Ownallday

Thanks for the insight and good to know. I may considering having the machine shop mill the head. But I would like to avoid having to put anything more than 91 octane which is the most we get in California. There is race gas where I live but $10 a gallon.... Naaa.

Already ahead of you, have a Fidanza Lightweight flywheel ready to be put on. Was the first thing I bought for the build as my other Z also has this flywheel and made a huge difference with my triple weber Z.

Yes, mods like headers, intake, egr delete I know will fail visual inspection. I am not worried about that now as I know to leave those on for when I get the car smogged. I will however decide to remove or swap them out in the future when the car will no longer require smog checks outside of California if any of them can benefit from any power increase. Things like the cam and fuel rail I am uncertain if those will pass smog as I'd like to do them while everything is torn apart already and the current stock fuel rail I have is surprisingly cracked and leaking. Bottom end is torn apart already, however I have brand dished pistons already and haven't been able to find standard size flattops. Would the insane amount of extra compression work with a stock 280z Fuel Injection system and computer and gain power though?

I am aware of that, I am asking for when the vehicle will be smog exempt out of California. Will an aftermarket fuel rail pass visual?

Hello, I am currently in the process of rebuilding my second L28 for a 280z. The goal is to have a fun street car that will be plenty fun in the canyons but also have adequate power for California roads and be reliable for long distance drives. The engine is pretty much going to be a stock N42 block rebuild and N47 head rebuild with the stock intake manifold and fuel injection system along with a lightweight flywheel and Electric fans to delete the clutch fan. I know power gain wise with the stock EFI is limited but I have a couple questions regarding if any of these modifications are worth it or will make any difference. 1: Will a thinner head gasket to help increase compression make any difference with stock EFI? I already have a 0.8mm gasket that was going to go on another engine but not anymore. 2: Is there any benefit to upgrading to a 280zx Distributor over the 280z unit. 3: Is there any benefit to using an MSD 6AL ignition system with the stock EFI or in combination with the 280zx Dizzy? 4: Does a header and intake make any power difference on the stock EFI? 5: Will an adjustable fuel pressure regulator add any beneficial power? 6: I know headers and intake wont pass but will an aftermarket fuel rail pass smog in California? 7: (I know won't pass smog) Does deleting the EGR really have any beneficial power gains? 8. Will the stage 1 or 2 cam on MSA's website give any decent power gains and work with the stock EFI and can you pass smog with either? 9: Is a Port and Polish worth it? 10: Are there any modifications I missed that could potentially increase power with the stock EFI and can they pass smog aside from shorter gear ration trans and diff and weight savings? The reason I ask the smog related questions is because I need the car to pass once or twice in California but eventually wont need to worry about that anymore if I end up moving but would still like to keep the stock EFI on this specific build in the future too. Thank you to all for the responses and help!

Appreciate the feedback!

Nevermind, just answered my own question after digging into it. I'll have to source another head that can accept fuel injection.

Was going with efi for smog reasons.

Hello, I have a 280z I'm putting together. It has a L28 with a rebuilt 260z E88 head, I'm in need of aquiring parts like the intake manifold etc to get it running again. My question is will I be able to pass smog with this head and all the proper smog equipment? I'm based in California.

No additional adapter was used, And I used my friends Snapon Gauge so it's not some cheapo one. I had the engine at operating temp, throttles open when cranking, and battery was on a tender while testing too. Not sure if I mentioned this but I am losing about a QT of oil every 1k miles. Exactly what I thought as I saw most people are getting in the 200s with a good motor. So I can confirm the head was port and polished as when I got the head that was the only thing the guy told me he knew was done to it and it was obvious as you can see the ports were nice and polished. I thought the 260z E88 had bigger valves but just had worse flow compared to say the N42? I also think the guy had the current cam just cleaned up and new valve seals. I have been told this too. The main reason I want to stick to the E88 is because it's what I have already and works as I don't want to spend so much money buying another head and having to get a machine shop to work on it. Interesting, I will keep that in mind but most likely will end up going with Stage 3 since that what was recommended and even my friend helping me build the engine said Stage 3.

Very weird so our cars are prone to change drastically depending on the tires. Might have to swap out my tires see what changes. Currently running Hankook RS4 225/45R15. I always questioned if the sidewall was too little for this car. Might have to try Toyo R888 225/50R15 next as most people I know with Z cars run that setup. Glad yours was a simple fix that was found way later haha. The wheels I have currently have lug holes that were apparently repaired. My friend ran them on his 240z before selling them to me and his car was perfectly fine and I also had another friend test fit my wheels on his Z and it was fine too. This was before I got my Hankook Tires.

