Daeron

Yup. Use the laser to find steam and/or mist.

a laser pointer can be of great assistance trying to track down a pinhole leak..

Beh, I have no job right now so my time is free. Not good. If *my* humble advice can help anyone here, then great.. I'm glad to be of assistance. Don't get the idea that I really know what I am talking about though.. I'm really just a novice, unlike many of the people here. What I am saying is, if someone says I am wrong, there is at LEAST a 50/50 chance that they are right

okay.. the thermotime switch controls the cold start injector. I *believe* that this "9 volt battery" was intended to BYPASS the thermotime switch and activate the cold start injector circuit, so that it fires to enrich the mixture to help with cold starting. the 9 volt battery has NOTHING to do with the starter. The way the thermotime switch works, is it has a bimetal switch that pens (read: turns OFF) when it warms up. It can either be warmed by engine coolant (turns it off when the car is already hot) or by a small heater element contained within it. This heater element makes it turn itself off at a set amount of time after cold starting the car; if I understand correctly, the 9 volt battery is there to cover up a malfunctioning thermotime switch. In other words, the thermotime switch is turning off too soon, so you need to keep it on. Hopefully djpaul comes back and responds in more detail; I am unfamiliar with this fix but I understand the system behind it. Do yourself a favor, and visit this page and download and read the "EFI Bible," it explains how your fuel injection works. WONDERFUL reading, not overly technical, and its actually a readable translation.. the FSMs for the S30 all seem to be written in japanese, then poorly translated to british-style english, making them somewhat obscure for us American readers in some cases.. ESPECIALLY when the discriptions get technical, and the reader is not a professional technician.. but the EFI Bible has NONE of those drawbacks. Hope this helps...

could this have been it? This was from 74_5.0L_Z's photo album here on hybridz.. but looking at it a second time, it s hard to see if it prevents that much air from traveling under the car.. obviously his setup forces it through the radiator, but the point is (seems to be?) to avoid it pushing below the car entirely, and leaving the airflow no choice but to go through the engine bay and then out the engine bay vents. I dunno if I am right nor not, but that was the car that *I* was thinking of regarding your comment, there, stony..

Okay, my mouth is open, ready for my foot.. but have you heard of lossless audio compression?? it cuts the size of a wav down roughly in half, oftentimes more, without suffering any loss of quality. Juat thought I would mention that... As for a source of desks, I would think the local thrift store, goodwill/salvation army, or even keeping the eyeballs peeled for garbage on the crub might be a better option that a homedepot desk.. Personally I would want to do this in solid wood, rather than pressboard.. Wind up with a decent product. Then again, the biggest reason I haven't gotten around to doing this is the fact that I dont want to maul my nice hardwood desk I got for Xmas when I was in the first grade...

*should* be an internally regulated unit, but I may be wrong. check a parts store website; look up your model and year, and see if it says the alternator is internally regulated or not. However, I am pretty sure that the 280Z in 78, and all subsequent Z cars, were internally regulated.

cowl induction hood vents as well as simple "280ZX" or later 280 style hood vents? I prefer the big risen cowl look to holes in my hood... and would imagine that dumping all that air out to a point where it gets sucked into the wiper cowl... I had to ask, but theres no need for a LONG answer; I read all these little questions and thought, "He would probably rather be writing the full article than waste time making a bunch of long posts giving us drops out of the gallons of data...":icon10:

If you opt to somply replace the hose by yourself, just make sure to use: 1. High pressure fuel injection line and 2. solid Band style fuel injection hose clamps, not the regular screw/slotted band type hose clamps, OR the double wire type... Parts store should be able to set you straight on what I am talking about, it almost looks like the piece used to secure chain link material to the fenceposts.. like a large C or "Omega" shape that almost comes together in a full circle. (Well, DOES when you clamp it )

my buddy integrated the chassis of a full tower case into a desk frame that he welded out of bed frame rails, with a piece of countretop on it.. he built a rack for his stereo receiver, and his speakers, too.. put the whole shebang on casters, and use to throw it in the back of his truck for parties etc.. like a DJ stand, sorta. I've always wanted to do what you did there, but never had a desk I felt like mutilating at all.. One of these days, though. Nice work, man, I like the fan box especially..

find the Ultimate NA engine thread and read it. This firum is great, but questions as basic as yours are going to get lots of comments using the word "search" rather often... performance engine building is NOT as simple as just throwing a cam in; having said that, the head choice is fairly moot until youve gotten well beyond stock. E88, P90, and N42 are all three the popular heads, so for now theres no need to start shopping for a new one.. the cam wouldn't do JACK unless you put more carbs on it to; the triple carbs would probably be the best FIRST step out of what you listed. However, suspension work (especially on a 30 year old stock suspension) will get you more FUN, if not necessarily more speed and better lap times, than any ONE of those things that you mentioned.

I know what you mean... I kicked a rear wheel once on my 280 because it was a loaner from my dad, and they (he and my uncle and oldest brother) were under the impression it needed spacers to fit a Z.. when REALLY, it needed acorn lug nuts instead of flat mag style lug nuts... And the BIG one was, when my alternator died. Again, my old man was adamant that any 280 Z or ZX had an internally regulated alternator, so I could straight swap the alt from my brothers defunct 280ZX onto my 75... A few months and half a dozen electrical episodes later, I bought a real replacement, externally regulated alternator. I noticed that there was a sticker on the back of the thing saying "EXTERNALLY REGULATED ALTERNATOR-- It is recommended that you replace the voltage regulator at the same time as this unit." I eyeballed the size of it, and realized it was a perfect fit to go on the top of my craftsman multimeter, which I still have (complete with sticker) to this day. That was how I found out that the old man was human, after all.

