Tony240ZT

I just read a post where someone was asking about swapping in a later model distributor without points. Had a friend ask about doing the swap, and I couldn't give much info, so I checked out the link before sending it over to him. I read about the Ballast Resistor. I knew what it was, but didn't know how it worked exactly. From Brian Little's site it states that the coil gets a full 12-14V while the car is cranking to help start, but then when the key goes back into the on possition the resistor is put between the possitive power wire to the coil reducing the voltage output to like 6-8 volts. This is so that the stock coil won't over heat. Well, I'm not running the old coil anymore in the `73 w/L24ET, and I have had problems reving past 5.5K RPMs and running rich under heavy load. I bypassed the ballast resistor and took it for a drive and noticed a BIG difference The car was actually running lean now that it can burn all of the fuel, and the mid to high range power has a large improvement. I dialed in more fuel and it converted the added fuel into more power. If any of you guys have converted over to the more modern coils, or aftermarket coils then I think you're free to take the resistor out of there, and here come the big grins

JDM engines go for around $800. They are 30K mileage engines shipped from Japan, the tranny is another $250 I think.. Mine didn't come with a starter or alternator, but sometimes they come complete with all accessories. The stock intercooler can be found for about $80-$120 on ebay. I would highly suggest not going with the stock EFI system, because it takes a lot of money to get it past 290hp. If you're content with 290hp then you can probably find a used harness and ecu for around $120-$200. The cars are starting to show up in the junk yards, so if you were really lucky you could find a high mileage engine plus harness, accessories, tranny for under $500. Then fab up the commen things that you'd have to do with most engine swaps, like drive line, engine/tranny mounts, wiring, exhaust. Add in the intercooler piping, hoses, and clamps. I think this swap will become really popular. It's the cheapest turbo, inline 6, DOHC engine out there right now that has a very high potential. Lots of Z guys dig Z cars because of the inline 6, but then a lot of guys dig v8's. If the L series engine was DOHC I would have stuck with it. I wish someone would make one, I'd buy 2.

My `73 with no A/C, no smog, 3 speed auto weighed in at 2350, everything else was stock (SU's and such). A friend of mine went in at the same place with his `73 without a front bumper or grill, no smog, no A/C, header, holley carb setup, 5 speed tranny and weighed in 100 pounds lighter than my car. The `73 bumper mounts are pretty heavy (which he took off), and I think the manual tranny and headers made up the rest of weight savings. I should go back and see if the fuel injection/turbo charger added much weight. I'd say I've put on another 40-50 pounds with the efi components, turbo, oil cooler, and soon to be intercooler.

Is there anything special about the bosses? Couldn't you just drill holes in the rail to the exact ID as the bosses that you might weld in? I'm not REALLY familiar with all of the O-ring setups, but on my Supra engine the bosses are just simiply machined out holes, which would be easy to make if you had a drill press. I guess this is only possible if you have enough meat there to work with. Lots of rails I've seen are D shaped and allow for this. I have the 500hp Accel pump installed in my `72 w/7M-GTE. I don't see why you'd have a problem with it, I haven't pushed it to 500hp, but maybe some day, hehe.. It sells for a pretty good price. I think it has 3/8" fittings on it, I used it with the -6 hosen.

If only I could weld as well as that job that was done on that custom catch can! Everything on that car is too perfect. I saw it at the MSA get together, I had to drool all over it. Looks like the carbon fiber/kevlar? intake boot was cracked at one point though, then fixed with an epoxy. That must have been frustrating, it was a perfect piece before then. Whelp, I've pulled out the 401K money, so the 7m-gte should be done soon. I know, I'm bad..

The swap was about as difficult as putting in a v8 engine with a transmission that fit without any mods to the tunnel. The engine cleared everything with no modifications. The engine is very low, and very far back. It is actually shorter than the L6 engine, and I have the valve cover about 2 inches from the fire wall. Right now I don't have a drive line hooked up, but the engine runs. I need to finish the driver's side intercooler piping, and clean up my wiring harness a little. I'm using Wolf3D for engine management. I'm expecting 320hp with the stock turbo (@ the crank). I've upgraded the fuel system, HKS FMIC, ignition system should be better than stock, so as soon as I can get that turbo upgraded I should be making close to 400hp at the crank with the modified stock turbo. This will be with stock internals and ARP head studs. If I want more power then I'd need to swap out my turbo for a completely new larger one. I guess 600hp with forged pistons is a commen horse power number. I'd be be happy with 400. Looking for low 11's in the 1/4. Hopefully I'll be finished before the end of this month. If you look closely you'll see the engine is behind the front sway bar.