I just saw on the forum I actually have the right part. Thank you. They are indeed felpros for a ford. I am far from doing the build, right now I am just gathering the parts needed for the build. Don't plan on pulling the motor till July when my friends schedule frees up so no rush.

Sweet, 7k is what I wanted to shoot for! Having the car die off before even hitting redline is dissatisfying. And sounds good. I have a set saved already. What valve seals do you recommend, is it the Fel-Pro #SS72686 or something else? And 100%. I will have to revive this forum and make a new one once the progress starts. Any other things that I should have done to the block that have not already been mentioned? Thanks for the info again! Okay so no balance necessary. Thats what my goal is to have a fun car that can be daily driven if needed but not get beaten by everything on the road haha. I do already have a 10lb flywheel also. The car revs nicely as is. Is it the same felpros mentioned in the forum or will anything else work nicely? I believe I saw Fel-Pro #SS72686 for the part number. Thanks for the info!

MMM, a lot of people told me they think my tires are bad but I actually drive the car pretty often so it's not sitting too long. I'll do some more testing as the weeks go by and replace the rest of the things that I have yet to in order to see what fixes it. Whats weird is hearing all these problems of rust in the floors causing shaking but when I had a hole in my floor board and frame rail I had zero shake from the steering wheel. I will 100% update what else fixes the shake on this post to help any future people who have similar problems but part of me believes the rest of the shake is potentially my driveshaft and axles even though the entire car doesn't have vibration. Gad you found your issue haha.

I've been wanting to throw my wheels out of the question for a long time but I don't have any friends with wheels that would fit my car. I currently have gold Enkei wheels which you cannot find anywhere anymore and I really love how they look on my car so I didn't want to buy new wheels unless I know they are the problem. I finally have a friend who is getting some new rota wheels and a tire setup that would fit my car in about a month. Going to try his wheels see if that changes anything. I had a friend that had mags, should've got them off him as a spare set would've looked pretty sweet with my color. I have not change the rack itself, the only thing I touched were the inner and outer tie rods rack wise and poly bushings. I want to suspect the possibility of the steering shaft U joint being bad but there are not any replacement joints aside from one that needs to be welded by the looks of it.. My driver side floor was actually rusted really bad a couple years ago, I had a new floor and rail added to the cars driver side. I might have to double check the torque on my tension rods as I have the Technotoytuning Tension rods. I also know that my Driveshaft has a bit of play but from what I see the 78 280z driveshaft u joints cannot be replaced so need to save up a little more money and purchase a new driveshaft and see what that does.

Came back to add onto something else that helped reduce the vibration. Finally replaced all 4 struts with Koni Yellow Adjustable struts. WOW! What a difference that made! I honestly think the struts I had in the car might've been the original ones from the 70s! However adding new struts reduced my vibration by about another 50%. So I'd say I only have about 15-25% of the vibration left in the steering wheel from before. Now I only feel vibration when going from approx 40mph to 60 mph but it's a lot less noticeable and doesn't really bother me at all anymore.

Thank you, went ahead and did some reading. Thank you, me and my friend are the ones who is building the engine, he does not have experience with these engines but he has rebuilt many engines, I am mostly there to help as I am still learning. Most shops want too much money nowadays just to tear a motor apart. Decided I will be going with 87mm flat top pistons and bore (forged pistons since I can't find any new cast pistons), Stage 3 cam, higher compression but I will be sticking with the E88 head for now to save on money since it's already a rebuilt head and does not need any work done at a machine shop. Hoping to gain at least another 50hp (that's on top of the fact my cylinder compression is low and probably drying me of power), and hoping to have a reliable motor for the years to come. that can be driven more often. One last question, would it be wise to get the engine balanced too? I wouldn't mind being able to rev the engine beyond 6k (which is the most my motor currently goes). But I heard it's not necessary to for these engines. Some feedback on that would be great!

Thank you for the help! I know my head is pretty bad but it's what I will have to stick with for now until I can find a better deal for something in my area when I can dish out some more money. The E88 I have is already rebuilt, ported, polished etc. Any recommendations for non forged pistons? I can't find anything with an 86 or 87mm bore for less than $1000. With a stage 3 would anything need to be done to the rocker arms or springs or will stock components work fine?

Thanks for your input, hopefully this is the case Not entirely sure if the Ross Forged Pistons have valve reliefs. And I agree forged pistons seem overkill but the options in terms of pistons are pretty limited right now for Z cars.

