Gollum

Not that it really matters, but i never go by mazda's displacement rating system for the rotory motors, and most people agree the rating is questionable. But mazda's written the book, therefor they're allow to say what they want. Oh well. But 7k for a shaft.... ouch. We need some other companies to start making them as well so there's competition. I understand the research that goes into making these, and they've just started selling them, but that's a painful price to pay. But a NA 4 rotor in a Z, mmm, that'd be nice. Should be reliable and last a long time too.

Racing just isn't that easy to predict. I've beaten guys in faster cars several times, even in straight line racing. And I don't really like doing all of the work so here's the numbers and you can figure it out for yourself. 300ZX tt wegith = 3299 (according to nissan spec for the NA) 300ZX tt HP = 280 (fly) 280ZX weight = 2825 (nissan spec again) 280ZX HP = 260 fly (should be easy to reach at 12 psi if you're not breaking anything) That's all the information you really need as far as how fast it will be compared to a 300ZX tt.

here's a dynosheet from bastaad's old car (i believe he sold it). It's a pretty nice dyno sheet as he's over 200 wheel hp from 3.5-6k rpm. Nice and broad HP curve at 12 psi. This was at 12 psi with an intercooler, BOV, boost controller, and a rising rate FPR so he could adujust the fuel pressure. He made 233 hp on that dyno with 303 torque. Not bad if you ask me. That should be able to keep up with a stock 300ZXTT if you ask me, because that TT is 280 fly hp, so you two would be putting down about the same amount of HP to the wheels, and your 280ZX is lighter.

There's many good reasons why it hasn't really been done (regarding general honda swaps) 1. They're overpricesd because of the ricer crowd creating such a demand 2. Most are designed for FWD and the few RWD models are either old or expensive (S2k variants) and to do a RWD conversion is time consuming and expensive. 3. There are many cheaper motors with more potential. Hondas have open decks and tend to be pretty fragile in the higher HP figures. 4. Then there's the overall disgust of the name. Honda is the chevy of the import world. You either love or hate them, not many in between. And good luck getting ANY american car fan to appreciate a honda motor in a Z. But if you said "yea I've got a 2.4 liter toyota from a truck with a huge turbo" they might actually give you a nod of approval. Honda's have a lot of cons, and not many pros. Here's what I consider to be the biggest pros to a honda swap: 1. They're super easy to work on and get parts for. 2. Due to their all aluminium and open deck design they tend to be very very light motors. I think another motor worth looking at if you're looking at the F20C is the Ecotec series from GM. You can get them designed for force induction with stout bottom ends, with a RWD tranny, in a small and light package (even for a 4 banger). But trust me when I say, I'm not biased against hondas. The first car I ever really worked on was a 10 sec del sol and one of my best friends is a huge honda guy so I've hand my hands on quite a few.

man i love those cars still. Been drooling over these pics for well over 2 hours now between other online activity. I'll keep busy for a bit and think to myself "does it still look as good" then switch over to this page "yup, still amazing". That's quite a find man, leave it origonal, wise man.

I took a hard second look at it, it's looking more like a 90 degree crank, but the perspective makes it tough to tell, though all the 180* cranks I'd seen didn't have the same polarity next to each other like that one would be if it was 180*. Guess I just always see what I wanna see

Anyone else notice in that exploded view that the crank is a 180 degree crank???? ...nice...

Though I agree with this I think it's more than just that. For me there aren't many new cars that trill me. There's no such thing as a reasonably priced car on the mainstream market that really excites me. There's just something about some cars that's just magical. The way a Z feels and rides is just special. It's that X factor that can't be defined. The Z has that, and though it isn't everyone's cup of tea it beats much of the mainstream market's appeal by a wide margin. The simple lack of enthusiasm in car creation nowadays sickening to me. And most cars are so disconnected feeling by yesteryear's standard. I know there are some exotics out there that blow away most cars of past history, but you simply can't get now what the Z was back in it's day. That alone makes them worthwhile cars. I can think of other cars that give me goosebumps driving, but what's their $$$ and what kinda potential do they have? The Z cars are like canvas just waiting to be painted on. They're affordable, and have lots of flexibility.

Wow, thanks for sharing this information. Good news to hear.

Actually the hatch back that 80% of drifters prefer for the S13 is closer to 2800, and those are smaller, and have a slick top with no t-top options. I would still love to find out what a bone stock slick top NA Z32 weighs in at, since slick top weights were never publicly available from nissan.

