Gollum

Tada! The guy posted the car up again. Can't seem to find anyone to bite at this price apparently... http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/car/506068297.html

No it's not running yet pop. And grumpy, I totally agree, except... The guy doing this got the heads for $75. Couple that with the fact you can get a SBF for pretty cheap these days and you could have similar LS1 power numbers with far less cost. Sure it's a crap load of work, but if you have the skills and the time to do it why not do it? The bore centering issue is one worth noting, and I'd suspect might change the reliability of the bottom end even if it doesn't have clearence issues because of it. But the problem might be minimized with an increased bore, but then you have to have machine work done on the block, increasing the cost, reducing the reason to do the swap to begin with.

If you want concrete information about top speed runs talk to tony D, he knows his stuff. You MUST realise that top speed isn't as much about power and weight as it is aerodynamics. More power can push more air, which will increase the top speed on a given body. Weght will change how fast you get there, but doesn't have a dramatic effect on actual top speed. This is why super heavy exotics still reach 200+ mph, they're just not nearly as quick at getting there as lighter supercars. Main factor is aero, and I have a hard time believing the 280ZX in stock form could ever hit 150, and even in a HEAVILY modified arena hit 200mph. I'd say with some well engineered body modifications you should be able to reach 160 or so. But that's just speculation. Also, what body style was the vette? I've raced some vettes in the past that don't go very high on the speedo. There's a good chance he was guessing, and then inflating the speed as well. I won't say BS, because you're just reporting what he said. I do believe it's a bit optimistic of you, that's all.

Well when I was looking into the ZXR diff ratios I couldn't find ANY concrete information. I'd be interesting to find out what your car has for a diff and tranny. As far as I knew the ZXR was mostly a production car they put the wing and decals onto. If they actually had a super low gear ratio that might be something work having information on.

Ok, here we go. Test 1: 3.364 rear 79' 5 speed OEM 195/70/14 Tire = 114MPH at 5209RPM in 4th gear 114MPH at 4500RPM in 5th gear Test 2 3.364 rear 81-83 5 speed OEM 195/70/14 Tire = 132 at 6031RPM in 4th gear 132 at 4493RPM in 5th gear In some other threads here there's been talk about how optimistic most stop speedos are, and how there's all sorts of people that say that they did X top speed when in reality they most likely did 80-90% of that tops. I've been to 4500RPM in my 81ZX and it didn't feel like the verified via GPS 140 I've done in other cars. The car did float quite a bit though, which kept me from pressing in harder. I have no doubt that those cars have the ability to hit at least 5500rpm in 5th even in stock form, which would put you around 140mph.

Ok, here's what I mean by newer/older Z31 tail lights. The Z31 went through a major facelift mid-production life and they changed all sorts of stuff. ECU, MAF, turbo, injectors, bumpers, hood, side modling, etc. Earlier: Newer:

Well, the 79' 280ZX 5 speed 2 seater cars had 3.364 diffs. He'd have a lot more headroom for top speed. If I can get the datsun transmission calculator to work I'll figure out what speeds he was going at 4500RPM, but java has issues going through our servers here at work. I'll see what I can do though.

Are you serious? There's lots of concrete information about the aero on the Z and most knowledge shows that the ZX already has many things done to it from factory that make very significant changes to improve the aero, and the bumper is a big part of it. Even the SCCA and IMSA drivers who made the switch talked about how the main different between the platforms was how much better the ZX cut through the air. If your 76 and ZX had such dramatic differences in top speed odds are the answer is in the guages being inaccruate, or the ZX being heavier and having less power, taking significantly longer to reach top speeds and less agressive at 100+mph.

Well obviously the man likes his toys to be big.

I seriously doubt in stock form this will be a block splitting setup. You'll need at least 500hp and HIGH revs to kill a 5.0 block (one of the weaker SBF blocks). The 5.0 is smaller displacement off the bat, so you won't have as much power as a LS motor. The 5.0 motors that split usually put down a ton more torque than HP, which begs the quetion if it's going to be more reliable with a different torque curve or not? The LS heads should offer a completely different curve than any of common heads used. If it DOES prove to be THAT powerful of a combination it'll really be interesting, because it should equaly make ford and chevy guys angry AND prideful. If it CAN split the block then that's some serious power, even compared to LSx standards, could make the chevy guys angry, and ford guys proud in a way. On the other hand if it DOES make that kinda power it shows the weakness of the current aftermarket heads for SBF engines making the ford guys sad, and chevy guys proud about their factory heads. Overall I could kinda care less. I just wanna see it run and be sucessful. If it really does work I'd love to see someone else do a 427W shortblock with LS7 heads...

If it'll start using starter fluid, and does it with ease when doing so, it's obviously fuel related. Weather the ECU isn't putting in enough fuel due to sensors, or other various reasons, or if it's a mechanical related problem is hard to say. I'd get a pressure guage and check the fuel pressure, and if you have good pressure then there's a chance it's a bad sensor, be it coolant temp, air temp, etc.

I'd be highly skeptical that it was an OEM block. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that most guys at those power levels go with aftermarket/beefed up blocks that are far more dependable than the OEM ones, but they're also significantly heavier unless they're aluminium. They're also expensive, putting them out of most peoples minds as options unless you're going for huge numbers.

Made my round of calls. Car's still for sale, hope to go by later this week. Nothing known wrong with the car other than 04' tags and bad cat. We'll see... I can deal with an auto, or even swap out the manual from my other project if I want. Who knows, who cares. If it's drivable and reliable I'll take it. Called the PO of my CRX and he should be able to buy the car back from me. Things are looking good. As long as he's able to buy it back, I won't worry about having the money for this car.

