mobythevan

I know some people are interested in my adventures with MSS, so this is what has been happening: Got the JSK fuel rail and DSM 450cc injectors installed, but it looks like one injector is bad. That is what I get for using used parts. Hacked my laptop and set up the power so I can run it straight from the car battery. Remounted my HEI module but now it is getting hot, not enough of a heat sink in the new spot. Ordered all of the couplers and pipe I need to install the intercooler. That will be in this week. Ordered the ACT clutch kit. I need a new clutch to be able to tune because I was using a 225mm stock clutch from the 240z and that was slipping real bad. The Tech Edge Wideband unit is assembled and tested, but a new calibration utility is coming out that compensates for altitude during calibration. So, the bottom line is that I have to get all injectors working properly, install clutch, install IC, and get the new wideband cal utility and then I will be tuning and testing. Almost there.

All I can say is that I have halfshafts from a 72 240z R180 and halfshafts from a 280z R200, not sure which year 280z and they are identical when compressed. Not to say a shorter one may not exist, but mine are the same.

I am not ready to buy an intercooler yet, but I always see these spearco intercoolers that somebody welds on squared end tanks. All of the normal spearco intercoolers I see have nice rounded end tanks for better airflow. Also, all of the intercooler design articles say that you don't want the inlet and outlet straight across from each other because the air tends to flow only through a portion of the intercooler. All of these on ebay have squared end tanks and straight through flow. So are they worth buying, or just ineffeciently built? They always say in the auction something like.... this is a good intercooler, not like the bad ones on ebay. Yeah, that doesn't sound suspicious. Just curious. example http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2469897946&category=33742

I love it, I just love it. I've got a VHS with a stock looking flat nose semi at tractor pulls. The guy takes off and the driver side front wheel lifts about a foot and a half into the air but all other tires are on the ground. Awesome frame twist, black smoke shooting straight out of both stacks. Unbelievable power! Ok, time to get my CDL and build a semi.

You are right, MS only uses narrowband. So I will log AFR's and then update my VE table manually to get the desired mixture. The trick part would be telling the computer what AFR you want at what points on your VE table and then have it adjust fuel all the time to meet these. I guess UMS will be that way.

So you saying I can build a 12:1 non turbo engine and have roughly the same horsepower and torque as a 14psi turbo engine. Your 10:1 engine must have been making more than 180hp and 200torque if the stock turbo engine feels slow. Which could be true, if not you have something wrong with the turbo install.

I finished putting together my meter today. Everything looks like it is working correctly now. Haven't installed on the car yet, but tested according to their procedures. I did run into 2 problems. One was misreading the display construction guide and forgetting one resistor, so the display was always stuck at one value. The other was a pcb manufacturing defect that shorted a pin to ground on the board. This was a little tougher to find, luckily my work has microscopes. Cut the short out of the pcb and it all works now. The quality of their pcb manufacturing is not the greatest, but I guess it works.

heh heh... I don't have an LM-1

The List: You got the Z31 ECU upgrade that is probably easiest and cheapest but lacks some of the programmability. ~$100 MegaSquirtnSpark the next most expsensive and has good programmability but is do-it-yourself kit. ~$300 SDS next most exspensive and good programmability, first of the actual aftermarket systems. ~$500 After that all the usual aftermarket systems that are around $1000 and above. These all work good. Not sure what problems you have with the stock non-turbo EFI, but my stock turbo EFI system worked good.

I put in my order on the 11th and got the unit in the mail on the 22nd. Very easy online ordering and fast shipping. I was a little worried about ordering from Australia, no worries.

That makes sense. I will make sure I have the proper O-ring and seals. I have a couple injectors I have been examining and it didn't seem like te pintle cap had much of a function. On some injectors it looks like it holds the O-ring in place.

Apparently this is not a part you can get at NAPA, autozone, etc. I didn't check at the dealer yet but thought someone may have found a source online. I am too lazy to run across town to the dealerships. I searched and came up with several injector shops like RC engineering that should sell them. Also, what is the function of the pintle cap? Does it just affect the spray pattern? Do all injectors use them? I always have the simple questions.

Good news Xander! Since I am turbo minded I didn't even think of using the factory ignition module on the older distributors. No need to mess with the GM HEI. BTW, I probably won't post my .msq files until I have the engine tuned a little better. Hopefully the tech edge unit will be in this week.

