V8 guys....I need some opinions...

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Airjockie

Airjockie

Watanabe Whore!!!
Rest In Peace
OK, I was offered a sweet deal for an old bronco that has a motor swap. The motor is a 350 v8, that was bored, and built to be in some muscle car, but the motor and tranny was swapped into the bronco. The bronco also had some huge rally wheels and rubbers that the guy said I could prolly sell for $500. The interior is gone, and the truck may have some rust. I haven't seen it yet, but going on what the guy says...it's fast as hell, and it eats gas like crazy..about 10 mpg.

Now, here's the delima.

I just dropped a running Z motor in my Datsun, and I found another built Z motor with carbs, cam, headwork, header,and exhaust. The guy is offering his full setup for a v-8 swap. He prolly already has all the parts for his swap, so I'll need to come up with some money to get his set-up.

The Z engine setup that he has for sale is this:

'81 F54 flat top with P90. Head shaved and cam towers shimmed. Fresh 3 angle valve job with longer valves out of N42. Schneider 480/274 cam. New timing set. Dellorto 40's. MSA 6 into 2 header. ZX dizzy. Centerforce dual friction clutch. 3 trannies (280Z wide ratio 5 speed, ZX close ratio 5 speed, 260Z 4 speed). Going to the dark side (small block chevy). Need to recoup some cost. I have $600 in machine work in the head alone. Make me an offer.

with that set up, he's near about 8.9 to 9.5 CR, and prolly close to 200 or so hp. I can swap the carbs, head, exhaust mani on in a week, and be rolling with a few more hp than I have now. And a spare block and trannys sitting around for spares.

But....

IF I can score the bronco for a good price..and drop it into my Z, next winter, what would I have? Hp on that motor is still unknown..but sucking that much gas, it should be fast as hell.

Or....score the bronco and sell it and see if my cash will return with more cash?....

It's been about 15 years since I screwed around with V8's...and I'm a little rusty on them.
 
clayton... dont. sure it will be sweet but thats another bunch of wiring to do, and youve already rewired that car like 3 times :wink:
 
I talked to him again, he said the prior owner of the engine built it as a 350 hp v8 on the dyno, and when it was installed in the bronco, it would smoke the 33" wheels all day long. And he said he done the head gaskets on it..and the head are not aluminum. so that leaves me a few more options.
 
dayum 33 inch wheels??? bling bling mofo.

i wouldnt do a v8 datsun, its obvious you dont want to, and are only thinking about it because it SOUNDS good right now.... id say just stay with what you got....
 
true. The time to do the v8 swap would be very time consuming..and after I get back to work again full time like last year, I wont have any time to do it. But the possiblity to have 350hp for less than $XXX for me is too tempting. But if I could sell it off as parts or as a whole and get back $X,XXX then I would jump on it in a heartbeat. Give the other guy some cash for his setup, and slap it on my current setup, and have a few more ponies to rotate the tires when I need it. And down time would just be a week at the most. Plus after looking at what I have for the diff and rear-end...it wouldn't hold up to that kind of power...it would envolve more parts that I would have to souce, and more money than I have. But for the bang-for-the-buck, it would have been cool if he offered it at that price 3 months ago. I guess if I wait a little longer..the price might go way done, and that means if I sell it...then I might get more. But I'm not going to count on that. Today, I go over and take some pictures, and once I post them, I'm sure some motorhead somewhere will plop up the cash to make him and me happy. :wink:

Plus, if the wife found out that I would spend my vacation money on a car that I wont own or drive, instead of something for the house...she would find a samurai sword somewhere and slice me in half.

But still... 350hp for under a grand comapred to the 140hp I might have now in the car (un tuned) is tempting...hell, sell it, and pay for sr20 or rb swap, and sell the engine I put together for another $K..to cover the price for the swap and have someone else do it...is also tempting....

I guess it all depends on the more info I get on the engine....so far, a 350v8, making 350hp, and burning 33" tires....10mpg. bore unknown. heads iron, and what ever else I posted before.
 
Yokohama Super Diggers... WOW... Those are like... OLD... You could probably get like $300-$400 for the rims and tires...

BUT... depending on what gears it has, you could get $400 or more for the front & rear axles & leaf springs...

It is probably a standard punch .030 350, looks like Edelbrock intake, and probably a Holley 650-750 carb... My guess... 325-350 hp... Depending on tuning, what heads it has, etc etc...

Is It standard or Automatic? What tranny? Find out what Transfer case it has, and you may be able to disconnect the transfer case, and use the current tranny even...

As far as swap difficulty, its not difficult at all.. A guy I work with did a 350 swap into a 240z a long time ago... Says that it was not a big deal at all.

And actually, they sell kits to bolt in 350s...
http://www.jagsthatrun.com/Pages/Datsun_Z_V-8.html

$275 for the engine mounting kit
https://shell7.tdl.com/~jags/Pages/Parts_DAT200.html

$200 for an Upgraded Radiator with mounting kit
https://shell7.tdl.com/~jags/Pages/Parts_DATZ_Radiator.html
https://shell7.tdl.com/~jags/Pages/Parts_DA...ator-Mount.html

$200 for 1 5/8" Headers...
https://shell7.tdl.com/~jags/Pages/Parts_DATZ_Headers.html

So about $700 in parts to complete the swap... You can make that back stripping the K5... And as far as wiring goes... THERE IS NONE. ITS A CARB'D V8!! Wire the alternator & starter, and you're done!

Also, they say it adds about 100lbs to the front end, and 40lbs to the rear... So it might make it a tad assier as well...
 
buying a vehicle and parting it out is such a hassle. Finding a place to keep it and tear it down, finding people to buy the parts, meeting up with these people, then yhou gotta do something with it when its dismantled.

While 350hp sounds fun, you said it, youll need a new rear end, so add on a few more hundred. so this could turn into a 3 grand job... think of the mpg, unless the Z gets shitty mpg already theni wouldnt worry about it.

tell the wife that once you do this youre done with the motor work, lol yeah she'll believe that :laugh:

i said no before because it sounded like it was a spur of the moment thing, a rash decision. Now that youve looked at almost the whole picture (because im sure there are some things that you havent though of, that your wife will promptly inform you on haha, because thats what they do) do YOU still think its worth it?

so now im leaning towards yes...
 
Well...another deal popped up this morning in my neighborhood...and I think I'll snag it while its hot..

the neighbor across the street had a paving company show up this morning, making all kinds of noise, and I peeked out, and sure enough, they were tearing apart the driveway, and their putting new aspalt down.


So I waved the guy down and he came over and gave me an estimate to do my driveway...which is about 90 ft and 16 ft wide...he said he could do it today, while all the stuff is here, for a mear $2000.....I gave him the damn strike sob story, and he dropped it another 200...so $1800...and I can have the driveway done.

Sad thing, the other neighbor had his driveway done a few years ago, same lenght, but one car wide, and they shelled out $2300, and the guy thats getting his done today is shelling out $2500 for a two car spot.

I feel like a little whore.... :p

And the wife said sure, and she has the money...I'm just waiting for the lead guy to get back, and I got to ask him if he'll take a check...if he does...then no cars on the driveway for 3-4 days.... :)
 
Buy Roger's K5...He'll prolly sell it to you for about a grand...I've seen it...With the exception of some body work, the thing is a beast...go talk to him. He offered it to me, but I couldn't see myself paying for all the gas to drive 45 miles one way to work.
 
he went down to $900 on it...I got enough toys, and I decided to dump all the money into the houses renovations...and a few car parts.
 
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