grannyknot

Spent the last month cursing Megasquirt but finally got the engine to idle yesterday so there is hope yet. Got he Z into the garage and started digging for rust, didn't have to look too hard. Found some 1st class repair work along with some previous occupants. Picked up some new wheels and some repair panels from Tabco.

Hey that's pretty clever, so the pump only comes on when the brake is applied? I guess you would hold the brakes down for a few seconds after starting the car so the booster and or vacuum canister was pumped down and ready to go. Thanks

Are those the bushings that came with the bar? They look awfully thin.

The bmw straight six engine I'm installing,http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/122185-m-powered-z/ doesn't lend itself to pulling vacuum from it for the brake booster so I was thinking about installing 12v vacuum pump to supply vacuum. I have never done this before but I know some european manufactures do this all the time. Any advice is welcome, not sure how much vacuum is required by our boosters. Thanks, Chris

From your pics it doesn't look like there is very much rust, have you lifted all the carpets, looked underneath the car, checked the doglegs and rockers? If those other areas are as good as the pics you have shown then I would say you got a good deal. Anything else on the car can be bought or fixed, a rust free shell is a joy to work on.

If you don't find a set already louvered you can send your set to Fergie's Louvers, http://hotrodlouvers.com/ He only charges $2 per louver vent, he's a good a guy, he did mine.

If you take a stock 72 240z lowered 1" with lowering springs then cut off the steering rack mounts and built new ones 1.75" lower than stock, what would be the effect on steering/ handling? I'm still trying to find a way to shoehorn in this BMW engine without screwing things up too much. Dropping the steering rack would give crank balancer a place to live. Thanks, Chris

Clarkspeed, very interested in your plywood bumpsteer tester, do you have any pics? Also, I remember a pic that John Coffey posted many years ago of that vertical slot in the crossmember/inner LCA mounting point, wouldn't moving the LCA mounting point straight up pull the bottom of the tire in resulting in positive camber? Where as making that slot slanted or curved with the radius of the LCA ball joint would keep the camber where it was.

Nicely done.

Very cool

Look what came in the mail, Here is the finished tank ready for install, Now that I'm changing the ECU I took the opportunity to change over to high impedance injectors and bumped up the flow from stock 24lb to 30lb, that will give me a bit more room to push up the power output.

I wouldn't use the SS bolts as crucial fasteners where proper torquing and strength is needed but most of the body bolts would be fine I would think.

I think that may be your fuel gauge plug.

Hope you didn't pay $1500 for that battery.

Just a thanks to all of you who posted pics of their tanks, I was having a hard time picturing how to do this before finding this thread. Here is how mine turned out,

I have tossed the entire Motronic ECU in the trash, farting around with an old unsupported ECU is just a waste of time. Have just ordered all of the MegaSquirt stuff from DIYAutoTune.com Here is the list, I'm happy to listen to any tips or tricks from you MS guys. MS2357-C MegaSquirt-II PCB v3.57 (SMT) Engine Management System w/ black case Jumper for VR input. MOD_2357IGN1 Modify Megasquirt-II V3.57 for single Bosch BIP373 ignition output on pin 36. Uses JS10 for spark A output pin. Spark output needs to be set to Going High. JimStim-C JimStim v1.5 Assembled Unit 'JimStim' Stimulator with Wheel Simulator version 1.5 MSRelay-C MegaSquirt Relay and Power Board - Complete Assembled Unit MSRelayCable 4' MegaSquirt Relay Cable 1 85.00 85.00T LG-WireBund 10 foot (3.0 meter) bundle of prelabled TXL automotive wire. IATwPiggy GM Open Element IAT sensor with 6' pigtail 38NPT-Bung_A 3/8' NPT Aluminum Bung, with galvanized steel plug. Perfect for welding onto intake/coolant plumbing for IAT/CLT sensors. TuneCable6 6' Ft DB9 Male / Female STRAIGHT THRU WB-O2BP Mild Steel 18x1.5 thread- chamfered both sides.

