How much did everyone spend on their V8 Conversion?

[Tom280z]

dear Philanthr0py (on page one),

No offense but old Z's Arrent Tuners.

[dr_hunt]

Well,

 

$7000 for motor

$2000 for PG trans and converter

$400 for 9 inch ford narrowed

$5000 for paint

$1000 for gauges, belts, roll bar, fuel cell, fuel system, etc.

 

And it needs sooooo much more.

[280zwitha383]

I have to agree about being paid for. No car payments ever again in my life if I can help it!

[a6t8vw]

i bought my car for $950. in about 3 years i dumped $16,000 into it and i just started my turbo install. it never ends

[chevydude]

1. car 83 zx $200+ traded a 454 block

2. used good runnning 1975 350 bought the whole 75 malibu for $75.00

3.sold the malibu for scrap iron for $65

4. 350 motor cost me $10.00

5. complete gasket reseal kit for 350 $100.00

6.transmission 2004r overdrive free, came from a 84 olds with BOP and chevy bolt pattern

7. rebuild kit for trany $100.00

8. home brew shift kit for trany free! shift fim in 1-2, 2-3,&3-4 sweet!

9.motor mounts free 75 malibu and home made to fix zx free

10 exhaust manifolds I have discoverd that the old 60's to early 70's ram horns style will work ...use 2 passenger side they work on either side!

with the motor set backabot 2 inches, that's about 1 inch measuring from the back of a hei distribtor housing to the fire wall. pics to come shortly!

total so far $ 210.00 all I need is the drive shaft cut and make my home made trany mounts!!!!!!!!!

plus $200.miss .............so it cost me about say $600 when Iam done!

[smoorenc]

I am 14K in the hole and I have a LS1 motor/T56/Arizona Z suspension/ Willwood brakes/seats/wheels/JCI mounts and a shell of a car. The car isn't even included! I have a bunch of parts laying around though..... Thats not even including the labor for Speed Design Inc. Another 10K is coming in 2 months and I estimate another 5K after that realisticly. I nee to hide that somehow from my wife. She already has a bounty out on me!

[m1noel]

As posted, I'm in mine something over 30K. At this point in my life, I could drive pretty much any car I would want. But I love this car. And today, like every time I drive it through town, I got stopped at the store and had to pop the hood, open the doors, and watch a couple of grown men drool. My wife always wants to know why it takes me an hour to run a 10 minute errand. It takes that long just to answer the questions. That doesn't happen with a Porshe, or Vette, or most any other car you can buy off the lot. And it will out run most any car you could just buy off the lot. Did I mention I love this car?

Mike

[gretchen/jason]

Well i went through 2 z cars a 78 and now a 77 . The 78 was a " test platform " it had very very bad frame rails and had been hit before i bought it .

78 280z 1 grand

current 77 280z 500$ with 1 rust spot on rocker pannel even the factory A/C worked

AZ car controll arms just under 1,300$ for all 4

BG blower carb 580$

tokico struts and springs 300$ " if i remember corectly"

JTR mounts around 150$

radiator 180 $

rear diff mount solid 55$ and roost monkeys mount 55$

electric fan 300$

weiand supercharger 1,800$

crate 350 1,800$

SBC 400 with crank and rods 150$ " bought to convert 350 to a 383 .

piston rings 300$

trans Th350 600$

With every line having AN fittings even the heater hoses are AN line fittings and other stuff 120 amp alt pulleys machine work roller rockers electronic gauges etc etc id guess between 6-7 grand geeze no wonder im broke

 

Free stuff well i get to use the lifts where i work as i work for Hyundai so a shop is a nice thing to have and lots of good advice from other members .

 

Jason

[dv82xl]

$6500 in the Engine

+ $1000 in the trans

+ 500 in JTR parts

+ 500 in nuts,bolts,wire,primer

+ 500 in non metric sockets & wrenches!

+ my two years

= the ability to hold one's head high - and go REALLY fast!

 

PRICELESS

[smoorenc]

Up to 21.5K now.....

[turbozick]

My first V8 conversion was a total cost of $400 for the car all ready swapped 16 years ago!!!!! Bought the car with a rebuilt 400 sbc in an UGLY 260Z from a kid that said the motor was locked up. Towed it home and found out it had a bad starter jammed to the flex plate!! New $39 dollar starter and I was kicking butt and taking names. Now I am doing a 75 with a LS1 and a 6 speed and it is costing me a small fortune. O well turbozick@yahoo.com

[chevydude]

1. car 83 zx $200+ traded a 454 block

2. used good runnning 1975 350 bought the whole 75 malibu for $75.00

3.sold the malibu for scrap iron for $65

4. 350 motor cost me $10.00

5. complete gasket reseal kit for 350 $100.00

6.transmission 2004r overdrive free, came from a 84 olds with BOP and chevy bolt pattern

7. rebuild kit for trany $100.00

8. home brew shift kit for trany free! shift fim in 1-2, 2-3,&3-4 sweet!

9.motor mounts free 75 malibu and home made to fix zx free

10 exhaust manifolds I have discoverd that the old 60's to early 70's ram horns style will work ...use 2 passenger side they work on either side!

with the motor set backabot 2 inches, that's about 1 inch measuring from the back of a hei distribtor housing to the fire wall. pics to come shortly!

total so far $ 210.00 all I need is the drive shaft cut and make my home made trany mounts!!!!!!!!!

11. plus $200.miss .............

12. $300 for complete tune port from Iroc Z

 

so it cost me about say $900

when Iam done!

plus $500 paint and body work I do my self

plus $ 500 for interior parts

[Top Secret]

1973 240z.................................900.00

350/Muncie.............................1100.00

Exhaust............................,.......150.00

JTR Mounts...............................300.00

Radiator+Fan.............................175.00

Driveshaft.................................100.00

Fluids+Hoses..............................200.00

Tachometer.................................35.00

Bolts..........................................15.00

 

Total

$2975~

 

Should be on the road in two months!

