cockerstar Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 So guys, I'm sitting here planning out my first build and I haven't decided on what I want to do yet. The car is a '79 280zx and she is bone stock (to my knowledge) minus a head back exhaust. Its the stock manifold>y pipe>2" pipe>resonator>2" pipe all the way back. I'm assuming that this means the previous owner cut out the cat and welded in a resonator... She has a strong motor and after some ps line, 2 u joints, and possibly a few bushings she will be running well. I'm still in the idea phase and really just getting my options here. Cheap is good because its my first project car Heres what I've considered so far: a) Intake, mild cam, headers, and custom exhaust. I know how to weld and have the resources to bend my own pipe so it should stay cheap. I honestly haven't ever done any work to an engine itself so the cam sway might be a bit of an adventure. Cheap N2O fogger set up running either a 50 shot or a 75 shot, nothing too extreme. Keeping the absolute bare requirements to stay safe and not have my engine explode. (Wideband o2, rpm cut off switch, clutch switch, WOT switch turbo fuel pump) c) Raising the compression a bit? Any ideas? What would you guys consider? This is all in the planning stages and I'm trying to net myself as much power as I can per dollar that I spend My goals for the car are as follows: -Keep it reasonable enough to dd when its done and be able to run on pump gas -Beat a mazda 6 down the 1/4 (ongoing bet/joke with a friend) -The occasional auto cross would be fun, but the local club doesn't meet often enough to warrant a build designed around it) -Have an overall fun car to drive over my accord The car wont be designed for show or much comfort. The interior is kind of beat up, but its still within reason. I gutted the hatch area down to the metal because it was very beat up back there. I don't have plans to buy new panels or carpet for back there. Its fine for me the way it is I guess that should give you guys an overall feel of my intentions. I didn't but the car with anything in mind other than having some fun while learning a little bit. I bought the car for an offer of $235 from a guy on craigslist. I'd like to keep the project as cheap as possible, but still have some fun. I currently have about $600 and I don't really want to put more than $12-1500 into it at the absolute max. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Your title isn't very good. We want people to know what the thread is about before they open the thread. You'll appreciate the reasoning when you go to look for info. I'm going to fix it for you. Also, it might be a good idea to tell us what you're building the car to for (street, drag, autox, show, etc), how much money you have to spend, goals for the car, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockerstar Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 Went to edit the title and some content and saw that half of it had already been taken care of. Thanx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 was gonna say... the title looks fine to me, but that was after the title was changed i guess, lol best power:dollar ratio you can get is a turbo setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Well he cant do a turbo swap because if there is a donor car in Kennewick, Im going to buy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 There's a donor car in seattle... I'm revving up (haha, get it?) for my 7mgte swap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 I think the most value performance stuff you can do is shave weight. Spend some money for a barebones fiberglass hood and install some hood pins. If you remove 100 pounds from the car (hood and bumpers alone could do that) you'll benefit from: Better handling. Better acceleraton Better MPG Though obviously there's only so much weight you can take off before it doesn't make sense. Engine wise I think you've got the right idea. Let the engine breathe more and put in a cam to take advantage of the extra breathing. Though unfortunately you'll never see what I consider to be a decent street car power/weight ratio with the L28 unless you get into serious headwork. Since you can weld maybe you might want to consider an engine swap down the road. There's lots that will make plenty more power than the L series stock, and give you a good performance improvement for the dollor. In most cases the engine will sit farther back, and be lighter, improving handling again. I know you're on a budget, so I'll just list some good option that offer a good value. VG30E Ford 5.0, 302, 289, 351 Chevy 327,350 7MGTE There's also a guy doing a turbo ford 14 swap that seems to be pretty cheap. Doesn't seem like the best motor to many of us, but it's unique and should develop enough HP for most poeples satisfaction. All these motors are doable, and most of them can be aquired for at or around $300 depending on condition and what it comes with. I don't know what the laws are like up in washington, but also consider what would be easiest to keep within a reasonable means of legality. Though "reasonable" is all dependant on the state, where you live, how you use the car, and how much you care. The VG30E won't make much more power than the L series, but they're smaller, lighter, and do make more power in stock form. Though to be honest I think the L series has more NA potential. All of the other options could basically be left completely stock. They'll all make way more power than a stock L series, and have been proven to fit and done before. It's just a matter of getting the engine for a good price and getting started fabricating. The search button is our freind. There should be reasonable data on all these swaps on this board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockerstar Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 Come to think of it, I have done a little fiberglassing work in the past. The stock hood *could* be used as a mold for an easy fiberglass one That idea is actually really intriguing me right now. Fiberglas hood and lose the bumpers. Maybe attempt to mold some new fenders if the hood goes well? I could even pull out the hood spring asly if I went with a 4 pin styler hood... I'm liking it The doors seem to be heavy as hell! Think theres any weight to save there? Does anyone have any preferences on a new cam? At this point, I'd prefer to not go down the route of a swap. In the future it would be amazing when I have the proper funding and resources to support it. Right now, I'm just making the best of what I have for a reasonable price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challenger Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 I think making the