Tony D

I was at Hollywood Park when a cambered, lowered Late-Model Ford F150 Supercharged went inverted and used his roof as frictional material. First time I ever saw a guy go and flip on an Auto-X Course. Seen stuck throttles ram card into light posts, or off into the trees (at Irvine Meadows)... Even shoot off the course and go over the mountainside and impale themselves on a tree about 45 feet below (needing a big winch to get him back up onto the Gymkhana Track he went off...) But never saw a car flip onto it's roof and skate with sparks flying like that until that point in time. Now, Hollywood Park is no more... supposed to be made into some NFL Venue or something. I hope they have Auto-X there again, it was a 'unique' crowd that showed up there due to the South-Central Location in L.A. County. And if you ever see a lowered, cambered up Metallic Purple Metalflake Ford F150 with dark purple racing stripes on the hood....make sure you wear your seatbelts as it's known to be topheavy.... LOL

Getting a standard RHD (NON-Fairlady Z) parts catalog would be interesting...

Go to a performance driving course. Nothing substantial or long lasting as that for only $1,000

What is the voltage at the battery when cranking? It drops, and that combined with wire drop and it can easily drop that much if the battery is weak

"So what would you do if you wanted to set up a simple but effective PCV system on an L28 with a 4bbl?" Short Answer: Hook it up with the stock Nissan Components same as Nissan did. Is there some aversion to using the Nissan-Designed Component on a Nissan-Similar Manifold? Nissan had both 2 and 4 bbl intakes available for the L-Series Engines, they all had the same valve used on the SU's, which is the same valve used on the EFI Cars, which is the same valve used on the 4 cylinder SU and DAF Downdraught carbs, which is the same as.... Nothing on the 4BBL setup precludes using the stock Nissan PCV valve screwed in at the base of the carb same as so many Domestic Setups, and the air can still be drawn in through your little predator triangular domed filter, or whatever. It can be screwed in just about anywhere you can get it to fit, but under the carb gives the best chance that it's evenly distributed amongst all cylinders and no one cylinder suffers disproportionally. That was the system we ran on the 4 BBL we had in testing back in 98/99. I don't see what this 'reinvent the wheel' exercise is accomplishing. Why is this an issue? Everything you want already exists, you don't need anything different than what is in the standard parts cards at the AutoZone. Get a Nissan PCV and screw it into your manifold. There is nothing special about your 4 barrel that makes it any different than a DAF 2 or 4 Barrel or the EFI Plenum, or the SU Balance Tube. It just needs Manifold Vacuum. That's harder to do on ITB's. Hence alternate methods. If you want less oil in the intake manifold than the stock system provides, the answer is NOT a different PCV, it's installing a BETTER PHASE SEPARATOR.... A vacuum tight can with brillo pads in it should suffice, with a drip leg and auto drain to let the condensed oil go back to the sump. Do not use the compressor water oil filter, terrible mismatch of components.

This being said.... Patton Machine makes drop-in Throttle Body Fuel Injection adapters that will support more HP than most will ever make on their N/A Z-Car and they're relatively inexpensive. On a MAP-Based system, a leaking throttle shaft can be your idle air bypass baseline...

The "Flat Tops" are the SU HIF-6 and are a superior carb and sought after in Europe. The SU models had adjustable jetsusing a screwdriver on an external adjustment. As noted above, they allow segregated idle and power mixes, something the old antiquated "Round Top" models do not. So many people listened to 'the experts' who confused EGR Overheating of the engine bay and intake manifold with the presence of the carbs (them new carbs the problem, sho'nuff, got to be!) that they were taken off immediately and service - garage replaced with Round Tops. Low Mileage, tight shafted Flat-Tops are out there if you look. Not so for the Round Tops. But both are rebushable. If you want flat tops, look into Europe for a set of HIF 6 Carbs and do a retrofit to the Japanese metal!

