Lazeum

I would agree with the low timing, however having the turbo glowing red is not always a bad sign. I used to have an Evo 8, manifold and turbo were glowing red and it was not a problem.<BR><BR>An EGT probe/sensor could be a good investment to control the health of your engine. It could be a cheap insurance

I think I found the origin of my problem today!!!     I was unable to get a lot of new fuses (20A does not seem to be so common over her in Europe), So I had 2 and move forward with smaller steps to get the all potential root cause out of the picture until one failure occurred (kind of "5 why" methods). Fuse blew only when I was attaching the side lens housing to the body, otherwise it was fine. So I start looking for color on wires and I found out the previous owner did a home-made harness with inappropriate colors (ground = Red, 12V = Yellow, butt plugs) and get stuffs mixed up. I've compared both sides, they are opposite. Basically 12V signal goes on the housing of the lens in my car (and only on 1 side)   I guess plugging 12V signal on the body is a bad idea   So I'll redo the harness the proper way and give it a try but everything was working very well today when lights was hanging. So I'm confident it's a done deal!   My problem is I don't understand how the car was working before? Could have I messed around with the wires at one point? It is very plausible but I don't recall. I cannot either explain why symptoms have been so erratic with the Z. Hopefully the issue is behind me now since I've checked all connections, greased everything to prevent failure/rust, all fuses are new (!!!) and switches have been cleaned up. I just need relays now!

Your story seems as odd as mine  Good luck with your! Have you check for instance Resistance for all fuses/connections on the box? That could lead to some solutions ...or not (like mine ) I'm going to pick up some more fuses and continue my investigations today. For you rinfo, I've got 2 fuse boxes (the ones below the choke/windshield lignt) but both looks and not corroded at all.

Relay upgrade would be a must have for sure! Even if my lights on my car (when working) are very good (way better than my DD - a Silvia S14a) I'll continue looking for the short, it is somewhere for sure! it is around the lights, it should become quite easy to spot, even if I've failed for the moment... Maybe I should also look at ground connection, something could be loose somewhere creating this intermittent issue. I'll work on it this weekend, hopefully I can report back and close this issue Thanks for the reply btw

I was thinking about a swap like this. I'll follow for sure your project. Good luck with it!!! TVR L6 sounds awesome!

I'll try to summarise my problem in a short way. First of all, my headlight are modified to meet Euro specs i.e. white/yellow position lights instead of the stock US orange ones. So I've got some Hella H4 housing with position lights included. I had to reroute the position light wire to the housing and get some ground. I've spiced position lights ground with headlight ground. I has worked good with no problem at all for over one year with everything functionnal. So my problem as of today: I keep blowing up fuses each time I turn the lights on!!! 1st issue: When I turned the headlights on, both left & right headlight fuses blew; I had no more headlight at all. So I've checked if I could have some shorts with an ohmmeter between wires, wire/ground. I found 0 problem. I decided to clean up the headlight switch, I know it has a tendancy to fry because of high current going thru it. I've also check at that time every connections I could; cleam them up & spray some WD40 into them. I had got some very weird result: When I was turning the lights on, they turned on, 1 or 2 seconds after the right fuse only blew up. The right headlight turned off before turning on again (!!!!???!) couple of seconds after. 2nd issue: I remembered the way I've ground the position light. I thought that headlight could get the ground out of position light. So I've disconnected the harness for the pos. light. I was able to turn on the headlights with no fuse burning out or what so ever. Next step was to understand what went wrong with the pos. light so I've tried to change bulbs since those can also be bad. I'd started with right hand side which used to blow fuses, I've made the trial with the bulbs hanging down. Everything was working as it should! I'd done the same on the left side to get the same bulb ref. on both sides, everything went alright. I then reattached everything up with screws. I've made a test. This time the 20A fuse for the position lights, tail lights, side lights blew up!!! Next step? So 3 different kinds of fuses had blown since I started looking for the root cause. Each time it happens I'm not able to explain why! and why everything works when everything is hanging while it does not when everything is properly attached???? Of course, I'm checking what kind of connection could have created such a result. So I've isolated every light housing as much as I could. I also check if bolts were not long enough to touch something they should not (apparently, everything is ok). I run short of fuses; I blew at least 20 of them during my experiements. So I stopped so far for this time being, I will continue next WE. I'm writing this to know if this happened to some of you. Maybe you'll have some explanations or some tips to help me sorting this issue out. I have to go to Le Mans Classic in July which is a revival of the 24hrs with only classic cars. I cannot miss that!!! We do have a Datsun club stand, I cannot come with my DD whereas the Z is almost there => I know also I should add the relays in my system but it seems to me relays won't solve the issue anyway, the way it is now. => the summary has been far away from being short I'll do better next time!

