Vandergriff84

So I worked on sealing the back of the car some more today as I found a couple of new areas that it could be leaking in through. I also installed the BRE style spoiler which doesn't really fit right, but neither does the bumpers or the flares from MSA so that's not new. I think I made some progress as far as the fumes being pulled in through the back as it seems that it has diminished quite a bit. I can still smell it a little here and there and my nose has been a little stopped up since I drove it around the block but it is still a good step in the right direction. I took a picture of the tailpipe to show the soot.

Ok, So answers as follows: 1. AFR is right at upper 14s to lower 15s while Idling and while driving normal. Under boost it may drop to upper 11s. 2. From what the consult shows the maf seems to be working fine. 3. I don't have a Catalytic as I have the 3" exhaust from McKinney Motor Sports. 4. There is Black soot around the end of the tailpipe. 5. I have checked for vacuum leaks and have found none. 6. I have the stock FPR which tested at around 43psi and I believe that is the correct stock pressure. 7. As far as I know the PCV is connected just like stock. The consensus from the few guys that I have spoken to locally is that the freddy intake along with the lack of back pressure from the 3" exhaust without a Catalytic is throwing the ECU off. What confuses me is that the numbers on my wideband look good, at least as far as my knowledge goes. Is it possible that the exhaust is that much more potent with the lack of a Catalytic converter? I would appreciate any input on what the wideband should be showing as I have never had one before. I can take a video if that would help. I did do some work on sealing the back of the car last weekend but it didn't seem to help any. I haven't messed with the car this week as I am giving my sinuses some time to heal and recover.

I ordered mine from some random website that came up in a search in December of 2012 and they came right away. I remember seeing a lot of people saying that they were on back order back then and to my surprise they came in a week or so. I went with them over the usual Z stores and ebay because the were about a $100 cheaper. I will look around and see if I still have the paperwork or and email showing where I got them from.

Has anyone heard of Carl H? Is he a member here? Someone told me that he can reprogram a stock ecu to work with small modifications. I would love to hear what others have to say about that and if it is a viable option for my setup. I am willing to go the standalone route to get this thing running the way I want but I am going to have to save up a little. Has anyone used the stock turbo upgrades from Rawbrokerage? I like the idea of keeping the stock dump pipe and the stock look of the turbo.

Its actually Aluminum, it has a Teflon coating on the outside of it. It was leftover from the compressed air lines I ran in my shop. I am planning to relocate the BOV to the other side of the intercooler to clean things up a bit. Some one gave me the BOV with a bunch of piping and that was the only place that it would work so I went with it. There is one piece of PVC under the throttle body for the idle air control. I couldn't find any metal piping that size at the time.

I am starting to get the picture of the fumes entering through the back which makes sense as there are all new seals on the exhaust. I will probably take a look at this once I get the fumes sorted out. I don't recall having this problem with the 78 280z I had in the early 2000s. As far as the venting goes I tried to run everything as it was on the stock setup. PCV hose goes from the Freddy intake to the PCV check valve on intake valve cover and then there is the pipe that connects the intake cover to the exhaust cover that Ts off and goes to the intake pipe just before the turbo. I have the stock Throttle body connected with a 1/2" adapter plate that I made for clearance. I have the Greddy BOV just in front of the TB and is circulated back to the intake pipe just before the turbo. I don't really understand how the Freddy intake could make such a difference in the way that it runs but at the same time it is the only major change from the stock setup. What would be a reasonable FC for the money since I don't really care to make ton of power? I know that Nistune is not that expensive in comparison to AEM and what have you but I haven't found anyone here that is running it on their car yet.

As far as fumes getting into the cab I think for now I am going to say that that's a minor issue and the major issue at hand is the ungodly strength of the exhaust fumes that are present. I have been noticing for the past few weeks how bad my garage smells and I just thought that was the gas going bad from the lack of turn over. I have known about the fumes getting into the cab for a few months and at first i tried to fix the problem by putting new gaskets on everything thinking that aslong as they are blowing out the back I would be fine for now. But there is something wrong with these fumes whether it mixture or what have you I do not know. I ran the car in the garage With the garage door open for 3 or 4 minutes last night just so I could see what data scan would show and immediately my sinuses started to freakout. I just got home and walked by the car a few minutes ago and felt like I was going to be sick from the smell in the garage. I am clueless as to what would make the car smell this bad. I know that there are some types of grease and transmission fluids that make me gag but I don't think that is the problem here.

