AndysPlit

Toyotas are great cars, I admit. What year is the Corolla? As far as the article goes, the best place I can think of to find it would be the microfisch resources at your local library. Yweah, believe it or not the old-fashioned way would suffice. But, I am sure there are plenty of owners' reviews on the Z31 on-line.

Yowsers!.......That is a lot, but I have seen this too in their catalogue. The thing is, I will not be performing the work on my own. But, perhaps I will keep this in mind if I decide to to increase my budget. Thanks for the link.

It's cool. Ummm.......I plan to have this as a street-legal car. In the future, when I am ready for the rebuild and upgrades, this is something I will address with my garage. Great of you to still bring this up. Thank you.

Unfortunately as it stands now, the California smog exemption stops at 1975 cars. I have heard that they do not plan to go beyond that year in the furture. I hope that the law will change, but as it stands now it doesn't look very good. Maybe a 240 was the way to go.

In my opinion I wouldn't purchase any 300ZX from 84-89 unless it was the turbo version, or the Nissan 50th anniversary edition. However, if these prospects fell into my lap I admit I would be curious too. I don't mean to disrespect anyone's taste if they are in favor of the Z31. Personally, I think Nisan made more alluring Z's, but I believe they were machanically sound like most of their product line. I remember there was an article in Road & Track or Car & Driver years ago that put the Corvette toe to toe with the 300ZX of the that era. Unsurprisingly the Corvette beat the ZX in performance but as quality standards went that honor was won by the Z.

Or could be the "honeycomb" turbo wheels from an 81 ZX. I think they only had a gold trim.

OK, now that's a relief! I thought things were going to get more complicated than I imgained. Just for reference does anyone have a link or file that is a cutaway view of the L28 engine? That would be great. Thanks!

I meant to regard the F54 as the block to clear that up.

Okay, so let's see here. An F54 head is from the last 280ZX motor, right? Judging by the previous posts it seems that either way I'm going to have a different engine if I choose to upgrade in this vein. I suppose I'm being sentimental over the original motor. But if I want to build it up the right way, I am going to to be borrowing from various L-series engines? Forgive me, while I digest this in. I think I have been under an illusion. Thanks for the bore specs Jason!

...ONE of the best things is knowing you own the most important and beautiful sports cars ever made. I'm half Japanese so there's a pride thing there as well. :classic:

Perhaps this should've been my first post. Well, hello everyone. It's great to join this community, as I have found a plethera of knowledge thanks to the users. I have owned my 78 for 10 years, and like the rest of you I love my car. However, I'm still a little behind the more technical side of things, so please bare with me as I'm still catching up on basic automatove knowledge. At any rate, glad to be here.

Yeah, tell me about choices. If only I had the budget to aquire a few Z's and try different things on each of them. At any rate, I suppose I would define "that very engine" as the block. The pistons and such I would like to upgrade. I'm still trying to decide if I want to bore out the cylinders. By the way, does anyone know how far the cyliners can be bored to on an L28?

I thought about that in the past....and it sounded like a cool idea. But for some reason I seem to be on this kick of keeping the original motor. Basically I want to finish the job Nissan started years ago with that very engine.

OK. Is that before the catylctic convertor?

Right on. I will consult my garage (Sunrise Z) to see what we can do for my car in the future. Your recommendations sound quite similar to what they have mentioned. I really want to keep the straight-six, even if I I'll never get a 5-second or car without the turbo. Keeping with what came from Nissan will automatically override any lofy (maybe laughable) expectations I may have had. Yeah, the V8 conversion can be cool, but I decided not to go down that route. I love my six! Maybe, I'll consider the turbo afterall. I guess I haven't really thought about what I am more willing to sacrafice: acceleration or top end...............As I have understood from other posts I need to think about that. Hmmm......I don't think top end will be my specific goal now that I think about it. I live a long distance from the Salt Flats anyhow! So far all I have is a 2 1/2 turbo muffler as far as performance mods go. I have a ways to go, even after owning the Z for 10 years. How many horses would you estimate your car has? Thanks guys. I'm open to more advice.

Thanks for referring me to the site! You guys have been very informative and helpful. I'll check it out. Have a great weekend! Andy

....ok, I thought so. Does that pertain to the injector as well?

Is there any sort of aftermarket fuel injection chip for a 78? I know there is one for the later models. Also, is there much of a choice for new injectors?........as it pertains to more power. Maybe a couple silly questions, but any advice would be great!

Eventually I would like to rebuild the stock L28 motor on my 78. There are some performance mods I would like to consider like a lighter flywheel, cams, maybe a bigger throtttle, headers, etc. However, I am trying to stay away from anything like throwing in a turbo, nitrous, or swapping out for a V8. Mind you, all those are exciting mods, but they are just not for me. My attempt is to get the most power out of that staight-six without going over the top. I am asking 4 things: 1. What upgrades are recommended from you guys? 2. Is it possible to get the car in the 5 second range (0-60) by doing it this way? 3. What is the calculated top speed? 4. What's the most horsepower I could get? Thanks!

I would suggest using a higher viscosity oil like 20W-50 since it's an older engine. If you can afford synthetic, even better. But for those of us that don't want to pay more than $20 for changing their own oil I would stick with Castrol, Valvoline, and even Quaker State to save a couple bucks. I use a Bosch oli filter. However, I'm not sure if it's any better than your typical Fram filter. Yeah, another great thing is to drive the car without the cap screwed onto the can cover. Did that once. hehehehe. j/k.

Yeah, that's where it seems to start. But even in the lower RPM's I can still hear it....sometimes. What do you think? Thanks!

I just had my garage install the MSA turbo muffler on my 78 280. Although it doesn't have the headers yet, and the catlyctic convertor is still on, the muffler sounds great. However I will sometimes hear a vibrating sound....Almost like a slight rattle. I checked their work and everything seems fine. I called up my trusted mecahnic (great guy) and he told me that this was a normal sound for the MSA muffler due to its "tinny" nature. However, he said in time that sound should go away. I'm not sure what is going on, but I sure hope that it does go away. I'm not sure if it is a resonance due to the construction of the muffler, or it IS rattling. Any thoughts?

Maybe I should find out how to submit some more Z sightings. For example, how about the red 280ZX in Boogie Nights? Or the gold 280Z in Annie Hall driven by the main character? I remember seeing Annie Hall in my film class and cheering to myself when she pulled out with the Z.

Hmmm....I had the same troubles from a full dashcap I purchased from Motorsport Auto. It was for my 78 280. Well, what I did was I took it back and exchanged it for a the half-cap cover. It may not look as authentic as the full-face version but it does a remarkable job in hiding those cracks and improving the look of your interior. It's so much easier to install and costs about half as much. Just be sure that your unscrewing the panel right in front of the windshield so that you can tuck the lip of the dashcap under it. This will help secure the cover. Hope this was helpful.