I have a couple pics, I'll try to get them up sometime.

Nice, I ordered the tech edge unit, just waiting for it to arrive. Have you used the logging feature yet? There is some pretty neat software for the megasquirt that also takes input from the tech edge I believe. It then plots out AFR, rpm, etc on one nice graph.

I mounted the 2 speed electric fan from an 85 olds with 3.8 into my turbo 240z. It is an interesting fan because it doesn't have a shroud or much of a housing so it leaves a lot of room around the blades. There was no way a taurus fan would fit in my car. I am using a 280z radiator in the 240z. I had a little less than 3" between the water pump and radiator fins. Even with the offset the taurus fan would never work. The olds fan fits real nice and has a triangular brace that mounts to three spots, two on the bottom of the rad and one on the top. It seems to me to be very powerful on high speed, we'll see. I wired in a 30amp relay to run the fan. Does anyone know for sure if the thermo sensor with the green wire is just a switch? I can't run my engine right now. I measured it cold and it shows an open circuit. I am hoping that when it is hot it shorts to ground, then I can use it to turn on the relay. If nobody knows for sure I will check it out next weekend when the engine is running again. I am only going to use the high speed setting of the fan. BTW, I trimmed the taurus fan I have as much as psooible and it is still a little more than 3" thick by the blades, even more where the motor is. Not sure how anyone else get thems to fit, unless they have a different radiator.

Another thing you guys may want is the conversion factor between psi boost and kpa reading, since your MSnS ignition table is formatted in kpa. psi of boost = (kpa-100)/6.9 I changed the bins in my table and I am now using 30 50 70 90 100 140 180 220 so that I get up to about 17.5psi, not that I am going to run there yet. But I may be at 16psi before you know it Have fun.

my 240sx TB already had a TPS on it, I am using that.

my 73 240z had an electric pump, the mount looks just like your pics. From my understanding it was a dealer mod to help with vapor locking problems. It supplemented the mechanical pump on the engine.

BTW, I dug up this post from Scottie in the archives and figured everyone with a standalone could use the advice to help set up ignition timing. You'll notice I am running conservatively right now compared to what he says. Here it is to save the search: Let me take a stab at this based on my experience when I was tuning my stock L28ET with SDS. DISCLAIMER: this is by no means gospel, just what worked for me and the same philosophy I follow today. I once had a copy of the L28ET timing curve that was published by someone but it was on paper and long lost. Anyone remember paper? Even better joke if you are a "Waterworld" fan Full advance was in at 3000 and what I found to be a good starting point for tuning for pump gas (the quality could make a BIG difference) was a total of about 22-24* @ 15psi boost. If you follow a simple, linear map to retard 1* per 1psi boost, then you would want the full advance to be about 37-38* to have 22-23* total at 15psi boost (38* advance - 15* retard = 23* total). So, with an initial of 20*, you can then build a linear map to ramp the timing up to 38* advance at 3000. Since you are not likely to have 15psi boost below 3000, it should be perfect. All the maps are linear in the example and that can be refined later when fine tuning if you feel the need to ramp differently on the way to full advance. You can also get more aggresive with the timing if there is no detonation. However, I fully believe more boost and less timing nets more power than less boost and more timing, as long as you are not detonating. Also, if you are not detonating and the EGTs are low (rich) you have the option to run more timing, turn down the FP or turn up the boost. Hmm, tough choice

I looked at courtesy nissan and they have them for around $5 each. I was a little curious where the red plastic holders came from? Just painted I guess.

FWIW, I bought one from ebay a few months back for the same price. Works good.

I am still dissapointed. Very dissapointed over the hype and the results. Makes engineers look like a bunch of dummies(which may be true). I design and debug scientific computers and we have several hardware accelerators for image detection. I would expect more, but not for a million dollar prize. I have plenty of insight into this technology, but I can't imagine making it work(finish the race) for under a million. Oh well, another bad showing for engineers and technology. We'll see what happens next year.

I am doing that with the new gallery, just right click on the picture after it is uploaded and look at properties, that will give you the link.

Is there a better source for the plastic injector holders on the 280zxt enigne than VB. They want $8 a piece and I need to replace all of them. Junkyards around here are no good, you have to buy the whole intake. I have seen pics of L28 engines with red plastic holders so there must be a general source for them. Thanks