Frezny

Tell me if this is a good deal. I was at the Nissan/Acura dealership today with my GF, (she's getting a 3.0 CL), and I saw this sweeeeeetttt 1990 twin turbo 300zx. All black, tinted, T-top, leather, short-throw, stillen chip running 2lb's extra bost on each turbo, 17" 5 spoke OZ's (?), dual catback exhause with 4" mufflers, nicely decorated engine bay with red thermal, and coilovers that have it dropped to about 3" off the ground and 76K miles. It looks mint, and sounds great. I haven't driven it yet, because they'll only let serious buyers take it for a spin. Rev and/or speed limiters have been removed. It's supposed to top out at 168MPH and dyno at around 400HP. They's asking $14,500 for it. I'm thinking of trading in my Max for it. What do you think?

Now, I'm getting money back for my 99se loaded, but I want to make sure that this car is going to last a while. Any known problems with the z? How many miles will the engine go? It seems to have been cared for well.

Thanks guys,
Ryan

Player1

take it

Weasel

iTrader: (2)

It's not a bad deal, but remember - this car is going to cost a LOT more to keep up than your Max would. If you've got the money to keep up a car like this, go for it. You only live once.

danman183

I wont say yes or no cause I know very little about 300ZX's but I am pretty sure that their engine is the same as the Max's. And thus should last you a while. You MUST feed it premium though because of the high compression.

Nealoc187

iTrader: (23)

i believe the 300ZX TT engine is the VE30DETT or VG30DETT. anyhow, when i was looking at new cars, i questioned my maintenance mechanic about 300ZX TTs, and he said they they are good cars but be wary of the turbochargers, as they generally need to be rebuilt at around 100K miles. and this one, modded as it is, has been driven hard im sure... harder than the average stock one. food for thought.

Neal

LoveSick

May I ask you how you know it gave 2lb of extra boost when it was listed in the dealer? Dealer never state things like that. Any how, I know a guy who own a 300ZX and his turbo felt like it wasn't there at all. He always say that he need a rebuild, but he never got one because at 4000 bucks for rebuild, he is better off getting a new car and hassel free. BTW, the suspension are extremely worn out as well.


300ZX mandatory replacement parts are ridicously expensive. Unlike Maxima, the 300ZX are limited prodcution car and so are the parts. The parts will be very expensive. You might be thinking of Aftermarket parts. Most of the mandatory replacement parts are not availiable in aftermarket, but had to be bought from Nissan at a very expensive price.

SkyMax

I am in the current position as you. I am looking for a Z32 300ZX TT or NA. LoveSick is correct.. The TT will have expensive maintenance repairs. Turbo replacement is around $2500 alone. Since the 300ZX is modded you can probably assume that this car had some hard runs. This is a bad sign. I've been a member on the 300ZX Forums for several years and I can tell you that there are guys that need to replace their engine at around 100K because of too much boost. If your looking for reliability then don't get a TT.. You might get lucky and not have many problems.. but sooner or later you will. But if you are looking for speed... the TT is the way to go.

Frezny

To tell you the truth, the only reason that I got my Max a year ago was for reliability. I wasn't making much money and I was tired of wrenching my knuckles while fixing my Hondas. Since owning the Max, I've caught the speed/mod bug and thus I view the 300 as the ultimate modded Max. It's a '90 and has only 76K on it. That tells me that the guy babied the car more than hard runs. Also, the fact that he didn't run a lot of extra boost leaves me the think that he didn't want to hurt the engine, and thus stayed within a safe, aftermarked range.

The dealer talked to me about the boost, because he knew that I was a car buff. Even though I was excited about the car, I told him that $16k was too high for a '90. He talked about the mods to up it's value and dropped the price to $14.5k.

I don't know how many miles the car has had on the coilover or the extra boost, but I'm still believing that it's in good shape. The tires look pretty new and not chewed up at all.

So, I'm guessing that the turbo will last until at least 120k without working on it. I'll probably sink money into a bigger turbo anyway, before the old one goes and possible take percausions as to engine life. Maybe I'll rebuild it for more power anyway. who knows....

Dave B

You talk as if the 300ZXTT only has one turbo. Don't forget it has two turbos. One on each bank. That's $2500 each. I don't even know how you get those turbos out to work on them. I'd figure $1200 is just to get them out.


