Nigel

I've seen non-DOT approved SS Braided brake lines go pop in person! I really don't feel comfortable with them on my Z now. They can be kind of fragile. "Fragile" and "Brakes" are two words that should not go together! Nigel '73 240ZT

The Mitsubishi BOV has a "quick release" port, like that second port on the Type-S, built right into it. If you look at the botom of the BOV, you will see a small hole next to the valve hole. Boost pressure is fed to the lower side of the BOV diaphram through this hole to make the valve open quicker. This is why Mitsubishi BOV's will leak if you up the boost too much (and Type-S BOV's too apparently). Most people just crush these BOV's to increase the spring pressure, but a few people have modified the valve to allow this port to vent to atmosphere (or have it controlled by another valve). Here's a link to one such site: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220909 FYI, the new Greddy Type-RS just has a small hole now to allow the lower side of the diaphram to vent to atmosphere, where the Type-S has an actual hose nipple. Nigel '73 240ZT

Found these on the same site: http://youtube.com/watch?v=eCAIfoOgWWM http://youtube.com/watch?v=NGcuTsPmxQE Nigel '73 240ZT

I've been using Techedge (http://wbo2.com/) for the past couple of years, and I've built a couple of kits for some other people as well. They work great, and they have lots of different configuration options. Having a seperate display is really handy if you want to permanently mount the unit. I have my display tucked in the corner of my windshield, and the controller is under the dash. If you can solder, and know something about electronics, it was the best bang for the buck I could find ($300CDN complete with sensor and display and full dataloging). But they sell everything pre-assembled too. Nigel '73 240ZT

I did a search, and it doesn't look like anybody's talked about these things yet... http://www.fourproducts.com/FSBC.html Seems like a bright idea. I'm just surprised it took so long to develop something ilike this. If they come out with a set for the 4 cylinder 4-Runner brakes, I'll give them a try... Nigel '73 240ZT

Thanks guys. It's getting there. I got the watter line to the turbo rerouted, and the wastegate actuator arm bent. I just need to lengthen it now. I spent the better part of this evening wrestiling with the turbine housing bolts. I have a stainless steel heat shield for the turbine, and I have to rotate the housing to get the 2 bolts off that will hold the shield. Of course, this means I have to loosen all of the bolts. There's one left on the back side of the turbo. I can get a stubby wrench on it, but I just can apply enough force to break it loose. I'm beginning to think it would have been easier to remove the whole damn turbo! Oh well, all part of the fun... Nigel '73 240ZT

Everything is moving forward. However, I'm not as far forward as I would have liked. But, I decided to makes some changes to my original plan, which burnt up some extra time. Originally I was going to leave my RX-7 oil cooler where it was and mount the intercooler behind it. It would have only blocked 3 or 4 of the bottom rows of the intercooler, which probably won't see much air flow anyway. But I just didn't like the thought of having a big heat source right in front of the intercooler. Not to mention that the oil cooler is used, and looks pretty beat up. So, I decided to mount the oil cooler behind the intercooler. To make a long story short, it took me a lot of time to design and fab up new brackets for the oil cooler. And I still don't know how I'm going to connect the oil feed line exactly. Anyway, the intercooler is in now. It just barely clears the hood but it fits. And I now have all the tubing mocked up, so it just needs to be welded (only 3 needed plus BOV flange). I had to re-clock the turbine housing, which means my wastegate actuator no longer lines up. I'm going to have to bend and extend the rod to make it reach. Plus, there are several other odds and ends that are going to have to be relocated/rerouted. Well, enough talk. Here are the pictures... Nigel '73 240ZT

$140 from ETDMOTORS on ebay... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FMIC-Turbo-Intercooler-25x12x3-Civic-Supra-S13-Mustang_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33742QQitemZ8046099929 Nigel '73 240ZT

Yeah, the 2 elbows were $45 each from boostcontroller.com. The silicone cost me more than the intercooler! But, everthing I looked at was either too short or really long. As we all know, it's pretty hard to make short tubes longer. I checked every source I could find and in the end, boostcontroller.com had the best overall price with shipping. I'll probably sell what I cut off to recover some of the cost. Nigel '73 240ZT

After 4 years of driving a non-intercooled 240Z Turbo, I just couldn't take it anymore (still good for 13.7ET though). So, over the past couple of months I've been piecing together all of the necessary components, and I finally have everything together. I took today and Monday off work so I can play with all my new stuff! Next week, I'll bring the aluminum tubing in to work with me to have our machinist tig it all together for me. I'M SO EXCITED!!! It's like Christmas in March (Mind you, my Birthday was yesterday, but that's just a coincidence) Oh yeah, I made the lower intercooler mount and throttle body spacer my-self. Our machinist gave me a crash course in using the mill and lathe. Now I can actually fabricate my own parts. Next on the list is a flange for the BOV. Here's a picture of all the goodies (more to come as I make progress)... Nigel '73 240ZT

