280ZX Build

[Jordon]

Hi All,

 

Disclaimer: This may be a long post

 

So I have started my build, I decided to hold of on writing a build until I was 100%% sure that I was going to at least get it pretty far going.

I wont have any pictures to start off with because of my phone, but after a while I will have a fair few to show you guys.

I bought the car to replace my car at the time in an aim that I would eventually modify it, well the modifications started a bit earlier than expected, as can be read below.

Anyway here it is.

 

The History is pretty long so if you want just skip to the next post to read the start of the actual planning of the build and the build.

 

So the history of the car. I bought the car Last year in febuary. It didnt look the best but it ran well.

It had a decent amount of rust and was pretty "loose" in terms of the suspension, but I put both those down to the age and care taken of the car.

Anyway, I took it home and it drove nicely for about a month and then the troubles started.

 

First the car started to overheat so I took out the radiator and filled it with water and there were leaks all over, the seams of the radiator were shotty to say the least, I tried some fixes but nothing lasted longer than a week. After this happened I decided to get an aluminium radiator. Because no-one offered a 280ZX model aluminium radiator In My area I decided to get one made. (I live in Nsw, Australia by the way.)

So I took out the radiator and sent it away to get an aluminium version made by PWR.

While the radiator was out of the car I decided to clean up the engine bay a bit and give the engine a bit of a service.

 

So, to start the oil was changed, spark plugs out etc. I also took of the rocker cover to get it polished up.

Anyway, without going into too many unneccasary details it looked a bit better.

 

I got the radiator back and it looked pretty awesome.

Then I tried to put it into the car, and then there were more problems.

With the fan shrowd on the radiator the electric fan wont fit as the snout of the water pump stopped it from fitting properly.

So I decided to leave the electric fan and shroud off the radiator and left the stock clutch fan on the car.

This worked fine for a while I was still keeping the water level topped up.

 

After A while I decided to see how the car ran leaving the water alone. Withing a couple of days the car was running as hot as the sun, and suprise, No water.

So I still had a leak but where.

 

At this point in time I decided to get the rust fixed in the car while I decided on what to do with the cooling system.

The guy that did the rust work knew a guy that was a retired mechanic, he had a look and found a leak in the heater line, so this was fixed while the rust was being repaired.

After I got the car back I was pretty happy, the car looked a bit dodgy as the rust repair job was only primed not painted but it ran well. Well, reasonably well.

 

So within a week the car was dry again, I kept filling it up but it ended up needing water more and more often.

After this happened I decided to get a mechanics opinion and then I got the bad news.

The head gasket had cracked and was leaking water into cylinder 3 and 4. Causing problems at start up and causing the massive water leak.

 

At this point I had a decision to make:

A)Give it to a mechanic to fix

B)Fix it myself

C)Leave the car alone and do something at a later date.

 

Well I chose a modified option of B.

I decided to fix the head gasket, but that turned into the build as I will describe in the next post.

[Jordon]

So, here is the description of the build, my plans and what has happened so far.

 

Ok, well I currently dont have an unrestricted licence but I decided that by the time the car was done I would have my license, so I decided to go turbo.

Just because I like how it looks the engine code is currently L28E. what I plan is a L37ETT, Yes a 3.7 Litre twin turbo L series engine.

It sounds crazy and most people would say "why not go an RB engine.

 

Personally I chose to stick with the L28 for something different.

 

So, so far, I have just finished stripping the car down completely, it only has the diff, fuel tank and steering rack still in it.

It goes into paint next week where it will get a bare metal respray to alpine/polo white.

(more on this after I talk to the spray painter.

 

After this I will take it to sydney where it will get a roll cage installed.

The reason I am doing this is I have read that the chassis is not strong enough for high powered engines and will twist or distort under large amounts of power.

Also to give the car a bit more safety.

 

Currently the engine is at my machinists and he is working on porting and polishing the head and prepping the block for the sleving and working out ideal camshaft specifications.

I got the stroked Crankshaft and overbored forged pistons a month ago and these will bring the displacement up to nice and beefy 3.7 Litre.

 

The suspsension at this point I have found coiloves for the front but nothing for the rear as of yet but am still looking.

I know that I can modify or fit other parts from other cars for rear coilovers but I do not have the skills to do those things.

 

The transmission I have decided on is the Tremec T56 as this transmission is the only that I can find that will easily handle over 500 ft/lb of torque at the flywheel with some nice close ratio gears.

