hello everyone.

[warvin240]

I am restoring my 82 datsun any ideas?

[300ZXttZMAN]

Hello what you looking to do?? Motor swap? Elaborate please.

Whats the budget?

[evildky]

pictures? intended use? These is a great S130 VK56 swap posted by another user if you want crazy ideas

[warvin240]

i am looking to do a motor swap one of my buddys said to do a rb26 swap but when i did the research the rb26 has a 6 speed transmission. so i would like to try something a little different. this is my baby

[evildky]

looks nice, I'm not a particular fan of the RB, I find them to be overpriced and overhyped

the rb26dett comes only attached to an awd trans (and I'm pretty sure it's a 5 speed), you can run the rb25 manual trans with it (which is a 5 speed), or do what most people do and just swap the rb25 for half the cost, or for even less, L28ET, the turbo motor that came stock in the 81-83 280ZX Turbo is a very capable motor with only a boost controller you can get well over 200 whp and it's a direct bolt in, add an intercooler and 300 whp can be achieved, beyond that you're looking a spending some money and upgrading the turbo, the injectors, the injection system, headgasket and headstuds and not much later the cast pistons are the weak link

one thing I like abotu the L28ET is once you spank someone or lay down that fast et, you pop the hood and it's a 40 year old datsun motor, leaves them scratchign theri heads

[warvin240]

I have the L28ET in it now. I have had this car since I was 16 lol but now I wanna give it a whole new look and surprise everyone once its done. Is there any other engines that u might suggest to swap it out with???

[evildky]

I'd keep the L28ET but thats me, how much power do you want? what are you comfortable with? some guys like pushrods and carburators, in which case the SBC is an option, some guys like pushrods and fuel injection which makes the LS a good option, some guys like rotaries, some like to do the fanboy thing and swap in an RB, and some like embarrasing all the fanboys with an L28ET

you've had it since 16,I don't know when that was, how old are you now? is the car completely stock? manual or auto?

stock the L28ET was rated for 180 hp at the crank, with just a boost controller and gauge you can get 200 to the wheel

[boostedh23a1]

put a diesel engine in it, that would be different. 6.3 turbo or something, lol.

[warvin240]

I am 26 now I have the car for 10 years now lol the car is completely stock with nothing done to it. Maybe I should just rebuild the motor I prefer the fuel injection. I should do a diesel but that would be out of my character lol

[evildky]

so for 10 years you kept it stock, and never got the itch to make more power, thats a shame seeing how easy it is to nearly double the stock hp

rebuild the engine? is the negine bad? is that whats prompting the urge to swap?

all these little details will help us help you

[warvin240]

When I first got the car it had more then enough power for me so I never wanted to anything to it plus I was going to school. Even though I would do all the maintenance on the car so she was still. But lately one problem after the next kept popping up and now the motor is shot I still don't know how. That's y I was looking at the rb swap I would have just enough power and be fine with it . The body work would come later

[evildky]

most fo the issues with the L28ET are age related, the most common issues are;
injector cllips, they get so hot for so many years that they get brittle as does the wires leading into them and eventually soemthing breaks and you get a non firing injector, many people simply cut injector clips form a random donor in a junkyard (these are standard bosch injector clips which are the most common on the planet) or you can buy new leads form an aftermarket company like msd
CHTS, or CTS on the turbo it's located int eh head and when it goes bad or gets disconnected (same clip as the injectors) the car things it's cold and dumps way too much fuel and the engine floods, the sensor is rarely an issue
Distributor, the turbo 280zx uses a unique distributor makign it rare and expensive, they aren't what you call prone to failure but they are 30 years old now, as a matter of face the internals are pretty much the same as what you find inside the cas on an RB SR or many other modern nissan engines, but when it fails the car will not run
ignitor, agian after 30 years things wear out and again it's a unique piece (read as expensive) if it goes out your car will not run period
AFM, another age related issue and again rare as it is specific to the turbo model, after time they develope deadspots and it can feel like a rev limiter
fuel pump, agian after 30 years things wear out, they tend to fail intermitantly makign diagnosis tricky generally the car starts and run s fine till warm then it dies and won't restart untill it cools down, the nice thing is it's external meanign you don't need to drop the tankt o get to it

if the oil gets regular changes the engine is generally good for 300k miles, less if it's abused or neglected

so if the engine is a goner and you want an RB swap, go for it, the simplest swap is to use the RB25DET, you'll need the engine, harness, ecu, mas, trans (figure aroudn $2000, then you'll need mounts, I've heard that the rb bolts intot he s130 motor mounts but the angle is a bif off and the position is a bit forward, the zr200 mounts I think place the engien lower and square but still forward, you'll need custome piping an an intercooler, a larger fuel pump, custome exhaust, and depending on the length of the rb trans you might be able to use an n/a s130 driveshaft, wort case you'll have to have it shortened

[warvin240]

Wow u really know ur cars I am really glad for all the advice u have given me up to this point. Is there a web site I can go to look at some rb?

[gmac708]

Here is a good place to start.

http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/for ... -rb-forum/

Gord

And welcome to NICO