? I'm not knocking it, I'm just wondering the purpose/style? I'd imagine it should keep the fumes out of the passenger compartment...

Munters - Hey, Wow, is that metal welded over bad rusted metal? It's hard to tell from the picture. It doesn't look right in any case. I hope that your new body shop can handle it. There are a lot of places that can ship you new or used body panels for not too much. I'd imagine Rebello could also throw some in the box too when they ship you back your engine. It may be a lot cheaper to have rebello source an engine here, rather than shipping them yours. That way you'd also have yours as a "spare" and the rebello built engine as the primary. It should be much cheaper than shipping. Let us know what we can help you source. Tabco.com makes a lot of S30 body panels for instance.

This is an interresting idea. Not just for the idea of being able to test a single system, but for being able to test entire harnesses. It poses a lot of electrical challenges though. First off you're going to need a spare harness to hack up for making connections to the existing harnesses/components. I'd start with a 4x8 sheet of plywood to hang your harness on. But really Separate functions could be simulated with a computer. For example, if you were to setup the AFM on a stock plug, Then run that into a bank of Analog to digital converters, you could measure each output from the AFM and note whether it's a good AFM or not. I can really only wee this as being worth it, if you were going to be going through a lot of AFMs, or if you were planning on making a replacement device for an AFM. Now there's plenty of other parts we'd need to simulate, such as the injectors and temp sensors, Not to mention All of the ECU input and outputs. These are difficult because though getting the amounts of inputs and outputs is relatively easy, you still have to use transistors and such to provide 12V and operate the grounds as the system would expect. Not impossible certainly but worth it? I've definitely got my doubts. The cost would not be cheap, and likely you'd have to plug in and read in between components such as the ECU and the dropping resistors. The S30 system does a lot by connecting grounds on open circuits. So being able to simulate that for different components would be required. An example of which is the injectors. Now really, What's it worth to recreate a test bed for an S30 Bosch EFI system? It would be noteworthy and fun to see, but in the end it's much more work than it's worth considering all the other aftermarket and much more modern EFI systems that are available, such as MegaSquirt, AEM, Haltech etc etc etc...

As for your Car: First, congrats on finding her. Hope your girlfriend/wife isn't the jealous type. She's going to make you crazy like the rest of us. She'll be tempermental as a tween girl, but once you get settled in she'll treat you nice as long as you take care of her. Now addressing the things you'd noted: Cracked Dash, Interior: MSA, Black Dragon, DatsunRestore all have these parts available. Also watch Ebay for deals, they come up all the time. The Dash you have options: A NOS dash is almost impossible. You can have yours refurbished for about ~$800, or you can do is yourself the "Great-Stuff" method. That or cap it, it's all up to you. The rest you can buy. The doorseals, Well they're available at the above vendors in reproductions, but some people have used various junkyard seals with great luck. The Clunk... Well there's a lot of things it could be. Do you hear it when you're driving and take a foot off the gas? or is it only when you shift? It could be the Tranny mounts/Diff mounts or your halfshafts. The "non-replaceable" halfshaft U joints ARE replaceable, just a pain to do. the rest you'll have to buy new mounts. Look at the Arizona Z car and G3 stuff, it's pretty darn cool. Especially if you're planning on lowering the car/going coil over. If you're going to want turbo, you might as well start with a Turbo engine. The cost to convert a NA engine to turbo would be WAY more than finding an 82'-83' Turbo L28 (L28ET) and working up from there. The other advantages are that you can get the turbo ECU and harness along with the engine. You can get it installed and running over a weekend THEN once you're used to it and have had time to decide how you want to mod it, THEN you can go from there. The truth is that in a 280z(S30) the power a stock 83' L28ET can give is pretty damn good. You'll need wider tires and better brakes before needing more HP out of that engine. When you do upgrade, You'll already have the stronger rods and block, Exhaust piping and oil feed lines in place so your cost is going to be MUCH LESS than trying to upgrade your NA engine. Start with the L28ET, you won't be disappointed. Cost used should be $500-$1000, depending on what you find, In tempe there should be tons. You might want to pull off and check for rust behind that lower trim on the sides. I've seen a lot hide behind there. An airdam might help your freeway stability, but likely you just need new rubber bushings in your suspension/swaybars.

How's the Rad and IC install going? Do you have a crank up video yet? I can't wait to see where you are on this.

