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Datsun maxima, L28et swap.


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Just traded my broke down 1990 maxima for this 1982 maxima, has the l24e crap. runs good but needs more power! Id love to just wait and fix the 280z, but I want to see this car go fast and I just love everything about it.

 

Ive had the l28et in my 280z, getting ready for it to run, but the body needs a fair amount of rust repair and this maxima is rust free for the most part, runs and drives good, so it wont need a new gas tank or a bunch of new brake parts like my 280z, and its a pimp-mobile with my momo wheels on it.

 

Any way it is a auto and it will remain a auto(it may hold the power, it probably wont), but untill I can dish out the money to get a t5 and a t5 driveshaft and the other auto>manual parts, it will be a auto. I have a auto from my orignal l28et from a 81 with only 100K miles on it, still in good shape as a back up, if the DS will spline into it.

 

My main concern is that these are front sump, does the pickup just swap over from the l24e to the l28et, and all I have to do is add a oil drain in the l24e pan for the turbo?

 

What is the usually oil pressure for a L-series engine, this at about 2000 rpms shows between 50-90 psi. I read that is was supposed to be between 10 and 30... Do these l24e's have good pumps or something?

 

oh and pictarS. After the l28et swap, I plan on doing a auto trans oil cooler, and eibach 280zx springs. The front valance needs some work.

 

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I was surprised that a car this old still had a clean engine bay, this car has 128k on it.

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4wheel disc

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its a clean car

 

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It says "SWAP ME"

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I can't help you regarding the turbo swap (except to vaguely say that I think there is some minor conversion work beyond just bolting the front sump stuff onto a rear sump motor) but I have a request... It would be super-cool if you could eyeball the brackets that have the rear brake calipers hanging from them, and see if those brackets are welded on or if they are bolted on. The welds can be pretty tricky to find, until you know where to look for them. I am pretty sure your car should be welded, but it is sort of a "point of argument" which ones were and were not. The data would be happy to get posted :)

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On my maxima it waas a breeze. If you have bothe motors out and on stands you should see VERY quickly what needs to be done.

 

On all L-series there are boss' in the front and in the rear for the oil pick up. If the motor needed front sump then the front boss was machined out and vise versa.

 

You will need the pan and pick up from the l24e. SOME l28s are already partiall machined for a pick up, some are not. Basically once you locate the front boss, which should be easy, just drill a small pilot hole all the way to the oil gally. then just keep steping up to largeer sized till the correct size hole is achieved. I will see if I can take some pics later.

 

Once the hole for the oil passage is drilled then you will need to either just bolt up the l24 sump OR if the block does not have the holes predrilled AND tapped you will need to do that. Dome block are already drilled for the bolts but have no threads soma also have threads.

 

Then of course you will need to block off the old oil pick up hole. I leave that up to you to figure out the best way. I just stick a bolt and washer in it and welded it up.

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I can't help you regarding the turbo swap (except to vaguely say that I think there is some minor conversion work beyond just bolting the front sump stuff onto a rear sump motor) but I have a request... It would be super-cool if you could eyeball the brackets that have the rear brake calipers hanging from them, and see if those brackets are welded on or if they are bolted on. The welds can be pretty tricky to find, until you know where to look for them. I am pretty sure your car should be welded, but it is sort of a "point of argument" which ones were and were not. The data would be happy to get posted :)

 

I will, I looked for the same bracket in a junkyard when there were 2 of these maximas there(for my 280z), wish they still had them, both of those had welded on brackets in the JY, dont remeber the year, ill check on mine, its a 82, ill get the production date.

 

On my maxima it waas a breeze. If you have bothe motors out and on stands you should see VERY quickly what needs to be done.

 

On all L-series there are boss' in the front and in the rear for the oil pick up. If the motor needed front sump then the front boss was machined out and vise versa.

 

You will need the pan and pick up from the l24e. SOME l28s are already partiall machined for a pick up, some are not. Basically once you locate the front boss, which should be easy, just drill a small pilot hole all the way to the oil gally. then just keep steping up to largeer sized till the correct size hole is achieved. I will see if I can take some pics later.

 

Once the hole for the oil passage is drilled then you will need to either just bolt up the l24 sump OR if the block does not have the holes predrilled AND tapped you will need to do that. Dome block are already drilled for the bolts but have no threads soma also have threads.

 

Then of course you will need to block off the old oil pick up hole. I leave that up to you to figure out the best way. I just stick a bolt and washer in it and welded it up.

 

 

Thanks, my l28 is one from a 1978.

 

Any one have ideas on the oil pump, thinking about swapping it to the l28, the current pump on it is just a na pump, I have a turbo pump from a blown up engine and kinda dont want to risk it just because the engine its from is blown up...

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How about just switching over the manifolding, turbo, and lines over to the L24e?

 

I did this and used my ghetto oil return mod to get turbo power without even removing the pan.

 

Mine ran fine for 50,000 miles with stock engine management but it did have python injectors which are known to not be very exact and therefore could have flowed more than stock but I believe stock boost on used on the L24 won't blow up the engine or lean it out.

 

This way the car is not tied up as you source parts to finish the L28.

 

As far as the tranny is concerned.......I would stick with the fs5w71b tranny out of a non turbo 280zx since it shares the same driveshaft length and spline count with the 3n71b 3 speed and some 4 speeds..........some 4 speed autos have a thicker yoke, though.

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Hmm that is very useful information. What about the 4spd manual, I have heard bad things about those 5spds, I have a 4spd with a 2+2 flywheel and clutch(1978 280z) I was planning on using but im still going to rock the auto till it breaks.

 

I have a complete l28et in my 280z, about ready to run with all z31 eletronics, 83 dist with 85 cas bla bla bla. Im hoping for 200+hp. on stock boost with 8.8:1 compression. Was just going to modify the dipstick and oilpan and drop in the l28 and all my z31 wiring and ecu. And when the auto fails Ill figure something out. If im going to be using the turbo parts, I might as well take the l28 too.

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