DJZ's 280ZX

[DJZ]

Had a bit of a look at the front suspension, don't think it'll be too hard. The R30 arms look pretty much the same length as the Z ones, I'll need to change the sway bar and radius rods as they mount in different places. R30 or R31 bits should work okay. The R30 arms look pretty flimsy so I might have to add some gussets or something in there.

Sold the original turbos, looks like I'll definitely be going single turbo, just have to decide which one.

Painted the rocker covers, coil cover and cambelt top cover and inlet plenum, any colour as long as it's black.

Finished porting/cleaning up the head, there are lots of little bits and pieces that people recommend doing so I've done pretty much all of those! Cleaning old gaskets off things is a real pain in the ass, the throttle body gaskets are rock hard, I tried everything to get them off nicely and ended up with a brass wire wheel on my die grinder and also a drill.

I need to pull the gearbox out and change the bellhousing over.

Bidding on some bigger injectors on Trademe, pretty sure I'll max out the 444cc GTR ones I was using in the L28.

I really want to get the motor back so I can start putting it together, the rings only just left the States on the 18th even thought I ordered them 7 or 8 days ago, got ripped $60US for shipping so they better be here pretty damn fast.

My mate and I parted out an '83 280ZX 2+2 ages ago that's why my car has rack & pinion power steering, I kept the brake booster & master cylinder out of it as well as I knew they'd come in handy one day. The booster is different, the mounting studs for the master cylinder are more like the later Nissans - side to side instead of top and bottom like the earlier Z's, so a later model master should bolt straight on, I'm keeping an eye out for a 1" Z32 master.

[DJZ]

Stupid earthquake has slowed things down a bit.

I'm still waiting for my rings to turn up, got a few more bits and pieces on the way, a 44mm Tial wastegate, 600x300x115 intercooler - going to have to chop up the end tanks and try and make it work and some 550cc RX7 injectors.

I bought some Tomei rocker cover baffles, I'm not really sure whether they are necessary but a lot of people recommend fitting them, the factory ones are just open at the front so if any oil gets in them it'll just go straight through the PCV valve and into the intake manifold by the looks of it.

Still trying to decide on a turbo, I'm leaning towards the larger side of things, maybe a GT4088R. The GT3582R looks alright but they have brought out the GTX3582Rs now that have billet compressor wheels, lots of people recommend the T04Z but then lots of people say they are old style wheels are inefficent, it's pretty hard to decide!

Think I'm going to chop up and extend the sump too, the "bowl" could be increased in size by probably 1 or 2 litres pretty easily.

The cheap Chinese manifolds are pretty interesting, the good ones are split between the front 3 and back 3 cylinders and could be made fully divided by fitting 2 wastegates, they vary heaps in price even though they all look exactly the same, the cheapest I found was $245 but he has no stock, next ones are $375 and $400.

[DJZ]

Got my new intercooler and chopped it up hah it's quite large but once the end tanks are modified it should fit pretty damn well.




My rings turned up and the idiots sent the wrong ones, if anybody needs some rings to suit 87mm SR20DET JE pistons let me know.

Sold the front suspension so it's full steam ahead with the S14 setup.

[85_Z31]

Shame about the rings but the inter cooler placement looks excellent

I always look forward to your updates !

[classicdat]

Oh the disappointment, long wait, excitement they have arrived then that, feel for you. IC looks awesome.
I saw a GTR at Ruapuna without the baffled Cam covers, was sure it was a Blow, incredible amount of oil/smoke at the end of the straight, I'd say you'll never regret fitting them.
Look forward to future updates.

[DJZ]

Alright, had a go at mocking up the S13 coilovers today.

Front looks like it's actually going to work out pretty well, need to modify the arms to take some other bushes, the factory R30 steel sleeved bushes are too wide, the arms are actually slightly too wide as well because of a lip that they have down the sides. I put a cut in the lip and bent it downwards just to see if they'd fit.

What I'm going to do is drill out the arm so I can put a piece of 38mm OD pipe in there, then I've found some Ford spring eye bushes that look like they'll fit. Need to open up the hole in the strut tower a bit more so I can actually adjust the camber!





This is how high the rear guard was sitting before I started. It only dropped by 2cm after fitting them at the settings they came at out of the box but it's much much stiffer. I had to drill a new hole in the strut top and slot one of the other holes a bit, need to tidy it up and fit some washers.






Almost impossible to find factory front bumper mounts, the 280ZXs usually came with big heavy shock absorbers due to the dumb laws in the States, thanks to Brnwgn.


This is a late model ZX booster, a later model master cylinder should bolt straight on, I'm looking for a 1" Z32 master.


I bought some 550cc RX7 injectors, still need to get some lower seals for them.


Tial wastegate, 44mm. I bought it off a dude on Trademe, never used with extra flanges for $100 less than they are new.


XS Power staino manifold, fully divided except for the wastegate, second hand off Trademe



Ordered my turbo today, should be here by the end of the week hopefully! Still waiting for my rings to show up.

[85_Z31]

S13 coilovers are looking really good.

I have one question about using the S13 coil overs on your 280zx.

How does the center line on the spindle line up in relation to the center line of the strut/shock ? is it in the same position once you have fitted up your conversion parts ?

The Reason I ask is A z31 spindle/strut ( similar to a 280zx strut ?? ) is forward of the center line of the strut i believe using an S13 front knuckle / spindle has the spindle centered with the strut.

Z31 guys have done this on a Z31 and it caused issues with geometry all over the show, the tie rods would bind at full lock and some other unwanted side effects.


I hope you don't have the same issue because its looking pretty bad ass right now !

[DJZ]

Sorry man, I'm not quite following?

They are S13 coilovers and S14 hubs & knuckles, the geometry should be pretty similar to what it would be in an S13/14. The only thing that's going to affect it is the length of the lower control arms I think? But I should be able to adjust out any camber problems with the camber plates and adjustment where the knuckle bolts to the strut.

[85_Z31]

I probably explained that badly I will try again.

Typical Nissan/Datsun Front strut

you can see the spindle is forward of the center line of the shock

Typical S13/S14 front steering knuckle

Where the shock bolts to is directly in line with the spindle.


Does your wheel sit centered up in the front guard where it normally used to ? if it does then there should be no worries.
( the z31 guys to tried it had to use adjustable arms to pull the wheel foward to get it to sit in the position that it used to , this messed up castor & tie rod angles )


How does the front camber work out ? if it close to where it used to be then it should be mint
( again the Z31 guys who tried it had the camber plates maxed out just to get back to zero )

this is how it looked on a Z31 ( ignore the rear but look at the front )

[DJZ]

Ahh I get ya now. Can't say I've ever seen ones like that before, the 280ZX ones and R31 struts that I've had in there were both centered inline with the strut tube. Are the holes in the top of the strut tower offset to the centerline of the spindle?

With everything mocked up in there and loose the camber looks pretty close to 0 - I haven't got the right bolts for the strut to knuckles yet and I need to drill out the holes in my brand new coilovers I'm pretty sure, S13 use 12mm bolts and S14 use 14mm bolts, so there are 12mm holes in the struts and 14mm holes in the knuckles.