DreamZproject

As a recently P plated driver (2 years) i am gonna go ahead and say no. 1. Cost - you can deal with it, great! If you're not sure, don't. to get anything that is half reliable, as well as really knowing what you are doing you need to set aside at least 12k for a 240/260 or roughly 6k for a 280zx. There's nothing to say that you wont need something seriosuly expensive replaced in a short amount of time though. 2. Safety - Seatbelts. Thats it. With a body construction roughly as thick as your adverage tin can, you get hit, you feel it. Make your mistakes in your first years of driving in something that won't turn into alfoil. (Doesn't even have to have all the security features that modern cars have, just not as extreme as a 240). 3. Driveability - raw. beautiful. bliss. can get you into a ton of trouble. After my first year in a 1986 honda accord i was really itching for some more power and RWD action. Enter the MR2. FANTASTIC second car (do not regret 1 bit starting on something slow and FWD though. I learnt so much!). 2nd day i owned it, wet road, nearly went head on into a parked prius. I am a very cautious driver, never gotten into any collisions, never even tapped my car into a pole or anything. But this car was new, and i didn't understand how to handle it. Lesson learnt. 4. Steering - no power. Bitch to park. If you live in a lesser populated area as most Z drivers do, NO problems. But learning to park properly in the inner suburbs with no power steering is awful! 5. A/c - optional, can be on the car, but most likely you'll have to add it. 6. Look like an absolute boss - Perfect car for you! I suggest that if you are willing to sink a bit more money into a ride than a regular car and you are truly passionate about Z's, you start off with a 280zx. They will be; less than half the cost of a 240/260 (if not less), less work (as they are somewhat newer), safer (more metal and bulk, ABS?, Airbags?), power steering, A/c etc. GOOD LUCK!

Wow Patch, not much love for 260's! Note that some of the earlier 260's are essentialy 240's badged differently, plus (in the chassis anyway) the extra weight was reinforcing to address some weakness issues in the 240. 240, 260, no real difference. It will be easier to find yourself a cheaper 260 because there should be less rust considering they are slightly newer. They ARE less desireable, hence cheaper than the 240's because the 240's were pre any sort of emissions testing so you could run pretty much anything on them BUT in saying that, 260 pre '76 have virtually no emissions to worry about anyway, so not a huge issue unless you are looking for a race car. Look for either, the one with less rust wins hands down. If you don't like 2+2, fair enough! I don't like the look as much, so i went for a 2 seater 260 myself, otherwise, if you dont mind the extra bit of weight and a slightly different look, you can halve your bill of buying (or double the quality) as they just aren't worth as much due to the popularity of the 2 seater. "The 280zx has the same stroke as the 260 but bigger bore, just a big pig of a motor and used for the 4x4 Nissan patrols, I have no idea why some one would want to put one of these into a 240z." Cheap cheap cheap power, almost no weight gain, optional engine for chassis, tourque, more bang for buck with future power modifications etc. The only reason NOT to go to an L28 is if you are concerned about originality, want to race the car in a particular class, or don't give a stuff about power. saying that the 280zx's engine is like the L28 from a patrol is like saying a L24 puts out 300hp... Well it can... but the internals are setup differently to better suit the individual application.

Beautiful stuff there today guys! Makes me SOOOO jealous to only have a shell of a car

No point doing a L24 unless you want it for racing or originality. A L24 will rev to 7.5k easier than a L28, but it's not too hard to get one there (7k is a touch more realistic?) an unknown L28 will cost you somewhere around $200, and it about the biggest HP boost you will get for you money before you go turbo. Save the original L24 for when it comes around to selling it. To get the same sort of power from a L24 to a L28, you are looking at roughly double (please correct me here if i am wrong) ie. 5k on a L28 will cost you 10k on a L24 for similar power... Stroking any more than .1L is often regarded as real pricey so not much point stroking a L24, may as well have a L26 or L28. (Unless racing) L's can go up to 9,000rpm roughly before you're in ridiculous territory. But getting an engine to that will cost you the price of a new car... L24's reach the higher RPM's easier than L26 or L28's, but its a similar to that old saying about having a turbo vs. NA; "It's better to have turbo lag than to have power lag". CR on PULP (98) i BELEIVE is around 10:1 before pinging??? with E85 around 13:1 but for 5k this would be money spent on a lesser HP gain. I hope this helps, and anyone please correct me if any of this is incorrect.

