stupid_fast

Troy says 77-83. The reverse location is correct on these years, more modification is required for the older ones which I'm trying to avoid.

Hello, I am in search of a 77-83 5 speed L series transmission bell housing. Anyone have one for sale? Or a blown gearbox would be fine too. I'm located in north east SF bay / near sac delta area.

A lot of things have happened since my last post, but not much relating to the car. I did another Thunderhill West track day with grip and also some drift, finally killed off my 16" drift spares. The car was still having cooling problems, and with various things needing repairs I decided to tear it down and fix the final details before Winter Jam at Sonoma raceway on Dec 19th&20th. The Roll cage was starting to have rust issues, and I needed to get the seat down lower and further back if possible. I'm 6'3", the little ZX is a tight fit! So I did some cutting, removing the stock seat braces and welding up the holes in the floor pans. Also notched the subframe mount behind the seat and welded some bracing back. Not an issue since the main hoop supports this area now. Since I sold the 350z seats, I also installed a S14 passenger seat. The frame rails also were super torn up and deformed from the car being low and driven hard, they were collapsing and getting close to losing support for the fuel/brake lines so something had to be done. I replaced most of the passenger side rail, and welded up the holes in the driver side rail as it was still in reasonable shape. Excuse the ugly welds... At least they have good penetration. After, I sealed everything in with eastwood rust encapsulator and rattle canned it black. During this time, I also replaced urethane bushings for the LCA and steering rack as well as new ball joints. After this, all my bushings are urethane with an exception of the new OE differential bushing. Checking rack steering geometry... Over centering at full lock means I'm going to have to modify my crossmember eventually. Not a lot of angle, but enough. I also have been collecting some extra parts. With my cooling issue persisting, I decided to rebuild a spare head with a regrind cam and rebello valve springs. Nearly 300,000 mile stock block will need to be redone soon. Deleted the pop off valve. And we're done! Or are we? I took the car to tech at cortex and passed all except I had a scratched radiator hose and my brake fluid was low. After going to replace the lower radiator hose, I found a leak in my brake master cylinder! Replaced it with a Z32 unit yesterday and the brakes are working much better. He also mentioned I could use some zip ties to tuck all the loose junk in the engine bay... The simple things you don't think of when you're focused on big stuff. Oh, and my friend moved his 240z project in to get it done by spring. Hopefully there will be some good footage from Winter Jam this year!! Edit, Well my oil in the coolant issue turned into water in the sump the morning I was supposed to go to the track. Turns out its not the head or head gasket seal that's the issue, as I've already replaced all the front cover seals last year it must be a cracked block, as its the only thing left. Now I'm just saving to rebuild my spare block.

pull the fuel pump and check the mesh filter on the inlet side. If the car was sitting for any amount of time it could be clogged. Your pressures are normal for idle and free revving. pressure should instantly shoot up to 55+ if you pinch the return line. If your connectors are loose I say go buy the full connector kit from fricfrac and replace everything on the harness !!!

This sounds like what my ZX did when I first turbo swapped it. Mine would build boost, then pop out the intake / pov loudly and lose power... ran ok at low throttle. Ended up being bad connections on the harness & ECU connectors, as well as loose terminals. But in the process of troubleshooting I pretty much replaced and went over everything ... I can't remember what exactly fixed the issue. Download the FSM from xenons130 and go through all the ef/ec tests. Ignore the AFM one however, every one will give you a different resistance number. Inspect your EFI connectors while you do this, make sure there is no corrosion. Check the ECU connectors and maybe retention the pins. Check your battery connections make sure everything is tight. Go through standard tests, check timing, compression, vacuum leaks. make sure your injectors are firing well, it may be worth it to soak them in techron and test them externally. If you think its your fuel pump- is the fuel filter new? Replace it! After that your issues should be minor and the car should drive well. Every S130 turbo ECCS I've seen runs RICH 10:1 at WOT unless the AFM is corrected. These cars run very rich from the factory. A wide band or dyno is needed to set up the AFM properly. Where are you located in the bay area?? I'm in Antioch/brentwood. There's a couple other hybridz members in the area as well who are knowledgeable with the nissan ECCS systems.

