Gollum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Top_Gear_episodes Tada... Every episode listed, at least from the NEW top gear that started in 2002. There was an older top gear show, but I've seen very little of it. I'm not sure if it was a regular show, or a show that just did specials a couple times a year.

Sorry to hear about all of it brian. It's been a long road getting the motor to where it's at, and though this incident sucks big ones, just remember the final product. We're all rooting for you here man.

So..... tubing the front end while you're at it? I must say you do fight this war vigorously. Second picture kinda made my jaw drop, wasn't really expecting that.

The blue sides, the wheel covers, the lack of wiper... it's a ZXR no doubt. It was a limited run they made in order to homologate a whale tail spoiler. The reason they didn't have rear wipers (the only S130 without them) is that they interfered with the spoiler, and they weren't about to modify the spoiler, so off came the rear window wiper. They're usually VERY light as most of them had almost zero options. You should be able to find more info by searching 280ZXR on this message board. I've been trying to find someone near where I live with one so I can have them weigh it, as I want to know if my guess is right.

Looks like a ZXR that's had it's wing removed, what a shame. Cartesian, does the rear hatch have a wiper?

Well inspect the bolts, might need a mirror to see them all. Also look for any black areas, as the exhaust leak will leave surrounding areas black. It's not too uncommon for the furthest front and back exhaust bolts to break, I've now owned 2 L motors like this. It shuoldn't be "too" hard to just pull the intake manifold and give the exhaust manifold a good inspection. I can easily remove an intake in about 30 minutes providing all the tools for it are out and ready.

What type of pistons are they putting in? Got any specs? It'd be nice to know if you're getting cast or forged pistson, and how much dish they have. Going .020 overbore (that's twenty thousandths) won't give you a ton of extra HP. Generally a machine shop will go overbore for the freshening effect of new wall surface, more than the extra displacement. Another big factor is that your machinist can then bore match each cylinder to each piston, giving the best possible fit of the piston. .020 over will give you about an extra 2 cubic inches I think, so not a ton. But if the piston has less dish, or has a better designed dish then that could easily have an effect on the power. Stock compression is pretty low and there's no reason it couldn't be raise a little bit and still be reliable. In fact many guys take the NA motor and stick all the turbo stuff on them and run them just fine, showing that the stock turbo compression is pretty conservative. About the body, for your sake I hope it's a pretty clean chassis. Search around, there's plenty of guys here that have invested insane amounts of time in just rust repair. It can be a real pain.

Welcome to hybridZ BanditJ. If you're interested in engine swaps you've come to the right place, and if you need to know about how to perform a legal engine swap just PM me, I'm full of smog info I'm willing to share, just don't want to derail this tread.

DANG IT! Got my freakin' hopes up for new episodes. Been biting my nails waiting for the next season, should be amazing

It's been a while since I've had the honor to post something. I was out in SF yesterday afternoon and decided to give the "super low beans and rice budget" camera I bought the girlfriend a few months ago. I think it's a.... panasonic? Nothing spectacular, but here's what I was able to get out of it with some dying batteries. I wasn't considering posting this until I took notice of the tourist that made it into the shot... now I just laugh at it. This was my favorite of the day. Wish I'd had more juice to play around with angles some more. Testing the macro capability

Haha, I know what you mean. Luckly my GF likes my 75' just doesn't like the rough ride and the exhaust fumes. Once I tie up those loose ends she'll love it. I might have to hide the keys of the new 80' from her though. She's liking it way too much. Oh yea cygnusx - congrats on the wonderful night out on the town. Sounds like you and the misses had a great time, and it honestly makes me happy to hear that the Z was a part of it all.

Yup, louvers are comming off this week. And the rims... well if I find a set I might put something on it but I'm not going to make it a priority.

Nobody else is saying anything, and I know this information isn't READILY availble here, though I'm sure you can get a good idea if you search around enough, so I'll give you my EDUCATED GUESS Disclaimer: This is by no means to be taken as gospel or even truth. These following words are just the ramblings of someone who's spent too much time on this site drooling over cars he wishes he had the time, money, and talent to build. I'd say the stock R180 should last a long time, IF... You keep the tire size down and DO NOT shift hard past 2nd gear. Take it easy and apply power slowly when shifting to 3rd and 4th and it should hold up a long time. These diffs don't tend to gradually die, they tend to kinda fail all at once. They die from huge shock loads from shifting hard at speed when there's lots of traction availble. As long as you apply the power SLOWLY or don't put huge sticky tires on it you should be ok. With those power levels I wouldn't take it to the track without a trailer to take it home on in case the worst happened.

For those that didn't see my thread before, this car was FREE. Can't beat that right? You're gonna think that it must be ugly right? Nope, not at all (unless you don't like the S130 body lines). Well it must not run right? Nope, I drove it home. What's the catch? The previous owner thought it wasn't running right and was only running on 4 strong cylinders and was thinking compression was low on two cylinders for whatever reason. When we fired her up he said "you know... it sounds better now than it ever did before" so I guess the car just likes me. You can check out all the pictures I took at my photoalbum here: http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b346/Gollumandsmeagol/280ZX/ So here's some of the highlight photos: A random sign at the house I picked it up at The engine bay as I found it Some walk around pictures of the car after I washed it Overall she drives great. I'd forgotten how silent these cars were, and it's way quieter still than any of the S130 cars I've owned still. The wind noise is way lower than I ever remembered it being, and overall it feels like I'm driving a new car. The seals must be in great shape. The paint seems fairly new and it was VERY well done. Whole engine bay has been painted and I can't find a bad masking job anywhere. Maybe they replaced all the seals when the did the paint job, thus explaining the uber quiet ride noise. This one's going to be really hard to let go guys...

