mobythevan

Now that the turbo engine is running I just have a few things to sort out before a test drive. Today I drilled out the broken studs from the downpipe so I can get exhaust hooked up, probably after the test drive though. I need to get a 90 degree 3 inch tube so I can mount my air filter. I am also having a friend braze a fitting to put in the drain plug of the gas tank so I can get my electric pump hooked up. If I can get those couple things together by this weekend I am going to hit the driveway and see how it runs. My driveway is over a quarter mile long. Maybe I'll hit the road a little too, there aren't any cops out were I live.

My engine fired with only 3 injectors working. Some gentle tapping on the other 3 injectors and all six cylinders came to life. I am going to run some injector cleaner through the system on the first couple tanks, but the engine sounds really good to me.

water sender is further away from the head, other sensor with the green wire is closest to the head.

Mudge, I didn't ever have the diz connector unplugged, so I never checked anything out there. How did you hook up the fusible links that they were backwards before, I don't remember reading about that.

on my 83 eninge my two sensors at thermo housing are single wire. Temp sensor has bullet connector on sensor. Other one has short green wire coming out of the sensor then bullet connector. I remember my L26 having something like you describe.

Got the turbo engine fired up last night. At first it only ran about 20 seconds then died. Checked the plugs and 3 cylinders were not running. Tapped on those three injectors and fired it up again, sounds great. Running on all 6 and man this engine doesn't sound like that puny L26 that was in there before. Got boost and engine sounds good, I'm stoked now. Got to fix a few more things before I can really test drive it much, I can't wait.

Everthing I tie to ground I then measure with the DMM to make sure it is grounded. I also ground my battery to the engine block. I then plan to add a braid for good grounding between the block and the car body. Being an electircal guy I always check the path of the current when wiring stuff up. Its too bad your not closer, I could give you a hand. But you'll figure it out. Good luck

I got all of my wiring finished last night. I checked the operation of the fuel pump relay. Turn key on and realy turns on for 5 seconds then shuts off. Also cranked engine over a little and I have spark. So I sent the gas can with my wife today so she can fill it. Tonight I will start the engine. I live out in the sticks, so I didn't want to make a trip to town for gas last night.

Those plugs are not the plugs that hook directly to the ECU. Plug 1 hooks to the fusible link box. Plug 2 was just inside the firewall, I "think" it hooked to the fuel pump module. Plug 3 was right next to the green EFI relay in the harness. BTW, all of those connectors are white plastic if that helps. The ECU connectors are black plastic. All colors and wires match what he says on my harness so I think I'm in business. I also doublechecked everything he says against the schematic to be sure how things actually work, all makes sense to me at this point. I plan to finish my wiring tonight. My engine only came with the EFI harness, I did not get the fuel pump module, the FI cooling fan timer, any of the car harness, or the fusible link box. Doesn't look like I need any of that stuff, but just to let you know what I have in case my answers don't make sense to you.

I should have explained better, but the moral of the story is: you don't want to hook the start signal of the ECU so that it sees voltage all the time. That is what I gathered from the schematic, but the the signal I was going to hook it to on the 240z would not have worked. The ECU should only see this start signal when you are cranking and thats it. This won't keep the engine from running, but will keep the computer from going into closed loop mode, which causes the engine to run rich at idle and cruising speeds. Did you get your B/W wire from the igition switch connected up?

And the answer is http://www.zcar.com/forums/read.php?f=1&i=215827&t=215827 Had to do a lot of searching to dig up that post, but answers my question to the start signal. I am going to check the ignition switch tonight and make sure it operates like the schematic says. If so I will probably add a diode to effectively split the start signal to the ECU but also provide coil voltage during start.

