Gollum

That DOES look fake. If I were a cop I'd pull you over. It's pretty though. Good selection too.

Thank you. Though I think my conclusion is that it's not burning oil, but rather some seafoam type cleaner the previous owner put in... It smokes a lot, but it just doesn't smell like oil, nor coolant. I thought it was funny at the time though. Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

An old cap & rotor can really wreak havoc once they start going out. Get them changed, they're like $20. You have chunks missing from your camshaft???? How would that be good? Where did the missing peices go, into the engine? Those bits of metal could be foating around in your oiling system, and that's not good at all.

Well, there's basically 3 intakes out there. 280Z with individual runners 280ZX with webbed runners 280ZX Turbo same as regular 280ZX but with a few extra fittings. Oh.... you're talking about intake piping and filters... not intakes. In that case I'd suggest just making something yourself. This isn't rocket science (at least until you reach the 9's, then I guess it IS rocket science). Get a pipe that's the correct diameter and goes to the correct point to fit through the firewall, and get clamps for the pipe to the throttle body, and the pipe to the filter. Might not be as pretty, but I guarentee there won't be a noticable difference in power between that and anything some company would try to gimmick you into buying.

I'd leave the pintle caps on. They ensure a snug fit into the intake. You might want to get new ones put on though if they're comming out that easily. Turbo = Brown NA = Green or White

I've owned 4 280ZXs... They've all had very accurate fuel guages. It might just be that the sending unit needs to be cleaned up. I've never had an issue, so I've never opened up my tank.

Yea. Something's triggering the cold start system. Either that or the injector is stuck open, which is less likely I think.

179hp would be the SAE GROSS HP figure, not NET, which is what these cars were rated at. So more realistically it's around 130hp previously stated in this thread. I think you should find some summer work. $100 doesn't go very far. Skip the intake. You'll be lucky to see a 2hp increase. Spend it on a good tune up. Spark plugs. Cap. Rotor. Plug wires, etc. Check the timing, air fuel mixture if you can. The most valuable thing you can do, since it seems as though you're not extremely knowledgable, would be to dedicate a good 5-10 hours a week LEARNING. I don't care if this means convincing the parents to pay for night classes at a community college, or just searching for stuff on this site, but unless you really develop a hunger for truthful car knowledge then you'll just end up another "ricer" that's "pimping out" your ride. The clutch/flywheel suggestion is a good one. Weight reduction might do more than anything else for you right now. Spend your time and money on things that will go as far as possible. A tune up can unlock hiding horses, but a fiberglass airdam and removing the bumper will pull off weight that will forever be gone from your vehicle, no matter how much time has elapsed, or how many engines you've had in the car.

Working on the Z Testarossa or F360?

Brought back from the dead. Nice. Elastigirl - Always take the superheroine. Coke or Pepsi?

Well, main application would be a light vehicle of some sort right? Doesn't matter if it's 2 wheels or 6. Kit cars are just the most logical leap.

Yea, not sure what's up with lamberson, might be summer vacation related. I don't think I have a phone number, wish I did. Mario_82_ZXT hasn't been around, or maybe I'm just missing his posts.

BRAAP - I think that's a bear that's had the head of a dog photoshopped onto it. There's a guy in the northbay I know who used to own a Z31, and he brought his dog all sorts of places in his Z, and the main thing he'd chew was the center console lid. It was pretty tore up, while the rest of the interior was nearly perfect.

It still amazes me what we see these transmissions deal with here on hybridZ. Users like garret have killed several, but their power levels and time slips are very impressive. I'm using a stock 5 speed behind a L28ET which should be pushing around 200-215hp, and big phil is running a stock 280ZX 5 speed behind a L28ET pushing well over 300hp to the wheels, and almost 400 torque. That's a lot of power. I think it's more about what johnc mentioned at the end of his post. "...the drive knows how to shift and is running a good, properly adjusted clutch." When the syncros are in good shape these transmissions shift SUPER smooth too. Once I got used to my new 280Z daily driver, which shifts pretty hard when cold, I got in my 280ZX and I almost thought the shift linkage was broken it was so easy.