Sorry if I didn't make it clear what the problem is. The fumes are not coming into the cab with the windows up just when they are down. The problem is that the fumes are super strong and are present now with the car on the road and at idle. I have now ruled it unbearable even just for a few minutes as it destroys my sinuses for the next couple of days. So sorry for asking about leaks since as you can tell this is more of a tuning issue than a leak as a leak would just be a small irritant. Is there away to adjust the A/F mix on the stock ECU?

I forgot to mention that I have the 3" exhaust and down pipe from McKinney Motorsports. I still have the stock 2.5" elbow/dump pipe coming off the turbo as I have not found a 3" to replace it with yet.

As far as I know the PCV setup is the same as stock RB25 even though I switched to the freddy intake. Can you further explain this blow by scenario? Don't forget that this is not a problem with fumes entering with the windows up it is mostly with the windows down. I do have to keep the air vent closed as well to keep the fumes from coming in through the cowl. For a while I only noticed it after running the car under boost and now it is certainly worse under boost but it's there all the time now.

I never had the car running with the stock motor. It was blown when I bought the car which is why I went ahead with the RB swap.

Ok, So my car seems to run fine and all the parameters on data scan and my wideband seem right to me but the car has this horrific exhaust smell that gives me a headache after about five minutes of driving it or just running it in the drive way. I have replaced all of the exhaust gaskets but there is still fumes coming into the cab with the windows down. The only thing that I can guess being how bad the fumes are is that the car is running really rich. My question is, is it possible for the motor to run so rich it causes horrific fumes to escape the engine compartment? Like I said there are all new gaskets and I am still getting fumes coming into cab while driving or sitting. For example the fumes make me dizzy and wreck my sinuses in a matter of minutes. I would appreciate any advice as to where to start. Motor is stock, I have a freddy intake and greddy BOV.

Sounds good Stony, I hope this helps someone else out. I had read about three other threads on different sites that describe the exact same problems I was having but no one ever posted a solution so I post on all of them hoping to get a response but none the less I was on my own. I have also read that if the half moon pin is broken that the wondering signal will result in a massive retard in timing from the ECU. Just as a side note to all that are planning to do this swap. Take the time to find a reliable and honest source for the motor before ordering. I bought mine from Canada and when it arrived, everything on the exterior was broken. I know that most of the importers don't warrant against exterior parts being broken but I have spent over a $1000 replacing what was broken on mine and as of now a whole lot of time because the cam drive pin (which is technically attached to an internal part by the way) was part of what was broken. I would also recommend asking for pictures of the motor before ordering so that you know what you should be getting.

Ok, So I had done the JWT drive pin several months ago while I was still trying to get my idling down to stock specifications so that I could correctly set the base timing and I wanted to let everyone know that plans on doing this with a stock ECU to be careful of the placement of the drive pin. I believe that the instructions from JWT are a little off and the reason for this is because after inspecting other stock cam drive pin alignments it appears that the correct alignment is just to the right of center on the dowel pin and not dead center on the dowel pin as the instructions say from JWT. I came across this as I've been trying to figure out why I couldn't get my base timing advanced above zero and after pulling out all my hair for the last six months thinking that the ECU was retarding the timing even in base mode. I started to question the installation of the drive pin and when I had checked to see if mine was installed correctly I had seen that it was just a hair to the left of center on the alignment dowel but I figured that it wouldn't matter since the CAS should have 30 degrees of adjustment. Well the CAS does have plenty of adjustment but the small amount of inaccurate placement on my part combined with the slight inaccuracy from the instructions from JWT kept me from being able to advance past 0 degrees in base mode which left the car running rich and making very little power. I did this installation with the cam still in the motor which led to the slight misplacement on my part and I would recommend that any one looking to do this plan on taking the cam out as the instructions say and visually make marks for the correct placement of the drive pin based on the stock pin that's broken before you remove it. This way you are sure to put the new one in the correct alignment.

