seattlejester

Multiple aligator clips and probing prongs will make it real easy. Keep on going, be methodical and you will find the issue in short time.

Check continuity at start and finish before you start tearing up the wiring harness. Once you find your break start to isolate and dig it out.

The voltmeter I think intercepts power from the fuse box (I might be thinking 240z though) so it makes sense that is working. The speedometer is cable driven so that doesn't surprise me that that is working either. You don't need to start with the power source per say. If you have power at the fuse box, start from there. I too must echo that burnt/melted wire is pretty major. Something caused them to melt. Too much amperage or a damaging event. Need to figure that out. If you have a volt meter use it. You shouldn't have to be forced to use it, it should be the first tool you reach for.

Meh, you get the point .

Yea it is a bit difficult to install that incorrectly with the diagram and all. With it removed if it isn't working or building boost correctly then I would be more confident that it has to do with the factory wastegate, I would say the spring might be the culprit, but I think it is a sealed assembly so you would have to just order another wastage diaphram assembly thing.

I suppose if the exhaust was restricted enough, it could theoretically slow the turbo since the exhaust would have a hard time moving out and spin the turbine, but to have that much restriction I would imagine the car would really struggle to even start or run. Some hearsay, but I've heard of plugged catalytic converters, I'm not sure if you are even running one so I want to lean away from that. If their are no leaks, then I would check the waste gate actuator as well, basically something is keeping the turbo from spooling up to speed correctly. It eventually gets up to speed, but at a really high RPM means you are leaking exhaust past the turbo, but eventually you get enough exhaust into it that it essentially spikes itself to your desired level. The wastegate could move freely, but once installed in position it might be binding somehow. Forcing the waste gate shut would be a good test as well. Just be mindful of the boost gauge and AFR so you don't run massively lean. I'm almost tempted to say it sounds like the MBC is installed backwards? You have more boost, but it really doesn't seem like you are building it till much later, where it should be building pretty quickly and hopefully tapering it off. Should look like.... _______ / \______ / Immediate and eventually the spring pushes the wastage open bleeding bypassing the exhaust. Seems like right now _ --- _ - _ - You are building up slowly which to me says that you are somehow instead of keeping the diaphragm closed, you are helping to keep it open. Maybe the wastgate spring is broken? Is the slow boost only with the boost controller installed or is it the same even with the stock setup?

Some more information would be nice. Just to make sure, what are we talking about in terms of AFR numbers. Like 13? Or like 9? Can you replicate the problem? Or is it legitimately a once a year kind of thing. If so, what time of year, any regularity? Certain conditions (rain, night, etc)? If it comes back online after a while, I'm more willing to give it a pass on more or less the mechanical aspects. What is the voltage your car runs at? I would be pretty happy with suggesting a new coil maybe even new wires and spark plugs. I do want to lean towards electrical, it could be the spark gradually deteriorating, a sudden surge of fuel (stuck injector), or the interruption of spark or something related to the electrical.

Couple things come to mind. In the videos some shifting is going on, are you at WOT? Unless you romp on it, it isn't too hard to imagine a slow boost build up. Slipping trans could also prevent the engine from putting out load which is needed for higher boost, does MPH and RPM correlate pretty well in a certain gear? Mechanically speaking there are a couple places it can happen. Either a boost or an exhaust leak. Boost leaks would be limited to pipes connecting the turbo to the intake, so AFM, AFM gasket, blow off valve, intercooler silicone joiners, etc come into mind. What kind of BOV are you running? Some of the knock off ones have really poor sealing surfaces and could be a massive boost leak. Exhaust leaks would be limited to the turbo manifold, exhaust gasket, or turbo gasket. A likely culprit seems to be the waste gate. If the waste gate is failing to stay closed for some reason it would take a lot of exhaust to get to the wanted boost pressure. That can be a failure of the waste gate, an incorrectly installed MBC, a cracked turbo housing, cracked/warped/chipped waste gate flapper thingy. Pretty much you have to pick a side and start working backwards. You can buy or build yourself a pressure tester to pressurize the charge pipes and intercool to see if the boost leak is caused on that side. If it isn't then you would have to move onto the exhaust side.

