Daeron
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Posts posted by Daeron
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The negative battery cable bolts directly to the bellhousing with one of the starter bolts, and the chassis is left to ground itself to the battery from that.
Not sure how I read that the sand was in the ZX, oops.. still crappy.
Make sure you investigate the "swap" to the internally regulated alternator, as all of the alteration must be done to the vehicle itself.. In stock configuration, both of the wires in the T-plug on the back of the alternator connect to the voltage regulator. Off the top of my head, I am not 100% on how you bridge the wires at the old regulator plug.. but IIRC you basically jumper one connector to another, and then run battery voltage to a third connector on the original voltage regulator plug. I think the end result is that alternator output voltage is seen at one plug on the T, and the other plug on the T gets battery voltage to indicate battery level.
Are you going to swap the 75 to an automatic? I would HIGHLY recommend against that, but I can't honestly tell you that the auto is crap because I know next to nothing about it. I would just leave the stickshift in the 75
I can't, for the life of me, recall lifting points, either. All I can see when I picture the engines I have seen hoisted out of the Z-cars is a pair of appropriate "loops" on opposite corners of the firing deck of the engine... Check both motors to see if anything like that exists, because I can't believe that those loops are something thats just been sitting in the toolbox at our shop... I KNOW they aren't something like that, because I have seen them on other L engines.
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There is something wrong with the eBay bidding function..
It won't let me input my bid in increments of USDM tail light assemblies!
'Flash to Pass' feature in the 240's.....oh great Tony. You are telling me that some of our Z's actually came with a proper high beam switch!???? So now, instead of finding a way to engineer one into my car, I get to hunt ALL over the internet searching for how it was done on these few magical cars that came with it!
Next thing you know, you're gonna be telling me that variable speed intermittent wipers, and a "single shot" pulse of the wipers for light mist, was ALSO set up on like, 6-10 JDM cars so I get to go off on a wild goose chase for THAT obscure, all but impossible to find info...
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hey, thats not THAT far from me. If you should turn out to need some parts, I might be able to help; no telling though.
Its one of the only bad parts about living in South Florida.. If you draw a 500 mile circle around any other point in the US, and then do the same where I live, I have probably 10% of the real estate in that radius that most of you have. It takes a 400 mile drive to get ANYwhere that isnt Miami, Tampa/Orlando/Daytona, or Jacksonville!
Those rims looks a little bit like American Racing mags, are they 14 or 15"? Pull one off and see if you can find any branding on the back. If they are 15" x7" AR rims, then they are a very classic piece for a Z car and in good condition, can fetch some bread.
The bumper rubber looks to be pretty well shot.. but I would still put it on Ebay with a low opening bid and no reserve. Seriously, you never know. As for the bumper itself...
nobody likes em. I've looked long and hard and think I MIGHT be able to use the stock mounts, a 240 front bumper, and some angle iron to make a new, somewhat sturdy bumper out of angle iron welded onto the old 240 bumper as a "skin" of sorts. Most people remove the mounts and do a complete custom mount for the 240 bumper, if they keep the bumper at all.Me? I actually got in major trouble with the po-po one time because I had taken the bumpers off of my car, so I put them both back on and left them there. Exterior bench seating FTW
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How about a 240sx radiator in a 240z? Anyone know if that fits? I'm doing a search for info here and I honestly thought some hybridz'ers would have done some sort of custom jobs for their radiators since everything else is custom on some cars.
Go fishing, my boy!
Nobody would know how easy it is to install a GM alternator, or a Maxima alternator, or a Z32 transmission, if someone didn't set out to the junkyard one day with a tape measure and a piece of paper to find out. I haven't heard of any simple and effective radiator swaps yet. Not a one, and I have been internetting regarding Z cars since I got the internet. SOMEthing out there has to be close enough to make it work at least, and if you are that motivated you can find it.
I know my uncle has been running square port headers on an N47 for years without major problems... if it looks to you like it should work, then it will probably suffice. I wouldn't kill yourself if you get it together and you find a few minor leaks, and it MAY wind up causing you to replace the intake/exhaust gasket when you do get the right headers to go on it, but it ought to get you started at least.
