Gollum

It might be worthwhile to hunt the junkyards for several months until you find a junkyard LSD R200 then have it rebuilt. You'd still come out ahead.

I havn't had a tone of motors in varous Z cars like others here, so take what I say as philosophical, I'm not quite a realist yet... My ideal motor would be a 3-4L V8. Why V8 in particular, and in such a small displacement? Becuase 1) A V8 is usually the strongest bottom end for a V motor, and a V motor is one of the best ways to get compact power. Inline motors are tall, and even in OEM use they're slanted wich obviously shows that even the manufactures understand the downsides to a high weight balance 2) I'm not one who needs huge power, I enjoy cars the most when they feel well balanced and are actually usable for your application. You see, I'm not like alot of people here looking for 600+++ HP. I just want 300-400hp in a nible handling car that doesn't bring you suprises. Right now I'm putting an L28et in my car, for ONE reason. It's cheep and goes in with no hassle (car is a S130). For a future S30 project I'm looking into lots of options. One was the 1uz, but it's quite large for my liking. One of the other motors that's peaked my interest lately is the 5VZ toyota motor. It's around 185-190hp stock, but it's lowish compression (9.6:1) due to an optional TRD supercharger. Basic supercharged motors are around 265hp. This motor would reach my goals easily. But it has it's own hassles to overcome. In the end there's lots of motor options. I agree with johnc, don't let this whole thread become and argument. I have nothing against any motor. All motors have thier uses. Weather or not they fit my use is a different story. Most big cube motors have too much potential for my liking. Inline 6 motors are tough no doubt, but they can tend to make a Z nose heavy wich can kill handling resonce (though i know there's lots of guys out there with well handling L6 cars, i'm not saying against them). Then I4 motors just aren't my cup o' tea, and I've worked on/driven my fair share to actually know what they're like. Cheers everyone. Good thread methinks. I've enjoyed the discussion so far.

Well you're looking at spending at least $600 for a CLSD R200 if you buy one from ebay, and that'll be used. By those standards that doesn't seem like too much Though that's still more money than I'd like to spend on a diff.

$100 for two dyno pulls! That's highway robbery man. I'd hunt around for a dyno day type event with lots of people. Many times run of the mill car clubs don't mind letting someone else in on the party. I'm glad the car's going great! I'm in the middle of a wiring nightmare. Seems as though i'm gonna have to change about 80% of the wiring on the car in order to reach my "no adaptation" goal. Basically I don't want to fiddle around adapting connectors and such, but I didn't realise just how much was different between the two cars. Argh, oh well. It'll be on the road soon enough still.

In all my time here I've learned that it's not questions that people here hate, it's answering the same question day in and day out. In your case that hasn't happened, since few care about mopar or thier relation to motor swaps. Very few are known about, thus nearly EVERYONE will be interested in your swap, I guarantee it. Some people here thought it was pretty obvious that a big block crank wouldn't fit in a small block, so sue them. I got people makin fun of me when I didn't know what the oil pump was on the L series motor (since I'd had very limited work on them) yet could identify nearly every electrical sensor on the car. I didn't take it personally though, I just considered it "brotherly love". And if you have a brother you know what I'm talking about. If you want to start a project before posting, I guess that's fine. But please PLEASE post when you do start the project. I'm sure people here are willing to help, but I'd bet all that I have that people will want to have the knoweldge that comes from such a rare swap inventoried here on this site.

Yes, these are the evils of the net. We need more smilies Look, people on this site are extremely nice for the most part. There's a fair amount of sarcasim, wich helps keep things light-hearted. So please don't take things personally. We're really a family here on HZ. Take care

Congrats. Hopefully I'll only be a few weeks behind ya on getting mine running. I'm sticking with the stock boost until I can afford an intercooler, wastegate, injectors, and BOV. Enjoy the car and don't break anything

Just an FYI, the pre 83' L28ET tune up spec is 20B timing, and the 83' is 24B. This is according to the chilton's manual. So timing spec should be somewhere around there. In case you didn't have an offical documentation on it. I know if I didn't read it myself I would really start my timing in that area cuz that's kinda high

Thanks for the clarification. I thuoght it was higher though, oh well

that's the spec on the 2.2 liter. Was it higher on the earlier 2.0 liter motors?

Ok, well things are still moving slower than I'd like. Not becuase of complications of working on the car, but complications of getting free time during the right time of day. Here's the engine bay as it lies now: Still need to pull some things out, and a little bit of wiring to remove yet. And for your viewing pleasure this isn't what you want your pistons to look like. And here's a wider shot so you can see how clean I got my two outter pistons in a little over 60 seconds (build up was thick, and that grossed me out a bit, not what you want to dream is in your cumbustion chamber) So, two weeks of REAL work and I should be wrapping things up I think. It's a goal I'm setting, but I won't be too dissapointed if things don't work out as planned again.