In those pictures you've got a lot of bare wires. I'd tape those up and check your fuses again. Check the voltages on the ECU. If your not confident with that harness, then you'd be best off replacing it, but even a used harness, you're going to need to know what goes where. so Label label label. it's a PITA I know, but when you find the one that's disconnected and allowing all the happy to escape, and reconnect it, it's magic. Unfortunately we don't know what the original failure was before he swapped the harness. it could entirely be something else. Did you test the outputs and ohms on the AFM? If it's not reading/functioning properly, it won't allow the Fuel pump to turn on, thus no start. Another option you have is to go with Megasquirt/MS+S. If you do that, then you'll be likely cutting out the issue by replacement. MS requires a bit of other modifications, and on a Turbo its got a couple other things you'd have to look out for, but it's been done many many times. One of the beauties of MS is that you get to ditch the AFM and put in a MAP and O2 sensors. based on those readings the MS adjusts your fuel table for smooth reliable running. Tuning is as easy as loading or tweaking your maps through a USB cable. Though on a turbo, it'd probably be a good idea to consult a pro before turning up the boost much.

Keep us updated! This one sounds fun!

Thanks for posting this. It may be related, but you might wonder Why are those terminals corroding, aside from it being a 35 year old car? This isn't for certain it's your car, but it is common for older Z's to leak from the cowel area down the inside of the firewall into the carpets after a rain. This is because the sealer they used inside the cowel at the base of your windshield gets old and can crack. It's also good to clean out all the debris that can accumulate under that cowel and make sure the drain tubes are flowing. You can re-seal that cowel area with any good sealer and it should be fine for years. This is one of the reasons that floor pans rust out, the carpets get wet and the floor rusts beneath them, even if the surface feels dry, the matting may not be. Again, this may not be the case in your car, it could just be the age and where the car lived, ambient humidity and all. I am glad you got the car running well for your daughter. I'm sure she'll be the envy of all the kids at school.

MegaSquirt makes an amazing difference. Switching to a MAP based system really smoothed out my engine a lot. Sure it ran decently under the stock bosch system, but I was really amazed at the difference in how the engine ran and pulled. Though the car is still all torn apart now since I'm swapping in the VQ. I just got 350Z seats for it too which should be nice.

The blocks look pretty different, that's true, Mainly due to the front differential being integrated into the lower block. It's a pretty crazy setup in the GTR, 2 driveshafts and a rear mount transmission. It's amazing they were able to save weight and keep everything balanced in the GTR. There's arguments on both sides on wether it's a VQ40 block, or a different block based on the LeMans VR engine. VR means Variable timing, and R is for Supercharged, though the GTR is a DETT not supercharged, so I'm unsure of the designations. The local Nissan parts dealer said it's a VQ40 block that's specially modified and built by hand, so I'm not sure you could still call it the same family. VR38.com says it's in the LeMans family so who are you going to believe. In any case, to use a VR38DETT in an S30, you'd really be looking at heavy modifications, if for nothing more than fitting a transmission to the engine.

Unfortunately those rings ended up being bigger than my machine could handle. Too wide and the print becomes unstable. I found that though I should have been able to print about 200mm X 200mm, my actual print area is more like 170mm X 170mm, but even then large prints seem to have issues with shrinkage and adhesion to the build plate. I gave lance the design files and I'm going to see if there's a commercial printer that can do it for him. I'm still looking for any other Z parts that we might want to replicate. Mostly I'm thinking parts that are hard to fine, NOS or NLA. Small plastic pieces. Just let me know. Still thanks to LanceVance I'm going to be working on replicating the plastic ash tray door for the 240z. These often crack off from the framework, so maybe we can make stronger tabs. I'll see when I get the part.

Well good, no spark is a clue, turning over means the start circuit is intact. At least power to the solenoid, and the battery. So next we need to verify power to the coil. with the Key on, test the thin wire to the coil and see if you have battery power on it. Then test the other wire and see if you have a path to ground. I don't know the colors for the ZX harness, but it should show them in the FSM. If you have power to the coil, but no spark, replace the coil, that could be the original issue too. I don't know if the 83 coil has a polarity, so best check that. In anycase you need to have power for that to work.

Hmm I thought sure I'd read that somewhere they designed the Z so that later a V8 would be easy to drop in. I just spent a couple hours searching but could not locate where I'd read that. I assure you I didn't just make up that idea. I know Nissan was directed on which engines to fit under the hood. I just haven't found where they'd mentioned the V8 as a possible choice. If I come across where I'd read it, I'll be sure to post it.

Have you downloaded the FSM for the 83ZX? There's really not that many things that can be wrong, assuming the guy wired it up properly. one of the biggest things to check is that the ground straps are connected. Really it's not too hard once you start identifying the parts. Get some tape and start labelling connections. You'll need to know that things like the AFM and temp sensor are hooked up. that the harness has proper power. Does the engine turn over? in SoCal there's a couple Z clubs. I'm certain you could get a reputable recommendation from MSA if you give them a call. There's a lot of Z only shops in SoCal.

If I didn't already have one, I'd pay $1000 for that, Shame about the sunroof cut though. That's a pain to fix.