The Factory PCV Valve in the bottom of the manifold is a flow-regulating valve. It is almost CLOSED at idle, off idle it opens and with cruise it will 'float' to maintain a suitable draw on the crankcase to pull fresh air in from the air filter (connected to the top of the valve cover.) This limits 'overdraw' and sucking of excessive amounts of oil into the intake tract. Some 'emissions' devices which are commonly removed also HIGHLY restrict the super-high manifold vacuum spikes of drop-throttle. Removing those usually results in increased oil consumption and people wonder why... At idle, almost closed, there is no blow-by and very little vacuum is necessary to make this circuit flow. If you have blow-by on a worn engine, you will see smoke puffing out of that tube in the air cleaner. At WOT, there is NO VACUUM in the manifold to produce flow, so the inlet air filter is creating a few inches of water restriction on the valve cover, it's a weak motive force but in reality the blowby is so much it simply vents the blowby back into the air cleaner. There's no real flow reversal except in the valve cover hose.. In fact, there's two systems: "PCV" and "Road Draft". When it's dumping out the cover you are operating like most any vehicle did until 1967... pressure built up from blow-by is simply vented down a pipe and onto the roadway. In a Z, this is the upper hose into the Air Cleaner. Having the air cleaner like that, the restriction of the air cleaner helps suck out the blowby fumes, but there is really no way for fresh air to get into the crankcase. Old Corvairs were like that, early models had a road draft setup, later models an orifice into the air cleaner. The PCV ALWAYS flows from Air Cleaner, to Valve Cover, to Inlet Manifold for combustion. It is designed to draw fresh air through the crankcase 'positively' using Vacuum as a motive force. In turbo cars, it's more pronounced than if you go WOT...not only do you not have vacuum to provide motive force there is pressure there and the PCV shuts to prevent turbo boost from pressurizing the crankcase and spewing oil everywhere... Under boost you have more blowby and you just road-draft it into the inlet before the turbo (after the inlet filter.) The turbo adds a nice suckage on that.... PCV can work with just a vent on the valve cover if you restrict the manifold draw...Mitsubishi used a 0.063" orifice to limit maximum draw (similar to the old Late-Model Corvairs!) If you don't have a lot of vacuum, or are always driving at WOT, then an ejector through the exhaust (with a similar restriction orifice) will work fine to eliminate Blowby in the crankcase. You want the fresh air in there to mitigate acid and condensation buildup, the sorts of nasties that can corrode the internal components. It's more pronounced when you take short trips, never warm up the engine fully, and live in colder climates where the engine can cool down from hot very quickly.

What was the donor, and what was your hose routing schematic?

I know each March, I'm due...

E85 is another item to ditch that thick gasket. I ran 10-12 psi unintercooled on 8.5 with just gas gas... E85 is better in that regard, like race gas. Almost any N/A engine is good for 10PSI out the gate. That's where I start. The stock wastegate is lower than that...but you aren't using a stock turbo so problem solved!

Given how hydraulics work, stroke out is a function of stroke in and my recollection was bores were very close on RB and S30 diameters. Your revaluation confirmed what I thought. Thanks for posting what you found! It's what I suspected but without the bore size differential I couldn't do the calls to check...

PM sent.

Factory routing for the Z31 was housing below thermostat, turbo, water pump inlet. Yes, you recycle coolant. That factory bypass line? USE THAT! No more recirculation than you already have, and in fact beneficial to your turbo. "How?" Because during running, before the thermostat opens, you route recirculated coolant through the turbo back to pump inlet, aiding in cavitation prevention and hastening warmup. Once that thermostat opens though, there is only the water pump NPSH to circulate water through there.... No big shakes, water flows center section is cool. But.... After shutdown, you have cap pressure blanketing the system. No pump suction to draw from the thermostat housing through the turbo back to the inlet... What you DO HAVE, though, is blanket pressure and radiator-cooled water sitting at the water pump inlet. And the boiling hot turbo heating water upstream in that line...heated water which rises to and out the still-opened thermostat and out to the radiator...drawing cool water from the water pump inlet line through a thermal siphon...introducing the coolest water in the system available after shutdown through the turbo until the turbo housing reaches stasis with the water temperature. When do you form Coke in the turbo, when running or after a heat-soaked shutdown? This routing insures cool water being drawn through the turbo with no other devices present, at the time the turbo MOST needs this cooling to prevent temperature rise. During running, water flows thermostat housing to pump inlet via pressure differential. After running, water flow reverses and continues, pump inlet to thermostat housing and out to radiator via thermal siphon. Think about the above for a while before making the hose routing changes suggested otherwise. You got what you need already there. You don't change anything by using the existing bypass line in this manner.

