my l28et swap, 1980 280zx

[little_red]

well here goes nothing. if this is in the wrong sub-forum, mods please feel free to move it.

I guess I can start with some history on the car. The car is self is a 1980 Datsun 280zx. I purchased it from the original owner in late sept. of 07. The car was a Arizona car its entire life till 04' when he moved to northern Tenn. where I happened to find the car. the car was sitting in his barn then entire time in Tenn. so need less to say it is extremely clean for the year.

well when i had gotten it, i discovered that it had some rather extreme blow by in the cylinders. but that didnt bother me seeing as how i wanted to do a turbo swap in the near future.

well I recently picked up a turbo parts car, so the build has begun. I am currently just about done installing my swap, but I will host up all the pictures i have and bring everyone up to speed.

here is the car in tenn. at my fathers house. ( I was there visiting, made a wrong turn somewhere, and saw the car for sale. lucky me!!)



old engine is out.. and prepping the car for its new trans plant.



the a/c still worked. so no reason to fix whats not broken.

well i had the engine out of the car for a good month before i even found the parts car.

but when i did find it, heres what happened to it!!the parts car is a 81 turbo auto for those who were wondering







holy crap, look at the size of that hole!!

well as you can see the engine is in. i plan on cleaning her up, i did power wash it for a good 45 min to get all the junk and caked up oil and such off. i just want to get it fired up, so that way i can start deleting things i wont be needing. and at the time parts will be going to the powder coater and such.

and heres me just messin around with my camera.

feedback is always welcome!

[qat727]

Looks about the same as when it left here. I little rewriting history here and there but meh... who cares. The other day I saw one like yours driving down the road, except it still had the silver trim.

Looks like an interesting swap. Hope you have a fun time with it.

[NSR_s30]

Awesome project!

[little_red]

ive only been working on it for about the last 2 months.. havent had time to touch it.. i have a ton more pictures ill host up later. ive been trying to document this entire process..

[bigred240sx]

thats a beast i wish i could find a turbo 280 around my house for cheapi have a 76 280 na that i want turboed so badgood luck with the build

[little_red]

well here are some more pics from the build so far. dont mind the fact that nothing is really cleaned up, once i get it fired up, i plan on powder coating alot of things.

[evildky]

thats not where the oil cooler goes you don't want to run the turbo facia?

[little_red]

thats not where the oil cooler goes you don't want to run the turbo facia?

its not that i dont want to run the turbo facia, i just didnt want to drill the holes in the side by the frame rail to run the cooler lines through. and i figgured it would get more air up in front.

[evildky]

in that case get a/n adapters for the adapter fitting and run new shorter lines with an generic aftermarekt oil cooler,a nd clean it up a bit

[little_red]

well that was my plan, but i cant get the cooler lines loose, and rather than breaking them now.. ill deal with it now, and make entire new lines later on.

in that case get a/n adapters for the adapter fitting and run new shorter lines with an generic aftermarekt oil cooler,a nd clean it up a bit

[evildky]

lol, thats kinda why I went aftermarket, when taking the lines apart one of them left the female threads attached to the male saide of the cooler, so I pulled the banjo bolts, slapped in some a/n adapeters ands tarted form scratch,m you can also remove the filter/cooler adapter and put the thread adapter and just screw on a regular oil filter without the cooler at all

[little_red]

lol, thats kinda why I went aftermarket, when taking the lines apart one of them left the female threads attached to the male saide of the cooler, so I pulled the banjo bolts, slapped in some a/n adapeters ands tarted form scratch,m you can also remove the filter/cooler adapter and put the thread adapter and just screw on a regular oil filter without the cooler at all

i was thinking about that, but i like the idea of having an oil cooler, so until it springs a leak, or some thing of that nature.. it will stay where it is.. and once i get my FMIC setup, i will have to do some thing about it

[evildky]

if you plan to tun it hard the extra cooling is definitely a good thing, the man trans turbo models didn't come with the factory cooler, only the auto's had them from the factory so they aren't needed, just helpful when practical

[hbpignosePA]

now u need some turbo wheels.... looks good so far