Need some pros and cons

[Hollywoodman]

Trying to decide which way to go. Keep my l28e in my 78 280z and bore it out and make it a stroker motor with hopefully 300hp or go with a l28et turbo and go for 400hp. I live in California so smog is an issue but so is reliability. I want the power and the reliability. Just looking for some help in my decision making.

Thanks

Brian

[Careless]

i think having a stroked L28 is still gonna be a bit tough to maintain at 300 hp N/A.

 

you'd have to run a high compression ratio, and have to use 94+ fuel, most likely.

 

I think the L28ET would be a bit better bet, and probably a bit more userfriendly in regards to the reliability aspect, provided the ancilliaries and the turbo are all in good spec before you put them on.

 

have you considered other options? like perhaps an RB25DET?

 

i think thats the best bet for this car in terms of 400 hp mark.

 

the engines are easiliy acquirable and alot of the 26 parts are useable on the 25, consider the RB25 and RB26 blocks are virtually the same in design, except for some extra ribbing and deck height in the 26.

 

have you looked at your other options?!

 

an RB25 with a reasonably efficient turbo would see 400 hp for probably even less than an L28ET.

[Phantom]

Are you talking rear wheel HP or flywheel HP? If rear wheel and If you need the type of reliability required for daily driving you will probably be over the line on either option. A 300 HP stroker L28 will be definitely at the extreme of what the motor can do and the guys I know that have turbo'd L28's that are near 400 HP all use them for fun, not for daily driving.

I researched this site and others for nearly 5 years before I determined what I would do. My goal was 250+ RWHP and absolute reliability for daily driving. That's why I went the way I did.

[JMortensen]

With smog being an issue I'd suggest a fully legal V8 swap. You can swap in an L28ET and get the whopping 180hp that it provided stock, but when you start upgrading the turbo and intercooler and all that you'll need more fuel, as soon as you start adding more fuel you've crossed the smog line. You basically need a stock engine that makes the hp you want with all of it's smog crap intact. Sounds like maybe an LS1 swap to me.

[Gollum]

Well, being one who's spent alot of time around smog and researching it maybe I can help you out a bit here.

 

1st off, turbos are one of the greatest things for smog. They give you lots of power potential while still being able to pass the test. The main concern is visual. You'll want a boost controller of some sort, so you can turn the boost down for the test periods, but a boost controller isn't legal, and will need to be hidden well. An intercooler although obvious doesn't get caught by MANY stations becuase many turbo cars come with intercoolers anyways. The things you need to watch out for is obviously aftermarket manifolds, chrome IC piping and things of that flashy nature. If things LOOK stock then they can get passed off by many techs. Aftermarket ECU's are illegal, but unless they're pulling off your interior panels they'll never notice (although a smog ref will want to see it if you get the swap legalised, so best to legalise a swap with a bone stock motor that's running well). Larger injectors are illegal, but usually unoticable. A rising rate fuel pressure regulator is illegal, and infact anything other than OEM is illegal, but would have to be noticed (many cops know this and look for the adjustable kind since they're obviously aftermarket). Fuel rails.... are questionable. There's even disagreement among state refs if they're legal or not, since it's not specified in any law. But in theory it won't increase fuel flow unless the injectors are changes, so why should it be illegal? It all depends on who you talk to.

 

Sure this all sounds like one large can of worms, but think about it - you can have 400hp at 20+psi but still pass becuase you can back it down to 10 psi for smogging it. You can't make a 100% hp gain in a V8 and still pass (depending on motor, and depending on avenue of upgrades).

 

BUT jon makes a good point. Many legal V8 swaps could be done that would reach your HP goals.

 

Ford 5.0 will reach 400hp with legal superchargers (serious EFI work needs to be done to reach good mpg in most cases. apparently the stock ECU is very tunable though)

 

Chevy 350 - came in a slew of cars. Only issue is that it'll need to be EFI, and you'll need 100% of the emission equipment

 

LS1 - umm, need I say more. Might be the same cost as a 300hp L28 or 400hp L28ET, and comes with some serious bang stock, plus lots of 50 state legal parts

 

LS2 - better than LS1 in some ways, as it comes with more power, but of course costs more

 

1UZFE - 4.0L lexus V8. Comes with 250hp, and stock heads will flow to about 400hp without really pushing them beyond efficiancy. Basicaly requires lots of fuel mods and possible higher compression pistons to reach your goals. Should hit 300hp with basic intake/exhaust/fuel upgrades. Stock motor is quite restricted.

 

KA24DE - Very low power overall, but lots of parts availible for it. I'm not particularly fond of it, but it's a good overal motor. Does alot of things decently, nothing really stands out about it.

 

Virtually any motor newer than 78. As long as you have all the emission equipment you're good to go. I'd recomend looking for a donor car with a good motor choice. Maybe it's been in an accident and was rear ended. Perfect, beucase it'll have everything you need engine wise (except maybe gastank) but will be affordable. Also, it has to be EFI, since your car is already EFI, CA considers going carborated an "omision of currect emissio device(s)" therefor it's illegal.

 

Hope all this helps.

[Hollywoodman]

This is all extremely helpful. Now if i only had a smog "buddy":flamedevi

[Hollywoodman]

If i were to put in a RB25 would i be able to detune it also to pass smog or is smoging a 25 just out of the question?

[AK-Z]

If i were to put in a RB25 would i be able to detune it also to pass smog or is smoging a 25 just out of the question?

Completely out of the question in reguards to smog in cali. To get a RB to be legally smog legal, the engine would have to be shipped to texas to the fed smog facility, where it is modded to be converted to legal standards, then shipped back. I asked a IM ref and read some regulations and legal ways around it. Depending where you live, there are easy ways around it.

 

You know most RVs aren't street legal and require a special type of tags. Same process here. Up here its a red tag, which means basically summer time use only. So no smog testing, was told that only needs a dyno run, wasn't told why though.

[Gollum]

Yea, that's an odd loophole ak-z, and yes i've heard of it before, AND even seen cases of it being done.

 

But it's still funny buisness, since there isn't any way for the current swap system to incorperate legalised imported motors. That hole loophole is even more iffy then the whole fuel rail issue i mentioned before.

 

An RB25 "could" pass smog, with ease I bet as long as it had a cat on it. If you had someone willing to pass you on visual and was a reliable hookup, i'd say the RB25 would be a good swap option. BUT, if that's not the case it's way too much headache to possibly be worth it.