I don't know if the power I am aiming for is optimistic or a far stretch as this is my first ever build but I still want to be sure I will have a realiable transmission back if I do happen to get to that kind of power.

 

So at this point in time I am open to critisism and suggestions as I dont have very much set in stone, also this may not be as in depth as my last post but I still have to find some photos and then I will make a bigger post on what is to come and what I have planned or have ideas on.

[aplyedmind]

How will u get 3.7 litre's outta the L28 Has this been done already or are u the 1st.

[BluDestiny]

I think he means 3.1. I think. And the ZX chassis is way more suitable to hold high hp than the s30 chassis. You don't need a cage, but heck Might as well. Also you're tranny choice isn't just limited to that. You could throw in a z32 tranny. All you need is an adapter plate, and it is capable of holding 500+ hp/torque easy.

[Jordon]

No I do actually mean 3.7 Litre, it sounds outrageous but thats the displacement I will get.

 

The crankshaft has been welded using the submerged arc technique, it is stroked out to +.500" (12.7mm) and the pistons are +.250" (6.35mm)oversized.

It equates to 3686 cc.

The pistons have a lower pin height and the block will be sleved to accomadate the increased stroke and bore.

 

I don't know if I'm the first to do it but The most I have seen before is 3.2 Litre.

I have pictures on my phone of the crank and pistons so when I get that working i will put them up.

 

I didnt know I could use a Z32 tranny.

How much more over 500 ft/lbs would it be able to handle?

[Jordon]

Ok so I got my phone to work for a bit but only got a few photos off.

 

Anyway first theres a few photos of my piston. There ceramic coated with teflon buttons.

 

 

 

 

I couldn't find the crankshaft pictures but they will come later.

 

This is the radiator from PWR,

 

 

And this is the fan and fan shrowd on the Radiator.

 

 

 

I bought a set of wheels a while ago before I was going to do any work to the car.

 

 

They are 16x8 With a 0 offset.

The problem with them is there only 16 inches and the brakes from arizona Z car need 17 inch wheels, I did talk to Dave and he said he could do a 12.2 inch rotor that will fit with a 16 inch wheel. So I will probably go with that unless anyone can give me some feedback on how much braking power the car would need and if the 12.2 rotors would be big enough.

 

There will be more to come.

[tir33d]

A fully installed cage in Sydney - Bond quoted me $4900 for a full cage - Andrew Race cars will supply and bend for you then you can install.

Brake wise it depends if you are going to put your car on the track continously. I have 17' rota's and my front disk is 335mm, they work great but My car is track only - for street use 16' combination should be fine.

Personally - such a build I would have put a LS1 chev, RTA rules will allow it. Theres no replacement for displacement.... More cubes - cheap power upgrades, reliable, fuel efficient and fits well.

[Jordon]

I already have a guy in sydney that will do the roll cage, I can't have a full cage as rta wont allow more than a 4 point cage on the road so thats what I'll be getting installed in the car.

 

Yer, the car wont be on the track continuosly, so then I guess I will stick with the 16's and 12.2" rotors.

 

I considered a V8 conversion at the begining but I will be doing a couple of other builds after I have finished this one in Z cars, I want to put a V8 in a 260Z hence the L28 build, I also like the idea of something unique.

[FricFrac]

So, here is the description of the build, my plans and what has happened so far.

 

Ok, well I currently dont have an unrestricted licence but I decided that by the time the car was done I would have my license, so I decided to go turbo.

Just because I like how it looks the engine code is currently L28E. what I plan is a L37ETT, Yes a 3.7 Litre twin turbo L series engine.

It sounds crazy and most people would say "why not go an RB engine.

 

Personally I chose to stick with the L28 for something different.

 

So, so far, I have just finished stripping the car down completely, it only has the diff, fuel tank and steering rack still in it.

It goes into paint next week where it will get a bare metal respray to alpine/polo white.

(more on this after I talk to the spray painter.

 

After this I will take it to sydney where it will get a roll cage installed.

The reason I am doing this is I have read that the chassis is not strong enough for high powered engines and will twist or distort under large amounts of power.

Also to give the car a bit more safety.

 

Currently the engine is at my machinists and he is working on porting and polishing the head and prepping the block for the sleving and working out ideal camshaft specifications.