Ah this is perfect thanks six shooter! Decoy, i spoke to a very wise man today and i quote; "you are goingto have a million other thing you are going to need money on, simply to get the car on the road! Just start with a set of carbs". You know, it just makes sense! I'll put my build together so it is capable of running efi in the not too distant future so i can save my dosh and get the car on the road first. I expect that going to efi will be an absolute minimum of 2 years away, as i can't see getting the car on the road within a year (minimum). I'll remember this tread at some point in the future guys and one day I'll get around to doing it! For now I truly thank everyone who logically talked through all of this. I really have a solid idea in my head now of how it would be done, but for the moment, it's for another day. Watch this space in a few of years time....

Yeah I decided I'd make my own airbox for it. Okay. I think delco is the way to go. I don't understand 100% exactly what obd1 vs obd2 is about But I trust your judgement on going obd1. Either way if I end up for some annoying reason not Doing itbs ill definitely use a delco over an aftermarket ecm. Its just so much cheaper! What is The best way about getting everything I need to run a tuneable delco for my set up?

Oh, and what are peoples idea's on the best sort of filtration? I want to run this car as a semi often driver able to take most conditions (ie no open trumpets). Are the K&N style filters on the end of each throttle body ok. (ie. not running the velocity stacks, but a spacer running to its own individual filter)? From what I've researched, it seems that having an airbox over the trumpets/ spacer with a CAI type air ram gives pretty decent results with all the protection you need for a daily driver.

yup i had them in the back of my head, but they are all incidentals (i suppose besides the injector bungs and the welding of them). Ahhhhh I see, its the displacement of the engine no? 3800 = 3.8L engine? Anyway, i won'e be going down this route just yet anyway. For now I'll stick with the seemingly more simple 280z distributor way.

I've often thought of one of these for the Z. What i thought would be a good idea is get on of the single DIN ones (that will fit into the Z radio slot) That has one of those fold out screens (7" roughly). This means that the car can still look period correct when the screen is tucked away, or a media centre when you want it to be.

Hmmm after researching DIS a bit more. Pun intended. I think it may be easier to use that 280z distributor you were talking about before i choose to go on and use a DIS system (at least until i get the car running and decide to change it). How does this effect what parts i will need?

Ok, sounds good so far... one thing i am a little confused about with a DIS setup... What is a 3800 style DIS? Which car am I pulling these from? is this the same gear that i would pull off an LS1?

Six_shooter I've thought about it for a while, and what you're saying makes a ton of sense. I think that this might be the path I'm going to go down. There's heaps more i need to research, but just costing it up, this way seems to make sense. I don't need a hyper tuneable machine. Just something that is a bit special. The idea of using another cars ECU is ingenious! With the Delco ECM's, are car tuners familiar with interfacing with them? I have no clue on tuning cars and i think that it may be something that is not worth my while spending hundreds of hours learning. What is the advantage/ disadvantage of going DIS over using the L28ET dizzy with this sort of setup? Costs; (partly second hand parts) ITB's + injector bungs from racehead.com $750 DCOE Manifold $300??? LS1 coils $100 (wow they can be found cheap) Leads $100 Delco ecm + harness $100? EFI fuel pump etc. Injectors various sensors $150 Tuning $300 This looking right so far?

Haha that sounds fantastic! Anyone want to make one for me? Sure I have a spare 20k lying around...

Oh I'm sure a carbd rb would sound fantastic! I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to get engineered. Great info guys, yes perhaps an aftermarket intake plenum would be the way to go... I'll cost up everything for itbs and then compare it.

Original or not (I do see both points) doing it this way means I don't have to get the thing engineered = less money and Stuffing around, plus I can drive it whilst still on my P's. I also want a really nice sounding engine, and I've never heard an RB that I like the sound of...

