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This is a build thread to document the progress on a 1977 Datsun 280z 2+2. The previous owner had started stripping the car with intentions of restoring it but it ended up just sitting in a storage container. Before that, the car sat in someone's yard because of a lien against it and eventually a tree fell on the back portion busting out the rear glass and leaving a nice dent. Because the car has been sitting for so long, it has a bit of rust but nothing structural, like the frame rails, is damaged. We've never done any car restoration work before so any pointers would be appreciated. The long term goal is to swap a LS v8 engine (probably a 5.3L or 4.8L), upgrade the suspension and brakes, and have a solid daily drivable Datsun. Below is a list of what we have done to the car already: -Stripped the interior and exterior -removed the sound dampening material with some freeze spray and an air chisel -removed the engine, transmission, and engine bay wiring -misc metal work (cutting out the usual Z rust and welding in patch panels) -coated all internal frame rails and cavities with east-woods internal frame rail coating or POR-15 Here is what we started with. Inspiration / Goals Pulling the engine - relatively easy. When you don't have a load leveler, you just use screw drivers to make sure the chain doesn't slide! Hopefully, the steering rack will be salvageable. Cutting out the rust (floor pans, battery tray, and a big spot in the bumper area) Here's some of the welding / patch panels. We used weld through primer so the the welds won't rust through. Battery Compartment The front nose area - patched on both sides driver's side floorpan (not nearly as bad as passenger side just one patch panel near the seat mount). Passenger floorpan - we fabricated a floorpan that was mainly plug welded in place and also replaced a rusty spot in the trans tunnel. a shot of some POR-15 rust convertor work underneath the cowl panel. That brings the project up to present time, lots of work to do still.

Hey im new to these forums and have trouble finding my way around but I've seen some post about this sorta swap and i just wanted more info on what i need or might need, descriptive lists are very helpful with links if possible thank you

Hey all! I am new to these forums, also new to Datsuns!! I am 20 years old, currently going to college and working two jobs, and working on my new baby in the meantime! About two months ago I bought a 1975 280z. It came from South Carolina, so I had to get it brought all the way up to Connecticut for me. I searched all around for a Z for about two months before that but had no luck finding any car that wasn't overrun by rust. The northeast is terrible! Alas, I found my car in South Carolina and just had to have it. It has some dents and some paint chips, a rusty passenger frame rail, and a damn sexy body! It ran pretty crappy when I first got it back but I was not too worried because I knew one of the first steps would be to engine swap! The car sat in the shop for the past month, took it out a couple times, replaced the headlights (previous owner gave me lots of spare parts ), but mostly did LOTS research on engines to swap into my new baby. I decided to swap in an rb20det. It seems like it fits my minor power goals, sounds pretty sick, and seems fairly within my mechanical expertise, with lots of help from my family . Yesterday, we started disconnecting and unscrewing, and draining, and more disconnecting, getting ready to pull the engine and doing as much as I could before I had to get to work. Today we are gonna pull the engine and tranny. After it's out, the frame rail is being replaced, just bought a replacement from BAD DOGS this morning, hoping to get it by the weekend! Any undercarriage rust is getting tended to along with that god-awful undercoating that seems to overtake the entirety of the underneath of my car. It is gonna get done up real nice within the next month, while I save a little more to purchase the actual rb20det engine. I already have researched and lined up the rear sump oil pan, walbro fuel pump, throttle cable, intercooler, downpipe that I have planned to purchase. Aftermarket exhaust manifold, and intake manifold will be replaced next summer, along with a turbo upgrade. but not worrying about that yet. I just wanna get this engine in and running! Now, I do have some questions regarding this engine swap maybe some of you all could help me with. Do you have any radiator suggestions? Any body have any good recommendations as to where to purchase the RB? Right now I am vigorously searching through eBay. Car is an automatic right now, swapping it to manual with the new RB, any pedal sets or advice at all that you recommend! ANY ADVICE OR INFO YOU WOULD JUST LIKE TO SHARE? Next summer, I am planning to do the bodywork, get some wide body fenders on my baby, fender mirrors, thick tires, a rear spoiler, racing seats, full harness, upgraded interior, gauges, dash and get a good paint job! This summer, my goal is to successfully swap the engine, and get my baby running nice and good. It is gonna be a busy summer! Along with my Datsun project, in my family's shop, we are in the finishing stages of a Factory Five 818C kit car, which looks SICK. It's running an ej207 engine, weighs just about 2100 pounds right now and is pulling about 400hp without a tune yet! It is scary fast but a lot of fun! We have a 69' camaro drag car always in and out of the shop, holding the 632 outlaw world speed records right now, and another 2002 camaro drag car getting finished up. My family is very excited to help me through this project and hopefully I can expand my mechanical mind through my Datsun project! I can't wait to keep you guys updated!! I post all the pictures and updates on an instagram page, specifically for my datsun. You can all checkout the progress and updates through there if you're interested! https://www.instagram.com/dirty_ddatsun/ Thanks for reading!! -Julia

