Zetsaz

My very much not Chinese made spooly boy has arrived. Thermostat housing and injectors should be shipping out sometime this week according to protunerz SO close to a new "first" startup. Will just need to sort water lines and the intercooler piping once it's bolted up, but it's super close.

Since I'm running the very conservative stock compression with dished pistons I figured the "newer" ball bearing turbos would get me better response on the low end, even though the GT series is starting to get a bit dated. The GTX for this size is apparently only a marginal improvement, and the G series is just too expensive for me right now. I got the whole assembly (housing, outlet, and water neck) for $194+shipping. Looking at other options which are just stock replacements that does seem like a good deal now that you mention it. Andrew (Milkfab) is also running a clutch fan and has now problems, but he has 3" intercooler piping which caused some fitment issues going under the engine. Mine is all 2.5" which fits great so far as long as I'm able to aim the compressor outlet just right to clear the steering column without having the couple hit anything.

@JMortensen Those charts are barely legible even if you zoom in. It's one of my big frustrations with the forums after the major update some years back. Images uploaded directly to it all get compressed and you lose detail on some of this stuff. I have personally experienced the lift that you're referring to and the front definitely makes the most difference. A lot of people don't realize how much of a parachute effect the front hood has to create lift. My coilovers were adjusted poorly before adding more of the interior and carrying some things in the rear deck which caused the back end to lower enough to cause problems. Before the front splitter was added, the lift on the front end was enough to make the back rub since it was already close. Over about 55 or 60mph the lightest blip of the throttle would cause one side to rub. Over 65 or 70 mph the front end lift was dramatic enough to cause constant rubbing.

Ahh, somehow I missed the post by calZ. I had intended to post the pics from my phone after doing the typing from my desktop only to realize they were taken around the time my old phone got bricked a few weeks ago and weren't part of a back up haha. I'll take a few tomorrow.

Hmmm.... Looks like I'll have to redo my heater hoses to set them up like yours. Can you link to the thread? I don't have the T like you, I just set them up like my old NA engine, but I do still have the T from the turbo block's heater hoses. For the water lines, I saw PMC taking the cooler feed from the block plug in the back under the exhaust manifold, and returning to the thermostat. TonyD seems to have suggested using the turbo as a replacement to the original bypass line which I don't have right now. Posting a photo from my phone of the clearance. Your clearance between the frame rails and trans crossmember should be a non-issue. My low spot is under the diff, but unless you hit something that's going between your tires or get a LOT of suspension travel over a bump, I just don't see how it would hit anything, For the most part that entire area is gets more clearance as the tires move over things.

Looking might similar to mine so far Your engine bay is going to be MUCH prettier than mine... I forgot to ask earlier, how is your water cooling for the turbo routed? Are you taking the feed from the block and exiting to the thermostat housing?

Recent orders that are hurting my wallet but should get this thing going. -Garrett GT3076R that I mentioned, with a 5 bolt ford style exhaust housing to bolt in that ultimate internal wastegate setup. Should keep things simple. -Tial 10psi actuator to keep things more reliable than whatever questionable chinese actuator was on there before. -650cc injectors and adapters for the 14mm O rings. Should be more than I'll ever use, but they were the same price as the 550s that were recommended to me to keep up with my turbo and psi goals. Will give me plenty of overhead, and better tuning since they're new and will actually come with a data sheet. -The new thermostat housing and waterneck from protunerz that I preordered ages ago should be here in time to install the water lines for the turbo. Was shocked at what they're asking for them now. I'm expecting them to be really great pieces, but I'm glad I preordered. Will give me more ports in more common modern threads while also allowing me to move away from the pitted oem pieces I have that developed a hairline crack on one of the sensors. They've been impossible to seal as a result and always blow some coolant steam onto the bottom of my hood and onto my header. Electric fans are still up for debate. I know that I can route the intercooler piping in front of the oil pan right now (have test fit my piping) and my clutch fan is working beautifully. Might avoid the extra expense and work for now just to get myself going. Don't want to have too much all at once on the to do list. If I purchase electric fans and the wiring it might wait until next month when I'm finally reimbursed for a conference I was at in February.

