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Everything posted by Tony240ZT
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Pulled all of my parts for the turbo swap out of the junk yard, luckly most of the components were good. Since my setup is a little custom with the little 2.4L I knew I was going to have to adjust my AFM. With some setups with the AFM there is a hesitation, adjust the AFM to correct the over richness, or lean situation and hesitation goes away. Having an air/fuel ratio meter greatly helps in setting things up. Lots of other possibilities, but in my setup where I've replaced all of the filters, ignition stuff is up to par, etc the AFM is where I direct most of my time, along with the base timing.
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Does the heat shield that is on the side of the brake master cylinder in a 280Z bolt into the 240Z fairly easy? My turbo in the orange car is heating up my resivours pretty good, and I think I can notice the brake fade after driving around for some time on a hot day. May have to do with pads, and such, but there's no doubt that the master cylinder is much warmer than it should be.
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Is this the cooler you're talking about? Pretty nice. Hard to find in good shape, AFAIK
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Might be because the BOV is letting off so much air that it's making the car want to stall. Someone else on here had a similar problem and ended up much happier after routing the blow off to be re-injested into the front of the turbo. Also helps the turbo keep spooled through the shifts when setup like that. Also these stupid AFM's can effect how the car gets air flow by when it's opened up and when it closes (suddenly). I SO want to go to mass air, a MAP sensor. The new setup looks a lot clearner! Is your idle pretty rough with those mercedes injectors? Do you think you'll have to shroud your fan, or will you be installing electric fans? Let me know what you think about the new turbo size. I know it's hard to tell untill you get a good run, and you've gotta take it easy on the engine for a litte.
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Doing mods to cool down engine, need advice
Tony240ZT replied to Tony240ZT's topic in Turbo / Supercharger
Installed the fan on the passenger's side and it fixed all cooling issues. I think it's helping a lot to have the oil cooler out in front of it. The temp gauge is now happily on the left side of center while city driving, and for some reason it goes up while on the freeway almost to the center. I think it has to do with the fact that I don't have over drive. I think an alternator upgrade will be added to my parts I should have list. That oil cooler gets pretty hot, I think it's a good size for my application, but maybe bigger would be better. Thanks for your input. I have to re-adjust the AFM again, it's way off since I moved it away from the turbo. Seems like I'm going to have to run super rich when out of boost to compensate. Hopefully the IC will correct this a little. This AFM is really pissing me off, might be because my spring is tired of being tighter than stock. If someone can figure out and let me know what I have to do to modify my 280ZXT harness to use the 300ZX Turbo ECU and mass air please pass the info over. I think it may fix my fuel map a bit. I know it's hard to get the setup to work well with larger injectors, but as someone suggested using un-meetered air could solve the prob. If someone has an engine wiring harness diagram for the Z31 Turbo that would help me a bunch. I picked up a haynes manual, but it doesn't have the EFI harness diagram! PS, that picture makes it look like my car has cancer right there, when actually it's just really dirty. The car is actually pretty rust free. -
James, weren't you selling that custom intercooler that you had made a while back? Did you end up selling it, or keeping it? If it's not on your car what are you running with now? Not bad numbers, I hope I'll have a setup that efficient some day I dig this cross flow head on the 7m-gte, won't have that heat soak problem.
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I've got one of the coolers, just trying to figure out how I should mount it on my Z. I think the majority of my problem is the way I had to tilt my IC to make it fit. If someone has pictures of the rx7 oil cooler mounted on their Z lemme see please.
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Welcome to the group!! I'm sure there is a good library set here in this section on how others have done what you're looking for. It's not easy to pull that much out of a L28. If you're not the turboing type maybe boring and stroking it up to ~3.1L, and raising the compression a bit with a larger cam, free flowing intake, and exhaust system. Dropping in a junk yard turbo engine is by far the easiest route to making cheap reliable power (rebuild is a good idea) with the L6 though. Super charging is an option, but not cheap at around $3,000. Machine work, and part for the stroker setup isn't too much cheaper though. You'd be surprised at what a little bit more horse power would do in your car. Bolting on headers, free flowing exhaust, larger throttle body, fresh air K&N type intake system, a mild cam, and upgraded ignition system would be a large improvement. Then you could do something like install a lightened flywheel, electric fan(s), and possibly a lower gear ratio rear end to make it react quicker off the line. You could get away with very little mods, and a NOS setup, if you only want to go fast on the bottle. So many options.