That's what I was saying. These engines were low compression stock, and people STILL get 30mpg out of them on carbs! I see no reason that a high compression, EFI L engine couldn't reach 40mpg if driven right. That's some pretty good mileage for the engine the car cam with 30+ years ago.

AMV8(1day) - I think realistically the first one made will have to be by someone who works in a machine shop and can eat the labor and machine costs, and just needs some help designing it. Then once that first one is made and proven we can talk about prices. But realistically, if I could get a flat plane crank for a SBF for under $2,000, it'd be on my wish list. If it were under $1,000 then I'd consider it a "must have" for any SBF build up. Jerminator96 - I think there might be a small market for it, but also realize that americans are generally into big cube V8 engines, and kit car, or ground up builders are few in the USA. Locost and other track kit cars are much more common in the UK, though it's a growing market in the USA I believe. And once the economy bounces back and people are spending money I think we can expect the hobby racers to really come out of the woods. My latest real contribution to this thread: I quickly stopped by my old friend's house who ran a sucessful ferarri shop, and asked him what he knew about flat plane cranks, and if he thought it'd be cheaper to get a ferarri engine or design and build a flat plane crank. When I asked about the vibration, he kinda chuckled and said: "Well what's the use of the car?" "Racing" and before I could even get that out he said "Well who cares about vibrations then?" He seemed to think even in a high displacement V8 the vibrations wouldn't be catostrohpic, and would be more annoying than damaging. He also seemed quite surprised that the crank companies out there havn't been willing to give us an honest down to earth quote, and that it shouldn't be THAT hard for them to do. I really pressed him for a guess on prices for ferarri engines but he insisted I contact a guy he knew rather than take his word for it, but he said an engine in the 3 liter range with around 250hp would probably cost around 10-15k, depending on condition. Makes the hyabusa V8 seem like a deal for the HP, and the fact replacement parts wouldn't be that hard to come by. But I seriuosly believe that if an engineer on this board put thier mind to it they could design and build a usable flat plan crank for any american small block. And I also believe there'd be a market for it.

There's been talk about the H1V8, but I'm not sure if that's the engine you're reffering to. I wasn't sure where they're made. Main issue with that motor is cost. An aftermarket crankshaft is cheap. There's not a ton of cost in the matierials, just in the machining and designing. If we could either find a flat plane crank engine to work with, or find someone to machine some for us, that could be a much cheaper solution.

Hey, I wasn't bashing you. Sorry if it came across that way. I'm simply stating that if your goal is to save money, then many swaps will fly out the window. I was suggesting doing research into the stock engines. They're low compression from the factory and with todays gas higher compression levels are acceptable, and with modern EFI it'd be perfectly manageable. There's potential in these motors, that's all I'm saying.

Hold on there sean, don't get too excited about weight savings on a motor swap. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=125246 Stock L24 crabed motor weighs in at 389.4 with everything on it. Though it's an iron block, these L engines have tiny cylinder heads that are very narrow and short. Only a small percentage of an engine's weight resides in the block. There's a lot of other pieces involved. You can reliably expect up to a 50 pound decrease in weight with some swaps, but don't bet on loosing weight unless you have confirmed weights knowing exactly what was on the motor. Also don't forget that the stock nissan transmission is a feather weight. I believe it's only around 75 pounds, and I've picked them up before and wouldn't have even thought they were that heavy. Most transmissions will be heavier.

That's CHEAP fuel. I got a STEAL yesterday in the $4.3X range for 87 octane. It seems that with the weight of the S30 cars, you're going to be limited to around 40mpg with the stock aerodynamics, unless you drive 40-45mph everywhere you go. With some well designed aero mods 45-50mpg MIGHT be reachable, but I think serious weight reduction would be needed. And I personally think that 35mpg will be perfectly reachable with a L28ET running on megasquirt on regular 87 octane gas, and be able to dyno over 200hp, so there's power when you need it. It almost begs the question, "why change the motor at all?" The cost of most swaps just isn't worth the increase in MPG in my opinion. The stock motor is good enough to work with. It's like paying more to get a hybrid vehicle. Hybrids are NOT the cheapest cars per mile on the show room floor nowdays. Paying more for better gas mileage isn't always worth it. Same goes for engine swaps.