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Where is Keller, anyhow? I have asked myself where you were at at least a half a dozen times in this thread, and haven't gained a clue yet
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I do not think that the air temp sensor would cause a no-start issue, but I MAY be wrong. If I am not mistaken, unplugging it (introducing infinite resistance in place of low resistance) should at LEAST rule it out as the cause for no start. Are you certain you don't have an auto-ranging multimeter? Some meters only have the one switch position for resistance, and will automatically adjust the scale according to the measurement it receives. Just checking on that.
The next step is to inspect the injectors to make sure they are firing. You can do this by either simply pulling a spark plug to check and see if it is soaked with fuel after cranking, or by listening to the injectors for a clicking sound to indicate operation while you are cranking. This is done by putting the tip of a large screwdriver at the base of the injector, and putting the butt of the handle against your ear. With a no-start, it is frequently easier to just check the spark plugs; too many other noises going on (plus you need the assistant at the key to listen with a screwdriver under the hood.)
Can't believe the sand in the rad on the other car. Hopefully Karma bit her back on that one. Sounds like time to pull the thermostat and the heater core hoses, and flush that block with a garden hose hooked up to hot water, switching directions and entry ports about 546826105 times
I am off to consult the bible myself, since you've reached the limits of my "off the top of my head" ability to advise
One other thing I will mention now is to eyeball the quality of the spark coming out of the plugs. I've seen a perfectly assembled electronic ignition system on a Z-car before that had one crappy wire that we hadn't noticed yet, and it all tested right... but that crappy wire kept it from getting enough amperage into the coil to really provide adequate voltage for a blue spark out of the plug.I am not the ultimate source of information on troubleshooting these cars; FAR from it. What I am is talkative, fairly diversely experienced with different L motors, rather experienced with DDing and keeping a stock 75 up and running, and rather more willing than the average hybridZer to talk stock repair. What I am saying is, as helpful as I may be I AM just this guy.. you know?
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Welcome, and thanks for doing your research before posting the questions!
Pull a spark plug after trying to start her and see if it smells like gasoline.
To be honest, it sounds like the only un NEEDED expense you have gone to thus far was to install new injectors, and that isn't such a horrible thing. The primary problem with that is, once you get a few steps down the road and get hungry for more power, somewhere along the line you will want to be buying larger injectors, and now you will be replacing nice, NEW stock sized ones instead of the leaky originals. The connectors, plugs, wires, vacuum hoses etc are all important to change ANYhow.. so don't beat yourself up for "throwing parts at a problem" yet.
Have you pulled a spark plug out of the engine, and visually inspected the spark coming out of the plug? I like to do that on a no-run or poor-run situation when I have virtually no data to go on; it is good to see bright, blue spark come out of your plug, and once or twice I have done this after beating my head into a wall and seen yellow spark coming from a perfect ignition system, with beautiful, 20K old NGKs.. that needed to be replaced. You never know where a weak point in ignition might come up, so its always nice to see that blue spark there where it NEEDS to be.
Fuel pressure, timing check, vacuum leak check.. do you have the FSM handy to check for vacuum line diagrams? They are available through a website that was linked to in a recent thread in this subforum..
Sorry to be a little vague, but we ARE kind of beginning at square one here
Good luck! -
I will ad a voice saying "high pressure" for emphasis.. make sure you don't get stuff for carb'ed vehicles. it is different hose, and its more expensive than the low pressure stuff. Don't expect $1-2/foot, but it isnt TOO bad is all I am saying. Half the time I have gotten it the cashier didnt recognize it and rang it up as the cheap stuff, so cross your fingers
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In short, do not rely on the original Nissan oil pressure gauge for actual pressure readings. It is merely an indication that oil pressure is present, nothing more.
Thank you for putting that so wonderfully bluntly, and confirming an opinion I have had for quite some time.
It IS a rather nice indicator though.. adds to the atmosphere of the car IMO
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I've thought about painting these rims alot.. I like the black center idea, but I would have tried to find a way to mask the channels off so they maintained their stock coloring. I've also thought about possibly coloring the channels with the right tone of gold, something like what the more standard six spoke 280ZX alloys came with (some of them had gold/aluminum finish, and some were aluminum/aluminum..)
Anyhow, it does look sharp! any chance of getting you to post just one nice high res image of one of the wheels?
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only one pair of fusible links in the 75.
Hit blue's techtips page for a good, HUGE, one page .pdf wiring diagram for the 75.. its one page, and it doesn't have the gaps that the four page PDF has in it. http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/electrical.htm
The fuel pump circuit is completed by a switch in the AFM, and a master "Fuel Injection Relay" that is actually two small cubic relays just above and aft of the ECU, slightly towards the center of the car, underneath the dashboard.. and reading the explanations and diagrams in the EFI bible will yield much more tangible explanations of how it works than reading the raw chassis wiring diagram. The bible tells you "how," and the wiring diagram is just an abstraction of "where" and "what."
What I would recommend would be to get the one bigass .pdf wiring diagram, and "copy" it to your clipboard, and paste it into a .bmp in paintbrush. Then you can use a series of colored dots to trace out each wire, and it makes reading the schematic a ton easier. Just remember never to save unless you can keep track of which dots are which. Rather, I keep notes on where each wire goes so I can simply flip over to the relevant connector and see "okay its that WR wire."
The alternators are NOT the same between 75 and 81; the 75 is externally regulated and the 81 is internally regulated. There is an easy to execute swap to eliminate the external regulator and use the ZX alternator, but I would get the car running properly first.
Regarding the entire fuel pump issue.. For the time being, to try to get the car to run, it is an acceptable option to run a hotwire to the fuel pump. The entire five years I DD'd my 75 was before I had discovered any of the FSM and EFI bible goodness, and the whole TIME my fuel pump was hotwired; in the end, it proved to be a bad idea to run it so long like that, but I won't go into that here. Anyhow, if you want to do that to get her to fire for encouragement (and possibly to appease any people you might live with who are glaring at you over buying two dead cars
) it isnt that bad an idea. Once you know it will work, you can take the time to read through the theory section of the bible, and construct an accurate mental image of how the fuel pump is supplied with power.From there, it depends on your luck. I have burnt wiring now; I don't want to talk about my issues on your thread, but the fuel pump power wire (that green one that has been hurting your eyes so badly, running through connector.. ahh, C1 or 2 is it? I can't recall off the top of my head right now, its the big black one up in the top inside corner) is a long, intricate, and evil mother to be dealing with. Mine is totally burnt, and I will need to pull the dash and get into the rocker panel wire loom and replace the whole thing, as well as any other wiring damaged by the heat. So, physically, that wire runs up from the fuse panel, to a bridge where it shoots across the dash to the ECU/relay. I can't recall how the AFM is involved but i believe that was just a signal wire going to the relay. The wire gets bridged at the main junction block again, and shoots back along the passenger rocker panel in the main loom going back towards the tail lights. It's basically like, ALL of the body wiring that that PARTICULAR wire is in the midst of, so it is a fun one.. but chances are your issue will be solved easier than mine.
Good luck; I have my 75's wiring all torn apart at the moment, but the majority of it is still connected where it is supposed to be, so fire any model specific questions my way. I am all stock still, BTW. What is your manufacture date? its on the door panel, mine was may '75. Not sure if disparate production dates within the 75 model year would show up, but if we are close then we can be rather confident that our cars should match. May 1975, federal emissions, 4 speed manual car, with AC. (yours looks to be AC, and IIRC it was federal 4 spd.)
Hope this helps, and if not.. well, ask me more questions! I should be able to answer most anything about the car for you.
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I don't know.
My car had the ghetto-rigged fuel pump wire, run off of an accessory-switched circuit with a separate fuse...
and then, five years after i started DDing it, somehow the stock fuel pump wire shorted out and burned to a crisp and is the cause of the tale entitled "Fusible Links Blow" in my sig.
Figure it out. Fix it. For peace of mind.
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my understanding is that an untouched P90 combustion chamber is roughly 42ccs when the head has been shaved .080", but that is JUST a rule of thumb... compression ratio is dropped by increasing the volume of the CC on the head, so any grinding done on the chamber itself will have the effect of lowering it a hair.
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I don't think you are that off-topic.. many threads could go into more than one sub forum on HybridZ, and I think this sub forum makes as much sense as any other since the common ground between the vehicles is the L6, right?
You say windshield channel rust, and I say "okay, I give."
The lower comp turbo longblock should be a direct bolt-in to your 75; I would use everything from the 75 except for the block, head, oil pressure sender.. In other words, keep the manifold and anything that plugs into the car, with the car. It won't be super fast; but thats the only problem you will really run into. This gets the 75 on the road.
Once you do that, start taking the ZX apart. Get the manifolds, turbo, and wiring all separated out, find any parts you want to retain (internally regulated alternator upgrade?) and start searching here. It is not a majorly difficult swap to turbocharge the 75, and having a complete "running" turbo car and an S30 with a blown engine is the best place to start.
That spoiler on the ZX IS something else, though.. its a shame that car is so gone, something about her really caught my eye.
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where did you buy the gasket?
I would resell them. if you got them from MSA, there is a sporting chance they might even exchange it for you; they're pretty good people like that. Never hurts to try.
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If you simply want to swap the longblock assemblies, then it should work perfectly fine. It won't be as peppy as it should be, since you are running a lower compression setup (turbos were ~7.3:1 and NA was like ~8.5:1 or so?) but it really won't be TOO bad. Might run a tad rich, but I swear I have read people say they have done this with no real problems.
What I would suggest for the long term would be to keep and repair both cars. Granted it may be more of a chore, but how about this?
Park the 75 somewhere on pavement (or at LEAST gravel) and let it be for a little while. Put the manual and clutch from that into the 280ZX, and use the fuel pump from the 75 as well (it should at least make the car start, and if it needs to be replaced with a larger one then at least you can get it started and know it is worth buying a new fuel pump. I should know if there is a difference in the two pumps; I cannot remember) Drive the turbo 280ZX. An 81 turbo is not a common thing, those wheels are original to it.. it is actually a fairly desirable car in its own right.
Now, I also consider the 75 model year 280Z to be a desirable car in its own right, (I own one
) and I am not that crazy on V8 swaps.. but I would suggest holding the 75 out for a nice ford motor swap. I've been dying to see someone hotrod a 300-I6 ford and put it in a Z, but a 289/302/351 would work too. You would need an engine and transmission, but could probably get away with (at least for a little while) the stock 3~3.5:1 R200 rear end that is in the 75, so it wouldn't be that difficult. You could, alternately, plan on doing something wild like a stroker motor, or even a stock 2.8 motor, with triple webers... those things sound SO amazing on these cars. Personally, I would go with this route.. if only that 280ZX had fallen into my lap I would suddenly know exactly what to do.That turbo ZX is just a REALLY nice looking example.. unless there is significant hidden rust damage (quite possible, and this must play a kay role in your decision) it seems a shame to just make that into a donor car. Those wheels, the spoiler, the early B pillar treatment, the shaved upper side trim line, the 81 tail lights... even the black "ugly" bumpers REALLY look all in the right spots for that car. I'm actually very very jealous of your find, and hope you can make the most of it!
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two points I forgot..
One, I would like to see a better shot of the wheels on the 75.. I can wait, i just think theres an obscure possibility they are a decent find.. good chance they're just knockoffs though.
Two, IF that black rubber trim on the bumpers of the 75 is in decent shape at all, it can fetch a decent price from people trying to restore to dead stock.. if YOU want it there, take GOOD care of it because its pretty much nonexistent. Good, NOS pieces like that fetch BIG BUCKS because they are practically dodo birds.
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if you want any real enjoyable power, you wouldn't use the stock fuel injection at all; just most of the hardware (manifold, etc not ECU or any of that)
However if you are really dead-set on a carb/turbo setup, the information is here to be searched for.. its rather pricey and finicky though, and you better know how to tune weber/mikuni style side draft carburetors rather well. Not only that, but you have to ignore at least half of your NA carb tuning instincts.. its a tricky field. With megasquirt, it is essentially assemble the pieces (NOT as intimidating as any stock EFI Z car looks, TRUST ME) and punch some numbers in on a computer. Need to change something, any one parameter, at any one engine speed? change that number in the cell. The forumlas are largely tried and true, well enough to get you to a baseline from which to tweak for your car's specific personality... It is far far simpler and more effective than with a carburetor.
That is THE major reason turbocharged cars were nowhere NEAR as common before the 80's as they have become since; to have reliable, safe, long-living power generated, you need it all to be computer controlled and not governed by air flowing through tubes.
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WD-40 is fish oil, not lubricant.
Bare minimum lubrication for door components is aerosol white lithium grease.
My passenger door never quite closed right.. it was easy enough to pull or push fully closed if you knew *just* where and how hard and fast to pull.. but only I knew that, none of the passengers. I dealt with it for years, spraying WD-40 on it occasionally.. I know I had hit it with lithium when I put that door on, and I could've sworn I had oiled it as well. (Read: at least a 50/50 chance I never put anything on it
)Well, one day I felt spunky. This was at least two years after the door had been put on the car, and all specific recollection of lubricating episodes had fogged into a blur in my mind. On this inspired day, I dribbled a little bit of 10W-30 I kept in a big syringe for household use onto the latch on the door.
I shut the door, and I'll be buggered if it didn't sound like BUTTER.
Ever since that day, the door simply LEAPS into the fully latched position. It sounds almost like a new car door.. it WOULD, if I had good rubber pieces holding the window tightly. (actually all it takes is pushing on the closed window to close the door, but I *really* don't like doing that.. once you break a window in your Z you get paranoid.)
Lesson is, WD-40 is crap that is cheap to ALWAYS have around. It is good for cleaning stuff, and its good for many things, but it is NOT oil or grease. Lock cylinders, it can be great for.. lock MECHANISMS and linkages like what is inside the door, and the latch itself, need need NEED oil or grease, sometimes an alchemists combination of both.
For the record, I don't even use PB B'Laster anymore.. Sea Foam Deep Creep is worth twice the $7-8 bucks a can they charge for it, because a can lasts FOREVER. it WORKS
But I wouldn't even use that in these situations. -
I never understood why they shipped the USDM cars with solid red tails... to me, turn signals should be amber, tail lights dim red, and brake lights bright red. I've never cared much for cars with red rear turn signals, and honestly its probably BECAUSE of this silly detail on the Z-cars
this car is rooted deep in my family, can you tell?I think the red ones look better...but then orange is common here. I have a spare euro set I will stick on ebay this weekend.I'll trade you two USDM pairs to one of yours
Want the 280 style with the separate reverse light instead?
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CTS TPS AAV EGR AFM thermotime injector dropping resistor EFI fuel injected throttle body throttle position sensor air flow airflow meter ECU injection manual book procedure test calibrate vacuum diagram troubleshooting flowchart troubleshoot diagnose sick L28 280Z 280ZX help
Searchy Says
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I sure hope you made fifty million times sure there was absolutely nothing underneath that bedliner but unrusted, virgin metal....(primer acceptable too..)
I hate to nitpick or criticize butmy initial reaction was "hey, thats a neat idea.. it IS better than ragged carpet or the factory "finish" that is found lurking beneath said carpet.. " And then I realized that I could never do that because I would NEVER feel confident enough that I had eliminated the rust from MY car. Other cars, certainly, but I was hesitant to fiberglass in the passenger floorboard for the same reason, until I rationalized it by telling myself I can cut the glass and a margin of metal out when I DO get to rust repair that thorough. (I was also motivated when a 5 D-cell Mag-Lite fell out of one of the holes in the passenger "floorboard" that had been ridiculously covered up and ignored for the time being by yours truly.. Ah, to be 19 again!)
Are you planning on putting any more finished upholstery over that at any future point? Also, how much did this bedliner stuff weigh in the end?? under 5 pounds, 5-10.. not more? Just curious. Its bound to have beneficial sound deadening and insulating effects, and it put me in mind of how people talk of that material as weight to be shed in the quest for low "body fat."
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Interesting look, I like it! Certainly enough venting to say the least
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Now, when they say negative deck height on the calculator, do they mean that the piston is recessed into the cylinder at top dead center or above it, because, at least in 1983 for certain, on a non-turbo L28, the stock piston is most certainly above the deck at top dead center.
actually I believe I did mis-state that, when they indicate negative deck height it means the pistons is above the firing deck; but I checked it and it actually indicated a positive figure about equal to what you had thought the pop-out was.
This is all irrelevant to this thread, which was started to be an index of photos and descriptions of L cylinder heads.
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I played with the check valve last night. It seemed stuck at first, but it didn't seem like it took much to free it. I went ahead and cleaned it up with brake cleaner, and it appears to work. It feels like I have power brakes again, and the engine doesn't rev when I tap the brakes.
I just don't understand how a one-way valve would cause the engine to rev if it was blocked... wouldn't it just cap off the vaccum? One thing I didn't mention is that it felt like the brake pedal was "bubbling" when the power brakes were going out. Engine would rev about 400rpm, pedal felt bubbly. Weird.
I haven't driven it yet, so we'll see.
Whoa, slow down. What else was going on?? You only said "I lost power brakes," nothing about engine hiccupping..
think about it.. the brake booster is a vacuum load on the engine. When you rapidly tap the brake pedal on any car, its going to show up in RPMs at least. A car thats barely running can easily be stalled by pressing and fully releasing the brakes a couple times in a row.
When the check valve was sticking, it was bleeding vacuum off in an irregular way.. I can't give you a firm explanation of why anything may have happened, but its a load on the engine and when something gets schmutzed, its bound to manifest in other, subtle ways. If you have problems you think are real, we can examine them... but what I am saying is a little oddness in motor run condition can be expected when experiencing a simple check valve failure like this. If it goes away, don't sweat it
Good luck, hth
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My wire diagram shows that most of the stuff under the passenger seat was floor temp relay stuff for california cars. There is nothing under my passenger seat but homeless plugs from the wire harness, which are verified as being the terminals for the A/t-equipped seatbelt relay, and the water temp relay.
The switch that is allegedly in the engine bay is also non existent.
This is one of the reasons I am having difficulty locating any of this stuff; I am sure half of it is already disabled or gone, it was just done in a poor manner. My fuel pump has run on an auxiliary wire, run originally by a PO, live with accessories or on. The stock fuel pump wire, somehow got shorted out, and caused complete havoc, utter meltdown throughout the wiring harness.
I need to track down this system completely and evaluate what needs to get plugged where to SAFELY and properly eliminate it from the vehicle; something the PO tried to do. Unfortuantely, the POs work was neither quick at his job, nor patient and careful.... Most of the stuff he did was half-fast.
nobody likes em. I've looked long and hard and think I MIGHT be able to use the stock mounts, a 240 front bumper, and some angle iron to make a new, somewhat sturdy bumper out of angle iron welded onto the old 240 bumper as a "skin" of sorts. Most people remove the mounts and do a complete custom mount for the 240 bumper, if they keep the bumper at all.
One other thing I will mention now is to eyeball the quality of the spark coming out of the plugs. I've seen a perfectly assembled electronic ignition system on a Z-car before that had one crappy wire that we hadn't noticed yet, and it all tested right... but that crappy wire kept it from getting enough amperage into the coil to really provide adequate voltage for a blue spark out of the plug.
) it isnt that bad an idea. Once you know it will work, you can take the time to read through the theory section of the bible, and construct an accurate mental image of how the fuel pump is supplied with power.
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this car is rooted deep in my family, can you tell?
My first Z...erm Z's.
in Nissan L6 Forum
Posted
hmmmmmmmmmm
What bits of the 75 harness will you NOT be using?????
because they may be of MAJOR assistance to me...
off to read that swap guide you linked to to see if I can answer my own question!