speeder

Wow, end of a Zcar era! Another vote for selling the whole car... dismantling, selling, packing, and shipping takes lots of time and effort. I'm into that scenario now with my "old" drivetrain. However, johnc's comments about the new owner's possible problems with the complete car are worth considering.

Hey Jeff, Got your message and didn't get back to you - 3 things come to mind: 1. Grounding - make absolutely sure that the ECU, MSD,WBO2, car chassis, and Battery negative ground points have less than 0.1 ohms difference between them. 2. Closely examine data logs for anything weird that might point you in a particular direction. I agree with those that say this problem is most likely caused by noise, whether it be radiated EMI or power supply induced. Look for anything weird - steps, spikes,etc happening on sensors or battery voltage - anything that may point to a specific direction instead of checking everything and flying off on tangents. Pay special attention to battery voltage and MAP sensor. If nothing conclusive shows up you may have to swap in a known good ECU. 3. Your symptoms are consistent with high voltage arcing causing EMI. Replace your distributor cap and rotor. If possible, swap in another coil. Try running without the MSD. Try that old trick of looking under your hood with the car running in the dark and checking for visible arcing. I've seen bad MSD coils arc at the high voltage tower. Oh yeah, Ford EDIS coils have a 25 microfarad, 50Volt electrolytic capacitor connected from the + terminal of the coils to ground. You can get something close to this value at Radio Shack (20- 50 microfarad will do). Mount the capacitor as close to the coil as possible. Note that electrolytics are polarized - connect the cap's + side to the coil +. I'll try to think of more...

I still miss the GTP series - after CanAm my favorite of all time. And of course the Nissan GTP was my favorite! Agree^ Nice pics.

I'm an operations engineer in a "back room" Telemetry Lab in the KSC Launch Control Center. We take in a multiplex of the ~ 10,000 measurements taken onboard and process them into a display of the specific temperatures, pressures, stains, etc. that the shuttle vehicle engineers need to monitor and troubleshoot their syatems. I've been in this business as a NASA contractor since Apollo 8, when I started as a telemetry technician/field engineer at downrange tracking stations. Since the start of the Shuttle program, I've done systems engineering for ground telemetry systems, and was a supervisor/manager for Launch Control Center data systems for 20+ years. My 40 -person group was the back room data operations crew that powers all the pretty KSC computer screens you see on TV. Several years ago I regressed my career and dropped back to night shift operations and have been happy with that - now I'm only responsible for my own work. Being a manager in today's corporate climate just is not my style - I've become a dinosaur. But one thing remains constant - I get a lump in my throat every time I see one of these things launch. It never gets old. One of the younger guys I work with asked me how we did something back in Apollo - and added, "Your computers were powered by steam back then, right?" Our computers downrange in 1968 only took up half a room! We had two to a room. They were UNIVAC mainframes. You needed a 1/2" socket set and two guys to lift out a drawer of 4K core memory. We had a total of 32K per computer. The onboard computers were '70s vintage things that were upgraded about 10 years ago - I'm really not familiar with their architecture but they are pretty basic. Some benefits of the space program are: 1. The developement of microelectronics - the need for light weight payloads in the 50s-60s yielded huge advances in size and speed of solid state devices. This driver probably advanced the developement of computers as we have them today by 10 years or more. 2. Power - Better batteries and fuel cells. 3. Medical reasearch - weightless conditions enable research not possible on the ground. 4. Economic and employment benefits of big government contracts to Aerospace companies 5. National prestige and pride. This list is nowhere near complete.

First and only time ever to have two at the pad ready to launch. The upcoming Atlantis Hubble repair mission will go into a higher orbit than can be supported by a space station refuge, and per NASA rules Endeavor must be ready for a rescue if required. Altogether apart from being my longtime job, I love these magnificent, overly expensive, and complex ugly airplanes - Sadly, I think most of the US public is Ho Hum about our manned space efforts. At the risk of getting too political, NASA spends about 0.5% of the national budget, and the returns in terms of scientific advancement and national prestige are well worth it. [End of infomercial]