I disagree that buying a ferrari is about being fast. Sure it's a part of the package, but there's something else about it no doubt. You don't buy a rolex because it keeps the best time in the world, you buy it becuase it's a status symbol. Almost any gearhead can put a car together to beat most production cars in a straight line. But building something that will be all around faster, AND as comfortable, AND as reliable as a ferarri would be hard to do. And I'm not against the LS7 swap idea, but that lovely sound... oOo man do ferrari's sound great.

Yea, I think the earlier S2000 hondas had 12.5:1 I could be wrong though. I don't claim to know what it really is, but I remember nearly falling to the foor when I first found out how high it was on a production vehicle.

No, just the white car has the turbo hood, wich I'll be spraying black. Bleach, it was an honor to be cross-quoted

Could it possibly be an ignition problem? I've had one go out on me, where sometimes I'd turn the key and the car would turn over but the fuel pump wouldn't kick in, and then sometimes the other way around. Fickle things those worn out keys. Probly not an end-all answer but something to think about.

I love your story cal poly. It shows that if you really pursue you can get the refs to do what you need. And obviously from your case some are better than others. If you're willing to do your homework and work with the ref it's amazing what you can get legalised. I started this post for one reason and one reason only. There's a new service provided by BAR that allows you to check out not only your vehicles test history (wich has been availible for a while) but also weather or not it's going to be test only or not next smog date. http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/vehtests/pubtstqry.aspx A HIGHLY recomended link. Bookmark it for sure, although knowing the government the site won't exists in 3 weeks or will be taken on by another website. Bah.

Now why can't mazda make a production NA 4 rotor? It makes so much more sence to me than a turbo 2 rotor. I guess that's just me. Then again moden engine bays are short and wide, whereas our Z cars are narrow and long.

Clean clean clean... but i hate red interior, sorry. Nothing personal There's lots you can do, but not a ton that will make a huge difference for NA power. And there isn't much in existance for "bolt on" upgrades as aftermarket support practically doesn't exist. You can always go the direction that AE2ZX and I are going. L28ET. They came stock in the car and are pretty cheep. They have much more power potential as well. There's lots of people on here with those motors at many different stages so you're always sure to have the help you need here. You're in auburn so the swap would easily be legalised if you ever need to legalise it. Just make sure 100% of everything gets chaged . I won'y lie and say it's an easy swap, since I'm in the middle of it now, but it's probly about as easy as any swap gets. If you know next to nothing about cars I wouldn't just jump into a project like that. I'd recomend doing some of your own engine mantainence and get familar with your engine and all of the other mechanical components. Do some oil changes, plug changes, tune ups, ect on your own. Good luck with the Z, it looks great.

Well, no pics of I got a little bit of work done today. Started pulling the entire steering assy and got the EFI harness out (along with everything else attached). I still havn't started taking apart the new turbo car yet but I think it's going to have to start soon. I've been keeping it in a running state so that car guys I know can come by and check it out, but I guess the rest will have to wait till the swap is done. I've got a few minutes tomorrow so I'm going to try and finish off the steering stuff and clean out the engine bay some. There's some rust in the battery tray area that I can't get to in order to sand out so I don't think I'll get to treat that area at all. But I do plan on sealing as much as I can get at.

I think it's pretty rare for an AFM to go bad. They might have issues but i'm pretty sure they're usually fixable. Here's an article you can check into if the injectors aren't the problem. http://www.geocities.com/jfairladyz/AFMrebuild.html?1144191577198

Three words: Breaker Bar Hammer. That's all you need and you shouldn't exude too much force. Just a good long solid breaker bar and some good taps with a hammer and there you have it. But I'm a firm believer that if a job is extremely difficult then you don't have the right tools. So maybe it be best for you to use air tools.

Whoa, I saw the title of this thread and thought it must have been something someone dug up from the archives, but NO! Aux is working on the car again! YAHOO! I really want to see this thing in person once it's on the road. Go aux, we're cheering for ya.

I got the engine out today, right as it started to rain. Oh well, I'll just continue tomorrow. But it sure felt good to get the motor out, that's for sure.

If I were you I wouldn't base your car's speed/hp on who you can beat, unless of course you've driven both cars. Racing is racing and in the end it comes down to the drive. I can just start naming off insane kills but they're meaningless because all that tells you is how bad of a driver the person I was racing was. I don't mean to hack you down, I just thought you could use this bit of advice.

I think the reason there isn't much info on the 280ZX on this board (or on the net) is due to the lack of interest in them. The S130 and the Z31 aren't very popular within any crowd. The engine swap hybrid types like the S30 cars for thier weight and the modern crowd likes the Z32 for it's touring characteristics. But people like us are slowly changing that. The S130 seems to be gaining some popularity just in the time I've been a member here, so the future is looking bright for our cars.