noelawinslow

Yeah it'd really come down to cost vs benefit.

Ha that ice storm is Dallas kept me from getting my Z down here from Arkansas for another month or two. Naturally it happened when my brother in law had a couple free days at the same time I did. How did you keep a dash from cracking in Texas?

I recently ran into an issue on my z31 where rust got into the fuel lines, and I couldn't prove why. I looked inside the tank and it was clean. I postulated the alcohol content stripped some rust buildup from the tank and sent it through the pump. Made more sense because the pump won't hold pressure when it's shut off anymore either, so perhaps the particulates damaged the check valve while it worked its way into my fuel lines. Not too sure, but it made me wonder if it'd be worth it to make a conversion for some people/cars. On my S30 I'll run flex fuel if I can map it right, I don't inherently hate ethanol. Djwarner, thanks for the article, kept me awake during music appreciation.

I don't know if this has been discussed before, but I'm curious why it's not a more popular idea. I was talking to my brother in law the other day, and we have very different views on whether or not ethanol should be in gasoline in the first place. While he bemoaned its effects on his lawn mower and chainsaw, I asked him if he knew if it was possible to pull the ethanol from the gas after it's been added. After all, it's just gas + booze, right? Turns out you can use ethanols negative properties against it to purify your gas using phase separation, which is just a fancy way of saying water and gas don't mix. There's a couple points I haven't quite figured out yet. Mostly how to figure out the octane rating after removing the ethanol. Long story short, you add water to your gas tank (bear with me) and suck out the water/ethanol mix that will ensue from adding the water. Then, once it all settles, you can drain the mix from the bottom of the tank with either an aftermarket drain plug of some sort, or from the top via an inspection port if your car has one (like the z31's sender unit). The trick is to figure out how much water to add and how much water/ethanol to pull out before you start sucking gas instead. I ran some math, in my area gas is about 2.43. If you buy E10 at $2.43, and it's 10% ethanol, you get 9 gallons of pure gas for every 10 gallons of e10 you buy. That comes out to $2.70 per gallon after you pull the ethanol. But the upside is since gasoline has higher energy content, you'll get a couple extra mpg from the process. So if you get 24 mpg on 2.43 and 27 on 2.70, you'll still end up with basically the same ratio of $ to miles, which is more important to me than mpg. So for about 5-6 buck per fill up you can use pure gas instead of regular gas. Actually pulling the gas out seems like it'll be the fun part, but it seems the ethanol/water mix is a different color than the pure gasoline so if you rig up a clear hose and container to view the gas, you'll see when you've removed all the ethanol water mix. How much water do you use? Not much, really. Most places I've read say abou .45% to .5%. Add too much water and all you have to do is drain the water then the water/ethanol mix, which will sit at the very bottom of the tank. So in practice probably about 2.75 oz per gallon of gas for e10. Keep in mind e10 is a rough approximation of the actual ethanol content, so YMMV as far as how much water to use. I'd add the water first then the e10, since the station pump will help mix the water thoroughly with the e10. About 10 to 20 minutes of settling after you pump the gas should in theory separate most of the ethanol out. No big deal since it'll take about 10 minutes to access the fuel tank from the top of my z31 that I'm planning on testing this idea on. I don't see why this isn't done more often, is there any particular reason why not?

I'll put the gauge on my truck today and see if the gauge reads out well. The gauge is also new.

My bad, the pressure was 60psi idle before I replaced the fpr. Signs keeps pointing to it's still bad so I'll go get another one. This regulator can't be installed backwards very easily, it has two supply lines for the rail which orient it.

Fuel dribbles out the FPR return when routed to the fuel can, but I'm still getting a solid 60 psi. Crimped off the supply line after priming and fuel still loses pressure.

If your ecu was replaced recently then likely there was an issue that knocked it out in the first place, which would make me more likely to suspect the ecu and try to track down the murderous short.

I thought the system was supposed to retain pressure with the engine off. I cleared the lines and started the car up again, 60 psi still and it barely idles. I'll run a return line to a gas can and see how that works for me. Is it safe to run compressed air through the return line in the tank with the fuel cap off?

What does that even mean?

Hey all, picked up an NA auto z31, trying to track down a hard start and misfire condition. Checked fuel pressure just after the filter and it kept shooting down to 0 after I shut it off, so I crimped off the return line, primed the system, and crimped off the supply line. Still bleeds out. Replaced FPR. Fuel pressure stable at 60 psi at idle. Much too high. Holds pressure long enough to watch the needle drop now though. Pulled the evap check valve. One way it slowly releases air and the other way it lets out plenty, so apparently that's good. I hooked up an air compressor to the return line, wondered if that might jack up the pressure, blasted air through it at 5psi at first, no issue. Moved up to 60 psi and there's no blockage. Might as well clean the supply side out too but now I'm kinda out of options unless I want to check the Evap system further. I didn't think evap could cause problems like that.

