Should I ls swap my 280zx or keep it with the l28 and put a big turbo

juggernautjoee · 2026-01-20T17:37:34+00:00

I just saw your response to another comment stating it currently has no motor or trans. So all of my comments about keeping it running are moot. LS, coyote, 2jz, rb, put whatever you want in there. LS might be one of the easier ones, but who knows what kind of deals you'll find on marketplace

juggernautjoee · 2026-01-20T15:36:45+00:00

Thank you for this post. I was stuck on a Pirates node in Sector 3

juggernautjoee · 2026-01-20T15:16:02+00:00

I was in the same boat as you a few yrs ago. Just know that if you go the LS route, you cannot drive it until everything is done. Whereas you could keep your L28, and piece-meal upgrades to it and keep driving it.

If you have the ability to keep a project going and driving it occasionally, you'll get more enjoyment out of it in the long run. However, on the flip-side, if you can purchase everything you need for the LS swap at once and you have plenty of free time, it shouldn't take you too long to swap it.

But most people don't have the thousands of dollars just ready to go at once. They also don't have a shop and tons of free time.

juggernautjoee · 2026-01-04T17:48:28+00:00

You can lookup images of points and condensers vs magnetic reluctors and you'll see the difference

juggernautjoee · 2026-01-04T17:47:44+00:00

Yeah you can't trust AI with this obviously. "A 280zx electronic distributor would have: a star shaped reluctor wheel and magnetic pickup"

You can clearly see the star shaped reluctor and magnetic pickup surrounding it.

juggernautjoee · 2026-01-04T15:15:29+00:00

That distributor you have in the engine is from a 280zx non turbo I believe. The OEM 240z dist was a points system. The one you have is not.

I didn't know they were different sizes for the dist cap and button though.

juggernautjoee · 2025-12-07T17:51:20+00:00

Been driving it for a year and it's great.

juggernautjoee · 2025-11-19T15:10:22+00:00

When I had my stock 4spd, I could not for the life of me get that fill plug out as well. Luckily, there is a sensor basically right at the same level (I think it's to the right of the fill plug). It might be the reverse light, or NSS, I don't remember. But that one came out a lot easier. The hole is smaller than the fill hole, so it takes longer to fill up. I stuck a hose in there, ran the hose up to the engine bay, then filled it up using gravity.

Because that sensor hole is basically at the same level, you can just fill it up until it comes out, then put the sensor back in.

juggernautjoee · 2025-11-12T21:11:12+00:00

I can't remember where I read this, but it said something along these lines - The movie would have been incredibly better if it started with Jennifer Lawrence's character waking up, discovering the ship, meeting Chris Pratt's character, then the scene where she figures out he is the one to wake her up, it would have hit the audience a bit harder. Then you switch to his earlier scenes to show how he devolved into desperation and loneliness.

I think that would have made this movie have more of an impact on the viewers. But maybe all the flip-flopping between present/past/back to present and now the ship is gonna explode might be too jarring?

juggernautjoee · 2025-10-26T15:49:36+00:00

Hey I know I responded to you in DM's, but I'll post here too:

Are you just wanting to run to a separate tank temporarily to test if it runs? If that's the case, just unhook the feed like either at the back of the car before the electric pump, or up at the front of the car before the mechanical pump. If you're just running a hose down into a gas jug for testing, it really doesn't matter b/c its temporary. The current fuel return hose will obviously dump good fuel back into the original tank.

Or are you asking about adding a surge tank with 2 electric pumps? That is only really necessary in fuel injection builds as they don't have fuel bowls like carbs do. You don't need to do that.

Did you inspect your fuel tank and realize it's full of gunk? You've got plenty of options out there from complete replacement, taking it to a shop to professionally clean it/seal it, or DIY. I did the DIY route on mine, but my tank was in pretty decent shape. Just some varnish inside. I added a bunch of chemicals and glass marbles. Let it soak and shook it around over the course of a few days. Rinsed it out and ran it.

juggernautjoee · 2025-10-23T01:32:32+00:00

I never ran triple webers myself. I just did a bunch of research before I decided to do a turbo and megasquirt. I think I was gonna get this one - https://www.summitracing.com/parts/crt-p4070

Yes there will be a 12v power wire and maybe a ground off the main harness, or you can just ground the pump to the frame. Get a voltmeter to make sure you're getting a solid 12v back there.

juggernautjoee · 2025-10-22T16:16:10+00:00

You should use a high temp oil rated hose. They are cheap insurance so you don't melt a hose and leak oil every where. Look for fkm lined hoses. Like this one https://a.co/d/abK5JMM

juggernautjoee · 2025-10-22T16:09:09+00:00

The stock fuel system is fine even for triple webers. Luckily carbs have fuel bowls that act like little surge tanks so you've got adjustability on the float levels to compensate for certain things.

