nscason

Ok guys i am taking a chance here. there is a 83 zxt ecu on ebay for $25 on buy it now that ends soon and the seller pulled it off of a car that wasnt running. is there a place that i can go with the part number to find out if anything is wrong with it? i did hear about checking the different terminals to see if it is good. i have a multi meter. is there some place or website that will tell me what all to check to make sure the ecu will work once it is in place and i am going to turn the key? i dont wont to start putting on all of my turbo parts just to have it not work from a bad ecu. is there a company i can call or send it off to for them to see if it will work right? my car is a daily driver and it is my only vehicle. i need to make sure that i have a working ecu before i tare my car apart. any advice is greatly appriciated. thanks a bunch. Nick Cason

I know that the ZXT's have f54 blocks and those have the knock sensor in them. i have a n42 and want to put on the all of the stock zxt components for right now. it was brought to my attention that the zxt harness has the knock sensor and a head temp sensor. i am going to be putting the stock turbo and harness on my 280z. both the head and the block are n42. would i be able to drill and tap for both of these sensors and where exactly would they go? that and do the the aftermarket ecu like megasquart use those sensors? if some one could fill in the blanks and fuzzy areas that would be awesome. sorry if you get this question all the time. thanks for any help. Nick Cason

what year and type zx had a non egr manifold. i have an e88 egr webbed manifold. are all of the zx manifolds webbed? do they have the same flow rates of the n42 or n47?

oh man i have missed the last few episodes. CArFAn, you actually know dirty rice. dude thats sweet. i would love to do that kind of thing once my car was better set up. i found it funny how a little road trip and all kinds of peoples cars where breaking down. i have had my 280 for about 3 years and have driven it all over SO Cal and Arizona. no problems here. how long ago was all of that filmed?

Oh man. dont get me started on the alternator problems. I never tried swapping out for a zx alt. i do know of the sticker you are talking about. i never have changed out the volt reg. i dont know why you would have to replace that with the alt. i do know that if the reg goes out the alt turns into a mini welder. all kinds of voltage going through the wiring harness. big fire and lots of melted wire. happened on one of the old jeeps i have. the sad part is that i was on my way to get the new volt reg.

My dad has a decent knowledge about vehicles. there have been many times that he gives me some kind of answer that is so far off it dosent make sense to me how he came up with it in the first place. and then to top it all off he is adamant that he is right. for the longest time i have assumed that that was the p-valve. it would only make sense. oh well. it would have only been a matter of time before i looked it up in my haynes book or called someone. i sometimes think if any of these tech guys like talking to me. i ask all the super technical questions that nobody knows. everyone is running around looking in books and calling the people that have done nothing BUT work on these cars. about the sensor. i am glad that i dont have a vehicle that when one silly sensor goes out the car electrical goes hey wire. i wouldnt be able to deal with that kind of stuff.

OK... i just got off of the phone with one of the guys from MSA. I talked to him for about 20 minutes. just to answer Carolinaz's pm. the proportioning valve is in the motor bay right under the brake master cylinder. the only 2 hard lines coming out of the master goes straight down into the valve. there is one wire that comes out of the top of that valve. Here is what i learned. what we think that device is, it isnt really. that isnt the proportioning valve. it is just a connection block, and that is the one that is directly below the master cylinder. the real proportioning valve is right after that on the fire wall. after looking at that area of the braking system i noticed for the first time this extra block. i have never noticed that after owning my car for 3 years. i went and asked the MSA guy all about that stuff. he got out a factory service manual. another thing. i have a late 77. he first thought that the problem was with the master cylinder. i was confused at first. he was asking me if i had a wire going to one of the master cylinder caps. YES, the cap. i have never had a wire going to any cap. he remembered that the whole wire thing started in 78 and that is why the master cylinders are so expensive for that year. that might be the problem is that is the year that you have. back to the proportioning valve. the valve dosent have any wires and it is on the fire wall. the connecting block is on the fender and it has the one wire. i also asked about that. i still dont know if the sensor can be taken out of the block. that dosent matter any ways. the sensor and the block itself is no longer available. it isnt produced anymore. that still might be the problem there just isnt any way of checking for sure. all you can do is steal one off of the same year z. i asked if it was the same for a zx and it is not. i dont know if there is any kind of difference in the 240, 60, or 80 z. hope that cleared some stuff up. for me some time when i actually have the time i am going to trace back that one wire going from the connecting block to where ever and see if there are loose connections or the wire has been grounded. until then there are bigger things that i need to deal with.