And quite a bit of valve clatter, I thought the Z's were a bit tappety, but ours are down right quiet compared to those. I will say even with my friends freshly bushing'd short shifted G260, I still prefer the nissan 5 speed. The toyota 5-speed feels way worse then both, but I would say something just felt real nice about the nissan shifter.

Welcome to the forum. We really can't give you advice on what you want to do, we don't know you. It might be better to start with an intro thread, where you come from, what cars you like, how you acquired the Z, what shape it is in, what skills you possess. Your vague question also depends on what "some power" is as well. With the cars so light, you can spin tires in third with a hot NA L28, with a built V8 you could twist the chassis if that is what "some power" is. On the flip side we have several L series cars running as much power or more than an older V8, some making more then even new V8's. You could also throw on a bottle of nitrous depending on how often "when I want it" is. You could turbo charge the motor as well if "when I want it" is more often then a couple times a month. Just a small correction to Chris's statement, our cars are actually not very nose heavy. I believe actually close to a 50/50 weight distribution. I would say nose heavy cars are more FWD cars or cars with engines in front of the axle like Subaru's or Audi's. Given a V8 is also two cylinders shorter you could move the engine back even further back and make more of the weight centered, although if it is iron with iron heads you could be adding a bit more weight.

The driveline in some cases can be the cheaper then the swap in some situations factoring in mounts, drive shafts, fuel delivery (pump, regulator, gauges, fuel lines, filters, a swirl tank, extra pump etc), turbo accessories (blow off valve, waste gate, plumbing, boost controller), etc. My friend spent almost the same amount as his block costs on a blow off valve and waste gate for an anecdotal example. Be careful chasing "cost," it might push you off the path of "want" and at that point you have something that didn't cost very much, but you no longer want. Is there a certain power level you would like to hit? I mean as far as practicality goes, a well sorted L28 will last quite a while if you replace all the wear parts. A V8 is going to be "shaky" in comparison to a L6, but if you want a V8, you don't necessarily have to go aluminum LS. You can go (my terminology might be wrong since I'm not a big domestic guy) LM out of a truck? Same bore and stroke and power out put, but iron instead of aluminum. If you really want cheap you can go with an older carb'd small block chevy. Rb25 is a much smaller fraction of swaps, I don't think there are any off the shelf mount kits, so fabricating one will be needed. It was really only used in the RWD gtr for a couple generations so everything you buy is going to have to be shipped unless you have a really good performance shop that stocks regular japanese performance parts. The turbo is also going to end up real close to the shock tower depending on what you run. On the flipside it is going to be almost 20 years newer then the latest produced L28, it still is a nissan motor, and it still is an L6.

I somehow missed this, glad to see you on hybridz!

I would be tempted to find the corresponding engine and throw that in along with the transmissions. Friend just finished his E30 Turbo, and rattling off some questions seems like the engine is pretty stout and comes with a getrag 5-speed.

Fernando is such a nice dude, absolutely pleasant to talk to on the phone. Keep us posted!

^Interesting how long have you been running that much power? Automatic or manual?

I have some no name reclining buckets. Less then 100$ a seat. Really flimsy cushion so it feels almost OEM lol. I'm honestly looking at a set of the sparco r100's. Local race shop sells them so I plan on test sitting, and maybe seeing if they can come up with a way to adapt them to my current setup so I don't have to drill any more holes. I've thought about some OEM seats, I have an rsx and the seats are pretty popular for swapping, but they have a really heavy sliding mechanism, and not quite enough bolster to hold me in. I'd say sit around, I think the OMP buckets are not bad at all, but then again I don't drive very far. It kind of boils down to the harnesses once again. Without them there are several seats with solid head rests that could be used. With them you are going to need a seat with a hole in the headrest or a detachable one to keep the belts from sliding around. And I'm not sure if OMP has them, but some of the race seat manufacturers have a lot of cushion additions like a lumbar pad with I think velcro that you just throw on your seat to make it a bit more comfortable.

