Daeron

You are more than welcome, thanks for the information. The link really doesnt contain much of a secret formula, but it is nice to see what someone else has already done before you embark upon building somthing like that for yourself. Any reason not to just use a stock fuel rail and pressure regulator with the vacuum port vented to the atmosphere? It would obviously also take a dropping resistor.. something like this could (obviously) be rigged up easily and on the cheap, or could be done with varying degrees of complexity (timers etc.) It is a project I have been thinking about in the background for some time now.

Okay, I understood most of the preceding statements already.. but THIS statement leads me to another question... I have scads of stock 280Z injectors. I was planning on building a cleaning/flow test rack like this one to clean and "flow match" myself a set of 6 good injectors. I was also contemplating selling alot of them to some of my subaru friends, because the 80s subaru turbo engines use the ZX injectors as a larger alternative. I take the above statement to mean that, my home made flow test bench will be nothing like actually having the injectors sent out and cleaned and spec'd professionally, because I have no way of determining the "dead time" on each injector, other than eyeballing it.. am I right? I mean, the test bench obviously serves some good in any case.. but probably not as much as I would like, given this new information that I have picked up now. Am I more or less correct? Sorry for the hijack, it just didnt seem worth it to start another thread, since it would be taking these questions out of the context in which they arose.

thanks to everyone who helped enlighten me.. the thought of running rich at idle on large injectors hadn't occurred to me.. can you tell I've never been outside of 200 horsepower?

I am no genius, no guru.. I'm only 26 and havent played anywhere NEAR as much as I would like to, yet... but my advice is to take a day off ENTIRELY. DONT come to the forum, don't think about it, just WALK AWAY for a day.. come back and slowly, carefully re evaluate your problem from the get go. In my experience, whenever I get to his point it is because I have missed something BRUTALLY obvious... its like looking for your keys. You tear the whole house apart for an hour.. then realize how angry you will be when you find them at how obvious it REALLY was in the end... Take a breather and forget what you know about the problem. Come back and discover it again. The forgetting is the most important part, because my bet is that you have overlooked something. Hope this helps, and good luck.. you DO seem to have something of a nipple-twister here....

I'll keep my eyes peeled for a pile of cash to drop into....

why bother with multiple injectors when you are making a customized intake setup anyhow? just use one hugeass injector per cylinder. K.I.S.S., right? or am I displaying my ignorance?

Beat me to it!! have fun while the last, and they are VERY pretty, but you will likely blow those axles sooner than you'd like... What kind of angle do they run at when the car is set on the ground? the closer to horizontal at rest, the better. Ideally, you'd like it to sit with the diff a little higher than the wheel hubs, so the axles point downwards just a tad. This way, under hard acceleration, or when a bump is hit, or any time stress is put on the rear of the car (read: hard driving) it gives you a little bit of room before you start sagging below.. Just keep in mind that the flatter you keep your axles, the longer they will last. Keeping spares around would behoove, as well. Even if they don't look that nice. That *is* a nice looking suspension, btw.. incredible looking car overall, the turbocharger fits under that door much nicer than a battery would

try hunting around the engine bay with a mechanic's stethoscope (or a piece of tubing stuck in your ear) Run the leakdown test, too (always good to know your numbers) but if that checks out, then make sure you don't have a vacuum leak somewhere. IT *would* cause a miss, and low vacuum....

uh, well, my uncle had a couple of race engines for his roadster built at a joint called South Florida Crank and Machine on 6th avenue south in Lake Worth.. my buddy works there, his stepdad is the owner, and my uncle found the place independently of that.. he wasnt exactly "100% satisfied" but I am not too sure how correct he is in faulting larry and company for that.. (*I* think it might be possible that my uncle doesn't really know squat about camshafts, and thats why he has had engine troubles... ) I know they are a good shop, they do ALOT of hi performance work. My uncle never had a Z engine built there, just an older U-20.. but I will ask my family what theyd say about getting a Z engine built at larry's. It can't hurt, and my money is they would say "Go ahead" or I wouldn't have posted.

Poor CTS connection perhaps? Go back to basics, go here and download the "EFI Bible" and perform ALL the tests involved, and find your issue. I think you have established that it wasn't a motor issue.

it MIGHT also be a bad U joint in the driveshaft or halfshaft, but diff mount is the most likely culprit.

youre gonna get flamed, but since I am a fellow (relative) newb to the forum here (bron and raised in a Z, tho) I will humour you. Define "easily." According to MY definition of "easily" you are stuck with the L series motor... but the L series motor CAN be built into a 400 horsepower pony factory, if you want. If you are willing to do swaps, (read: major mechanical and fabrication skills required, NOT for the weekend oil-changer) then you could put an SR20 in, an RB series skyline engine, a ford or chevy V8. Those are the common swaps. Most agree that for simplicity, and bang for your buck, the easiest route is the V8 swap. It has been done since hotrod magazines started getting their hands on "one of those little datsuns!" back in the early seventies, so it is tried and true. You could also build the L28 in your ZX into a hotorod engine in its own right. A Turbo setup is NOT incredibly difficult, and if you know what you are doing, you can build it into a stroker, put aftemarket engine management and fuel intake onto it, and wind up with something in the ballpark of 350-400 horse. IF you know what you are doing. If you want easy easy, you can do some simple fuel, exhaust, and intake mods to the stock engine, and tune it up for another 20 ponies or so. Thats often enough for your first step. And READ THIS FORUM. don't just search it for information, visit daily. Read things you dont think pertain to you. Reading is the only way to increase your knowledge level, and doing is the only way to increase your skill level. Reading about what you DO is the only way to make sure you do it right. In the meantime, welcome to HybridZ, the internet's home of the most knowledgeable Z car guys on the PLANET, bar none.

