i am new to nissan and i seen a couple of sites that have showed a 280zx that has an lt1 motor in it. my question is what year of the 280 should i get to do it,i am going to do it because i need somthing to keep me out of trouble for the summer when school gets out next week.

my dad friend owns a junkyard and towtruck bizzness and he has some corvettes that i could use the motor from so i can get all of what i need from their for free or for really cheap.

any help is welcome thnx ~~ThaT.OnE.gUy

 

If you want to know which year 280zx then any year from 79-83 will do. As far as whether you want a 280Z or 280zx then thats up to your personal taste.

Check out www.hybridz.org
They have an entire section dedicated to V8 swaps. In our S30 section there is a small section on the swaps as well, but hybridz is more extensive

 

i was thinking 70-75 280Z (i think they look better) because those are smog legal and i dont want the trouble of going through smog with the mods i am going to do

 

there is no 70-75 280z. the 240z was 70-73, 260z 74-74.5, 280z 75-78. they all looked basically the same, the major difference was engine size and safety equipment (ie. bumpers)

 

i thought the 260z was from 74-75.5 and the 280z was from 76-78?

 

well thats the joy of the V8 swap. There are so many smog legal power options. There are 50 state legal supercharger kits, headers, exhaust...hell just about any mod you can think of there is probably a carb sticker for it on a LT1. So you can make massive power with an LT1 and still make the smog ****'s stamp "passed" on your smog certificate. If you're going to go with an S30 chassis then you might as well shoot for the earlist possible cause the earlier you go the lighter they get. The 280zx wouldn't matter as the only difference in weight would be between the 2 seater and 2+2. (I'd say turbo too, but once the V8 is in there is wont matter).

 

i agree and where are you located?? i am wanting to do the lt1 or an ls4 swap as well. and i would go with the 240 or the 280z. the zx is longer and just does not look as mean as the older models. And as far as smog goes the older the car the better of the chance that you can do the swap and not have to worry about getting it smoged depending on where you are located. In Las Vegas if you have a 73 or older car you don't need it smogged any more. good luck to you.