The rear spacers were R31 parts from Motorsport Design Services in Australia. R31's have very similar suspension to S130 / Z31. http://www.motorsportdesignservices.com/

Installed a new cat to pass smog, MSD box, and a few tweaks to the fan setup... Otherwise car is pretty much just sitting now. Hope to do 3 or 4 track events and that's it for this year.

Figured it out, talked to a smog tech who's into datsuns... The catalytic converter just has to have a matching california EO number, this is the only thing the smog tech is required to put into the computer or check through their processes. Lots of model catalytic converters have the same part number. I put a certain 3" cat on with the correct EO number and passed inspection no problem. A BAR ref might catch this, however. A normal smog tech if he dies it by the book and knows his pre-96 laws will pass it. Most techs in my area took one look at the L28ET and say 'you need a BAR label' ... Also, the downpipe and section up to the catalytic converter must remain stock as well.

It was a bad ground. Verifying the fix. /thread

They're stock 280cc factory reman flow matched injectors. I'll check the wiring

? edit, its also running lean when cold. Could be significant, or could be a different issue. like 17:1 idle on cold start. Fires up no problem though.

I don't see how its making an assumption when I did all the work? I checked the running voltage I don't understand what else could go wrong here?

alt/battery less than 2 years old. voltage holds at 14 idle, and I leave the car sitting for a week or more at a time without losing a charge. I will check the fusible links. I've had issues there before, didn't think to swap those yet. Already have spares.

My car already has a fire extinguisher. I will try it. edit, Went for a drive. The issue is a lot better after a ton of fiddling with everything, idk. Now its only leaning out above 4000 or so. below that making good power, and it only starts up after 10-15 minutes or so of driving. All of my emissions equipment are intact and functioning, including the charcoal canister. I checked the gas cap after the issue started up, there was no pressure build up.

Very nice, Alex was just talking to me about this build. What are your plans with the car? Track build or just show car?

Very useful, narrowing down the troubleshooting. Thank you. That automotive meter looks cool.. but I'm unsure how much usage it'd get by me. I don't have access to an o-scope right now. I'll see if someone I know has em after a couple more things to try. I am looking into megasquirt but it would be a long and expensive project right now, just want to get out on track for some practice and finish blowing up this block. Probably going to order MS3... But researching all the options first.

My CAS is one of the later covered style ones. I assume it was replaced at some point I will grab one from a yard to test. Its not a mechanical fuelling issue. From 18:1 in boost cut the ignition, start it back up while rolling, do another pull and instantly at 10:1 again. I tried 4-5 times to verify it was a repeatable result. If its fuel pump, its electrical. I will swap back my spare n/a pump to be sure. Also had another idea, I havnt checked running voltage the alternator could be out of spec & over-volting the components.

Thanks, I was thinking the same thing. Could it be fuel pump related ? I was also considering checking running voltage make sure the alternator is in spec. Ray mentioned the capacitor issues... I put a new 63v 100uf barrel cap in one of the spare ECU, but the rest are tantalums and are a bit harder to get locally. I'll be ordering them. I have 3 ECUs, one with an intermittant power issue it'd be nice to restore them all if I can. What else has capacitors outside of the ecu? Was thinking the CAS and timing can also cause fueling issues, looking to test another one. as for 'looking stock' I was chatting with ray about that.. I'm ordering a megasquirt kit soon, going to get it working with the stock harness maybe add some wires for extra sensors. But I need to get the money first. I have to smog it on the 20th or non-op the car, but I'm pretty sure I could pass in its current state after tuning the AFM. Just wanted to hear a proper reply and not 'go z31/megasquirt' as a canned response. I guess I've been spending too much time on facebook groups. Anyone local to north bay area have a CAS they want to lend me... for science?

