Lockjaw

I would like to see a Z with a deisel swap done. Bet no one has gone that route before.

The rocker arms are the same for all of the L6 engines. Lifters I don't know about, but I would not put used one's in my engine, but that is just me. I don't think the head is junk. I am sure with a good oil changing schedule they will last for a long time. It's just you don't really know what the previous owner did, so you could have a sweet head,or one that clacks alot, or some variation in between. Mine drove me nuts, so I went and bought a solid lifter head, and never looked back. You can always run it and see what happens. No sens replacing it until youknow it is broken. Good luck.

It consists of an 88 or 89 ecu, although that could have changed by now, a MAF from a 93 Mustang cobra, and 420cc injectors, and the chopper wheel out of the distributor of a sohc V-6 nissan distributor. They mod the ecu, wiring up the MAF is easy, and the only real pain in the neck in the whole thing is getting to the fuel pump relay under the dash of the ZX. Took me a couple of hours to do the whole thing. There are resistors that have to go inline with the injectors, and two of the injectors have to be swapped around, which I did at the ecu. The wiring harness for the turbo zx is the same as the 300 basically. I like the set-up. It adjusts to mods to the engine pretty well, makes plenty of power, and the drivability is way better than the stock set-up ever dreamed of being. It is a little pricey though, but you get stock reliablity. It performs pretty well though, and I am sure I have more to gain by doing other things to the car, like larger intercooler plumbing, a mild cam upgrade etc. My engine is not ported or anything radical, the only real performance item in the engine itself are the pistons. I will likely ugrade to a stand alone, although I may just upgrade to larger injectors and have them re-chip the ecu. Lot of options out there. The TecII is a really nice upgrade, and so is the SDS with the coil packs.

I have the ZX, and there are pro's and con's to it. Yes it is much more modern, comes with 4 wheel disc brakes, and has as nice amenities if you get one optioned out. It is heavier though. Mine weighs 292o without me in it. As in the previous post, a 240z is about 2450, early model one's are slightly less. It takes more hp to move that extra weight and get the same performance. You can see what mine runs as I have its fastest 1/4 in my sig. I like the look of my 280zx, and I like the fact that it slides under everyone's radar. Cops don't pay me any mind, and neither do most ricers. It holds more gas too. What I don't like is the lack of headroom I have compared to my old 240. I like the lines of the older Z's better, and there is a lot more stuff out there for the older z's than the ZX. The support for the ZX is improving though. You probably just had a bad experience with your stand alone programmer. There are people on this board who could probably guide you thru that if you went that route. I have a JWT upgrade that performs well, although I think I am going to have to get them to re-chip me for larger injectors since I am going to upgrade the turbo to a larger compressor in the hopes of getting down into the low 12's. Then if I dropped that into a 240, I bet high 11's would not be to hard to hit. Kind of just depends on what you want to do I guess. Turbo one and get a good efi set-up going, and you will be pleased with its performance. I love the way mine hits right now.

I would be interested if the price was reasonable. What wastegate would be required? I is a nice looking unit, probably worth a horsepwer or two. HAHA Be nice to know something soon since I am planning on snatching my hybrid off and having it upgraded this week. I can hold off on sending it though, I guess.

The rings would be thicker also, on the earlier model 280z pistons if memory serves.

Nothing special. Stock engine with forged 1mm oversized pistons. JWT ecu upgrade, 420cc injectors, cobra MAF, T3/T04b hybrid with an H3 compressor wheel and stage III turbine, HKS intercooler, and 3 inch exhaust. Boost was about 22 psi with some 110 leaded mixed in with super unleaded 93 octane. Ran that pass on a really hot day spinning the crap out of my drag ta's. Turbo is coming off this week and probably going up to Forced Performance for some work. I hear noise and have oil smoke I used to not have, so if it is not the turbo, then the engine is next. I have some DSM buddies that swear by Forced Performance, and since they are building the turbo's for Sean Glazer and all those pro drag guys, I figure they know what they are doing. I will likely stick a stock engine in there and rebuild mine and go out to 89 mm bore. That should get me close to 180 CID. Who knows what after that.

I think that is his low boost set-up too. I know this, he has twin mitsu 16g's on it, and a tech II with a seriously built engine. Must have a very understanding wife is all I have to say.

Don't they have two for the conquest, a small one and a big one? I know mine was larger than a friends.

The entrace fee is high for buying one of those. I was looking at them the other day on the internet. YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would suspect the trans or the driveshaft as well. I would also try some of that transmedic stuff you can get at autozone or whatever. I had an old turbo400 that used to slip sometimes, and transmedic always cured it. IF the stuff works for you, you have a tranny problem. It is a pretty cheap test. Good luck.