@Sanchez Looking forward to that video. Would be helpful if you link it here. My steering rack is... usable haha. I'm at a very awkwards spot where tightening the big screw even by a few degrees too much creates a light sticking point just outside the center of travel either way. So I have to keep it more loose than I'd prefer.

The new G series lineup seems so tempting but too rich for my blood... Nearly 1k over the popular 3076 L series guys seem to like! If I get a new Garrett I think I'm leaning towards the GT3076R with a .63 a/r

A few shots here. First shows where we put the hangers. I'm glad we could keep them as simple as we did. They're mountin to the stock muffler area mounts on the car. Had to cut and weld some random hangers I ordered from amazon. Those were only mild steel though, so I cleaned them up and painted them with a few coats of rustoleum just to make sure nothing was rusting under the car. Third pic shows it mounted. It looks like it's pointing slightly to the passenger side, but that's the distortion from my phone's wide angle. It's about as centered as you can make it considering how we built the exhaust, and it comes out pretty parallel with the ground! Currently debating ponying up the money for a GT3076 and just finishing up the car PROPERLY before I got to mexico or just running the new ebay turbo I was given with the engine block. Going to Utah for spring break to meet my new nephew so I fortunately have a week to think it over.

Will post pictures here when i get home later. Right now it only has the two hangers near the stock locations for the muffler. One about 6" from the muffler casing, and one towards the back close to the rear valence. I'll probably try to figure something out for the midpipe or just before the differential crossmember down the road, but we made the clearances pretty good and it's pretty tucked up just from tightening the V band clamps. The issue with another hanger in the middle is I don't have the stock shield over the transmission tunnel that the 280z had, nor do I have the mounting points for it because the floors were replaced by the previous owner. Yeah, the V bands were definitely the nicest, but even the butt welds are really good, they're just not internet "weld porn" pretty haha. we didn't clean them up at all either, so it looks much nicer in person than on the dimly lit stuff I've posted so far. We tig welded all of it (well... my friend who's charging me the "homie discount" did). Don't have the things to back purge, but we used solar flux to make sure the back of the welds were clean. Essentially becomes glass on the back of the weld and shields it from oxygen so you don't get the oxidizing and "sugaring" that can happen when the other side isn't shielded. None of the welds are ground down. They're pretty smooth as is. I'm probably just gonna wipe them clean and let them be whatever color they're going to be after heat cycling when it's running again.

I mean, realistically if you're doing things the most overkill way possible you would run something like this from the attached pdf. The stock turbo system has the block going through PCV to the intake and it's relatively well designed. arrington_ccv_bible (1).pdf

Not my method, this is a direct quote from Matt Armstrong in Vancouver who builds a lot of these He goes stock block vent to stock pcv valve on the intake, then valve cover breather to catch can to intake on the turbo So two small systems Block Vent --> PCV Valve --> Intake Valve cover --> Catch can -->> Turbo intake

15 hours of work later... The video is a bit better despite poor lighting. Some of the welds are great, particularly in the V band flanges, some of them slightly less so because we weren't as careful as necessary about heat like the short pie cut just before the muffler that gets the angle right where we wanted it. That said, even the worst welds are better than the weld on the rear pipe off the HKS muffler. It's a nicer exhaust than I ever thought I'd have on the car, and I still have loads of room on the straight for a resonator or a second muffler if I decide it's too loud. Finishing the hangers tomorrow and it'll be done

Have spent maybe another 10 hours mocking up and test fitting back from the downpipe since my last post. O2 bung is welded in but might have to be relocated. It ended up being angled just a biiiiiit close to the transmission. Perfectly workable for now and no clearance issues getting it in or out. Mid pipe is done and welded. Back end is tacked up. Doing a quick realignment of the muffler today then we'll be able to fully weld the back end and get the hangers done. Super close! This will be a nicer exhaust than I ever imagined having. Pics to come as soon as we finish it up

Downpipe made. Need one more weld on it tomorrow plus the O2 bung then we'll hopefully finish up the mid pipe

Hey everyone, I feel like it's the first time in a while I've made a new thread about anything but I'm curious if anyone here has experience. I'm running an RT Diff mount with the GM top mount. I know of at least one person (can't find the thread anywhere) who cut his stock crossmember to improve space for exhaust routing. Instead of being a crossmember for the diff, it's now just brackets to hold up the front of the control arms. Z Car Depot now offers billet pieces that do the same thing as pictured. The big question is whether or not this would worsen lateral rigidity. I can't imagine the RT diff mount adds nothing but it's not exactly the same as the crossmember adding a brace straight across. Would love to hear people's opinions/thoughts.

