Ok I need advice and ideas on a combination of things. I have just purchased my first project car and its an 83 digital dash 280zx N/A. And I want to keep it that way. I want the engine projections to be around 300hp somewhere around there I'll even settle for 280hp at the flywheel. And cost is somewhat of a thing cause I'm stilling paying for school and stuff but I'm working on it as I can. I want this car for street and its going to be my daily driver. And what needs to happen so that these numbers can be reached in aspects of pistons, crankshaft, camshaft, injectors and new size, throttle body, lifters and rocker arms, head and head work, fuel pump, radiator, oil cooler, header and exhaust. Thank you for any input you have and from what you have learned.

Your crank and rods should be able to easily handle 280-300hp. Pistons will be your weak point if you're gonna have one as far as the bottom end goes. Even those could handle it with proper tuning. But since you're going for such a high number NA, you might as well upgrade them with some higher compression pistons. If that's a bit out of your price range you could have the head milled but you have to watch your piston to valve clearance. Compression is going to be your main ingrediant in making that much power. You will also need to get some headwork done. Porting, polishing, valves, and a cam is a good idea cause you're going to neeed to flow a lot of air. Headers will help your cause, but aren't neccessary. Upgrade that exhaust as well. I'd recommend upgrading every aspect of your fuel system. Including the ECU. MegaSquirt makes a very affordable unit (less than $200). Because with the compression you're going to need to run, you'll need precise control over the fuel system if you want to run pump gas. TB should also be good but for higher RPM's you might want to upgrade that as well. MSA sells one or you can do the 240sx TB swap. Oil cooler completely unnecessary if you're going NA, as you're very unlikely to cook the oil. Upgrade the radiator to an aluminum unit for the pure sake of security. Whether you need it or not, you don't want to lose your investment because your car overheated from the radiator being overworked. You'll save a few pounds too.

Oh yeah, another thing; with the high compression and the amount of, and high octane of the fuel you'll have in your combustion chambers you should also upgrade the ignition system. Toss the OEM I.M. cause it's junk and get an aftermarket one like the crane unit. Upgrade your coil too. New wires(stock are fine) and some good plugs. A wider gap in the plugs will give you more power, but too wide and you're not going to be able to burn that mixture, especially at higher RPM's. Stay away from anything thats got 2,3, or 4 on it, as far as the plugs go. A good set of NGK's work great, though you might want to experiment with heat ranges with high compression, you might want to run a cooler plug. Make sure the distributor is in tiptop shape. There should be no play in the shaft. Fine tuning is important here, so get a distributor that's perfect. Good luck, it's refreshing to see something not turbo charged every once in a while and still making big power.

EDIT:
Let me just say one more thing. You said you want this to be your daily driver street car. Which is great, I'm not going to say you cant do it. But where as with a race car running on racing fuel, you can get away with stuff not being perfect. With your situation, running off pump gas, in stop and go around town, ever changing conditions, and I'm assuming you don't want to have to fiddle with your car every time you drive it. My point is this, tuning is everything here. If you fine tune that car 280-300 HP is a walk in the park with the right combo of parts. But don't skimp in this department or you'll be sorry when a rod shoots through your block, or your burning oil through the hole in your pistion. Perfect fuel control, perfect spark control. Make as much power out of as little RPM's as possible and you have your self a street monster that is perfectly driveable.

well i think it all depends on what he wants as far as a driver.. do you want to accelerate really fast or have more top end.. you can fine tune to get optimum balance but sometimes a drivers preference is slightly different.. its all a matter of opinion, j is right.. in mking horsepower.. you need compression.. and make sure your ignition components and fuel components can measure up.. and i would suggest a 3" exhaust with a highflow cat and straight pipe(more flow) with interchangable flanges to switch between the 2.. and then upgrading pistons is best.. years of wear put a great deal of stress on them.. i would def. invest in a new cam.. and the valvetrain work will help a deal.. get some good free flowing headers and also a larger TB will allow more air.. the radiator is always the best upgrade cuz all that means nothing if youve destroyed it already..
also are you running automatic or standard?

280ZX_82bizox, sounds like you've got a project on your hands. I'm confident that 300hp is tangible on an NA L28. As for myself, I'll be building my engine for SCCA ITS road racing and, following regulations, I'm aiming for only 250hp. I've got a complete writeup on my build ideas and thoughts, which I'll post once I get it on my webpage. Hopefully, I touch on some good points for you in that.