It was a 20 sec test anyway, worth a try IMO the circlip on the stub axle were there, I'm 100% sure (hopefully it is not that, I'm on the wrong side of the ocean to find a replacement if needed  )

Jon, that's exactly what I believe it is something on one side of the rear end. My comment was to say the clunk could be something not related with diff. I'm trying to open my mind and think "out of the box". I do hear the clunk when pushing my car back and forth in my garage (with the gearbox engaged). the force I apply on the wheels when up in the iar is quite small, not even enough to make the opposite wheel moving. I'm not short (yet!!!) on ideas. I just hopes I did not destroy the stub axle with my short reduced modified half-shaft. Remember my mod? the shorter half shaft could have popped the axle out from the diff and get the splines not fully engaged during operation.... very unlikely though since it should still be close to bottom out anyway at jounce.

I had some clunk here and there. I found out the bolts on mustache bar mounts came loose. It happens twice whereas I always torque them to the spec. It happened once also the 2 diff nuts holding the diff to the mustache bar came out loose (I've changed them them with new ones since then). Regarding my rear end setup: R200, new front mount, poly bushing on stock mustache bar, rebuild half-shaft with new u-joints. this weekend, it happens again but was more severe and nothing was loose this time. So I've lifted up the rear end of the car to try to reproduce the clunk manually. It appears left wheel has more lash than right one. I have yet to check half-shaft (it should occur this weekend) So I'm going to check untightened half-shaft bolts, u-joints, stub axles. I don't know if this message could be of any help but this is how I'm trying to resolve this issue.

 I did not see it when I was looking for one... Anyway mine is betterÂ

Most likely next to cylinder 5 & 6 On the passenger side, you have the heater hose support for instance on the block or on knock sensor location (I have a P79 ). It requires however a big bolt (M14?) so a fairly large piece of pipe (to drill Ø14 hole) might have to be used for this one. People also clamp it on support to lift the engine, it seems to work also...

I haven't found anything on the board regarding the DIY knock sensor (detcan?). I was wondering why no one has made a sensor like this? Since I don't know and I'm in tuning stage, I've decided to do my own. So here is my "how to". I've made the tool but I did not have the opportunity to use it yet. I'll be glad to hear feedback from those who did it. The principle for those who did not know this process is to get a copper tube attached to the motor that would vibrate. This would make the air inside to vibrate as well (obviously then everything in the "sensor" has to be air tight). With some ear protector headsets, you can listen to the soundwaves thanks to some tubing. Tubing has to be long enough to go from the engine bay to the cabin. I wouldn't advice to drive the car AND to have the headset on at the same time... Here is the list of parts required: - Some piece of copper tube (S shape makes it easy to work with) - Some kind of tube connector in brass or other type of material. - Some hoses (~2 meters) - A T-joint to hold hoses together - ear protector headset - some clamps + basic tools I've started with the copper pipe, I've made it fit inside the connector. I've cut the pipe, rolled it with some pliers and tight it up by torquing it inside the thread of the connector. I've flattened the other side with a vice, once... ....then Twice to get a good seal. I've used some solder with a torche to seal the pipe. you cannot see it on the following pictures but you'll have to drill a hole to get a bolt thru it to attach it to the motor with a bolt (see other picture below to see the hole). Next step is go get some holes drilled into the headset and stick hoses inside cut a the right length. I've added some silicone on hoses. I had some available so why not... I don't think this is something very new; some other "How to" are available on the net but it might be something usefull to get as soon as you mess up with timing. According to some tuner friends, it is much easier, more responsive and more accurate than most of the expensive electronic ones you'll find online. On SR, they don't even rely on stock sensor, they are only relying on this DIY one. So why not giving it a try! Since I don't know what to expect as far as noise to spot (I have a rough idea though), if some have also some good comments, I'm also in! We might also be able to ear noise rockers, bad bearings, etc....

