ZDan

The 280Z was definitely in the 2700-2800 lb. range stock, well over 2650. Those bumpers were quite heavy! Also there were door beams, and thicker unibody steel, etc. etc. The 79 280ZX was actually about 50 lb. lighter-weight.

The heart-shaped "closed-chamber" N47 head came off the Maxima. It also has smaller chambers and gives higher CR. But it has smaller valves vs. the L28 Z heads, and exhaust ports with liners which rendered it pretty much un-portable on the exhaust side.

Lots of folks in the Z community swear that closed-chambered heads (like the Maxima N42, and the ZX P79 and P90) are required to run high compression, and many are big on the maxima N47 head, but I'm running 11.6:1 on pump gas with a modded "open-chamber" N42 on my 3.1 liter. 255rwhp

s2000Junky

Sweet Yeah I remember the liners on that head, I didnt realize that it came off a Maxima, so someone apparently had been playing already, I was told that it had a pretty fresh rebuild, who knows what the bottom end had.

I had the 280 for about a year which wasn't long enough to know it as well as my current love affair. I did have it long enough however to have to pull the head on it and do a few mods though I will always have a thing for a clean vintage Z car.

There is a guy who owns a shop down the street form me called Z specialties, he's an Ex Nissan dealership mechanic. He has a junk yard full of these old Z's from various states of being and treats them all like gold, even though most of them would be lucky to be looked at as the tin that's left intact, typical I guess. Nice guy though and certainly helped me out some when I needed.

s2000 or 240sx

I have a 71 mgb and the cars are roughly the same size. I think that would be a good choice for your swap.

WarrenW

Great idea Volked_S. If it were me, I'd go for a right-hand drive version and either leave it RHD or convert it to LHD. Why? because the windshield is a lot higher on the U.S. LHD version. So much so that it just doesn't look right.

Love the idea. finding a suitable car may be a problem.

BTW, I'd love to see Nissan create a retro version of the original Fairlady (before the Z). And while searching the net, I found this...

rnye

Can't go wrong with either. The S30 has definately picked up in popularity and is appreciating.

I will say though, that the F20/22 swap is more suitable in a car like the Datsun 1600/2000. The S30 already has a 2.4L I6, and a 2.8 I6 (L28ET) is a direct drop in (turbo, 2.8L from 280ZX). Not to mention all the RB/SR/RB/1-2JZ/LSx/SBC/BBC/SBF.... its ALL been done.

Hybridz.org. Its a little hick/backwoods over there, but a lot of good information.

Slithr

Smallblock Chevys make for a great swap as well. Had a friend with slightly hot (450 hp) 350 in a 240 and it was a fun ride. He did put the 280 rear end in it as it was supposed to be stronger. Handled well and ran like a scalded cat. If I remember right there was a place named John's Cars or something like that in Dallas that specialized in Chevy swaps into Jags and Z cars. They would do it or sell you the kit with all the engine-transmission mounts/headers, etc.

hondamandan

Hi i may be out of my mine i'm installing 2002 S2000 in a 1969 Datsun Roadster is there away to bypass the immobilizer so i can used the stock ecu. Thanks Dan.

F1 S2K

The idea of the S2K engine in a British car is indeed enticing. I for one, own a highly modified TR6 - this is what she looks like...



My TR6 is powered by a 2.4 liter Ecotec inline 4. It weights roughly 2200 lbs and this is with an engine that puts out roughly 200hp. It revs past 7000 RPM's and has a very nice torque band. Overall it is a lot of fun.



At any rate, the engine part is only part of the equation. Wiring, electronics, frame, tranny, rear end/diff, suspension, harness, paint/body work, and quickly (very quickly) you can run up a sizable tab. The nicer and more detailed you make it, the more resources it takes.

I really like the picture that WarrenW posted. I have personally seen what the original Datsun Roadster looks like and doing an engine swap would take some creative fabricating skills. Does not mean it can't be done, just that it would take some resources to pull off as nice as the picture WarrenW listed. That body work/paint alone is quite exceptional.

Don't mean to hijack the thread - just wanted to say that the idea of a swap like this is very doable - and something I would love to do again - but it really takes a lot of work...

My website - bowtie6.com

budgy

The weight gain in the 73 240z was almost mostly from the extra door beams (for safety) and the slightly larger bumpers which are easy to swap out, hell a lot of people just run without bumpers. Personally if you really want an F20C I would recommend the roadster option because an F20C would feel torquey in a car that light. In an S30 to be honest I believe a built up L28 swap is much superior to an F20C in a lot of ways, not that an F20C would not be a huge upgrade compared to a stock L24, but it seems like its a lot of work and money for something that is not really all that impressive unless you were going to go turbo or forced induction. A high end F20C build with ITB's would also be sick but again for the money you would have a LOT less torque than you can get out of the old Nissan L series motors.

Thats really all just my own opinion though, before I owned my 240Z I thought an F20C would be awesome to stick in one, reading around on HybridZ has convinced me there are much better options. With the early Z cars becoming more well known among the younger tuner crowd it might be even cooler to go older and get the Roadster

budgy

I am sure there are a lot of people on S2KI that could point you in the right direction in other sections, you probably just need to be able to use the key that came from the same car, if not I am sure there are standalone options that might be better. Depending on how you want the factory wiring to be used (or not used) sometimes the cost of going standalone is worth it to save the trouble of having to make all the factory S2000 electronics work in the older car. Standalones are typically best for the cleanest looking installs IMO, might be worth trying to find a used universal standalone.