Nigel

Sorry, I meant the WBlin output. I thought the SVout was just for the display, since it's not a true 0 to 5 V Wideband signal (SVout is only 1 to 3 volts). Nigel '73 240ZT

I'm curious why you're using the sVout output on the Techedge and not the WBVout? Or is this an older version of the Techedge? Moby... I've built 3 Techedge 2AO DIY kits and didn't have problems with any of them, so if they did have issues with them, they would seem to have been resolved. I've been very happy with mine, and I figure I saved at least close to $200 over the LM1. That was worth it for me. But I've heard nothing but good things about the LM1. Nigel '73 240ZT

That's right from the Rules and Guidlines. I don't want to make a big deal out of this. I just don't want to see these guys get nailed by the moderators. Nigel '73 240ZT

I hope you guys appreciate what you're getting yourselves in to when you make statements like that around here. That kind of sentiment is not looked upon too kindly by some around here. You better read the Hybrid Z Rules and Guidelines again. Just a heads up... Nigel '73 240ZT

What do you have the pump mounted to? If it's sheet metal, it'll likely be noisy because the sheet metal will vibrate and amplify the sound. I mounted mine to my custom rear cross member behind the differential (used to clear the LSD fins). It's a welded steel piece. When the car is running, I can barely hear the pump. And I even cut away some of the sleeve around the pump for better cooling. Nigel '73 240ZT

Did you notice that punk crashed a brand new STi (graduation present?) with only 450 miles on it? Front end collision too. If that had been the Scion, he'd might have been a gonner. Nigel '73 240ZT

Thanks guys! I think it was well worth the effort. I'm sure there are fancier things that could be done, but this was enough work as it was. The only improvement that I would like would be to have needles that glow. We painted them day-glo orange, but at night, they look pretty dark. Something like a translucent orange plastic might work. But again, for the amount of effort involved, I'll leave things as they are. Manolo (the friend who did the work for me), is going to be making another set and putting them up for sale on Ebay. When this is going to happen, I have no idea. There was a company that posted here a year or two ago trying to get 20 people together for a group buy. They needed that many people to offset the cost of getting the dies made (cutting everything by hand is very labour intensive as I discovered). They posted again recently (two weeks ago?), still looking for another 10 people. At $120 US for a set, it sounded like an incredible bargin, seeing as I spent nearly that much in materials alone, plus you could customize them in a bunch of different ways. Another option is to make your own set. You just have to buy the material, and do all the work yourself. Here's the website for the company I found that sells the EL sheets... http://www.beingseen.com Nigel '73 240ZT

The link doesn't seem to be working any more... Nigel '73 240ZT

It turned out to be a hell of a lot of work, but yesterday I converted my stock gauges to back-lit white faces! Ok, actually, I mostly watched while a friend of mine did the work (which was nice for a change). I can't thank him enough. We spent 9 hours at his printing shop (LMI Printing in Toronto) on Saturday getting everything done. Keep in mind, these are not just white pieces of paper glued to the original gauge face. The faces were printed on translucent plastic and placed over electroluminescent sheets. I think they look amazing! The picture with the back light on doesn't really do them justice. They actually have a blue tint. The EL sheet that I chose is "Ice Blue". I can't wait to get them in my Z now. It should be a pretty dramatic improvement compared with the murky black holes that we're all used to seeing... Nigel '73 240ZT

Below is my relay conversion specifically for the Z. It's based on 240Z wiring diagrams, but I think the wire colours are the same for the 280. To clarify, the 1A fuse in the diagram is one of the pre-existing fuses in the fuse box. It would normaly be 10A, but after the conversion, only a 1A is required. All you have to do is cut four wires in the engine bay harness: Red/White Red/Black Red (There are two red wires in the harness. The larger diameter of the two is the correct wire - the other is for fog lights) Red/Yellow On the headlight side of the cut: Red and red/yellow get connected to ground. Connect the Red/White wire to terminal 87 on the high beam relay via a 12 guage wire. Red/Black connects to terminal 87 on the low beam relay via a 14 guage wire. On the cockpit side of the cut: Connect the Red/Yellow wire to terminal 85 on both relays via an 18 guage wire (NOTE: in my drawing, I show the Red wire for this connection. This will work, but the high beam light on the speedometer will not turn on!). The red/white wire connects to terminal 86 on the high beam relay via an 18 guage wire. The red/black wire connects to terminal 86 on the low beam relay (via 18 guage wire). The red wire is left disconnected. Connect terminal 30 on both relays to a 30 amp fuse using 12 guage wire to the high beam relay and 14 guage to the low beam relay. The fuse connects to the positive terminal on the battery. To be safe, idealy the high and low beam circuits should be separately fused because of the different wire gauges (20A for high beam and 15A for low beam). I haven't updated my drawing yet. I tried to follow your explanation, but it's 3am and I'm not thinking too clearly right now! Basically, for high/low beam control you should be switching the relay coil grounds, not the actual headlight grounds, which is what it sounds like you're doing. Nigel '73 240ZT

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=99803

What do you guys think about heating the neck up with a heat gun first (after the gas tank is removed of course!). Do you think this might soften it up and make it more plyable? Nigel '73 240ZT

FYI... the 280Z filler is completely different than the 240 filler. On the 280Z, the filler neck is 2 pieces with the top part being metal and the bottom is hard rubber. On the 240Z, the whole thing is 1 piece of hard rubber. It's a PIA to get out, but it can be done. From what I recall, I pried it through the hole with a screwdriver. The rubber is pretty tough. However, the nipple on the neck that the hose from the evap. tank connects to I'm told may crack slightly. It probably wont even be noticable, but it may lead to the smell of fuel in the car. I will be investigating this as a possible explanation for the fuel smell in my Z (All the hoses are new). If there's an easy way to get this thing in and out, I'd like to hear it... Nigel '73 240ZT