I got the stroked Crankshaft and overbored forged pistons a month ago and these will bring the displacement up to nice and beefy 3.7 Litre.

 

The suspsension at this point I have found coiloves for the front but nothing for the rear as of yet but am still looking.

I know that I can modify or fit other parts from other cars for rear coilovers but I do not have the skills to do those things.

 

The transmission I have decided on is the Tremec T56 as this transmission is the only that I can find that will easily handle over 500 ft/lb of torque at the flywheel with some nice close ratio gears.

I don't know if the power I am aiming for is optimistic or a far stretch as this is my first ever build but I still want to be sure I will have a realiable transmission back if I do happen to get to that kind of power.

 

So at this point in time I am open to critisism and suggestions as I dont have very much set in stone, also this may not be as in depth as my last post but I still have to find some photos and then I will make a bigger post on what is to come and what I have planned or have ideas on.

 

3.7l - that I've got to see.

 

Run a Z32 tranny - it will hold up to whatever you'll be throwing at it and they are easily adaptable to the L series

 

Run S13 coil overs. There are plenty of swaps and info on the minor mods you need to get them to work. Of course you're going to need to slot the rear cross members if you are running the stock suspension but lowering the car any significant ammount.

[Jordon]

Yer, As soon as I get a chance I'll try and get some pictures comparing stock crank/pistons/conrods to modified ones as well as the block when it has finished being prepped. This may be a while though as I am still having to wait another 8 - 10 weeks for my conrods at the moment.

 

I have been looking into the Z32 swap, still deciding what tranny to use.

 

I have been looking for a rear s13 coilover topic but have been unlucky, have found some for the the front but I guess i'll keep looking.

 

 

I have been thinking of some things about the car and it's looks and I was thinking about welding a bit of metal in place of this back window as highlighted below.

 

 

(Not my car)

[PR280z]

Those little windows help to see the BLIND SPOTS with a quick glance over your shoulders.

[Jordon]

Ok so I'm back for an update.

 

Here are some pictures of the car after I had stripped it and taken it to the panelbeaters/spraypainters.

 

 

 

 

I dropped the car off on thursday to the painters and he started to prep it, remove the last of the trim that I couldn't remove/didn't want to remove/didn't know how to remove, then droped the doors in today (Holy crap they weight alot, gonna get them on the scales when I get them back.)

So as I said I got the rust fixed about a year ago, well it turns out that I didnt get it fixed very well at all, it was a bog job and I was told that he would be cutting out the affected areas and welding in metal to fix it, well now the spraypainter is fixing the rust as well as some hail damage in the bonnet and Right front fender panel.

Here are some pictures of where the rust was. and what the spray painter has done so far.

 

(This is my Driver side panel, from the outer faceing edge you can see it looks ok (apart from the primer))

 

(Here is the underside of the Drive side front fender. He has left some of the rust and just poprivited a bit of metal in)

 

(As you can see the rust wasn't even cut out of this side)

 

(Here's a close up)

 

(some rust under the fender on the drivers side)

 

(Also some on the passenger side but you can't really see it, but you can see the rust around the windsreen frame)

 

(Best picture I have of the engine bay)

 

(Finally under the fuel filler there was rust and that was just bogged as well)

 

 

So as you can see there is a bit of rust, and some more small bits that I don't have photos of. I am pretty annoyed at the guy the did the rust, but I am also annoyed at myself that I didnt give the car a good look over (especially the fenders) after I got the car back from him.

I guess I learned a lesson in that one.

 

Anyway, the spraypainter said that he would be taking photos of it as it has done, so hopefully I'll be able to get those, If not my next photos' will be when its finished its paint job.

 

In the meantime I have started ordering various parts for the car, suspension, brakes, brake lines etc so I will get photos of them when I get them.

Hopefully I'll have some more updates and news about the car in a week or so.

 

Thanks for reading guys.

[PR280z]

RUST! Well that`s not to bad compared to my 79/280ZX/2+2 project. You have some nice goals for your ZX(3.7L).KEEP US POSTED. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBfdUo7DNEw

[Jordon]

That first car looks sick.

What is your plans for your project?

 

I'll deffinetly be keeping everyone posted, I love the atmosphere between fellow Z car enthusiests, and am already looking forward to showing you guys what I will be doing with this, and am deffinetly thinking of getting another Z car asap!

 

Thanks for reading guys.

[PR280z]

That first car looks sick.