I think v6 because they had one rebuilt or maybe they got it and rebuilt it, don't recall exactly. They also placed the turbo in front by flipping manifolds, that wouldn't be as easy with an extra cylinder up there. People have reported breaking the R180 input shafts, and johnc the creator has said that these axles aren't designed for more then 300hp/tq that is what the R200 and its beefier shafts are for. The v8 is going to sound different with the same turbo as the v6 sounds, so if it is the sound you are going after you might want to do more searching. You can turbo a 350, but blowers are more popular as they require a bit less work. The tendency is to turbo or vortex supercharge LS engines, but in our chassis a turbo v8 is going to put a lot of strain on a lot of things. This echoes back to rebekahsz comment, the car they had was in pretty bad shape, so they didn't care about structural integrity and such. In theory, a proper turbo carb will add more fuel with more boost as more air is passing by the carb. So yes it is in a way a self contained system. You will need to find someone pretty familiar with the setup though as it needs to idle and run rich enough in boost not to detonate. Twin turbo's are popular for V8 since you have two banks. Put one turbo on each bank of 4. You can route all the exhaust to one turbo, but that is quite a bit of exhaust. Unless you plan on dumping quite a bit of it or running a small turbo past efficiency, you have to run a bigger turbo. Big turbo means lots of power which means other things break need upgrading. So those chasing big hp may run single turbo's but given the displacement you could also run two big turbo's it kind of never stops. Short answer, yes you can run a single turbo on a v8, the problem is you will need a cross over pipe to connect both banks of exhaust. That means going behind the engine (most engines sit close to the fire wall so not possible), going above the engine (hood interference), going in front of engine (radiator, fan interference), or going under the engine (ground clearance). Since that is difficult people just run the twin turbo and keep all the piping pretty much to the sides. The v8 can sit pretty far back in a Z, so you could mount the turbo's up front between the radiator and the engine. This will once again change the sound so keep that in mind. The stock fuel will not supply a turbo v8, it will need much more capacity, also the stock fuel supply on your car is high pressure, for a carb you will need relatively low pressure. You need conversion input shafts to put the subaru diff in as well as the front flange if memory serves. I think the studs are also different either in size or in spacing so you may need to take the back cover off of a datsun r180, you will also need an r180 mustache bar. Once again this is a bit of a down grade from the R200 so it may be better to just put an LSD in that and upgrade the axles. I'm not sure your experience, but despite how they may portray themselves on the show, they have a lot and I mean a lot of talent to put behind their seemingly hap hazard installs. Some of the questions you ask are extremely basic, and this will take more then a weekend to install so I highly suggest doing a lot of research.

Thin wall socket and impact gun?

You are going to want to have everything mounted, but removable before attempting such a task. That means dash in place, lights in place, engine in place etc. You want to be able to accurately measure the amount of wire needed to reach each place (antenna, tail lights, fuel pump, horns, fog lights, turn signals, reverse switch etc etc). You might think you are in the right ball park, but without the actual item there and how it is going to route behind panels or in the rocker it is going to be pretty difficult to get everything done reliably. The dash is a pain so that will have to just be mocked up so it can be removed to rewire. On that front you are going to want a lot of wire. You also have to decide what you are keeping and what you are not. It would be a real waste if you decide you want EFI after all and have to hack up a nice wrapped wiring harness to add additional wires. It is good that you realize you may be inexperienced and seeking help. Bad electrical work can be annoying to downright catastrophic if done incorrectly. Be advised an entire rewire is a huge task, even with an EZ kit it could take a while and require quite a bit of modification and wiring supplies aren't cheap after all. I know shops that charge a few grand for that kind of work, and sometimes for good reason. You are going to have quite a bit of time before everything is in place, so read up on it and practice. Once you are ready to tackle the job and have adequate supplies feel free to hit me up. I can help out for a bit and get you started and run by the basics. Auburn is a bit out of the way, but not too bad of a drive. I've made worse.

