Hey everyone, I'm newer to this forum but I recently picked up a '90 300 N/A 2+0 back in October for $2300. The car runs well and theres no major problems with the car but I picked it up to be my project build fun car.

I dont have the funds to do everything I want all at once so I have two options and I want to pursue one before the other.

I want to do a full exterior strip and do a full replay, the body is straight and theres very little body work to be done but the paint has seen better days. I also want to replace the seats and put in a cage for harnesses and added safety and rigidity.

I also want to do a motor swap and I have been thinking LS cause they're simple, cheap and reliable, plus they make good power out of the box. However I cant get the idea out of my head about doing something more unique like 2jz, RB, VQ or even rotary.

I just don't have the funds to do this all at once and I would rather not be juggling multiple projects on it at the same time.

Does anyone have any advice or thoughts? Would like to hear what anyone has to say about it. I will post some pics shortly.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. When you say you don;t have the fund immediately available, have you priced the work you are describing? You may want to do that before deciding to embark on the journey. Building a car is generally a labor of love and by no means makes financial sense. Case in point: a well done LS swap will cast you upwards of $10k when all said and done but no less than $5k and thats if you have all the tools and do all the fab work yourself. To your point about "unique" 2jz and RB swaps have been done in the Z32 chassis, some better than others. There is no real advantage to a VQ because to make bog power you'll spend as much if not more than you would going TTVG. Rotary is an interesting concept but with the reliability pitfalls of all rotaries and the fact that the Z32 weights about 600lbs more than the FD it may not be the best choice.

Thank you. When I say "I don't have funds immediately available" I mean that I don't want to throw 10k at the car in one month to buy a bunch of parts all at once. I could but it's not the most financially responsible thing to do. With that being said, I understand what I'm getting myself into and I know it's an expensive hobby and not an investment.

When it comes to the LS I have seen a lot of people do it so there is a lot more information and parts out there to help with the build. I know the 2j and the RB have been done in the z32 but it is much more rare to see that's why I considered it more "unique". Your concerns with the rotary are the same concerns I had, I know they don't really make very much torque and they're problematic so it might not be the best idea for a car quite a but heavier than what it was designed for.

I appreciate the feedback, I'm just trying to decide if I want to pull the motor right away especially since it runs and drives completely fine as it sits. Or if I want to focus on making it look super clean first.

Welcome to the forum. If your car runs and drives fine, leave the NA motor in for now. Too many people have purchased a running car for a swap, pull the motor then it sits turning to a lost interest and the project is never finished.
Narrow down the swap you want to do, buy your parts then when you have everything pull the motor.

I agree with the advise given so for. I had my Z for 5 years as NA before I decided to do a swap, saved money to buy parts for the next 10 year; LOL. Finally finished the swap 5 years ago and the z was only down for 1 winter season. Now saving up for a paint job and body work.

My concern is if you do all your paint now, the swap may cause small dings here and there while fitting things in. That's the reason I saved my body work for last.

itsa300zx wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 14, 2020 3:51 pm

I agree with the advise given so for. I had my Z for 5 years as NA before I decided to do a swap, saved money to buy parts for the next 10 year; LOL. Finally finished the swap 5 years ago and the z was only down for 1 winter season. Now saving up for a paint job and body work.

My concern is if you do all your paint now, the swap may cause small dings here and there while fitting things in. That's the reason I saved my body work for last.

That was another concern of mine that if I do a full swap when the whole exterior is perfect I would risk messing it up. Whereas if i do the swap before any body work I don't have to be quite as careful about small dings or scratches because I would fix them later.

What swap did you end up doing and why did you go that route?

Just the standard TT swap, my power goals is only 400whp mark as a summer daily/weekend fun car. I'm not really a show/unique car type, just after reliable and decent looking exterior.
The fact that I broke even or maybe a slight profit after the swap was a bonus. Bought a crashed 91 jdm for 600 bucks, and parted it out once I took everything I need.

Definitely swap before body, will make your life much easier. I'm biased but I'd LS swap it, was about 20k in total for mine, including everything to turn it from NA to LS beast, engine tranny clutch driveshaft harness vmount rad engine mounting brackets headers tune coilovers wheels translators etc etc etc, that's in Canadian too, so 15000 USD. I also paid someone else to build it for me because I lacked the time, space, tools, expertise to do it right, so it made more sense for me.

97 fairlady z wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 29, 2020 10:09 pm

Definitely swap before body, will make your life much easier. I'm biased but I'd LS swap it, was about 20k in total for mine, including everything to turn it from NA to LS beast, engine tranny clutch driveshaft harness vmount rad engine mounting brackets headers tune coilovers wheels translators etc etc etc, that's in Canadian too, so 15000 USD. I also paid someone else to build it for me because I lacked the time, space, tools, expertise to do it right, so it made more sense for me.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I think I'm going to go with the motor swap before I do anything else to the body and I'm going to go LS. I have a few connections to get a cheap one after asking around. I plan on doing all the work myself with the help of some friends because I have the space. But with that being said I'm not in a giant rush to do it and I know it will take time because it is a huge job.

When you did yours, what LS did you end up going with and why? Also, what trans did you decide to go with? I've seen a few people running the stock trans and they seem to hold up as long as you arent trying to push huge numbers. So that was my original plan and if it blows up it blows up and I get something more beefy after.

LS2 and T56 from a CTS-V, got a sweet deal on them. My stock tranny was grinding and I plan on supercharging this summer, so T56 seemed like better option for me, also kept the NA 4.08 rear end. Wasn't a ton of custom work involved, used cxracing mounting kit. Needed custom headers though because the kit ones were for left hand drive and interfered with my steering rod.

Here is my final invoice with most of the parts and work, might help you.

that also includes a full rebuild of the engine and lots of other labour that i was not charged for