WizardBlack

I thought I would add my two cents. Tony, the car sounds amazing! Regarding Ducati, I owned one a few years back; they still use Desmodromic Valve Actuation. Mine was a 748S. My gawd that thing sounded sweet; especially at 10,500 rpm.

OK, I have two fusible link boxes. Each one has a pair of links in it. One is totally missing, shot, melted. It looks like they almost (GASP) welded a spot to combine the two, BUT that one smokes if I leave the headlights on, so I thought it was that. I don't drive the car at night; at least until I have gone through and fixed that. Believe it or not, that was lower on the list to do (based on need). LOL. I think when I looked at the wiring stuff for the alternator that the other 3 were fusible links. They look but, but I don't know much about fusible links. I thought they kinda melted or at least 'seared' when they failed. NOTE: The starter doesn't do anything, but IIRC the fans continue to run.

It was the 10 gauge black wire that is definitely ground. Several other ground wires route through and connect to it. Moving backwards, the first ground is the one that bolts to the side of the engine block. Then two to I don't know what. One looks like a test connect for something. It's a four pin connector with just a plug on it. Eventually it moves back to another ground bolted to the fire wall, etc.

Brand new gold plated battery posts. Brand new ground. UPDATE: I found that the ground wire running from the alternator back through the harness was cooked and bare in several spots. I pulled it all out and replaced that section. It still will not fire but at least now fans and pump come on, etc. I am hoping the voltage regulator is shot. I will have it tested and see what's next to be fixed.

OK, I have a '77 280Z. I have had it for about 1200 miles so far. It had a lot of screwed up things when I bought is so I have been going through and fixing things up. Some of the things I have done in the past (and it has run fine afterwards): Eliminated excess wiring/components for wipers, radio, heat, rear defrost, EGR, etc. etc. Got a good AFM and tuned it. Set hot lash on valves. It is basically has everything to run (including cold idle) with turn signals, hazard, etc. The only engine thing I have removed is the EGR and the coolant lines running through the little block under the bi-metal device that is powered and varies idle air. Anyways, it has decent dual electric fans, 280ZX alternator, and a relocated battery. The ground side was only 16" long and run to a bolt on the rear of the chassis. The power side was (and is) run under the carpet and up to the starter post. My voltmeter was always showing about 16 volts (basically pegged) while running and sometimes it would light up the 'charge' light. I left the electric fans running (ignition on) with the car off for about 10 minutes the other day since it likes to creep up on temperature after it shuts off. When I got back to the car, the battery was dead. I jumped it and drove around for a while but I think that was the last hurrah for the battery. It drove with a jump a couple times OK and then the last time it was popping and sputtering the ~1/2 mile drive home. I went and bought 2-gauge welding cable (very pliable and high thread count) for a new negative line and bought an Odyssey PC680. I mounted the new battery (after charging) with the existing lines and drove it to my shop. It ran fine on the way there. Once I got there, I ran the ground wire from the battery up to the engine side of the firewall. I hooked in right where a harness ground wire was so it would be directly linked to the battery. I also ran a new 8 gauge wire from that point to the starter bolt. The ground wire for the fans is also hooked up to that same point. I thought I was on a roll so I looked over on the driver's side by the clutch master cylinder. On that side, the harness comes through the firewall. In that harness, it has about 5 ground wires that are bolted to the chassis there. I left those alone. It also has a 12 gauge power wire that was routed back through the firewall and under the carpet to the battery in the rear of the car. I eliminated that run and just ran it across the firewall and hooked it up to the starter post as well. It should be the same exact thing; just cleaned up a bit. I am not sure what those grounds and the one power wire are for, but I figured it was ECU grounds and main power to the ECU (which is obviously on all the time). I dunno. I started it up and it started fine. Felt at least as smooth as it was before but I didn't do much since it was cold. About 60~90 seconds in it just shut off like I had turned the key off. I tried to re-fire it and nothing is responsive. No radiator fans (which come on with ignition), no fuel pump prime, no hazards, no turn signal. It is completely silent. I still have 12.08 volts on the battery. I tried about a dozen times. ONE time it has a little sign of life but acted like the battery was dead. I clicked it off and back on and it was back to dead. Stone cold dead. Now, I removed most of the glass fuses in the past for things I didn't need but I rechecked the ~7 that are left and they all have less than 1 ohm of resistance. The one thing I do see is that the voltmeter has always reacted when I press the brake pedal. Even with it off, the volts drop while I have my foot on the brakes. I don't know it that's the norm or not, but there it is. So, anyone have some ideas? Maybe the internal voltage regulator fought a losing battle when the fans were on and the car was off; thus frying it? Maybe it finally burnt out and that's why it won't start? (I thought you could run a car without an alt, but maybe with it on there and fried it is doing something). I looked at the wiring job and it seemed pretty straightforward. Hook two wires together; twice and otherwise it's a direct plug-in. I noticed back a month ago that the T-Connector on the alternator was off and I plugged it back in. I always check the connections now. Anyways, thanks in advance... Mark