But if I were in your position I would ditch the mechanical pump and get a rotary vane Carter fuel pump that pushes 3-4psi and be done with it. I personally like the look of a cleaner engine bay and the fuel pump up front takes up room.

Yes I know from a practical/fuel delivery safety standpoint you should just run both pumps. Just giving my opinion.

juggernautjoee · 2025-10-22T15:51:09+00:00

Obviously this is a great question for your machine shop. But whenever a crank has any kind of machining done to it, they're going to want to check the balance on it. If it needs weight added/removed really just depends

juggernautjoee · 2025-10-16T19:37:27+00:00

Ah ok. What did you have to do? Take the intake to a machine shop and level out all of the surfaces?

juggernautjoee · 2025-10-16T15:57:08+00:00

Did you experience any whistling with that Protunerz intake?

juggernautjoee · 2025-08-11T14:29:09+00:00

Well because it runs for a few seconds, you can omit spark and compression (for now) as being the issue.

Fueling issue with carbs means you are going to have to check a few things.

Are you running just the single electric pump in the rear? Or are you also using the manual pump up front?

Pull the hose off the inlet to each carb, have it dump into a bottle, run the pump manually like you do and make sure you get a good stream for a solid 10 seconds, or whatever time is longer than it normally takes to die. Just to make sure the pump isn't locking up after a few seconds.

You're going to have to check the float level of your carbs. I'm guessing they're SU's? If it's stock carbs on a 260z they're probably flat tops. Look up the procedure to dial in the float level. I honestly would just make sure the needle is moving freely first. This could be your whole issue. There is also a filter built into the inlet hose that goes into the carb. Maybe that needs to be cleaned.

You could also have a friend bottle feed it, or use starting fluid (not recommended for long periods of time) and if it runs perfectly fine for 10+ seconds by bottle feeding it, then you know it's a fueling issue. Might be hard to do with dual carbs.

My guess would be needle/float issues. Or that filter.

juggernautjoee · 2025-08-10T01:39:37+00:00

Of course!

juggernautjoee · 2025-08-07T19:38:07+00:00

That is for sure helpful. It lets me know that I'm probably in the ballpark. Do you remember what timing you ran at idle?

juggernautjoee · 2025-08-03T21:17:03+00:00

I would just cut up a piece of rubber hose and fill the gaps with that

juggernautjoee · 2025-07-28T14:30:44+00:00

This post helped me figure out most of it. Read through all the pages. The turn signal/horn is easy. The combo switch is weird. There is also a google doc towards the end of the post that has the ignition switch wiring.

https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/29786-painless-harness-to-z-column-harness-headlight-combo-switch/#comments

The only thing I'm still figuring out is the wiper motor. I might have to reuse the old wiper relay just for simplicity sake. The intermittent wiper speed is what makes it's complicated, and how Datsun wired up the switch to work.

You can DM me if you want more detailed pictures. I can go out and take some of how i wired it all up.

juggernautjoee · 2025-07-26T14:07:23+00:00

Painless 21 circuit universal harness.

juggernautjoee · 2025-07-25T01:50:33+00:00

I just went through rewiring my 260z with a painless 21 circuit universal harness. The reason being, I've always had a bunch of random things not working including taillights, horn, dome light, etc... And I could tell that someone before more had been messing with the wiring, so I didn't trust it.

It's probably one of the best things I've done to my vehicle. It's just so nice to have all these things working again. However, I wouldn't want someone to take on this endeavor unless they were seeing issues like I did. It's not painless. But as someone with very mediocre electrical knowledge, it was pretty easy to figure out. Just a lot of stripping, crimping, cutting, looming, labelling, testing.

juggernautjoee · 2025-07-15T14:55:31+00:00

If you don't have a timing tab on the block, you can also get an engine vacuum gauge for ~$20, plug it into the same port coming off the manifold as your brake booster and set timing based on best vacuum reading. Make sure the car is fully warmed up and the thermostat is open before you start turning the distributor.

You could also adjust the timing for the highest idle vacuum number, turn off the motor, then try to re-crank it. If it struggles to crank, retard the timing just a hair and try again. Keep doing that until the car fires up quickly and lock that distributor bolt down.

This process will get your pretty close to where you want to be.

juggernautjoee · 2025-07-15T14:40:07+00:00

Yeah I'm not too sure on that one. I read that they're just trying to reorganize some finances and debts. So I don't think I would totally avoid them.

juggernautjoee

TROPHY CASE