See post #10 - I knew that would get a rise out of Paul...I tried to use every ricer expression I've heard in that one. Actually, the Lexus is running really well. At a South Florida Lexus meet in July, several participants came up and told me that my car was a "devil" car - I guess at least 2 previous owners couldn't keep it going - paid so-called tuners thousands of dollars to screw it up worse every iteration. Lots of expensive parts and poor workmanship came with this car. It's been a good, fun daily driver after taking care of at least 15 different kludges. I spool that T72 at least a couple times a day just cause I can. I plan on getting some 15" rear wheels and some Mickey Thompsons to see what she'll do at the strip. I want to thank Z-Gad for saving my bacon twice lately, and Lance for cutting me some slack on that R230. Juan, I did get the coils and have decided not to use them.... It's all good though. Scottie, I gotta believe that if we keep our minds active with our car projects we will hold off senility. That's my plan, anyhow. Yeah, I'm an old fart - although my wife opines that I haven't aged mentally past my 2 year old grandson's level. We will have a good time until he passes me intellectually, LOL. My wish list consists of one item...Getting my Buick motor out of jail.

OK bro all kinds of mad modz - got sum JDM "R" stickers and pimpin a new Greedy/HK$/Skunk2 T97 turbo - will be supa tight when I get my double stack tie fighter wing to deal with my traction probs. Prob need fo fix my slippin clutch before sportin a 400 shot of Nozzzz - but I dun sum other stuff and need a tune so I can go beat down those Mustangs.

Yikes Jeff - Mine is the big SIX TWO! I agree - lots of good people born in September.

IF your clutch is the HKS GD Max twin plate, it is a barely streetable clutch - really grabby. Ask me how I know. From what I read in the various 2JZ forums, this clutch is good for about 800 whp. Mine has held well up to 650 or so, but with traction problems. From my research, there are few if any single disc clutches available for the 2JZ that have your planned HP capability. I have a Tilton triple carbon disc unit going into my IS - Can't wait to change that HKS out!

You are correct - The MkIII Supra flywheel has the 7MGTE crank bolt pattern, not the 1J/2jZ one.

Good Luck Guys.....

With all the right parts it's not too much trouble at all. Like he said, R154 with a JDM 1JZ bellhousing and the correct shifter extension are required. I recently did this swap into a Lexus GS300, using a MkIII Turbo Supra flywheel and clutch. I had to fabricate the extension for the stick to come up in the right place in the GS's console. In a Z car some adapting would be required to connect the clutch slave to the Z master, but that's about it.

Well, I couldn't find any good links to Buick V6 info - but my understanding is that the 3800 designation is for the FWD variants of the Buick V6, which uses a different block than the pre-88 RWD Regal/GN versions. As a side note, the Chevy 4.3 Turbo as in the Sy/Ty is a different engine - I know for a fact that this motor will not bolt in a Buick V6's place. A cool thing about the Chevy 4.3 is that you can use the JTR V8 mounts to install it in a Z!

The Buick Stage II and the GN motor have different lineage than the 3800. The GN motor came with iron heads only. Additionally, the SII's specs probably can't be categorized as there were so many variations of that motor made for racing. The Stage II was built in displacements from 3.4 to 4.6 liters. Unlike the GN motors,The SIIs had all roller valvetrains and aluminum heads. They also had a much stronger block, fully counterweighted billet cranks, and super long rods. Stage IIs made about 650 hp in carbureted (NASCAR BGN) form and have achieved 1800 + turbo'ed. For instance, the specs on my StageII build are: 101.7 mm bore, 87.63mm stroke for ~ 4.2L displacement. 165.1 mm rods. Note the rod/stroke ratio - revs, anyone? My decision to go with the Stage II (I wanted a V6 for engine placement and was considering a Turbo Nissan V6) was made when I saw an unassembled VQ35 that had seen some dragstrip duty with a healthy shot of Nitrous. The internals of the VQ are about half the size of the Stage. Absolutely wimpy by comparison. BTW, the VQ's rods were all bent. The VQ's internals are also noticeably smaller than the VG series. I don't believe that VQs are capable of reliable truly big (600+whp) power. An advantage would be the VQ's light weight, as the 1st gen Buick motors are quite heavy in comparison. Just some personal observations -

Several years back I had acquired the first of the Thagard intakes and ran some datalog comparisons to a well ported N42 intake. The N42's throttle body neck was built up by welding and had a 75mm boring bar run through the opening, removing most of the bumps inside the plenum. The runners were ported to the head's port size and opened up (tapered) to about 4 inches in from the head flange. The Thagard intake used a L28 head flange with 1-3/8" straight runners and an enlarged simple square plenum, without air horns inside. The same Weber 60mm throttle body (with the manifold side tapered from 60 to 75 mm at the flange) was used on both intakes, and nothing else was changed on the engine for the comparison. At 17psi boost on a stock l28 JY bottom end and a well -worked N42 head with moderate turbo cam we recorded a 0.5 leaner AFR with the custom intake, swapped on with no tuning changes. Dr. James Thagard opined that that would translate into 25- 30 rwhp when tuned to compensate. This gain was only at the high flow regions, however - at low speeds we had evidence that the custom manifold was not as good as the ported stocker - but we decided that the top end gains made the custom piece worthwhile. I said at the time that that was a pretty cheap 25 -30 horsepower. I would expect some of the newer manifold designs seen here for L motor intakes would be even better.