That sounds like a terribly inefficient way to describe the dimensions of any cam. I'd expect it's meant that it is 3/4 of the way to the full race cam. In other words, a street/track type of cam.

Can't you just read the load and rpm values for the offending point in the datalog and look that field up? Is there no way to datalog the knock sensor?

I am aghast that the megamanual says that. Get it in and tune with it. I think the only thing they were trying to tell you with that (I hope so, anyway) is don't get carried away trying to nail each load cell perfectly until you have most of the map roughed in.

I think Jeg's told me the kit to use is their "t-Bucket" kit for the old model T cars. It's basically a 12 circuit setup, etc.

Hmm, more stuff to think about.. Thank you!

The X-brace is during removal of old and installation of new parts; yes? It sounds like it's doable then; sweet. It's one of the very few rusty and mangled sections on the entire car; believe it or not. Thanks for the info!

Make sure your clutch disc isn't in backwards.

My 280Z came with a mildly beat up lower radiator core support and some areas cut away on the sides and whatnot. I am getting ready to go turbo with the huge ebay intercooler with 3" outlets so I need some more room on the sides, too. Let me describe the core support in my own words and then I will describe what I want to do and leave it up to everyone to comment on safety and feasibility. The upper and lower pieces run horizontal (obviously) and are tied in with the side pieces which are not much more than a thin strip of sheetmetal running along the inner fender sheetmetal. The side pieces have holes in them at the top for the intake pipe, etc. They also have the mounting points for the radiator. The upper support is a ovalized tube of sheet metal and has a triangular gusset on each end where it connects to the inner fenders. My guess is it is mostly for compression support to keep the fenders at the proper width. It basically is tack welded to the sheet metal of the inner fenders and doesn't have the attachment to provide a serious amount of chassis support. The lower support is a beefy 2"x2" square tube beam that tapers lower (closer to the ground) in the middle. It is tack welded via spread out sheets of metal to the chassis beams. My guess is this puppy is a significant chassis support and provides support in several axes. Ok, what I want to do first of all is eliminate the sheet on the sides so I can open up enough for 3" intercooler piping. They were essentially cut enough already to basically be moot as far as tying the upper and lower together. I then want to use 2"x1.5" square tube to replace the rusty, chewed up upper support and weld the proper support webbing back to it. I suspect that really won't cause any issues. It also gives me a better support for the dzus fasteners for the hood and to mount my intercooler to. Finally (and this is the part that I am wondering about) I want to replace the smashed up lower support with new steel square tubing of equal size (about 2.5"x2.5") and decent thickness to essentially do an "as stock" replacement as far as shape goes. Perhaps it'll be made of a bit thicker material if that seems useful or prudent. I have enough equipment to do it (big Wilton bandsaw, Lincoln TIG, Miller MIG, etc.). I haven't torn it apart enough to get an extremely comfortable idea of how the lower is attached to the car, yet. So what do the chassis guys think on here? I have seen uppers replaced with chassis tubing, etc. on other cars. I figured with the gusseting on the S30 and the fact that they are basically tied into the frame via L-shaped pieces of sheet metal that square tubing is the prudent choice. As far as the lower support goes; I am doing it for more cosmetic reasons rather than fitment or severe rust, etc. This portion I may drop if I get the feeting that it's risky. Thanks for reading my long-winded post. Mark

Yes. Get them cleaned and tested by a fuel injector shop such as rceng.com. Pull your plugs; you probably have a pretty significant cylinder to cylinder fuel imbalance.

