Lesnocker

Well I turned over my engine to the local guys @ 7 speed performance in washington pa. . . . They are going to dismantle and dip engine and start benching my block. . . . They had several ideas on what to do but since they mostly deal with supra's and RX/7s they are takeing time for researching what's out there. . . . Mean while I'm bored . . . . Already pulled fron and rear suspensions to swap with the parts car so I have a blank shell. . . . . The hermit suggested to me after ripping out all the body sealent to fully weld up all the seams on the body like he did with the scca cars. . . It will add cornering improvements and better launching . . . . Is he right or am I just wasteing a ton of wire and argon? Also in the garage he pointed out to me. Some J type lower val. . . . .head lamp bumper and funky areo style val all one peice instead of the box front end this one has the taurus look. And much lower and longer than factory. . . . Once again waste of money . . . . . ? Anyone heard of this type? And will it benfit me in any way. . . . The 70s they added all that fiberglass crap to the cars so must improve but I'm staying well under 200 mph lol

NismoPick

Are these the same guys who are charging you two arms and three legs for the motor rebuild?

Seam welding (cars in general) CAN help the rigidity if done right. It will also add weight to the car. I can think of a lot of other things to spend money and time on that will improve rigidity rather than seam welding.

Dunno what you are talking about for the "J type" or "Taurus look"...

Lesnocker

Oh and with the body kit the front "airdam" ect is a wide body kit he used on the scca cars. . . . Has anyone messed with this on a streetable car. . . Inspection issues? And if so how hard is it to attach?

Lesnocker

Oh no this was a lead I got at work. . . . I'm paying as I go. . . . 800.00 to diss assem resurface crank and bore/hone cylinders for a .04 ring and resurface deck all new bearings oil pump. . . . Were undecided on head and they are researching it. . . . .the cam grind "a" that was posted was well non english to them so may go to stock rebuild head and assy for another 450.00. . . .

Lesnocker

The nose of the car has the shape of a 1996 ford taurus. . . . Kinda ugly but free. . . . Being old fiberglass well just may leave it. . . .

FricFrac

I'm assuming you're talking about the G Nose? I think they are ugly myself. The 280ZX is already long enough looks wise - if anything I'd try to take a couple of inches off the nose not stretch out more. The 280ZX is pretty areo dynamic unlike the S30 before it.

Welding the seams up is a good idea if for nothing other than making you dig out the car slaying seam sealer. I'm assuming you're doing the welding youself otherwise it's likely a waste of time. A roll cage will give you infinitely more stiffness....

FricFrac

Alarm bells are ringing in my head.....

- Resurface crank? Why?
- New bearings - may as well - they are cheap - Clevites are a good bet.
- Cylinders will more likely than not just need to be honed - boring them out will gain next to nothing displacement/power wise. I'd replace the pistons/rings with the ITM ones - pistons, rings and wrist pins are under $40 each hole, hypereutectic (perfect for a street build) and closely matched.
- Melling 111 oil pump
- "A" grind cam is out of the plain Jane P79 NA head.... eg pull it out put it in....
- Head - resurface if required and reseat the valves. Mild port and polish - unshrouding the valves is the main gain here. It's your intake manifold that's the killer - 53% of the area of the intake valve on your intake runners.

Lesnocker

Ok well tomarrow ill go and show them this. . . . I'm sure smitty got a P79 head laying in the garage. . . . . They said #4 and #6 had damage on crank from shaveings. . . . . Oil was not changed as required. . . Took a gamble on the motor it did have a noticeable knock when I started it. . . . . Was hopeing other issue. . . But we are useing the Itm rings arb studs as well its just locateing everything needed. . . . .so day two so as issues come ill figure it out. . . . Now should I run the factory turbo. . . . As stated they are mostly toyota and mazda guys they were asking if I knew if the stock brain box can be re programmed I think not. . . . What do I do here. . . ? 5000.00 budget. . . . Say 1500 spent so far.

Lesnocker

You are correct "G" lol . . . . But for what were doing thought this would be perfect however I'm undecided. . . . . The car was slated to be cut in half and thrown to the scrapper so its a "drinking project" But I adgree with nismo think it will just be added weight and a headache. . . . . But with the t top under hard launch she pulls to the pass side pretty hard and has some wheel hop. . . . So bigger swaybar and poly bushings see what happens.