First I'm glad this thread is becoming alive again. I like the debate about what's wrong but we should keep it as a discussion. I'm learning still! Mark, to answer your question, my distributor does not have a vacum line on it. Just to make sure we're on the same page, my rich spot does not create any stumble (I have a lean spot when I hit the throttle), it is more a lack of torque (barely noticeable) once the car starts pushing. Regarding the horn lenght, I was more thinking about pulse than air flow. since the path for air is different, wave lengh changes moving the system acoustic efficiency somewhere else. I assumed if we have a rich spot it is because we have more air being suck thanks for acoustic pulse. if this can be moved to higher rpm, it would result in more power. That's my guess, there's no facts on my side to prove it. it would require a pressure gauge in my system to check it If think something important to do is to set timing at idle the best way possible. I'm at the early stage of tuning now, I've setup the advance at ~15° with good results but I might try to turn slowly the distributor with engine at idle until rpm to get the highest engine speed to see if I can improve the situation. Weird thing is: I was using 50f9 at the beginning. i had to turn the idle mixture screws to 2 1/2 turn to get proper idle. So I switched them with 55f9, I had to turn not more than 1/2 turn to get someting decent... Car was super rich! I found out 45f9 worked out quite well with idle screw to 2 turns as well. It does not make sense to me right now. Something is messed up on my setup I think (leaks???) Shouldn't a port/polish/unshroud head requires more fuel since it might flow better? I'll think about it this week and get some more actions done next weekend My Wideband for info is a LM2 from Innovate. I don't keep it in my car when I'm not tuning

Mark, I totally agree with you, the "crazier" the project becomes, the harder it is to tune properly at low rpm. The setup you advices is actually exactly mine: Stock block (F54 redone), street port/polish P79 head by Braap, street Rebello cam, 40DCOE with 32mm choke, Mallory unilite + hyfire 6AL for ignition. I'm still in tuning mode, the engine is very nice to drive on the roads whereas AFR & timing tuning is not fully done yet (very rich, pinging a little at 3000rpm under load) So for the moment, I did not mess around with the air horn. Regarding ignition, mine is actually quite ok as far as power and tunability but I'm far away from being optimal. An electronic and fully customable system such as the XDI or Megajolt are on my wish list When I look at your picture, I can see that we have the same intake manifold, the same air horn length and Webers (not the same diameter though). I've observed on many old cars with Weber how the horn was. A lot of them have very long ones. Since I've changed many things in my setup, I will immediately see with the wideband if the spot is still present. So far I'm not so concerned by WOT, so this analysis will come later I'm not doing any log for the moment since I'm checking idle, cruising and low rpm (I'm messing around with idle jets, idle tuning, carbs sync & acc jets) Yetterben, I'm using a wideband to tune my car. I'm also going to use a detcan to timing optimization. If I'm not mistaken, Mark is also using a WB. I've got your point: it makes no sense to invest $$$$ into custom head, carbs , jets and not have a 300-400$ wideband system. It is because we have a wideband with datalog capabilities we are able to see this flat spot. I cannot really see it when driving the car and look at the wideband screen.

I've chosen the S14 route for DD except that in Europe, it comes with the SR20DET It is a good car that requires some handling mods to become nice. It has loads of aftermarket support, prices are decent compare to my previous DD (Lancer EVO8) regarding reliability, I don't know how the KA24 is really but SR20 is quite ok (except VVT sprocket that rattles!) Regarding Paul's comment (kind of off-topic now), but V8 conversion kit for E36 already exists. My boss did it with the coupe, then the compact version and finally the convertible JTR is late with Braap http://www.nash8503.com/

It looks amazingly well. Congrats to you Mine is Red with the same exact look intent: red/MSA Airdam/no fenders/stock bumpers with guards (but not the same purpose, mine is done for street/roads). It gives me as well a lot of ideas to go thru the same process one day   (hopefully!!!) Thanks for sharing!

