Well quite some time has passed since I've been on these forums, so I suppose it's time for a decent build. Unfortunately I lost a lot of pics during my computer recover. Anyways I had got a 1983 280zx turbo for my first car when i was 14.



Some time passed, as it sat and I had quit my job at the Mazda dealership I was working at I needed money so I pulled the engine and transmission and sold the shell for $500 after buying the car for $750 6years prior to selling it. Not knowing any better I left the differential in it thinking oh it will be cake getting a new one....Man was i wrong After that I got a lame civic for $900 and since I had nothing better to do I put in the 1.6L vtec head and individual throttle bodies off a gsxr 1000, still slower then my Z in reverse haha! After months of searching this piece of well...work came along. The kid did a straight trade, both cars in their current conditions he got a better deal. To an extent.. The kid thought it was a slow junker he had no idea of what these cars can do.


Patiently awaiting the transplant!




Out with the old!


Pressure washed and degreased the engine bay..


The new! All cleaned up!


I'll update this some more later, This humidity is kicking my a** working in a welding shop..

I suppose i'll add to this before I call it a night. So my main goal is to get this thing ready for the track. I went to a weekend long racing deal here in northern minnesota Brainerd to be exact if anyone has a clue where that is, anyways when i was there I was dead set on getting on the road course with my good friends 2jz powered mk3 supra. Unfortunately my turbo needs a good rebuild because that's one thing i didn't touch when i rebuilt the engine 6years ago.. On top of that my brakes are pretty terrible so trying to find a braking point at 100+ mph would have been a bad day for this Z!

Right now the engine is stock other then the N42 non egr intake manifold.



Shaved most of it at work and painted it later on with some high temp black wrinkle finish paint.
The engine as it sits now.


I haven't snapped a good picture of the engine since i put the manifold on.

My next upgrade to say, I got rid of the uncomfortable seats in the car and am in the process of making some seat rails for a pair of 5.0 foxbody seats I picked up off craigslist.


The driver side seat is the stock seat with some pretty awesome covers the previous owner left me..

Last thing for the night, I got these 240sx s13 coilovers for the Z. Pretty easy to install and with little modifying.



Hope you all enjoy!

Nice job on the trade. I'm looking forward to more updates?

gmac708 wrote:Nice job on the trade. I'm looking forward to more updates?

I'll definitely update it when I'm back home. Unfortunately when i was driving today the car cut out at a light and wouldn't start back up. i don't have any spark so I'll be going through the engine tomorrow to figure it out. I still wish i had your Z! I used to look at your build all the time, its great some really nice work you've got done!

Well I got the car started today, I have spark but I can't get it to hold a idle. Since I have a shaved intake manifold I have the timing a tad advanced to compensate for the extra airflow. Which now I can see is screwing me over. I'm running a bit too rich and I had quite a bit of fuel in the cylinders. I'm only running around 2-3psi on the turbo since it needs a rebuild. Anyways it will be back on the road tomorrow.

Updates for tonight..

I got a set of diamond racing style steelies, my friend said they're aero rims blah blah it looks good whatever. Originally they were 5 lug but my room mates friend machined a chunk of metal to the 4 lug pattern and my room mate welded them in. I'm sure people will have negative feedback on this, but they balanced out and the 10" wide rear rims with the mild stretch tire looks great and it really improved the handling of the car through the corners. And i paid $40 for all 4 rims. The fronts will not clear without spacers so I still have the stock swastika rims on.

What they originally looked like


With the plate welded on.


Another shot to show how wide they are.


And the tires mounted on.


Unfortunately with the coilovers slammed, the fronts rubbed on the coilovers a tad.

Ouch! Cant' wait to get some spacers so I can slam it again!

Needs MOAR low!!

Damage there was a parting gift the previous owner left me..

Last thing for the night that really doesn't pertain to this update is the 79 tail light. IMO it looks way better then the 83 lights, too bad the passenger side was cracked at the junk yard..

I also replaced the hatch struts after this picture was taken so no more 2x4 holding up the hatch!

The N42 intake will not improve airflow, it's just the cleanest. When dealing with a turbo car you generally retard the timing not advance, advance makes things go boom, retard makes them safer. The stock L28ET intake routs the idle air through a valve to near the throttle body, since you no longer have this you'll want to adjust the throttle to allow for some air to get by to allow the car to idle. So, set the timing back to stock (hard to do when the car won't idle (18btdc iirc), and adjust the throttle stop to hold the throttle open a tad.

Well with running it shaved having taking off all the vacuum other then pretty much the brake booster and fpr, i figured i would have to compensate. But i believe the runners are smaller i could be wrong. Anyways i did turn the distributor back a little adjusted the idle stupid me did it without bringing it to operating temp so its idling high. But it ran good drove it back to my house ran better then before... Go figure haha.

Haven't done much to the Z lately..More intresting updates will definitely come soon just need to order a few parts. Since i have some stupid crazy positive camber going on my front tires I got a gift...

Nice corded tires.. They needed to be replaced anyways and I have quite a bit more clearance in between the front coilovers and the new tires.


Thankfully my room mate had these sitting in the garage collecting dust before we throw them on his datsun. Just so Happens 2 had brand new tires, lucky me!


A little on the negative side for camber, no biggie i'll adjust that soon.


Just scrolling through some old pictures on my photobucket, I can't believe how far this engine has come along from when I first got it in my old Z. That's how it originally looked, what a damn mess. Can't wait to get rid of the rest of the unnecessary stuff left on the engine.


Don't know why but the picture of the new rims won't work, I'll post a different picture later..

Been off for a while, and I won't have any good updates coming for at least a week due to 7 stitches in my thumb..

But before that happened I put the new wheels on front.


A few days after that I got bored and did a temporary rattle can job just so the car is all one solid color. Once I do all the little body work I'll get a good paint job, still undecided about what color though.


That's it for now, soon I'll be doing a brake upgrade and rebuilding or replacing the turbo!

Well it's getting cold here in MN and I through the Z in storage. I was hoping to get my build really going during the winter, but I will be deploying for basic in January so the build will be put on stand by until I return. This way i'll be able to order everything I need at once with the money i'll be saving, so hopefully this time goes by fast and I can get to tearing apart this car for the last time.