1978 Datsun 280Z Turbo (vid)

[boardkid280z]

I've been a member here and at zcar.com for a long time. Last summer, we turbo'd my '78 with parts off an 81 ZXT (it was toast). Mods include:

- Megasquirt 1 v3.0

- larger turbo compressor off a Buick Grand National

- 3 inch downpipe and full exhaust

- intercooler

- stock N/A shortblock with flattop pistons and P90 head combo

- sweet billet blow-off valve

 

I've only been running 8psi or so, since it has flattops, and the stock turbo injectors and I haven't gotten a wideband on it yet to make sure my Air/Fuel ratio is OK. It runs good and pulls hard from 2800RPM on.

Here is a video we made when we just got it running. I just made a YouTube account and this was the first video I uploaded, so I wanted to go ahead and make good use of it. Enjoy.

 

[boardkid280z]

Here's a few pics of my car:

 

 

 

(The car has been lowered a bit since these pics were taken. I guess that means it's time for a new photo shoot)

 

And me (last year sometime, helping a friend pick up his 77 280Z 2+2):

[boardkid280z]

Here are a few pictures of my progress this past week. My roommate and I have been working hard on getting my motor put together. It has taken a while to get all the parts together. I've really just done all the cleaning and painting this past week. I think I have all the parts to finish it... just need to get some pusher fans as the SC setup takes a lot of room on the front of the motor.

The throttle body is a TBI (Throttle Body Injection) off of a GM 4.3 V6 or something like that. The Supercharger and manifold are from Jim Cook Racing's kit. The header came with a $200 2.6L motor I picked up. P90 head (only dirty part on the motor ) with flattops. And I have an aluminum radiator from Arizona Zcar waiting to go in. Megasquirt is already installed... I've been using it on a turbo setup for a while, it will need a little modifying and cleaning up, but it's basically ready to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

[boardkid280z]

Well, the SC motor has been in the car a while, but has smoked since I put it in. Checked compression - low, so replaced HG. Still smoked, checked compression, still low, or low again. Probably bad piston rings. Too much work, me lazy.

So the car has been sitting since last summer'ish and I just sourced a 83 280ZX Turbo to be the donor. Haven't seen it yet. My friend checked it out, says it runs smooth and nice and doesn't smoke at all. Going up to Whichita, KS this week to swap motors. I will be selling the supercharger kit after that.

Gonna put the turbo motor in as is, stock, and then work it up from there. Really wanna find a gt30R to slap on that mug. 35 just seems too big. I don't think I need more than 400hp.

[boardkid280z]

Well, I went up to Wichita last week, and my one day swap ended up lasting three days and I didn't get back till late Friday night. I wanted to put it in basically stock, so there is no IC and I am using the stock wiring harness and ECU/AFM.

I had to remodify my throttle linkage since I had modified it for the supercharger cable setup. Modified the intake so the AFM sits in front of the radiator. I kept the aluminum radiator and electric fan.

During the swap we lost the clutch hose off the donor car and busted the clutch hose off the SC motor when we pulled it, so I had to drive it back to OKC Friday with no clutch, that was interesting. Not too bad, only had to stop 3 twice, 2 turnpike stops and 1 fuel stop, other than that, I just kept it in gear and matched the rpms to change gears .

 

The motor is so quiet, I have a full three inch exhaust that I made for the last turbo motor, but I added a resonator when I had the SC motor in there. So it has a resonator and a muffler. It's almost too quiet, but very nice for cruising.

 

 

If you look closely in the next two pics, maybe you can see where the ECU is stuffed in the space where the wiper fluid reservoir goes under the maintenance access flap on the driver side. I'll be going to back to Megasquirt sometime, but I am thinking of getting it dyno'd like this in "stock" form before adding the IC, or MS or different turbo/injectors.

 

 

 

 

[boardkid280z]

Here are a few pics of the donor vehicle I got the newest turbo motor out of. It is a 1983 280ZX Turbo with T-tops and 5 speed Borg Warner transmission. The fenders were detached and a BUNCH of parts were loose in the hatch and more in boxes.

 

The motor's a bit dirty and there's a little oil leaking from the valve cover, but it starts up right away, with no strange noises, no smoke, a steady idle and quick throttle response, at least in neutral. Engine vacuum was 16.5inHg at startup and pushing 19 inHg after warmup, steady as a rock. Exhaust is missing the last stud, and it sounds like there might be a slight exhaust leak from the middle of the manifold, though that might just be the injectors ticking. Alternator works great, starter may need replacing soon, it seems tired. Also the wiring harness is in great condition, I took part of the harness on the charging side and will probably try to use it to replace my worn out harness and thereby simplify things a bit. Too many wires in the engine bay right now.

Oil pan is quite rusty and quite a bit of corrosion and dirt on the motor, oh well. I have a lot of clean parts on the SC motor.

 

Anyway here are the pics:

 

The PO did some interesting work customizing the rear end, it doesn't look bad, but there's a lot of bondo there, and the rest of the car has way too much rust to be interesting at all.

 

 

 

 

The motor ready to be pulled: