Well I just got an 80 280zx for free from my friend's dad, who picked it up for $250. The car is running and drives fine except for the fact that the rear structs are blown, interior is just no good, and engine bay pretty darn dirty. Now the question is there anyway to mod an stock l28 engine to make it fast or will I need to sell the motor and try to get an l28et and start off from there?Also, I can't really afford any other engine swaps so yea. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Welcome to ZDriver! That seems to be a question that comes up quite often here. Feel free to search around the site & read what others have said. Most of them will be found in the 280zx tech section:

https://www.zdriver.com/forums/280zx-performance-technical-79/

 

Thanks a lot but I have one question though. I wanted to do the AFM mod but it seems like I got an different AFM. The company that made is called jegs. Do you know anything about this MAF company?

 

Yep Its A Rebuild From A Parts Store, Theyre The Same, Somebodies Just Replaced It. Do You Really Need To Mess With It Yet? If You Want Cheap Power Put In A Msd Coil. 40 Bucks And Easy To Install With A Noticable Diff.

 

Naw I was just wondering about it. But i just pm'd you about the Msd ignition thing.

 

Welcome to the forums!

I'm also new to the forums and, like you, I recently bought a 280zx.

The guys in this forum are of great help, so ask away....as long as you try the Search feature first.

 

So much can be said about this

 

I know shady keeps mentioning about the MSD Blaster Coil. Does that actually provide a noticeable difference?

 

"make it fast" is too generic of a statement. How much horsepower do you want or what quarter mile time is your goal, or do you mean fast around a track? ...also, what is your budget for the engine. Even an L28et swap costs money.

with this information we can offer suggestions.

 

I've seen dyno charts on many ignition upgrades. They usually add about 1-3hp. If your current plugs, wires, cap, coil are all bad, then replacing everything with either MSD or stock will get you some noticable power. Do a full tune-up first and make sure your engine runs well. After that, doing an MSD swap probably won't give you a 'noticeable' increase in power. IMO

 

As lww would to say . . ."how fast do you want to spend?"

 

Well I kind of wanted it to make it an highway fast car/Daily driver. But I'm willing to spend about 2gs on the engine and making the body more rigid over the summer once I start working. And i just want my quarter around low 14's to high 13's to try to keep up with my friends mk3 supra. Today I'm gonna try to order some new spark plugs and spark plug wires. I also have one of the Coil Blasters coming in and I'll check if anything else is bad on the car.

 

Scrap the L28 & get an L28ET.... mark my words: IT'S NOT WORTH YOUR TIME (OR $) TO BUILD A CRAZY N/A MOTOR, WHEN YOU CAN SPEND THE SAME AMOUNT & GET A TON MORE HP FROM A TURBO.

 

Yeah... You're gonna have to spend a lot more than 2K to get into the 13's... Even if you do a turbo swap. Nismo's right though... Don't bother trying to build a super N/A motor. Just drop in an L28ET and be done with it.

Rod.

 

Let the spending begin!

 

Haha alright then here comes my summer project.

 

summer, fall , winter, spring, and next summer... it never ends.... lol good luck on the car man.. and like everyone says. we're all here to help..

 

I Got A High 13 Low 14 N/a Car And The Motor And Extra Goodies Cost 5000 Bucks, Do The Turbo Swap If Anything. Im Gonna Next Time. The Coil Is Actually A Good Start, Gives You A Noticable Diff. (im Actually Not Lying) And Fuel Mileage, And Throttle Response. One Of My Customers Has His Stock Zed And He Thought I Did Something Crazy And I Told Him It Was Just A Coil. He Just Asked Me For Cheap Power And That Coil Satisfied His Tastes.

 

Well I just got done putting in an air intake, spark plugs and spark plug wires with my friend and it seems that the wires weren't replaced sinced 1979 and the spark plugs were fried like chicken. Although after replacing these items, the car started with no hesitation, so that put a smile on my face. My next thing to do on the to do list is replace the rear structs and wait for the msd blaster coil to come in then install that. The only thing that sucks right now is when we rev'd the car theres a metal vibrating sound. Has anybody had that problem? and O yea thanks for the advice everybody.

 

Try to find out where it is coming from. Assesories or the block or trans or what. Stick your head in the engine bay, just becareful of moving parts.

And turbo motors are fun, but alot of headaches. Just remember the more stuff there is, the more stuff there is to break. A bad *** N/A motor is alot less finicky then your average lightly modded turbo motor.

 

aiite then I'll look into that tomorrow. Hopefully it ain't nothing hard to get to.

 

Thats another thing about these Z's. They have one of the most easily accessible engines. Lost of fun to work on.

 

my z used to make that vibrating sound. turned out to be the heat shield under my intake manifold. i was missing a bolt and it would rattle every time i reved the engine...

 

Well so far I've got about $300 into my turbo swap and thats including the price of the turbo parts car and the gas it cost me to go pick it up from VA to OH and a few spare odds and ends like gaskets. So it doesn't have to be expensive to do the turbo swap.

 

Well the only bad news is that its kind of hard to find a 280zxt parts car around my area, but i'll try to look for some in the junkyard and try to find a non cracked dash and start from there. and thanks icice gonna try to see if thats the problem to my car. Might even put it through the steel shot if me and my friend can b able to use the car lift today and just take it out the shield from the bottem and replace the rear structs at the same time.