ZguyECV

What’s up guys how goes life? Been a while since ive been on. So I haven’t made a lot of progress on my smashed 83 ZX sept for picking up an air damn and a few other extra parts cool one being the instrument cluster that goes up to 120 mph. Been drivin the S30 DD. I’m back at work as a foreman at an auto body and paint shop and have had very little time in my own garage. I seem to remember a being told that zx’s are just good for power train swaps anyway LOL. So ive been thinking that it sure would be nice to have a lil extra pep and gain 5th gear in the Z so…

How much modification is there to be done to take everything from the ZX and transplant it all into the Z engine to rear end. Will it just bolt across and only needed to shorten the drive line or would I have to weld in the rear strut chambers and all that kinda stuff??? Thanks All my Zdriver buds thoughts info & links to builds would be cool.

NismoPick

Moved thread to S30 Motor Swap section...

It's simple... Motor & trans will bolt right up... but swapping one n/a for another is a lot of effort, for very little gain.

ZguyECV

thnks for the move.. Yea I know the the performance gain wont be anything real other then then the fact that my 76 engines rings are about toast givin me tons of blow by soakin my plugs and lossin pwer lol. so Id have a fresher engin and gain a gear. Id like to go turbo eventually since id love to make her my track car. if im remebering right isnt the rearend in the z the r180 and the zx r200 was thinkin if im going to do the swap might as well do it all now in prep for the future

FricFrac

You're way better off to wait and do a turbo swap if that's your goal unless you like swaping engines, etc

The tranny and rear ends are direct swaps - do those whenever. Just remember if you get the T5 from the ZXT the gearing is different and works with a higher geared rear end Pp

ZguyECV

Ok guys bringing this one back the z’s stocker l28 has givin up on me so its time to go ahead and swap the engines over not going to worry about doin the tranny or rear end at this time just wana be able to keep driving her. So ive already pulled the dead engine out and cleared out the engine bay going to go ahead and paint in there before reinstall of the engine out of the zx.

So getting my head wrapped around what all is needed to be done. Is this just going to be a simple swap of just the engine, harness and computer or is there other mods im goin to have to handle such as vac lines and components stuff like that? I am in ca so im going to have to keep it smog-able. I know im going to have to remove the pwr steering pump of the zx motor really haven’t looked to see how the belt runs since replaced it a long time ago now since she hasn’t been on the road. The other thing im going to do is go ahead and rob the m/c and booster I remember reading about that upgrade to the s30. Any and all extra info muchly appreciated thanks all.

NismoPick

Depends on what year the motors are, but if the sensors are the same, yes, it's all plug & play.

ZguyECV

Well im not 100% sure just from a simple visual scan they appear to be although im not yet a z professional like alot of you guys are. The engine im gona drop in is out of my 83zx na w/ps. going into a 76 280.. Thanks nismo

ZguyECV

Just about ready to start the removal of the zx engine with further inspection there looks to be a lil more to do with the other harness the one that has the starter fusible links alt ect am I gona have to swap that harness as well??

NismoPick

It depends on what is still in the car receiving the swap... if it's that blue S30 in the pic, that looks like it's been stripped... no wiring, but the headlights are on?

With a normal motor swap, you just swap the efi wiring. You should check out my S30 L28ET swap thread: https://www.zdriver.com/forums/240z-260z-280z-motor-swaps-non-v8-269/l28et-s30-tucked-like-stock-only-better-pic-heavy-30516/

ZguyECV

yes the car reciving the swap is the s30 with the now blue engine bay. I did strip most of it all out leaving the clutch break and fuel lines in place figured the paint wouldnt hurt them just will look a lil odd all painted up but ehh.. the engine harness i completly rermoved stock computer still in place tho the other wiring harness i just pulled tho the firewall so i could paint its all intact sitting on the passenger side floor board. the lights look on cuz the afternoon sun is starting to hit the garage. the plan was to just feed it back thro and hook it all back up and swap the efi wiring and computer. was just curious about the diff set up for the canister that has power and vac lines hooked up to it as well as the lil blower motor on the side of the engine is that simply for extra cooling?

I will read through ur build thanks for the link and help with this swap

Matt K

FYI, zx electronics won't interface 100% with the earlier Z, specifically the afm & ECU. If your 76 was working ok, I'd swap only the longblock, not the electronics. Swap the tranny & rear end with it, and it will feel way faster with the 3.90 gears & "close" ratio 5-speed than the old 4 speed & original R200.

ZguyECV

Well i didnt think that the 83 engine would run with the 76 comp and afm. my plan is to swap everything over that needs to be. Im in the process of putting the 76 engine bay back together and pulling everything out of the 83. I will be swapping out the tranny once I get it back from the shop had the dog pins drop from 5th an rev in the 5speed so I picked up another one from pick n pull that had a bad counter bearing take two an make one lol. Idk if ill go ahead an swap out the rear end at least wise not at this point in time.

ZguyECV

Ok so I've got the engine pulled out of the zx going for the efi harness in the loom for the comp is a 2ndary lead going across the firewall to the fusible links and a couple relays. One of the has a lrg white wire going to one relay and going into the other harness. The other set is leading to the fusible link box then back into the side of the engine bay and looks to run in behind the firewall. Im assuming leading to the fuse box. If so do I need to pull that all out and intergreat that into the 76other fuse panel/ build a stand alone power supply. If not what do I do with the other side of that harness?? No I haven't pulled out the book yet just posting first. I dnt have access to the fsm my computers down and can't download it to my phone which really sux. Help with this part greatly appreciated thanks guys.

ZguyECV

I have disconnected the harness at that side to at least get it out of the way for the moment the set that im asking about is.. (pic) four wire connector with blue/green stripe blue/yellow strip blue/red stripe yellow/black stripe. And then its the fusible link red and green. Im also curious about the oil pressure switch in the s30 as the po installed and after market gauge put that can wait for now lol thanks alot guys love forums zdriver rocks lol

Matt K

Sorry if I missed something...but why are you not just swapping the longblock? You're going to have a multitude of issues trying to integrate the 76 & 83 harnesses...you'll be having to rewire a ton of stuff. The ZX has additional components that aren't on the Z.

ZguyECV

Ahhh my bad I didn't add that in when u asked the last time. The 76 was running but not good at all the afm was on its last legs as well had multiple issues with the harness old dried out an breaking at every connection and component that id be tring to repair. I dnt think I have to intergreat the harnesses. From what nismopick states its a fairly simple swap I just think to complicated. With these types of cars before I picked up the zx and fell I love with them I usually only worked on classic cars with much more basic systems other then all the new crazy electronic cars at the dealership but also had many computer systems for diagnosis and full flow charts to wrk the probs never was doing swaps in them ither lol. The zx I know was fully operational ran perfect.