rifleman502

hey guys, ive recently came in to about 7 grand... and i want to drop it all into my Z, it needs the suspension worked over and a new engine, i want to stay with an L28 series engine, would like to go turbo... right now its NA but the little squirrel that runs on the wheel is no longer able to run, and needs retired... 340k miles is a little much to ask of him... so what i need are some suggestions on how best to spend my 7 grand to replace the suspension and engine.... its got a good strong tranny and rear end still, gimme some ideas... NO IM NOT DROPPIN A SMALL BLOCK IN IT!!! ugh...

DoTheDrew888

Well, the suspension is easy. Go online and find some Tokico HPs or Illuminas, they are very good shocks. Then buy yourself some lowering springs. Personally I bought Tokico HP's which was a set of all 4 struts and all 4 shocks. While doing that, you should get some urethane bushings and buy or make some strut tower bars. That should cover the suspension aspect.

For the engine I would buy a Turbo engine. Plan on doing a full rebuild and modifying as you go. Get a bigger turbo, larger exhaust, performance clutch, intercooler, boost gauges, blow off valve, ect... There is so much that can be done to modify these engines. I would suggest researching L28et engines online. There is so much information it is overwhelming. With 7 grand you should be able to cover suspension and have a well modified turbo engine to go along with it.

rifleman502

i figured ide go with tokico shocks and eibach springs, as for the turbo engine, im not sure as to what i can do with one, i know quite a bit about the NA version of this engine but im kinda ignorant to the idea of forced induction... so any specific help you can offer ide be more than happy to take... all i know is that i wanna be able to run pump gas as this will be a possible weekend car for road trips through the mountains... (i love tail of the dragon, hope to have this one up by may)

WildmaN

That is a sweet car! What color is the interior? I bet that thing turns heads Later And good luck with your rebuild and upgrades!

lww

Uhh... May? Good luck!

What's already been suggested is a good place to start. I can guarantee, unless you already have all the parts for the motor swap, there's almost no way you can get this done in two months on your own if you have a regular job.

To do it right and tune it right, you need to take your time and be patient. I know, I'm a hypocrit because I'm horribly impatient.

The most simple swap is a fully running 280zx Turbo donor car with low miles. Do you have one or have access to one?

This way, you get engine, harness, ECU, distributor and AFM which are the critical pieces. Virtually everything else on your car will work with this setup.

If you can find a running donor, which isn't easy by the way, and even better one with low mileage (nearly a white elephant at this point) you can do this swap for under about $2500. That'll leave you a nice chunk of your budget for wheels, tires, suspension and interior 'refresh'.

However, when you start tearing into them, that's when things generally go horribly wrong for me. Not that anything is wrong with a basic rebuild, but that's when my mind starts thinking... Well, while I'm in here... and It'll only be a couple hundred extra to do this... Pretty soon, I've blown the whole 7 grand and only have half the car together. And not enough of the half that makes it go either!

This is a direct side affect of my lack of patience and my distinct desire to not be constrained in my creativity by 'goals'.

Wisdom would dictate you set goals for EXACTLY what you want to accomplish with your upgrades based on your budget, start writing a plan and gathering cost information on each upgrade. Once you have them scoped out, you can start to move the puzzle pieces around to get you as close to your goal as possible while remaining within your budget.

I'll give you a little scared straight now by telling you I'm $30,000 into my turbo project and I haven't finished the paint job yet... That'll run another $10-12k (part of this is the result of a soccer mom, an SUV and a cell phone) and I've got plans for another $5k in various other doo-dads for the engine bay and interior.

Just so you know, I had planned $20k for the entire project and I'm over double that with more on the way and I'm already $2500 into my '72 project 240z... God help me!

Keep your head on straight and your 7 grand will take you where you want to go and leave you a little change at the end.

Good luck.

DoTheDrew888

I know exactly what lww is talking about. My current project started out as just replacing the front crank seal. Then.... While im in there why not replace the timing chain? Since im going through all the effort why not just rebuild the engine? And since im rebuilding it why not throw a performance cam on there for a little extra power? And since I have some old flattop pistons laying around why not put those in there also? Now I am over $800 into a project that orginally was going to cost less then $100. It should all be worth it once I take my first "test drive" on the new motor though...