I need some advice and help on engine swaping.

[Guest zmepro]

Hi all, I'm new here and am hoping to get some good advice and help.

 

I have a 1972 240z in decent condition, a little body rust and the paint is marginal but other then that everything seems sound. Im thinking that to get the car into good condition I am going to need to replace lots of consumables like bushings and such (steering wheel is kinda loose)

 

Anyways, the stock engine has about 180,000 on it and it still runs strong but I'm always questioning its reliability, I hate the carburation, and it just kinda scares me sometimes. Anyways, I'm very interested in dropping a RB series engine (RB25DET), an SR20DET or mabye a LE28T. Price is a very big concern as I am only 19 and don't have much funding, also easy of installation and tuning is a possible concern. I don't have easy access to welding or machining facilities like I know many of you here must have. I would like that car to be a competitive track car without having to be in a pro class and I would also like to have a fast straight line car as well. A good balance of the both, I don't really like the idea of a v8 for me because of possible wieght and installation difficulty as well as I think many of them are carburated (which I would like to get away from)

 

Anyways, does anyone know what the price range and difficulty putting one of these engines in the car is?

 

Thanks for any help, feel free to suggest other engines or ideas, I'm open to anything including selling the car and just buying a totally different car.

 

Thanks!

[Guest bastaad525]

For cost and ease of installation, L28ET is the only way to go. You can pick up a whole motor for a couple hundred, or all the way to a complete donor 280zxt car (which is the best way to go as you need the EFI, fuel pump and other stuff) for $500 up to a couple grand.

 

An RB or SR motor is going to cost you a hell of a lot more either way. And you're going to have to custom fab a lot of stuff to get them into your car. L28ET drops right in, only hard part is the wiring, which isn't that hard, plenty of guys here have done it and can help you along the way. The search feature is your friend, use it and you'll find all the info you need. Dropping in a stock L28ET with just a few mods like a BOV (a necessity for long turbo life and good spool between shifts), boost controller and gauge (obviously) can get you around 200hp at the wheels (which is exactly what I did). Put in an I/C, 3" mandrel exhaust, better fuel pump, and either bigger injectors, or a fuel pressure regulator and raise the fuel pressure, can get you close to 250 at the wheels. Bigger turbo and programmable EFI, 300-350 at the wheels (which is about the limit of the stock bottom end), and in a 240 that's enough to make you faster that all but the fastest multi $100,000 super cars. Eating Vettes and Vipers will be no problem. And if you're thrifty and do a lot of work yourself (like the motor swap and wiring) you should be able to do all that for less than $5000. Of course that's only the motor and power upgrades, by that time you'll probably also want to be upgrading suspension, brakes, etc. as well, but it just goes to show what can be done. All with a commonly had, reliable motor, that is still relatively easy to get parts for w/o having to order them from Japan

[Guest zmepro]

wow, thanks for all the good info!

[Zhadman]

I am in the process of installing my SR right now into my 73. Difficulty and price is subjective, to say the least. I can fab, weld, design and have all the tools to do so. So for me it's more of a time issue than anything else. If you have a hoist, welder, grinder, drill press, plasma cutter, tape measure (...etc.) and a basic understanding of mechanics (and use of the fore-mentioned tools) you can do it all yourself. You need to establish a plan of action, develop from there and be flexible enough to incorporate any changes due to difficulties that may arise. Measure, measure, measure and measure again before you even think of dropping the engine into the bay.

 

Engine and transmission mounts will definately require fabrication. Driveline angle can should be an important consideration and fabrication of mounts should incorporate this factor. As far as I know there is no kit to adapt an SR easily to the Z (I believe there is a kit floating around for the RB's, though). Also, when designing/fabricating mounts, you should give serious thought to the materials being used, understanding the stresses that will be put on these parts and designing accordingly for strength. Incorporating the existing motor mounts into the design should definately be considered (IMHO) when planning your project.

 

Secondary fabrications may likely include slave cylinder mounting locations and throttle cable repositioning/re-routing due the the right-hand nature of most JDM engines.

 

Past the mounting/fabrication subject are tertiary (though no less important) considerations like exhaust routing/clearances, engine management, engine cooling, air intake, intercooler plumbing (). Many of these components do not come with SR and RB engines unless you buy a front clip (Cha-Ching!).

 

$5k to install a stock SR is about right on. An RB would cost more. $5k into an L28ET would probably net you more HP/TQ with less installation/fabrication issues.

 

EDIT

Re-reading the post I realize that pretty much just re-iterated what Bastaad said.

[RPMS]

You want good advice? Here it is, in spades.

 

1)Don't sell your Z. When you're forty, you'll kick yourself.

 

2) Don't even consider a RB25DET, an SR20DET, or an EIEIO69 at this point. You admit that you know nothing, and that's not a good starting point. I don't mean to smack you down, just to inject a bit of reality. Make sure you can walk before you attempt to run, much less fly.

 

3) This early in your driving career, your stock Z probably has more horsepower than you can exploit. I don't know you - you could be the most responsible 19 year old on the planet, for all I know. I have found, though, that much of the joy of these cars comes from learning to use what horsepower you have. Keep in mind that with the manual transmission, these cars went from 0-60 as fast as the early 5.0 Mustangs. At the time at least, nobody thought a 5.0 liter Mustang was slow. I'm not telling you not to upgrade, I'm just.. heck, I don't know what I'm telling you here. I'm throwing things against the wall and seeing if anything sticks.

 

4) Engine choices? I think the answer is pretty clear. Given your generation's proclivities towards anything high-tech and your own limited mechanical knowledge (no offense meant. We all start somewhere), I have to agree with The Big Bastaad on this one, because he's right on the money. Choose the turbo six. Smooth as the day is long, plenty of power, it's a mechanical plug-in, and you can do all sorts of nifty computer tuning with the aftermarket computer systems. The (...looking up the model number...) L28ET will easily produce enough power to kill you in one of these cars, at a bargain basement price and with disgusting reliability.

 

Oh, you might check the steering coupler for the source of your loose steering. It uses a rubberized fabric donut to isolate steering vibration. There's a good chance it's decayed over time.

 

Welcome to the group! I hope to see more of your postings.

[Guest zmepro]

Yea, I have PMed Bastaad a few times and he has been a big help, it sounds like it would be a relatily easy swap to do, the hardest part probably will be finding the acctual donor car in decent condition for the right money. Yea, I do like the "high tech" engines as you say, but as long as I can get away from carburation I'm fine.... That thing is a real pain in the ass sometimes. Anyways, thanks alot for the help and please post any more comments or ideas! (or if you have a 280zx turbo with a good engine in norcal that you wanna sell me for cheap )

[Guest bastaad525]

Loose steering is very common on old Z's. It's usually not hard to figure out why... every Z I've personally owned had front bushings that were shot if they were even present at all You can buy the whole set of front bushings for about $150 from Motorsport... it's a good one day job getting them all in.