There's a nice picture on the internet. I completely forgot to grab the measurements. I'll grab them next time I'm playing with them. So playing with this idea a bit, I'm coming down to two choices. 1. Cut the input shaft and weld the round portion to the round portion of the stub axle shaft. Then run wolf creek style porsche axle with adapters. It might be my eyes playing tricks. And I need to find my calipers, but it almost seems like output shaft has a diameter that will slide over a stub axle flange. That would make it fairly centered. 2. Find the thicker axle between the porsche and the infiniti, have it turned and splined to fit the Nissan 6 bolt CV joint on one side and fit the porsche CV on the other side. Adapt, bolt in. This seems like the more correct choice. The concern is that the joint for the nissan is quite long and that this will really really shrink down the axle length. So some facts to consider at this point. Total axle length. Given that a lot of baja/buggies like to adapt to porsche CV axles, it actually is possible to order a custom length axle off the bat or have a standard axle shortened and resplined. For the wolf creek style axle, the current measurement I am finding for axle length is 14.468 inches just for the axle. With the adapters this will bring the total length to _________. This is for I assume an R160 in a datsun 510. Seeing as how Troy sells his axles without a separate option for both the 240z and the 510, it seems this size is adequate for the R180 in the Z chassis. Listed on the wolf creek racing website, there was an option for R180 or R200 when purchasing the axle. According to past emails with Todd (RIP) he mentioned that the difference was the driver side axle is shorter for the R200 kit to allow for the larger differential size. Nominally people have said this value is approximately 1/2 an inch, that half an inch shorter on the driver side seems to make enough room to accommodate the R200 without starting to flex the suspension. Of course this will all be verified once I get under my car for the actual lengths, but I think both are feasible. The concern falls into one of two places. If I go with option 1, I will be relying on a very special input shaft for the passenger side. The rest of it could in theory be ordered. If I go with option 2, I will be using a very custom axle. The rest could be acquired at a parts store easily.

Welcome to the forum. Do you have a synchrometer and a way to determine AFR? Unless you have both, you are just going to be guessing without a trained ear, and it really only takes a little adjustment to make the carbs go from ok to bad. Symptoms of backfiring out the carb point towards timing. Do you have a timing light? It is pretty hard to help without some numbers. What timing is your base timing at, does it scale correctly with the revs, what is your AFR, what is your fuel pressure, what is the flow reading. Carb oil is another consideration, straight 20w seems to be the popular choice, this is available as 3 in 1 from most hardware stores. Need hard numbers to really find the problem, or else we are also just guessing.

Very cool, congrats!

A regular 5 speed should be a fairly bolt in affair. I think Zhome or Z garage has pictures showing the lack of any difference. There are some slight differences in the ratio's, but physically I want to say it is the same size. Here's one of the cross roads you will have to face. If you are going to a l28et swap, you can try and find a nissan T-5 and the 280zx turbo flywheel and just swap in the engine at a later point. Or if you plan on going with an LS, then there is no need to build up your transmission and clutch flywheel to take additional hp and a regular NA 5-speed and clutch setup will be just fine.

That is a good point. The symptom you describe in your second post indicates lack of fuel. Anecdote: I setup a base tune for a car and it would bog no matter how much fuel I threw at it. Turned out the fuel pressure would dive drastically with any throttle input. Inadequate fuel pressure meant no matter how much I played with the electronics, it wouldn't run correctly. Without more facts cannot determine if that is caused by your map, your accel enrichment, your setup. Have a build thread to reference? And the values are pretty easy to write down if it is too difficult to get a screen shot or put up your msq. Hard to help if you won't give the numbers to help.

I read the title, and my first thought was I wonder if he's running megasquirt. It sounds like an acceleration enrichment problem. Do you have your msq or since I don't have tuner studio on this computer can you take a picture of your acceleration settings? For me this was caused by a poor graph and a dot threshold that was too high