18 psi by 3300 rpms? Damn, it's taking me 3800 rpm just to hit 10 psi. I can't imagine how bad it will be when it's intercooled and I up the boost. It makes the launch easy though. 13.7 1/4 mile on 215 street tires. The turbine is a T3 with .63 A/R. The compressor is a T04B and I forget what the A/R is... 0.7 something I think. I wouldn't think it would be that hard to spool. Nigel '73 240ZT

I've had a catalytic converter in my 240Z Turbo for the past 2 years now. My friends and I are amazed at the difference. You don't get out of the car smelling like a refinery, and you can stand behind the car while it's running and not pass out! For $100CDN, it's a cheap way to escape the rolling gas chamber. Mind you, it's not a solution for bad tuning. Nigel '73 240ZT

Hmmm... well, ebay only let me contact 2 people before it said I reached my daily limit. I sent a message to "glickta" and "tellub64". Perhaps some others can try... Nigel

I'll do it...

You should e-mail the bidders and tell them they're being scammed... Nigel

Hi All! NOTE: I just realized, this maybe should have gone in to Miscellaneous Tech... Sorry! Now that I have a little more time on my hands, I thought I'd share with you the mount that I came up with for my SDS programmer. For some time, I had been tossing around several ideas in my head on how I could mount the thing but nothing I could think of really appealed to me. My criteria were that the programmer had to be easily removable (to hide it when I was away from the car), and it had to be adjustable for best viewing. So, like I said, I pondered several ideas for a couple of years with no ideal solution coming to mind until one day when I had an epiphany! I happened to recall that there are articulated ball-heads for camera mounts. I figured that that would be perfect to give me the adjustability I desired. I did a search on line and came up with a miniature ball-head that had a magnetic mount for the camera! Well, that would cover my other criteria that the programmer be easily removable. But unfortunately, this ball-head was $50US, which would work out to $100CDN by the time I got it. But the magnet idea was perfect, and I had seen some rare earth magnets in various sizes in the Lee Valley catalogue... http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=2&p=32065&cat=3,42363,42348&ap=1 http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=2&p=32066&cat=3,42363,42348&ap=1 So, I was sure I could make something myself. I continued my search for ball-heads, and found one for $15US. Perfect! Here's the link: http://www.clamperpod.com/miniballhead.html Below is a series of pictures. I made the bracket out of aluminum on the mill at work. I taught myself how to use it, and this is the first thing I made. The black circles are adhesive-backed anti-scratch pads that go over the magnets. Because the bracket is aluminum, steel cups are counterbored into the aluminum that the magnets then go in.. The bracket then screws onto the end of the ball head arm. The ball head is mounted to an aluminum plate that I used to replace the map light bezel when it broke. You can’t see it, but there's an adjustment knob on the head that you loosen to swivel the ball arm around. Nigel '73 240ZT

The couplers that come with those ebay intercooler kits are rubber not silicone. Which is why you can heat them up and expand them (which may lead to a lot of boost leaks down the road). Real silicone is rated at 300+ degrees, and one elbow will cost you at least $30 (typically $40+) compared with less than $10 for rubber. I'm going to end up spending more on silicone couplers than I did on my intercooler! Nigel '73 240ZT

The RX-7 cooler has a built in thermostat. I forget what the opening temperature is. Nigel '73 240ZT - with RX-7 Oil Cooler

Well, my theory is that because air is compressable, it delays the responsivness of the FPR in some proportion to the length of the vacuum line. In other words, a long vacuum line means it takes longer to compress the air in the line to a point that it can provide sufficient pressure to actuate the FPR. An easy way to test this would be to try different lengths of vacuum line to the FPR. But like I stated, my Z is in hibernation for the winter now... Nigel

I forgot to mention one other observation I have made. Previously, with the stock regulator and with the Aeromotive regulator mounted to the inner fender, the needle in the liquid filled fuel pressure gauge on my fuel rail would flicker significantly. It would pulse in time with the injectors firing. Much to my surprise, with the FPR mounted directly to the rail, the needle is now rock steady. It doesn’t flicker at all anymore. However, I have to admit that at the same time I relocated the FPR to the rail, I fiddled with the gauge a bit. The needle was pointing about 6psi too high (I over pressurized it by accident a couple of years ago), so I tweaked the mechanism through the fill hole in the back of the gauge to zero it. Maybe I screwed it up. But the needle seems to be moving freely. I'm going to replace it over the winter. Nigel