Dave

AznWontonboy

maybe he should just get superchargers.....

Frezny

I'm just at the point that I feel I moved to the Max too soon. It's an awesome car, and some members have shown us what great potential the car has, but If I get another 4 door in the future, I don't want to have a limit on what I can do with it like I do with the Max. Don't get me wrong, the Max is Hella fast, and I, as with most of you, can't waite to see what Don will do with his new engine, but for now, I want a car that I can work to death, and not have to sacrifice great qualities like 4 doors for friends and family, comfortable ride, great power and luxary that the Max has. With the Z, I can turn it into one of the meanest street legal cars around, or go even further and work it into a drag competition car. The point is, I'm going to probably get the new Max in a few years as a daily driver, but always have the Z as my toy.

infinitiblast

iTrader: (2)

Just thought I would add this. I was riding with my friend in his corvette its like a 94 or something like that. Its a 5spd or maybe it is a 6spd. In anycase I consider it a really fast car. So we are driving by the local car stereo place and the owner has his 90 300zxtt for sale. I ask if I can drive it and he tosses me the keys and says keep it as long as you want today just put as much gas as you used back in it. I was like ok I can do that. I consider my friend to be a very good 5spd drive (he races cars at a local track). So we pull up at several red lights and the 300z beat his corvette every time. The results were always between a 1.5-2.5 car lentgh advantage. So we decide lets do a top end race. So we go 85 south and take off again the 300z pulled on him all the way to 146(this car was installed with an aftermarket speedometer not sure what brand. After we it 146 I left him in the dust reaching 158mph. The car was really stable at high speeds to. So when I take it back to the shop I ask what mods he has done he says all he has done is some exhaust work and a chip that boosted the turbos 2psi.
Just food for thought.

dmbmaxima2k2

iTrader: (1)

I hear you man, my max is gonna be gone in like a week too. I'm looking at early 90's 300ZX TT and i think i found one that i want. It's all stock but has a new engine, clutch and turbos and i will have the stillen chip waiting for it when i pick it up with a POP intake to bring it to 375hp ish. It has some miles on it but not many on the new engine clutch and turbos. AND i will be parting out my max so start making offers. look at my sig for mods

Frezny

Sounds a lot like the car that I'm looking at.

infinitiblast

iTrader: (2)

Hey frenzy whats up.
I dont know where you live but check this deal out.
http://www.autotrader.com/findacar/v...55580695814208

Not bad I say.

Lime

I envy you all...so much. :} My dad had a '73 240Z that he completely restored and suped up...let me tell you, those are nothing to scoff at either. I thnk it was pushing 300 bhp - and it was solid as a rock. He drove it at Lime Rock.

MAN...someday I am going to own a late model 300 TT, a '70 240, of course a Max, and several Porsches including a 934 RSR...yeah.

BlkCat

A while ago in R&T Magazine there was an article about used 300ZXs and the most common problem I remember has been warped brake discs.

Frezny

Sounds a little too good to be true, but I'm going to call the seller anyway. I'm in Phily, PA and I don't recognize the number, but I'll give it a try. Thanks a lot Infinitiblast.

-Ryan

rodelb

sounds like a decent deal. I bought a '91 300ZX TT last November and have been loving it it since. I did have to do some maintanance work but it's been worth it. I've also put in more mods. I've kept my maxima as a daily driver and have the z for weekend use.

Francis96se

frenzy,
i own both maxima and a 300zx.
both cars are pretty modified, especially the Z.
the Z is a very expensive car to maintain. more than what i would like.
The 1990 years are known to have some problems. the early models had something wrong with the valves or something else that never went away, so becareful when purchasing a 90.
also, since the car is over 10 years old you will have problems. small things will just creep up on you, like the electrical stuff will go haywire or the wipers will stop working, etc. it's all part of the game. but if you can afford to maintain it, it is a REALLY fun car.
i love my Z to death.
it sounds like the car is at stage III, which means close to 400hp running low low 13's.
prolly running more than 2lbs over, more like 3-4lbs.
76k miles is a lot for a turbo car so realize that the turbos could go at anytime and that is a very expensive thing to change, mainly because you have to pull the engine to replace the turbos. that's about 1k or more in work, unless you do it yourself. turbos themselves can range from 600-1500 each or even more. but my friend has a 93 with 106k miles and the turbos are still fine. so it all depends. i have 75k and my turbos are still very strong.

i would recommend a daily driver for the Z just because it will be expensive to maintain it for daily use. it's possible to drive the Z daily and a lot of people do, but i am glad that i have my maxima.
more things will break the more HP you make so if you want even more power be prepared to spend more money.

you can check out my car at:
http://www.houston-imports.com/registry/francis.html
and e-mail me with any questions you have
Francis@houston-imports.com
and if you are undecided about wanting to go fast just check out this video of my car:
http://www.houston-imports.com/vstrish.html


good luck!
Francis

Frezny

What did you finally get up to?