I'm considering it... Right now I have a crx that I can get exactly what I paid for it AND THEN SOME when I sell it back to the guy, and then I'd still have two cars, but at least one would be a Z and I could look into other options for my turbo swap car... EDIT: I should mention the reason I havn't even contacted the guy is that the girlfriend got laid off recently and hasn't found a new job yet. Rent comes up Jan1st for her and if she doesn't get a job soon and start she'll need me to cover it for her (though she hasn't even asked, but I'd do it). Once that gets sorted out we'll see what I've got in the bank. The issue is that I NEED a car running at all times, I can't just sell back the CRX unless I'll have that ZX by the next day.

Yea, when I had my bumper off last time before i started my swap I couldn't help but thing that with some pretty simple body work it'd look pretty sick. Though I think for aero reasons it's better to keep it or replace it with something similar in shape.

hmmm, if it was really really clean and well kept it might be worth it, but if you're looking for anything other than an investment I'd skip it. It's the rarest color options (i've never seen it in person, and I see an aniversary 280ZX at least several times a month around here), so as soon as you start modifying it you're gonna devalue it. I guess it's nice for the novelty factor, but I'd puposely avoid them myself as I'm the kinda guy that's looking to heavily modify a vehicle, and there's no point in doing that to a collectable car that'll be worth something someday. And with the way Z prices have been going, the day that those cars are wortha pretty penny should be within most of our's lifetime.

I've always thought that the later Z31 tail lights might look decent on the S130, but I've never seen it done. Might make the car look even MORE 80's though, and I prefer the classic feeling most of the car exudes, but overall doesn't quite pull off. Idealy my perfect S130 would rid itself of all 80's boxness.

I personally wouldn't pull a 302 from anything other than a 87'-92' mustang. Cost wise you shouldn't spend anymore than if it came from any other car, and it comes with pretty decent and tunable EFI, forged pistons, and a great torque curve from factory. The stock mustang rotating assembly will take more power than the block. The stock block is limited to about 500hp if you're abusing it with nitrous and high revs. With prep work you can go for quite a bit more than 500 though. Main limitation is heads and cam, and if you upgrade of course upgrade intake and exhaust and retune the ECU to match. The main downside here if that if you basically plugged all the same mods into a 351W is that the extra displacement will net you more power. And on that note I've personally seen a bored and stroked 351W up to 427 dyno over 1,000HP. The 302 will never do that, but do you need it to?

You know, some of the cam details still make me wonder... ...would it be ideal to run a LS1 type profile cam designed to fit a SBF block, or run a SBF type profile came in a reverse lobe in order to fit the LS head? But it looks like this custom cam won't be cheap, but not a deal breaker. If you really do score the heads for less than $100, and you fab your own intake or use spaces to fit a junkyard intake you might be able to do the whole thing for less than $1k, which is still cheaper than most aftermarket heads, and this combo should flow pretty well. Guess we'll have to wait and see, but it'd sure be wicked to see 350+na hp out of this combo. In the previously linked thread they talked about the pistons needing to have valve reliefs grinded into them. I'd kinda like to know what the CC difference of the heads are and how much clearence would need to be made to accomdate a high lift cam. Though I might be on my own for finding out.

Hey aux, did you see that ultra low mile 280ZX on craigslist a few months ago? Anyways, this guy wanted like 10+k or something for a dealer showroom condition, ultra low miles 280ZX. Basic NA with silver paint and grey interior, t tops, power everything. People are nuts, no doubt about it. And I hope the prices stay low, otherwise I WILL move on to another platform. The Z is the best balance of price and potential that I've ever found, and one could even say the S130 and Z31 are cheap for their potential too, just a different and heavier era. The question remains... what WOULD we switch to if the Z cars become too expensive to build?

Because the LS series and the SBF have reverse valve arrangements. So there's an exhaust lobe on the SBF cam where there's an intake valve.

I'm not finding anything concrete. If I find the reference in the book I'll be sure to post the name of the book, author, publication date etc. But I'm 100% positive the cobra's back end was directly taken from a t-bird from rotor to rotor, all to incorperate vented rotors, thus the cobra simply can't be 5 rotor unless they modified the piece. Though the cobra R WAS a 5 lug car. Good luck finding one of those though. The good news though is that means the 4 lug pattern on the mustang should fit the t-birds, and companies make 99% accurate 93 cobra rims for under $500 w/color and finish options. Pretty nice rims for the price if you ask me.

Actually just the cobra R was 5 lug in 93'. And I think I know, as I've worked on a guenine all stock 93' cobra. I'm looking up the info on the web, but the info is from a 99% accurate mustang "red book". IIRC Ford had thousands of the rims lying around because they were for a thunderbird project that was never realised, and many of them rims DID make their way into many production t-birds.

Those "cobra" rims were actually from the t-bird to begin with, and SVT fitted them to the cobra. Not quite the other way around. The funniest thing about it though is that there's gotta be 10 times more thunderbirds out there with those rims than they ever made cobras, but the cobra made the rims popular.

When/If you get around to taking pics, please take a few shots of the shift hole in the tranny tunnel to give an idea of how it sits. I have a feeling it's gonna be nearly identical to people who have the T5 in a S30 from the L28ET swap. It'd be nice to have the pics for comparison. You're making great headway so far. Keep it up! It'd be nice to have another 4 banger option.