Traded him my wheels and we put them on today... I like it

 

Looks real tight for a 1st gen!

 

Not bad ! Has he done anything else to it yet?

 

Well... so far added a K&N filter, 2.5" exhaust from the manifold back, KYB's, and springs.

Looking into a 5spd swap, and maybe an L28 swap... I hear the L28 swap has it's share of problems though...

 

280zx turbo swap. Fairly easy from what I've heard.

 

What size rims are those? That is a very nice looking first GEN wagon. Actually, in the near future I will be buying a 1982 or 1983 Nissan Maxima diesel wagon. It will be a great car and I hope to do as many modifications as I can. Also, I have a question. The diesel Maxima has the LD28 straight six cylinder engine and I wanted to ask will a header for a 79-83 Datsun 280ZX with the L28E gas engine work on the LD28 diesel engine? I beleive I can use a header for the straight six cylinder Nissan gas engines and use it on the diesel engine. I appreciate anyone's help.

 

Now that is how a 1st gen wagon should look......way better than the ****ty *** one they had on pimp-my-ride. Keep up the good work.

S

 

The answer is NO, however it can be made to fit with very little effort, you see the LD28's bolt pattern is just slightly different from the gasser, I picked up the turbo, exhaust manifold, down pipe and related exhaust parts from an '82 280Z Turbo and went to work with a bench grinder and a drill of all things, several trail fit later, and I ended up with an '82 Maxima 5 speed turbo Diesel with factory parts, except for the K&N filter, 3" straight exhaust (no muffler) Diesel tach, pyro and boost gauges.

There is nothing more pleasing than to hear the turbo spool up as you go through the gears.. next upgrade will be propane injection.


Dslsmoke

 

 

What wheels are those?? They look good. Nice car.

 

You probally have a N47 head on your car. I have one on mine (83). On the 280xz(turbo) 1980 They also have a N47. the best head to get is a P90 (1981-1983 280xz turbo) and the F54 block. have a look at this site http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/heads.html
BM
Very very nice ride

 

So, what springs upgrades did he do? With the leaf springs in back, I'm sorta curious. I imagine you're just talking about the front springs...

 

When I had my 1st gen wagon, I wanted to put an automatic Pathfinder rear end in it, 4.37 gears, LSD, and discs. That would be sweet.

 

That's an idea... Hmm. Which generation Pathfinder? I'm going to try to find that or an 81-83 200sx rear end.

 

I helped a friend do a swap on his SE-V6 4x4 Pickup. The donor was an 89 Pathfinder 4 door. Since the Pathfinders have coils, it was a simple matter of cutting off all the mounts on the rear end and going down to the spring shop to get some saddles. We loosely bolted it in to set the driveshaft angle and tack weld the saddles on, dropped it down and welded them solid. It was pretty easy.

 

The automatic has a 4.37? That seems really low for an automatic! I might be using a Borg Warner T5 tranny which is low as it is. In the 280ZX it was mated to a 3.5:1 R200. Would this be rediculously low geared? Wouldn't I be at 4500 on the highway at 70mph? Maybe I should stick with my current 5-spd. The shifting on the T5 feels so much better though.

 

IIRC, V6 Auto Pathfinders and 4x4 pick-ups had 4.37's, as did 4cyl 5-speed 4x4 Hardbody pickups ( different rear end though from a V6 ). V6 5-speed 4x4 pick-ups and Pathfinders had 4.11's.

 

Does any member here know what # head was used on the 81-83 LD28 diesel? If you have a workshop manual that covers the diesel engine, then I assume it would say in there. Putting a turbo from a 280Z/ZX on the LD28 diesel sounds pretty cool, but I want to try to put on a header for my next project Maxima diesel. I don't mind getting a header that will need a little bit of fabbing to fit on the diesel head. Thanks and I appreciate any info.

 

Well, it took me a total of about 2-3 hours of patiently grinding down and or opening up the exhaust bolt holes, there are three bolts you will not be able to use, cyl.# 2,4 and 5. Just make sure the rest of them are nice and tight and there should be no leaks.


Happy heading or turboing.



Dslsmoke

 

Lol, that's for sure. I felt sorry for the wagon. Do you know if the guy ever sold it. He had it on E-bay twice, but I don't recall if it sold

 

Not sure.....be interesting to see what he got if he did.

S

 

Me too. I think the first time it ended the guy stiffed him, so he relisted it. After the second time...... I don't know, it would be interesting to see if it sold.

 

The T5 came only in the turbo 280ZX and they had a 3.54 because of the torque of the turbo. The 5th gear in the T5 is not that low. Its much taller than the early 280Z 5-speeds and those all came with a 3.54
The 81-83 280zx non-turbo has a 3.9 rear. so 4.375 is fairly low but no you won't be at 4500 rpm.
3300 rpm at 70mph with stock tire size using the T5
4.11 gear might be a better ratio, but do what you want. A non-turbo L28 would be fine with 4.375
If you go turbo, I'd stick with the higher gears. 3.7 or 3.54

Also, the T5 is not a Nissan transmission so the driveshaft splines from the Maxima will not go into the transmission. Since the 280ZX coupe or 2+2 driveshaft will probably not be the exact length you need, you might need a turbo ZX driveshaft and have a shop cut the end off and weld it to your Maxima driveshaft.
I swapped this transmission into my 280ZX non-turbo and all I had to do was get the complete driveshaft from a turbo Z... and for me, the differential flange is different too. I just snagged the flange from the same car and bolted it onto my differential.
On the ZX, the rear transmission mount from my Nissan transmission is the exact same as the T5 mount. I just turned it around 180 deg which offsets the mount a half inch. It worked perfectly. The Maxima is probably the same way.
If you want to go with rear drums, you can get a solid axel in 3.9 or 4.11 ratios. Maybe do a rear disc brake swap then....