'chelle's car looks better, its RHD, AND it has a V12 in it... This dude needs to wake up..... AND if he REALLY wants 80 grand for it, he ought to use a SPELL CHECKER for the love of mike!

Beg pardon, now that you say so I recall discovering this myself; my old man had told me that the block was the proportioning valve when my problem first cropped up. That means that the sole purpose of that block is basically to house that switch and block off one circuit or the other... of its open. AND to indicate that there is an issue. thanks for doing the legwork and correcting me.

Funny thread... My favorite method of searching for vacuum leaks is to stick a piece of hose about 1/2" or so in diameter, and a couple feet long, into one ear, and fish the other end around the engine compartment. It acts like a stethoscope; cutting out noises other than those happening right there at the tip. OR you could go to harbor freight and buy a mechanics stethoscope, used for pretty much the same thing.

Yah, thats what I said.. essentially. The idle SPEED screw is the largish one towards the top.. BUT the point remains, neither of them has any effect on anything other than idling conditions...

Suggestion: Find some Dark Bronze colored spray paint rather than flat black. Dark Bronze is the color anodizing used in most "black" sliding glass doors, and aluminum screen doors and enclosures... Its like a dark grey with a hint of brownish gold added, darkening it even more. Its almost the color the grilles and metal sideview mirrors were painted originally.

I think youve got a bit of a fungus growing there, you might want to have someone look at that....

Well, I can't help you. you still havent specifically said that you have inspected the little wire going to the proportioning valve, and if memory serves it is only one wire.. which typically means it is a switching ground wire, so if the wire were crimped or shorting out to ground anywhere in its length it would be turning the light on. The fact that the handbrake switch is DEFINITELY a grounding switch supports this thought. As for killing the bulb, get adventurous. Pull your tach and take it apart; or find a wiring diagram and read it.

well actually, i was totally misconceived because I had failed to notice that my gain in CCs up to almost 3 liters was from boring it out on the engine calculator page.. I was just trying to start getting a mock up plan in my head as a thought exercise. I have actually learned quite a bit beyond what I even asked in this thread, since I posted it. I just needed some pointers along the way, that was all thanks though.

okay, suit yourself. I was trying to get attention, that was all... CarolinaZ, it sounds to me like your problem is likely in your proportioning valve switch as well, or its associated wiring. There is my original post, sans a couple of unneeded side comments... Note first the yell to get your attention, the explanation that this circuit is almost definitely your problem (unless you re wired your car when you installed the all new braking system) and even an apology for yelling! I was just trying to let you know that there IS another link between battery positive voltage, and that light bulb, beyond just the handbrake switch. It seemed to ME that was the point of this thread.. "what else would cause it to stay on?" I never would have posted anything like this in a thread started by you, stating that you had re engineered and built your own fully custom braking system, and wanted to bypass the light. I was posting answering nscason's question.. why won't the light go off? If I was a touch too adamant for your tastes, my apologies... but unless you have an aftermarket proportioning valve, I bet your light is on for the same reason nscason's is: a switch or wiring fault in the P-valve circuit that everyone always forgets.

you have concluded that you have no fuel being delivered to the cylinders.. I presume you do have good fuel pressure and flow? If so, and the injectors still arent firing, then you need to determine why THAT is the case. all the "tidbits" you could need would be found in the FSM, if you have one. If not try to find one on carfiche.com and read the chapter on the fuel injection system. That should outline how to proceed in your situation. I would suspect the injector dropping resistor if it has one? Honestly, the V-6 is an aliean to me, I am just trying to get you pointed in the right direction.

the details involved in using the longer valves in the P head were beside the point; I am FAR from getting parts together even. I just wanted to know if you meant to limit your comment on the quality of the valves to the later turbos, or not. I didn't think such a distinction was intentional and apparently, it wasn't. Thanks for the info guys, and pardon the minor hijack.

EVERYONE STOP!! dont cut harnesses, dont yank bulbs, easy easy here!!!! that big red BRAKE light is a VERY multi-function device!!! It comes on when you hit the brakes and you have a bulb out; it comes on when you pull the hand brake up; and it comes on when activated by a presssure differential switch built into the proportioning valve This switch comes on when for some reason, there is much higher pressure in the front brake circuit than the rear, or vice versa. The brake pedal goes almost to the floor, and then the light comes on, the "low pressure" circuit gets cut off by the proportioning valve, and what little bit of force generated by the last 1/16 of the travel of the pedal goes to the "good" brake circuit. I know this because i drove with ZERO rear brakes for about a year; every time I hit the pedal it was a delayed reaction, and once braking pressure actually WAS being applied, the brake light came on. The reason alot of you are having mysterious "always on" brake lights is likely a problem with the wiring for THIS switch; you have ruled out all the other possibilities. Sorry to yell there at the beginning, I just started reading all these posts saying "cut" "remove" "yank" "tape over" and other destructive words.... when no one was mentioning anything about the proportioning valve and it's associated switch. If anyone has a FSM, you can look it up in there; I don't have mine handy.

What about the earlier NA 280Z valves? what would your estimation of those be? I ask because my plans are to use a shaved P90 head, and that is normally done with N-series valves to avoid needing to use thicker lash pads; I was planning on using stock valves but havent gotten around to researching the quality of those valves too much yet. Thus far my impression has been that they are acceptable as well, and im not asking for any more but say, 250, 300 horse?