FricFrac

Stiffer springs in the rear for sure. Look in the the Megan S13 coilovers swap. Megans are the best bang for your buck IMHO. The backs just bolt in and the fronts are a minor swap. IIRC Courtesy Nissan had the Nismo front sways on sale not long ago but you'll want the rears as well - 1 1/8" in the front and 7/8" on the rear.

Turbos - you have a million choices. Budget build - T3/T4 or the Holset. The HY35 is going to be a little bit of modifying and an external wastegate but it's got a wicked map on it - very efficient and it spools nicely.... If you've got some money to spend I'm saving up for either a GT35R or a GTX35R although the Borg Warner EFR is tempting - built in wastegate. Start figuring out your intercooler setup as well. You don't need to spend a lot of money on an intercooler setup - design is the most important part.

The stock brain box is trickable but very very little you can do there. There are lots of options but I think the Mega Squirt III is the best bang for your buck. Go from 1970's technology to a modern system. This really should be your first upgrade IMHO. It's the brains that will give you the option to squeeze every drop of performance out of the engine.

Lesnocker

Well Day 3. . . . . All bores were in factory spec. . . Going to hone Friday. . . .spent a lil extra and got the goodies for lower end they called around 11 today and rattled off a list they felt was the best. . . .Ill have. The list Friday when I go down and drop off the check. The hermit came over tonight gave him 600 for his scca parts one inch rear swaysbar inch and a quarter front all new billit alum links front and back and four new teko adj struts. He does have the factory racing drop spindles for the front but with pa roads don't wanna go lower. Now the mega squirt I take is a stand alone system or do I have to wire into old harness. . . . . . . . BIG I.E.!!! Can I leave the old N/A harness in and just disconnect the efi wireing?? Turbo virgin here.

Lesnocker

Now they mentioned a t30 3760 r turbo??? Don't know **** here ??

NismoPick

You are spending THOUSANDS of dollars on the car, and you ask if you can be lazy and leave the old harness in? With the motor out, it takes about 5 minutes to pull the efi harness.

Google it.

FricFrac

Here's the Mega Squirt ECU harness I'm developing. It's an undressed but fully functional version.
https://www.zdriver.com/forums/showp...4&postcount=89

I'm doing a plug and play wiring harness kit for the S130 because I'm an S130 fanatic. If I was smart I'd do the S30 kit first. Anyhow this is the one and only plug and play Mega Squirt III harness for the 280ZX and it's a properly engineered kit. Plugs right into your stock body harness. I'm only doing a few custom sets since they are quite time consuming. PM me if you want more info.

Adjustable Tokicos are RARE - they don't make the rears anymore - $600 was a decent buy for those and the sways - nice find. You do really need to get a much heavier than stock set of rear springs. I'd go at least 250lbs myself.... The stock Tokicos are about 175lbs but they aren't as hard as I'd like. Pics of the end links and bushing mounts. The issue with the heavier bars are the bushing mounts are just sheet metal and aren't strong enough....

FricFrac

Maybe a GT30? If you're getting a high end turbo like that go with the GT35R... it sounds like it would be too big for the L28 but guys are having amazing results with it on the L28ET. Check out Big Phil on YouTube

Lesnocker

Well I am lazy. . . . I am reading my fsm and it really don't show the efi harness being sep fron the main wireing harness . . . . Ill bury my head under the dash again also got to order the megasquirt see ow long that's. Going to be. . . . Lucky I know my hermit fric! Never knew Datsun/Nissan had parnerships so local dealers could build their own track cars. . . . And series of races they ran in. His company he had was smittybuilt. . . Got to see the holy of holys when he showed me the g nose 4 cars nissan gave all nismo parts in crates there sat a 77 ready to race . He had it in a 24 hr race at daytona never knew that they had those at daytona. . . . He showed me how the car was diffrent than the car he ran at pocono which happened to be next to it =) a 78. So weird parts are easy to find with him new turbos in boxes which I may use to save $$ told me when he got the info the dealerships get on a new model he made a deal with nissan what ever turbo cars were shipped to his lot he wanted a spare turbo in the hatch to put on his shelf. Kinda wild seeing the behind the sceans had a pic with him and Paul newman asked and he replied pissed he raced the dam things lol another ahhhhhh moment.

Lesnocker

And 3 are BOB sharp cars. . . . . So trying to figure out the hermit at 3am lol Google smitty built raceing