oh man this stuff is funny. ok... thanks for the concern. i did for get about the proportioning valve switch. that might be it for me. if the ign is on so is the brake light. like carolinaz my brake work incredibly well. i have also driven with no rear brakes at one point in time. there was air in the lines. oh man that was horrible. talk about spongy. i fixed that the next day. i never planned on cutting anything. the light dosent bother me any more anyways. i will mess with the proportioning valve switch though. always helps to get an outside opinion. i do work up to 80hrs a week and go to school full time. i probably wont get to it for another few months.

that is the only area of the car that i havent taken apart yet. i have been through everything else. thats the big question. there is the one screw that is at the top of the inside of where the tach is. you can see it from the drivers seat. its right there. you might try that. i know i havent. i do know that most lights have a plastic peace that they fit into and that pushes in and twists into the tach. what i would do is wait until it is dark and turn the dash lights on and just start taking out the lights until i found the only red one. trial and error kinda thing. i dunno there might be something that fits over the whole tach and speedo. while i have been down there i never have looked in that area. ill get around to it some time. now that i keep thinking about it, it is starting to bug me. not in the sense of the annoying light either. i know there is an electrical glitch. damn electrical!

well i dont plan on cutting into any wiring harness. why dont you take out the light bulb and just put the bulb holder back into the tack housing. that will get rid of the light at least. I am going to let the light stay on until i have the time and am in one of those moods to rip everything apart and find the gremlin. Until that time i will just keep ignoring the light.

Personally i would disconnect the wire going to the bulb. if you take out the bulb it could get broken, lost or stuff could end up in the area where the light goes. i disconnect the wire that is if it can be disconnected by itself. i have not looked under there but it might go right into one of those wiring harnesses. I dont know. Im the kind of person to find the problem than to get rid of the indication that there is one. Thats just me though. That light has been on for months if not a year or so.

Oh man that was great. I just wish i could understand what they were talking about.

I agree wth the fusable link thing. I had the same prob for the first few months i had my car. Goofy stuff would happen. I now always have extra links in my car. I havent got arount to upgrading that problem area yet.

I havent had that prob on a z but i had a voltage reg go out on a 68 jeepster. The alternator turns into a welder. the wiering literally goes up in flames. the volt reg holds the volts down. the alt puts out 14+ volts. more at higher rpms. the voltage reg keeps that to the 14 all the time. I have gone through 3 alts on my 77 and havent replaced the reg once. everything works fine. when the alt is starting ro go out the lights are going to be dim and the volt meter is only going to be reading 12 or so. when the red light went on in my car the alt took a s#%t. I dont think its the volt reg. I could be wrong though. hope i helped.

well to give an update. i havent looked for the problem yet. it hasent presented any problems. everything works fine. the light just stays on. ALL THE TIME. i learned to ignore it. the master works good and is full, the system is full, new brake parts that work good, tale lights work correctly, and the parking brake works as it should. i think that it is some kind of wiring glitch somewhere. if it was the switch that is hooked to the peddle, wouldnt the tail lights not work correctly??? i dunno. i just glad that im not the only one with this problem.

