There is limited room under the hood and in front of the radiator and even more limited room along the drivers side of the radiator support but I was determined to get everything to fit, including the huge '82 ZX turbo airflow (AF) meter with the engine drawing cold air from the front of the car while keeping the factory A/C and an oil cooler installed as well!
The first thing I wanted to do was clean up the messy looking factory intake manifold. I decided to use the early 75 280Z non-EGR manifold and clean off all the garbage on the top. Below is a shot of the manifold cleaned up with an aftermarket fuel rail installed.
Next step was to clean up the engine, install some fresh rod bearings in it as well as doing some paint and detail work.
It had some broken exhaust studs etc but for a 20 year old engine, it seemed to be in very good shape. After this work and installing the prepped intake, it was time to drop it back into the car for a test fitting of all the plumbing. Below is a shot of the engine dropped into the bay (with an old grungy valve cover for now).
It soon became obvious there was not enough room in a stock engine bay for the 280ZX turbo AF meter and the intercooler plumbing, especially if I was going to get the air filter in front of the radiator. I decided the intercooler plumbing would best fit through the upper part of drivers side of the radiator support and use the lower part for the air intake. I figured out that I needed 2 1/4" intercooler plumbing and a 3" intake pipe to allow for later turbo upgrades the owner suggested he may be doing and 3" is the size of the 280ZX turbo AF meter.
First order of business was finding a home for the AF meter which would allow it to breath through this lower hole. I decided to cut out the front corner of the inner fender well and build up an area for the meter to sit into. These shots show the area that was cut out, to be later filled with sheet metal and the approximate location of the AF meter. This kind of work is not for the timid!
I then began opening up the upper hole in the radiator support for the intercooler plumbing. I am planning on addressing the rust and engine bay paint later but wanted to deal with all the modifications and welding first.
The intercooler kit the customer supplied was a VERY basic kit that included a spearco intercooler, a few mandrel U-bends and a couple of pieces of hose. No mounts or anything like that, everything would have to be fabricated from scratch. I figured a good next step would be to fab up the intercooler mounts and nail it in place. Below are some shots of the intercooler "kit", the lower cooler mount I fab'd up and the cooler mounted in place for fitting purposes.
Below is a shot of the finished mount for the oil cooler which will be below the intercooler and the air filter.
