Calgary280ZT

Hey folks The last Wolf dealer (Ztune) closed its doors in BC a few years ago. I need some work done and a tune on my V400. Anyone know of a shop or tuner in the Vancouver, BC area they would recommend? Alternatively, I don't mind driving or trailering the car to Bellingham WA or further south. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. Markham

I agree with Bo.

Rossman, did you notice any difference in power or driveability? At this point I'm thinking my time and money is better spent elsewhere....

Yikes....

Here's another question for Tony: the only engine component not modified or upgraded is the exhaust manifold. Bone stock. Am I losing hp/torque or driveability? At what point is it worth working on the exhaust mani? 350 hp? 500 hp? The downpipe is currently 2.5" (not sure how anyone gets 3" on the turbo, there just wasn't enough room when we were fabbing up the DP) emptying into a mandrel bent 3" system. No cat....yet.

Tony has made his boost argument before and I drank the Kool aid. So when I built my car I opened it up as much as I could with the budget I had. You can see my mods in my sig. Now I can attest to the truth of what Tony is preaching. The car makes around 325 rwhp at 10 psi. I've had a couple of members on here look at my timing map and everyone agrees its pretty conservative. It probably wouldn't be difficult to get to Tony's 350/380 numbers with a little dyno tuning, which we hope to do in the very near future. Yes, it cost me some $$, but if I had to do it again I would do the same thing. JSM: Rebello charged me $1000 for his "race port." The head had originally been prepped by Rebello with an Isky cam, big SS intakes and the beginning of a port. I bought it for $400 never intalled, I imagine it cost the owner $800-1000. My cheap Chinese IC cost me $150 max. Piping and couplers was perhaps the same, but I could never get the damn stuff to stay together...very annoying to have an IC piping leak you can't find when you're 2800 kms from home. The SS IC piping cost me $550 in material and my mechanic swapped a big brake Z32 kit for the labour and I swapped him video....probably would have been another $400-500. So the IC is a cheaper route to go than the head (in my experience), but I'm glad I did both.

Tony, your vote for getting the tune right is noted...working on it, will report back. But you've raised a couple of questions worth considering. 1. Why do I want more power? For the same reason every boost addict wants more...I've become used to 300ish hp, I think I can handle the power and I want to try more. After all, I took your advice when I started this project...the engine can breathe pretty damn well, now I want to try more boost and see how I like it. Do I REALLY need it? No. This is the car I drive up to clients' office in or up to a news shoot. It's my DD. But would I like a little more oomph when I pull up beside one of those German cars on the Deerfoot? You bet. 2. Can my build handle more boost? There may be some weak areas, I think. I'm not 100% confident in my Chinese IC (so far my IAT are in the 26-30C range, which I gather from posts is pretty good under boost). I think I have pretty good control of fuel, but not so sure about spark. 3. Can the car handle more power? This is an area that needs some work. I'm running the stock suspension with KYB shocks and poly bushings. I'm pretty careful about not pushing it too hard around those Rocky Mountain corners. JimCanuck's 73 is my benchmark and he is soooo far ahead of me. So that is my 2011 project. What do you think about stiffening the chassis with some Bad Dog rails?

softtopz: to the best of my knowledge, the head has not been shaved. I know the block is bone stock. We're working on the assumption that the cr is the stock 7.4:1. s130z: turbo is a T3/T4E. I assume .50 trim but can't confirm it because I bought it from a member here and although he never installed it, he couldn't remember the specs. johnc: ....lol. Message received loud and clear. I started with a base tune from ktm and I've had a couple of members (inc. bernardd) tell me the timing table is pretty conservative. Thus far I've concentrated my tuning efforts on the bottom part of the fuel map in order to increase off-boost driveability and mileage. Last week on a 700 mile trip from Calgary to White Rock I got between 20 and 26 mpg, car ran strong in the mountains...pulled the plugs the next day and they were nice and toasty brown, didn't look too lean. Having trouble logging at the moment (either wideband is dead or a problem with the aux box), so plan to put the car on the dyno next week and start tuning under boost. Plan to go nice and slow and avoid blowing up stuff. Thanks guys. Plan is still to go with 15 lbs boost, will report back on how the tuning goes.

Hey guys. Well, I'm finally getting my Wolf V500 dialed in. Next step is to turn up the boost. You can see in my sig all the mods I've made. Even at its current 10 psi it pulls hard. Haven't had it on a dyno yet, but JimCanuck and I estimate torque at 300+ ft lbs., hp probably in same range. The other mechanic who works on the car with me is a Nissan trained tech who is the 300zx TT guy to go to in Calgary. When I told him I wanted to turn the boost up to 15 lbs, he recommended against it, saying 12.5-13 is all the L28 can really handle. I know ktm and bernardd and other are running way more than that on a stock bottom end (which is what I've got), but this is my daily driver and reliability is also important. When I built the car I took TonyD's advice and started my mods by improving the engine's breathing as much as I could within my budget. You can see the IC, Rebello head, Isky and Lonewolf ported intake. With all that work it should be able to handle more boost pretty easily, right? I know this issue has been dealt with in the archives, but I wanted members' opinion on my specific set up. What do you think guys? 12.5 vs 15 lbs of boost, which one would you go with? Oh, and my block is low mileage (around 100k) and in pretty good shape.

LOL...I knew that was coming, Bo! Always liked yours, but like my colours better.

