HowlerMonkey

Wow....great information. How did you get around the ecu's expecting to see variable valve timing hardware on an engine that does not have variable valve timing. If I knew for sure that I wouldn't have issues with this, I might jump into the coil on plug ecus with both feet and bail on my current line of thinking. Right now, my horsepower needs are pretty low since this experiment is more on getting around 350hp and having it run clean enough to pass emissions regulations in a 1991 car. Later on, I will be pursuing big HP and would love the opportunity to get rid of that crazy non-counterweighted distributor rotor since I feel it might be something else that could compromise high rpm spark events. Speaking of high rpm events, I would love to find a way to sample all rpm and cylinder data from the crank and get rid of the slop associated with the oil pump/distributor drive shaft. Most of the nissan ecus expect to see cylinder #1 pulse once per cam revolution instead of once per crankshaft revolution though I have not seen all nissan tone/shutter wheels used. Going to crank trigger may be taking it too far though.........unless someone has done testing and has comparison data between a true crank triggered ecu setup and one that involves the distributor shaft. Thanks for the contribution Jeffp, that is important information.

Only a few days after whining on this blog about quality employment, J.M. Lexus called me up and interviewed me today. Interview went good and going for next phases of employment. Have to re-cert all of my ASE except L-1 quickly because this determines salary should I gain employment there. Fingers crossed.....J.M. Lexus is pretty much a dream gig for an auto technician.

I would put the engine in the car unmolested except for swapping over the non-turbo valve cover when registering it.....just in case they are picky. It's easy to remove things later rather than put them back on to pass a test or so.

Dang....that's like playing the game "operation"

I'll eventually get to the OBDII ecu research again but am currently studying the ecus from the PRE-OBDII cars but only ones equipped with a consult port. The goal is to find a much more common ecu than the M30 ecu so we can reap the benefits of sequential injection and fuel trim on our "L engines" without trying to find an M30 ecu since they just didn't make very many. Once the ecus capabilities are known, I will figure out the harnessing that is easiest to adapt to the "L engine" and which ones are most easily removed from the donor vehicle. Currently, my L28et is running sweet on a unmodified M30 ecu driving stock 260cc turbo injectors through dropping resistors and it seems the M30 ecu is sophisticated enough to "pull fuel" on the 90cc/min larger injectors without going crazy rich.

Popped that crappy Felpro exhaust manifold gasket so a ishino is on order. In the mean time, I used the fact that I have at least 14 conductors in the harness that go from the driver's kick panel to the battery area where they would normally hook into the tranny harness. Since my tranny only needs a few to do downshift, reverse lights, and park/neutral safety starter interlock, I have put the unused conductors to good usage by installing an injector cooling fan for the L28et. I used both the fan and the timer unit from a Pre-dual feed injector (up to mid-1986) 300zx though you need the 280zx mount and piping. Another thing I found is that the manual for the Z31 has an incorrect wiring diagram and diagnostic proceedure. This is the correct pinout. I no longer have vapor lock hard starts after a hot soak with the fan. The space formerly occupied by the tranny controller in the left kick panel easily took the fan timer unit and the tranny connector being there was easy to splice into.I also wanted to have a way to defeat the full throttle kickdown on the tranny so I put a relay that has it's negative side triggered by the negative supplied when the overdrive switch is pushed in on the shifter. Then I undid the ground input for the gas pedal kickdown switch and picked up a positive such that it powers the positive side of the relay's triggering circuit. This nets me kickdown of the 3n71b tranny in normal fashion when the button is pushed in and no kickdown when the button is in the out position. Anybody who's driven an L28et with an automatic would remember getting tired of receiving crazy revs every time they dipped too deep into the pedal so having it defeated most of the time allows me to use the torque and the fact that the torque convertor is relatively high stall speed to enable good passing acceleration without attracting attention. Every thing was spliced into the harness just before the unused tranny controller connector and putting the car back to stock and running the RE401 tranny is just snipping the splices off and moving the gas pedal kickdown switch to a ground source rather than +12v. If I really wanted to be crazy, I guess I could have gotten a tranny controller connector and ran the wires to it but then I have a bunch of terminals that would have to be snipped off lest they touch ground since many of the signals going to that connector are shared by other systems. Pics later.

Don't the circlips stay in the differential?

There were at least 3 fuel pump relay schemes in the 280zx over the years....and that's only on the non turbos. For the turbos, there were at least 2. One thing I remember on the early ZX is that a bad alternator or oil pressure switch can affect fuel pump operation because nissan used both of them to determine whether the engine was actually turning before it decided to run the fuel pump once the key was out of the start position.