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If you go with steel any cheap MIG welder can do the trick, maybe someone near by you will help you out for a 6 pack, or a drive around the block, but don't combine the two I don't want to invest much money into my orange car, so I picked up 3 feet of 3" aluminized steel from a muffler shop for $9, cut it at angles with a chop saw, and welded it together. Probably not the smoothest route, but if you consider the stock 280ZX Turbo rubber air intake with the acordian part I'd say this is an upgrade over that. Look at my post from yesterday for a picture: Click here and scroll down a little That was when it was just tack welded together and the AFM was held by tape, but I welded it up today, and put on the silicone. Just got back from driving it around, and the car runs noticably better, just like it would before the engine would warm up. Noticed that at freeway speeds the car is more responsive.
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That IC looks so nice. Is it a custom one, or an OEM one? Looken real clean Can't wait to see some perforamance numbers after you have it up and running.
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Doing mods to cool down engine, need advice
Tony240ZT replied to Tony240ZT's topic in Turbo / Supercharger
Timing is advanced as far possible without detonation when the car is hot and under load on 91 octane (it's all we have here). I think the base point is something like 18 degrees. I'm putting 2 1/2" end pipes on the intercooler. I'm pretty sure I have the more modern type where they upgraded it a little. Other junk yard IC's I would consider would be MKIII Supra T, or Volvo 740 T, but I'm not sure that either are much better. I think Scotty has done pretty well getting into the 12's with the volvo IC and stock turbo, I've heard the supra one has real bad presure drops and from looking at the one on my `87 Supra it's easy to tell why, the end caps look all jagged. I guess even a mid sized NPR IC would be a good upgrade. When I have a few extra beans I might just get one. Picked up some 3" aluminized steel pipe today and went away fabing up the cool air intake system.: Required a little bit of cutting up front, but nothing major. Left pleanty of room to run the intercooler piping above it. Found a smaller fan for the driver's side so that I could run IC piping over it. Hopefully I can find someone to help with the IC end pipe welding tommorow and get on the road again. -
By the way, when water gets in your cylinders it cleans things really well since it turns into steam. You've heard of steam cleaning your engine compartment, right, steam is great at getting rid of burnt on oil/carbon. Look at pictures where people have had a blown head gasket and water came into the cylinder, you'll see that the cylinder with water has little to no carbon, and is sparkly clean. Kinda makes you wonder if you should inject water every once in a while to clean things out. I'm sure if done properly it could be a good thing, but too much and you could -try- and compress the water, which doesn't work too well Pull the head, have a fresh 3 way valve job done by a confident head shop. If you've ever thought about going for a different cam now is a good time. While you're at it look at other parts that could wear like timing chain, tentioner, seals, etc. Clean up the deck, bolt on the freshly resurfaced head with a fresh head gasket, torque properly, set the carbs up correctly and you will be amazed at what a difference it'll make. A leak down test is when you put oil into the cylinder to make a temp seal for the piston. Do the presure test again on the cylinder and this will tell you if it is your valves leaking, since the cylinder will have a really good seal. You will probably have very similar results in doing this since I'm pretty sure the majority of your loss in compresion is due to burned valves. If for some reason though you get a good number for compression when using the oil then it is your rings that are bad.
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I'd say you were running lean on that carb, and you burned your valves. Now there is burned on carbon to those valve not allowing for a good seal. Which snow balls. Do a leak down test, I bet your rings aren't half as bad as your exhaust valves.
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Doing mods to cool down engine, need advice
Tony240ZT replied to Tony240ZT's topic in Turbo / Supercharger
Lockjaw, I'm only looking to make around 250hp, I think the starion will be okay for that. It will be at least better than nothing. This car is made from junk yard parts and parts I have laying around. My `72 is more of a serious monster, but is also a money pit! Notice the HKS FMIC, TRD parts, and stand alone EMS Pete, stock L24 short block, P90 head, L28 felpro gasket should be 7.56:1 CR. I guess stock L28ET CR is 7.38:1. Both CR's seem pretty low to me considering that most people building really high performance turbo engines have at least 8:1. I think with the single fan setup I was only pulling accross 1/2 of the radiator. This radiator used to keep the carb'ed setup with the manual fan/shroud super cool, the needle would only come close to the middle mark, but never go accross. Currently I just have the fan run at all times. I'd like to install a thermal switch, maybe I'll install a couple and setup the fan(s) to have 2 speeds. I'll probably use the thermal switch that is used to turn on that fuel injector fan to run my big fans even after the car is shut off. It seems to take a lot of heat to turn that switch on. I don't notice the oil line being much more than maybe a couple degrees over ambient. The feed line and return line feel the same temp. The lines are pretty thick. Has anyone found any interesting info by taking the oil temperature? If so where's a good place to take the temp at? -
I'm located in Bakersfield, CA that's about 120 miles north of LA and about 320 miles south of the Bay area. Let me know how far away you are, and if you'd be interested in bringing the car in my area. I can help you get your car to the performance level you'd like.
