Non-Turbo to turbo
 

Hi guys, just wondering what i would have to do to my '84 300zx to put a turbocharger from another zx in. I found a turbo off of an 84 for sale with the manifold for 90 dollars. It came off of a turbo z with only 150k miles on it. What do you think? Good buy or leave it alone?

leave it. 150k is a lot of miles on a turbo, and there is quite a bit you would have to do to put it on an n/a motor. if you want a turbo z, buy a turbo z, it'll be cheaper.

i was just hoping to put a good enough upgrade on my car to give me an edge on the competition. All i have on it now is exhaust and thats not giving enough. Would it be worth it to put an ecu in or maybe bore out the engine??? I dont know much about car engines but i have the money to spend to fix my car up. Any performance suggestions would be great.

$90 is worth it for the manifold and turbo, even if the turbo is just going to be used as a core for an upgrade.

one concern is how much more i will have to buy to install this turbo. Will it require me to buy a new ecu, headers, pistons, etc.???

yes, although there are no headers on turbo cars. and dont forget a turbo wiring harness and new brackets. this isnt like a honda, there is a lot to it. save some time and money and buy a turbo car. i know military pay isnt the greatest, i just got done with 4 years in the navy. you are only 18, so i am assuming that you live on base and will have to get a shop to do it for you, unless you guys have a killer hobby shop. just save the hassle and buy a car that already has a turbo.

nah, its not that important for me to get the turbo. I think ill just try and find as many ways to upgrade this engine as i can, and deal with what i have. I was hoping to find a way to turbo-charge this car but if its that big of a hassle ill just leave it alone. The car is fast as it is, just tryin to get the edge on the competition. If i get beat by my friends '05 mazda 3 again i think ill probably kill myself.

good idea. and i know that once you start getting those paychecks in the military the first thing you want to do is spend it. trust me, that is not the best thing to do, been there done that. it took me till about halfway through the navy to realize that i had pissed away way too much money. too many military guys live paycheck to paycheck, and then go into massive debt. stay away from any "military financing" or "we finance e-1 and up" crap.

lol i know what you mean, ive been in for over a year and i got tired of living paycheck to paycheck so i started a TSP and savings through my bank. I still have plenty to spend on my car but im just trying to find the right way to go about doing it. Any suggestions on parts/upgrades for this car would be greatly appreciated.

plenty of people have done the swap without modifying much. what's required?
ECU with injectors (stock NA injectors aren't good for much HP, and NA ECU can't control turbo injectors)
cross member
motor bracket
intake piping
driver side manifold
turbo

You can get away with the NA wiring harness and pistons. The passenger side manifold and the crossover pipe are the same NA and turbo, so that's not an issue. The AFM is the same NA and turbo.

thats the information i was looking for, i appreciate it. One more question though, the turbo models of the 300zx, are they twin turbo or do they come with a single turbo?

depends on what year you are talking about.

z31 (84-89) single turbo. z32 (90-96) twin turbo.

alright sounds good, ill probably get a pretty nice hp increase after the installation, looks like ill be buying the turbo next week and ill purchase the other parts as soon as i have the funds for it.