Drax240z

Aw comeon, sneak us a little teaser picture. What price range are we talking anyway?

I get a kick at looking at the older pictures, 80, 81... Its amazing how far this competition has come since the early 90's even!

I'm flabberghasted.

How many stickers does that entail? Oh and how bit is the exhaust tip? I guess it depends what site you scour for information.

http://www.sdsefi.com For the individual TB's, try looking at TWM induction. Big $$$ though.

Yes I'm getting tired of having to answer the same questions over and over again, so here are some common answers, all in one place and easy to find. I hope that those of you with helpful info to add to this post will reply and do so. Especially those guys that have been through this a few times. This is intended to inform the reader of the options which exist in building up a Nissan L series turbo engine. Specifically to give an overall picture of the cost, potential and problems associated with using this engine as a base for a performance application. Much of this info has been used without permission from various turbo websites, books and discussion forums. This is intended as a guide only. If you follow this to the letter and have a problem, no one is responsible but yourself. Performance Goals The first thing you need to decide is exactly what your goals are. If you hope to have a 200hp L series engine, you likely don't need a turbo. If you want some serious power (200-500+) out of the Nissan L series, using a turbo is probably the most viable option. So You Want a Turbo Now you've decided that you want a turbo L series engine. You have a performance goal in mind and its time to built it! The single most important piece of advice I can give to anyone is to research your build before you do it. (reading this is a good start!) Do yourself a favor, and track down the book "Maximum Boost" by Corky Bell. Read it a few dozen times. By that point, you should know enough about turbo systems to make educated decisions, and to ask the right questions. Also, use the search function here, and scour the internet to see what others have done. At the end of this post there is a list of links to other articles and sites on turbocharging. Some are Nissan specific, some aren't. Now for Some Technical Stuff The best place to start is by getting a 1981-1983 Datsun 280zx Turbo engine. Either with the whole car, or just by itself. If you are planning a stock install, try and get a complete car! There are a whole mess of electronics that you will need from the donor car, AFM, ECU, Wiring harness, fuel pump, etc. The rest of this article is directed more towards a high performance buildup rather than a stock one. I picked up a 1982 280zx turbo engine for around $200US. This included everything physically attached to the engine. It did not include the ECU, fuel pump, airflow meter, etc. This didn't matter to me because from the beginning I was planning to use a different (programmable) system to manage my engine. Time to Get Your Head Checked Well your engines head that is. As you disassemble your engine, be sure to put everything in baggies and label it. This will save you much torture upon re-assembly. Once you get your head off, you might as well send it out to the machine shop. Try to find a shop that specializes in imports, or at the very least has done a few imports before. I sent my P90 head out and had it back in a couple of weeks. Give yourself enough time. If the machine shop quotes you 1 week, expect it in 2-3. For $250US my head got a performance valve job, a complete cleaning, new valve seals, all threads chased and a .010" surface plane. I was quite impressed with the work done to it. Now this is a bit of an optional step, I did a complete rebuilt on my engine, but many people have got great results just using unopened boneyard engines. Your call. Camshafts Remember all those things you heard about putting a hot cam in a performance engine? Forget them all. At least when you are thinking about a turbo. A turbo engine has completely different requirements than a naturally aspirated (NA) engine. For the Nissan L series engine, the stock turbo cam should really do you up to 350-400hp. In general you aren't going to get the same results by putting in a "performance" turbo cam into a turbo engine, as you are when putting a "performance" NA cam into a NA engine. Generally turbo camshafts have a lower valve overlap than NA cams, to prevent exhaust gas reversion. This is caused by the exhaust manifold pressure between the valve and the turbo being higher than the boost (intake manifold) pressure. "Hot" NA cams have quite a large valve overlap, and if these cams are used in a turbo setup you'll end up hurting performance when compared to the stock cam. For over 400hp applications call a cam company and work with them to get the perfect grind of cam for your engine. (custom grind) Porting and Polishing For the less than 400hp crowd you don't really need to port and polish, though a general "cleanup" doesn't hurt. In the past it has been summed up to me like this. "Take the cash you'd spend on porting and polishing and spend it on a better intercooler, better turbo, better engine management, etc" You'll end up with more for your buck this way. The P90 head already flows well. If your goals are over 400hp... I think you should talk to a company that specializes in Nissan L series headwork. (Sunbelt, top end, rebello, etc). You and Your Bottom End So now we head back to your original goals. The general consensus is that Nissan overbuilt these turbo engines. They ran a very cautious 7psi of boost stock. No doubt this was to ensure reliability and long life. I expect that the stock Nissan shortblock (the block, crank, pistons, rods, bearings, etc) can be pushed to a reliable maximum of about 350hp. Anything over that and you are likely throwing reliability into the wind. For a really stout and reliable 300hp+, you should consider going with forged pistons. Pre-detonation can kill a turbo engine by melting pistons and breaking ring lands in under a second. Forged pistons will give you a bit more of a buffer. So be careful setting up your engine, and take it easy until you know your not too lean! If you are planning on an engine with more than 400hp, you will need to do some connecting rod prep as well. One more area of concern, the headgasket. Headgaskets rarely will blow without detonation occurring. If you are going nuts (over 400hp is nuts!) then you should look into block o-ringing or a metal headgasket of some sort. Turbos The stock Airesearch T3 turbo that comes with the 280zxt is decent for probably around the 275hp mark. For more serious power, almost every L28 turbo engine I've heard about uses a T3/T04 hybrid turbo. This uses the stock exhaust side of the turbo and a larger intake impeller. As a result, you can still use the stock exhaust manifold. There are lots of turbo shops in the world, and most can help you decide what is right for you. (plus there are many posts here outlining the same thing) Manifold Choices Honestly, unless you are planning a 450+hp engine, (in which you should be talking a lot to a high performance engine builder) I would stay with the stock exhaust manifold. Headers for turbo cars can run into the $2000 range to have one built. They look really nice though. As far as the intake goes, any L28 series intake will work. (you can use the one that came with the engine) However the earlier intakes (75-78) have a lot less junk attached to them, and a lot less holes. It's worth while to use one of these just to clean things up a bit. But don't panic if you can't get one, I ended up cutting