^^^ You talking about the turbo in Lehi / Draper on KSL?

I checked it out, and it did stall out, but apparently it was 99% out of fuel and on a slope. He said it starts and drives now.

Do a compression test, and that will tell you if it needs a rebuild or just a refresher. Since the motor will be out, the maintenance things like water pump, gaskets, thermostat, etc can easily be replaced. Then just dump it in. The cool extra with that 81T is that it has the oil cooler too.

 

Sounds like the same one. Crappy black paint job in bluffdale? sadly, I can't get to it for another week! The guy in the ad said it still has good compression, but I would probably check it either way.

 

aaaand I bought it for $550.

 

Yeah! Nice!

 

Lucky! I realy need one of those close to me location

 

I am biting my fingers because I let my restored 82 280ZX Turbo go for 6K's.
But I was lucky enough to find another 83 280ZX T to restore.

 

How rough of shape is it in? Honestly rather than doing the swap if it's a running and driving car I would just keep both. A nice little turbo coupe when you want to go have fun and the N/A 2+2 for a cool daily driver

 

Too many issues. The brakes are toast, the left tension rod is broken, bullet holes on the left side, trashed interior. Perfect for a parts car. It does have polyurethane bushings, and a few other odd & end upgrades that would be a good swap on top of the motor.

 

i have a 1981 280zx that set on a nissan showroom in cold storage for 25 years. This baby has 53,000 original miles and i would drive her anywhere. Everthing works. Nissan went through the entire Z before it could be sold to the public. This baby is mint. Where and what can I sell her for. Thanks

 

Nismo is right, the car is in pretty bad shape. I was barely able to get it home, and that was just 31 miles. The brakes are gone on one side, so when you step on the brakes, the car pulls (quite strongly) to the left.

The interior is completely trashed (shame, because it was the original leather), though I might try doing a restoration with the dash and I might be able to pull a couple other pieces.

I know there are plenty of threads about doing a turbo swap, but I'm still going to document EVERYTHING and write it up so that somebody at my level can understand it.

Here are pics of the donor car.

 

Whoa! You drove it home?! Crazy! I imagine you took the back roads?

The broken left tension rod is why it pulls to the left. I think the brake booster vacuum line or check valve isn't tight, causing the stiff brakes.

I told him that he shouldn't have put the BOV on the ERV/POV port on the intake... that needs to be capped.

But it does pull hard. A good tune up / clean up and the motor will be ready to drop right in.

 

Yeah, I took the backroads all the way back, took about 1.5 hours to get it back. Never really went over 35 or 40, but I did floor it once or twice to check the boost. I was surprised how much kick it had at higher RPMs over the N/A.

I was trying to figure out why he has the blow off valve pointing out of the hood! It looks ridiculous. I've already started cleaning out the engine bay. If I can find a hoist and stand, I'll be pulling it in a couple of weeks. (after testing compression, etc.) That's when the real fun begins!