Not sure about the 300Zx alternators, but I put a 90 amp maxima alternator on my 280ZX. It mounts the same, I had to fab up a connector to connect it up since the plugs are different. If you have a friendly parts house in your area, they should be able to tell you what alternators have what rating and you should be able to match up something with yours. You may have to swap pulleys, but it can be done. I got mine at advance. Most of the stuff has 60 amp ratings until about 87, and then they went up. That is the maxima year I am using. 87 and I think the pulley I used is off an 84 Maxima, but not sure. I just swapped pulleys with the local alternator shop. Which ever route you go, you will like having a stronger output alternator. My headlights are much brighter. There is another pretty long post out there from a few weeks back you could look at if you did a search. Good luck.

If it is an inline with two turbos, that is James. Don't remember what his displayed name is though, but is does have 240z in it. Look at the thread further down on intercooler temps, he has a post there.

The one I used had 5 psi of pressure drop with the stock ZX turbo. I used the stock inlets and outlets on it. Not recommended IMO.

On my hybrid, the stock wastegate actuator did not work, the bolt spacing did not match up entirely. I could get one in, but not two. I sent my turbo off to Top End and had them make a bracket for me and used one of their dual port wastegate actuators. All I had to do was clock the turbo the way I wanted it, and they did the rest. Thier dual port actuator is stouter than the Nissan unit, and I use the bottom port to raise my boost above my preset level. Probably any machine shop in your area could fab up a bracket for you if you have problems. I found the swap frustrating since I went from an old rotomaster t4 set-up to the hybrid. The rotomaster turbo was easy to take off, and had an external wastegate. I should have went that route with the hybrid, but did not. I would use bigger intercooler plumbing than 2 inch if it were me. I have that right now, and it is holding me back according to a guy in town who had a Z and spent alot of time on the dyno with it. I will likely use 2.5 next time and see what that does. You can get good silicon and nitrile hoses fro Turbonetics, or if you have a diesel truck parts store in your area, you may be able to get some there. I got several 3 inch pieces for plumbing my MAF when I converted to JWT stuff. It is nice and thick, and sticky. I would also get some good clamps for the intercooler lines, or use double hose clamps. I finally went to T bolt clamps on mine. Blowing an intercooler line is rough on the turbo, and you will blow them once you start throwing some boost at the car. A BOV is a must too. I would spend the money and get a good one like a greddy or something. You need to make sure the thing has a stout enough spring to keep it from venting boost when you are under full throttle. If you have not done so, a bigger fuel pump is also a wise upgrade. The hybrid turbo's flow some serious air versus the stock turbo, so you need to make sure your pump is up to the task, especially if you go to a rising rate of gain fuel pressure regulator. Good luck.

I think that is out of a 240SX or something else like a 300ZX.

Why don't you guys use one of the ricer muff's that has that insert deal that goes in it and makes it quiet. Use that for testing, and then take it out, or the muff off and put your normal one back on. I hate smog regs and noise regs. I mean if you have a oil smoking pig of a car, it needs to get off the road, but as far as muff's go, Honda's have to be the loudest freaking cars with after market exhausts, an the ricers have stereo's that are even louder. Damn, why don't they worry about terrorists and the spotted owl and leave us car guys alone?

Damn Pete, I bet that fan would dim my headlights way down when it came on. 35 amps? I have a 16 in imperial I got from Advance, and it is ok. I really need one on the other side too. As long as I don't run the AC, mine stays cool as a cucumber. Turn on the AC, lookout its time for a new headgasket. Has to be 90 or above though. I really need a better rad that my turbo one. Actually, having it rodded out would probably solve all my problems.

I would make sure everything is tight and you are getting a good connection electrically. Sometimes it helps to use a little finger nail file or wire brush to clean up the connections.

BTW, I hate those clutch fans, and my electric does a nice job of keeping mine cool, at least as cool as it will run when it is hot as heck out. Of course having a big old intercooler out in front over everything doesn't help. One of the things I have noticed is the stock turbo cars had an additional electric fan on the condendsor side of the car, on the passenger side. I assume that came on when the ac came on, but I have never been able to figure that one out. Of course mine is long gone. I think I am just going to break down and get a big old aluminum job and be done with it. Nothing to worry about there.

Hey DAW, can you put up a picture of that radiator installed?

I would think a fuseable link, or some big fuse somewhere. That would be a simple thing to anticipate someone doing. Usually fusable links burn thru. Good luck.

I believe the proper stock timing setting is 24 degree's plus or minus 4. I usually set mine at 20 since I run way more than 13 pounds of intercooled boost. I also am not a fan of putting resistors in line with any of the connections, that is a bandaid fix at best. A ZX with properly functioning efi equip should not need any tinkering. One other thing to check is all the rubber hoses connected to the engine. Since the turbo generates extra heat in the engine compartment, it could create a vaccuum leak. I would not mess wth the AFM unless you have physically changed something about the engine. IE swapped in bigger injectors, or something major like that. Minor changes should not require an AFM adjustment. You could also check the tps and make sure you are getting no voltage fluctuations from the O2 sensor at idle. The car should be in open loop at idle, and if you see voltage fluctuations, a tps adjustment is probably needed. Good luck with it.