That's what I've been telling myself every winter for the past four years! But the $$$ always seems to get divereted to some other part of the car that needs attention. Unfortunately, my tires are shot now, so... Nigel

Here's where I originaly had it mounted: And here's where I have it mounted now: So, yes it is mounted directly to the end of the rail... Nigel

I posted my writeup on FPR mounting location and AFR's as a new topic which can be found here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=105772 Nigel

Hi Guys! I few weeks back I replied to this post: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=105219 regarding my observations with respect to the effect of the fuel pressure regulator mounting location on air/fuel ratios. I said that I would do a writeup and post my logs, so here it is (finally). First of all, here are the specs on my '73 240Z: L28 Turbo engine with T3/T04B turbo (set to approx 9 psi boost), ScottieGNZ downpipe, 3†mandrel exhaust, ZCarCreations fuel rail, RX-7 440cc injectors, Walbro 255lph pump, SDS EM3-6F engine management, and a Techedge DIY 2A0 Wideband meter. I have been using a stock Z FPR up until this past September, when I switched to an Aeromotive adjustable FPR. Now, earlier this year, I finally got around to making use of the datalogging capabilities of my Techedge wideband meter. I made a short interface cable using discrete wires that plugs in between the ECU and the 25 pin harness that connects to the MAP, throttle position, and air and water temp sensors. I then tapped into the wires on my interface cable that had the signals I wanted to log. The Techedge only has 3 user inputs in addition to RPM, so I used MAP, TP, and air temp. For reference, the pinouts on the DB25 connector are as follows: MAP sensor Signal – pin 6 +5V – pin 4 Com – pin 15 Throttle Position Sensor Signal – pin 21 +5V – pin 2 Com – pin 25 Air Temp Sensor Signal – Pin 7 Com – Pin 16 As much as I like the SDS system, I realized very quickly that datalogging is invaluable. I made significant improvements to my AFR’s as a consequence. The log that follows is the best tune that I got with the stock FPR. Here is the key for the graph (and all that follow) Green: Air/Fuel Ratio Light Blue: RPM Red: Manifold Air Pressure Blue: Throttle Position Pink: Air Temperature All of these runs were done at full throttle in third gear, from around 2600 RPM to about 6000 RPM. And yes, my turbo takes a long time to spool up. Now, for reasons I won’t get into here, I became suspicious that my stock FPR was not functioning properly. So, I decided to bite the bullet and order a new adjustable FPR from Aeromotive. I didn’t have a lot of time for the installation, so I mounted it to the inner fender, near the bottom of the passenger side strut tower in the engine bay. This meant that the vacuum and fuel lines to the FPR were probably around 4’ in length. I set the base fuel pressure to match the stock FPR. The graph that follows is the first run with the new FPR, using my maps for the stock FPR. You can clearly see how the AFR’s lean out dramatically while boost is building after the accelerator pump is done, then drop as peak boost is reached, only to lean out again as RPM’s build. After significant re-tuning, this is the best I could come up with: As you can see, it still leans out considerably while boost is building. I couldn’t find a viable solution to this strictly through tuning. My MAP FUEL values almost ended up being the same around 4 psi as they did around 8 psi, and consequently, 4 psi at part throttle ended up being way too rich. I could have raised the RPM FUEL values in that range, but that would have created other problems which I’ll explain if asked. I hypothesized that this lean spike while building boost was due to the location of the FPR, so I remounted it directly to the end of the fuel rail. Here’s the first log I did with the FPR on the fuel rail, but using my maps for the old mounting location: The effect on AFR’s is again dramatic. The lean spike while building boost is completely gone, and overall the AFR’s are much richer, dropping to as low as 10:1 at 6000 RPM. I didn’t have time to do much tuning after that, but here is where I left off. It still needs some work, but it’s almost there. So, I think the logs speak for themselves, but I’ll gladly answer any questions. The bottom line is that the distance from the FPR to the fuel rail has a significant impact on AFR’s. Whether this is due to the vacuum line length, the fuel line length or both, I don’t know at this time. My car is off the road for the winter, but next year I may try using a really long vacuum line to see what the effect is. Nigel

Based on my observations, I would have to conclude that there is a delay in the response time of the FPR that increases in proportion to the distance from the fuel rail. It also seemed to affect the actual pressure at the rail. Unfortunately, I never had the time to hook up my electric fuel pressure gauge to the datalogger (Techedge WB 02 meter) to confirm this. But looking at my AFR's I can't explain it any other way. Nigel '73 240ZT