That's right, no more 280ZX under the hood. Well, maybe just a little, it still has the ZX distributor and alternator in it. But the oil-burning L28 is no more, and a clean running L24 is in its place. For details (and a few pictures) of the weekend's progress, check the car's website - A Work in ProgreZZ

But the short version is this: the L24 is in and it runs, quite well actually. It's rather loud now, with its totally open headers. There was no feasible way to marry the old exhaust to the headers, so the car is grounded until I can get it to the muffler shop, hopefully next weekend.

All in all, a rewarding weekend for me. I'm not sure if I can be ready or not, but I'd like to have it on the road in time for the Mt. St. Helens run in October. We'll have to wait and see...

Well done Arne! I know how you feel, having recently changed my motor twice!

Marty

Hey Arne, looking good. I know you are probably itching to high heck to get that exhaust handled, good luck.

Hey Arne, looking good. I know you are probably itching to high heck to get that exhaust handled, good luck.

True story. But a call to the local shop that was recommended to me by the hot rod crowd put the brakes on the project real fast. He gave me a ballpark figure starting at $550 for the job, up to as much as $1200 for full stainless. Now I know this shop will do excellent work, but $550 for an aluminized 2 1/4" system with a Y pipe and two 2 1/2" flanged collectors seems a bit high to me. This shop does do mandrel bending, but it was not clear in the ballpark estimate whether the low-end included that, or was just normal bending.

Man, I'm going to have to start selling off some spare parts to raise some cash...

If you can weld then do it yourself. I made my 2 1/2 inch mandrel bent exhaust for about $110. I bought the bends from ebay and Summit, and got the straight pipe from Summit. I used a 18 inch glasspack in the trans tunnel and a Flowmaster 40 series in the back. Took about 2 days to mark, cut, and weld all the parts together, but in the end it was cheaper than going to a shop. Plus, I got to use my new TIG welder....

I can weld (after a fashion), but I don't have a welder of my own, so that's not a very good option for me. I'm going to call a few more local shops for quotes, and while I'd prefer mandrel bent 2" or 2 1/4" pipes, the reality is that for a stock L24 for street use I can probably easily get away with normally bent 2 1/4" as well. I should think that if I salvage the Y pipe with dual collectors from the parts car, it shouldn't cost more than $200-$250 to make up what I want. I'll keep you posted.

Arne,

Congratualtions on your weekend of progress. that 240Z is really coming along nicely. Not many follow your path of returning the car to its original state with L24 in the engine bay.

As for the exhaust continue to shop around. The shop I use for my Z exhaust work (Phil's Custom Exhaust Works in Clinton, Md.) just recently completed a system for my '77 280Z. It's 2.25" in diameter coupled to a Magnaflow muffler with a chrome single tip which replicates the factory look. It was completely welded from the head pipe all the way back. The complete system took about two and a half hours and cost $225 including the $70 for the muffler. It sounds and looks great. The fun part is standing in the shop and listening to Phil grouse about how Z cars rust everywhere and how they would be so much better with a V8 under the hood. Phil is a hot rod guy and doesn't understand the Z car.

Good luck.

That's right, no more 280ZX under the hood.

But the short version is this: the L24 is in and it runs, quite well actually.

All in all, a rewarding weekend for me. I'm not sure if I can be ready or not, but I'd like to have it on the road in time for the Mt. St. Helens run in October. We'll have to wait and see...

Arne, I am sure you said somewhere, but is this the original L24 that matches the car, or did you have to go with another one? I have a Series I, but the engine that was in it does not match, nor did the block that came with the car and a '72 parts car.

Unfortunately, a prior owner disposed of the original motor long before I got it. I had planned on rebuilding an L24 out of a '73 for it until I got the parts car, which is a later (Series 2) '71. So it is not original, but it is closer than the '73 would have been and does have the proper E31 head.

Of course, as far as originality goes, mine is even more non-original than that - it was built with an automatic, now has a proper early 4 speed.

Thumbs up, The number one rule on my resto is that the original L24 block stays.

How about original L24 matching numbers. One part that was not rusted. Hope to have this one running this winter. Want it on the road for Canby next spring. Have a ways to go but, have come some distance already.

This talk would make my Z jelous, if it could read.