Stupind nubie question (answer anyway though)

[Guest BikerTrash]

Ok. I have been wanting a Z car for years only thing is I cant find any around here... at all. Well the only two I know of for sale that actualy still roll are an 81 ZXT sitting in a bone yard still whole but the t-tops are cracked up and I am sure they would require an act of congress to replace. Also the engine starts and runs fine, idles for as long as you want to leave it running but as soon as you give it some gas and the turbo spools it is like it cuts fuel.

 

Car #2 is an 86 "turbo" 5 speed... some monkey did a hackup job when the original turbo went and they bypassed it. Never even put an airfilter on the thing, just the throttle body and a short peice of pipe. also the front suspension is sagging baddly, not that big of an issue since I was going to swap the suspension.

 

The bone yard wants 800 for the 240

The otherguy wants 300 for the 300

 

I said all that to say this. I would like to be able to get either car back running strong with the factory egine but I have little hope, especialy for the 300 so which car will handle a 350 better?

 

see most people are driving 240's here and I was wondering if it is because they just like the look better or if it has a something going for it that makes it more desireable from a mechanical standpoint. but to me the 300 looks lower and wider and I always thougth that would be goodthings for a sports car, but I figure a 200 series car would be lighter.

[Guest tony78_280z]

This is mostly my opinion and rambling. So be sure to treat it as such.

 

Before you buy anything ask yourself what exactly you want, and how much you are willing to spend on it. Do you just want a fast car to race around and have fun with? Tear up the road and your car? Do you want a car that looks real nice and rides good. Do you want both? You can end up spending alot on your car. Inside and out. Fix yourself up a budget in time, energy and money that you think you will need to spend. Then double it. I think I'm up to $4500.00 or there about and haven't even really gotten to the body work yet. How good are you at learning? Can you read and understand a Haynes Manual? Expect to have to learn things that you don't even know that you don't know. Still want a Z car?

 

The two cars you describe sound like junk. It depends on the body and rust situation on them though. You will probably spend As much money and time on bodywork. The L28 is a sound tough little motor and its probably not to blame. (81 is not a 240 btw it is a 280zx) I had an 82 zxt that acted like that. The problem was in the EFI 'confusion and strange parts with strange names'. I never did get the problem tracked down. There are too many parts that "it could be" for me. AFM, ECU, injectors, O2 sensor, Frayed wire in harness etc. Not many mechanics want to spend their time hunting down the problem either.

 

The 300 is a fun fast car. I test drove a 300zxt for a friend once. I almost wet myself. I never owned one though so I can't tell you of the endurance(not power) of the motor. I don't know if running it without an airfilter for any length of time would be harmful, so I'd steer clear of it.

 

T-Tops are about 50.00 a piece at a junk yard. I'm sure you can find them on the net for about that. Be patient and they'll pop up.

 

As for a v8 swap. Of course you should get the JTR Manual. You should get it... I didn't... and I wish I did... so I'm telling you... you want it. I believe people have had some problems with the 280zx swap as the JTR book doesn't go into detail on it. (I got a 280z so I can't help you.) But I have seen a car with it done. And I've never heard of a 300zx into v8 swap. (If you could get it's original motor right I'd keep it that way.) And I don't know if there are kits available.

 

BUT you should just save your money and wait. Be patient and keep your eyes open for the deal to present its self. You'll find some car in some old guys garage. Tell him you'll give him 500.00 for it. That sort of thing. And by the time you find "the car" you'll have enough money saved to do some real work on it.

 

In the mean time, buy some books and do some research. Get A haynes manual for the model you want, and JTR (Jags that Run) v8 swap book if that is the route you will take. (I'm sure someone will give you the link if you haven't used the search function for it yet.) And of course read this site. I never had the JTR book, and got my project done mainly by the knowledge of this website.

 

-T

[Guest BikerTrash]

Yeah they two cars are pretty much junk. I have a friend that will sell me an older RX-7 that is in fairly good shape but I dont particularly trust the rotary engine much and the engine bay looks to small for anything else.

 

 

I guess I had better just watch ebay for anything to show up around Louisiana and hope I am not offshore when It comes up for sale.

[wheelman]

You might want to do a google search on RX-7 swaps.

 

I know there's a kit to swap an SBC into a first gen RX-7. There's even one running around the town I live in.

 

What year RX-7 is it? Maybe a later model 13B motor would make a good swap.

 

BTW: Where do you live??

 

Wheelman

[cyrus]

My goodness... for the amount of time, work and money it takes to do a swap I am amazed at the junk people are thinking of starting with. I bought my car for 2300 bucks, not perfect but nice and met my criteria. I look for about a year to find it. I think patience and careful planning pay off big time. I had the whole car planned out and writen down before I had started. I even had the drivetrain purchased before the car!

[Guest tony78_280z]

I bought mine not knowing what I was getting into. I paid 1.2k$ for a decent relatively rust free car to get me from point A to B. I fell in love with it. So I began putting money into. I got lucky on the body condition. I began to have EFI problems with the 25+ year old car and got tired of tracing EFI crap. I wanted to go Carb, and I did. I just went a bit too far.

 

I can't say I PLANNED on doing anything with my car from the start. But if I was to do it over again... alot would be done different. So it is from this point of view that I am seeing things. That is not to say that I don't like my car. Especialy now that it is starting to come together. I figure I got Another .5k$ to spend in the engine bay and about 1k$ on the body. Of course then there is the manual 5 speed tranny I want and the...

[Michael]

If you’re new to Z-cars, and especially if you’re new to high performance cars, sports cars or “hot rodsâ€, it’s almost impossible to “get it right the first timeâ€, even if you plan rigorously, budget carefully and search tenaciously.

 

So here’s an alternative: buy a crappy car, something under $1000, and preferably well under $1000. Make sure that it drives, but ignore the body condition. Drive this car for several months, get to know its weak points, spend some time under the hood doing general yeomen-type mechanics. But don’t invest in it! And don’t think about swapping an engine in it. Six months later, sell it for a few hundred bucks, and walk away. Now you have practical experience, and are far better prepared to invest in a better car.

[Guest tony78_280z]

Yes that is one technicque, but common yeoman chores is nothing compared to real mechanical work like say replacing an AFM, or swapping out a motor or hanging exhaust. Most of the real chores are nothing like replacing spark plugs. You might kind of learn your way around the motor (like where the spark plugs, oil filter and radiator cap are) but you wont know how to pull out the radiator.