and welding my stock turbo manifold to clean it up. A popular upgrade is to replace the stock throttle body with a 60mm unit. It may not sound like a large improvement, but the 60mm will flow almost 44% more air than the stock 50mm unit. These throttle bodies can be found on many recent cars, such as the Nissan 240sx, which is almost a bolt on mod. You may have to adapt your linkage slightly. Do yourself a favor and once you get the TB, hold it up to the intake and use a Dremel or die grinder to smooth the transition between the 2 pieces. Without doing this, there is no point in upgrading the throttle body! (but make sure you aren't sending aluminum shavings into your engine... remove the intake if possible!) Exhaust Take a look at the stock downpipe coming off the turbo. You'll notice an O2 sensor... and a 90 degree bend, followed by another 90 degree bend. This has to be one of the poorest designed pieces on this engine. I really suggest that you get a custom made downpipe unless you are happy with the stock performance. A good design would be made of 2.5" mandrel bent 304 stainless steel, with 2, 45 degree bends. Alternatively you can have it made out of mild steel and then ceramic coat it. Make sure you know how much room you have before doing this... you don't want to spend the money on a custom piece that won't fit. A 3" downpipe is possible, but makes getting at the bolts to attach it very difficult. As well, the stock T3 outlet is only 2-1/8" diameter. For the exhaust system itself, 3" mandrel bent is the only way to go. (no press bends) The less exhaust restriction you have, the faster your turbo will spool up, and the less lag you will have. Again, forget about traditional concerns such as backpressure, and loss of torque with a bigger pipe, those rules don't apply to turbos. Zero restriction is perfect, but loud. A 3" system will give you excellent flow when used with a high flow muffler. Don't use a resonator in this system! The turbo itself will eliminate the exhaust drone that NA 6 cylinders get from 2000-2500 rpm. Turbos will also quiet the exhaust at about 1/3rd the rate a muffler would. Engine Management Big decision. If you are planning on running more than about 275hp, I really wouldn't get stuck on the stock system. This is one area to dish out the cash that you saved by not porting and polishing. For under $1000US you can get a fully programmable system to run your ignition and fuel delivery. If you think you are going to want more power the future, this is the only way to go! It offers nearly infinite flexibility. If you want a stock system, you are on your own to sort through all the wiring diagrams and figuring out which red wire with the gray stripe you need. Sorry. Intercooling This is the other area to dump cash into! A cheap intercooler will take you no where, and do it well. Expect to spend more than $300 for a quality unit. This is the heart and soul of a turbo engine, so do your research well. Spearco offers incredible units, but at a pretty high price. A common performance intercooler is the Isuzu NPR intercooler. They are fairly difficult to find, but if you luck out you can get one used for under $300. Generally when it comes to intercooling a high performance engine you want the biggest intercooler you can find. I wince a little when I say that. A good design is more important than the size of the unit. Read up on what makes a good intercooler and make an educated choice. Fuel Delivery First thing, you'll likely want a new fuel line if you plan on pushing 300hp. I expect a 3/8" feed line would provide enough flow for a 350hp car. 5/16" is a good size for a return line. You are also going to need a high pressure fuel pump. New ones are nice, but if you want to go used try to get one out of a high performance car with a larger displacement than 2.8liters. Something like a BMW 535, 635, 735 could do. A 300zxtt, Supra tt, etc. would likely also do. Depends how wild you want to go. While you are wiring in your new fuel pump (make sure you use a relay for it) now is a good time for a little theft protection. Run a hidden toggle switch on the line that triggers your fuel pump relay. As long as you remember to turn it off every time you get out of the car, it's a pretty decent way to keep your car where you left it. Injectors Those stock injectors aren't gonna cut it over 250hp. You can cheat a little by running higher than stock fuel pressure through them, but this is just a band-aid fix. A common OEM injector that can support around 300hp is the Ford Merkur/SVO injectors. They are considerably cheaper than high performance injectors, and will fit in the Z with some modifications. Beware, you're going to need a custom fuel rail if you go this route. (Which again will clean up the look of your engine) Blow Off Valve This modification is highly recommended on any turbo Z car. When the throttle plate closes the air is still being pushed out of the turbo, it hits the throttle plate and reverses towards the turbo impeller. This collision causes the turbo to slow down spinning. Which means that every time you shift gears the turbo will slow down its spin. Not good! Adding a simple blowoff valve between the turbo and the throttle body will drastically improve this problem. You can spend $200 and get one from Greedy, (Greddy) or you can go to the wreckers and try to locate on off a Talon/Eclipse/Laser Turbo from '90-94. $20 or so and it should be yours. Wastegate and Boost Control The stock wastegate on the T3 turbo is pretty decent. In the pages listed below you can see 2 different methods of controlling your boost levels. One way is by metering the vacuum signal to the wastegate, and the other way is by threading the wastegate rod and changing the length of it. An external wastegate is a superior design to this integrated design. If you are planning high boost (over 15psi) you will probably want to design a external setup. Maximum Boost has a great section on wastegate design. Oil This is an often debated topic. I strongly suggest that anyone building up a turbo engine plan to run fully synthetic oil for the life of the engine. Synthetic oil is simply going to stand up better to the high heat that oil sees in turbocharged engines. If you absolutely will not run synthetic for some reason, try to use a straight weight motor oil. These oils are more stable than the multiweight (such as 10W-30, 20W-50) oils. This stability helps prevent oil 'coking' which is a common cause of turbo failure. However, you don't want to use synthetic motor oils for the break in period. They simply lubricate too well to allow your engine to go through the proper break in cycle. Also, its generally recommended that you change your oil every 500miles during break in. That gets mighty expensive if running synthetic. Budget You'll notice that a lot of the advice in this article revolves around how to make a low budget, high performance turbo engine. It really shouldn't be difficult to have a 300hp engine for around $3500. Use some creativity and search autowreckers for OEM parts that may work. (such as the Isuzu NPR intercooler, eclipse BOV, Merkur/Svo injectors) Take the time to research your product before you buy and you will save yourself money. There is nothing worse than paying top dollar for a part that you don't need! Recommended Internet Reading: http://home.flash.net/~joeao/greg/zcar.html http://www.eng.fsu.edu/~jthagard/ http://www.sdsefi.com (Good tech articles here) http://www.stealth316.com/1-tech.htm http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/transmission.html http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/turbo.html

