Chris240zTurbo

To put some perspective on this video, Saturday was easily the nastiest day we've had this winter, and we didn't get nearly as much done as we wanted, it was very cold, even with the 45k btu heater you can hear in the background, more or less we've got the car set up where it will start and warmup without fouling the plugs or having to keep your foot on the gas, we also leaned the map out a bunch, and got rid of some weird bumps, at least on the fuel map we started with, and spent some time with the acceleration enrichment, as it was kind of obvious the "pinks" map we started with was a max power kind of a tune with little regard to driveability, and the timing map was pretty aggressive for a street motor, so we've got the fuel and timing maps all smoothed out, the car idles nice, revs well, and is set for the next round of tuning, and we'll certainly utilize the datalogging features of the MS ecu. AFR's are way conservative as we didn't have more than 3 or 4 trips around the "hood" before the sleet shut us down. But now at least we're sure the thing isn't dangerously lean, or so rich you'd need a glovebox full of sparkplugs to keep it running... I am also pretty impressed with the megasquirt ecu, especially for a DIY kind of set up, loads of well thought out features that I'm sure we'll use eventually. I look for this car to make some real power, with a $100 junkyard shortblock. supposed to be in the low 50's Wednesday Big Phil, game?

372whp and 365wtq, my mods and such are in the archives, but I do have some dyno sheets, but no where to host pictures, I also have a much more serious L28 I'm almost finished with... also, that's on a 248 dynojet

I've got the first one there John, it's a good solution, although I don't think it will fit with a tangential housing, my 60-1 T-4 is an on center housing... also believe it or not, there is enough room to hog out the stock T-3 hole in the manifold to T-4 size, although it takes a LLLOOOONNNGGG time with a die grinder and rotary cutter, porting cast iron is a real pain, I'll take a picture of the manifold tomorrow, as it's off the car, preparing for my new, much meaner L motor! nearly finished!!!

I run an Innovative Turbo Pro-gate adapter similar to that, I had it welded to the stock manifold (it's cast iron also) as the adapter I run is a T-4 flange, I opened up the hole in the manifold as close as I could to T-4 sized, and I use a turbonetics racegate with a 1.5 inch "sceamer pipe" which is pretty appropriately named the innovative adapter works great, zero issues with any spike or anything of that nature, although last time I looked at their web site I didn't see it listed any more? I'll see if I can find a picture in the next day or so...

Phil, Chris here, we met a few months ago at the FTW Z club meeting, I have a virgin bore F54 turbo short block sitting in my shop I'd sell you for $150 if you're interested, all stock, but crank journals all look good, as do pistons, it's disassembled, I was going to throw new bearings, rings and gaskets at it and sock it away for some unknown future project, but you're welcome to it if you need, heck, buy some bearings and rings and a 12 pack and come over here and we'll put it back together too... wish I'd seen this before you bought the stock pistons, as I have maybe 4 sets and I'd have just given you a set of usable ones. bummer, I just don't get online much anymore. anyway give me a call 817-593-9265

Propane torch for any vacuum leaks, it's the simplest and easiest way... although, you said you unhooked the throttle linkage so it's all the way closed, but IIRC you are using a 60mm 240sx TB, correct? it has it's own idle set screw, which prolly needs adjusted and when installed on an L intake manifold it ends up being really hard to adjust, or even see, it's opposite the TPS, underneath the manifold kinda, a real pain to adjust. You probably already thought of this though, I just thought I would throw it out there. I think it would take a pretty major vacuum leak to make the idle 1300, if the throttle plate where 100% closed, with it 100% closed the engine should die at idle. You want to chase down any vacuum leaks anyway, as they will become boost leaks once you spool up that big turbo! as for smoke, you mentioned some out of the crankcase breather, a little out of here is fairly normal with a fresh engine (rings not quite seated) and will prolly go away, a LOT would cause concern, you did stagger the compression rings, and installed the oil ring helper springs correctly, right? I have screwed up the oil springs before, and had tons of smoke, out the tailpipe though, not the breather... Good luck and have fun tuning!!!

NICE!!! I have also thought about how great it would be to have the 240sx suspension under an S30, LOADS of options!!! I'll be looking forward to watching your progress on this car... I'm seriously interested in the HRE's if you don't find someone local, just let me know... I'd do ZG flairs with them, I think, the 2JZ car looked great with 'em. I also like the idea of a VK56 motor in a Z, as I have a 2005 Titan for a daily, crew cab 4X4, and that motor moves the huge truck nicely, I can just imagine it moving half the weight!

