I was thinking... If I could find a really cheap old Z car (with no engine) like a 79 280zx and stuff some nasty power in it.

Here's the crazy part:
I also want to try to find a cheap TPI 305 or 350 and stuff it under the hood.

Would this cost a crazy amount of money to have a shop do this?

Would I need a GM tranny or better to use a Nissan tranny?

 

Its been done with an LT1 that I know of, I saw a 80's Jaguar with a LT1 in it at a local cruise night. So it can be done.

Kevin

 

My father is the president of the NJ Z Car Club and he has a guy in the club with a 280Z with a carb'd 383 in it. There is tons of info out there on the swap and it's not that difficult. I say go for it....it's something I've thought about a few times. Only hard part is making the suspension in the rear handle all the power.

 

If you can't do this work yourself, stay away from it. What it would cost to have a shop do it, you could find a modified one already done, and thats what I would suggest.

 

I'll second what omcrider says in that, if you can't do the work yourself, buy someone's completed project. You'd probably pay a small fortune to have someone do the swap for you.

This is a fairly 'common' swap. It's been done, successfully, many times. Check out the following link
Jaguars That Runs, Z-car swap.

I've bought two books from these guys, one about swapping a V8 into an S-10, and the other on TPI swapping. Their books are very good and warn of a lot of the potential pitfalls you might run into. If you're serious about doing this, spend the $10-$20 for the book first to see what you'll be up against.

For what it's worth, several years ago, I bought the S-10 book and read most of it. I decided against doing my own swap. YMMV.

-Dave

 

I thought I remembered seeing a video of a z car with a big block in it. They burnt out flooring it at like 30 and went like 600-700 feet just spinning the wheels down the road.

 

I was exploring the Z forums... there was actually a few people that had the swap done.

The main complaints with the swap were by the other poeple in the forum ("its not a real Z"). I guess I see they're point, but it would still be cool.

 

Was that car brown by chance?? I have a video of a brown z-car waxing an R1.

 

You know, it might have been. The video I saw was first in a garage of him reving the engine, and then going down the street.

 

the video some of you speak of is darius 240z has a blown LT1 in it and is like 600hp 600Ibs of torque, has a 300zx rear in it...awesome car, i did have all the videos of it but the swap is easy but for the price of the tuned port i would rather do LT1...i was going to purchase a 240 for an LT4 i had...but instead purchased a new bike....

 

If you were going to do this, don't do it in a ZX, do an earlier Z. My wife has a 74 260Z with a TPI 350 out of my 89 Formy parts car in it. We decided to make it an auto for now, until we can get a good manual for it. As for the tranny issue, the strongest one Nissan had was a T-5 (only in the 84-88 Turbo 300ZX cars). We were going to put a T-56 in it, but that ended up in my GTA somehow. The other thing to consider is the rear end, the Nissan R-180 diff ain't going to cut it and posi R-200's are scarce. The ticket is finding an 88 Turbo 300ZX manual rear end and using that. Since those are so hard to come by, they ain't cheap. The next thing that we'll have to do will be a brake upgrade so that little bastard will stop. They are fun in stock form, but with real power they are a little less forgiving of stupidity in the pilot's seat. Don't buy the JTR kit, it's a rip off. The work is actually pretty easy to do from scratch.

 

Theres a guy down the street from me running a 350 Fiero. Hes always trying to get me to go for a race with him. I'm a tad nervous as he only weighs like 100 pounds with that little piece of plastic. He says its more than a stock 350, but won't give me any specs. I tell him I won't race until he tells me what hes got...
Sounds fast, but could be all exhaust.

 

my uncle has a z car with a 400TPI in it. backed by a T56.

nice car.

 

I have a couple of the Darius videos, Truly a bad-*** car. If anyone wants to get them, let me know. I have all sorts of cool car videos I've gathered over the years.

-Dave

 

Exactly, the 78 and older cars are worth the time just for the looks. The 79 and newer looks much worst IMO. I saw a very clean red scarab conversion on Power tour this year. I got a look at the car after he dynoed it. It looks very do-able. My next project car when I get out of college :hail: Its just too bad you can't stuff anything bigger than a 245 rear tire in them.

I've also seen pics of one (out a japanese mag) that had a full hopped up skyline drivetrain, AWD and all. Now that deserves a :hail:

 

The Scarab kit sets the engine way too far forward in the hole and makes for a really nose heavy car. The z's and the 510's were so impressive because they had damn near 50/50 weight distribution. The JTR kit is the kick *** one, but they want a mint for it. The fabrication is not that hard at all.

Why not? A little massage of the rear quarter and a 275 fits just fine. Actually it's more than a massage, more like a minor surgery but it's so worth it.

 

I agree with you on the scarab conversion, although the headers would be nice to have. Did they do the conversion through a company for a while? The guy sounded like he'd bought it that way, but not neccassarily from an individual.

With the wheel's, this is just what I've heard, but if you can fit bigger, even better

 

Ive heard that a northstar conversion is all the rage for the fiero guys. I have never seen one done but it would be a badass combo, especially if you could get the stock etc to work.

 

Seen it done, seen it run. You want to talk about a car that will make your hair stand up, a 300hp Fiero is just plain scary. The guy duplicated the write up in Hot Rod a few years back and his car is very nice to drive around in. When you stab the loud pedal, it just explodes down the street, no hesitation, no excessive nose lift just plain ***** & gits. My issue was how easy is is to make the car swap ends (Fiero's are really fast spinners, and not real predictable to begin with) when you are just a little too heavy on the pedal. The worst thing for anyone who is suckered into racing him is, it is all completely hidden under the stock lid and runs through stock looking V6 exhaust. It even sounds like your average V6 Fiero with a Flowmaster.

 

Here you go, go half way down the page and you'll see the beast of a 280z with an LS1 in it. Its one of my friends, and it is an awesome ride.

280z w/ LS1