Yes I'm getting tired of having to answer the same questions over and over again, so here are some common answers, all in one place and easy to find. I hope that those of you with helpful info to add to this post will reply and do so. Especially those guys that have been through this a few times. This is intended to inform the reader of the options which exist in building up a Nissan L-series turbo engine. Specifically to give an overall picture of the cost, potential and problems associated with using this engine as a base for a performance application. Much of this info has been used without permission from various turbo websites, books and discussion forums. This is intended as a guide only. If you follow this to the letter and have a problem, no one is responsible but yourself. 1) Project Planning Project planning is the key to success in any project. The first thing you need to decide is exactly what your goals are. If you hope to have a 200rwhp L-series engine, you likely don't need a turbo. If you want some serious power (200-500+ rwhp) out of the Nissan L-series, using a turbo is probably the most viable option. i) Budget Before you get going, know your budget. It’s difficult to say what you’ll need, it depends on your ability to find deals, whether you start with a complete car, how extreme your build is, and how much you do yourself. At minimum however, if you don’t have $2000 to run through a very basic swap, you probably are going to find you don’t have enough money. Nothing is worse than getting halfway through a project and losing all momentum due to lack of funds. An average performance turbo engine swap, putting out in the area of 250-275rwhp is going to cost you a minimum of $3500 if done reliably. ii) So You Want a Turbo Now you've decided that you want a turbo L-series engine. You have a performance goal in mind and its time to built it! The single most important piece of advice I can give to anyone is to research your build before you do it. (reading this is a good start!) Do yourself a favor, and track down the book "Maximum Boost" by Corky Bell. Read it a few dozen times. By that point, you should know enough about turbo systems to make educated decisions, and to ask the right questions. Also, use the search function here, and scour the internet to see what others have done. At the end of this post there is a list of links to other articles and sites on turbocharging. Some are Nissan specific, some aren't. Knowledge is the key to a successful build. iii) Now for Some Technical Stuff The best place to start is by getting a 1981-1983 Datsun 280zx Turbo engine. Either with the whole car, or just by itself. If you are planning a stock install, try and get a complete car! There are a whole mess of electronics that you will need from the donor car, AFM, ECU, Wiring harness, fuel pump, etc. The rest of this article is directed more towards a high performance buildup rather than a stock one. A word of advice, if you get the complete car, spend some time to make sure it is running well, and fix any problems BEFORE you start your swap. I picked up a 1982 280zx turbo engine from a wrecker for around $200US. This included everything physically attached to the engine. It did not include the ECU, fuel pump, airflow meter, etc. This didn't matter to me because from the beginning I was planning to use a programmable engine control system to manage my engine. 2) Time to Get Your Head Checked Well your engines head that is. This step is really only necessary if you plan on deviating from the stock internals, or want a freshened up engine. Many people have been successful running junkyard engines without cracking them open to inspect and rebuild. As you disassemble your engine, be sure to put everything in baggies and label it. This will save you much torture upon re-assembly. Once you get your head off, you might as well send it out to the machine shop. Try to find a shop that specializes in imports, or at the very least has done a few imports before. "How to rebuild your Nissan/Datsun OHC engine" and "How to modify your Nissan/Datsun OHC engine" are brilliant books for reference, whether you are doing the work yourself or not. I sent my stock P90 head out and had it back in a couple of weeks. Give yourself extra time, machine shops are notoriously slow. If the machine shop quotes you 1 week, expect it in 2-3. For $250US my head got a performance valve job, a complete cleaning, new valve seals, all threads chased and a .010" surface plane. I was quite impressed with the work done to it. Now this is a bit of an optional step, I did a complete rebuilt on my engine, but many people have got great results just using unopened boneyard engines. Your call. i) Camshafts Remember all those things you heard about putting a hot cam in a performance engine? Forget them all. At least when you are thinking about a turbo. A turbo engine has completely different requirements than a naturally aspirated (NA) engine. For the Nissan L-series engine, the stock turbo cam should serve you well up to ~300rwhp. In general you aren't going to get the same results by putting in a "performance" turbo cam into a turbo engine, as you are when putting a "performance" NA cam into a NA engine. Generally turbo camshafts have a lower valve overlap than NA