Spraguepsycho1 Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I noticed there's a few Ford V8 swaps finished on here. Has anybody made it to the track yet to see how they run? I'm planning on swapping in a '86 5.0 and AOD from a Tbird into my sons '79 280ZX after he proves he can drive responsibly for a year without getting a ticket with the stock drivetrain. I plan on changing the pistons (stock flat top pistons had no valve reliefs), and possibly the heads if I can find some good ones at an affordable price, along with a fairly mild camshaft, and ditching the junk speed density efi for a 4bbl carb and either a stand alone electronic distributor, or a old points one (have a few laying around). I'm estimating it will be around 300-330hp at the crank when it's done, and hoping to get it to run high 12's or low 13's. This is my sons first car, so I want it to run good for him, but still be streetable/controllable lol. So what's everybody else getting performance wise with their Ford swaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Just a small piece of advice, make your son put time into the car so he learns to appreciate it. You dont want someone to get injured or have your son get a huge ticket. Im 16 and I know how us yougins think. Were not to smart, and a 1 year veteran driver with a 13 second car isnt really safe. Anyways look for the member 74_5.0_Z or something to that extent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 i too will agree, me being 20 and i still think im not experienced enough to handle a 400+hp car. I drove a 350hp 5.0 mustang and it was a hand full. I drove it for almost a week and got used to it and how that much power reacts on the street. And for your son i would recommend just beefing up the stock engine and waiting a bit longer for that kind of power. I know when i was 16 i had a 86 supra and that was more than enough to get in trouble. so i downgraded for my own sake to a 85 corolla sr5 lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Well I'm 20 as well and I can also so that there's no way I would want to deal with a 300+ hp Z right now. I'm sure I could get used to it, but my brother's 93' cobra was an handful, though I was only 16-17 then. The stock 86' 302 was pretty wimpy. If you left it stock it would provide a good stepping point for him to get used to it I think. All that being said the fasts 280ZX times in our database are in the 11 second range. I'll go hunt around looking for some times of one with a FSB and report back here. EDIT/UPDATE: Well I'm not finding any times right away for ford timeslips, but a member here "80LT1" has a LT1 motor in his car and he's well into the 12's, mid 12s, on his Gtech Pro which tend to be accurate enough for comparison. Here's a link to his engine mods. http://www.datsun-280zx-lt1.com/LT1andT56.html Another Edit: Oh yea, if you look at his page you'll see that there's steering clearence issues on the driver side that mean you have to run a custom header on most V8 engines. Well you shouldn't have to worry about this, as I believe all, or close to all 79' ZX cars had a manual rack and pinion steering rack. They were also all slick top (no T-Top) and many had manual mirrors, manual windows, and even no AC. If this is the case for your car it should be pretty light and you can compare times with relative accuracy with the 280Z guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spraguepsycho1 Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 He's 18, The stock engine runs fine so he is getting used to driving it already, and I'm going to wait a year or so to do the swap. Like I said he has to prove to me that he can be responsible before I'm going to give him more power. His car has power steering, power mirrors, and power windows, and it's an automatic. Not looking to give him major power with the swap, no more than around 300hp, but might actually come in lower at first until he gets used to the extra power and handling of the V8. Originally I planned on putting the engine and transmission into my '82ZX but decided I'd rather spend money fixing up my '65 Mustang instead, so the engine and trans are just sitting here. The stock '86 5.0 from the T-bird was only rated at 150hp, so going to all the trouble of a swap just to add 15hp over the '79 ZX's factory 135hp rating wouldn't be worth it in my opinion lol. If it ends up being too much for him to handle on the street, I have a fullsize Bronco that he'll be driving in the winter anyways, which I could let him have to drive full time, then just limit him to the track with the Z for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CantZme Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 if you're only looking for 300hp, why not the turbo the l28 with stock parts from a 280zxt? cheaper and will make 300hp easy...i know this is a ford thread, but it seems like a lot less trouble for the goals you have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spraguepsycho1 Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 Mainly because I'm a whole lot more familiar with small block Fords, already have the engine and transmission (the donor car was free), and the fact that if he blows it up it's cheaper to rebuild. There's also not very many Z's or ZX's in the local wrecking yards around here, and no turbo ZX's at all to pull the needed parts from, and I don't like fleabay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 I agree it might seem like less trouble to turbo the L28, but since you have the ford motor sitting there that's probably going to be the best route. Since your son's 79' has power everything it'll weight closer to 2900 pounds as a guess. Might be a little bit lighter, but not by a ton. Check what type of power steering it has. If it's recirculating ball then header clearence will be tight for sure, so be thinking about how to deal with that. If it's rack and pinion then it should give you a lot more room, but there's far from a huge database of V8 S130 cars, even here. Also keep in mind if you want to convert to the rack and pinion, power or manual, you'll need the corrosponding cross member as well, as the mounting tabs don't exist on the recirculating ball cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spraguepsycho1 Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 Yeah it's recirculating ball, I figure if I shift it to the pass side a little bit, and go with block hugger type headers I should be able to make it fit, if not I know of a few good exhaust shops, or a custom metal fab shop that should be able to make something up for a decent price. Heck I might even be able to just drop it in temporarily with a pair of stock cast iron exhaust manifolds. Those seem to fit fairly close to the block, and shouldn't hurt the power too much at the mild performance level I'm looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mr_cool_guy Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 bump for .25mi times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
74_5.0L_Z Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 My car is not set-up as a drag car. I mostly autocross it, but I have had it to the drag strip. My best so far is a 12.42 @ 113mph. The engine is from a 1989 mustang. The engine came from a junkyard and the only thing that I have done are some bolt-on modifications. Edelbrock 60379 Performer 5.0 Heads Cobra Intake 1.7 FMS roller rocker arms Crower 15511 cam 24 lb/hr injectors C & L 73 mm Mass Air Meter 65 mm Throttle body I have never touched the bottom end and I know that it has at least 150,000 miles on it. All that being said, I have a 331 stroker on the engine stand just waiting for me to finish it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spraguepsycho1 Posted January 21, 2008 Author Share Posted January 21, 2008 Not sure what the specs are on that Crower cam you're running. With the extra lift of the 1.7 rockers, you're probably running a little stronger than I plan on this one running, so I guess high 12's to low 13's should be fairly easy to hit with my planned combo. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilredZ Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 my old motor was 337 cu in and ran 11.8 / 119 with open headers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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