GrayZee

The ecu from a L28 turbo model is unique to other 280z or zx. However the plugs are the same as a 300zx, maxima, pathfinder, stanza.. ect.

This site will answer alot of your questions http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/

I think you need to re-read my last post.

Whatever it is... it ain't enough

I have a idea, but it would have been better to do BEFORE you installed it in the tank. You could get some heavier gauge wire (12 or 10?) and solder wires directly to the terminals. Use something to insulate the soldered areas (perhaps silicone or a hot glue gun?) Then if you have a foot or so of wire hanging off the sender you can make some sort of electrical plug. You can buy a trailer style plug, you can get them in a two pin version. Or better yet go to the wrecking yard and get a nice plug off of some car's harness. GM has some really nice waterproof ones on their vehicles.

No, the stock exhaust manifolds are nowhere near being able to fit. If you look at a 300zx it has a crossover pipe that connects the two manifolds. The crossover runs over the top of the tranny. In the truck/suv chassis the engine is mounted far too close to the firewall. In fact even the 300zx upper intake manifold would not fit. I had to swap the intake in favor of a 90's truck intake. My original Pathfinder manifold was not a option as the 80's Pathfinders still used a throttle body style injection system.

Yeah, I figure it'll be awesome for Canadian winter street racing! LOL

Yes, they should be 370cc. I not sure of any upgraded injectors that just "drop right in" You have to break off the plastic pintle caps off of the tip and then just use care when inserting them to the manifold.

Just wanted to give Y'all a update on my turbo swap. I got the Vg30et in the Pathfinder and got it running with a turbo ECU and a intake manifold from a 90's Truck. It's not actually turbo-charged yet as we still need to finish up the exhaust manifolds and make a custom exhaust and air intake. For now it's still running on the original exhaust. Next week the the Pathy is going into "paint-jail" and we plan to do some work on it during the weekends (my buddy owns the body-shop) Anyway, the swap is well underway as most of the hard stuff is done.

Yes the cam is a consideration too.. I think a turbo cam is more ideal but I'm sure I remember hearing of people using n/a cams, obviously not as good as a cam designed for boost though. A 87+ n/a ecu DOES NOT retard under boost. The air is read BEFORE it goes into the turbo so all it knows is increased airflow. N/a ecu's have a much too aggressive advance curve for a turbo. However what I meant is that a 87+ ecu CAN be reprogrammed to do whatever you need. A retuned ecu will give better performance than the stock turbo ecu anyday.. also with re-tuning you have the option of running bigger injectors and still have precise air/fuel ratios from idle to top rpm. It will also allow to run a engine with higher HP than the stock ecu would allow.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but if you use a n/a distributor how will the ecu read crank angle and rpm? I assumed the electical pulses between the two setups are not compatible. Am I wrong?

I have to say that I just don't like the idea of using the stock n/a ECU for any turbo setup, whatever you do to it the setup will be very sketchy. Especially if you try to run 450cc injectors with it. If the problem is locating a turbo ecu, afm and harness you might want to consider finding a z31 ecu, maf and crank-sensor. The z31 setup is likely easier to find, as you can take the parts from different years and models of cars. Even a n/a z31 ecu can be re-programmed for turbo (as long as it's 87+) The z31 harness (n/a or turbo) could also be modified to work in a early Z. MAF sensors from any z31 (or possibly Maxima) would work. Crank sensor disks could be found in any z31, Maxima, Vg30 truck or Pathfinder. The only real catch is that you would HAVE to have a distributor from a 82/83 280zx turbo. Also if anyone is interested, I have a couple of 83zxt ecu's and afm's (no dizzy's though) Oh, I also have a 84 z31ecu (turbo model) I'd be willing to part with it, but I need to get my hands on a 87-89 n/a ecu first. (so if anyone wants to trade?? )

Yes no doubt it is a fine peice of work, my only concern with a setup like that would be trying to do any repairs/modifications to any wiring... Looks like that would be a royal PITA. Also I'm not quite sure what is meant by "inner wings" Are the wires inside the fender-well? If they are then I would not advise that setup to anyone that plans on driving their car in less than ideal weather. (looks like a show-car that never sees a cloudy day anyway..) Not trying to sound like a critical ***, it's beautiful work, just pointing out where some of the downsides might be for someone that drives their Z all the time.

If you plan on turbocharging a 83 n/a engine then I highly suggest you run a intercooler. Without it, along with the high compression pistons of the n/a engine will spell detonation. The turbo intake isn't absolutly nessessary but is a plus as it has a safety relief valve as well as valve that acts somewhat like a BOV (blow off valve) Turbo's also have bigger throttle-bodys too I believe. Yes you will need a turbo computer as they have a different fuel map and ignition advance. The harness is quite a bit different as well. The larger injectors and AFM are also needed to go with the new ECU On a 83/82 turbo the crank sensor is located INSIDE the distributor, so yes you would need the turbo dizzy, unless perhaps you can find a crank sensor from a 81 turbo car. On the 81's the sensor was on the crank pulley, however you would likely need a 81 ECU to run that type of sensor. Not sure on that one as I've never even seen a crank style trigger before. Of course you could always go to a stand-alone computer system if you wanna spend the money.

