akeboshi

@ jaredroot I think it was worth it to megasquirt a stock l28 engine. Mine was on th fritz and I did an ms 2 conversion. It's fantastic. Really all you need is a ms2 unit, air temp sensor and a tps from a 240sx, lock out your dizzy and wire up to stock harness unless you don't wanna use harness then get the diyautotune harness. A wideband o2 is mandatory as well. I did my kit complete with wiring harness for about 700$. Considering the cheapest aftermarket ems is around 900 for JUST the ecu I find megasquirt to be a steal. It should be illegal because of how awesome it is! If you have any questions just ask. Ms forums are very supportive. Marcus

hello, so the first l28 engine i rebuilt for the z was also the first motor i have ever rebuilt. to make it short i didnt do the break in properly so the rings didnt seat right and i wiped my cam also. it currently runs but i would like to rebuild another one to better quality so i know that it will last. so i buy a used engine from craigslist and the guy says he pulled it after he ran it. it looked clean and he had a new turbo motor sitting in his bay so i buy it. i was debating whether to just run it or tear it down for a rebuild. im glad i decided to tear it down cuz it was f@#cked up. every cam lobe was ground down taking the rockers with them in the process and the cam tensioner was in the oil pan along with chain guide rubber and teeth from the cam sprocket and sealant sucked against the pickup. these were not the only surprises i found. there were pistons stamped 050 on them. they measured roughly 86.5mm so im assuming the stamp means .05mm over. the bigger surprise was the valvetrain was shimmed up. i took measurements on all the shims and they are as such cam bearing shim=.018 and there were two of them inner valve spring shim=.038 outer valve spring shim=.038lash pad=.117 (i thought these were supposed to be .120 stock?) so my question is how can i tell how much they have taken off of the head? i will cc the chambers and pistons soon to calculate c/r but until then i would like to hear input. also another question (its stupid but ill ask it anyways) would it be ok to sandblast the gasket surfaces of the head and block and not machine them? just something i have been wondering. one more question is how do i know how much bigger lash pad to get to center my valvetrain back up. i noticed it was alittle off center. not much but i would like to get it back centered again. thanks for the support, marcus p.s. guess that piston!

it will work, but the bolts will be toast. there are probably alot of people who would say no but the hillbilly in me says do it. me and 2 guys just took the head off, wrapped a chain around it and beasted the ***** out but we were pretty f@#kered up and then i had to go to the hardware store to get bolts to bolt the motor to the stand while the other two balanced the block on my core support. never again good sir. marcus

yeah, just double check your timing at tdc. the biggest reason i couldnt get mine started besides bad grounds was that i had the oil pump/dizzi shaft clocked wrong and the dizzy was not pointing to #1 plug on the rotor while both valves were closed (tdc on compression stroke) after i sorted that all out it started up on default ve and ignition tables. might be different with the turbo dizzy though as i have never seen one. if shes making noise then you are close, just keep an eye on cylinder washdown. i think thats what happened to my motor.... good luck

giggity overload

here go! p.s. just ignore the reducer after the o2, its not required! lol

i just did a build you described but im using an n42 block cuz its what i had already lol, flattops with n42 head and block with ms2 v3 pcb running direct coil control with zero tuning and i have yet to hear it ping. i am however running a cam with lots of duration (comp cams 292s grind with a whopping 5 inches of vacuum at 900rpm idle )and i feel it to be very streetable although i agree with duragg in the respect that the cam helps keep the compression down and while it doesnt ping, my rust bucket does like to rattle. anyways i think you can pull off what you are looking for in terms of pricerange and fun factor if you are just talking about engine work and mild tuneup. ive spent about 2500 and my z looks worse than when i bought it. anyways, have fun! marcus

try it with a stock dizzy locked out first. i just used jb weld to do that, and wire it up for vr just like in the megamanual. i had trouble getting a signal from it at first too but it turned out to be a ground issue. i didnt know to gound the sensors to pin 19. if you go edis let me know how you rig up the trigger wheel, im looking for ideas.

how exactly did you bypass the ammeter? where did you run wires? can u take pics of it for me? i am having the same problem right now marcus

i was using a ir gun to check each exhaust runner but i just took the valve cover off to inspect again, #1 cam lobe is getting eaten alive. there is a noticable lip where the rocker doesnt touch. what would cause this? i plan on doing a compression test again though. time to install the stock cam.....

Ive been having problems with #1 cylinder since the rebuild. The rocker kept falling off and it ran dead like that for about thirty mins before I caught it. I replaced it with a new oem one and it doesnt fall off anymore but it runs noticibly cooler than the others. It runs around 400 while the others are around 700. I Checked valve clearances and spark and compression all are good. Does it normally run this cool because it's closest to radiator? The engine runs great otherwise, but I'm worried as I haven't even done full breakin yet. Thanks for the help!

you can use a shifter from a datsun truck. they are short throw. just cut it however short you want and rethread it. the actual throw is shorter because its a truck and the length of the shifter has to be longer. i can go pull one from the junkyard for you if youcant find one at yours. just let me know. marcus

i know a guy who has itbs on his l28. his vacuum log is cool, it goes to a vacuum canister for his brake booster as well as a map sensor connection for megasquirt. ill take a pic of it if we have a meeting on thursday. marcus

i also did not use a relay board. i just fiured out where i wanted to place the megasquirt box (in my case in the glove box) and ran all the individual wires to thier respective locations. i mocked it up that way took it out of the car loomed and taped it all up and reinstalled it again. i removed my dash to hide it all and installed my lc-1 gauge where the vent is on the left hand side by the driver door. i just grinded the vent thingy till my gauge fit then used rubber tape to secure it inside. very sleeper. i just used inline fuses from autozone, you know the kind that has wire on each end and you add the fuse size you want. it looks just like the harness in the diagram. if i were to do it again i would use the relay board. cheaper and eisier in the long run and you can make a harness for under the hood and a harness for inside the car and if you need to remove any sensors you dont have to cut and recrimp/solder. just my 0.2 cents marcus