 

Factor in tools I've bought?

 

Add Another 2000 Dollars

[BillZ260]

After much putting off I finally pulld out my receipts last night and tallied up what I had, and what I could remember, came out to just over 13K including the cost of the car. (*Not shown below is sales tax for any of the line items from the receipts) (**Also not shown are the tools purchased for jobs not previously done)

 

This isn't everything but it's pretty close and gives a pretty good view of what has gone where so far. Also, the generic category's could be argued here and there shifting the %'s a bit but here it is.

 

Car...........$1,900.00

Conversion.$500.84

Motor........$2,941.51

Trans........$1,910.59

Drive Line...$287.60

Exhaust.....$628.65

Fuel..........$546.79

Chassis......$78.32

Safety.......$269.95

Brakes.......$957.67 (includes wheels/tires)

Suspension.$665.64

Wiring........$429.05

Hardware...$98.15 (this has to be short)

Interior......$786.60

TOTAL!!!!!!!$12K

 

I'm not really freaked out about it, it's a lot of $$ but the main thing for me is the journy of the project, learning how to do all this stuff my self, which 98% of the work has been done by me, alone. That's how I want to think of it, and the feeling of this thing actually running down the road is well worth the $$.

[Slammed68]

Car - 1000

Paint and bodywork ~ 450

Misc parts - 3852

Engine - 1000

05 GTO T56 - 1000

Recent stuff - 1900

 

Jeez.. kinda depressing. It should run in about a week though!! lol

[frank280zx]

The geustimates for my ZXR

 

Car: $500

Shipping the car to europe: €1200

Paint:€750

Wheels:€500

Tires:€800

Brake pads:$300

Rotors:€100

Steel brake line kit for z32/r33 brakes:€100

Poly Bushings:$169

OBX LSD:$450 incl shipping

Full chromo Cage: a spare parts 260z

3"exhaust €200

TRS harnes: €200

Sparco Driver: €250

Sparco deep dish wheel with quick disconnect: €150

Aluminum Radiotor: $150

Spal fan: €98

Headlightcovers:$50

Sway bar kit with endlinks:$450

NOS kit (wet):€300

Gauges etc: €900

And im sure i forgot 3 grand along the way ... THIS IS CONFRONTING

 

Engine 1:

L28 ET bored to 2.9 Ross racing pistons isky cam t3t4 turbo ITBS etc etc: €3500

(parted out and used in fia car)

 

Engine 2:

BMW v8 M60B40 with 6 speed €2200 sold for €2500

 

Engine 3:

305 SBC

Bought for €3500 (including car) traded the car for a full fia cage in my track toy

$600 in misc parts.

 

 

The other car ... well lets not get started

Edited March 31, 2010 by frank280zx

[Drewz75t]

Sh#%...my wife just read this entire thing.....this sofa is uncomfortable as hell !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jeff81]

I have cleared 30k and still a little ways from having it done.

 

Jeff

[jeff81]

I have cleared 30k and still a little ways from having it done.

 

Jeff

[kamikaZeS30]

Mine's a semi-exhaustive listing of total cost of doing the car the way I want it (meaning interior, body) and doing the V8 conversion.

 

Car: Early 71 240z - $5,000 (when I picked it up it the car already had extensive work done on it, including new paint, suspension, snap-turn joints, poly-bushings, 4-piston fronts, R200 (4.11), CV shafts)

 

Complete engine conversion done by a professional shop: turnkey 383 SBC, R200 (3.54), new aluminum radiator, electric fans, TKO 5speed, mounts, custom stainless exhaust, everything installed - $6,000

 

Miscellaneous body work: done by shop-next-door - $1200

 

Sub-total: $12,200

 

DIY Stuff

 

Roll Bar - $400

Rear Disc conversion kit - $700

New carpeting (to replace old vinyl and carpet, firewall insulator) - $380 (oh and MSA Z embroidered rear-deck carpet $100)

Shift boot +clips, brake boot - $45

Corbeau Seats and brackets - $800

New interior panels - $230

Dome light - $30

Rear Speaker Panel, Head Unit, pair of 6.5" components, pair of 6x9s 3-way, 400w single channel, 10" sub, 500w 4 channel, 1.5 Farad capacitor, custom MDF kick-panels, beauty box for amps/cap, and custom sub box mounted in tire-well, new fully retractable antenna - $1,420

16x8 wheels with 225/50/16 front, 245/45/16 rear tires - $1,100

Front/Rear strut braces - $300

Bad Dog frame rails - $310 (plus the 12 pack and pizza to have a buddy weld them in with me)

New glove box - $25

New momo pedals - $50

Optima Yellow Top - $180

New MSA new-style fuse box - $200 (best money spent, ever, it eliminated 95% of the electrical problems in the Z)

Materials to make multi-point grounding harness - $60

Refurbed turn signal switch - $50

New H4 Xenon headlamps - $40

Headlight relay upgrade harness - $140

marker/turn signal/interior lighting upgrade harness - $50

BA9 style LEDs for dash/instruments - $30

New wing mirrors (california style) - $80

New Weatherstrip kit - $200

New shift knob - $20

 

Subtotal: $6,885

 

Grand total: $19,085

 

Being completely satisfied, filled with a sense of pride with your car and belonging to a group of car enthusiasts that is as diverse as the UN and turning heads by going to the grocery store: Priceless

 

Seeing the faces of middle-aged men that spent their retirements on Porsches, Vipers, Corvettes and Jaguars who just realized that they got broken off by a 25 year old kid with a ****ed up blond afro in a 40-year-old Japanese car: Even more so.