Oil, temp and fuel level gauges all get their +12v power from a ignition sourced fuse. The oil and temp rise on the presence of a variable ground. The better the ground the higher the reading. For example, the sending unit is grounded, (screwed into the block) but it does not conduct to the wire until oil pressure starts to rise. If you were to turn your ignition on and take the wire off of the sending unit and ground it directly the gauge should rise to the top of the scale. Fuel level gauges are slightly different, They are just like a ohm-meter. They have the same ignition sourced +12v (as well as their own ground... ) and then there are two other wires that run to the fuel tank. These two wires are like the test leads of a ohm-meter. They measure the ohm reading (resistance) across the two terminals on the fuel tank. Every fuel tank can have a different upper and lower ohm reading. The fuel level gauge must be calibrated to match the fuel tank. For example, a typical GM fuel sender will be 90 ohms when full and 0 ohms when empty. A 280 is somewhere around 75ohms empty and 12 ohms full (not sure on the exact numbers though) If you do a search I'm sure you can find the right numbers.. Hope that helps

Wow, those are some clean pics.. pretty much NO wiring at all! I'm guessing that this car has no headlights, horn, wipers, ect... I'm in the middle of my Pathfinder-turbo swap and I'm trying to keep it clean but there are just SOoo.. many wires and hoses and stuff, I don't see how it's possible.

I went for a ride in one of those a couple of months ago.. I always thought of the Sentra as being Nissan's little crap-box, but I was quite impressed with the SpecV. It's as if they brought back the glory days of the 510

Oh yes, I should have said "for testing only" mind you, I would look pretty silly dragging a motorcycle battery by a set of mini jumper cables! LOL and yeah, if you put vise-grips on the fuel return line... not a good idea to just leave them there either.

You failed to mention exactly what kind of car you have. However I am fairly certain that the fuel pump relays are inside the vehicle on Z's and 280zx's If you suspect the regulator is faulty (leaking pressure back to the tank) Why don't you try and clamp the return fuel line with some small vise-grips of something? Another thing you could try is running wires (+ and - ) directly to the fuel pump. I have a motorcycle battery and small motorcycle jumper cables that work really well for that.

I can't comment on if it is a good idea or not, but I can say that I did it and had absolutly no problems from it. If you do it make VERY sure that it is torqued down EVENLY once you are done the cam should turn completely free and no binding.

In theory.. perhaps, I'd run a good mechanical oil pressure gauge for sure. I really don't see the need, I mean really.. anyone ever hear of a L series camshaft failing? (with EITHER oiling system) Even the one I talked about earlier ran fine when I poured half a liter of oil on the shaft. Of course I changed it and the cam towers anyway (I had a few Z heads laying around at the time) If I had to choose, I'd go with the oil spray bar.

I bought a ZX once that supposedly needed a new cam (was messed up or worn out) Before I even saw it I was like (I've never heard of a cam in a Z wearing out before, wtf??? ) The car was in decent shape so I bought it anyway, took it home to find that the reason the cam was screwed was because somebody had replaced the cam (with a old one with no oil holes) and seeing it was a 79zx.. it didn't have a external oiler. So basically it was getting no oil at all!! I would be careful about running both systems though.. I would be worried about a pressure drop.

I think Evildky is right, you should mount it on the kick panel (same as a 280z) or in the case of a 240 I think you could also get away with the passenger side kick panel as your fuse panel is not there. You could mount it on the tranny tunnel as you have it but I don't like the idea simply because it would be hard to access. I also think that the ECU is alot tougher than people think, I had mine loosely sitting on the kick panel (I was pulling it out alot for re-tuning) I hammered on the throttle and the ecu fell out right on the floor, never hurt it at all. I've heard the one about grounding the ecu before it may have truth in it but I have my doubts about that too. As for your oil cooler, how about mounting it in front of the rad? That is how mine is, I cut the original cooler mount a little bit and used it to bolt it to the bottom of the lower rad support. I drilled two holes in the square channel straight through from the top, this allowed the mount to be bolted on a right angle making the cooler stand straight up (just like the rad) Of course you would need longer hoses, you can take the original bolts on the banjo fittings and match them up at a hydraulics shop and get a adapter to convert them to a 1/2" flare fitting. Then you can have a custom hose made up no problem. I ran mine through the small hole under the round hole that people normally use for intercooler tubing.