cams, to prevent exhaust gas reversion. This is caused by the exhaust manifold pressure between the valve and the turbo being higher than the boost (intake manifold) pressure. "Hot" NA cams have quite a large valve overlap, and if these cams are used in a turbo setup you'll end up hurting performance when compared to the stock cam. For over 300rwhp applications call a cam company and work with them to get the perfect grind of cam for your engine. Recently there has been discussion around using the early 240z "A" cam in a turbo application. In theory it looks like a good choice, but I have little to substantiate it at this point. ii) Porting and Polishing For the less than 400rwhp crowd you don't really need to port and polish, though a general "cleanup" doesn't hurt. In the past it has been summed up to me like this. "Take the cash you'd spend on porting and polishing and spend it on a better intercooler, better turbo, better engine management, you'll end up with more for your buck this way." The P90 head already flows well enough for modest power goals. If your goals are over 400rwhp... I think you should talk to a company that specializes in Nissan L-series headwork. (Search Hybridz for a few companies represented here, they know their stuff). iii) Compression Ratio The L-series isn’t the most advanced engine out there, and as such it has some shortcomings. You may have friends that have run modest boost on a modern engine with a compression ratio in excess of 10:1. That’s not really an option on these engines, those modern engines have much better combustion chamber design, as well as cooling that allows the higher boost levels. Stock compression ratio is 7.4:1 on a factory L-series turbo engine, and represents the bottom of the range of how low to go. In most circumstances, you don’t want to exceed 8.5:1 compression ratio with the L-series. Given the choice offered by custom pistons, I would recommend around 8.25:1 for the general majority of people. 3) You and Your Bottom End So now we head back to your original goals. In general Nissan overbuilt these turbo engines for the stock power goals by a large factor. They ran a very modest 7psi of boost stock. No doubt this was to ensure reliability and long life. Many have pushed the stock Nissan shortblock (the block, crank, pistons, rods, bearings, etc) to a reliable maximum of about 300rwhp. Anything over that and you are throwing reliability and longevity into the wind. i) Pistons For a really stout and reliable 300rwhp+, you should consider going with forged pistons, quality rod bolts, and a quality rebuild. Pre-detonation can kill a turbo engine by melting pistons and breaking ring lands in under a second. Forged pistons will give you a bit more of a buffer. So be careful setting up your engine, and take it easy until you know your not too lean! ii) Connecting Rods If you are planning on an engine with more than 300rwhp, rods, rod bolts, main studs, etc. should all be scrutinized and potentially upgraded as well. Many have managed to have the stock rods shot peened, and refit them with upgraded ARP studs. There are also custom aftermarket rods out there that offer another echelon of performance and reliability. iii) Headgaskets One more area of concern, the headgasket. Headgaskets rarely will blow without detonation occurring, so if you tune well you shouldn’t be concerned with it at modest power levels. If you are going nuts (over 400rwhp is nuts in a sub 2500lb car!) then you should look into block o-ringing or a metal headgasket of some sort. iv) Crankshaft Very little needs to be done to the stock L-series crankshafts to prepare them for turbo applications. A thorough inspection and polish is usually all that is needed. Because these cranks are forged, they rarely need to be resized. 4) Turbos The stock Garrett T3 turbo that comes with the 280zxt is decent for up to the 250rwhp mark, with a few people closing in on 300rwhp. Approaching 300rwhp this turbo is way outside its efficiency range, and it's not recommended to push it that far. For more serious power, a more serious turbo is needed. Common choices are T3/T4e hybrids, GT30s, GT35s, etc. The T3/T4e and GT30 bolt to the stock exhaust flange (with a spacer) and have much better flow through the intake side. As a result, you can still use the stock exhaust manifold. There are lots of turbo shops in the world, and most can help you decide what is right for you. (Plus there are many posts here outlining the same thing) i) Wastegate and Boost Control The stock wastegate on the T3 turbo is pretty decent for modest performance goals (<250rwhp). In the pages listed below you can see 2 different methods of controlling your boost levels. One way is by metering the vacuum signal to the wastegate, and the other way is by threading the wastegate rod and changing the length of it. An external wastegate is a superior design to this integrated design. If you are planning high boost (over 15psi) you will probably want to design a external setup. Maximum Boost has a great section on wastegate design. ii) Boost Levels Beginners often confuse boost pressure with power. While there is a relationship between boost pressure and power output, they are not linear, and cannot be related from turbo to turbo. A stock T3 turbo does not move as much air at 7psi as a larger T4 turbo, so even though the boost levels are the same between the two turbos, the larger turbo will be pumping more air into the engine, and with corresponding increases in fuel will make more power. Bragging about boost levels is a sure fire way to tell car-savvy people you don't know what your talking about. 