boardkid280z

Choose what your preferred exhaust system would consist of for a street driven N/A L28.

"Twice pipes with glasspacks and no cat. " - youtube description That's going to be noticeably quieter and less harsh than just straight pipe(s). I am curious though, how the tone, volume and harshness would compare between dual straight pipes (2" or 2.25 or something) and a single straight pipe (2.5" or 3") on an N/A. Is it about the same, or do they sound pretty different?

What does EP stand for?

I was just putting a disclaimer in there, in case any authorities come checking us out for non-legal exhaust systems. It was really just for funzies, but I know some people have to run a cat to be legal.

What kind of turbo is that, and what kind of fuel pressure regulator are you using? Nice intercooler man, get that set up!

Hey Monzter, that car looks sounds and runs great. Like the others said, it's so quick to rev, it's hard to believe. I wonder if there's a fix for that tack problem, besides getting a new tach?

I just noticed that we can do polls now, so I am going to start a new thread with a poll and various options for exhaust on N/A cars, specifically for the L engine since other engines will be different. I might start another poll thread with different exhaust options for turbo cars too (again L engines specifically). These are the options I am thinking of for the N/A poll, let me know what you think: 1. Straight pipes (single or dual) 2. Straight through exhaust with a single small bullet muffler 3. Dual exhaust with 2 small bullet mufflers 4. Exhaust with a single standard sized muffler at rear 5. Exhaust with a bullet resonator in tranny tunnel and standard sized muffler at rear Disclaimer: Obviously these setups are for track use only since ALL of us use catalytic converters on our street cars because we are so eco-friendly. Should I mention the fact that many use a resonator up front because of the drone at ~2300RPM? Give me some feedback before I post the poll. I am not sure also, if I need to differentiate better between small bullet style/sized mufflers and standard style, or maybe chambered and straight through? I dunno.

Timing map looks good. Do you have any type of AFR gauge? wide or narrow band? What fuel pressure are you running with those injectors? They are kind of small and you might start running out of fuel, which could heat up the pistons and make them melt Have you figured out what your compression ratio is? What kind of head gasket are you using? Since you have dished pistons, that's better than flattops, so you can run more boost. But intercooling would be really helpful, I'm pretty surprised your intake temps are only 37C (~100F). What does it get it up to when you get on it? What's the max temp you've seen? I think they're have been non-turbo dished piston builds running quite a bit of boost and quite a bit of power, as long as you keep the temps down with plenty of fuel and low intake temps, etc. Interested in seeing how much power you make, do you have any pics? -Brazle

Another reason the wraps are said to cause corrosion on mild steel and aluminized steel is because they retain moisture and the moisture corrodes the metal. I'm not sure just the higher temps could really be the cause of a significant decrease in longevity, that seems possible, but unlikely. From what I've heard it's more because of the moisture that gets absorbed by the wrap material. You should really look into getting the header coated with a thermal barrier coating. They can be quite thick sometimes and really do wonders for heat management. Many coating companies have different high temp thermal coats, just get the best ($$$) one you can find. On the other hand, I think a wrapped header would probably last 100k miles. The wrap may not last that long though.

I wish there was a way to implement voting into threads on this forum. Creating a poll when you create a thread is a great way to get a bunch of opinions and responses without a bunch of lame flame posts. I bet if you set this poll up with just two options: 1) N/A straight pipes, vs 2) N/A muffled, you would get a 10 to 1 vote for N/A muffled. Of course there are varying degrees of muffled, but I think 90% or more of the people on this forum have before and would again advise against running an N/A L28 with straight pipes. It is very loud and not the greatest sound. I've had several guises of exhaust on my car, both N/A and turbo, and even running a straight pipe on the turbo setup was only barely within the limits of comfortably acceptable for me. There's just so much reverberation and drone in these cars that it seems hard to live with unless you have or desire permanent hearing damage.

Words cannot describe the feelings from seeing those twin turbos and that huge charge pipe from the IC to the throttle body. That thing just screams FAST. Is that 4" pipe? What is the IC, 3.5" in and out?

