Jump to content
HybridZ

Do you want the easiest v8 swap possible?


Heavy Z

Recommended Posts

Yeah im going up sometime maybe this weekend or early next week. I alread spoke to the guy. He said it was on ebay once before and sold for $350, but the guy never showed up at his house when he said he would. Im driving from LA, ive never been up north before, should be a cool time for my buddy and I.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats David, I think the most enticing feature of this item was the statement in the eBay ad that it was removed from a 240Z, and it is shown with stock exhaust manifolds. If it came out of a Z, how tough could it be to put back in one? The bore/stroke relationship is not unlike a 302 Z28 sbc. Good luck. DAW

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in the late 80s I had a customer based out of San Francisco at the time that told me about this V8 engine and that he had researched it's performance potential extensively after he learned that foreign engine importers in LA were regularly having this engine come in to the US in large container loads of Japanese low mileage used engines.

 

He told me that his research convinced him that trying to transplant that engine into a 240Z would not be very rewarding performance wise due to lack of rebuild parts and virtually no aftermarket performance parts from Japan for that engine. I think he said, in his opiniion, that it was grossly over rated at it's then advertised stock HP of around 200 hp.

 

I also looked into acquiring one of these oddities out of facination with having a Japanese V8 in one of my Z cars. Later, while on that quest and another of building a stroker L28 (very rare to see done in the late 80s) I was talking to Jim Wolfe of Jim Wolfe Racing in SoCal, one of the main Nissan performance consultants to Nissan related to developing competive Nissan racing engines for Nissan and it's racing program in the States and he told me that the President V8 engine did not have any great performance potential either. Mostly a historical oddity, was his opinion.

 

Nevertheless, at this late date in Nissan history, swaping in one of these antique beasts into a 240Z would make for a great conversation piece at shows. Otherwise, most likely it's potential would end at that point unless a person had a ton of money to throw at upgrading it somehow. All that aside, I'd love to photo document David's swap project if he makes enough head way or every cruises it to a show that I am covering. I love to photograph all these wacko projects as much as some guys crave their 10 secs of fame.

 

Side Note: Speaking of strange V8 swaps of this genre, I have a Z buddy- engineer type in Australia that is working on transplanting a rather rare and strange Toyota all aluminum V8 into a 260Z that originally was developed to power a rather limited production run of large Toyota Limosines most often sold to very wealth Arabic leaders and businessman in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other countries of that region. The stranger twist is that he intends to fuel it with a specail turbo charged LPG (propane) performance induction system that a small Australian company has developed. I think he also mentioned that he is intending to custom stroke this odd Toyota V8. It's my understanding that the machine shop actually lost the original crank in the stroking process, but by some act of God, my buddy managed to actually score another crank for that rare engine and has the crank completed.

 

Actually, the unusual V8 engine swap is not the half of his unique project. He's acquired all sorts of unusual rear ends, 4 piston rear brake setups and other crazy sounding parts from the likes of Australian Holdens, Commodores and the like to top off his one of a kind hybridized Z car.

 

Stay tuned, I may have first photos to show by early Spring.

 

"Life's a Modem, Enjoy the Connection

 

Chou for Nou,

 

Sleek Z

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...