Hey Mikey, when I was in Houston I worked closely with a couple people at the PTRA (Port Terminal Rail Authority) I wonder if you get a car delivered to the port, if I could bill it out as machine parts or something, and have it delieved to our rail yard in Houston??? on second thought, that might be bad if I where caught, never mind :^P Hey Yasin, whats the first car in your post? the maroon one, Skyline?

Nice MPH Mike! so are you going to enighten us as to the next Z project??? or is it top secret? hey, as long as you're parting it out, hows about the HRE wheels that used to be on the yellow car?

Pretty!!! whats it like to drive?

I vote for open, VVVVVVVVVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM actually rerouted might sound better, and surely not nearly as loud, mine is LOUD, but I like it, and I don't think I'll change it... you're right, it's only nasty when it's open.

Madkaw, I see from your signature that you're a train crewman, who do you work for? BNSF here, 15 years and counting!

For me, I more or less have always liked the L engine, I had a 72 in high school with an L-28, cam, header and 40 DCOE webers, and it was great, I even drove it years later to my wedding. over the years I have owned nine S30's, including a 78 with a small block Chevy. I built my current car just for kicks, tripling the output of any engine, and having it hold up and be reliable interests me. I even drove it daily for a few years... bottom line, weigh your options, and don't get fooled into thinking the L engine is ANY cheaper or easier to get power out of than nearly any other engine, just because it "bolts right in" because it's certainly not cheap, high perf parts are EXPENSIVE, although the cheapest engine to build for power ever conceived is without doubt the small block Chevrolet, and some swaps look like thats how datsun should have done it, although, like anything, I have seen V8 cars look like refugees from the salvage yard too. there are V8 cars out there that run like crap, and are likely not much quicker than a stock Z, all the way up to tubbed drag cars that launch with enough force to break your neck and everything in between, it all depends on your goals. do it because YOU like it, screw what anybody else thinks about your car, but if you build a nice one, I bet you'll find like minded folks right here! good luck... you've already found by far THE BEST site for z-car performance.. and likely nothing you could dream up could faze alot of the gearheads here.

Phil, bring it on! i just bought a house, on the "outskirts" of fort worth, north west side, with a 30x40 metal horse barn, and I will not rest until it's full of datsuns!!! JK, but I do finally have some land, 2.8 acres, and neighbors far enough away that noone will get too pissed at an unmuffled car! not like houston, when I was in the burbs, and on3go, and Hickl (SBC 280Z) used to PO the nieghbors!!! seriously though, come to a cowtown zcar club meeting if you're able, second thursday of every month, the advice flows pretty freely!, in fact, I'm going to be building an L-28 for Tim Schorn (78 280 turbo) in the near future and might try to do a cowtown tech session at my new digs, also talk to Phamtom, the prez!!!

Thanks Fellas, I only have a few minutes to get online here (think long and hard about "a promotion" when you already make good money) Jgkurz, I suppose the reason I can run that much boost on pump gas is careful tuning, the first few months the car was running I would leave for work 20 or 30 minutes early, and datalog a few times on the way to work. I still think my tune is pretty conservative, and could be improved, I did no runs on race gas for the fact that I'd like my car to perform to it's max whenever I want. street car=pump gas! Mike Kelly, I'd say you hit it on the head, ambient temp was 90* in the dyno room and maybe 75 outside, with one big box fan pointed at the nose of the car, so that would certainly explain it... BTW ditch that vette and build another Bada$$ z-car would ya! I do now plan to order the same cam as Mike (Z-Gad), plus I think it's been long enough since the last one that the wife won't notice (it's hell being married to a certifiable "car chick" ) Clifton, your 73 looks AWESOME now, very stock Zish, only way smoother, I'll bet someone who wasn't a z-head couldn't tell what was different, just that something was... just like I like 'em!!! all of you guys should see Phantom's car in person, I mean DAMN, it's nice, that LS-1 looks like it grew there, nary a wire or clamp out of place! and the interior is nicer than nearly any new car I've seen, no B.S. BTW Bill, don't feel too much pressure from us L guys, I'd hate to see a procharger or something sprout under there!!! also Greg Kring's 240 is super sweet, I need to take a picture and post it here (with all my free time!) lots of nice cars in the cowtown Z club... I'll try and get the dyno sheets up, I have a couple days off next week...