I am a master diagnostic technician (L-1) and spent 3 years as general manager of a major ECU rebuilder Standard/Blue streak. I was also the sole technical support for north america fielding up to 40 calls per day from master technicians who experienced befuddlement as to why the 4 different ECUs they put into a car weren't the magic bullet that would fix the car. I have mastered or have much experience with all brands diagnostics as well as usage of the model scan tools used by the dealerships to these brands.....well....maybe not renault or peugeot. Hell....I can change a 192 leg processor with a razor blade and a soldering iron as well as component level troubleshoot auto ECUs. Meanwhile, the dealerships are full of sub-par parts replacers who end up subbing the repair to a local independant shop. I'm currently designing custom sensors for engine and boost management systems as well as wrenching a 1800hp ford GT but this is piecework and I prefer a regular gig. Just frustrated.

I mean that there should be some approval process before a banner is approved since the one commented upon ground my machine to a dead halt until it had fully generated and the text I was trying to type would show up about 4 seconds after I typed it. First time I have seen that happen here. Sadly, I forgot to get a description of it but I have noticed that any unstability and errors concerning viewing these forums seem to be related to certain banner hosting companies. This is a relatively recent thing.......(about the last 7 months) As far as donation, I am currently unemployed....which completely mystifies me considering my resume.

I've welded the electrodes together on the grooved ones while the exact same plug without the grooves lived 50,000 miles. The moderators need to get rid of those resource hogging banners just above the posts.

Since it's cold where you are now, it is possible that whatever oil you are using is too thick at cold temperatures for the regulator to bleed off. Older mazdas used to blow out oil cooler lines because of this when it got really cold if you used the wrong oil for the temperature.

I use stock fans but tweak the bi-metallic spring on the front of it to get it to come in exactly where I want it to. I only ever hear it when I sit for long periods.

I took stock Z31 banjo fittings and hardlines, bent them forward to fit under the intake manifold and ran hoses to plumb it in to the lines that run from the thermostat housing to the throttle body. Ran it for 50,000 miles and the car never had an issue.

Biggest problem with the front is that the offset is pretty different from 280zx to most any rear drive nissan made after it.

Thanks frank.....your post is also helpful to infiniti M30 owners.

Hooking the battery up backwards usually fuses the injector drivers in the ecu. That said, it is possible that the fused drivers hurt the injectors by holding them open however long it was in the "on" position but that's really rare. Your symptoms with the new ecu seem to be the cylinder head temp sensor near spark plug #4 not getting signal to the ecu. Another thing I have seen is huge amounts of fuel pooled in the manifold as well as in some lines. unplug all in injectors and try to start the car.....many will actually run on fuel pooled in the manifolding. If it continues to run, then injectors are either stuck open or being held open from another failure.

If you need fan clearance, try a 240sx fan clutch and swap the fan to the opposite side of it. I fed longer bolts through the clutch itself and used them as studs. One nut used as a spacer netted me 3/8 an inch between the L28et power steering portion of the crank pulley and the rearmost or the fan blades and this allowed me to fit it into a Infiniti M30 with L28et.

What you now have is a few conductors that go through the firewall that can now be used for something else if you wish.

It's usually the result of a bare wire after a radio install since there at least 4 bulbs and harnessing related the the factory radio and many are just taped off.

I'll see what the intake air temps are on the data acquisition system for this air/water system we have on the twin turbo ford GT when we run the "florida mile" next weekend. From our dyno runs, it was amazingly effective at lowering intake air temps dramatically.

Steering wheel horn button insert?

Also a good screen to keep foreign objects out of the engine. The one on the car I'm working on is good for around 2000hp.

Since the rear of the Z31 uses springs that act on the control arms and the F31 uses 280zx style coil over shocks, there will be some differences in the kits.

I have been using one from a Z31 but had trouble with it because the Z31 manual just copies the section from the 280zx manual.......which was not correct even in the 280zx manual. I used the schematic supplied in the 280zx manual and followed the board traces through the components to determine the correct pin out and now it works. Luckily, the manual being wrong caused no smoke when connecting it that way........It just did nothing. It works correctly with the wiring on the right side of the diagram. The Z31 cooling fan on the non-turbo itself is the same as the one on the 280zx but uses different brackets and ducting. Not sure if the turbo one is the same since the non-turbo one I used sits where the alternator usually is on the turbo version.