Ok, So to confirm my suspicion from my last post, the cam alignment key was out just enough to keep me from getting the sensor advanced past zero. For now I have just opened the adjustment slots on the CAS so that I can advance it further to 15 degrees. I apologize for the rabbit trail that this thread has gone through and I appreciate everybody's help with figuring this out. I will make a comment on the pinned thread that Stony started about the correct position for the drive pin so that the next guy going through that process with a stock ECU will know what to watch out for. For those who have standalone ECU's this isn't a big deal because you have the ability to change your phasing I believe.

Thanks flatrate, I think this confirms my suspicion. JWT directions say to align the half moon with the center of the cam gear alignment dowel but in the spare that I have it looks like it is a little more to the right side of the dowel as it also looks in your picture and another that I have found online. It appears that I installed the new one a little to the left of center on the dowel. I never would have thought such a minute difference would make such a mess when the CAS has adjustment in it. I guess stony didn't have this problem because he has the magic box. For now I am going to open the slots a little on my CAS to see if I can get it to 15 before I go through the process of replacing the drive pin.

OK, so after having come to the conclusion that it is possible that the CAS drive pin could be aligned incorrectly I went ahead and removed the three bolts that hold the CAS on, so that I could move it further than the slots would allow and I was able to advance the timing to 15 degrees. I was able to plug the tps back in and the timing still held at around 15 degrees. The question is can the drive pin be out this much? Keep in mind that the exhaust cam is currently advanced one tooth so this should already be compensating(by compensating I mean helping the CAS to read a more advanced position) some for the drive pin if it is in fact incorrect. When I put the three bolts back in and advance the CAS all the way it only shows 10 degrees. It would be super awesome if some one could post a picture of a stock cam drive pin alignment. =)

I replaced the cas drive pin with the one that Stoney got from JWT as mine was broken and I had just started looking back at threads I posted on earlier in the year to figure out if this problem started before or after I replaced the drive pin. I don't think I ever really messed with the timing until I got the idling problem sorted out which I believe was after I replaced the drive pin. I used the instructions from JWT and installed it back wards as Stoney had mentioned in his thread. When I installed it I remember looking at it and thinking it might not be exactly aligned in the center of alignment dow but I figured the adjustment in the CAS slot will make up for that. I pulled out a spare cam that I have last night that also has a broken drive pin and I noticed that it is not aligned exactly center on the cam dow either but it is out the other direction which now leads me to believe that the total difference could be 10-15 degrees. If anyone has an extra cam laying around or if they have their cam gear off for some reason it would really help me to confirm this theory if I could see the drive pin alignment of another stock cam.

I took the car back to the shop this afternoon to get them to show me how they were getting the timing signal. They were using the same gun as mine but they were pulling the signal from the looped wire at the back of the coil pack harness which I have been avoiding because everyone says not to and to use the wire extension method from coil pack to plug. I do believe that the FSM says to use the looped wire at the back of the coil pack but on mine the light flash really fast which means it is picking up signal from all 6 coils not just cylinder 1. We did however notice that there is a big difference in results between the looped wire method and the extension wire. The tech hooked up to the looped wire and it read 3 degrees and mine hooked to the extension read -4 degrees. The tech also thought that the 3rd mark on the crank was 15 degrees but I have corrected him and told him that it is the 4th mark. I will see what I can do about adding another ground wire tomorrow. The issue that I am having is not that the ECU is pulling timing at any certain RPM but that I am getting negative timing numbers from the light at idle while setting base timing.

I have been told that the front facing intake manifold should not be causing this problem and my BOV is now circulated so it shouldn't have any effect on the air coming in and going out. I have a 3" exhaust from McKinney, could that have any effect on the air flow or fuel?

I have tried all methods of getting the timing signal but the one that works best for me is to pull the signal from an extension wire between the coil pack and the plug. I have not replaced the knock sensors but I have ohmed them out and everything seems to be OK. I also do not have any check engine codes coming from the ECU. I would think that if it were not getting knock signal or if it was faulty then it would throw a code. I have a large 4 gauge wire run strait from the battery to the engine block.