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HybridZ

The age old battel


fast300zx

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VH pros:

- Heavily built from the factory (much like the VG and RB)

- Light weight all aluminum design (lighter than VG30DE(TT) from what I can find)

- Can be found for cheap

- More displacement and can rev quite well (stock redline nearly 7k rpm)

 

Cons:

- Early VH (90-93), some of the timing chain guides were made of plastic which break and can cause valve damage. They can be replaced with the 94-96 VH guides for a permanent fix.

- No aftermarket support, but anymore is very easy to get around with custom stuff (its more fun and personal that way anyways :lol: )

- Very wide and tall making swaps a little more difficult into smaller cars

- No manual transmissions bolt right up but can be fix with a custom bell housing or conversion plate, which the latter is what most people are going with to bolt the Z32 5-speed to the VH

 

That's all that I can think of at the moment.

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Has anyone mentioned that the VG30E has a cast crank, while the VG30DE has forged? The cast crank seems to be a good one but forged has to be better.

 

Weighed the bits of a VG30DE, ~150kg with flywheel and DET manifolds but no turbo or accessories like alternator, starter, etc.

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ok. Yeah my dad was thinking i was just going to fix the car up and sell it to buy a nicer one what do yall think. I think it could make a cool car but i am not sure what i want to do at this point. I would like to go through with the plans but i would also like to get a dautson 280 or some other good handeling,fast car. Yeah i was thinking that i have heard people running 700hp on the stock cranks so cool.

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I was also wondering if anyone knew how i could get ahold of this guy http://mark86t.zmobiledetailing.com/gallery/main.php I was also wondering if i could replace my front with the 87 front and the fenders as well as the rear fenders is it very hard? I have rust on one so was thinking i should go nuts anyway.lol or could i take the entire back shell off and put the 88 shell on?

thanks

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Rear corner panels are not fun to replace. It usually requires cutting the old one out, then welding in a new one.

 

If the car has rust issues then I'd recomend selling it. If you're SURE that it's repairable with easy panel swaps then it's not bad.

 

If you want to go with a Z31 and you want to keep costs to a minimum I'd HIGHLY recomend finding a later Z31 Turbo. It'll have alot of useful things such as LSD, turbo efi, turbo manifolds, ect. If you turbo your stock motors there's lots of different parts between the two motors. You'll basically be changing everything other than the block. The stock turbo motor can make some good power stock with a better turbo (stock is only a T25) system upgrades. It doesn't have an intercooler like most turbo cars of the 80's.

 

If it's mostly going to be a track car then maybe you do want to buy something else. I personally prefer the 280ZX over the older Z cars for a daily driver. The older ones are significantly smaller and more cumbersome to drive (to me). I've heard very good things about the Z31 but it's like the bastard child of nissan, much the same as the 280ZX. It's not really an older Z, and it's not really the same as the later Z32 300ZX, and certainly doesn't fit in with the 350Z crowd. I've gone to a fair amount of Z car shows and in order of quantity it goes 350Z, then S30 Z cars (240,260&280Z), 300ZX (Z32), 300ZX (Z31), 280ZX. Sometimes there's more Z32 cars than S30 cars, but I've never see the 280ZX not be the rarest car at a meet.

 

I only mention this to show these car's popularity in thier own crowd. The more people you know with the same car the easer it is to get advice and such when working on it, wich is a nice thing to have. It's also a good representation on how many cars there are out there to pick parts off of. Personally I see a lot more Z31 cars than Z32 cars at junkyards, but I just think most of thier owners aren't car lovers wich is why I don't see many of them at car shows.

 

The most Z31 cars I've ever seen at a meet was around 15, and we had about 100 cars that day. Majority was Z32, then 350Z after that.

 

I personally think you just buy what you like, then make it what you want, and call all the recipts the price of love. If you like the Z31 go for it. They're good chassis. If you're gonna autox it then just strip the heck out of it. There's lots of motor options out there and most motors will fit into most engine bays with enough work.

 

Oh, and listen to mtcookson, he knows his stuff. And this is a good site to visit.

 

http://www.redz31.com/

 

And for future refference hybridz doesn't have the largest 300ZX tech section in the world, and there's better forums out there, but the atmosphere here is second to none and I highly recomend sticking around.

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ok. Yeah my dad was thinking i was just going to fix the car up and sell it to buy a nicer one what do yall think. I think it could make a cool car but i am not sure what i want to do at this point.
You'll end up spending a ton of money fixing it up and you'll never recover much of it selling the car. If you dump $5000 into the car, you'll still be stuck with a $2500 car.

 

Cars are not investments. You almost never get your money back on them.

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what he was talking about was get it running nice and clean it up a bit. Not go into it that deep. i know i would never get that back. i am thinking of calling the j yard and see if they have any 87-88 bodies around that got hit in the front and i will just cut the back fenders off and weld them on to mine. That would take care of the rust.it is only surface rust but it is dented so i can replace the front fender easily and door but that back peice where the rust is will be different. I looked under and inside the car and there is not a bit of rust on it. I think what happend is he sanded it down to fix where it was hit and never painted over it.

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Yea, rust in sparce forms tends to either come from poor car design, destroyed seal, or poorly fixed problems (such as fender bender).

 

The best investments you can make for a car you're trying to sell is cosmetic. It's amazing how much more people are willing to pay for a car that's shiny than dull. But simple tune up maintainence and the likes go along way in getting buyers convinced and also gives you piece of mind of not cheeting someone and leaving them with a good running vehicle. I hate selling cars that have problems.

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yeah i am not sure if i am getting rid of it i will probably try to fix it. It isnt much so i am sure i can handel the small rust issuse I can tell it was hit not hard but it was likes someone rubed against it and it casued that problem. so i am going to keep it and go along with my plans i am going to talk to a body guy and see what he says and then if it is good and an easy fix then i will continue as planned. do you know what year the 300 is in my link

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Your link from the first page I can't view unless I register at 300ZXforums (wich I might already be registered, I forget). And then there's the link on this page that you posted and on that page it's a black Z31.

 

I don't know what year that car is exactly, but it's of the first half of the Z31 years. There was a distinct change in the Z31 cars, but I've forgotten what year it took place (i'm sure 80% of members here know what year it was). Lemme see if I can find some pics to help you identify the year differences.

 

This car is a 87, note the rear tail lights. They're the dead give away of the year change.

 

http://z31.com/misc/images/87/Ikes87T4.jpg

 

The main changes:

 

Turbo when to a smaller unit Old: T3 New: T25

Engine compression when up Old: 7.8 New 8.3

Boost changed due to compression Old: 6.8 PSI New 4-5 PSI

Limited Slip Differntial (these are highly saught after units by pretty much every Z guy)

 

I think there were other changes but those are the most significant.

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yeah thats why i was planning on doing the rear also. I have to make a pathc panal for the left rear so i since it is a project i will have the time to cut the rear ones off and cut some off an 86 in the j yard and align and weld them up to the 85. The front should be easy to do. As soon as i get all that done i will strip the car down to just a rolling chassis to do all the body and paint work.

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