Would 91 octane be enough? My biggest concern is also would I have to worry about the flat top pistons and valves potentially hitting with the bigger cam? And smog isn't an issue for me Smog isn't an issue for me

Hey guys, I have a 1978 Datsun 280z, Currently running an N42 Block with a rebuilt E88 head from a 260z (least desirable from what I hear but was all I could find at the time), I have triple weber dcoe 40s and headers from topendperformance. I also have an MSD ignition 6AL and 280zx Dizzy and a rebuilt 5 speed with the longer gear rations I am also running a felpro 1.2mm head gasket which has 89mm bores (My L28 bores are 86mm). Also have a lightweight flywheel to add to all this. I have had this setup for almost 2 years now and never touched the block in the 5 years I have owned the car. The car also weighs a surprising 2460lbs As of right now my compression is pretty low in the cylinders. The compression measured ~100-120psi in the cylinders. My car burns about a qt of oil every ~1500-2000 miles which all leaves me to believe the rings are toast. My car is also losing coolant in the overflow tank and have to fill it up constantly after every couple hundred miles, I only see a very minimal amount of white smoke on cold startup, not really sure what's causing this loss. I plan on tearing apart the engine and rebuilding the block in 2-3 months and wanted to get some info on what is worth it and what isn't. Any input would be great! -With the N42 Block I planned on having the machine shop just honing the block/clean the passages and reusing the original dished pistons with new oem rings and new bearings (According to OZDAT my static compression is 8.280), however I wanted to know if it's worth it to instead bore out the walls to 87mm and run 87mm ross forged flat top pistons from MSA (static compression would be 9.980). Would the power gains be worth it? We only have 91 octane so not sure if Id run into issues with ping or maybe valve clearance? (This is all assuming I get the same 1.2mm felpro headgasket too). -Even though my E88 head was rebuilt (Not sure where or what they did exactly) I plan on changing all the valve seals anyways, however I was looking at maybe potentially getting a Schneider Performance Camshaft kit from MSA, either Stage 2 or Stage 3. I do drive the car mostly on the street with occasional spirited driving in the Canyons and race track about once or twice a year. I have Triple weber DCOE 40s too and not sure if the 40s are too small for either of these cams. Which camshaft kit would be the best suited for what I have and how much power gains could be expected or should I just stick with the stock cam? Any other things I should take into consideration or that I am missing would be greatly appreciated. My friend who is a master tech and works on a ton of engines and cars in general is going to be tearing the engine apart at his house as he is also going to install an aftermarket AC for me and restore the dash while the engine is out.

So the problem was mostly the wheel balance, I rebalanced the wheels and used road force and found the wheels were out of balance when using road force compared to just spinning. This solved about 50%-70% of my shaking at the steering wheel at least based on todays test drive. I now believe the rest of the shaking might possibly be coming from either the hub or struts. You can literally push the struts in with your pinky zero force and they don't come back up after and I have a feeling with lowering springs might be causing some vibration in that area that is transferring back to the wheel. As for the hubs they had a lot of surface rust, I tried to clean them today with what I had but they still felt somewhat ruff after, probably causing the wheels to not sit fully flush but could be wrong. Going to order Koni Yellow Adjustable struts and see how much that helps and clean up the hubs better.

It's mostly in the steering wheel, the car has a super slight vibration from the car itself which is where I think the driveshaft might be causing that there or possibly my blown struts. Or just the more stiff suspension setup I have too. Not really sure. Yeah the s30 has those tension rods. I last checked a couple months ago but I checked the tightness with the car in the air, today I'll double check the tightness on those on the alignment rack. My car does pull to the right.

Aside from inner and outer tie rods and poly bushings for the rack and steering shaft, I haven't touched anything else. I can't feel or see any play, I tried moving the tires side to side and no free movement from the rack or wheels. I checked this after I did my inner and outer tie rods. Originally the rack had play and after doing those two things the play went away.

Noted, I was leaning slightly towards the driveshaft anyways as my next solution. I have no idea if it's ever been replaced so it won't hurt to replace it. I heard the clunk can sometimes be caused by the driveshaft and possibly the axles. The tires are about 1 year old, less than 7k miles on them. The tread is pretty much 80% on them. I use to have movement in the steering rack but went away after replacing to polyurethane bushings. I can't remember if I've replaced that mount or not. I know I did the moustache bar mounts though. I'll most likely order a oem diff mount that be safe eitherway. I heard of something like that, I work at a Toyota dealership so I have the luxury of balancing the wheels. I have tried rotating the tires already and there isn't a difference at all. I replaced them about 3 months ago but I will go ahead and recheck the torque on them. Last time I did it I remember torquing them properly. Thank you for the input. I'll see if I can find a better balancing machine shop.