well this thread is over. i compression checked all the cylinders, @1 is ZERO, and the rest were 70. is all this normal (except #1) on a newly rebuilt engine with a large cam? marcus

yes i checked the injector, i can hear it chattering and i know it sprays because i hooked it up to a water meth pump and pulsed it a few times. i pulled the plug out and i can see the spark, i had it laying on the fender actually and it shot out a 6 inch blue spark (cool). i have been having trouble with the exhaust rocker, ill check it in the moring. it fell off a couple times already, im gonna replace it soon.

grrr, baby! very grrrr! i like this hope you dont mind if i swipe it! your engine looks immaculant btw. marcus

hello i finally have the ms2 280z running but it has been sounding like its missing on a cylinder or two. upon further investigation i have found that #1 cylinder has not been firing. its really wierd because i have good spark and fuel injector is also good. i tested it before i replaced the one that i thought was frozen. if i have good spark and fuel then why dont i have combustion? the engine is rebuilt and has not even been broken in yet. i have not tested that cylinder for good compression (i dont have a compression tester) but on the compression stroke with the plug removed i get a big whoosh of air. i put an led to the pigtail and also can confirm that its getting a pulse. wtf? marcus

i got it! i havent checked the timing again but i guess i didnt quite line up the dizzy spindle when i reinstalled it. by bad.... but she runs, after about 3 or 4 months of wiring nad headaches from wiring mistakes.... thanks for helping me out so fast! marcus

the plugs are new. i poped the fuses for the injectors without noticing..... it wants to start up now and it hits on a few cylinders but after a few rotations its like it hits a wall and stops, kind of like one of the cylinders fired before it was retarded alot. there has to be something wrong as i cant see the mark at all on tdc #1 cylinder. i checked the pulley, it looks fine. i dropped the oil pump to check the drive spindle also.

hello, i am trying to time the l28 so it will be ready for first start up but something funny is happening. i cant see the timing marks if i hook the timing light up to #1 cylinder but if i hook the light up to #6 i see a solid 5 degrees of advance. ive checked that the engine is at tdc on the compression stroke (removed spark plug and cranked slowly till i felt air come out and stopped at the 0 mark on the pulley, as well as look at the lobes on the cam and the rotor on the dizzy is pointing to #1 cylinder) but i cant seem to figure out why this is happening? do i have the dizzy backwards? i thought i lined up the shaft dot with the dot on the oil pump but i will check again. can anyone help me out? im running a 77 280z dizzy locked out and using direct coil control on ms2 v3 pcb. i have spark and fuel but it doesnt even sputter. what gives? marcus

heres a link to a vid i made. i didnt actually weld the advances but i used jb weld instesd. you can just tack with a wire welder but i dont have one so thats what i did. my buddy said that if you grind on jb weld it will spark so it convinced me to go that route. it took me a long time searching with no answers and disassembling the dizzy to get my answers. you have to lock the centrifugal advances (the ones with the springs) and cap off the vacuum advance with a nipple where the hose used to go ( i just left the vacuum canister attached cuz i didnt want the disc that the vacuum can was attached to to start wandering on its own) also, i would highly recommend getting a tps from a 240sx from autozone it will help alot. get the one for an auto 240 its cheaper (25$$ i dont know why, it just is) and you will need to wire it with the attached pigtail. red is 5v ref, white is ms signal and black is the ground. another thing that would help is a closer look at the sensor diagram the grounds for the sensors go to pin 19 (i didnt catch this till i asked on msefi.com.) you could use the link for the pinout on the stock harness but i would recommend junking the old one for the diyautotune one if you can afford it. its not necessary but its nicer and just a heads up the wiring is not for ametuers and i thought the assembly of the controller itself was easier than making the new harness. just go slow and lay out the wiring in the car before you solder and loom it up. i acually ended up removing my dash and am in the middle of tucking the harness behind it and putting the controller in the glove box. those are the biggest tips i can think of right now. good luck but heads up ms comes with a steep learning curve and if you have anymore questions just ask. i plan to go edis soon, ill take pics for ya.

Do u still make these? If so how much? I'm interested

i thought the atomization looked fantastic like those fine mists at the theme parks on a hot day. its funny u mention hobbs switches cuz thats how im gonna do mine!

hi everybody, i was curious about maybe using my cold start injector as my water meth injector (trying to save some $$$)and started using the search function to find out what the flow rate in CC/min are. what i found was that there are none out there, just everyone having having them as the fault for rich running and also everyone and their mother selling them online. i proceeded to take it off and pressurize it (with water)with the AEM 150psi surflo pump. i realise that water and gasoline have different specific wieghts and also water meth mixes but this is what i got 300 CC/min @ 150 PSI (measured with the lines on my water bottle) using the RC engineering calc i found that at 36 psi (77z fuel pressure)is equal to 146.97 CC/min. correct me if im wrong but those numbers @ 150 psi could support around 250-300 hp. i thought that this would be very useful info for anyone trying to do a cheap water meth kit after going turbo (or in my case building a high comp. L28E)or if someone just wanted to know those numbers. also if they rust out or go bad or whatever you can get them at the pick n pull for supercheap. let me know what you guys think about it, like any bad reasons for doing water meth this way because i have only seen these kits injecting before the throttle body and not after. does the manifold fill with water? will the injector fail at the worst time? any bad reasons??? thanks all, marcus