What exactly did you "revise"? I can think of a number of reasons why your oil gauge reads zero. If you have no oil running through your engine, or you even suspect you have zero oil pressure, don't start the car. At all, until you are positive you found the issue and verified it. If no oil's running through your engine, it can make quick work of it and let all the lubricated surfaces slap into each other. Not good. So you're going to want to check your oil pressure manually at first, since it's entirely possibly your car isn't getting a good pressure reading. Go to a harbor freight or an autozone and buy/rent an oil pressure test gauge, and screw it into your oil pressure sender. I wouldn't start the car though, at this point, unless someone was watching the gauge. The specs are in the FSM.

Found some, thanks guys.

Are the 76 front shocks the same as the 78?

Hey I'm wondering if anyone has any 280z bumper shocks/mounts/brackets, whatever you call em, that they saved after a 240z bumper conversion or something. It'd be awesome if you also had the hardware to attach it, for a bit of headache relief. Text me pics if you do 8707363795. I can try to PayPal.

Actually I swear there's two, an orange s30 and a green s130. Also, Austin Powers has an s30 in the opening credits. Ironic cuz it was set in the late 60s. ;D

Found and paid for. Thanks guys.

Email sent.

I'm looking for the stock turbo from a 280zx. I live in 72653, can pick up with reasonable distance.

Best part is, it was the turbo making that noise. Now I have to go find another t03.

I'm in the local area with a guy who has a BUNCH of z32s he builds up for customers across the country. Guy goes by the name of Pete, works in Mountain Home, Arkansas. I'm all for meeting someone who has more experience than me, but I'm not sure of the quality of this guy's work. I figured since he builds up z32s someone on here must have dealt with him in the past. Has anyone on here had business dealings with him? What was the end result? Any comments on his trustworthiness or the quality of his workmanship? I just have this nagging feeling in my gut about this place.

Turns out it was a massive vacuum leak at the blockoff plate for my egr bung. I've fixed it and the engine has smoothed out a LOT. Now the fun is in figuring out what's causing this random grinding noise. The engine misses regularly sometimes around 2500 and up, but stays pretty close to stable at idle. It's so close to perfect I'm losing my mind. I've been running it without the filter, so now I'll be adding that to the mixture to see what becomes of it. I have to figure out how I'll plumb the CAI now, since the MAF doesn't sit as close to the hole as I'd like it to. I may have to take a hammer and smash it in. Has anyone come up with a reliable way of stuffing that in line with the hole in the radiator support wall? The next issue that's popped up is a VERY random grinding noise, similar to the sound of someone engaging the starter while the engine is running. I can't seem to locate its origins, but I'm going to check valve lash and run a compression test just to see the state of this engine. I never got the chance to because it was dirt cheap and sitting in the back of someone's shed for several years. It's quite possible the block is bad, but I somehow doubt it since it feels like it wants to run right. Just a gut feeling. It's also running a bit hot according to the gauge, but I've yet to check the accuracy of the gauge now. Is there a way to check a/f ratio without an emissions check?

I agree. Looks like a transistor unit. If it's an l28et look into getting a PWR 2 transistor from ANY later VG model Nissan (pathfinder, maxima, etc) and wire that in. Superior and cheaper if you go to the junkyard.

All of the injectors fire. Continuity exists between the ecu and the ignitor. I swapped mafs as well (forgot about that) because my maf was drilled out and adjusted for 370cc injectors. I'm not running an O2 sensor yet, but the Z should still be able to run fine without it, right? I hear it's not even used until a number of criteria are met. I pulled my maf from the junkyard. Maybe I'll go back and pull another one. It's likely this one is bad. Everything else in that car was. I'll test the maf and see how it comes up.

I'm running a 78 with a turbo swap, and mostly everything is done. I suspect timing, but I really just have no clue what to look for. After dropping the engine in, I got the ecu, maf, harness, and o2 sensor all working. No codes on the ecu except AC. The ecu is an 87 cali turbo 5spd model. Before, I had it running reasonably well on 370cc injectors, but for tuning sake I decided stock was more my choice. Now it barely runs. Some positions on the accelerator keep it alive, and messing with the timing exacerbates or alleviates the issue, but it's not consistent. I altered the timing to get the car to run on the 370cc injectors but now I just don't know. I BELIEVE I reset the timing according to the FSM, with the tang at 11:45 on 1@TDC. But I'm not sure where to go from here. If pictures and/or video are desired I can do that tomorrow.