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Guys, when I drive my car hard things heat up pretty quick durring the day. The temp gauge starts going to the right of the center mark and the boost doesn't do as much good as it did when the car was cool (had to turn back timing to compensate for this ). Currently the car has a single electric fan behind the radiator, a 3 core radiator, new rad. cap, B&M oil cooler. I don't have an intercooler, and have my air filter behind the fan that is peeling off the hot air from my radiator. The temps here are starting to get into the 90's, so here is what I have been planning: It's a starion intercooler, I'm putting the air filter out front, and have gotten some pretty good sized fan and am thinking of mounting it in front. The question I have is is this new fan going to help any? I already have a pretty good fan pulling from behind: As you can see it is over to the driver's side more than anything. Do you think I should move my oil cooler out of the way and mount the front fan more to the passenger side? If I do that I'm not sure where to put the oil cooler, maybe infront of the fan? Should I run both fans at the same time? If not is there one that I should run before the other? I really wish I had more room behind the radiator to install two cheap electrics behind there, but I can't find a low enough profile fan in the junk yard to do that. Has anyone moved the L6 engine mounts back? Not just for more room, but for better weight distribution? Thanks for your opinions.
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I may be wrong on this one, but I think it can be normal. My turbo has gotten hot enough to see that it is partially glowing (like on the thinner parts of the metal). My air/fuel meter shows that I don't run lean, and the car doesn't act as if it has run lean. At those temps I think a combination of rust, oil, and all other chemicals under the hood end up turning that color. I've seen it more so on some cars than others in the bone yard. It sand blasts off without a problem. If you want to see if you are really cooking that turbo too much and you have some time try taking off that back plate that contains the waste gate door and look to see if there are cracks around the waste gate hole. I almost think a couple hair line cracks might be normal for high mileage, but if you have something that is a gaping crack then the turbo has probably at one point or another been heated up a few times too much. If you are concerned about running lean I'd install a air/fuel ratio gauge. Pretty simple install, just one wire to the O2, and give it power. They sell for around $50.
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No G-nose available in the U.S. for the 280 ZX
Tony240ZT replied to jhaag's topic in Body Kits & Paint
Do you have pictures of a 280ZX G nose? I've always thought the 280ZX already looks more G nose-ish in a way. I really like the body kits that MSA offers to replace the old bumpers. Similar to the kit on my `72. Really makes the car look totally different, and much more sleak.. If you did a G-nose on a ZX how would the rear bumper look as compared to the front? -
Just ask if you have any questions on mods. If you have the time, doing it yourself will make the end result much more enjoyable. I think others here that have completed performance upgrades will agree with me on that. Is your car currently running? What EFI system are you running? Fill us in on what all you've done, and what your expectations are and we can help you with your first few steps to more power. If you have time to drive it, you probably have time to mod it
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As you've found out making horse power isn't simply about bolting on a super big turbo and praying to the turbo gods that it makes as much horse power as the sticker says it will make. The best way to get the most out of a turbo is to properly pick out the size that is right for your engine. It may be true that the properly sized turbo will have a higher potential than your engine is capable of, but if it is by a large amount (like 200hp ) then you are probably not utilizing the turbo in the best way possible. It is also possible to have a turbo too small in which case you end up creating too much back presure in the exhaust manifold, and a lot of heat is created. As we know heat is bad.. Lag is bad too, it's that sweet spot in between that you should be looking for.