In the past 3 weeks while reading posts on the forum I have hit the 'like' button twice, both times a window popped up saying that I had exceeded my daily limit of likes and could not use it anymore. Does this happen to anyone else, is there some way to fix this glitch? Thanks, Chris

BMW Z8,

Man I wish I had known about this group buy, I just paid full price for my speedhut gauges. I used the hollowed out stock gauge for the new gauges, they fit in perfectly. The smaller gauge worked okay but not as well as the tach and speedo.

I'm definitely in the non electronic camp, I have started talking to Peter Florance of http://www.pftuning.com/ about putting a system together for me. He owns an M5 of the same era as mine and is well thought of on the MS and 5 series forums. Thanks for all the info. Chris

Okay, I did some more testing with new and known working used relays for the main and fuel relays, same old story, so I'm done with Motronic, I'll save the wiring harness and convert it to use with Megasquirt. There sure is a lot to read with MS, so far it looks like I will order, MS2 extra board, V.3.0, a relay board, Glen's Garage adapter for the 3 wire TPS, a JimStim, a GM intake air temp sensor, a 60-2 wheel harmonic balancer from a m30b35 engine and an old laptop with a serial port

NZ, your right, the main relay powers the ECU, the injectors and the fuel relay, the fuel relay powers the fuel pumps, O2 sensor and the ICV. I did try some new relays when I first started testing but I hadn't sorted out the anti theft wire or the starter yet, so now would be a good time to try new relays again. CM, good info on the stand alone FI controller, I'm not feeling so intimidated now. I did a bunch of reading last night about Mega squirt, alot of guys love it but there also seems to be a lot guys who despise it. I'll keep an open mind but hopefully I'll get the bmw unit working first. Thanks for the advice boys, I really appreciate it. Chris

Right, any confusion is my fault, the situation the way it is now is exactly the way it was when I started, Chickenman suggested taking the ECU out of the loop with the fuel relay by powering it separately. I did that and the pumps came on when I wanted them to but the ECU was still controlling injectors, ICV and so on and if they are not working then nothing else is, so I put everything back they way it is suppose to work and concentrated on finding out why the whole thing isn't working. Still haven't found the answer to that yet but I sure know a lot more about this system then when I started. If I do go for a stand alone system how do you get the new wiring harness to match up with the existing sensors and control units, or do they have to be replaced as well? Thanks, Chris

Leon, an old school BMW tech, man I would love to find one of those guys. CM, This engine runs the Motronic 1.0 basic, and has no bell or whistles, the one wire for anti theft has been bypassed, no cam sensors, no crash sensors, all it relies on is the reference and speed sensors reading the flywheel, the TPS , the water temp sensor and the AFM. I did the resistance test on the all the ECU connector pins this afternoon and none of them have any more resistance then the multimeter probes touching one another. I even changed the ignition switch from the datsun to the bmw switch, no start. The only time the fuel pumps start working is when I'm letting the return spring in the ignition switch pull the key back to the ON position from START position and that is the same on either ignition switch. I have done all the tests from this page, http://www.hiperformancestore.com/motronic.htm and the only difference with my setup is my coil has a resistance of .9 ohms between the neg and pos instead of the .5 ohms he recommends and I have 7000 ohms between the center terminal and pos and he is recommending 6000. Chris

The battery is new and has a charger on it while I'm cranking and testing. The starter did need rebuilding and is working perfectly now, I bought a noid light and confirmed that no pulse is getting to the injectors. I removed the ECU harness connector and chased down continuity on all 35 pins to the various systems and components where the wires start, all is good so I know the wiring harness is sound. So the ECU is not releasing ground to the fuel pump relay, it's not sending any pulses to the injectors and it is not sending any signal to the Idle Control Valve. There may be other things it's not doing but I'm starting to think that maybe the ECU is fried and I need a new or rebuilt one. The Bosch Motronic page you linked to on post #3 says that failure of the ECU is very very rare but I'm getting to the end of the line pretty quickly. I just reread that page and I have done all the tests he suggests but I did a continuity test on the wiring harness, not a resistance test so tomorrow I'll switch to ohms and test those 35 pins again. Programa will do a rebuild on the ECU for $500 which I'll spend if I have to but I'm thinking maybe I should cut my loses and put that money towards an aftermarket FI controller...I don't know. As always, I'm open to suggestions. Chris