Drax240z

Hey I'm not saying it won't work, I'm just saying it isn't efficient. I'd be interested in seeing those dyno graphs from an earlier rpm, say 2000rpm though.

Excellent! Of course, I would have pulled an all nighter and had the crank on the floor before I found out that it was something so simple. Glad you took the easy road on that one.

T04E with a 50 trim, and 0.63 A/R would be perfect.

It is absolutely worth your effort to get cold air on the inlet side of the turbo. You mechanic is correct 100%. I think you need to study some basic turbocharger theory before you start building any type of "seriously turbo'ed Z". I am not sure how you plan on putting the filter on the TB and still running a turbo. Are you planning some kind of suck through design with the TB before the turbo? Why? It is a flawed design that way, though it can be made to work. There is little reason to go this route however with the abundance of turbo 280zx engines out there which are really an easy swap into any 70-83 Z. I really don't want to have to get into the theory of why and how you need cold air for your turbo inlet, but you do. There is tons of info allready written much better than I can write on the subject both on this site and other places on the internet. I suggest you guys do some reading and learn exactly why cold air is a good idea.

1) check the ignition module on the side of the distributor. Connections may need cleaning. Also clean ECU, thermotime, TPS & AFM connections while you are at it. 2) Grab a wheel while the car is resting on the ground and wiggle it top to bottom/side to side and see if there is any clunking or abnormal movement. I'd guess tie rod ends or ball joints!

Yeah completely. Remember that guy from The Goonies?

Yup, you'll notice siliconE smells exactly like vinegar... that is the acetic acid... bad news on bare metal. As for silicon on bare metal, not a big deal but nor will it really be any help.

Also a trick I've heard and not yet tried, install the SS trim into the rubber before you install the glass. (leave the corner peices out) It helps keep the rubber in the right shape and is 500x easier installing it before than after the window is in place.

Don't just buy that turbo without knowing the specs. There is a huge range of T3/T04's, some will work well in a Z, some distinctly not so well. Find out the A/R's and trim of that particular turbo first.

Piece of cake to cut off the EGR and weld a plate over the hole, I'd go that route rather than making a cover. By all means get everything welded. The end result will be much better.

Uh, don't even consider ram air as a benefit guys, cold air is the benefit. At 180mph+ you'd be gaining a maximum of 5-10hp from the ram air effect from a well designed SYSTEM. (ie: more than just a hood) It's not worth worry about unless you are racing and high speeds and looking for every last ounce of performance. However, cool air will give you much more in the way of benefits at lower speeds.

You could send it off to be extrude honed... I wonder if anyone has done that with one of these manifolds before. I suspect the gains would be rather huge.

The loctite really isn't necessary at all with that style of fitting.

Some more info here... I finally got around to wideband tuning and have noticed the same thing. Before with the narrowband O2 sensor it wasn't noticable at all on the AF meter. I talked to Ross at SDS and this was his reponse: We recommend mounting the a/t sensor in the intercooler discharge pipe before the TB as this involves less heat soak problems and faster change due to higher local mass flow. L series engines have issues with fuel heat soak due to the proximity of the fuel rails to the exhaust radiation. This causes decreased fuel density and altered AFRs which the ECU cannot compensate for. Moving the a/t sensor may help quite a bit. Aluminum fuel rails are a bad idea on these engines in particular. I think I am going to move mine as Ross has suggested. I'll try to remember to add to this thread once I've done that and can compare results a little.

Actuall jon while the 240sx is 60mm ID, it fits up really nicely with 2.75" tubing, as the OD of the TB is about 2.75". With my IC haivng a 2.75" outlet I chose not to neck down or up and made my cold pipe from 2.75 from outlet to TB. Waaaaay overkill for power, but easier & cheaper from the fabrication side of things. (sometimes we must make these concessions) I still can't imagine twin t3/t4 hybridz on an L-series. Or at least when I do imagine it I picture a car that I can kill with my stock T3 under any normal driving conditions. Lets see, on a 6 cylinder engine you can use 1 injectors flow rate as a rule of thumb for engine output. ie: 300cc/min~300hp, 550cc/min~550hp. It is just a rule of thumb for easy estimating. A sequential turbo setup using a T25 and a T3/T4 does have some interesting appeal and could be viable given enough development. If you truly believe this I think you should probably consider 1 of 2 options. A) keep it to yourself here. Go find someone elses sandbox to piss in.

It always amuses me when people try to argue against the laws of physics. They usually end up meeting with some kind of gruesome death while trying to prove their theory mind you, but up until that point it is quite amusing to me.

Yup I've used the russel crimp style fittings and they work just fine. Using them on my car right now with no isses. After all my trouble trying to find a 37* flaring tool around here I gave up and went that route... no regrets.

Just be super careful about the alignment... nothing is worse than having a Z where you can't get any of your panel gaps aligned because someone has done a poor job of measuring in the past!

There are lots of adhesives and epoxies out there that can seriously outclass rivets. The drawbacks are that they are usually much more expensive, require lots of surface prep/time, and if applied poorly they just won't work. Just make sure if you do a patch you a) remove all the old rust from the area, and seal it tight against moisture once the repair is done.

Its not a bad price, just realize that you will probably have to spend a fair bit still completing the engine/electrical. If you just want an easy swap I'd try to find a turbo car complete that runs and transfer everything over from a known well running car.

Hey Myron, welcome back! Sounds like a great build, keep us up to date!

Actually I read a bunch of his posts on the linked site... The flooring was $3sqft compared to $5sqft for epoxy. In his situation I am sure looking good was more important than functionality, but I would have sprung for the epoxy floor system. He's also put a 2nd hottub out back of the garage apparently. Jealous? Perhaps, but not of his garage, more his money allocated to the garage. I think the right word is "disgusted" in that he paid $15,000 for the video game (so he claims) and didn't use that money to buy some decent shop equipment, machine tools, an RB26DETT for me, you know, the basics.

I just started running the BR8ES as well and have a few issues. Cold starting is a bit rougher, but not too bad. Also power seems down a little bit, however detonation has been reduced as well.

It's nice and all, but I don't see any real tools or any indication that there is actually work done in that garage, or any intent for work... looks like a garage intended to act as an enlargement to me. Seriously, see any floor jacks, creepers, oil drain pans, etc? Lots of stuff that won't fit in his storage and are staples of a place where work is actually done seem to be absent. I also can't remember the last time I was working on a car and had an uncontrollable urge to play the slots either. Seriously nice car parking place none the less.

I doubt you'll see any performance gains in stock form. Runners are the same size, as is plenum, etc. Some later manifolds plenum tapers down towards cylinders 5 & 6 to increase air velocity which the earlier ones do not. The biggest difference is just aesthetics really. The N42 is a much nicer namifold to start with if you are trying to clean up the look of your engine.