I call BS. No way 10s with that setup. Bet he doesn't have a timeslip.... I think I actually talked to this guy about tuning a few days ago - I had taken a long time to get back to him and he had decided to sell in the meantime.

Yeah, It's old, as is my neverending build for the Buick motor. I just linked this one from my project thread. I hope the next time the manifold is mentioned will be when it's installed.

3.0L L with: F54 Block, Bored .060, stainless steel o-rings in machined grooves on deck Solid copper head gasket Diesel Crank Prepped 240Z rods (polished, shot peened, bushed for floating pins) Venolia forged turbo pistons, skirts and tops coated ARP rodbolts, Main studs, and head studs Rotating assembly balanced P90 head with minor cleanup porting/ Ferrea Stainless valves, +1mm oversize exhaust valves Elgin Turbo cam 280/266, 505/480, 112* Thagard intake manifold Weber 60mm Throttle body Diesel water pump Arizona Z Car oil pan BAE cast log manifold with T3 and external wastegate flanges welded on, ported and coated T3/T4 -.63/stage 5, t04S 70 trim (67mm) Turbonetics Racegate 3" downpipe Magnaflow race muffler Electromotive TEC2 78 pound Delphi Injectors BHJ Damper with 60-2 trigger wheel Bosch Porsche Turbo fuel pump with MSD Pump voltage booster G- Force T5 ACT pressure plate w/ Clutch specialties sintered iron disc McCleod hydraulic Throwout bearing 3.69 R230 424 rwhp, 538lb/ft torque @ 17psi **Engine/turbo/EMS to be removed soon, and will be for sale**

OK, I'm gonna change my screen name in case he cops are reading this! Old man indeed, Juan...

Umm, Thanks John, I think. Highbroad?

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=123997

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=118128 I really have to stop making cute titles to threads....

Check this out. I saw Eiji's car in person and its sound and looks are amazing. http://www.datsunspirit.com/240z.html Second the good luck wishes for the carbureted turbo.

Most of this thread will probably be about the motor for a while. I just went to the machine shop to visit my baby and the rotating assembly was being balanced. From here all there is to do is to assemble the engine and set up the valvetrain. There is no excuse for him taking so long on this, but great status! There have been major problems with the engine build - Scottie-GNZ and I picked up the Stage II in Atlanta shortly after Christmas, 2006. The original configuration was a carbureted 14:1 cr 274 ci dirt track motor. I knew I would have to replace the pistons and cam for turbo duty but was really negligent in checking other things, such as head volume necessary to get the compression down to some kind of turbo - friendly number. Turns out there was no way I could use the heads supplied with the engine - chambers too small. I located a pair of heads with suitable chamber volume - pristine new with big chambers and all the roller valvegear included. Of course, the titanium valves were not suitable for turbo use, so they were replaced with high -end Ferrea units. ($). I found some "bargain" Ross forged pistons on ebay - they needed to be fly-cut to have the right valve reliefs for my build, but looked like they would do. Looked like I caught a small break on build cost. More on this later. Next was cam selection. On the advice of a knowledgable Buick racer that Scotty recommended, I called Comp Cams, where an extremely helpful Tim Cole helped me design my cam. Of couse, there are no more odd-fire blanks available, so a billet build is necessary. (=$. This is the start of a troublesome trend.) On his recommendation, I went with a larger base circle since the Buick V6 cams have really small lobes and are known to have cam/lifter durability problems. I knew this would necessitate a line-bore, but didn't consider another consequence: Now the rods hit the cam when the engine was mocked up. Too much interference to eliminate by trimming rods. One rod was trimmed in the attempt, and the machinist was uncomfortable with using it, so I had to find another Oliver rod. Since trimming the rods was not working for us, the next step was to destroke. I hit the Buick internet community and found a guy who would trade my 3.650 stroke crank for a 3.590 one. Our calculations showed this would clear, but we were worried about how much. OK, now there is no interference but not enough clearance. Back to the Buick boards and the perfect crank was found - 3.450", Biilet, standard/standard. This one cost me, however. I did recover some of my purchase price by selleng the old one. Now the bottom end clears, but the pistons are too far down the hole. New piston time. After looking at the Ross ones we didn't like the top thickness or the ring land configuration for turbo use, so even if I was spending more $ we got to specify some massively strong JE units, with the correct dish to get compression down to 8.2 or so. I don't know if I would have selected this power plant had I known what all was involved - WAY too late to turn back now - but it will certainly be something that you don't see in everyone's Z car.