Here's couple of shots showing you the fit. I don't have any picture from the back side but there's roughtly 5mm of clearance between the strut and the tire. It never rubbs but it is close... I'm checking regularly to make sure

Another feedback: I run 225/50-15 with 15x7 ET04 wheels (Rota RB) with no problem. ET0 would even be better since I'm very close to the strut. The clearance would come with my setup from the tires, not the wheels. So you also have to ask which tire brand you'd like As fas as I'm concerned, I run BF Goodridge G-Force and they fit. I've discussed with other members having Falken 512 with no problem either. If you check on tirerack, you'll see that same reference on tire does not always mean same exact size Regarding suspension setup, I run eibach lowering spring with tokico struts.

To remove all the stuffs that might be peeling off, I'll advise using a chain (not too big though) and water. Then you shake as much as you can to use the chain inside the tank as a grinder. I've done that many times, it works quite well. Obviously, you need to remove the fuel meter unit and be carefull with pipes before to proceed So you can use the hole left wide open as a window for the chain but also to remove water from there.

I'll try to be less ignorant then I'm always trying to be open-minded. It could actually be fun (and interesting) to check different tool to understand. So here's some question to know more: How do you really proceed to tune the engine knowing you cannot drive the car? I mean check accelerator pump for instance when the engine can rev' freely would require some extrapolation from the tuner right? When you are talking about being able to master the nuances, it is really fast? you must basically see during a blink of an eye the color change right? would you preferably tune the car in a dark environment? From my little (really!) experience, WB are more than just a tool to check AFR in the car (the gage is not fast enough anyway to show you quick variations), it allows you to understand fuel flow vs. rpm for instance. On my previous setup for instance I could see some rich spot at some point I did not even see without looking at some curves. To go back to the color tune, it can be a good tool but for little bit more you can get something more accurate. I'll give it a try though since it is readily available to me. I'll report back if I have anything interesting to share

I have one I've got when I purchased the Z. I've never used it though. The previous owner used it to tune the car but it was FAR from being ok. If you want something accurate to tune cars, I would advice a wideband sensor if you don't want to spend crazy money, I'm sure you can find a Innovate LM1 for quite cheap now. I do have a LM2, it is an amazing tool.

Thanks Ed for your reply As discussed thru email, yours is from a 75 280z. Does anybody know if it would fit in my Z??? As far as I can tell, the way the column collapses is different. the u-joint is above the coupler instead of below in my Z. Since the lower shaft (the one in between the coupler and the rack) is provided as well, it might actually fit. What do you think?

Hey! I have some steering play with my Z ('72 240z). I've disassembled everything to find out the issue is coming from the steering shaft inside the column (u-joint & rack are still tight, coupler is new). So I'm looking to replace the column that comes in between the steering wheel and the coupler. This is also the piece where the ignition and turning switches are mounted. Condition of the switches (if any) could be NOK, I don't mind. I'm just looking for a piece with obviously a tight connection between lower and upper steering shafts. Thank for the help

If you don't start you car for a while, gas is most likely getting out of your carbs. So to provide fuel to your carbs, you'll have to crank the engine to have the mech pump working. If I'm not mistaken that why you have a electrical pump on some versions with carbs. Currently on my car, I have a electrical pump I turn on prior a start to fill the fuel lines. You might want to do the same if it bothers you to crank a little the engine prior a start (it would save the battery )

To believe the higher the grade the better is not a fully true statement. To hold tight over time, bolts need to be stretched close to their elastic mode. Otherwise, they'll get loose. If you get 12.9 instead of 10.9 and you apply the same torque, you won't get the same bolt state. 12.9 bolt might get loose before 10.9... Moreover, friction coefficient is one big contributor too. If you're trying to tighten bolts on rusted thread, most of the torque will be used to overcome friction instead of creating tension. That why bolt manufacturers such as ARP is asking us to use their moly lube to keep control of the torque as good as they can.