5) Exhaust System For the exhaust system itself, 3" mandrel bent is the only way to go. (no press bends) The less exhaust restriction you have, the faster your turbo will spool up, and the less lag you will have. Again, forget about traditional concerns such as backpressure, and loss of torque with a bigger pipe, those rules don't apply to turbos. Zero restriction is perfect, but loud. A 3" system will give you excellent flow when used with a high flow muffler. Don't use a resonator in this system! The turbo itself will surpress the exhaust drone that NA 6 cylinders often get from 2000-2500 rpm. As turbo will also quiet the exhaust at about 1/3rd the rate a muffler would, all that is needed for adequate sound levels is a straight through muffler at the stock position. Exhaust is a huge bang for the buck for performance increase, and should be among the first mods done to increase horsepower and responsiveness on the turbo engine. i) Exhaust Manifold Choices Unless you are planning a 400+rwhp engine, I would recommend the stock exhaust manifold, due to its great durability and cheap price. Headers for turbo cars can run into the $2000 range to have one built. The performance and looks can both be really top notch, and for an all out build one should be considered. ii) Downpipe Take a look at the stock downpipe coming off the turbo. You'll notice an O2 sensor... and a 90 degree bend, followed by another 90 degree bend. This cast elbow and crush bent pipe are very restrictive, and have to be the poorest designed pieces on this engine. I really suggest that you get a custom made downpipe unless you are happy with the stock performance levels. In my testing, just a downpipe upgrade at stock boost levels yielded more than 10rwhp improvement. A good design would be made of 2.5" mandrel bent 304 stainless steel, with 2, 45 degree bends. Alternatively you can have it made out of mild steel and then ceramic coat it. Make sure you know how much room you have before doing this... you don't want to spend the money on a custom piece that won't fit and it is pretty tight. A 3" downpipe is possible, but makes getting at the bolts to attach it very difficult. As well, the stock T3 outlet is only 2-1/8" diameter. 6) Intake System i) Intake Manifold Choices As far as the intake goes, any L28 series intake will work. (you can use the one that came with the engine) However the earlier intakes (75-78) have a lot less junk attached to them, and a lot less holes. It's worth while to use one of these just to clean things up a bit. But don't panic if you can't get one, I ended up cutting and welding my stock turbo manifold to clean it up. These intakes are not superb for performance, but there are a couple of things that you can do to increase them to acceptable levels. The stock intake manifold tends to cause a pretty good drop in horsepower starting at about 5500rpm. If you are looking for high rpm power, or you want 350rwhp or more, a more optimized intake configuration should be considered. Either a highly modified stocker, or a completely new, better flowing intake. Examples of both can be found using the search function on Hybridz. ii) Throttle Body A popular upgrade is to replace the stock throttle body with a 60mm unit. It may not sound like a large improvement, but the 60mm will flow almost 44% more air than the stock 50mm unit. These throttle bodies can be found on many recent cars, such as the Nissan 240sx, which is almost a bolt on mod. You may have to adapt your linkage slightly. Do yourself a favor and once you get the TB, hold it up to the intake and use a Dremel or die grinder to smooth the transition between the 2 pieces. Without doing this, there is no point in upgrading the throttle body! (but make sure you aren't sending aluminum shavings into your engine... remove the intake!) iii) Intercooler This is the other area to dump cash into! A cheap intercooler will take you no where, and not quickly either. Expect to spend more than $300 for a quality unit. This is the heart and soul of a turbo engine, so do your research well. Spearco offers nice units, but at a pretty high price. A common performance intercooler is the Isuzu NPR intercooler. If you luck out you can get one used for under $250. Generally when it comes to intercooling a high performance engine you want the biggest intercooler you can find. I wince a little when I say that. A good design is more important than the size of the unit. Read up on what makes a good intercooler and make an educated choice. iv) Blow Off Valve This modification is highly recommended on any turbo Z car. When the throttle plate closes the air is still being pushed out of the turbo, it hits the throttle plate and reverses towards the turbo impeller. This collision causes the turbo to slow down spinning. Which means that every time you shift gears the turbo will slow down its spin. Not good! Adding a simple blowoff valve between the turbo and the throttle body will drastically