Hello All, I've been working with Rayapp2 diagnosing this for a while and we're both stumped. I can setup the motor fine, at this point I've gotten it to run. does 10:1 in boost, pull around a bit when its hot... after around 5 minutes of this it will start to lean out starting at the top rpms and get progressively worse until I can only drive part throttle and barely limp it runs around 18:1. Takes about 5 minute to get to undrivable. if I cut the ignition and start it up again, it will go back to running normal and 10:1 in boost. the issue comes back faster after that. I have an innovate MTX-L reading afrs 1982 L28ET with 1983 ECU i have spare ECU's that I've tested. AFM is reman unit, I've swapped and tested anther unit and tuned with wideband. all harness connectors have been replaced with kit from fricfrac ecu connectors are Z31- I've even swapped some of the pins to z31 and retensioned, soldered them!! no more intermittent issues here. CHTS is new OEM nissan, I have three more than ray lent me for testing. engine is mechanically sound, I just did a pre-track teardown to check the head gasket and internals. CAS looks to have been replaced at some point. timing is steady @3000rpm TPS is adjusted and tested per FSM Ray personally went through the system and thought the injectors were bad ... I put new ones. in a few days ago no change fuel pressure is factory spec, flow is good what else? probably forgetting something. just flying blind at this point, pouring over wiring diagrams testing random wires. Any ideas? Anyone intimate with the inner workings of early ECCS systems? note, I am in california. I need the stock ECCS to pass smog. Z31 swap is not an option.

@johnc, yup yup!! I am pleased with this setup for both grip and drift. Its a well balanced street car. And I did get sideways last weekend around 100mph coming hot on the back straight!! Its not as scary when you're used to drifting it. At winter jam at the end of the first day during the tandem trains I was hitting the entry in 4th !! Rear likes to come out if I turn-in too much while braking. New brakes did great!! Even when they were fully heated up performance only degraded slightly, and stayed consistent throughout the day. My motor is getting hot, I think it has to do with the seeping head gasked. I think I'm going to buy a daily and give myself more time to repair everything on this build for when I can get out on the track again. Clutch was smoking on the first three runs, after that it started gripping better ... I think its going out, or It never got broken in properly. Either way towards the end of the day its holding power better than it was before I got to the track. Weird. I have video of one of my early runs up, I'll finish the rest (including the one with the big slide) in the next few weeks. One lap on the main straight I hit fuel cut in 2nd... https://youtu.be/6PJr9ovtYiA 60fps youtube ftw.

by 'This weekend' I mean tomorrow, the 11th. There will be gopro footage.

Installed my new subframe. I am playing around with an ireland engineering E30 alignment kit, there are a couple quirks that I didn't account for but I am correcting them. Can get positive camber with these brackets. Also relocated the ebrake cable to run through the subframe due to my raised sway bar ... functional with extra ground clearance. Bushings are Z31, I had them turned down on a lathe to fit. Edit; Something is weird with this subframe.. maximum toe-in I can get is -0.27 !!! Oh well, was +0.30 with the old one... Going to thunderhill this weekend. A good shakedown for how well this car handles grip.

I went to the ref at skyline (san bruno) last year and he said NA -> turbo conversion on this car counts as 'engine replacement' due to being available in the same model same year. Engine 'replacement' does not need a BAR conversion label in California. The smog tech I took it to last week said aftermarket OE replacement AFM requires an EO number since this year. He didn't even bother testing it, he told me that he was supposed to run the test and fail me for visual but said he'd save me the trouble. I told him it was 'aftermarket replacement' maybe he thought it was an upgraded unit? Its definitely not. I was just going to put back a Nissan AFM, set it up nicely with my wideband and take it to skyline. They generally are easier to deal with than regular smog tech, and know the rules a lot better. BAR inspection is free, anyway.

Went to smog my NA-turbo converted 83 280ZX yesterday, tech said he needed an EO number for the AFM. The one I got with the motor is a Standard Motor Products reman unit, the sticker is scratched and the only visible number is MF0412S ... I looked it up online there's one on rock auto MF0412 that is the only replacement AFM I can find for the turbo motor. It seems this part never had a CARB exemption... Can't find any information from the manufacturer either. It seems the only CA-legal MAF is one with a NISSAN part number on it, as none of the aftermarket have EO exemption for them. I have a source for a good Nissan one, just wanted to start discussion on this. When I took it to the BAR ref last year to check everything he said it was all OK no problem ... I guess they're getting even more strict with smog lol. And it seems my cat has been scraping on the ground and the EO number is rubbed off. Have to get a new CAT ??? I think I'm going to take the car back to skyline & have the REF pass it. Sucks cause my car passes emissions just fine and runs exactly like stock. (just ignore the disconnected boost controller over there)

@FricFrac, Thank you, and thanks again for the harness kit.