Woooooow. Several amazing replies here! Yes there's still more for me to learn, but I've been pointed in the right direction no doubt! I'm sure I'll come back to this thread in a couple of weeks and a few more questions, but This is FANTASTIC! Thank you very much for the time guys! I feel somewhat more confident in going ahead with This at some point in the near future.

Any chance someone recorded it?

Ahhh I think I see the loophole. Vicroads can't/ can't be bothered to go find out which year the engine is from, so As far as they know, I imported this engine from the USA when the 280z came out, before 76, skipping those set of emission standards...

See, to me carbs seem wayyy more complex... i love the idea of set and forget, i don't want to have to be out there every second weekend turning the damn things. I get that carbs are cheap and still excellent performance but especially considering i want to run AC i just think its too much onging hassle. While i do have limited knowledge at the moment, i am quite adapt at picking things up. When i was 18 i built a full HD projector from scratch. Sure it wasn't perfect, but I also have my dad who knows a decent amount about cars who can help somewhat. I would still be relying on support of other people, but that i am willing to pay for. Yes perhaps a custom manifold/plenum chamber and large throttle body may be the way to go... I'll do a little research in to these. Dimitri, that's the sort of thing I'm thinking of doing. Does the 280zx distributor do the job? I'm not looking for the most crazy precise setup. Which throttle bodies did you end up using? because I've seen a few of the toyota ones reliably lowly priced on ebay...

Thanks for that. I actually have no setup on the car at the moment as it is being 100% refurbished so i am at the point where i want to decide which way to go so i can start to search for parts cheaply rather than just buy them brand new. i actualy have most of the stock efi hardware so thats somewhat handy. The things i was talking about that I'd need for ITB's in on top of what you'd need for efi, i left that as a given. I would be scourcing parts mostly second hand and have to be patient about it anyway because my car is at LEAST a year off being finsihed (most likely 3 years). There was one point that Peter Mc wrote about that i didn't understand; - Distributor cost with home and trigger around $600 - I have the 280zx distributor, I'm not sure what is needed here, and why it is so expensive. What i was after with the ITB setup is EFI not being restricted by the lame stock manifold, as well as some of the amazing sound characteristics that you would get using carbs. Perhaps is there some sort of interim? (ie. aftermarket efi manifold?)

Well I've researched as much as i can with the limited knowledge i have. I've never worked on an engine, but i have a large capacity and willingness to learn. It's fairly hard to glean as much information needed from the internet without asking a few questions which is why i posted this here, and wrote a preface saying that i have attempted to do all the correct things before asking the question.

Yah, these are the same items from option 3 (racehead). They seem to be fairly reasonable, considering most kits seem as though they will cost around $2k... With these it seems as though you could do it for a bit over a K... Oh, and 40mm would be most suitable for a hot street tune right? much over that would be more suited to a track car???

Wouldn't that make it just over 600kms to a tank??? :/

Yep searched, got as much info as possible, yup i know that its going to be a PITA and will be expensive and not really worth it, but I'm exploring my options. From my understanding to rig up pretty much any set up I would need a DCOE manifold and have it slightly modified and have injector holes put in. (my estimate being $300 for the manni and $200 for the modification?) Option 1. Rb26 ITB - (I have seen a set on ebay for $300). Is it more complex than this as its very much "one piece"? Option 2. Toyota 4AGE ITB's - Buy 2 sets, take out half of one and sell it on. Will still need a modified manifold. ($400 with the return for the other half of one.) These seem to be a lot more "individual". Option 3. http://www.racehead.com.au/?page_id=195 Brand new item (which seems pretty cheap) that claims it will bolt up to and DCOE/DHLA manni At $700 odd its the most exxy, but that sounds cheap compared to alot of the other brand new setups I've seen. I want to run a proper/ mulitple proper air filters on this as i want an engine i don't have to rebuild every 10K's. Besides an aftermarket ECU (which I'd be going for anyway with efi), what other expenses would i potentially be coming into that i have not forseen?

Yeah, I've tried reading all of them... Failed... I somewhat gather that as long as i can pass emissions i'm ok, and due to being pre 76 its pretty lax. Correct me if im wrong.