Gollum

That's just plain awesome. I'll be cutting up my turbo car soon. It's going to the recycler.

Sweet, progress is looking good. You know, if you hurry you might make the show on the 29th in vacaville.... I hate to say this, but as much as I love what you're doing, doing a swap that isn't commonly done but is a perfectly valid choice, I find that motor pretty hideous. Maybe my opinion will change once it gets cleaned up a bit, or when I see it in person.

So is there something I should know about how len treated/abused the car? You people are talking like it's a curse. I searched fl327's old posts and found some mentions of a 75' turbo but not a ton of details. If he was the one who sold it to the guy I bought it from then he pulled some pretty good moved. The guy I bought it from says he bought it for 3k and regreted it. Just for an update: Changed the injectors back to turbo injectors. Car is running better and already getting better milage, though I still need to tighten up the AFM some more, and I'm more convinced than ever that I need to get an adjustable FPR with a guage on it, since there were two spare FPRs in the box-o-spare parts. The secondary switch on the headlight switch went out (the one that switched the tail lights and dash lights), so I went ahead and replaced it with a 20 amp toggle switch. Still need to find it a perminant home. Still need to get around to changing the spark plugs. Still need to get the exhaust leak fixed, though on the drive to work I was thinking about the EGR system and how there's no EGR installed on this car, and I sat there wondering if the hole in the manifold for EGR provision had been blocked off... I'll take a look at it soon. I'm pretty sure the turbo needs to be replaced too, it's making a clicking noise under full boost (7psi) once I get to around 4k and above. It seems to have lessened with the new injectors, maybe it's running lean under boost. I might add another fuel pump in series and see if that helps, seeing as it' running the stock 280Z pump. I also had to fix the alternator as it wasn't charging the battery. It wasn't grounded... I'm going out to novato tonight to pull a driveshaft from a turbo car for my other car, and I'm gonna give the guy an offer for the drivetrain, though I'm not sure where on earth I'll put it.

Driving out to novato thursday to look at the turbo parts car out there that's been on craigslist for about a month. If the shaft is still the wrong spline count i'll talk to the guy about buying the tranny as well. I'm also considering buying the whol turbo motor since he doesn't want to sell me just the turbo + exhaust manifold.

This isn't a V8, but I'm sure it offers all of that glorious ferrari sound: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FERRARI-206-DINO-V-6-ENGINE_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ119133QQihZ006QQitemZ160217676650QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW That'd be a lot cheaper and easier than having a custom crank made and then getting it to rev in the right range. There's a couple of the flat 12 ferrari motors on ebay, not very expensive imo, though I'm sure they won't fit in a Z without tubing the front end. (just a guess though) Then there's a real deal... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ferrari-355-engine-F355-V8-3-5L-only-8-000-Miles_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247QQcategoryZ33615QQihZ013QQitemZ230212978147QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWD1V I have to admit... I think it might be possible to get a flat plane setup built for a cheap motor that would cost less than that motor, and would mean easily replacable parts. Idealy you'd do this with a OHC V8, so that it can be made to rev higher safer. So who wants to do a group buy for flat plane cranks for a: 1UZ VH45 Mod Motor Or something else? I myself am just joking of course. I don't have that kind of money.

Gosh I'm so overly joyed to be able to contribute to this thread. 75' 280Z. L28ET w/Nissan 5 speed. No carpet-mats instead. Dynomat installed as well. Lots of spare parts in back + my laptop up front. Gas was a bit over half a tank, possibly 3/4. I have yet to put more than 12 gallons in due to the way the guage reads, so reading above half might be 3/4. I also obviously didn't have bumpers on the car. The car also has rear disc conversion. Weight = 2620 Weighed by the truck scale at my work. They said it "should be accurate within 50 pounds". Well even if it's off 50 pounds I'm still well under 2700 and might be under 2600 with all the crap removed from the back. I'll be weighing it more in the future for sure. I can pretty much use it any time I want when leaving work.