Well if you want to use the stock turbo gauges you're in for a bit of fun. That's where I'm at now. I'm just doing a complete wiring conversion so that 100% of behind the dash is from the turbo car, not quite as easy as you might think. But it's also not that hard, just painfully tedious. The evap is slightly different, but I'm not sure it really matters. I'm still a fan of just getting a donor car. You can find them running for cheap enough and it'll have all the parts in working order, since you'll be buying one that runs (i hope). Some of my injectors were bad and now i'm really kicking myself. I'd seen at least 10+ 280ZX turbo cars at the junkyard last summer and now they've disappeared for the moment, but once one turns up I'll be pullng the injectors from it. I'm still not 100% positive on the driveshaft requirements. I'm just gonna pull one from a turbo car once I find one (my donor car is a 2+2). There's lots of possible sizes but I don't know how many nissan TRULY had for sure, and I haven't found anyone who's given me a FOR SURE answer that knows, though I know there are some people on here that DO know, but I don't press the issue much, it's not a big deal. There's the auto VS manual length. Then you have turbo VS NA length (T5 tranny in the turbo) then you have the 2+2 varieties of both combinations. So that's 2 x 2 x 2. So 8 possibly lengths, but I think there was just 4 at most. I think the T5 is the same length of a transmission as the NA tranny, but I can't confirm this yet, but I am positive they're a different driveshaft. I think the auto trannies are the same length too, and will use their respective NA or turbo counterparts.

I personally think this is a perfect match motor for us DIY types here at HZ. Parts are super cheap, easy to come by, and the transmission issues have been solved if you're willing to hunt around and get your hands greasy. My plan is to someday put one in a first gen celica with a cosworth head setup. Should be nasty to say the least.

HAHAHAHA "You won't find another combo like this turbo + 5 spd + digital dash" what on earth is he smoking?

Because you're using two parts of your brain at once. Guitar playing eventually becomes a motor skill and that's it. You learn based on what motor skills you've developed. Your brain doesn't need to think about it. It's the same reason you can play guitar and watch TV at the same time.

One thing I'd like to say about the phone subject, is that I tell people on the phone the same thing I tell my passengers, "If I don't respond right away it's because I'm driving and I might ask you to repeat yourself." If you're on the phone you're not AS equipped to handle surprises, it's a simple fact. Less of your brain power is being focused on the road. Now, you CAN keep enough attention on the road while talking to drive under 100% favorable conditions with no surprises. Some people have a hard time in a 90% favorable condition, such as rain. But I guarantee you that nobody is gonna be talking on the phone if an accident just happened right in front of them. Our issue here is that it doesn't take much to keep a car on the road and drive "acceptably". It takes much more to drive safely and with full awareness. 99% of the time when I'm behind someone and they're doing something stupid enough to force me to pass (even on the right side if I have to, which I don't do unless I must) they're one the cell phone. Sure, I know many people here can probably drive just fine with a cell phone, but we're car nuts that love driving. I'd venture to say that MOST drivers if on the cell phone won't be able to respond well enough if an emergency arises. I've personally had enough close calls while OFF the cell phone. I've learned that there's a time and a place for it while driving. And even then you don't take it lightly. I generally only answer a phone call on the road if it's someone important and I keep it short. I can understand business people needing to talk much more than that, but I think most people still take it too lightly. But then there's all the other stuff I see. Girls not looking at the road while they do their makeup. Kids not paying attention just chatting it up with their friends. Mothers fighting with their kids in the back seat. Men carrying such insane loads on their vehicle that are so poorly tied down that they spend more than half their time looking in their mirrors and not in front of them. All these people MIGHT be able to avoid an accident, that's not what I'm getting at. What I'm getting at is that they MIGHT be in an accident they COULD have prevented under other circumstances. I think the reason we don't have more accidents is because of all the people that ARE paying attention. The person that's not on the phone that leaves room for the person that IS on the phone trying to merge without looking. Or the trucker that moved over ahead of time for a short on ramp that everyone thinks they can take at 40mph. I many times break "speed laws" on the on ramp because I'm trying to carry as much speed as possible for merging (anyone who's seen some of the vallejo on ramps here in the bay area knows what i'm talking about). I'm also really big on driver awareness. Spot the people that cause trouble and know how to prevent trouble. Learn how to drive in SPITE of them. Don't make them worse than they already are. Find GOOD drivers and follow them. The other night I managed to get behind 3 consecutive cars going the speed I was (close enough) that all treated the last lane as a passing only lane even though traffic was super light (1am, but there's still people out of course). So I followed all of them all night because I knew they were actually paying attention to what they were doing. Sure we could say there's lots of ways to 'fix' all our issues, but we don't need this getting political since most of the laws we need are in place, they just need to be enforced. So that's that for that subject. I have no need to quarrel over politics or even discuss them.

I'm all for trying to keep kids from racing on the public streets, but some people just make bad decisions while in a car. To go on the shoulder to pass is 100% bad idea 100% of the time regardless of speed. I won't condone racing, but even more so I won't condone stupidity among drivers. I'm very sorry for your loss 240Z Master, and I hope that idiot learns how to AT LEAST learn the how/when of being an idiot on the street, if not getting to the point of ending all stupid behavior on the tarmac. Stupid driving can kill people on tracks too, just a lot less likely.