New changes are about to get going for real, so I figured I'd start to document my project. The flared/tilt front body I as shown in my old, soon to be up dated website (sig url) was my starting point. Late last year I completed tilt/widebody II as in my sig using the Reaction Research 280YZ kit as a base. I'll add body construction pictures to this thread later. I built the body to accommodate up to 335 width tires at all 4 corners. I have a crappy Safety Devices 6- point bolt - in roll cage installed that will be professionally redone. Cobra Daytona seats will replace the bulky Cerullo couches currently installed. The car is currently powered by a Turbo 3.0l stroker L with ~ 420 rwhp , with a G- force T5 transmission and 3.69:1 R230 rear. All this is being removed and will be for sale (Shameless plug). I have sectioned struts with Tokico Illumina shocks/coilovers installed, and Ground Control camber plates at all 4 corners. The motor will be replaced with a 260 ci (about 4.3 l) twin - turbo Buick Stage II that has been under construction for over 2 years. I made the V6 choice because I liked the idea of a short motor that can be set far back in the chassis, giving good weight distribution and lots of room for the top/front mount turbos. The Stage II was chosen because of its power production capability - My realistic goal is horsepower in the 4 -figure range, at torque numbers that blow away any wimpy 2J or RB. Please, don't even start on me about "needing" that much. Of course I don't, and that's not even relevent. My engine is a real mutt - The 4.005" bore block was originally from a Mclaren Indy racer, The billet odd-fire 3.450" stroke crank (by Hank the Crank) is from an unknown Trans Am racer, and the rods are old 6.5" Busch Grand National I- beam Oliver pieces. Turbo pistons are custom JE. The heads are BMS Stage II aluminum pieces, with 2.005" intake and 1.65" exhust valves. The intakes flow 310 cfm at the .615" lift that my custom Comp Cam provides. The valve train is composed of Comp roller lifters and T&D 1.65:1 roller rockers. A four stage Weaver dry sump pump provides lubrication. An ARE road race aluminum dry sump pan allows the engine to sit low in the car. There are some really beautiful surplus race parts in this motor. The almost 1.9:1 rod-stroke ratio will make this a rev monster - but it will probably be red-lined at 8500 or below. Engine management will be Electromotive TEC3r. I have modified a Busch Victor 4- barrel intake manifold to have a holley pattern, progressively linked secondary 1600 CFM throttle body and 2- sets of 85 -pound Delphi Injectors, each set with its own twin Walbro fuel pumps/Aeromotive regulator. Injector staging will run the engine on the primary injectors until a set boost/rpm is reached, then bring the secondaries into operation. Eventually I will have a fuel cell for each bank of injectors, with the secondary tank loaded with C16. Ignition will be with 6 coils. Turbos are T4 60-1s, .7 a/r turbines. I plan on running 3" exhausts into the rear fender wells and under the side skirts of the car, exiting in front of the rear wheels. I will replace the brake booster with a balance bar non -boosted setup (my Wilwoods are overboosted as it is) and relocate the battery to the rear to make room for the exhausts to exit into the rear fenderwells. For the drive train I have a really cool NASCAR magnesium reverse - mount starter bellhousing and a hopped up Borg Warner T10. This synchro 4-speed tranny was built for a Nascar road racer - and has a claimed horsepower rating of 800 in a fat stock car. I have a Jerico Dog box standing by if this breaks. The clutch is a twin 7.25" carbon disc unit from Quartermaster with a hydraulic throwout bearing. I have a Technotoy tuning rear setup with shortened Z32TT CVs and wheel hubs ready to install with Dan's sweet tubular rear control arms. A 2.93:1 R230 is built and ready to install. Custom 13/12" CCW wheels will be ordered as soon as the rear suspension is done. I'll add more BS and pictures as I get time and as the build progresses.