Well, you need a TPS to tell the computer where the throttle is.. you just need the RIGHT TPS. I don't know what the ECU would do, or how the engine would behave, without ANY TPS connected.

Wow.. Thanks!!! I would be very interested to hear opinions on this article from some of the incredibly wise and knowledgeable L-series engine builders here... (okay, I will point my finger directly at braap with a polite smile:-D) To the rest of us, who haven't spent years in a machine shop building engines, this is DEFINITELY very valuable reading!!!

If you are using the TPS that came with the 60mm TB, that IS your problem. There are two kinds of TPSs.. go find your EFI handbook (http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/efisystem/280zfuelinjectionbook.pdf) and look at what the TPS does. The Original Zcar TPS was two switches.. when the throttle was closed, one switch was closed indicating that you aren't pushing the pedal at all. When the throttle was ALL the way open (WOT, the OTHER switch closed, indicating WOT. When the throttle is somewhere between, neither switch is closed. In other words, the TPS can say three things.. Zero throttle, mild throttle, or full throttle. More Modern TPS units are potentiometers.. picture an old stereo volume knob linked to the throttle plate. as you open the throttle, this "pot" changes its internal resistance. The ECUs on these newere vehicles expect to send a signal voltage to that potentiometer, which then changes that voltage (the pot is a variable resistor) and the ECU reads the voltage and infers the throttle position.. In other words, the original TPS is a switch that can say one of three things, and the later TPSs are infinitely variable "volume knobs" instead.. so you are just confusing the ever-loving hell outta your ECU with this new TPS:tongue: You may as well be trying to use a MAF out of a 300ZX instead of your flapper-door AFM, just TOTALLY different technology. Good luck.

A thing of beauty is a joy, forever!

Okay, blatant display of my ignorance, but if I don't ask I won't learn... That huge intake pictured, is that (more or less) what the stock LD28 intake looked like? Obviously, the fuel injector bungs were not there, but you just welded the bungs onto the existing manifold, which bolts onto that ENORMOUS plenum? If so, I want one of these. first. before I buy any other hardware, I have found my intake manifold. Thanks.

I'll go ahead and add another plaintive request for the model year 75 280Z wiring and vacuuum line info, if not the complete FSM... I have a hard copy of the 76 and it just isnt worth much to me. I am at a point where if I ever DO come across a 75 hard copy, I will mutliate it and scan it into a pdf just for the good of the people.

Exactly, it started on the roadsters. They weren't allowed to run an air dam to improve aerodynamics, but they WERE allowed to put a brake cooling "channel/duct" thingy in, and they called it a spook. Incidentally, that is the only reason its more of a 240 thing than a 280 thing, and why the fit is difficult.. it originated with class rules in the late sixties, by the time the 280 was around they (BRE) were allowed to do ALOT more with their cars.

I like the idea of the red in the Turbo rectangle, but that might look even better if the red is on the outside with blue in the rectangle, with polished letters...

um, no? You have an 81 280ZX, that has stock a p79 head and f54 block IIRC? the p79 head needs the flat top pistons to achieve the stock compression ratio; if you put your P79 head on the n47 block, with dished pistons, you will be lowering your compression ratio.

*holds*head*in*hands* I didnt just get a ticket. I went to JAIL for 24 hours over that. I had two driving with suspended license charges the year before.. susp. lic. because of no insurance, yah yah I know.. but anyhow, two offenses, A and B, two court dates. I went to court date A-1, didnt have insurance yet, or tag or license.. they said "get all this stuff and come back on court date A-2 and the charges get dropped." I got all that taken care of in time for court date B. Charge B gets dropped. I tell them, "I have charge A here.. do I have to go back to court date A-2?" they said no. seven months later, cop catches my lack of a bumper out of the corner of his eye, pulls into the turn lane and waits for traffic to turn left to make a U-turn to get behind me, pull me over.. by the time he actually pulled me, word came over the radio that I had a warrant for failure to appear.. He pulled me over and I was in handcuffs within two minutes. I was on my way to my work christmas party, too.

unfair to judge without tires on, my first impression was UGH! and the more I looked the more I liked them. any chance at getting a foto with tires on the rims, or a more "head-on" shot? that can help cut down on some of the shiny in the image, and maybe all the superfluous shiny is giving us a gaudy impression...

Hrmmm.. My first thought upon seeing the first bumperless ZX picture was, "Hey, the stock 280Z chrome bumpers would fill that slot BEAUTIFULLY!!" I realize that they are big and heavy, BUT in my head that would look a LOT better, and more like an original 240Z w/ air dam, if it had a nice, fairly plain chrmoe bumper in the middle of it... it would take some doing, I am sure, to make it ride close enough to the body (as opposed to jutting out like a pier, and needing all those unsourcable black rubber components to "fill" in the space) Plus, a bumper is just safe.. of course, it took a ticket to make me put my bumpers back on my 280, but hey.. I suppose you could try an even earlier bumper, but they were skinnier and might look a little funny.

But what is happening to the R12, beyond being "recycled" and re used? I mean, slowly but surely any refrigerant that gets used makes it out somehow, right? And when I made my comment about my junkyard actions, I merely meant that I hold the yard owners responsible for purging their vehicles, and I always assume it is not problematic to simply cut lines. That being said, I always take PERSONAL precautions... and I say "always" but I cant remember ever actually cutting lines beyond two or three times, AND they were purged already, for the most part. The last thing I am is apathetic about this, or even "whats this little bit gonna hurt" about it.. but I AM trying to be somewhat realistic. Where, other than the atmosphere, do we dispose of used refrigerant?