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It's definitely a more expensive swap. It's almost impossible to rival the affordability of SR swaps. I haven't looked into RB's, but last time I checked (which was years ago), in order to really do it right, it cost around 6k for an RB25 and 9-10k for an RB26. Feel free to correct me if that number has changed.
Now, I didn't do the internals on my motor, but I did absolutely every single bolt on I possibly could, including spending $1200 on custom headers. My costs were around 9k. When I bought my engine, I couldn't find anything for under about $3500, but now I seem to see them going for just over $2000 all of the time. I'm pretty sure prices will come down even more as Z's get older.
I think, if you did the work yourself, you could pull the swap off for somewhere in the 5-6k range, maybe less depending on how much time you spend searching for deals. Still expensive, but I think it offers a value in the reliability department, and the power delivery. Also, stock S13 and J30 diffs have a shorter gearing than a Z, so it's a TON of fun to drive! With bolt ons, I'm running a 12.8 1/4 mile. I've been told that's about what Z06's throw down (?)
Like I said, I have no clue about making it Carb legal. I've seen a few builds that used the cat setup straight out of the Z, and I can't imagine how that would not pass, but I am not familiar with the intricacies of the laws, I'm just spit ballin'!
Yes, you could just buy a Z, but you see those all over the place. And with the weight advantage, any Z has to have about 50hp up on me to beat me.
@Markfitz
The shop you saw on Ebay is probably ZFever. They're one of the so called "experts" on the swap. They are the only ones that offer the ECU service right now that let's the ECU work without having all of the other modules from the Z (Security system and a bunch of other crap). They are also the ones who did my wiring and didn't solder a bunch of it together, used liquid electrical tape. They also tried to screw me out of almost $3500 a few years back when I tried to source all of my swap parts through them. They had my money, but sent me no parts for 4 months, and wouldn't answer phone calls. Finally called my credit card company and the bank refunded me, and then went to do battle with ZFever. 2 weeks later I got a sudden phone call from Zfever asking me if I'd like to send them money for shipping so we could sort it out! HAH!
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