improve this problem. You can spend $200 and get one from Greddy, HKS, Turbosmart... or you can go to the wreckers and try to locate on off a Talon/Eclipse/Laser Turbo from '90-94. $40 or so and it should be yours. Remember that because a BOV releases air from the intake track, if you are using the stock air flow meter you will be letting out metered air, messing with your air/fuel mixture. If you are running a stock computer system, the best plan is to route the BOV outlet back into the intake system. v) Pop Off Valve This device was included on the L-series turbo engines as a method of engine protection. While it doesn't influence performance at stock boost levels, if you plan on running more than about 7psi boost it will need to be modified or removed. If removed, you've eliminated your overboost protection! While this is not necessarily a problem for those that have knowledge about their level of tune and boost levels, for beginners it is recommended that you leave this in place and gain some experience with the turbo engine before removing. 7) Engine Management Big decision. If you are planning on running more than about 225rwhp, I wouldn't get stuck on the stock system. This is one area to dish out the cash that you saved by not porting and polishing. For under $750US you can get a fully programmable system to run your ignition and fuel delivery. If you think you are going to want more power the future, this is the only way to go! It offers nearly infinite flexibility. If you want a stock system, you'll have to do some searching here to figure out the exact wiring mods needed. i) Fuel Delivery First thing, you'll likely want a new fuel line if you plan on pushing 300rwhp. I expect a 3/8" feed line would provide enough flow for a 350rwhp car. 5/16" is a good size for a return line. You are also going to need a high pressure fuel pump. New ones are nice, but if you want to go used try to get one out of a high performance car with a larger displacement than 2.8liters. Something like a BMW 535, 635, 735 could do. A 300zxtt, Supra tt, etc. would likely also do. The Walbro 255 pump is another good choice that won't break the bank. Depends how wild you want to go. While you are wiring in your new fuel pump (make sure you use a relay for it) now is a good time for a little theft protection. Run a hidden toggle switch on the line that triggers your fuel pump relay. As long as you remember to turn it off every time you get out of the car, it's a pretty decent way to keep your car where you left it. ii) Injectors Those stock 260cc/min injectors aren't gonna cut it much over 200rwhp. You can cheat a little by running higher than stock fuel pressure through them, but this is not an ideal fix. A common OEM injector that can support around 275rwhp is the 370cc/min Ford Merkur/SVO injectors. They are considerably cheaper than high performance injectors, and will fit in the Z with some modifications. Beware, you're going to need a custom fuel rail if you go this route. (Which can clean up the look of your engine considerably) Look at the sticky thread in this forum for more injector options. 8) Oil This is an often debated topic. I strongly suggest that anyone building up a turbo engine plan to run fully synthetic oil for the life of the engine, after it has been broken in. Synthetic oil is simply going to stand up better to the high heat that oil sees in turbocharged engines. If you absolutely will not run synthetic for some reason, try to use a straight weight motor oil. These oils are more stable than the multiweight (such as 10W-30, 20W-50) oils. This stability helps prevent oil 'coking' which is a common cause of turbo failure. However, you don't want to use synthetic motor oils for the break in period. They simply lubricate too well to allow your engine to go through the proper break in cycle. Also, its generally recommended that you change your oil every 500miles during break in. That gets mighty expensive if running synthetic. Another option that will allow you to run less expensive oil, is a water cooled center section on your turbo. At this point you are going with an upgraded turbo over the stocker, and hopefully have some knowledge to go with it. An oil cooler would also potentially offer you enough headroom to run less expensive oil. With all that said, I run an oil cooler and still use synthetic, and would recommend that option for anyone that is running a high dollar turbo engine hard. 9) Closing Remarks You'll notice that a lot of the advice in this article revolves around how to make a low budget, high performance turbo engine. It really shouldn't be difficult to have a 250rwhp engine for around $3500. Use some creativity and search autowreckers for OEM parts that may work. (such as the Isuzu NPR intercooler, eclipse BOV, Merkur/Svo injectors) Take the time to research your product before you buy and you will save yourself money. There is nothing worse than paying top dollar for a part that you don't need! Recommended Internet Reading: http://www.eng.fsu.edu/~jthagard/ http://www.sdsefi.com (Good tech articles here) http://www.stealth316.com/1-tech.htm http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/transmission.html http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/turbo.html Updated: April 17, 2009