I hope this isn't old news... I was just on the SDS website, and discovered they have V14 software out now for EM3 and EM4 systems that allows datalogging of RPM and wideband O2. You just connect the grey wire on the SDS to the 0-5 V signal from your wideband meter (or you can use NB) and off you go. http://www.sdsefi.com/datalog.htm Ok, so maybe it's not earth shattering news, but it could be a handy little tool. I mean, I've got a Techedge wideband that can datalog all sorts of things, but I've had it in my Z for a year now, and I've yet to go through the hastle of connecting it to anything. But the grey wire for the 02 input on the SDS is already there, so it's no big deal to hook it up to my wideband. And, of course, there's the added bonus of not requiring a laptop to view the log! It's $114CDN plus shipping though! Nigel '73 240ZT

The safest bet is to look for another 240 neck. The 280Z neck is totally different, and a late 260 neck I would suspect is going to be closer to the 280 neck than the 240. Nigel '73 240ZT

If you consider the geometry of the Z (not ZX) suspension carefully, it will become clear that the arc of the control arm actually pulls the hub in closer to the diff as it rotates down. Have you ever noticed that when you jack up a Z, the wheels drag inward as the car rises? Or, conversely, when you drop a Z back down to the ground, it looks like it has a lift kit installed untill you roll the car a few feet? I can't quite picture what happens under full compression, but I'm pretty sure that the upward arc (above horizontal) of the control arm doesn't pull the hub in anywhere near as much as the downward arc, if at all. Regardless, I've never experienced any kind of binding. Nigel '73 240ZT

As promised (ok, I didn't really promise, but I'm doing it anyway), here are pictures of the outer CV joint bearing cage located in the stock orientation (ball bearings removed)... and with the cage reversed... It shortens the axle length just enough, especially if you grind down the end of the shaft a bit. And keep in mind, the axle is compressed the most when the suspension is at it's lowest. So when the car is on the ground the axle actually decompresses. Even so, there's no binding with the suspension at it's lowest, unlike a setup I've seen with the 280ZXT CV axles. Nigel '73 240ZT

The Z31 Turbo CV axles (4 bolt flange) should be the correct ones. However, maybe you have CV axles from the 1988 limited edition Shiro Z31 Turbo, or conversly, a Shiro LSD (Viscous LSD, not clutch type like the other turbos). The Shiro axles will only work with the Shiro LSD. One other thing to keep in mind is that the stubs on the axles are different lengths, and wont fit properly if you try to put it in the wrong side of the diff. Regardless, the normally aspirated Z31's with the 6 bolt flange are not what you want. Nigel '73 240ZT (with Z31 Turbo axles)

I love my 240Z Turbo, and I drive it every chance I get. But, for an all out street car that can handle any road conditions and any weather, I'd take a Subaru WRX STi (No EVO in Canada, but regardless, I'd probably still take the STi). Why should the fun stop just because it's raining or snowing or there's some gravel? I have a '94 Legacy Turbo and I feel considerably more confident pushing it hard on the street than I do my Z. So, with nearly twice the HP, I imagine that the STi would be an absolute blast. Nigel '73 240ZT

I'm going to install an electric rad fan, and I intend to use the rad fan controller incorporated with my SDS EM3-6F. For those that are already doing this, if your engine is already hot, does the rad fan come on as soon as you power up the ECU, or does the ECU wait until the engine is running first before activating the fan? Also, why is there an "off" setpoint for the fan in addition to the "on" setpoint? Is this to have the fan turn off at a lower temp than the on temp? I guess this would reduce the frequency of the fan turning on and off. Nigel '73 240ZT

It's about time somebody did something like that! But I'll bet he'd get some pretty hateful comments at classic car shows in this neck of the woods. Nigel '73 240ZT

"There are many cases of warning labels saving lives," said Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy in New York. "It's much better to be very cautious ... than to be afraid of being made fun of by a tort reform group." The question we have to ask is, are those lives we really want to save? We're interfering with natural selection! Nigel '73 240ZT

Maybe I'm just making a big deal out of nothing. But I really like to understand these things, especially when they seem counter-intuitive. The temp sensor is right next to the thermostat. How could the temp at the thermostat be any different? I don't have any background in thermodynamics, but my inuition tells me that two things in such close proximity should be the same temperature. Assuming that the display is correct, and the temperature of the water at the sensor never goes above 80C in normal driving, then the thermostat would never open, or at the most, open just a tiny crack. If this is the case, then that would mean that in everyday driving, the radiator isn't even necessary to cool the engine. This leaves air cooling of the block, and/or oil cooling. As I mentioned, I do have an RX-7 oil cooler which is quite large. It's thermostaticaly controlled, but I don't know the opening temp off hand. I did test the thermostat before installing the cooler and it worked ok then. Unfortunately, I don't have the oil temp gauge installed yet, so I don't know if the oil temps are ok or not. I wish I could remember what my ET's were at the track day I ran at this past summer. I remember my Air Temps averaged around 50C. I seem to recall that the stock water temp gauge was slightly above half way (it's usually at half or slightly below). Interesting... I wonder if I can figure out a way of verifying the SDS display temp without running the engine (I've got a bunch of stuff pulled apart to install an electric rad fan - Christmas Present). Nigel '73 240ZT

Wheelman: I'm glad you were able to spot it during assembly. Like I said, I didn't. But if you grind the strut like I suggest, you wont have to worry about that happening, or even have to use putty knives at all! Nigel '73 240ZT