What's your voltage doing to the ECU. JeffP had a HELL of a problem with his promburns and Z31 crap because the early alternators did not give consistent clean power into the power leads for the ECU and that made everything in there go to crap... Once he got good power things started getting consistent again. Same when it was low on gas... AFR's went to crap below 1/4 tank as it was running. Put a later alternator on it, you got one laying around, right?

I would say no, it's quite a bit different if you look at it closely (JeffP's page...) Similar but different... We tried getting prototype casting places to quote a Stainless Steel cast replica... you don't want to even know the prices they asked!

Scholarship, good! That will let the money flow. Beware the school loan trap. Pay as you go.

The black cap you got is fine. Move on.

Keep your thick headgasket in the box and just keep your boost reasonable. Adding that thick gasket is a stopgap that just kills quench and makes the thing a detonation-prone monster. 8.3 or 8.5 will handle 10-12 psi from the stock turbo but that's a lot different than 10-12psi from a GT3071, you're better off getting the head reworked with pistons matching your closed-combustion chamber and ported cammed head. You can run some higher boost then, and make great power. Or keep it all stock up top and start cranking in the boost and start detonating, blowing the spark kernel out, etc.... Use the flow from the turbo, not necessarily the pressure. It makes everybody's life easier in the long run!

So the ANSWER for those not wanting to click links and search was Mercedes-Benz Parts: If anyone needs to order these the part number is 1171420159 for the flexible pipe and 6039950565 for the clamp. I have ordere 2 pipes and 4 clamps, should have them by friday so we'll see how it goes

No second engine to swap for dyno testing huh? That's how they did it in Japan. And Switzerland is not in the EU so no cruising to a "friendly" TUV station to get your certification then bringing it in later... Really, with the expenses involved, the engineering is sound regarding brakes... Why not get the brakes tested and let that determine your horsepower? If it's higher than you have there's room to grow! Expensive, but in the long run having the brakes to stop the horsepower isn't the worst thing in the world...

I sent you a PM, someone hit me up about that last night. A serious guy, and has very special abilities that would appeal to the development of the head.

I combat Feature Bloat...MS1 running Magnus' MS-n-Se! I figure the 8X8 map was fine for a stock Z, the 12X12 in MSnS was like "wow" compared to the old AFC or even ECCS. It passes smog, good 'nuf fer me! I'm in need of nothing fancy!

What was the source of your kit? Mine was B&G Group Buy 2 on an MS1, far as I know at that point, it was all open sourced. I haven't bought anything since 2002, and that's what it was at that time. Only thing locked down was circuit board design...

Recall many who referenced my "problems" and I had tried to make it clear in the end it was a failing COM CHIP IN MY LAPTOP that was causing the issues. It had run and driven within 15 minutes after initial fire up, then I went away for a while and something happened to the Com Chip unbeknownst to me...and it was JeffP and I poking and Probing with an O-Scope trying to find noise sources when he probes the com signal and says "Hey man, something is funky with this chip"!.... We loaded my original tune and all was good. Hook my laptop up to it and bam, crap! That can happen wth any system. In the end my MS was really just fine (and I built them myself) it was my laptop that caused all the issues! With the open source and professionally assembled models out there now it's as steady as anything else in the cost range. It still is low cost. People here don't want to pay shipping across the state, much less buck up for a MOTEC and $1,800 a day on a Dyno doing tuning...