This is the 3rd time this has been posted in the last 2 weeks I think. Then again, this isn't a bad thing.

Just take a stock flywheel to a performance machinist and have it lightened...

I pulled out my whole wiper system and lubed everything up well about a week ago. The pivots that the wiper arms attach to were the worst. I pulled them out, and they were coated in rust. This is a metal on metal, tapered fit! Well emery'd them off, and used some graphite lubricant, and the wipers are fine now. I took the wipers off today to do some windshield work... and damn I like the car without those big ass wipers up front. But I need wipers. Now I'm pondering trying to recess them like modern cars... has anyone investigated that at all?

Here is a quick list of materials and their relative thermal conductivities. Remember, even though a material has a low thermal conductivity, that may not make it suitable for a carb spacer. (air for example! ) Make sure that whatever material you use has mechanical properties suitable for the task, is fuel resistant, and has a flash point well higher than the surrounding areas temperatures. MATERIAL CONDUCTIVITY ("k") Copper 2712.00 Aluminum (6061) 1160.00 Aluminum (5052) 960.00 Lead 245.00 Stainless Steel (316) 113.00 Glass 5.00 Polyester FRP (hand laid) .48 Polyethylene Foam .43 Wood (dry) .33 Polyester FRP (pultruded) .31 Glass Wool .29 Polystyrene (expanded) .28 Cork Board .27 Polystyrene (extruded) .21 PVC (Klegecell) .21 Polyurethane Foam .17 Air .16 BARRIER Ultra-R .02 Total Vacuum .004 Oh, and phenolics have very low thermal conductivities, depending on what materials they are doped with. (could be graphite, glass, wood, etc) So a paper/phenolic is probably in the AREA of 0.33. (and honestly I can't remember what the american units are for thermal conductivity)