Wow, some of these sound pretty freaggin' amazing. That's all for now. I'll find some more later.

Oh I agree, doesn't sound exotic in the realm of F-1, Ferrari or the likes, but it certainly sounds DIFFERENT from the average V8 and I can envision that sound coming from a supercar. Makes me think of the high end AMG Mercedes sounds..... oOo boy do those cars sound fantastic. So... ford V10 sounds like what now? I've never thought they were that out of the ordinary sounding... And those engines aren't THAT hard to come by. just a little pricey. (though not as bad as say... a used F1 engine...) Braap - are you holding onto any V10 videos you're not sharing with us? Because I'm about to go do some searching...

I have a feeling I'll be saying the same works once I start my own body work down the road. Hopefully I'll get lucky and find a fairly rust free 240Z... Riiiiight. Keep fighting the food fight. That rust can't keep you beat down forever! I'm sure the pains will be worth it once it's done.

I've got a spare 280ZX lying around... I actually made it a convertable last week... So you want me to send ya a front TC rod? Left or right? Might take me a while to find it among the weeds, but I know I have them both. Also keep your bolts just in case, though I think I put all the bushings back on them and put the nut on them to keep it all together. EDIT: Nevermind, saw the post about you getting two for $40 shipped. Sounds about right. I could have gone to the picknpull by work and gotten two for you as well. $40 ain't bad though.

Pretty nice might be an understatement. I think I know what article you're talking about, and iirc the heads where a huge part of what made the power, and they were very impressed, as they're 50 state legal, with CARB numbers to prove it. I think those heads make the 5.0 one of the best V8 swaps out there if you want to keep it legal. Heads + headers + intake + cam can all be found in 50 state legal varieties, and then you just need to give it a good tune and 400hp is perfectly expectable. I've pretty much decided that WHEN I finally get around to having a true project Z car it's getting a SBF, either a 351W stroked to the max, or a 5.0 built up to be close to block splitting numbers.

Hmmm, I didn't think the W8 would sound that good so I went hunting for some clips (my assumption was based on the fact that it's not firing ever 90 degrees so the pulses wouldn't be even) I think with open exhaust it might sound pretty good. Definately has some exoticness to it.

Hmm... so at what temperature does this stuff start to melt again?... ... I'm considering using some of these repair rods to repair my cylinder head on an exhaust manifold bolt, but I'm betting the IRON manifold might get too hot and melt it. At this point even a helicoil might not bring it back. Once I have the engine out of the car and can take a better look at it we'll see. I might still buy some of those rods to play around with. Looks like super cheap fabricating fun! I kinda want to make an intake manifold now... EDIT: Oh yea, in the name of epoxies... the lotus elise chassis is held together with some rivets and lots of glue Though I wouldn't necessarily trust JB Weld THAT much...

I'd agree with lilredz here, a GOOD aftermarket intake and a carb can outperform the stock FI. Personally I think this is because: A) The stock intake isn't the greatest and The stock FI was tuned overly "safe" and keeps the mixture overly rich, especially in the higher RPM under load. You shouldn't be able to watch the gas guage dissapear in a 5 liter engine making 250hp... As to your first questions, not a whole lot. You'll need an intake, carb, and then you just need to sort out the fuel system and throttle linkage. I bet there's even a good writeup out there somewhere. A carborated takes up a lot LESS parts, not more, so it's much easier to convert to carb than it is to convert a car to EFI.

Just a note to future inquirers I'd gladly due business with Woldson again. Awesome personality that I don't mind shotting the breeze with. Overall it was a great HybridZ transaction that gave us both a chance to learn a little more about each other. I'm glad the shocks are working out well for ya. Oh, and I TOTALLY forgot, there were some little covers with them in the junkyard that I took with them that I completely forgot to ship out to you. I'll stick them in a small box sometime soon and mail them out to ya. I'm not sure if they'll clear the stock outer cover but the stock inner cover might hit the shock adjustment pole.

I kinda feel bad about reviving this thread, but this car is worth it... ...Simply stunning. First car I ever fell in love with as a kid was the cobra. The smooth yet agressive feel matched by a small car with a big engine just did it for me at the tender age of 7. I thought to myself "now THERE is a classic car". Never once in my life did I ever consider it would look good with a top on it. I've seen so many failed attempts at rag tops that just destory everything that I'd completely given up any shred of hope. The car just looks better without a top. ...But you've changed all that now havn't you? You just ruined all misconceptions I ever had about the cobra body. Your "Zobra" is ruining me all over again. I feel that love of the cobra comming back and it's saying "you can have your Z and cobra too!" That car without a shadow of a doubt does it for me. It's amazing how well that cobra looking front seems at home with the Z roof and body. Next time I'm in the mesa area I should PM you about stopping by to see that thing in person. I'm not sure my jaw can drop any further.

Yea, not bad.. though you loose 100hp just 500rpm less, and almost another 100hp another 500rpm less. I question how it really drives off boost, but it certainly doesn't look terrible. We've probably all seen dyno graphs of turbo cars that only have a power band of 1.5k, and that's what kills me, people who put on turbos so large the engine takes so long to spool it that by the time it kicks in you have to shift. This one doesn't seem that "bad" but i still has a very small percentage of it's power off boost.