Man just spent 2 hours on HybridZ reading and reading and........reading!!! I just don't know if I have 3 and a half years to read all the stuff on that site. Now I know why I came here, it's not as mind boggling. Of course reading stuff on that site got me thinking about the V8 swap thing again...I hate being confused, keep the L28E and swap in a 5 speed or go V8 and spend alot of money but have a really fast ZX. Well I am no race car driver I am a music man and a car audio buff. Every now and then I have to tell myself to Keep It Simple Stupid! If it ain't broke don't fix it! Why mess with a good thing! If you wanted to drive a Chevy you should have kept your Camaro!!! I like my ZX and I really don't want to hack it up with a non Nissan engine.

I went to the Z Store and saw the floor pans and braces and although a little pricey, I think it will be worth it to fix my pans and braces, they are the only major parts of the car where I see rust. The 5 speed tranny at $200 from a non turbo will be fine (no tranny pan to drip like my auto) and I will finally shift gears and push a clutch pedal again...I really don't like the car shifting for me, I like to be in control of the car and feel what it is doing. You know, a hands on kinda guy. Hopefully soon I will finally have a header for this car and can put on a nice deep-hollow sounding exhaust, hopefully without the Ricer snap-cracle-pop sound.

I have a definitive game plan now and I am going to stick with it, if anyone in here finds me trying to talk myself out of keeping this engine, please refer me back to this post or offer to put a boot in my rectum! Like I said, I am not a race car driver, but sometimes I forget things or get excited about things I really shouldn't do. I will stick to what I know, Car Stereo's, window tint and minor mechanic work. Speaking of car stereos, I will be posting a killer idea for a sub box in ZX Car Audio that I have begun work on.

 

will do chief.

But be forewarned, chances are you'll stray a few time

 

i agree with j, it is inticing to just plunk in a v8, if you want more power, do it simple, stock turbo motor swap including harness. and doing those floor pans is fairly simple if you got a welder and grinder.

 

I gotta learn to weld. Yeah go for a turbo swap if anything. That way you get to stick with the car's correct engine, you can gain a nice bit of power, and a turbo swap won't run you too much.

 

mig is point and shoot to a degree . . . .just go nab a used one to learn on for a couple bills

 

that's not a bad idea. I've heard that it's actually like soldering only on a bigger scale, essentially with harder materials, and hotter torches.

 

And read a couple welding books... I learned to mig in the auto body tech school I went to.... There's no way I woulda been able to teach myself REAL mig skills.

 

TIG is actually easier to learn. But it's hard for the beginner to justify the cost of a TIG setup for learning purposes and takes a lot more patience

 

So basically I could do the floor pans myself if I am smart and read a few books and practice a bit....hell I can do that.

 

teaching yourself how to weld isn't difficult. It's learning how to weld well thats tough to do with a book as your reference. It's a lot easier to learn from a person so you can see their technique in action.

 

now if only I was near thxone I could just practice with him and we could split the costs.

 

If you've never welded before, plan on a lot of ugly welds & grinding...

I remember the MIG section of my auto body class... I had to do 10 butt welds, 10 seam welds, 10 spot welds, 10 overlap welds, all had to be perfect. Oh... and I had to do them on a table, then all over again vertically, horizontally, and overhead. Once ya get the hang of it, and your welds start to look pretty, it's fun.... I love MIG'ing now. I just look for stuff to weld up. I made this 2.5" turbo downpipe, just for kicks: (when welding, your bead should look like a slanted roll of nickels)

 

Nismo? You did that with your MIG?! Damn dude, that's freakin' beautiful. That looks like my TIG welds!

I started out teaching myself with a book, some scrap metal and the MIG and you can do a passable job once you get the hang of it, but real skill requires personal instruction and some individual aptitude.

 

Damn NismoPick, I think welding is your calling. That looks really smooth. I think you could fab up your own header no problem with welds like that!! How long did that weld take??

 

I have a hard time getting the line speed right. If I did that weld it would have gaps and slag all over the place. Still working on it. Give me and arc and I can do that though.

 

i love to weld too, nismo is really good, i also thought that was tig. we just got a tig at work, its an inverter type and is really nice, 4000 for the stuff tho, and it small, 45 lbs, so we can take it home, i taught myself how to weld as well, overhead is the hardest, but you learn quick, specially after setting my oily coveralls on fire while welding in the wheel wells, hhhehehehe, tiging takes some extra effort, the biggest thing is the speed, its much slower and teadious, but well worth it.

 

Wow... I wake up this morning to find people complimenting my welds! Wahoo! Gracias muchachos! It's a great skill to have. I bought my Lincoln MIG w/ a full argon tank & kart for $400 from a local guy that posted it on craigslist.com. Couldn't pass that up! Anybody that wants to weld, DO IT!

 

Nice welding.

That will clear the steering rack in a 1984 maxima.

 

oohhh la la! Turbo Maxima!

 

Ahaha! You're running gas...That helps keep the weld clean. I'm just running flux core wire. Ah well, one of these days I'll hook up a bottle.

 

I have had my eye on the Hobart Handler 140, I figure at $600 new it should be all the mig I should need. I looked at the Millers but man they are $$$$ pricey.

 

I have a Chicago Electric Dual MIG 151 and it works great. Right now Harbor Freight has them onsale for $199 so you really can't beat it.

 

Classic Hybrid Z post just came up and I had to share. Gotta love them Hybrid Admins...

While we all encourage new users to search, Hybrid Z administration takes it to a whole new level.

 

lucky bastards..... what was the question anyways? and how many of these questions where there that the admin was offended to a Q/A session... we need some details, i would like to think that this guy didnt make his own thread asking one question than another one to tag on and then this happened...

 

Question was, How can I get 200hp out of the L28E NA?

It looked to be the first question from this user of this type on this subject. The first quote above is the moderator's first response to the thread. Talk about proactive thread moderating.

I find it funny about there being no point to the Hybrid Z site. You can't post questions, only search, and administration will only respond to those they feel are worthy.
Shaggy chimes in with "correct!"