intercooler, bigger injecters, more boost....

A tubing notcher can really take the place of a mill for this task. I found that using the mill wasn't anywhere near as quick, nor were the results noticeably better. And the one problem with using a mill was that actually clamping the tubing when you have to notch at an angle is difficult at best, and it order to hold it tightly enough, you'll likely crush the tubing slightly. The tubing notchers can hold tubing much more rigidly and have a built in angle finder. Not that you couldn't go through the process of making a good jig to attach to the bed of a mill if you were doing enough tubing. You from U of T blue83z? I should have known there was a Z fan on that team, with the burnt orange paint job!

WOW, I like it a lot.

You should be able to shift the car into 5th gear in the driveway without the engine running. The TO bearing won't prevent this... sounds like you were duped.

Well this is the first time you've actually listed specs on your motor, so maybe we can be more educated about our comments now. You can have lower power and torque peaks, and still be faster. How? Area under the curve. Your other engine might have made 170ft-lbs @5000rpm, but what about 3000? A turbo engine makes it torque maximum at 2800rpm and it won't drop much as the rpm's get higher. Now you have a pretty extensive list of mods to your motor. Now that I see the mods, and see that you have dyno numbers with power at the wheels, I'm not certain a stock turbo engine will be faster. I suspect that at stock boost the 2 engines will be very close. But again, who runs stock boost anyway?

After a couple inqureies, I have it from a mutual friend that Ross is busy with 85 hour work weeks in his "real" job. He's still alive and kicking... One wonders when modern-motorsports will become his real job. I'm sure this is a short term thing and Ross will catchup as soon as he can.

3" will fit, and can fit well if the muffler guy takes his time and does it well, even though it is tight. Personally, I've only met 1 exhaust guy that I'd trust to do it, and he's making shoes now, so I'd just do it myself!

I'd keep it. More spark energy won't hurt you, especially at higher than stock boost levels where it is more difficult for the electrons to jump the air gap in the plug.

Well lets assume that the ~1.5PSI I've lost due to intercooler and piping is worth 22hp. (1psi boost ~= 15hp) 22hp should be a very noticeable gain in seat of the pants, as its somewhere around 15% gain. With that considered, comparing it to my 260z/L28/3.9:1/4 speed car is silly. This engine in a 240z with stock boost levels might not pull away from it in first gear, but after that it would be all over but the crying. You are right though, since the point is basically moot, and none of us will run stock boost levels for long. I would suspect that the stock turbo engine will be faster than your hopped up NA engine, though I don't know your list of mods. I have a very poor feel for how much faster my car would be in the quarter, so I won't speculate a number. I'll just say "significantly" faster. However, remember I am going from driving a 260z with big bumpers to a 240z at the same time, so there is some weight reduction there as well.

Wow John, what shop is this? It sounds great.

Is there any reason TBI wouldn't work horizontally? I'd investigate that before buying a 4 barrel manifold. The 90* bend in the typical 4 barrel setup for the Z's (taking a downdraft carb into a sidedraft engine) doesn't sound optimal to me. Good luck!

Looking good Tim! What they heck did you cout your valve cover with anyway? Looks pretty special in the photo's.

I emailed him a few weeks ago and haven't heard anything either. He must be out having some fun in the sun somewhere, its beautiful up here this week.

The turbo engines are supposed to be 200ft-lbs stock. Even at 5.5psi boost and 4k revlimiter, my 240z is MUCH faster than my 260z with a NA/L28 setup, which ran low 15's on a g-tech.