Doesn't the VH45 weigh in close to 500 pounds in running condition? I recent weight for the 1UZ I saw on lextreme was 398, though it wasn't complete (not that far off though). Here's the pics: http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u228/cribbj/IMG_0938Medium.jpg http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u228/cribbj/IMG_0940Medium.jpg If you're trying to save every last little bit, the 1UZ might put you an extra 30-50 pounds ahead. Though unless you're looking at serious port work + cams you're not gonna see a ton of HP out of these motors. But if you're only looking for around 300hp it fits the bill imo. And even if you wanted 500hp the head and cam mods might still make this a worthy swap candidate still. Just depends on what you want. VH45 will still probably be cheaper and easier in the end. Just a little fatter I think. But as you can read on this site, engine weight doesn't decide handling characteristics.

I'm kinda sick of this vibration talk, even though I know it's true and we're just sharing facts here. The reality is that ferarri, lambo and the likes figured it out, so it's doable. Lets find out why. That mini hyabusa based V8 isn't 90 degrees, maybe vibration is a part of that? I know he mentioned that it was also done for size reasons, making the V8 as narrow as a I4 motor. I also can't imagine the vibrations being THAT bad. I mean, I almost dislike how smooth modern motors are. I'm so happy to be driving a Z again, and being able to feel the pulses of ignition through my veins. I also don't understand why you'd need an all new bottom end like olderthanme is saying. I see no reason a company couldn't make a flat plane crank to use the existing conrods and pistons of a SBC, SBF, LSx, etc. I think the key to keeping vibration to a minimul will be the least amount of rotating mass as you can muster (one of the reasons exotic motors rev soooo fast). Another way to lesson the vibration is to keep the idle high and move the rev range up. This means we can proably through out most of the larger displacement motors like big blocks.

Wow, now THAT sounds amazing... ...there goes my day at work...

oOo, good call. Guess that's what I get for assiming it's a 240Z and not paying attention... Well I guess the list is complete then, unless you want your engine to go and sound like his.

Umm... a V8? Just kiddin'. Looks like you've got everything needed listed as far as I can tell. Though the 280Z had different tail lights than the 240Z, not sure if you want to do that conversion for such a small visible difference (to most people's eyes).

I think if you like the look of the 2+2 the added wheelbase might be worth the weight depending on what you're doing. A lot of the weight is in the added weight for safety in the doors and side bracing, which could be reduced and/or removed if you had a decent cage setup. Just try to get a before and after weight for us. The other nice thing about a 2+2 is that if you're insane there's quite a bit of room back there for an engine....

I don't think it is, but the only thing that really makes a BOV a recirculating type is that it has a connection to easily hook up to plumbing to route the air to the intake. So if you had someone weld a nozzle onto the "exhaust" of the BOV then you could plumb it into the intake. For an examble of a BOV designed for recirculation: http://www.turboxs.com/more_info.php?ID=7 That's similar to the one I plan on getting for my car once I get an intercooler setup, which could still very well be more than a year out for me.

Some notes I wrote down in my head while reading this thread: Blow off Valve - I'd suggest a recirculating type that moves air into the intake, because this is a AFM system in which air is metered by way of passage through a sensor, not MAP based off of air pressure in the manifold. What this means is that when your blow off activates and throws air into the atmosphere in this AFM setup, you're not pumping fuel for air that no longer exists. The air has already been counted, so the fuel must be used. This means you'll go extremely rich under those rapid throttle decreases. Using a recirculating BOV will just mean the motor doesn't drop in revs all that fast, as air will still be getting past the trottle when you let off quickly. And as far as the Z31 turbo. Sure you COULD use the Z31 wiring and such, but I don't really see a point. If you're gonna do a wiring/ecu swap I'd go the full 9 yards and do the late Z31, or Z32 swap and install a romulator so you can tune it. There isn't much of a point in upgrading the wiring/ecu and keeping the AFM that chokes the car's responce. The only thing that NEEDS to be done for the Z31 turbo conversion (that I'm aware of) is you need to plumb a water source to it, since it's water cooled. This shouldn't be too hard, as there's already a water source that heads to the trottle body in the L28ET (and L28E). Most people bypass it anyways since they don't live in climates that they're worried about the throttle freezing at all, but you could just pump some new lines off of those to the turbo. I'm not sure how others do the swap though. I've currently got a L28ET in a S30 (75' 280Z) so if you need pictures of how the swap was done just let me know. I bought the car less than a month ago with the swap already done, and I don't think it's the best quality swap out there, but it could give you an idea or two.

When I did the wiring in my 280ZX for my turbo swap I changed virtually EVERY WIRE over from the turbo donor, minus some very small things like electric door locks, etc. My working conditions sucked about as much as possible, and I don't have a good collection of tools. If I was in a shop and had both cars there I could do the entire wiring swap in a day easy. So keep that in mind when a shop quotes you 3k for custom wiring. You're not paying them to put the wiring in, you're paying for them to design a system for your specific car, and then do all the cutting, soldering, and/or clamping required to get it done. I'd suggest playing with it yourself first with a new harness. It's not that bad.

The stock oil pressure guage is grossly inacurrate, and if it's reading lower than it has been then you might have some issues you need to figure out. If it's been reading low as long as you remember then the guage is probably just reading off. The OEM pumps are decent units, though I'm sure the Kameari units are better.

Tony - If you go check the thread in the non-tech section called something similar to "The mods sure are clever", then you'll see on somewhere around the 3rd or 4th page they changed your title. As you can tell from my new avatar. I've embraced the mantle they've put upon me...

I agree, looks terrible. You might as well sell it to me. I definately want more pics now. That was a terrbile thing to do, tease us like that.

Ahh, well my excuse is that I was at the airport in reno, and was running on just the battery, so I was rushing quite a bit trying to get up to date on my subscribed threads. Thanks for correcting me, I would have gone on being semi-pissed there's so many 81-83 slick tops on the board...

You people with slick tops make me sick. I've seen probably hundreds of S130 cars now since I started being obsessed with Z cars around 5 years ago, and I don't think I've ever seen a 81-83 slick top with my own eyes. It makes me wonder if certain dealers just didn't carry slick tops or something. Virtually all the slick tops I've seen in person have the 79'-80' hood, bumpers, etc, so they're definately the older cars.

Another thing I was just thinking about: I usually take off all the intake up to the AFM when I'm trying to get an L series EFI engine running right. You can easily hold/push the AFM flapper to adjust fuel mixture to help it run right.

Thanks for the input guys. I didn't realise the scales on I-80 were public, I work less than 2 miles from there. They also have a scale at my work they convinced me to try. I work at a precast concrete company and they have scales for their trucks. So i'll try that out, see if the numbers add up. I'd really prefer full four corner weights though. I guess beggers can't be choosers.

How'd I KNOW you'd be the first to respond. I should have just asked you directly to begin with. I'll keep the san jose local on the backburner. Would love something about 20-40 miles farther north though.

Hey, I've got some free time this weekend (unusual) and wanted to see if I could find a place to weigh my 280Z. Anyone know of anywhere in the easy bay? I'll also be down in san leandro saturday morning/early afternoon, so pretty much anywhere around there up to fairfield is a reachable area for me. I know some of you guys go to truck scales, but: A) I don't trust them, as they're measureing giant multi ton vehicles The highway scales here frown upon cars comming in and normally tell them to leave. C) Possibly the biggest factor, I'm not the most outgoing person and would feel awkward telling a truck scale to weigh my car for no real reason. So does anyone know of someone in the bay that does car specific weighing or has some wheel scales? I'd really like to get a 4 point weight of my car now before doing anything to it.

boodleproof said pretty much all I'd planned to say. So I'll just say this: Look and attitude are much MORE important in many ways than talent. She has talent, I'd suggest a really good vocal trainer to make her skilled. Singing is like playing guitar in the fact that initial skill doesn't determine how good you can become, it just changes how much they have to work in order to become reconised. Steve vai, one of the worlds best guitar players, admits to having almost zero talent, and worked extremely hard to become as good as his is (and I believe him, to an extent). Then there's freaks of nature that become extremely talented overnight. With vocalists they tend to not put in the same type of work schedule just to become better, they treat their voice as "this is what God gave me, and I'm stuck with it" when that's not the case at all. She's got talent, get her professional help and she can become skilled and talented, the best of both worlds. After that, it's like I said before... Image, look, etc. Those are the things that can make or break an artist. There are well know vocalists that are KNOWN for their voice that won't go on stage without autotunes (pitch correcting devices). Oh yea, with all that said, though that was a rough track, the engineer definately knew what he was doing with the compression, reverb, and mic choices.