Here are a few pics of the donor vehicle I got the newest turbo motor out of. It is a 1983 280ZX Turbo with T-tops and 5 speed Borg Warner transmission. The fenders were detached and a BUNCH of parts were loose in the hatch and more in boxes. The motor's a bit dirty and there's a little oil leaking from the valve cover, but it starts up right away, with no strange noises, no smoke, a steady idle and quick throttle response, at least in neutral. Engine vacuum was 16.5inHg at startup and pushing 19 inHg after warmup, steady as a rock. Exhaust is missing the last stud, and it sounds like there might be a slight exhaust leak from the middle of the manifold, though that might just be the injectors ticking. Alternator works great, starter may need replacing soon, it seems tired. Also the wiring harness is in great condition, I took part of the harness on the charging side and will probably try to use it to replace my worn out harness and thereby simplify things a bit. Too many wires in the engine bay right now. Oil pan is quite rusty and quite a bit of corrosion and dirt on the motor, oh well. I have a lot of clean parts on the SC motor. Anyway here are the pics: The PO did some interesting work customizing the rear end, it doesn't look bad, but there's a lot of bondo there, and the rest of the car has way too much rust to be interesting at all. The motor ready to be pulled:

If you send him a PM it will probably show up in his email that he has a message waiting.

Well, I went up to Wichita last week, and my one day swap ended up lasting three days and I didn't get back till late Friday night. I wanted to put it in basically stock, so there is no IC and I am using the stock wiring harness and ECU/AFM. I had to remodify my throttle linkage since I had modified it for the supercharger cable setup. Modified the intake so the AFM sits in front of the radiator. I kept the aluminum radiator and electric fan. During the swap we lost the clutch hose off the donor car and busted the clutch hose off the SC motor when we pulled it, so I had to drive it back to OKC Friday with no clutch, that was interesting. Not too bad, only had to stop 3 twice, 2 turnpike stops and 1 fuel stop, other than that, I just kept it in gear and matched the rpms to change gears . The motor is so quiet, I have a full three inch exhaust that I made for the last turbo motor, but I added a resonator when I had the SC motor in there. So it has a resonator and a muffler. It's almost too quiet, but very nice for cruising. If you look closely in the next two pics, maybe you can see where the ECU is stuffed in the space where the wiper fluid reservoir goes under the maintenance access flap on the driver side. I'll be going to back to Megasquirt sometime, but I am thinking of getting it dyno'd like this in "stock" form before adding the IC, or MS or different turbo/injectors.

That setup looks awesome Austin, looks like you put a lot of high quality work into that car. Your website looks great too, lots of good info and pictures and well-organized. It would be cool to have a section for people to leave comments on the website.

Well, the SC motor has been in the car a while, but has smoked since I put it in. Checked compression - low, so replaced HG. Still smoked, checked compression, still low, or low again. Probably bad piston rings. Too much work, me lazy. So the car has been sitting since last summer'ish and I just sourced a 83 280ZX Turbo to be the donor. Haven't seen it yet. My friend checked it out, says it runs smooth and nice and doesn't smoke at all. Going up to Whichita, KS this week to swap motors. I will be selling the supercharger kit after that. Gonna put the turbo motor in as is, stock, and then work it up from there. Really wanna find a gt30R to slap on that mug. 35 just seems too big. I don't think I need more than 400hp.

Is your 260 missing it's powerplant/drivetrain? Is there a tranny in it? Is it 4 or 5 speed? If you have one, you can just use that tranny with the L28e and that would be the easiest solution. To get more power, you're looking to either build the L28 (EFI or carbed), or find an L28T.