I can tell you from experience, it's no picnic. Easier than most yes, but that doesn't make it simple, especially depending on the year of the engine versus year of the car. Since your car is a 83' it shouldn't be too bad. Did you pull the driveshaft with it? Was it the same seat count as your car? (both 2 seaters, or both 2+2s) You'll want that driveshaft at any rate.

According to wiki (which has been known to be wrong sometimes) the 83-86 Marquis only had the HO 5.0 in Canada. The US models had a 4 cylinder lima, inline 6 mileage maker, and the V6 essex. At any rate, these ARE good motors, as far as the block goes. The 302 of the windsor family has a slew of affordable go fast parts of them, and 300hp is perfectly realistic on a very tight mod budget. With some good aftermarket heads 400hp should be relatively easy. If it has the nice 87+ mustang EFI (which I doubt since it's an 84') keep it and tune it. If it's carb'ed then just dump that carb and get a new intake + carb for it. With free flowing exhaust it should be putting out 220+ hp. Main limitation should be the stock heads which are most likely iron. Even some cheap used aluminum heads from edlebrock or trickflow should do wonders. Cams are cheap too. E303 and X303 are crowd favorites. If you can make your own mounts and are able to do the entire swap yourself, I'd say go for it. If I didn't have to deal with smog testing I'd be working on a 5.0 powered 280ZX myself.

Well the Z32 is already comming down under $5k if you look around. When the 350Z becomes outdated with the next gen, give it a few years and the Z33 cars will just plummet. I'm guessing that by 2015 a Z33 will go for less than $5k of todays american dollor, which might be $7500 by then. That's cheap enough for most people to get a small loan on. And I'm betting they'll still be ticking just fine. By then I'll be 28, and maybe I'll be ready to settle down and get a "new car"... That's about when I could see myself buying a 350Z.

I guess I mean character in the way a brit would use the term. Say you drive an old POS, it's falling apart in some ways but it keeps holding together. You could probably afford something a bit newer that won't cause people to worry about your well being, but something keeps you connected to the car. It's character. No matter how many times an Alfo Romero breaks down it still has something special not all cars have, character. That's what I mean by character. To a lot of C6 owners, their cars are disposable. If something newer and better that they can afford comes along they've switched boats. A lot of C6 owners were C5 owners. The C5 is getting left in the closet waiting for it's price to drop so someone less fortunate can dust it off and make it his own. That to me shows that the C6 hasn't earned it's character yet. It's just a fancy new toy. I'm sure they're nice, and I don't bash what they can do, because they ARE impressive machines and I don't want to seem too harsh on them. But the 280ZX reminds people of an era gone by. It's looks tell you it's desperately trying to clentch onto the 70's while the square 80's econo boxes strangle it silly. You sit in a 280ZX and you can almost feel the dealership the car came from. You look around and see power everything. The mirrors make funny noises as they swive around at the flick of a finger on the center console. The windows tell you how heavy the glass is that it's trying to push up. And the smell... Oh the smell. I've sat in over 100 S130 cars now and they call have this familiar smell I can't describe. But it's been imbedded in my head as a "Z" smell forever. That's character people. The 280ZX has spice that only an older car can have. And I think the 280ZX is very special in that it has no visual sibling from any manufacture. The S30 and Z31 can be tied to many other vehicles that they were either based off of, or influenced. The 280ZX is very unique from many angles. I wish the Z31 hadn't of been such a clean slate redesign. The C6 looks like a spiffed up C5... Only car guys can even see the differences besides the headlights. Hopefully that makes a bit more sense. EDIT: Mikelly's signature shows something of character. The fact Porsche has stayed so true to their values produces cars with lineage, with character. They're a special make of cars.

Ok, women call the smart car cute. They call the bug cute. They call lots of piles of poo cute. When a woman calls a ferarri anything, it's normally sexy. Not cute. That's the difference. The new 350Z has quite a large female buyer base, and many of them call it cute... so things havn't changed much. But on the upside, that means the 350Z will be as cheap to get a hold of as the S30 eventually. There's no way the enthusiast market will ever hope to keep up with the huge turn around of all the casual buyers.