Well, I just screwed up. I bought headers used from a guy online. They are in the mail as we speak. After I sent him the money I was looking through my VB cataloge and noticed that those headers are made for 1976 and earlier Zs. Is it possible that they could still work on my car? If not, is there any way to make them work?? I feel stupid now.

 

hell yea man, the only thing different is the size of the exaust ports. the exaust ports, on your head are oval, the 76 had squar. the pipes are slightly biger than your ports so you wont have an exaust leak. you can port your head to mach the pipe manifold

 

oh don't fill stupid.
I made a flange for my turbo I was going to put on my 280 N/a, and I have a 76 head on it so I bought the same manifold you are talking about right. so when I made the flange, I made it to fit the stock manifold insted of my new header, what a freaking bumer. I will be making a new flange now so if any one whants a stock manifold turbo flange in the futer just come to me.

 

Well, I figured that the square ports would work fine on my round port head because I've heard of other people doing it. My main concern was wether the routing on the older headers will fit past my steering or hit something else maybe. I have rack and pinion steering so I don't know if it will have the same clearance as the old steering boxes or manual steering on the older Zs. Does that make sense? Thanks for your help man.

 

Yea man the headers will fit on your zx, I have a 1980 and yea the clearance is fine. fits good.

 

Awesome, thats exactly what I wanted to hear. Thanks for your help as always.

 

Has anyone an idea how to secure the intake/exhaust combo mentioned in title. The lower row of connecting washers aren't thick enough to cut down on one side to accomodate the thicker exh mnfld flange. I could mill the exh flange to match the thickness of the intake, but I fear the milling will cut the welds that attach the pipes to the flange. Thoughts???

 

you could try and cut some washers in half and use them to make the lesser side thicker... iam have kind of the same problem with my msa header i hasnt sealed up good just yet and i can see tha on side is a little thicker then the other i use some of the thicker ones that where on my stock manifold ..i still think that i have a leak but heades sound diff then stock so mabe its all i my head i dont know i am still wanting on my muffer and then we will see ...but really make sure you have a stud kit with nuts @ good washers

 

Yea I was going to say get a stud kit, or the kit that msa offers with that header. I did and no troble yet so you guys keep at it. just thicker washers were they are needed is all I would recamend.

 

Well, just so you guys dont make the same mistake. The headers made for older Zs WILL NOT fit on a 280ZX with rack and pinion steering. I test fitted the headers today and they were way off, there is no way I could even try to make them fit. They should fit on any Z or ZX that has the box type steering. The years should be '70-'80. In '81 they started using rack and pinion. So if anyone wants to buy some headers and there car does not have rack and pinion steering then let me know. Also, if anyone is selling headers designed for the '81-'83 ZX I would be interested.

 

Oh hey man
sorry about that I didn't know you had an 81, I have an 80 AND i JUST didn't think to ask.

 

You just need the short tube headers. Rack and pinion power assist was on all 79-83 except for 1981. I believe 81 only had full power steering. (from what I've seen)

 

Its all good. Im gonna sell them to a guy in our local Z club and maybe even make a couple bucks off of them. Then I will buy a set that actually fits.

 

I have some zx headers for sale shoot me an email for info
Sfactr@aol.com

 

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