It's too bad it is a different bolt pattern. If it was the same, it would make a nice mod to the stock turbo. But since it's not, and as I see in hughdogz' thread (very nice build, btw) you need a different turbo to be able to use this IW setup. What I was saying was, for the money you're putting down, might as well upgrade the whole turbo, but that point is moot now since you have to upgrade the turbo (or at least the exhaust housing) to use this setup. For a cheapo solution, I guess you could use a T-bird/SVO turbo (or other?) if it has a T3 inlet and that 5-bolt outlet, but I still think you'd be better off getting a whole new turbo. I would have to see some clear evidence of how this internal wastegate is "far superior" to others, because I don't see at all how this Ultimate IW would be superior to the one I posted on ebay. The one I posted is for a different turbo/exhaust housing, and I would be curious to see how they compare. It would be really interesting to see if they even have the same bolt pattern, I have no idea what that 5-bolt pattern is on the Garrett turbo outlets... Looking more closely, it does look like it is the same. If so, I apologize for my first reply where I shot down your term usage of "non-OEM Garrett bolt pattern". If that is the same as the Ford pattern, that may be the Standard Garrett 5-bolt pattern. The one you posted appears to be a cast piece, while the one I posted appears to be welded. I have heard that the new Garrett exhaust housings (and possibly wategate attachments/valve housings, whatever they are called) are made with high Nickel content (Ni-Resist: trade mark name for high nickel content cast iron) to resist warping and corrosion at the high temps that gasoline engines see vs. diesel turbo motors. Anyway, I am just looking for information and trying to figure what would be best for me. Not necessarily for you are anyone else. Thanks for responding and helping me get information. And, back to trying to help YOU out , like I said, you might check some stock turbos from T-birds or Mustang SVOs to see if you can get one of their exhaust housings for cheap, swap the exhaust onto your turbo, and use the UIW you've been lusting after. That would help you setup your 3" exhaust with V-band, but it may not fit with your new turbo later if the V-band outlet of the new turbo is in a slightly different position. So it might or might not bolt straight to a new/different turbo later.

Reminds me of the ebay auction I was watching for an internal wg exhaust housing for the GT35R/GT30R: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching&item=200305363919&viewitem= About the item you are looking at: a) I don't see how it works, are there any other pictures of it? I think the 5 bolt pattern used on the nissan T3 turbos is unique/different from that "ford" 5 bolt pattern. Non-OEM Garrett's is not very descriptive, it doesn't really specify anything. I too am very interested in an upgraded turbo setup while maintaining the internal wastegate for ease of installation and simplicity in the engine bay. The only concern I have is the flow limitations and the disruption introduced by the wastegate causing back pressure at the turbine outlet. Are these concerns enough to warrant staying away from internal wastegate setups? Or do IWG turbos do a decent job? icarus, instead of spending $200 on that, just get a bigger turbo. Many are out there with internal wastegates. I think that thing is a waste of money; don't get me wrong, I'm sure it would be a nice upgrade, and would make more power, especially if you are coming from a stock downpipe (3" >>> 2 1/4"). I just think your money would be better spent on a whole new turbo.

Yea, I found out while I was doing research for my setup that you have to run these superchargers wet, by adding some fuel or something before the SC to cool the blades, or else they expand. Might have been part of your problem. Not a bad looking setup though, . Here is a pic of my turbo setup, immediately after install before we had the hood back on. Did a lot of Megasquirt tuning the next few days. Mk III Supra IC in the front. Black, yellow red in front for the Belgian flag. 6 spoke rims in front, snowflakes (before black paint) in the rear.

Immediately after the install. It will be coming out soon and probably get sold. I am going back to turbo. Anyone interested, PM me.

Why don't you have a member project thread, big-phil? Let's see an update after the Haltech and some more GT35R tuning. Maybe another video.

Really? That's impressive? I was under the impression that those ICs are decent but not great, and MK3 owners start replacing theirs with upgraded ICs once they get past 300-350hp. Any links to threads about Clifton's parts and power? Also, Zchef85, you might want to go ahead and delete your other thread since your question got answered in this thread, and the admins (and the rest of us) really like to keep a clean forum.

What's the stock boost on a Z31? I bought a MK3 intercooler for my 78 280Z with an L28ET because I wanted a cheap IC with the in and outlets on the same side. I ended up cutting one of the outlets flush because it had a curvy end, so after the cut, the inlet and outlet were basically parallel and flush. And no, inlet and outlet don't matter on an intercooler, some objects are optimized for airflow in a certain direction, but I don't know of any ICs that are. I was running 13-14psi on my setup with Megasquirt, but had certain issues with oil leaking and other things so it is not on my car currently. It seemed to be just fine at that boost, and I have been told that with any IC a stock L28 turbo can run 12-15psi, where you would be limited to about 12psi without the IC. I don't know how that translates to your VG setup, but my guess is things might be similar. I ran my car without a BOV for a while, the air just flows back through the turbo when the TB closes, and from what I was told that's not too big of a problem until you start running more boost (at 7psi at that time). As long as the BOV looks clean and when you put a vacuum on the actuator valve, it opens smoothly, I don't see any problem with using a used Saab bov. Good luck!

Hey Frank - Looking good. Can't wait to see pics of the headers and exhaust.