Pitch of l28 280z motor

[questionzcar]

I am swapping transmissions and must install my own crossmember but at what angle should the engine sit? At a slight incline back or should it be level? If someone could but a level on their cylinder head and give me a degree of pitch or just send me a photo of it that would be great! Thanks

[Zed Head]

Use the oil pan mounting surface and/or the back/bottom of the engine where the transmission bolts up.  Underneath.

[questionzcar]

but is the motor supposed to be perfectly level?

[Zed Head]

The oil pan is. 

The cylinder bores are not perpendicular to the ground, they are tilted.  There are no "level" surfaces on the top of the engine.  Except maybe the intake manifold heat shields.

[crayZlair]

I don't think that it matters too much, as long as your are not too extreme. The u-joints will take care of the transmission to driveshaft angle.

I see that you have a '76. The fuel injection doesn't care either, unlike carburetor bowls and floats.

[questionzcar]

I got a 240z with l28 swap, I just want to be sure the oil will drain properly. 

[siteunseen]

Whens it's jacked up, to get under there, it will drain proper. Put a new crush copper washer on the drain plug if it looks old. Don't over tighten the plug and since it's a swapped out 2.8 make sure you have the right dipstick. 240s are different than 280s. The numbers are on the dipstick and you'll find the info on the one you need to use. Google "difference in dipsticks classiczcars.com"

[questionzcar]

Can anyone confirm that the oil pan mounting surface is level? I have the transmission up about as high as it can go and the motor is still angled back but the car is on jack stands so that might be effecting it... Just want to get it right the first time

[grannyknot]

The "levelness" of the engine isn't anywhere near as important as the driveline angles for the driveshaft. As I understand it you are swapping in a different trans and have to make up a new or modified trans mount so just concentrate on the driveline angles, you want to make sure that you are not altering the angle on one end of the driveshaft without compensating on the other.

Unequal angles can get you some terrible vibrations at certain rpms as well as wear out the ujoints prematurely, if a few ounces of used oil remain in the pan after an oil change that is not going to hurt anything.

[Zed Head]

On 1/3/2020 at 12:35 PM, questionzcar said:

I got a 240z with l28 swap, I just want to be sure the oil will drain properly. 

The L28 engine is the same as the the L24 engine, except internally.  It's a direct bolt-in swap.  There should no change at all in any angles, or degrees of level.   It's the same block, essentially.

[questionzcar]

ok lets talk more about driveline angles because that's my other concern. My 240z has a z32 TT rear subframe swap with the big r230. I have now mated the l28 motor to the VG30DE transmission thanks to a Hoke Performance adapter. The motor and transmission are in the car with the front motor mounts attached and transmission supported by a jack stand. It sounds like I should be more concerned with my height off the floor to keep the transmission output and rear diff in line. The only problem is I just dropped the subframe. Do I need the subframe installed and aligned to do this proper?

[Zed Head]

49 minutes ago, questionzcar said:

My 240z has a z32 TT rear subframe swap with the big r230. I have now mated the l28 motor to the VG30DE transmission thanks to a Hoke Performance adapter. 

You should have mentioned this from the beginning.

Side to side, the engine is fine.  Front to back is your concern and, as grannyknot said, your driveline angle is important, although it's not the driveshaft angle that matters the most.  It's the match between the rear diff pinion shaft and the engine's crankshaft, they need to be parallel.  You can jack the ends of the car up to get the oil to drain, if that's a problem.

There are how-to's all over the internet.  Here's some examples from the past.  jmortenen's link to the hybriz site has a bunch, in detail.

https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/43993-differential-laser-alignment-tool/