ok i don't know a whole lot about turbos yet. i just got the turbo that is going to be used in my new motor build. it is a t3 and i do eventually plan on upgrading. it looks like its in good shape. there are no cracks or gouges that i can notice. there is .035" of play in the shaft. ok you turbo guys. give me the news. is the shaft bad, bearings worn out or is that with in usable parameters? there also is a small nick on the inlet impeller. where the air filter goes. is that what that part is called? like a small pebble hit it. i haven't ever seen a turbo that wasn't bolted onto a motor so i don't know how much play should be there if any. the guy i bought it from says he upgraded and that one worked fine. he never took it over 10psi either. could he be telling me the truth or did he lie out his ass? im pretty sure you guys can tell me all kinds about my situation. or is the turbo shot and i should just use it as a core for something better? do they sell the internal parts to rebuild the turbos??? thanks for any help you guys can give me.

I have got a hold of a n42 block, crank, pistons. they are all NEW. it has just been sitting around. never run or used. Ok, i want to make a nice stout turbo motor and im still trying to figure out where i want to go with it. Im looking for numbers in between 300 to 400bhp. i just purchased a t3 turbo and a 3" down pipe for it. i still need a head, intake, exhaust, cam, and ign system. I would like to go distributor-less and would like to know how to set that up and if i could get it to work with megasquirt. But thats all later. First off i need to figure out stuff to do with the block and head. I want to buy the l28 big bore kit from MSA. it is expensive and would like to know if it is worth it for my build. that and is there a better place to buy it from? or go bigger. i dunno. i have a n47 head that i can get from pull your part for $40. i want to go with the stage 2 turbo cam from MSA and machine it for bigger valves. what is the best compression ratio to get? and will that metal head gasket help with that? will i be able to get that ratio with the big bore kit? what do you guys think? will the big bore kit be over kill for the numbers that im looking for? if i snatch that n47 head what kind of machining should i do for mu turbo motor? does any one make an after market intake manifold to put on a bigger tb and better flow rates? that and do i want to find a turbo header instead of a stock manifold? Im still in the part and idea hunting phase. any thoughts could help and would be appreciated. thanks.

that makes more sense. i didn't think of that. the thing is, i have ALL new brake parts. except the master cylinder and the rear wheel cylinders. the master is completely full and the brakes are well bled. i might be a short or something. i never would have looked at the rest of the brake system. it never would have crossed my mind. ill take a look at that some time. thanks for the insight and the thought from the outside.

i would be the same way. i was like that when it spent 5 months in the back yard waiting to get the head resurfaced.

i haven't had the leather brake cover on for a while and it isn't the switch. that's the first place that i looked. and it isn't a bad connection to that switch that's under the seat. i checked that too. any other ideas. i haven't had the time to tear everything apart. the light just stays on for some reason.

i didnt know a probe could go that fast. hahahahaha.

about the long hood thing. my girlfriend has always said that is all my car is. hood and motor. she likes the fact that i can back out of anywhere and only be sticking out a little bit. where as her truck has to have the whole bed in the street before she can see everything. we both know that is are real safe car as long as you are paying close attention to the world around you. if not you might get squished. before i got the progressive springs my girlfriend and i where driving back from san diego and going down the grade i averaged 95. the only thing keeping up with me was a high end mersadies and some new saturn sports car. needless to say my girlfriend wasn't scared at all where as anyone else would have pissed their pants knowing how fast i was going. stuff like that helped her getting to wanting one. then putting her behind the wheel finished it.

and thats why i live in a desert. NO SNOW. i would rather deal with a dulled paint job from a dust storm. i dont have to worry about hail or tornadoes either. YAY. i wonder if the driver was trying to do something or just along for the ride. hehehe.

I'm no where close to an expert, but i have always liked having complete control of the car. if you don't mind the shifting all the time i would go with the trans brake. i don't really know much about automatic tyranny's though. my dads 71 jeepster has a turbo 400 and OMG that thing just about snaps your neck every time it shifts and I LOVE THE FEEL. all that power on tap. i have known other people that don't like to think much or multitask when driving. there's my 2 cents worth. hope i helped.