Hey there, My name actually is Wesley despite my username, I've loved the Z series for an underwhelming 10 or so years. I'm new to the forum and I've dabbled in Classic Z Car forums for lotsa stock parts and rebuild resourcing. Recently I've been hunting and comparing prices on an RB25DET Series 2 (eng and trans) for my '72 240z who is lacking a working heart. I was recommend to this forum at a car event in Toronto, supposedly this is the hot spot for resto-mod and aftermarket Z builds! I don't believe this is the correct place for an introduction so i'll ask away. Has anyone purchased a used engine from a Toronto locale engine store, and what were your thoughts on service and product reliability? Additionally I am wondering if anyone has had good experiences with overseas JDM imports. I'm mostly concerned with accuracy of described product, product knowledge, and some form of warranty or guarantee. I've seen a 30-day limited warranty everywhere I've visited, and to be quite honest I will likely take the whole month to do the swap. That said, I may not be able to run the engine for testing before my warranty's up! Thanks so much for the read, and a quick thanks to every poster in the RB series forum. SO MUCH INFORMATION Wes

i am swapping a vg into a 1991 nissan stanza, the harness im using is from a 1994 maxima, this image is from the 94 maxima FSM i need to know what these two plugs actually do and where the wires in them go. the plugs between the stanza body harness and the maxima engine harness are different (stanza body harness is a 4 pin, maxima engine harness is a 6 with 2 pins jumped for some reason) i have the stanza engine harness which i plan to steal the 4 pin plug from and mate that to the maxima engine harness to connect the two together. i have managed to find some wiring diagrams (both appear to be engine harness/ECU pinout diagrams) that may or may not be of any use from the google machine. i am not sure what the plug might be labeled in them and i dont know if the plug has a traditional name that im missing, while im pretty familiar with wiring diagrams im having trouble finding the plug here (if its even accounted for) i know the plugs contain a power connection that i definitely need to complete in order for the ECU and the distributor, tps, etc. to get power. if i cant get any information while i wait ill probably just complete the power connection and see what else isnt working while i go through the car. of course my multimeter has to crap out on me a week before i get into this harness work so ill be buying a new one of those but in the mean time i thought i would seek out the help of some experts. here is a link to my build thread to maybe lend some insight into what im trying to accomplish: https://maxima.org/forums/3rd-generation-maxima-1989-1994/695655-turbo-vg-swapped-stanza.html