hood and fenders is alot more work then you think. Ive seen people remove the inside of the door and just leave the skin and latch. Youd have to rig up a way to keep the window on but its worth experimenting with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 if you're doing wed reduct, just buy the panels. there are tons of options, search around. probably not worth your R&D unless you're going to sell the stuff. the easiest swap for more power, hands down, is l series to l series, if you want tons of power cheap, go turbo. the other motors listed are great too, and require more work, but an L28 swap is just a drop in deal. Also, I believe it's all across washington, but in my area our cars are so damned old they don't care what we do to their exhaust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Or, just duct tape a leaf blower to your intake, with a throttle for it mounted in the cockpit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockerstar Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 Or, just duct tape a leaf blower to your intake, with a throttle for it mounted in the cockpit. rofl Have you seen the dyno vid of that? I honestly wonder how much boost they were making. In my county there isn't even emissions testing. At all... What kind of change would I be making to the powerband with a 6-1 header and a new intake? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Well the ZX engines had a ton of emission equipment compared to the earlier Z cars. The main emission device that'd make a noticable difference would be the CAT, simply because of the backpressure it creates. You can remove it, or replace it with a high flow cat. I preffer that route because a car without a cat tends to stink a bit, and high flow cats have proven to not restrict power in many cases. Another thing to keep in mind is that there's not really any readily availible "intakes" for the L series. Your best bang for the buck improvement for the intake would be to just upgrade to a larger throttle body (KA24 throttle is a common mod). I'm really not one to give you power numbers, so I won't even guess. But I do know that the AFM really kills the responsiveness of these motors, and it would be worthwhile to consider converting to carbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver280zx Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Compression is a key to getting anything out of th emotor, if you put a cam in without raising the compression any, then you will be bleeding compression off and already compression-lacking engine. The best thing to do is to prolly put some flattop pistons in it, and get the ports in the head opened up. My s130 is a 79 as well, and it used to choke out around 5000rpm, but since i got the port job, it pulls strong to around 6k. Advance the ignition timng some as well. A lieghtwieght flywheel is a goodthing to do, along with a better clutch. Also go with a hotter ignition, i have a crane cams ignition, that has a dwell in the upper rpm's. It has made a good difference. Back before i did my seats, my clutch, and my aluminum flywheel, running 87 octane fuel, i ran a 15.9 in the quarter mile on stock compression, and the clutch wouldnt engage fully in any of my gears.i think my trap speed was like 88mph.i think with all i have done now, with everything working properly, i think i could pull low 15's easily. When talking about wieght reduction, replace the factory steelies, with some lieghter alloy wheels. I lost 35lbs by going from factory steelies to the swastica alloys. Also, the full back seats wiegh 45lbs a piece. Swap some fiberglass buckets in there. I put some momo START 2007 seats in mine and they make awsome track seats. I do not recomend for daily driving on them though, the are completely and utterly impractical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Switching to an entire 80 or later motor might be just as good of an idea as getting flat top pistons. It's probably cheaper to get a block with flat tops than it is to spend the time and effort (or money to have a machine shop) putting flat tops in your current engine. Plus if your head is a N47 (which I believe it would be if it's not the P79 which started on the 80' cars) then the compression with flat tops would be roughly 9.8:1, VERY high for an L engine. The P79 head with flat tops would be 8.5:1, a much better pump gas friendly compression ratio. Still not very high for max performance, but it would be much more forgiving on the tune. There's lots of info on these forums for good head/block combos. Learn the love the search button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockerstar Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 Thatnx for the pointers guys I decided that I'm going turbo. I picked up the necessities and a new clutch from badjuju yesterday. He's a great guy and was pretty informative about everything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Thatnx for the pointers guys I decided that I'm going turbo. I picked up the necessities and a new clutch from badjuju yesterday. He's a great guy and was pretty informative about everything! Well thanks a lot! I hope it all works out for you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockerstar Posted February 19, 2008 Author Share Posted February 19, 2008 Hey Alec, is the clutch for the turbo model or the non turbo? I checked clutchnets site and they have different diameters, but the same spline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dat1gai Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 sell your car and get a 280ZXT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zx beast Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Come to think of it, I have done a little fiberglassing work in the past. The stock hood *could* be used as a mold for an easy fiberglass one That idea is actually really intriguing me right now. Fiberglas hood and lose the bumpers. Maybe attempt to mold some new fenders if the hood goes well? I could even pull out the hood spring asly if I went with a 4 pin styler hood... I'm liking it The doors seem to be heavy as hell! Think theres any weight to save there? Does anyone have any preferences on a new cam? At this point, I'd prefer to not go down the route of a swap. In the future it would be amazing when I have the proper funding and resources to support it. Right now, I'm just making the best of what I have for a reasonable price. If you can make nice fiberglass peice you could sell them. I dumped alot of weight with ac delete, and bumpers, and interior. I would be very very interested if you made fiberglass fenders/ hood/ custom lip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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