Are you trying to tune this without a wideband? I would think you could solve a lot with a wideband hooked directly to battery power and tune it as it warms up. A Few iterations of that should get your pretty darn close. Cars like it pretty rich when cold; 12:1 or so and tapering to about 13.5:1 until you get within 20 degrees of full temp when closed loop can be turned on. They also need a pretty big initial fuel pulse, but then not a lot when cranking. It sounds like you have too much for the initial pulse or cranking and when running it runs too lean (not enough coolant enrichment) and/or your accel enrichment isn't quite high enough.

You must've tinkered with the shifting rods in the trans. I see that you removed the bellhousing, so you probably pushed one in slightly trying to line it up with the bellhousing. Pull the trans off of the engine and see if it will shift into all gears just sitting on the floor. If that's the case, you must pull the bellhousing and make sure the ends of all three rods are pretty much even with each other. They have an out, middle and in position and you need 'em all in the middle position. IIRC the one on the passenger end of the row (of three rods) is the one that is usually the culprit.

Hmm, that sounds like the turbo isn't sized or balanced to match your engine and your requirements. What boost/timing/airfuel were you running? How much torque did you make?

Yep, that's a form of antilag. I've driven a rally car with it before and set up two-step for street cars. On a side note, some EVO's (Jap versions for one) use a BOV that dumps the air (from IC piping) into the exhaust manifold runners from the factory. Another interesting way to benefit.

Looks nice. I have done modded/tuned enough cars to know that you should make 400 whp with 2.5", though. Restrictive? Maybe a little but it shouldn't cork the engine; especially a 2.8L with a supposed 500 whp turbo that put down 374. Still very nice numbers. It's hard to tell, but if pipe #2 is an internally gated non-bellmouth pipe I am surprised you didn't have creep issues. Anyways you slice it, though, I think you have your downpipe sorted.

And you still end up with the open diff which was the biggest thing I am trying to eliminate. I ended up moving down the Q45 R200 path. Q45 diff, Q45 CV's, MM companion flanges, MM axles. Now I just need to sort the propshaft...

Yeah all of it comes from the same nature. You turn your car from a chassis made of lots of tack welded and loosely connected individual pieces into an essentially single piece of metal. More like what a unibody really should be. That aside, stitch or seam welding isn't going to make a major difference if you "wrap it" around the tree. The thickness of the metal and it's metallurgical condition is important, too. A year ago I hit a 2.5' diameter tree dead on at 60 mph in a 2005 Honda Civic (no I wasn't drunk or being stupid, etc.). Airbags went off; seatbelt was on. I still hit my head and one hand on the windshield and my knees went through the dash on both sides of the steering wheel. My seat even started to rip out of the floorpans. Spare tire ripped it's 10mm mounting bolt out of the trunk floor and blew the trunk lid open; landed 30 feet from the car, etc. Not all is well in the way cars are engineered anymore. Five star crash testing is all they shoot for anymore. It was meant to be a form of standards; not the end all, be all of car safety. Want to know what I think? I have an 8 point cage in my Datsun and I plan to redo the whole thing and go 10 point. For my 'street' car.

That's a "through log" rather than what I think he is referring to. Anywhere you tapped into that particular log would basically get 99% of it's signal as a mix of the two adjacent cylinders. You need a separate .5" diameter log (for example) with a small diam. tap into each cylinder rather than it having to basically jump open in diameter to the volume of each runner to get to the next runner. Ross Machine sells -8 AN rail extrusion for about $11 per foot.

Well, I just bought a Q45 diff so someone may want to grab my welded R200 outta my '77. It's been that way for quite a while so it must be welded pretty well. On a side note (and yes, you may beat me with the search club but I wanna be SURE before I buy parts), the Modern Motorsports Billet R230 CV kit works for the early nineties Q45 R200 diffs as well, no? I read someone said they actually used a Q45 R200 VLSD for the fitment and sizing of their axles in the kit. I wanna be sure before I pull the trigger on a sizable chunk of parts. In other words, I want to buy http://www.modern-motorsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=65 with the optional axles to build the CV shafts from four Q45 inners like the stickies say. This will get me into a Q45 diff short of a custom front mount and custom propshaft, no? Oh, and thanks to all for fab, fitment and handling advice...

I looked at weldingmart.com. They were pretty knowledgable and nice.

Any disadvantages to using GTAW for the stitching?