What year was the P-79 head first installed on the 280's and what year was the last?

Cylinder head I.D.,s from Hybrid z showing 1981-1983 N.A. engines http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=129066

Thanks BEEZEE!

The Parts Catalog lists

11041 HEAD ASSY-CYLINDER

I believe that all of the following had casting numbers of P79, as I don't recall ever seeing a head with a casting number of P71 nor P81 on a ZX.

-P7180 07/78 to 01/79

-P8100 02/79 to 04/80

-P8180 02/79 to 04/80

-P8181 05/80 to 06/80

-P7980 07/80 on....

So I'd say that the P79 heads were on all the N/A 280ZX's 79 to 83 Model Year...

Just my guess...

Carl B.

I have a F54/P79 engine from 280ZX 2+2 with a mfg date of 10/80 sitting in the garage. I'm not sure if the car was registered as an 80' or an 81' since it was a JY special, but I'm gonna venture a guess that it was 81'.

I've seen 79 280ZX's with N47 heads and with P79 heads (junkyard research). My guess is that they phased out what they had leftover as they transitioned to the P79.

One further question......I just purchased an F54 block with a (peanut) P-79 head (everyone needs a couple spare engines) that I'm gonna try to build some performance into. I'm not going to shave the head. What size overbore can you find pistons for....where can you find them.....and what else can you do (if anything) to pick up some "pop" in performance. I'm going to use an Isky stage 1 cam in my build. Thanks Guy

Hi Guy:

Short of Turbo-charging these engines - - The real HP gains are made by increasing the displacement and raising the compression ratio. You can run up to 9.5:1 compression ratio on pump gas in most area's of the US, and in some places 10:1. Depends on the actual quality of the pump gas in your area among other things.

If you don't want to shave the head - then you can deck the block and install oversize flat top pistons.

FWIW,

Carl B.

Carl.......If you deck the block, you would still have to shim the cam....right? I'd like to avoid that. How much can you safely bore and what kind of compression gain could you expect with a larger overbore? Where can you find oversize pistons? Thanks Guy