I'm interested to see what becomes of this build. It should be a learning experience for all of us, not to mention really fun for you!

-Dave-O

Thanks guys this has been very insightful and keep it coming and to assimilated420 its a five speed, and to Dorifto (Dave-O) as soon as you get your site up please let me know so I can see whatcha got going on and also inform you with whats happening on my end of the spectrum. Also should my fuel injectors be upgraded to 84-89 injectors or even 90-96 or something like that?

I only plan on running rebuilt ZXTurbo injectors ... they should flow plenty for an NA setup. I would reccomend a fuel pressure regulator to up the pressure a couple pounds as well.

sounds like u want to do alot of work in the engine it self, but i am close to about 300HP w/o all that look at the thread "N20..." ther i have a list of what i have and the dyno HP238 /Tq246on a NX 75shot and 98 octane, making this much power you also have to run higher octane if u want your engine to be in tip top shape, and running gr8, well good luck

By going NA, I assumed you wanted to avoid all power adders.

NOS is just another way to get more oxygen into the combustion chamber between power strokes.

The advantage is, unlike a turbo, there is no lag. But it also costs you every time you press the little red button and you have nearly the same challenges of getting the fuel mixture and timing right to avoid grenading your motor.

If this is not the case, and you don't mind running NOS, it changes the design methodology.

You want that much power, and you want it cheap? Its not going to happen.
For a daily driver, that engine won't last nearly as long. You need all the power on the top end. Power band will be between 5,000 and 8,000rpm. If you've got that much money to build the engine, why not find a 2-seater 280ZX?

Yes, I am in the process of a build up too the Turbo is scrapped for financial reasons but I have 2 spare engines & 2 spare transmissions to work with300 would be nice but I am goin one step at a atime

I say the only way to get enough horsepower for the cheapest price is to get NOS.
Most horsepower for your money, but I would never put NOS on my car because I don't want to mess my motor up. The stock 180 horsepower on my turbo 280 is fine for now . Maybe I will increase the boost and get an intercooler, but NOS is too much for my engine to handle.

The engine can handle it, but the stock fuel system and ECU aren't up to the task. With a new fuel rail, FPR, bigger injectors or wet shot and a stand alone programmable ECU, you should be able to handle it quite nicely.

That will cost considerably less than a 280-300hp NA build-up.

Fuel Rail $125
FPR $85
Injectors $400
MSnS $250
NOS $550 ($800 for wet shot)
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$1260 total using the wet shot and stock injectors

I would estimate 4 to 5 thousand for a 280 to 300hp NA build-up if you can do the majority of the work yourself.

I actually know someone that just dynoed at 273hp on his NA L6 and it was bored and stroked out to 3.2L and cost him around $10K to have built by a professional L series race motor expert. They had to sonic test about 6 blocks before finding one suitable.

It's a pig on the street but is hella fun smakin' down just about everything else on the road... except me...

You're invincile, lww. 25 pounds on a 3.1 ZXT ... no contest.

Might have trouble with a turbo'd LS1 though ... but that's for another thread.

Actually, unless the turbo LS1 has freaky wide and sticky tires, it would probably be closer than you think.

I know a guy that has a twin turbo 383 chevy in his 240z and he's gone to a solid axle, tubs and 15" wide Mickey Thompson's and he still can't get that much power to the ground.

Although he does run low 10's in the 1/4 but still with massive wheel spin...

Honestly, since this isnt my only ride right now I'm not gonna skimp on cash on my baby but I tell my girlfriend this and I'm trying to stay away from nos for now not to say I wont ever go down that path but thats a bit out of my engine comprehension league right now. Everybody thanks for the input ya'll are helping ideas blossom in my head like sugar plums dance and jfairladyz keep in touch I want to keep updated on your progress and what you modified after that and in what phases.

you can easily get 300 out of the car and not hurt anything . i had a 75 with a hundred shot a big cam and stock lowers for two years and ran every weekend and never once had a prob out of it.it went 8.30s in the eight and put down 364 at the wheels.been playing with e the preformance side of zs for awhile and found out what works and what doesnt.these motors can handle some abuse