What have you done to get the most power out of your NA 280ZX?
 

Without tampering with the engines internals (Since i still need to pass CA SMOG), V8 swap, Turbo-ing, or wiring up a new ECU, what can i do to get more power out of this car?

Tweaking sensors? Using different brands of parts (Like Champion vs NGK, or Bosch vs Denso)? Throttle bodies? Ignition systems?

I've heard of some Throttle Position Sensor modification that could be done that increases HP, but i'd rather hear it striaght from the pros.

Those are just some examples, but please, throw what you know at me.

***Here are the specs on my car: 1982 S130, K&N air filter, Crane cams Ignition Coil (25K Volt), Catback MSA exhaust, NGK Iridium plugs/plug wires, rebuilt dizzy, Timing advanced to 10BTDC, Adjusted the AFM 4 teeth CCW to correct rough idle, Crappy EXEDY clutch, and its got 4lbs off of the flywheel.

*The Drivetrain is all stock, 5 Speed Nissan tranny with the R200 3.90 open end. General Alitmax 205/70 tires on stock rims.

*Suspension is upgraded. Urethane Front-end bushings, KYB struts. Rest of the suspension is stock.

*This is my daily driver, so i would perfer not to strip my interior.


Compression numbers: 183-181-184-180-186-184 (Dry)

Thanks.

ZX engine upgrade
 

If you'll upgrade to a performance trottle position sensor you should upgrade your trottle body to a 60mm and some porting to the intake manifold too.

Would you reccomend the "Big Bore" throttle body that MSA sells? Would i need a larger TB to AFM boot?

Welcome to ZDriver!

Basic upgrades are the same for most all n/a engines: Intake, exhaust, ignition, cam, etc. :) The MSA / Weber big bore throttle body is a "bolt on" unit, but rather expensive since you can use any SR20 / KA24 60mm throttle body with adapter plate for less than $100. All of that is worthless unless you also port the intake manifold neck and use a turbo AFM with n/a guts. A "performance TPS" doesn't do anything (they don't exist) for the 280ZX since it's just an ON / OFF switch...

Feel free to search our forum since n/a performance upgrades have been discussed in detail MANY times. :D

This is a good book:

http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100584...-cover-art.jpg

[QUOTE=NismoPick;329570]Welcome to ZDriver!

Basic upgrades are the same for most all n/a engines: Intake, exhaust, ignition, cam, etc. :) The MSA / Weber big bore throttle body is a "bolt on" unit, but rather expensive since you can use any SR20 / KA24 60mm throttle body with adapter plate for less than $100. All of that is worthless unless you also port the intake manifold neck and use a turbo AFM with n/a guts. A "performance TPS" doesn't do anything (they don't exist) for the 280ZX since it's just an ON / OFF switch...

Feel free to search our forum since n/a performance upgrades have been discussed in detail MANY times. :D

This is a good book:

http://i43.tower.com/images/mm100584...-cover-art.jpg[/QUOTE

Hey Nismo. What dose the turbo afm with "n/a guts" do for you?

For me? Nothing... I have an L28ET. :)

The stock n/a AFM has ~2inch in & out... the turbo AFM is ~3inches. Just changing to a 60mm TB just pushes the bottlenecks around.

the stock ecu really limits everything for your car and any modifications dont play well with it. if your looking to get thru emmisions makes it even harder. id say if you need to meet that criteria then a coil, better airfilter system, headers and a 2.5" exhaust is what you need. if your willing to install megasquirt then you can actually still pass emmisions and make more power. all you need is get it properly dyno tuned. then after that you can really get more air flowing into the motor, even buy a bigger intake manifold like a lonewolf one, which then allows for the 60mm tb to be useful

Awesome info guys! From my research ive found that the only thing that the 60mm tb will do for you without all the upgrades these guys have said, is just give you "slightly" better throttle response.

Luckily once i start down the performance path i dnt have to worry about passing smog!!:icon_super:

Thanks for all of the suggestions, guys! Thats alot of good info to look into. I've heard about the manifolds on the L28E's being very restrictive. I guess that would be the first place to improve upon before anything else. I like the idea of Megasquirt, though i'd like to keep my factory ECU, just for the conviencience. Is there any way to tune the stock ECU? Or just the components of the EFI system in general?

Header and exhaust is the best bang for your buck and a freer flowing intake. The stock intake is already a cold air intake but you can remove some restriction and weight by turfing the stock unit and replacing it with a cheap cone filter and a piece of three inch pipe. Not much of an upgrade but it does sound a lot better. If you want some more performance dollar for dollar the turbo swap is the way to go.

I just sell it and Buy my a ZXT or a TT!!

so with all the intake stuff upgraded what power gains are expected and also how will all of that transfer if he changes to megasquirt

with all of my work including a heavily shaved head i hope that with megasquirt ill be lucky to hit 225rwhp. im working on building a bigger intake manifold and a nice set of headers to make this engine flow much better, maybe some more head port work. the stock ecu no matter what you do including increase fuel pressure will max out at 180rwhp.

well would yall recommend some fuel rails by pallnet as a good upgrade for the money after megasquirt, exhaust and intake

A fuel rail doesn't do anything by itself. What it does do, is allow you to use other injectors (barb, 11mm o-ring, or 14mm o-ring).

If he switched to a Z31 ECU (NA) wouldn't that still pass emissions test? All they do is a visual inspection and test the fumes out the exhaust pipe.

Yes if he does it well and there isn't a visible difference. I had my Z31 ecu, MAF, and a couple other minor mods that the smog guy didn't notice (Or care to notice). That was at a "smog only" certified shop here in CA as my car was labeled a Gross Polluter before. All I had to remove was the Greddy boost controller from the engine bay. :P

I turned mine on once :biggrin: