Daeron
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Posts posted by Daeron
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As a new guy myself, I understand a bit of the frustration. You all say "swap" or "search", but when you search, you see a mountain of threads that say the same thing!
The best explanation that I can give you is this.
The six cylinder L engine went through a great many changes and permutations; both factory initialized and as a product of the collective experience of ZedHeads around the world. Many things have been discovered about this very multi-dimensional engine, regarding pistons size, shape, pin height, connecting rod length, weight, size, material, crankshaft throw, rod/stroke ratio, etc etc. And THAT is just the SHORTBLOCK. The heads have about eight or nine different castings (the major ones at least) that all have their own combustion chambers (some castings share similar chambers) some have different valve heights, some have different port shapes, and some have different valve and port SIZES. Then you start throwing cams into the picture, and you are ALMOST through with your longblock. You still have the distributor/ignition system to figure out, and probably a turbo oil pump for a performance motor.
So, that is a decent list of all the complex dimensions (not options, DIMENSIONS.. IE, this is a seventeen dimensional discussion already) just contained within the longblock. You havent even decided whether you want carburettors or FI yet, turbo or non, stock EFI or standalone, etc etc. Once you start throwing these factors into the equation, along with what intake tract to use and how to get those gasses out of there, the complexity of the subject is huge.
That being the case, to say, "There is no end-all, be-all for an L engine; you have to educate yourself thoroughly and decide what you want or you are likely to spend a good chunk of change and NOT get the return that others with more patience get with half as much money." is a GROSS GROSS UNDERSTATEMENT.
I know next to nothing about these things. Honest. I am just a monkey here in the big house learning how to play with the rest of you. BUT, if you check my sig, you see my opinion on what it takes to know what you are doing. The only way to answer these questions is to read many many threads here on hybridZ.. None of us are here to nursemaid anyone else. This forum started as a group of knowledgable people, exhanging ideas and helping each other on a level that we newbs and little people cannot fathom. Those maestros, those with true afficion are kind enough to allow "the rest of us" to leech off of their knowledge for free. The price we must pay is one of time; either time spent poring through the archives for your education, or time spent idly reading the forum sponging it all up as it goes. Since my car is out of commission for the predictable future, I have the luxury of time to afford the second option. Its working great, I learn more about my Datsun every day. If you don;t have the time to spend a year or two here reading other peoples problems as they come up and get resolved, then your option is to hack through the archives, educate yourself to the point where you can ask informed questions, and make posts with informed questions.
I totally understood your post; I am not badgering at all, just trying to give an answer from someone of maybe about the same knowledge level, who has spent a bit of time here and sees how things go on. I am trying to answer as level-headed and rationally as you posed your question.
If you want some advice, make a bookamrk folder just for hybridZ threads. maybe sub folders to classify your bookmarks. Bookmark interesting threads; its amazing how much you learn by coming back and re reading something six or eight months down the road.
Long story short, if (like me) you aren't a professional engine builder, you need to read alot here whatever you do. No one has the time to lay it all out any more thoroughly than has been done in the past. The FAQs and write ups here all represent efforts by individuals, and the sum of that effort is this entire forum. the Archives are the biggest part of that, so when you ignore them you may as well be ignoring everyone here.
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man this is pissin me off...
That is your number one problem.
Step away from the vehicle, take a break, cool off, and clear your head.
Come back a day later. Pretend you've never seen the car before, and work your way patiently through the troubleshooting in the EFI bible I showed you.
I an no BRAAP, no rontyler.. I am just some 26 year old dude who was raised in S30s, and owned and operated a daily driver for five years myself.. All of my "skills" are either self-taught or Dad-taught... and the NUMBER ONE THING that I have learned about working on cars, as an amateur is this: Patience!!!! if you are frustrated, you will not figure it out.
Now, the Bible has troubleshooting flowcharts for just this occasion... Once you have read through the theory section a couple of times and understand how the components work together... (sensors reading information, turning that information over to the number crunching ECU, and the ECU in turn handing out a signal to the fuel injectors to fire a given amount of fuel at a given time...thats IT!)Once you have all that, THEN go to the troubleshooting section and begin testing things. Proceed in the order it dictates in the book, and you WILL find the problem. I think it was TonyD, several years ago, (on the "other forum") who wrote that he had walked up to 280Zs that had sat in a barn for eight years.. put in a battery, ran through the battery of tests, cleaned or repaired each component until they all passed muster, and then he cranked the car right up. It might not have been him, but I have heard the tale and believe it.
A carb can have any number of hard to diagnose issues. The only "hard to diagnose issues" with the FI are Bad ECU, or bad wiring. The wiring really isnt as difficult as it might seem, because it is easy to isolate the component that is the problem.. and once you do that, you test component function first at the component plug, then at the ECU plug to test the viability of the wiring harness.
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are there other pics of this car somewhere? wondering what the hood on this car looks like, and what it looks like with it down, is REALLY bugging me...
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oh and I have a complete set of both style rims.. i put the one ZX rim on because the tire on the other AR mag stopped holding air.
Anyone like those rough mags? the wheels are in great shape, and I have hated them since day 1. Just not my thing. If anyone wants them, make an offer. 14x6.
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As much as I fear a Z that could crush me with a single footstep..
and MAN it looks good, veritech
I have to cast my vote for RoxZ. All that modernizing look on ruby just doesnt fit with the carb'ed turbo if you ask me; the "resto-mod" carb'ed turbo car should also have a "period" look to it IMHO.
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neat stuff, man!! I have a modest collection of old stereo gear, and a triple beam balance made in Amsterdam that has to be at least forty years old, if not more. My old man has a couple of old cameras, and we have several VHS tapes that have the contents of old 8 mm cameras like that one "video" camera (it feels wrong calling it a video camera when its using film) dating back to my grandparents wedding which was in the late 30s. Amazing stuff, we youngsters just dont think about the concept of home movies being around until at least the 60s-70s, but its been around almost as long as cameras have been, if you had the money. These days it has just become utterly ubiquitous, and we are all jaded to it; back then, it was a matter of finding someone you knew with a movie camera and inviting them to your wedding
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fusible links, coil wires, water in a plug, blown fuse?? check everything, bring a multimeter and an EFI bible, STAT!
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subaruuuuuuuu!!! may fuji bless us *bow*
Sorry, my dad replaced his 240 with a new XT6 after it got hopped on by a Buck when he was doing 70 and ever since then I have been in love with the XT. Subarus of the eighties were fantastically simple cars, a WONDERFUL car to learn how to wrench on. (well, not the XT(6) but the 4 bangers, and the wagons and sedans, were awesome)
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This sub forum seemed best suited, since this isnt exactly a "project" thread by any means yet. The main purpose of this thread is to provide something to link the words "fusible links BLOW" in my sig to. any responses are more than welcome.
The title of this story is:
Why Fusible Links Blow.
This is my 1975 Datsun 280Z.
She was my daily driver from July of 2000, when I bought her for $300 cash, until October of 2004, when she had a small electrical fire. This is the story of why she was taken out of commission, and my lame ass excuses as to why its taken well over 2 years for me to do anything about it.
In early October of 2004, Hurricane Jeanne stormed through Southeast Florida. She wasn't a major storm, but since she came only a month after Hurricane Frances, and there were still large amounts of uncollected debris in piles on curbs, Jeanne did pack something of a wallop in terms of electrical outages. After 3 weeks in the heat, the power trucks made it to my neighborhood. The third day, they seemed to be working in our area. We wouldnt know until they quit for the day, and re energized the sections of grid they had repaired. At 7 o'clock, when the shift changed, those guys cleaned up and left, and for fifteen minutes my landlord and I rode around in my Z looking for evidence that power may be back on in other homes, but not yet ours. At some point, my landlord must have inadvertently kicked something by the fuse box area, because something shorted out and the car died. I jiggled the battery cable and it cranked up, but it didn't take long for that something to short again.
The second time, I blew a fusible link. No sweat, I was right down the block from my house.. we pushed the car home, I got another fusible link, replaced the first, and we were good to go. Drove around a bit more, without any problems at all. However, I was in for it; the fusible link I had blown was black in color. It was NOT a black fusible link, but it had been stained over time. The fusible link I plugged in to replace it, WAS in fact, a black fusible link. Can you see where this story is going? For the record, our power WAS turned back on that night.
Later that night, I went to run to the grocery store. Hop in the Z, pull out, after a block things all of a sudden start running AWFUL, the headlights go extremely dim, and I could barely keep the engine running to turn around and drive home. Take landlord's car to store, fast forward to next afternoon. I hop in the car, crank it up, runs fine. I drive around the neighborhood with my stereo on, AC fan blowing, and headlights on trying to draw as much juice as possible; nothing. Drives fine, runs fine, ammeter shows proper charging. I drove past some kids playing baseball in the street, and pulled into the driveway, puzzled. I turned off the car, put the keys in my pocket, walked back inside, and inadvertently left the front door open.
Fifteen minutes later, I walk out of the hallway and into the living room, and one of the kids who was playing ball in the street is at my door trying to figure out how to knock on an open door. He meets my eyes with a baffled look on his face and says, "Uhm, I think your car's on fire." As he was saying this, I looked past him to see smoke drifting out from under my hood, and my windshield wipers immobile, and halfway up the glass:
I shat a brick.
Long story short, the short recurred, I guess. The fusible link didnt blow; it heated up, because it was a much higher rating than it should have been. It melted the plastic block cover that I had JUST FOUND A NICE NEW ONE OF in the junkyard, and set the fusible link block on fire. By the time I got it out, the entire fusible link block itself, and all associated wires, were toast all the way down to the point where they integrated into the main wire harness... BUT no further. The damage was fortunately limited to the block sub-harness, and the main harness was in no way harmed.
However, I had no hopes of finding a fusible link block like it in the junkyard, and the part was not to be found in the family parts hoard. (Mostly 240 stuff.) Knowing what I know now, it would be a simple matter to have repaired this; but the car had many other issues with electricity. In addition, I have a complete MSA twice pipes exhaust system and header to install; my injectors always leaked; the car always ran rich, the fuel pump was re wired the ghetto way; the turn signals didn't work; the rear brakes were an open system!; I had front strut cartridges to install; rear disc brakes to install; and a five speed to put back in. (The car currently has a four speed in it; I got a wrong clutch master, and couldn't disengage the clutch, we thought it might possibly be internal tranny issues and tried the swap, I never got around to re swapping afterwards.) This Daily Driver needed a trip to the spa in a BAD way, and after two hurricanes, and the resultant missed work and spent money, I was totally financially drained and had NO resources to do any of these things to the car.
In desperate need, and with thoughts of all the work I had never been able to do to my only car and daily driver, I wound up putting timing belts on my brother's old Subaru and he gave me the car for free (seen here in the background.) Shortly afterwards, I was fired by a crazy office manager. Since then, I have had six jobs (currently on my seventh) and spent a total of about six months unemployed, and had an eight month stint with no driver license due to lack of insurance. In other words, it hasn't been good times.
I am currently trying to get to working on it; as many parts as I have, and as much restoration work as the car needs, I certainly have funds for the minimal shop supplies needed to do ALOT. Work and domestic issues have taken center stage, blah blah blah insert sob story here. Plans are to stay with the L engine, build a mean P-90, and maybe ultimately go twin turbo with an interesting twist, and also hopefully LPG injection. THAT is certainly a nice modest goal, don't you think? Anyhow, thats the lofty goal, more short term is just to get the thing running, MS it, and experiment with dual TBs and SU intake manifolds. The P-90 head will come in somewhere along the line, but we shall see as far as actual "projects" shaping up on the car. I don't want to talk a huge talk right after explaining why the car has been allowed to rot outdoors (I DO keep it covered at least) but that is what I have in mind.
Here are a couple more photos.
As you can see, I have my work cut out for me. The spot welds between the corner panel window opening and the hatch opening are OK on both sides, but starting to show rust. The rear face panel needs some work from two separate incidents; there is typical cancer starting to show in a couple of spots. The frame rails need serious attention, but there is no one thing very major on the car.
This is her bad side; the rear quarter panel may be in need of replacement. You can also see a nice little dent behind the bumper in the middle; I had the bumpers off for a couple of years but a cop made me put them back on. The worst cancer spot is right at the corner of the rear quarter window opening.
Here you can see, propped up in the crack between hood and fender, a chunk of the 1/4 inch or more thick paint and bondo that is chipping off of my fenders; Thanks, PO!!
In the pictures posted above, of the front of the car, you can see the 240 bumper I have "in storage" resting on the stock bumper; nothing fancy, I just found a good lace to put it for now, thats all.Yes, I have a LOT of work ahead of me. Yes, I made several poor decisions that led directly to this car's "de-commissioning" as I put it. I was under a lot of stress from living in the post hurricane world in urban south Florida; Grumpyvette can attest to what kind of hellhole this place became with no traffic lights or air conditioning. EVERYone was in a foul mood, the bad vibes got to me and I cannot make any excuses for my behavior that led to my fire; it was six or seven stupid moves in a row. Almost comical, but for the tragic outcome.
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the diamond hatchback was a civic hatch, belonging to team Chapter 11 racing. the diamond is a giant Enron logo, with matching Kmart and Excite@home logos on the sides.
The RX7 in front of hte Z is the car & driver entry vehicle. The headlights have hot semi-naked chicks in them
Thank you. The geo I mentioned was my first car, so I have a morbid interest in it.. and sheer logic made me believe that I was mis-recognizing the car that is the RX7, but from the angle, I got the idea of an XT into my mind and couldn't see it as anything else.
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Correct. Think Ferrari, Ducati, etc...
Many thanks, sir.
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Well, it is fairly apparent that several minor changes have been made to the forum site lately.
The introduction of the model-specific forum seems like a great idea to solve the parts usability questions, and also to help classify all the photos together. Really if you ask me, the best part about having so many sub-forums is for the purposes of sticky threads. The more stickies we have, the easier it is to point new "searchaphobic" users at them; and believe it or not, the more new users will read them instead of posting the toolshed questions.
The breaking-down of the projects sub forum into model specific forums is what inspired me to write this post. It is all to easy to feel like change is annoying, because it means you have to adopt new routines, but lets face it: the theoretical "ideal" user of this site is going to be someone with above-average intelligence, and we can all benefit from a little more classification and organization.
I just wanted to applaud the moderators and administrators and the folks who keep this show running; That was my primary point. This forum, as a "place" on the web, is a very dynamic "place" and I feel that fact reflects the realities of the community that the "place" hosts. I wish I had any cash to spare to donate to the cause; in the meantime even if I had donated money already, I cannot say that the recent addition of advertisements is really all that encroaching.
-----Since I am making the essentially pointless, and arse-kissing post of this thread anyhow, I thought I would open the doors for any personal criticism or advice to me; I have been posting a great deal lately and am only too conscious of my limited knowledge and experience base. If anyone of you folks who REALLY make this site tick have any comments, or thoughts that might alter my behavior on the site (IE, "Holy cow, this kid needs to SHUT UP sometimes!!! I mean, come ON!!!" type stuff) please let me know. I am trying to use this place as an informal educational program until such time as I actually get to work on my Z, and in the meantime I am POSITIVE that I have made posts that had people scratching their heads and thinking funny thoughts about me. I do my best to chime in and help when I think my knowledge and experience (AND that of my family) may be of assistance, and I am sure I have a positive impact of some sort here, but I would like to minimize the complementing negative impact, too. I am very aware that I recently joined a fairly long standing fraternity and I kinda feel like I'm "playing with the big boys" when I may not be good enough for Varsity yet.
In other words, I am not just utterly open to constructive criticism, I invite it and ask that you guys bring it on. For political reasons, it might be best to address anything like that in a PM rather than this thread, but I don't care.
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victoria british (Black Dragon Automotive) used to sell a power window kit, and AFAIK they still DO sell the power lock kit. I would look into those products, find out what branding they are, and see what you can do about remote triggering then.. I am pretty sure the "door lock" kit is a very generic one, and the manufacturer might even have a kit with a more multi function remote just for people like you who want to do crazy custom installs.
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IF that 3 piece is the same one my uncle has, it does look alot more subtle once its actually on the car.
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My guess is a mongrelization of a couple of different bits.
That front valance treatment, underneath the headlight buckets, looks AWFULLY familiar to me; as far as the air dam and the rest of the front end, that is what makes me think hybridized body kit. I am 99% positive I have seen that valance before, WITHOUT anything else from the front of that car on it...
If it is your thing, go for it. Peronally, I don't care too much for it; but with some work on the rear fenders behind the wheels, it could look pretty mean.
Just before I hit the post button, it occurred to me that it might be something of a rally race front end on it?? Modified, of course, but it looks like the type of front end that doesnt want to hug the ground; rather, it wants to hold sixteen bolt on foglights.
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... they still have terrible fuel starvation issues during aggressive maneuvers with less than ¼ tank fuel.
Too true; I always joked that even though I somehow had TWO non functioning FUEL lights, it didnt matter, since the car told me it was getting low on fuel every time I went through a spirited left turn.. (in other words, any time I made it to a redlight without any bluehairs in front of me
)MY advice would be to drop your stock tank, clean it out, and have someone fab up a sump on the bottom of it to avoid fuel starvation. I like the concepts of keeping things a little more stock than is common around here; but it doesnt sound like you are building a track car it wounds more like a road car. There is no fuel cell that will have the 16 gallon displacement of your stock fuel tank; the complications involving filling up lead me to believe that you would probably be most satisfied with some sort of configuration using the stock tank. You COULD go to the length I suggested, have the tank removed and boiled, and get someone to cut the bottom out and weld in a sump to help prevent fuel starvation, or take the simple method and use a catch can. However, from what little I have gathered regarding your ideas of the car, I would tend to think you would be more satisfied with the stock tank.
There are no fundamental "performance" issues with the tank beyond the starvation, and that is easily remedied. in short..
........Pros........
stock tank: larger, simpler installation and removal, fills easily
fuel cell: built in anti-starvation, "cool" factor, complies to racing regulations.
....Cons......
stock tank: need to integrate some sort of anti-starvation system; SOME engines need larger fuel lines but unless you are going to the moon that should be irrelevant
Fuel cell: have to custom install it, including mounting and plumbing; I doubt you can use stock filler door, cost (greater if you can't fabricate a way to mount it)
Anyone have anything to add?
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originally posted by cygnusX1, http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?p=786357#post786357
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http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/EFI&fuel.htm
Find the EFI bible. Read it and run all the tests it recommends. have fun and rejoice in your newfound Scripture (with apologies for minimal blasphemy:))
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First off, go get some NGK plugs.
Seriously, before anything else. New NGK plugs (replacing not INCREDIBLY old NGK plugs) have repaired a not entirely dissimilar problem for me on my 87 subaru. yah, apples to kumquats, BUT autolite == crap.
Secondly, go back and check your TPS a second time. If it check out, then try to find the associated pins on the ECU plug and test the TPS operation at the ECU plug; this will ensure that the wiring to the TPS isnt janky in any way. (this sounds like a TPS problem to me, but thats just a SWAG)
Thirdly, gasoline and carbon build up can look ALOT like oil on the plugs.
What do you mean by "The smoke smells a little like gas, but a lot like fuel."??
And finally, when you say the engine wont "turn over" do you mean that when you crank it it doesn't even TRY to start? Most people consider "turning over" to be the rotation of the engine caused by the starter; if. by "turn over" you mean "try to fire" then some clarification is needed... if you mean, literally, that the engine wont turn over (IE immobilized, starter motor does nothing) then I am going to start asking questions about battery connections and grounds, etc.
hope this helps
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmodromic_valve
I figured rather than ask what a desmodromic valve was, I would find ot for myself and answer the question for anyone else.
GROSSLY oversimplified (I am fishing for corrections if I am wrong) it uses a second cam lobe (plus some other valvetrain hardware) to close the valve rather than springs, right?
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no offense, but you are begging to be flamed on this.
We are a very technical board here (I say we because the grownups are kind enough to let me play) and i suggest you read the stickies in the FAQ section, (expecially hyperlinked table of contents) the L6 section, and maybe even the Turbo and the Fuel Delivery sections further down in the forum.
This "s30 model specific" forum is relatively new, and isnt going to get much technical traffic anyhow.
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People have covered the "ZX->Z" fairly well, but as far as "Inter-S30" 240-260-280 body parts interchange, pretty well anything that isnt taillights, turn signals, grill, or bumper related is essentially the same.. NOTE!!! the doors from 1970-1976 all interchange with each other, although there ARE slight differences. HOWEVER the 1977-78 doors are a completely different beast.
260 stuff, early 260 bumpers, turn signals, grill etc were 240, later were 280.. (unsure about the "later 260Z" bumpers?) The 77-78 280Zs had different bumpers from the 75-76, but they should interchange.
Tail lights can be swapped with some effort, front turn signals can be swapped with some effort (I know this because we used to have a 280 that had been re titled as a 240 and the turn signals and tail lights were the only things he did to it superficially to make it look like a 240; the interior was straight 77 280Z, down to the typeface on the gauges.)
In short, the S30, regardless of model year or engine size, can be treated as one single model that underewent several minimal changes throughout the decade of the seventies. An 85 IROC and a 92 RS don't have the same tail lights (do they? i was reaching for an example and I'm 99% sure about that statement) BUT they should interchange right? Treat anything (exterior at least) with that kind of mentality, and inspect it if you can before installation.
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I'm sorry.. but is that a Geo Storm Hatchback I see in the back of the pack there?? red car, white diamond on the hood... the grey and silver car in front of the Z almost looks like a subaru XT, but from that angle lots of cars look like each other (prelude, XT, heck it could me an MR2 or something totally else)
Just had to ask.
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Wow. Wow wow wow is all I can say.
Somehow, they rewrote the cartoon that we all watched as eight year olds....
..and they made a movie that simultaneously entertained a roomful of twentysomethings.. yet was still the same thing that made the eight year old within jump and bounce of the walls making that silly noise..
oh, and the dialogue between Prime and Megatron coming straight from the original movie.. CLASSIC.
They have GOTTA put smokescreen in any putative sequel.. bugatti, heck, make him a 350Z.
The whole chevy:autobot::ford:decepticon thing was kinda funny too.
In the pictures posted above, of the front of the car, you can see the 240 bumper I have "in storage" resting on the stock bumper; nothing fancy, I just found a good lace to put it for now, thats all.
)
L series Buildup
in Nissan L6 Forum
Posted
A few years ago, again a few months ago, a few weeks ago....