What is your plans for your project?

 

I'll deffinetly be keeping everyone posted, I love the atmosphere between fellow Z car enthusiests, and am already looking forward to showing you guys what I will be doing with this, and am deffinetly thinking of getting another Z car asap!

 

Thanks for reading guys.

Thankz, that`s my 315hp ZETTO BASTARD!

Now! for the zx2+2,my plans are to install the L28ET i have under the blue cover behind the car. Giving the Z a break and use the ZX as the daily driver.

[Jordon]

That looks nice, keep up the good work.

[Jordon]

So Time for a quick update,

 

I have decided on the tires I will be getting, For all 4 They will be Toyo Proxes T1R's, The fronts will be 225/45/16 and the rears will be 245/45/16. (Found out that street legal didn't necesarily mean legal to register here in australia, hence the change from Proxess R888)

In a way I kind of regret not going with 17" wheels, Mabye only if for the tire options, but I dont really want to deal with selling my wheels and getting new ones, so I guess its a lesson learned.

 

More to come, hopefully take some phtots of the car when I go to the spraypainters tomorrow.

Edited August 12, 2011 by Jordon

[Jordon]

Hi all,

 

Back for a short update.

I have recently been ordering some parts for the car and some are still waiting on arrival but thus far I have recieved my RCA's for the front, The Tension control rods (both rca's and Tension control rods from techno toy tuning).

I have also got the tires I was talking about in my last post. I got one of the rear tires and one of the front ones on a wheel each, and from what my panelbeater/spraypainter tells me the rear is fine, it just sticks out a bit from the guards and he is yet to sort out the front.

 

He will be flaring my guards for me instead of bolting some on to make it keep a kind of stock look.

I have been a bit sick lately and havent been to see the car but will hopefully be going to see it soon.

I am also going to be talking to an engineer about side venting exhaust tomorrow or early next week to find out wether it is legel or not to have that on the car, if it is I will be seriously thinking about it. Some pictures follow and there will be more to come over the next few weeks.

 

A few pictures of the RCA's

 

 

 

 

and, some of the Tension control rods

 

 

 

 

Thanks all for reading.

Edited August 25, 2011 by Jordon

[Jordon]

So Hello All Who May be reading.

 

It Has been Over half a year since my last post, Really Not much Has been happening. It is a long and slow process So Far.

As A quick Update, the rust has been completely removed, and the body has slowly been prepped for a bare metal respray.

 

I have done some of the work myself, and then my panelbeater has done the Rest.

I will have some Pictures Up in the near future When I am able to go and see the car next.

 

I recently Go my new connecting rods as well so I will post some photos of them at the same time.

 

I have recently got a new job so progress on my end has slowed down to a crawl but I aim to have the car in my garage ready to start re-assemby anytime from july.

 

I will hopefully be back in a week or so to post some progress pictures of the car as well as some pictures of parts I have acquired and some plans that have had to be changed in the last 6 Months.

[Jordon]

Ok, So Im back a bit earlier than I expected. Have the day Off work so decided to get all the pictures off my phone that I can and do a full update on where I am at.

 

So since my last post in August of last year, the car has been taken to the panel beater/spray painter.

In about December of last year I went to the panel beaters and while he was working on the fenders and sorting out the rust that had to be removed he let me save myself a bit of money and work on stripping the car down and getting it to bare metal.

 

So Basically I got the Engine Bay down to bare metal and Primed to avoid rust as best as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After I got that done I started on the area between the engine bay and windshield (As shown below)

 

 

 

Then after that I started on the door Jam and the targa top area.

 

 

 

 

 

So basically I got a bit done and then christmas came around and then I got my new job. So now the rest of the work is up to the panelbeater.

 

As of the end of january when I visited the last of the rust was being removed and the areas being prepped for priming. (Will have pictures next time I go to see the car)

 

Also since last year I have gotten the connecting rods.

They are Chrome Moly H-beam Conrods and came with ARP Rod bolts. (picures below)

 

 

 

 

Sorry for all the photos, If there are too many I can cut it down, just let me know.

 

Anyway, next on the agenda I will be buying a lightened kamerei flywheel and then the bottom end of the block will be prepped for the machine work for sleeving and bottom end assembly and balancing.

 

I will keep this thread updated a bit more regularily from now on as things will hopefully be going a bit quicker from here on out.

Edited March 13, 2012 by Jordon