LOL...my LMA-3 auxbox hasn't worked for 2 years. During the painting the wires were pulled out of the front. Before that, it stopped reading AFRs. Wiring into the box is the same. I plan to test and re-calibrate the wideband 02 sensor next week. But those wires on the front of the box...a mystery....

Forgot to add that the paint I had chosen was a Nissan 3-stage, which was too expensive. I had already moved to BC, so gave Mark instructions on what I was looking for and he picked a 1969 Camaro Dover White. Hard to see in the pics, but it is not bright white, almost a cream but not quite. The paint selection was absolutely perfect...he did a much better job than me!!

Hey guys. Here are some crappy pics I just took of my 1977 280Z with its new paint. Mark that bodyman did a great job...if anyone in Alberta is looking for bodywork/paint, I'd highly recommend him. Car was sitting in a barn for 15 years before I rescued it in 2006. You can see from my sig that the focus to date has been on mechanical and making it fast (est. about 325 rwhp at 10 psi). 3 years ago I need it to look better (drove it to Bakersfield, CA and back for 18 months), so painted it with white Rustoleum (sorry I dont have any before pics). When we gave it to Mark it had a green FG fender, a black door, a grey (stock paint) hatch, several colours of inspection doors and lots of rust where the old rear chunky monkey bumpers fit. Mark turned it into a beaut...and for only $3200. He did a ton of extra work and never charged for it. Great guy. HE also did JimCanuck's 73 and some of the other Calgary S30s. Still lots of work to do, starting with the suspension next year. Until then, it is my DD and for the next two months I'll be driving over the Rocky Mountains every two weeks between White Rock, BC and Calgary, AB. Last trip i got between 20 and 26 mpg. Still lots of tuning left on the Wolf V500. I'll try to post better pics another day...waited too late today so the sun is too low. Markham

Bo, what about the boost readings from your Wolf V500? My mechanical gauges says 10 psi when my Wolf dash display says 5.4-6 psi. (sorry for the thread hijack)

Thanks again Bo. I'll work on it when I get back to Calgary after the Sept. long weekend....Friday's the Z is off to its new home in White Rock, BC!! BTW, funny problem you may be interested in...as part of tuning, I advanced the timing 1.5 degrees from 0 - 36% load and 0 - 4,000 rpm. Achieved much better off boost driveability, no pinging, I'm very happy with the changes....except for one thing. Boost response is now terrible. I really have to put my foot into it to get up to 8 or 9 lbs and very little at lower rpms. and when it is at full boost it has lost power, not gained it. Whaddya think? Boost issues caused by timing changes or something else?

Thanks Bo. Since that map began life as your map, I assumed it was correct, but Jim thought maybe not...glad to have that clarified, though Jim the engineer may jump in with more questions (I know he has them!)...lol

Bo, set at 10 ms this morning, fired right up. I'll check out the curve you're talking about. I'm feeling pretty comfortable with the lower/off boost part of the map. Decent driveability and gas mileage around 20 mpg. But under boost worries me. Incredibly rich...needs to be leaned out, but I think my O2 sensor is buggered. Gotta figure out a solution to that first.... M

Quick update...now starting fuel rate set at 6 ms...it starts, but not well, plan to bump it up to 8 or 10. But a far cry from 25. How it even started at 25 I'll never know. Post-start enrichment is set at Wolf's recommended 40% sloping to 30% at operating temp. and that seems to work well. I've also tuned the lower part of the fuel map so I'm not running horribly rich like I was before. Gas mileage has jumped to high teens from 8-10 mpg...lol Plan to tackle the cells above 36% load with great care...my O2 sensor isn't working and I can't get it on a dyno before making the trip back to the West Coast Friday.

Installed Sportage gaskets on my doors, much better than the aftermarket ones they replaced. Haven't noticed any leaking yet. My buddy (JimCanuck) who installed them bought a bunch from a Kia dealership on the West Coast...around $46/seal if I remember correctly. Much cheaper than anything he could find around Calgary. I tried the local JYs, no used Sportages to be found. Based on my experience, I'd say the Sportage gaskets are the way to go. Markham

Hi guys Gonna do some tuning this weekend. But something funny (I think) is happening with my fuel map. with my laptop hooked up so I can drive and watch the fuel map at the same time (safely, I should add), I notice the lowest load on the engine is 21% and the highest under full boost (10 psi) is 53%. Is this normal? I assumed idle would show 0% load and full boost would be closer to 100%. I didn't want to go to the trouble of tuning a smaller # of cells in the fuel map if I should be recalibrating to take advatage of the full map. Any guidance for a tuning noob? Thanks in advance for the help. Markham

AT least they left you with your $15 Canadian...

You picked up on that ant-bimmer vibe, good for you...

Mazda has great self control. I wouldn't have been that polite. Nor should he have been. He did nothing wrong. There was plenty of room between the cars. The most dangerous thing in the whole video was Mr. Bimmer stopping in the middle of a road that probably has a 50 mph limit. That's frickin' stupid. I had a guy in a Stang get out of his car at a stop light and yell at me like that because I was 5 ft behind him. Needless to say, our conversation was a wee bit lively. But then I live in Calgary and the chances of the guy pulling a gun are just about nil.

Meh, not as thrilled. Clip was too long...lots of shots were wasted. No real focus. Narration or interviews (in English) would have been helpful. Very interesting look though, crushed blacks stood out...wonder if it was the "slight colour correction" that did it.