C-Dawg's 280ZX

[c-dawg]

hey everyone! i've been lurking for a while and decided to post a few pictures of my 1983 280ZX. it's N/A and completely stock.

it's very natural. meaning that it didn't get restored it or cleaned it up, it's just been well maintained and preserved.

now, i wanna do something with it. i'm not very mechanically inclined, but i love to drive. and i love to drive fast : )

i was thinking about doing an engine swap. i would really like to do an engine swap, BUT i know i would feel like all those years of preserving it would be wasted.

i also thought of taking it to Z shows and entering it into stock contests. do you think i would have a chance in winning an award?

what do you think i should do?

















thanks!



C-Dawg

[NSR_s30]

First of all clean s130 you have there. It's really clean, I'd more then likely keep it the way it is and maybe do basic bolt-ons if I was in your shoes. If you were thinking of doing a motor swap, the easiest one would be the L28ET, which is the turbo version of the motor in the Z now. Just my $0.02 though.

[Truebelieverone]

Damn that is clean. Gorgeous car!

[evildky]

that is a very clean S130, expecially fro 184k miles!?

if you intend to show it I'd keep it in stock class, nto many stock S130's that clean, although there are a few out there and they are all mothballed uber low miles cars

[c-dawg]

thanks guys!

yeah, i think i wanna keep it stock as much as possible. i was thinking of doing a major tune up (it hasn't gotten tuned up in a while) as well as updating the suspension. i WOULD like to make it faster without touching too much of the engine.

i was thinking of replacing the cat and exhaust as well. do you think that would be distasteful? i was feeling that a cold air or short-ram intake MIGHT be an eyesore, but i dunno.

thanks again, everyone! i'll be having some more questions soon : )

C-Dawg

[NSR_s30]

I think a header and free flowing exhaust would be a great upgrade for your car and will look great!

[evildky]

a drop in air filter (assumnig one is available for the stock air box?)and a mandrel bend free flowing exhaust woudl be invisible mods, and a header woudl be nearly invisible, and remember these cars cams stock with coil air intakes, the air box on all injected S30 and S130's were in front of the radiator in the cool outside air

as for suspension, most people woudl never notice if you upgraded to aftermarket struts and springs, sway bars woudl make a big improvment int he handeling without being noticible to the untrained eye

modern tires can also make the car hanndle better, perhaps a seperate set of wider wheel with modern tires for driving duting and you can preserve your pristine stock wheels for show purposes

[Perrenial Badass]

I vote for stock class. It's a lot less work to make the car into something it already is than to change it into something else. Obviously. To win shows modified would be much harder for you than stock since you are so close already as is.

I think that you have a good chance at winning stock class as is. I'd take it to a show or two and see how it places before modifying it. This will also give you an indication, as you modify, how well you are fooling the judges.

If you wanted to preserve the ability to run stock class, you have to think subtle. Springs and dampers are good upgrades... since they are wear items I doubt that people would see them being original original equipment as a good thing. But when you buy your springs and dampers, buy some sand paper and some black spray paint. Rough up and respray whatever funny, bright, "I'm not stock" color they were manufactured in. Poly bushings are another option, but you'd want to make sure that you got them in black if you did, in fact, get them.

Some headwork, preferably on another head, is an option. Doing it on another head allows you to keep the original one in stock condition, so if you really want to set it back to stock, you can set it back to stock. Ported out and polished up, the head could do well with an aftermarket cam. Milder grinds would be preferable, so that it doesn't get too much attention when you drive it to your spot at the show. Once it's parked, what's been done to the heads doesn't matter because if somebody tries to take your engine apart to check, you can justifiably go after him/her with a wrench.

Headers... you could port match your stockers (or a spare...) and have somebody clean up the insides. That would increase the flow a bit while looking stock. Since it is stock. You could also look for an aftermarket header that follows the stock routing, and isn't all shiny and chrome. It could be roughed up on the outside and painted to have a more stock look as well.

Aftermarket exhaust would be easy enough to pull off. A nice mandrel bent system with a high flowing cat with CARB approval (since you live in Californistan) would be good. Depending on how anal the judges are... and how original the opposing Zs are... you might gain yourself some points by having the stock cat and muffler. For the muffler, I'd search for a system that unbolts after the axle same as stock. Coat the piping with some 1600 degree paint, and swap out the mufflers when I go to a show. For the cat, you can do the same thing. I have seen instances where people have cut up their stock cats, and welded them up over a test pipe so that when installed, they look original. If this could be done with a test pipe, it probably could be done with some of the smaller aftermarket cats. Problem with that is, once you cut the cat there is no going back. And you'd have to find a new cat to set it back to 100% stock.

Drop in air filter to round everything out. Cause you're boring...

Of course, you could build the engine, and do it without it being too apparent that it is modified. But that's a lot more money than everything I listed. I'd do that stuff first and see if you really need more before investing in that. Though, a to-stock specifications rebuild would be cool. No idea if that would knock you out of the stock class, but we've cheated this far so f*** it.

[c-dawg]

wow, thanks for the ideas!

yeah, i was thinking that i would either keep it totally as is or just forget about showing it. i really don't care for the whole car show scene, but it was an idea my buddy suggested.

but what i DO want to do is keep the original engine (for now). it's been preserved so very well up until now that it'd be a total waste to pull it out. i was thinking of doing minor stuff like intake, headers, catalytic, exhaust, suspension and maybe minor interior cleaning up like carpet and upholstery.

that's what i'm thinking about doing. i'm gonna take it down to zcargarage and check out some prices. besides zcarparts.com, are there any other good parts dealers out there?

thanks! : )

[evildky]

msa (zcarparts.com) is one fo the best suppliers for early Z cars, black dragon sells a lto or replacement parts but not much int he way of aftermarket

[NSR_s30]

MSA has some really good stuff. I was just looking through their catalog.

[c-dawg]

thanks guys!

yeah, i think i wanna keep it stock as much as possible. i was thinking of doing a major tune up (it hasn't gotten tuned up in a while) as well as updating the suspension. i WOULD like to make it faster without touching too much of the engine.

i was thinking of replacing the cat and exhaust as well. do you think that would be distasteful? i was feeling that a cold air or short-ram intake MIGHT be an eyesore, but i dunno.

thanks again, everyone! i'll be having some more questions soon : )

C-Dawg

[noobdrftr]

wow its so clean and...clean lol

[evildky]

hey it's your car, enjoy it, it's not liek it's got 10k origional miles, build it the way you want it and enjoy it, if you want to make a V8 crag machine thats your perogetive just make it somethgin you can use and enjoy, withere it's a crag car, show car, track car or whatever else

[hitbychance]

Whoa clean car dude, do what ever swap you want but just remember to send me your l28 when your done, thats is so clean!!!!!!!!!

[c-dawg]

hehe, thanks : )

i'm gonna start off at zcargarage and have them tune it up and take a look at it. i will probably be working with them a lot in the future since i'm not able to swap the engine myself, i'll ask them for their input, also.

thanks, everyone for all the input. i will be asking more questions and asking for your opinions again when the time comes. thanks again!!

[c-dawg]

hehe, thanks : )

i'm gonna start off at zcargarage and have them tune it up and take a look at it. i will probably be working with them a lot in the future since i'm not able to swap the engine myself, i'll ask them for their input, also.

thanks, everyone for all the input. i will be asking more questions and asking for your opinions again when the time comes.

i really enjoy the advice and ideas everyone offers and if there's anything you can think of, please post here : ) thanks again!!