Tight Budget...

[Guest Projectcarâ„¢]

I know this is a a Z forum...and at first I was interested in a 1977 Nissan 280zx and doing an SR20DET engine swap. But i'm only in high school and my budget is extremely tight.

 

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for the cheapest possible way to do an engine swap.

 

I want it to eventually be my senior project...and I might possibly start autocross soon.

 

Help?

[tfreer85]

Best advice, don't do an engine swap if you're on a tight budget. A 1977 will be a 280z not a ZX. I'd highly recommend you spend time searching on upgrading/replacing stock parts on your. Make the car reliable, a stock Z will be blast for a learning autocross car, when you get used to driving it stock or slightly upgraded and you have some money saved up, then look into upgrading your engine. Start small and don't get caught up into the engine swap if you're going to have to cut corners on the build.

 

Welcome to the board and USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION, it will make you stay here much easier on you and everyone else.

 

Tyson

[Lewis Maudlin]

First learn what car you are wanting to start with to upgrade. The 280ZX and the 280Z are quite different cars. In 1977, Datsun made the 280Z.

 

I agree that you absolutely should not attempt an SR20DET swap on a tight budget. Use the search function. I posted what mine cost. I think that was before the latest ecu change and upgrades.

[Lewis Maudlin]

OK, here it is again to spoonfeed you:

 

Originally, I spent

$2400 for motor and tranny shipped S13 low mileage

$200 new ecu

$100 another starter

$100 water pump

$150 oil pump

$50 belts

$24.99 motor mounts

$300 engine cradle Vildini

$50 shorten driveshaft

$300 FMIC and downpipe and exhaust manifold

$100 air cleaner and intake and FMIC piping

$100 Taurus fan

$200 Aluminum and plastic radiator

$150 intake manifold ported and polished

$350 ACT HDSS clutch

$200 3" mandrel bent exhaust

$100 Walbro 255 fuel pump

Plus labor

 

The new ecu was a quirk since mine was not working. The new starter was necessary since most have defunct starters. You should replace the oil and water pumps. The FMIC is necessary and the downpipe and exhaust manifold are necessary. The Intake manifold, taurus fan and radiator are not entirely necessary. You also need incidentals like fluids and spark plugs. After I got all this done I have also added:

 

$150 Z32 MAF

$489 Nismo 740cc injectors

$1100 GT2871R turbo

$1000 APEXi Power FC standalone

 

You can add the following which I recently replaced:

 

$150 New wiring harness

$450 Power Brute LSD

$339 Datalogit

 

I think if you do the math, that is over $5000 for a fairly basic swap and over $8,000 for my setup. There were other incidentals not listed here. Again, this does not include labor.

 

Is your tight budget $5000 or $8000 plus labor?

[Guest Projectcarâ„¢]

Thanks for your input guys.

 

Much appreciated.

[Challenger]

What time do you start your senior project? Is it the fall of senior year or summer before. Im hoping to rebuild or possibly turbo(if money permit) for mine but Ive got a couple years.

 

Like said Id start off by just getting a good clean Z and learning everything you can about it and make it safe. Look where every hose goes, what every bolt holds together etc.

 

Im hoping to have my car back together this summer and after that Ill be going through the suspension and brakes to replace bushings to make it safe before any performance parts.

[Lewis Maudlin]

Im hoping to rebuild or possibly turbo(if gas prices permit) for mine but Ive got a couple years.

 

OK, I don't understand the "(if gas prices permit)". My turbo enine gets better gas mileage than most non-turbos. I get 30 mpg with me driving. For comparison, I got 12 mpg out of my 355sbc Z with a 700R4.

[Challenger]

Ive always assumed that I wouldnt get as good MPG with a turbo. But I have to consider Id probably have my 3.54 and a ZX 5 speed that would keep rpm down.

 

Please excuse If I was wrong, I just assumed even though Ive never driven my car long enough to get MPG. My bad. Ill change it to (if money permits).

[Austin240Z]

I agree with pretty much everybody else on the engine swap, hold off for now, get to know your car first.

 

I've been through 3 different cars and made a lot of mistakes... I always had a daily driver, which was the one thing i did right.

 

My first project was an '84 Toyota Corolla, or the AE86. The biggest problem I had was the body on that car. It had been hit in the front(fixed the front myself) and hit in the right rear quarter. I couldnt fix the right rear... Second problem was the engine... I got the economy engine, the 4AC, instead of a 4AG, on top of that, it had a blown head gasket i didnt know about. First time i drove it more than a mile, it overheated and just trashed the engine.

 

I spent a lot of time and money on that car... I had planned to do a rotary swap in it... but the body was just trash, the car just wasnt worth working on anymore... Sold the AE86 for $50 to some guys who had 4 or 5.

 

Second Project was a '88 RX-7 GTU. Decent body, little rust here and there though.. needed a paint job really bad, suspension was toast, needed to replace pretty much everything, no interior, doors didnt open... you pretty much had to go in through the window Dukes of Hazzard style. BUT the engine was perfect, and despite all the other problems it would have made a decent platform to build on.

 

That's when i found the Z. I dropped everything, got rid of the RX7 and concentrated on building my Z. Even doing a stock resotoration/build is proving to be hard to do finacially on a college student budjet.

 

If I can give you any advice it would be this, be patient. Take a good long look at your car, make a list of things that are broken, or oherwise messed up. Find out how much it would cost to get those things fixed. Look at the body, the frame, floor pans, and all the comon Z car rust spots. See how bad it looks, if there's a lot of damage to the frame.... I'd probably hold out for a while and see if you can find a Z in better shape.

 

Ok, body out of the way, next step, engine. Replace gaskets as needed, do a tune-up all that good stuff. Make sure it's in good running condition before you think of doing anything preformance wise to it.

 

Third important thing, BRAKES, cant stress that enough.... the brakes on my 240Z are trash, just towing it to my garage almost got me and my girlfriend killed. What's the point on fixing this car up, whether as a DD or an autocross car if your brakes are in bad shape and you wrap it around a tree, or another car....

 

Fourth would be the suspension, you obviously cant drive it very well if the front tires are trying to drive in two different directions... something brakes and a wheel comes off.

 

Last..... Lights and interior.... you need working lights.... interior.... well.... that doesnt really matter.

 

OK, now that that is all out of the way... and your car, if there was anything wrong, is hopefully back up to spec... NOW is the time to consider engine upgrades, or an engine swap. I personally would say, upgrade the stock engine, learn the car, and save money for an eventual swap. I will promise you, a swap will cost you atleast twice what you expect if you've never done it before.

 

 

I'm trying to do this on my car. Stock resto, stock engine. Doing a 5 speed swap, and of course brake upgrades after my little scare. After my car is back to more or less factory spec, I'm gonna spend a year-two years learning the car on the 2.4 liter motor, then I'll be doing a 2.8 with a 3.1 stroker, cam, tripple weber, the whole nine yards.

 

 

Ok, sorry for the rant, but I always try to share my experience, I've been through some interesting things... helped some people out of some seriously bad deals... that kinda thing.

 

Thanks for reading, I hope you got something out of this atleast, good luck to you.