You're going from VG30ET to VG30DET in your 280Z? Is it a matter of a head swap, along with timing gear, or full engine swap from a Z32?

Sweet! That'll look nice in the engine compartment. Let me know when you get the Mercedes injectors. I'm guessing Monday they should be there? Sorry that they weren't there before this weekend, but we live SO far apart. Post pics of the modified Mercedes throttle body install, and the install of the hybrid turbo when you get them mounted. Will you be using the stock FPR, a modified stock one, or aftermarket one? If you want good cruising gas mileage I think you'll want to lower the base presure.

Was thinking of installing an oil catch can for the PVC system, so that the oil stuff doesn't get into my intake system. I think I could make one if I was clear on how it should work. As far as I know you hook up a good sized vacuum hose to a container at the top probably, then put any PVC hoses at the bottom of the container? What do you do with the caught oil? How do you keep the oil in the can. I guess the oil is pretty particlized, so gravity isn't going to simply keep it from staying down at the bottom. Do you use a paper filter that you replace? Well, as you see I'm pretty clueless. Fill me in on how to fab one up. Thanks!

The systems are similar, Wolf has been around for a little while longer in Austrailia. v4.0 came out about the same time AEM made the PnP run one that uses stock sensors. Were you able to rid of your mass air flow meter in doing the ecu swap? I'd hope so. I know the system is suppose to work with the stock sensors, but who wants a mass air flow sensor when it's not necessary and kinda restictive. I'd like to see pics of the intercooler. When are you going single turbo t04R?

Fuel pressure could possibly be low enough to make a problem like this. A dying fuel pump, stuffed line, or stuffed fuel filter could make it so not enough fuel could flow. Might be worth checking to see if you have enough presure. The 2250 rpm limit sounds so familiar. Having the TPS foul does exactly the same thing. Try running the car without it plugged in. The fact that you can rev it without in gear suggests it's not related though. I swear cars should have air/fuel ratio gauges installed in them from the factory, you can learn a lot from them. And yes, the AFM could be the problem.

Looks like you'd have flat top pistons, but CR is only 8.52:1 I would say it's safe to add pleanty of boost to that. Like you've heard, just watch your air/fuel ratios and all will be well.

DIY_EFI and EFI332 sound very interesting. I've done some programming with Motorola 8 bit processors before. The EFI332 system is based on a Motorola 32 bit processor. Might be worth learning. I was thinking that an OS like Linux that has far less over head could be pretty reliable. You can also give very high prioity to any jobs you'd like. Well, I may wire up my computer to read in the inputs, just use it for data logging. I think others could find this useful. As for the AEM product, you should know I'm running an AEM Wolf3D under the hood of my `72 240Z with 7M-GTE. Still needs tuning, and the engine needs a drive line. I spent $1500 total (shipped + taxes) for a harness, temp sensors, control unit, hand held LCD display/programmer, PC cables, modified cam possition sensor. If I had another $1500 to dump into my `73 L24ET then I'd go with the Wolf3D system again. I could just buy another harness/sensors for $200 and swap the control unit, has memory moduls to make this easy to do, but that would make the car hard to sell if I ever wanted to

The joystick port is capable of reading 4 potentia meters 0-5V, which could be used for reading the head temp, AFM, O2, and air temp analog sensors. It converts the voltage into pulses (using a multi-vibrator ) that can be converted into a digital resistance number. It also has 4 digital inputs and one could be used for the crank trigger input. The joystick port does not have out put capabilities so a serial port could be used to fire ignition, and injectors. If something like this were possible then multi coil packs could be used. Can anyone foresee synchronization problems? It's not like you have to wait for a device on the receiving end of the serial device to accept the signal. The injectors or the coil igniter would simply switch immediately. Keeping the program real time would have to be the key, using multi threading.

Anyone ever heard of someone writing a program on a personal computer, like for a laptop that read/modify fuel maps? I'm a programmer, haven't messed very much with serial ports, or parallel ports, but I think it could be done, if the parellel port and processing was fast enough. Any other programmers here that might be able to help in this idea? I do know that the ports on the PC use +5V or 0V as on and off signals, a coil igniter could be used to quickly turn that low amperage +5V into a higher amperage +12V. With the amount of money people spend on stand alone engine management hardware they could afford a pretty good laptop that is much more versitile (mobile multi media to name one nice feature). It would be awesome if all we needed was a wiring harness, a couple sensors, and a commen PC laptop + software to run/tune our cars. Anyone here think there is a better/faster port like USB that could be a better interface for communication?