About me I don't want to go too in depth and bore anyone, so feel free to skip. lol My name is Kyle. I'm from Oregon City, Oregon. I'm in the USAF so that's why I am in CA. My current car is a 2008 Honda Accord V6 Manual 6 speed. It's a fantastic and very reliable car. Nice interior and sleek looking exterior. Just a good all around daily. And its the first car I have driven with a stick, and boy did I love it! I have spent a couple years with it, but after increasing its power steadily, I realized the limits and problems with a forward driven car. Not to mention the absolute BS that is California smog. I was at the point of either spend the money on a power adder, or a new car. I decided it wasn't worth pouring more money into a car that had such limitations. Especially in size and weight, she just wasn't very good in the twisties and back roads, so I decided I wanted a Rear driven pre- 1975 car. After a length of time searching, I couldn't believe what an awesome find a 240z was! A small, lightweight, Japanese car, pre- 75, endless parts, huge forum support, the list goes on! I was sold! The Car While on leave back in Oregon for a week, after 3 months of searching for a good deal on a 240z, one popped up for sale for $3,500. Super cheap! It was a 1972 240z with a Chevy small block V8, with a 3 speed automatic. A lot of people had interest, so decided I was done searching, and ready to start building; I bought her outright. Here is the AD: The Good -V8 Swap -The Trunk area, engine bay, and I (hope) under fenders were sprayed with bedliner -Body panels are straight -Badge and side marker light delete -Its a 240z The Bad (As I have quickly, or slowly discovered) -The paint is awful, and needs to be redone (Huge amount peeling) -The windshield wiper doesn't work -The heater doesn't work -The Air Blower doesn't work -The dash was cracked in multiple places -The passenger door was missing the interior panel -The engine, differential, and transmission were pissing oil -The hatch strut was blown -The lights were all extremely dim -The car got less than 8 MPG -Seats are cheap aftermarket ones. Fit nice though actually -You have to SLAM. And I mean SLAM the doors to get them to shut. I'm scared I'll shatter the glass! -The passenger window won't roll down -Probably a lot more I'm forgetting So yes, the car needed work. A lot of it. Was it awesome to drive and own a V8 car? Yes. Yes it was. I only had a few days of leave left, and I sadly realized I couldn't take her with me. Especially with the gas mileage at aircraft carrier fuel consumption rates. On the last night, I took my friend out for a spin, and very soon after leaving the driveway we could smell something burning. It was too foggy to drive fast, so we turned around and went home. I ended up leaving the car at my friends garage, which happens to live only a couple houses down from my dads. Here is the car next to his yellow V6 Mustang: We pulled the windshield wiper motor, the dashboard, the heater blower assembly, cut out random disconnected (and unsafe) wires and taped them up, and cleaned and vacuumed any debris. I loaded the dashboard and wire harness into my car to take back to Cali so I could be somewhat productive for the next 6+ months. Later my friend discovered that the wire harness caught fire in the engine bay! And the harness I had, was melted in multiple places. I decided to scrap it. I will need an entirely new wire harness. What I have been doing Research. Researching like a crazy person. I have also been buying parts like crazy and shipping them to Oregon. Since I'm stuck here, I: -Fixed the Dash Cracks / Sanded / Painted -New Vents -New glove box setup and badge -Autometer gauges -Realized the wire harness I had was hopeless after attempting repair My Friend has been inspecting parts that I send him, and tinkering on the car. -Sold Engine / Tranny / Radiator / exhaust for 750.00 -Sold Bumper -Sold Fuel tank Has a total of 1k. So the car as a roller was 2,500. Even cheaper! What Happens Now I am taking 30 days of leave starting on 20July2016. I plan to: -Sell the Honda -Engine Swap the Z to an LS motor. -Make the 240z my new DD. Here is the car as it is today. My friend installed the $420.00 Fender Mirrors, and there is the photo of the horrible quality Retro-Spec spoiler sitting on the hatch just to see what it looks like: That's it for now. Later I will post shots of my excel sheet of costs, future plans, ect.

Howdy! anyone know where i can buy a new or secondhand L28ET motor for my 240z? Ive heard this is an easy swap that is very beneficial. Thanks!

ok I am going to blow through a lot of questions here I have a 1971 240Z i upgraded the alternator and now my dash and running lights stay on anytime the key is on what could cause this? Second last monday i swaped a 79 280 f54block n42 head with the biggest cam you can get without going to larger valve springs i bought the motor this way i put my brand new ztherapy 4 screw su carbs on it with the msa 6to1 header and the orignal bosch distributer and e12-80 module but it wont run right it backfires through the carbs when you rev it I did get it to run the other day long enough to set the valves at .012 exhaust .010 intake but Im not sure the coil is right it has a pretronix 3.0 ohm coil from the kit I put on the 240 motor when i got it i also tried a crane cam lx91 and it got worse so I switched back to the pretronix my plug gap is .042 i just need a starting place iv done everything i know how to do to no avail. what am I not seeing?

Hey guys I'm looking for a complete turbo swap for my 240z. What I'm looking for is the engine forward (no trans)..preferably a p90'd complete engine w/everything etc. I have prepped my 240sx tranny to mate with a earlier series engine. As for location, I'm out of Monterey, California. Reply with pictures preferred. (415) four seven zero- 8674

Hello everybody, I was wondering if it would be possible and cost effective to swap out the engine in my 1978 280 for a 5.7L L98 engine out of a 1990 iroc-z Camaro? Is this possible? Would it be worth the money it would cost or would buying a new LS1 crate engine be more cost effective? I ask because I need a car for this summer and this Camaro is for sale with 50k miles on it for under 4000$. So i was wondering if I could kill two birds with one stone by getting both a cheap car in good condition and an engine for my Z. Is this a good idea or am I crazy? Thanks in advance for any input you guys have.