Thanks for the additional info, Francis. I would ultimately like to do the same thing, have the Max as the daily driver, but have the z to toy with and upgrade on weekends. Funds aren't happy enough to fix many of the possible problems witht he Z, let alone have two cars. I'm sticking myself between a rock and a hard place, I just know it.

thezcarguy

Whare do i begin. I have had extensive time with nissan Z's. All i can say is that i love em (hence the name). I saw the post and it looks like a dream car. Im sure it is great but you must take some things into cosidearation. The Z is considerably more expensive to own than a max. I had a 91 TT. I loved the car and as soon as i can ill be getting another one. With the expeerence i have had with the cars i would have to say STAY AWAY from any used TT Z that has been modded. I know it has low miles but you just dont know what the car has been through. I bought my Z with some 18's and still dual pop charger as well as greddy dual ehaust. The car seemed fine. Since i have the speed bug i had to get a boost controller. With that installed the Z felt MUCH stronger. The one you are looking at was boosted 2 lb? you would be lucky to notice that boost. I would doubt that the previous owner left it at 2 lb of boost. I may have been turned down to sell. Anyway, I was running about 12-15 psi of boost on my z. Needless to say it flew. About a year later i was on the highway doing about 65 on Cruse (on of the slowest times i had on the highway) and the engine just blew on me. I thought that it much have been my fault for runnig too much boost. but it turns out that the prior owner blew the motor and couldnt find oversize pistons for the TT. So they used the NT pistons and then got rid of the car. One of the pistons failed and that killed my z. I paid about 5000 for an engine rebuild and rebuilt turbos. to my dissmay, the car never worked the same again. So i bought a max for the time beeing. I miss the Z still but i have had to put no money into my max in over a year for repairs. I cant say that about a TTz. You WILL have to fix some stuff here and there. And the turbos are near there end. Let the car idle at the dealer for about 20 min or so. Check for light smoke from one or both of the exhusts. Anyway, if you decide to get this car, be prepaird to spend some cash maintaing it. If you can do that.... MORE POWER TO YOU. I cant wait till i can have one again. Hope this helped. E mail me if you wanna know more.

SkyMax

Hey I am from PA about an hour away from Philly. One of my friends (He's a mechanic for BMW) is selling his 94 ZTT with 136k miles (all highway and never abused). It's black with black leather and all the seals have been checked, turbos been checked, engine compression checked, and they are in good shape. He is asking $12k for it but I can get it down to $10,500. Let me know if your interested.

Nevin

Frezny

Thanks for the info, Nevin. I'm not sure If I'm going to get a Z now. I test drove this monster last night, and while it was fast as hell.... that's the only good thing about it (aside for looking so friggen cool!!!) I'm 6'2" and about 200lb, and that car is small! Wasn't fun to drive. Near zero visibility, harch on all the bumps in the road, and I don't know if I'll enjoy listening to the loud exhaust all the time. The biggest thing is.... I don't wanna die. There's like no room between me and the rest of the car. Any accident, anywhere.... and I'm dead.

Francis96se

just an FYI.
the Z is actually a very safe car.
the cockpit is protected very well with support in the doors and in the roof.
that's why the car weighs so much, too!

Frezny

That's reassuring to know, Francis. Thanks again for the info. I can't get over the feeling that I'm taking a step back in life by giving up the nice, luxerious drive of the Max with great stock Bose sound, and taking on a cramped, loud rice-rocket with poor sound quality. I can get a better system, but I don't know how long that will take.

Another weird thing.... I can't get the seat back far enough. I have long legs and the clutch is rather stiff. My leg is already at a 90 degree bend when fully depressing the clutch. I'm not sure what to do. Just nervous I suppose about buying a car that will need work soon and giving up a very reliable car that has only 25k miles.