You can get some new GSP Axles from Rock Auto for about $50 ea. Not really worth trying to find them used unless you get a better deal than that

New parts tease. Friend of a friend who's welding all the stainless for me is hoping we can get it all done the end of next week. Should give me enough time to make or order some intercooler brackets and finish up the cold side piping

EDIT: Double post

Then I'm sure you'll enjoy! Sequential fuel and spark aren't options on MS3 unless you get the MS3X board to go with it. That's why I suggested the upgrade to MS3 if you can. MS3X is a whole other step up EDIT: They are options, but I think it's still limited to 4cyl sequential fuel. Would need some modding for more. The notable (and useful) upgrades you get over MS2 are SD card logging, USB-serial (instead of having to use an old Serial cable), finer resolution on fuel tables, and more up to date support on the 3.57 boards through MS Extra.

If you like doing this sort of work, I will definitely say some of the learning is half the fun. That being said, there are a lot of cars out there sitting on jack stands for years because people don't anticipate just how involved it is, and how steep the initial learning curve is. If, alternatively, you like driving your car a lot and just want to get it moving and enjoy it, I might suggest buying one of the "plug and play" kits that you can now get from vendors like godzilla raceworks or ProTunerz. They'll get you up and going with a base tune probably within a weekend if you're working and read instructions carefully. I spent entirely too long accumulating parts and overthinking things, and if I could do things again, I would get the car running asap and slowly decide small things I NEED to upgrade. That being said, megasquirt is a massive upgrade, and well worth it if you really commit and get it going. My 2 year old paint job is already fairly imperfect from driving this thing down the pacific coast highway from Seattle to LA, and even driving through some dirt roads so I could drive it through the Chandelier Tree. Every step of the way the efficiency was better and fuel was burned more completely (you're not in open loop on the injectors at faster highway speeds), meaning I had almost no fumes along the drive. MS2 kits get the job done well, but I will warn you that most tuners I know of won't mess with them that much anymore because they're getting a bit dated. MS3 is only a small step up. If you go MS2, I would make sure you get an assembled kit.

"71c" transmission. Technically this one was out of a Silvia, but it's the same as the late s14 ones.

She's in! Need to bleed the clutch to check everything but it's all bolted up to the engine side and alternator is back on. Waiting on a new speedo cable, reverse switch, and shifter gasket before I fill it up. Afterward I'll get the new driveshaft in and double check everything Spent a decent chunk of time before it was rebuilt cleaning the bellhousing and tailhousing so they were painted and cleaned up a bit. It's looking nice with that new T3 crossmember even though it's not perfect. Currently on the way are a new intercooler and piping among a few other things. Edit - Also removed the clutch weights from the Centerforce clutch per a L series builder's recommendation. Supposedly makes it difficult to shift once you start getting up to about 6k rpm. I don't expect to get there often, but with my modest goals and the added rotational weight, it feels like the added clamping force isn't worth the tradeoff of some questionable shifting at high rpm

Small update: Didn't realize how burnt out I was when I pulled the trans and wanted to upgrade to turbo. Progress has been SLOW compared to the past couple years. Transmission is now finally off for a rebuild. Getting new bearings, synchros, seals, and a new 3rd gear. Have redline fluid ready to go for when I get it back. The only turbo upgrades I have left are the intercooler and charge piping. Will probably purchase this month so I can cruise again by the start of spring. I was recently offered a job at an international school in Mexico that i'm still debating, but there's a high likelihood I make a big push to enjoy this thing in the spring and tune it up to really make the most of it this summer before possibly moving to Guadalajara! More to come...