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Awesome, you are running an intercooler now, right? Where are pics of it? How is the stock clutch holding up? I bet if you made up your own little tubular turbo elbo you'd flow air right out the back of the turbo a little better. Scotties' down pipe is nice, but if you can fab your own stuff try and find yourself the flange. Scottie had one made up for me, but I think they are harder to come by now. I forget what size and trim your turbo is, also what sized throttle body? Are you happy with the turbo, or do you think it's too big for you? What sized injectors? Are you running the 280ZXT EFI system? I know you've stated this stuff else where. My dialup connection is too slow to surf around though. I'd love to see the details on your web site. I G-Teched my `73 w/L24ET no intercooler at 14.62 @ 97.4mph, but I have a lot of problems with the car. My 3 speed tranny is slipping (over heating), if I'm under boost for a long time in 2nd gear the car quits at 5K RPM (either running out of fuel, ignition prob, or unlikely detonation, which it doesn't sound like), and the car is running rich most of the time. I've got a lot of stuff to figure out, and an intercooler to install and hopefully I'll be in the 13's with ya after I get the bugs out. Oh, I'm running 10 pounds of boost with no detonation at 7.56:1 CR, on pump gas. I think my 5K RPM ghost rev limiter has to do with fuel delivery. I'll put my fuel presure gauge back on the car and make sure. I hope to install a more stout auto tranny, probably the Starion 4 speed w/over drive since it is strong and has like a 3500RPM staul point!! Keep up the good runs, look foward to seeing what you'll have to do to get it in the 12's. Maybe just some slicks?
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I would like to think that the guys that have done this swap are helping to make this swap more commen. I think Josh is going to lend me his harness as soon as he swaps over to a stand alone engine management system. At which point I will study and share in the best way that I can what I have learned. I have all of the parts in my hands right now to do the swap, but am just lacking an engine harness diagram, and how then it relates with the chassis. The 280Z/X AFM door type setup is not all that much fun, but it has proven to be a reliable setup (Scotty with his L28ET has taken the system into the high 12's!), and is much more flexable than the mass air flow meter. As someone meantioned this may be no problem with the proper amount of un-meetered air mixed into the equation when going to larger injectors.
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Don't get discuraged if you don't get much of a response. It is very possible to do, there is a lack of info due to the fact that the wiring diagrams for the 300ZX/T engine harness are not in the off the shelf hand books such as clintons and haynes. I don't know the main differences in the 300ZX NA and Turbo ecu and sensors/controls, but in the 280ZX's case the Turbo setup is superior. This could be true for the 300ZX Turbo ECU as well. All you'd have to do is run with your stock sized injectors vs. the turbo ones. If you are going out to get the stuff grab as much as you can. You will need a 280ZX Turbo distributor, and the shaft that drives it. From what others have said the plate in the distributor of the `82-`83 280ZX Turbo is the same as the one in the 300ZX. Pull all of the temperature sensors, knock sensor, TPS, air bypass, mass air, fuel presure reg. with the temp sensor in it, coil igniter, may even want to grab the 300ZX coil. As I've learned from pulling out the 280ZX Turbo harness you will want to grab as much as you can. Not just of the engine harness, but also cut into a bit behind of where the engine harness splices into the chassis harness. These wires that go off into the chassis harness will be where you pull power/ground for the ecu, most likely the signal for the coil igniter, also the power leads for the fuel pump. The 300ZX ECU uses distance traveled for some computations, so you may want to try and find where the speedometer cable has a pickup. Others have said that they have run their cars without this though. I guess the #1 thing that will help you out the most in the process is getting a nissan manual. I don't think they are cheap, but they are the only resource that I know of that has the complete wiring diagram. Also, read and learn what you can about the differences between the non turbo and turbo systems. Maybe z31.com will have some info that you will find usefull.
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You should have no problem hooking up the MSD system. Here I made this picture up a while back to help someone else out: You want to keep the coil igniter. I think you take the output wires from it, the blue(-) and the black/white(+) and hook it up to the MSD system. Without the coil igniter the computer would only put out a very small amperage pull to ground on that yellow/white wire going to the igniter. So that you don't harm the ECU you'll have to use the igniter. Hopefully somone that has hooked up this sytem can back this. I'm just going off of how I've seen others install these systems before.
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240Z and 260Z guys have to swap over to the `75-`78 280Z tachs for electronic ignition setups. This might be your situation as well. Here is a little snip from Brian Little's web page: "280Z TACH INTO A 240Z I would recommend getting rid of your old 240Z tach. Vintage, but not designed well, they're inaccurate and start jumping around as they age: Replace it with a 1975-78 280Z tach. Put the new tach in the 240 metal housing, and swap the faceplates to keep the redline accurate. The needle pops off, don't damage it. A drop of rubber cement might be needed to put it back on. Don't use superglue or you'll never get it off again. Connect the tach's sensor lug to the negative terminal on the coil. NOTE: Make sure you reverse the power leads on the back of the tach, compare them before you swap for a reference. The little "loop plug" from the 240 tach should be plugged back into the wiring harness in the dash, otherwise the car won't start. If you have trouble getting the tach to work, a simpler solution is to replace it with a 5" aftermarket model like Autometer makes." Hope that helps.. What year is your 510?