I found something interesting in the way that a 240 ignition siwtch works vs the 280zxt ignition switch. This is based on the schematics in the Haynes manual for both cars and could affect the turbo swap. First the 240 switch provides voltage to the coil when in start position(through G/W wire and through tachometer). During this time no voltage is sent out the B/W wire. However, when in the run position the switch then sends voltage out the B/W wire (through ballast resistor and through tachometer). This is fine gives you voltage on the coil during start and run. But on the zxt the start signal only goes to the ECU, via plug #2 yellow wire on EFI harness. The B/W wire from a zxt ignition switch provides the coil voltage during start and ignition. It boils down to the fact that the zxt ECU was only intended to see the start signal during starting. I don't think you can easily wire this in using the 240 ignition switch because they operate different. The 240 switch provides coil power through two different wires during ignition and start(these are then wire OR'd so you can't connect in anywhere for a start signal). The 280zxt switch provides coild power through one wire for ignition and start and then provides a separate wire to signal start. Now the question, does anyone know exactly what the ECU does different (if anything) when it sees the start signal. I suspect most people who have done the swap just wire the start signal in with the ignition signal and this notifies the ECU that you are "starting" all the time. This is easy enough to test by putting a separate switch on this start line and see if does anything I can tell when the engine is running, but I figure why re-invent the wheel if someone already knows the answer. I'm sure someone has noticed this, but in the 50 plus posts I've read so far no one ever mentions it. I figure this must mean that there are no side affects of having the start signal all the time. But I also see a bunch of posts saying that turbo swaps into 240 cars never seem to run right. Sometimes there are a lot more opinions than answers.

http://www.zcar.com/forums/read.php?f=1&i=191232&t=191088 http://www.zcar.com/forums/read.php?f=1&i=173712&t=173582

I have to tell you that I found a wealth of information on the turbo swap at http://www.zcar.com Those guys have been doing this for a long time, and a lot of the same guys are here on hybridz, but hybridz has a lot more info pertaining to the V8 swap than the turbo swap. Just search in their 70-83 tech area and search mainly for "turbo 240" or "L28ET 240" etc... Look at these two posts from zcar: http://http:/www.zcar.com/forums/read.php?f=1&i=191232&t=191088 http://http:/www.zcar.com/forums/read.php?f=1&i=173712&t=173582 Hope that helps

Mudge, seperate question, what gauge of fusible link wire are you using to make your links? I am assuming you are making your own. I was just going to use fuses to pick up power for the ECU and fuel pump, so I am looking for a starting point to figure the current rating for fuses. Thanks

I think you find that the condenser is more of a noise suppressor. It is actually a capacitor. In cars with points the condenser worked to slow the spark so that the contacts wouldn't burn up as quick.

Thanks Tim

Mudge, were did you locate your AFM and air filter. My radiator hits the AFM, looks like I will have to customize the air inlet tube from the turbo to AFM to get the AFM to fit. Otherwise I would have to locate it in front of the radiator. Curious how you solved this problem.

Looks like it may fire tonight or tomorrow night. Little bit of wiring left to do tonight, put in new plugs and check for proper fuel pump operation and spark. Then I will find out if the engine has good compression and hopefully doesn't smoke like a train. I have no idea how many miles are on it. Looking at the old spark plugs that were in it, it was burning oil on #2, won't know how bad until its running.

My 83 turbo engine came out of an automatic car and it has gussets attached to the bottom of the block for extra support to the bellhousing I guess. Does anyone know if the maual tranny cars also used these gussets, I'm just curious.

I just went to Parker today and got new fittings for my oil cooler lines. Tossed the old ones, banjo fittings and all. $20 for the new fittings at the oil filter side and a hose to temporarily bypass until I get the new oil cooler. Well, I haven't tossed the banjo fittings until I see that everything works, but it will.

Found the module in the manual this time, it is labeled FICD (fast idle control device). When A/C is turned on a magnet switch sends vacuum to this little module which raises the idle.

I figured I would leave it so I can tell those BS guys that its my turbo.

I figured I would leave it so I can tell those BS guys that its my turbo.

It wasn't shown in any of my manuals, so it didn't seem important. Makes sense it would be for the heater. I'll look in the heater section of the manual again and see if they talk about it.