I'm still wondering how light a gutted slick top 280ZX would weight... With another motor that car should have just as much track potential as some of the S30's on this board (i'd imagine it's possibly to get caged track car under 2800 if the motor is light enough)

Yea, the slick top alone will gain you at least 20-70 pounds or do (depending on how much reinforcement goes into the window system). Plus it's more rigid. I'd looked for quite some time for a slick top 280ZX when I bought my second, but just couldn't find one soon enough. Then there's the spare, and jack. That's quite a bit of weight as well. If I had to guess, I'd say that in order for you to be at the weight you're at (not calling BS at all man, I'm just trying to figure out either were the weight went or where in the world you started) I'd guess you started around 3200. Knock it down to 3000 by pulling all unnecessary weight out, then knock it down to 2850 for the motor swap. I guess that KINDA makes sense, but I've love to weigh all the pieces. It seems to me the slick top is one light chassis compared to the rest of the Z32's, and the slick tops aren't necessarily everywhere, or easy to come by.

I can't imagine the LT being much -if any- lighter than the VG30DETT, but I haven't had both on a scale so it's not like I can say. But really DTS, how much do you think your car weighed stock? There's no way you lost 700 pounds on a motor swap correct? This is the point i'm trying to get across to lexshimmy. The motor - though light - won't make the total difference and as johnc and others have proven there's a lot you can do to get the weight distribution you want AND weight distribution isn't the end all be all of cornering speed. To me the only reason the swap DOES make some sense is that both of you are starting with VG30DE motors. The NA motor doesn't have much NA potential so you're best off swapping the motor out anyways, so why not go with a turbo 4 if it meets your power goals? I still can't see it being a true "touge monster" though. Fun on mountain roads? Sure. Able to beat cars like the amuse S2k? Not likely.

Yea, if 1k is the budget for parts then I'd much sooner just drop that into the motor that's in there. Might even have enough cash to get it rebuilt if you're careful and DIY enough. But if 1k were the absolute parts cost max, i'd try to source a motor for around $500, to leave plenty of room for other things that might need sorting out. But all in all the CA18 is a nice motor. No slouch at all.

I paid about $70 for a Z31 LSD diff... and I thought THAT was bad...

Haha, did you really just relate "common sense" to your opinions? Learn english please. No, what you REALLY mean is "this is the only swap that makes sense for what I want" "this is the only swap that makes common sense" means that this is the ONLY motor that could POSSIBLY do all the things I want, and you're wrong. That's ok. I don't care if you WANT to go with the SR. I think it's a GOOD choice. A bit expensive for what you want, and there's better ways to loose the 50-100 pounds you're saving over the VG but that's ok too. What I DO care about is you posting stupid blanket statements that show how little you know, weather it be either cars or the language we speak. People in this thread were so keen to point out that there are "R34 touge monsters" (which is bs) so why not a RB or 2JZ? There's the 1UZ, 4G63, LT, LS, SBC, SBF, 5.0, F20C, 3MZ I could go on for days. Should I? Like I said, I don't mind you're going with the SR motor. But you're a purist and admit it. So please keep the purist BS mindset off this board that hates purists.

HAHAHA, it's harious how the NEVER talk about any laws the driver might have been making, they don't even mention him POSSIBLY speeding, but yet they feel they must mention what the car is capable of. Gotta love BBC

I've seen quick road racing S30 Z's with VG motors. But they're SOHC and NA. Also remember that weight placement is almost more important than how much of it you have. And you jumped from 2700 to 3200... the VG is NOT 500 pounds heavier than the SR. IF a VG30DET puts a Z32 at 3200 then a SR swap shouldn't even put you down to 3k. And to put the record straight the Z32 2 door hard top was spec'ed at 3299. I'd really like to find out what DTS300Z's car looks like in the other areas that got his weight down so low. I can guarentee that it wasn't just the motor. That would either mean nissan grossly added weight to the specs, or the VG weighs nearly a thousand pounds. Personally, because you're going to be battling a heavier car no matter what, I'd want torque. I've raced a wide variety of cars, and in a light car torque doesn't matter as much as long as your gearing matches the motor, but the heavier the car you get into the more you miss torque. If it were me I'd stick a super light V8 in the car. Something all aluminum that can make 500+ hp. And LS1 weights about 390 out of the box. That's not much more weight than a complete SR20+turbo+FMIC+piping ect. Plus it's weight isn't going to stick out farther, both motors are 4 cylinders long. It's going to be a shorter weight, which is important as well. It's got a wider variety of tranny options. It makes more HP out of the box, and has lots available with affordable mods. I just read an article by sport compact car and they removed a red top SR and engine+manifolds+turbo+tranny weighed in at 490, so you're looking at around a tick over 500 once you add FMIC and piping. And to say "this is the only swap that makes common sense" shows how little you know about motors. There's TONS of motors out there, and you sound like the person that only knows of the popular ones. I'm not bashing you, I just ask for you to think before you speak.

A big part of it depends on how aggressive of a tune you're running, and other variables such as what modifications you've made to the EFI if it's a stock ECU setup, what kinda intake mods have been done, if there's been any head porting. I could go on but you should catch the drift. The VG is definitely cheaper, and the VG can get respectable power numbers with more torque and less RPM which means a broader power band. Main limitations are weight and economy. But a good tune should still net over 20 mpg on an aftermarket ecu and a smart driver.