Thanks guys the longblock is pretty basic, 88mm J+E pistons, o-ringed block with stock nissan HG, ARP rod bolts, schnieder "stage 1" turbo cam, and the head has a "street port" job, by a shop that charged me too much money, and is out of business now anyway... the rotating assembly was also balanced including flywheel and clutch. 73turbo, on3go knows all about this car, I believe he's also a friend of yours? hey Z-Gad, do you have a part number for the cam that you had Isky grind for you? or do I have to call and ask for the "Gadwaw Grind"? I wasn't going to do anything else to the motor, but I'm only 28 away from 400 to the ground! almost forgot, this was on 93 octane pumpgas

long story short it made: 234hp and 238tq @ 6psi (base wastegate spring) 324hp and 330tq @18 psi and 372hp and 365tq @22 psi I made the high boost run first, tried to do it in third gear, but it wouldn't hook up, so all runs were 4th gear. for some reason boost dropped 1 psi from 23 while on the dyno, verified by haltech datalog also weird was the AFR, on the dyno above 15 psi or so, the car ran quite rich, 10.8 or so, on the dyno WB and my LM-1, while on the street my LM-1 reads about 11.2 under the same conditions, different loading on the dyno maybe? anyway, I'm happy with the power, for now, there's also some left, as AFR's were rich at high boost, and timing under boost was conservative, 24* or so under full boost. I'll try to get the sheets posted, but I'll likely have to take them to work to do it, as I have no scanner. 60-1 T-4, racegate, spearco I/C, 550cc, 3" DP and exhaust, 2.5" i/c plumbing.(loads more stuff, but I'm tired) goodnight. Chris

thats about what I thought, I run a spearco 221 core, 18.5x8x3.5, 1080cfm, and 550cc injectors, datalogs show 89% duty cycle at 23psi and 7K rpm, so thats all in order, timing is set for 24* @23 psi, and texas pump gas is 93 oct, the only thing concerning me is the AFR, I have it tuned to about 11:1 under full boost (LM-1 wideband kit) it has been running like this for several months now, although I don't drive the car daily anymore, maybe 2K miles on the new setup. Anyway, I hope to make some time tomorrow to go find out! Thanks, Chris

Hey Clifton, not to get too far off the subject, but would you like to take a wild guess (roughly) what power I'll put down with a T-04S, 60-1 comp. and .58 P-trim (on center) turbine? 23 psi boost... I'm thinking of going to the dyno tomorrow, if they don't have it booked, and make a few pulls, if I remember correctly, don't you also run a 60-1 on your L28 car?

Yeah Sparky, work has been hectic, loads more responsibility, but more money too, so it all works out. definately stay in touch for some track events, I'm down for it. as far as a laptop goes, I was able to buy a dirt cheap ancient gateway, as the E6K uses a DOS program, but the X is windows based so you'll likely need a better comp than the old junker I have, all I use it for is tuning the car. Glad to hear you got that turbo. Later, Chris

Hey Sparky, Long time no talk, I have been super busy, moving, and new job junk. Did you get that turbo? I left it with Mike (ON3GO) along with some money for shipping it to you, as I was making a mad dash 1 day round trip to/from Houston, last minute house junk. I also had to re-register here, as my old e-mail account went bye bye, no high speed 'net here, as I bought a place out in the country a bit. Anyway, I have never messed with a microtech, I thinky Mikey is going through his first install right now, so he could maybe answer microtech ?'s. I like my Haltech, and my car has been running the E6K for about the last 4 years or so, I found it to be easy to install, and I have the wiring sceme to run a S130 turbo distributor with a Z31 trigger wheel, and runs great, with the set up I run, you'll have to purchase a ignition box, I run an MSD 6A, and it works great, I ran a blaster coil for the last few years, but was getting a misfire with boost pressures over 20 psi at high RPM, a HVC 2 coil took care of that though. The datalog feature of the Haltech is invaluable when tuning, and with a wideband O2 sensor (I have an LM-1) you can tune easily on the street, as long as you have a buddy to drive the car. As far as support, Haltech closed their US office here a couple years ago, was in Dallas, I never had to deal with them, but have heard horror stories about them, so maybe it's just as well. One other item, when Violacleff's car was in the shop being wired up with his Haltech, I was able to e-mail him a map which got his car running, something you wouldn't be able to do with systems that use a handheld programmer... You might also look into Accel DFI, I have a buddy here in FTW that runs an older version on his L28ET, and his car runs great, I had nothing to do with tuning or installing it though, so I don't know much aboout it. Chris P.S. buy the 3 bar MAP sensor, you'll want it eventually!!!