C210 Engine Upgrades

[coupe72001]

A mate of mine is trying to persuade me to buy a cheap 4WD so we can go bush... This week he found an MQ Patrol for $4,800 running a worked, turbo intercooled L28. His theory is to swap the L28 for the L24 in my C210 skyline; thus providing me with a plenty powerful road car and a standard 4WD... for a moderate outlay. We can swap the engine easily enough, but the turbo set-up will be new to me.

How good/horrifically outlandish is this idea? Should I simply port the head on my L24, buy a Lada Niva and save a few grand? What type of set up are you guys running in your early skylines?

Cheers,

Drew

[JCMarshall_Law]

Sounds like a lot of effort for not much gain.

If you buy a lada, take the engine and gearbox out, that way it will be easier to push around - which you will be doing a lot of the time. Ladas are one of the worst cars ever made imo.

[coupe72001]

Lol... yeah, I guess there is a reason that Lada's fail to sell for $500. Anyway, other than toying the idea of stuffing about with Russia's finest 4WD, what I am really trying to figure out is what represents the best value for money when it comes to the L series engines. Is it better to keep and work on my existing L24 set-up, upgrade the head to something different, or do a complete engine swap? Surely there must be a world of difference between a bog stock L24 and an injected, turbo-charged L28... or not?

[Ghostrider]

Sounds like a lot of effort for not much gain.

Not much gain????????????????????????????

Maybe you should talk to the guys on HybridZ, as they're getting over 300rwhp from L28ET's in USA and here in Oz. You don't think that's much of a gain!

AND as for the LADA, it was very much an under acheiver here, but I know guys that serviced them and when looked after and serviced correctly, they were quite a remarkable little 4WD.

The big problem they had here was backing, no parts or technological service back up.

They were prone to failure all to often by the way they were driven, in a lot of cases. People expected more from them than they were capable of and that was the end of them.

Cheers,

D

[coupe72001]

Thanks for the reply... I went 4-wheel-driving on a mate's property in his old-school 70's Nissan Patrol (basically a rolling wreck mind you) and have started to get excited about the idea again... Off-road driving is plenty fun, and the current performance of my Skyline is a little... underwhelming. There has to be a happy solution that doesn't cost a fortune! 2 cars... shared componentry... Ill figure something out eventually!