Could always rent a car for the days that you have your car down, and drive that rent a car to the ground, hehe.. Still would be saving money. Just installed a set of the Merker XR4Ti/SVO injectors in my L24ET (orange 240Z), and they are doing fine. I was running the Mercedes 450 injectors, and they were too big. The car ran ruff, and smoked a little even with the head temp shorted out, and the AFM down pretty dang tight. Car runs well up to 5.2K RPMS and then stumbles a bunch, which it didn't do before , used to be very strong up to 6.1K RPM, so something to figure out. I have all the gauges to figure this out: boost, air/fuel, fuel pressure.. Wish I had a duty cycle/duration type display on this stock `83 280ZXT ECU setup, but I guess I should just break down and get a stand alone for the L24ET at some point. If the car stumbles, kinda back fires at a certain RPM does it usually mean you're running rich if the car doesn't detonate? I've felt the car detonate before, and this was different, just feels like a rev limiter. Before I think it used to crap out at 6.1K RPMs because the ignition system couldn't keep up, or could I be floating the valves (stock high mileage P90 head). I've only got the 8mm rod bolts in this thing, anyone wanna guestimate as to how high I should be able to rev it before I throw something, or is there another limitation, like the valve springs? I'm running around 10 psi of boost, without an intercooler CR is 7.56:1. Timing is set to around 10 degrees after TDC. I've got an intercooler that needs end pipes welded on, I have the pipes, if someone can do the work for me at a good price please let me know.

The non vented rotor setup fits pretty easily. My 14x7 slotted mags fit the non slotted rotor without a problem. Currently have a set of 280ZX Turbo rims on with no prob

If you need a pot type TPS the 240SX KA24 engines have one that bolt right on that are pot type.

You should have no problem with clearance. If you want use the pan you have and put a drain hole on the side of it for the oil return. I had to do this when turbo charging my L24, since the L28ET pan does not swap on to the L24 block easily.

Can someone verify the size of the Mercedes 450SL injectors, I hear all sorts of different sizes. I've heard 370cc/min 390cc/min 420cc/min and now 450cc/min? I have them installed in my car (`73 w/L24ET), they are too big for my application. I think I'll be going with 370cc/min. I *THINK* the Mercedes injectors are 420cc/min.

Z-Freak I'd like to see pictures of that, sounds pretty awesome. Mark, Volvo used to be known for having a sedan (the 740 turbo) that was able to keep up with the Porsche GT car of the day (944 Turbo). Even though that was pretty cool, the stock level of boost that was run was still only a mild 6-7psi of boost (I think), so the intercooler was never really stressed as much in stock form as we guys would stress our custom built machines. I still have yet to hear first hand experience with people having these intercooler leak on them, but have heard first hand experience about them doing well. I personally sold a Volvo IC, and kept my starion IC. I still need to weld some end pipes on it though. If any of you guys could do the welding cheaply for me let me know. I'd like to stick it in the car.

I'd powder coat the iron part if it would take the heat, just not sure that it would. Also, I don't think you can take the valve out very easily. The aluminum can stay, the the steel breather on the top I'll paint black. It's not internally adjustable, but I do have an electric boost controler built into my engine management system to modulate the vacuum.

Thanks for the info guys. I found one in a junk yard, pulled it today out of a 924 Porsche Turbo. What a pain!!! That things is really hard to get out. Well, all the work on pulling it is worth it since I convinced the yard it was an EGR valve (a large one, hehe). So, I got a good deal on it. Took it home, took it part and bead blasted it, and here it is: Wonder if I can get rebuild seal parts for it. Anyone know? Should I hook the vacuum line up to the compressor housing of the turbo, or up to the intake manifold? My CT-26 has a built in waste gate door, so I'll stick with it until I upgrade turbos, at which point I'll make up the piping to hook this guy up.

Scotty Mitz is running one, running around 18psi of boost with great results. I've heard bad things about the plastic end tanks, but Scotty put it to real world use in his turbo 280Z that make me believe it may be worth using.

Anyone have anything good or bad to say about the 944/924 external waste gates? Here is one on ebay right now: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1826647095&r=0&t=0 I found one locally, and was thinking of using it on my 7m-gte along with a full t4.. Not sure if it would flow enough exhaust, but it is tons larger than any of the waste gate ports that I've seen on T3's. I think the ports are a little under 2"