Tony D

Build 80X60 shop on 10 acres elsewhere to get away from the house when you have to... Failing that, I like the three doors idea...

Put a blow off valve and blow off the excess air you don't need. Your blower will consume more shaft horsepower than it 'normally' would were the pressure lower. But the effeciency you loose playing with the tip speed of the impeller is worse. A big plate on the plenum that 'lifts' at the given PSI would work, and the more area you have to dissipate the flowing air, the quieter it will be. The centrifugal compressor has a minimum flow where it will remain stable. You just need to know where that is and make the excess flow blow off to keep it stable. Normally what would happen under overfeed is you boost higher than normal, and as rpms rise and it gets 'matched' you actually see less 'boost'. The variable speed portion of it skews the surge line all over the place, so it has a 'variable' surge point depending on the tip speed of the impeller, clearances, pressure of operation. Slowing it down would be an experiment worth trying just to see how the boost curve is affected IMO. Time for me to hit the sack, I gotta be up in 7 hours for work!

Surge is the phenomenon whereby laminar flow off the wheel is separated, and reverse flows through the compressor. This can accompany any of the above phenomenon. But surge is when the airflow stops and reverses. It can snap off blades. Blow piping joints. Make for an emergency service call worth $275,000!!! The above discription gets into the forces but is 'muddy' on what it really is. Centrifugal compressors are VERY influenced by speed of the wheel. The curves change dramatically. In industrial compressors as little as a 2% change in input voltage to the driver can slow the compressor enough to cause massive surging. It's easier for me to draw a picture of the compressor curve and show on a Pressure versus Flow graph what happens in each instance. This is how I conduct training. Imagine if you will flow on the horizontal axis, and pressure on the vertical. Zero for each is at the origin, pressure rises as you ascend the vertical axis, flow increases as you traverse the horizontal axis to the right. The simplest surge line is a slope starting at origin and raising (for argument) at a 30 degree angle to the right. The line represents where the compressor will surge if crossing that line. It is a line denoting the minimum stable flow for the pressure and flow given. Now, somewhere to the right of that surge curve there will be an 'eyebrow' showing the design curve of the wheel being used. Design point is on this curve. Below that point, you will get more flow for imparted horsepower to a point. Until you reach stonewall, a phenomenon where the wheel, due to the physical size, can not move any more air and flow will stagnate. It is still flowing, but regardless of horsepower applied, the pressure won't rise, and you can't get any more flow. This is in the nebulous region somewhere in or off the lower right of this graph. It is also a curve...but lets skip that! In a drop throttle condition (assume no blowoff valve), your flow moves to the LEFT rapidly(Instantly) along the horizontal axis while simultaneously RISING along the vertical axis.... This is because the flow requirement from the engine is STOPPED, and the pressure rises simultaneously due to this. Bad Surge that continues to decrease in severity as air is discharged back through the compressor to the intake ductwork and the pressure reaches a point where the flow that exists lets the air reattach itself to the wheel and flow smoothly again through the compressor. In a lift throttle conditon-say to half throttle, the movement to the left does not move all the way to the vertical origin line, there is still a flow demand, but the compressor will continue making air at high speed till the torque slip mentioned above equalizes. This condition will cause the same pressure rise and it may be at a higher pressure---so the surge is louder due to higher pressure, but because flow is still occuring it usually is only a couple of times and quieter---'honking' is usually what people refer to it as... On WOT, and hammering max boost you may reach a natural surge point---that is sufficient flow to stay stable but due to increasing turbine speed the pressure keeps climbing higher and higher. You are a boostaholic so you have wired your wastegate closed. The pressure reaches a point where somewhere almost vertically from design point you will cross the surge line. WHAM! This one is LOUD. It can be repetitive and in quick succession. You lift and then it starts 'honking'...damned if you do damned if you dont---take a look at what you did when you drop throttled afte a surge: You has a pressure situation where you were ABOVE the surge line to begin with, and then moved HARD LEFT along the horizontal axis while ALREADY in surge. Compound this, the wastegate pops open and SLOWS the compressor wheel---MOVING THE SURGE LINE AS WELL! The whole thing to understand is the way to stop surge is to throw FLOW to the compressor. FLOW may result in stonewall, but that won't break things. This is why bypass valves should open on partial throttle IMMEDIATELY! Even LIGHT lifts of the throttle should result in a 'sigh' from the turbo piping. This drops pressure on the graph towards the horizontal, and moves the flow along the vertical to the RIGHT. When in doubt: induce FLOW! On hard drop throttle the bypass should open and let that flow off. You set the spring 'hard' and what you see when you graph it is a slight spike towards that surge line, in addition to the same quick move to the left, before the valve opens to vent pressure and move the flow-pressure point down towards the horizontal axis and to the right towards stonewall. With a 'hard set ricer woosh spring' it is VERY possible that the toy you are using for sound effects is INDUCING a surge before doing what it was SUPPOSED TO DO: PREVENT SURGE! Most industrial compressors will sense the pressure differentials, or the amperage change of a surge, and IMMEDIATELY pop open an unloading valve to get flow stable. They will keep in this condition for a few seconds to let flow stabilize, and then close the blowoff (unloading) valve slowly to bring the pressure in the system back up. There is more to it than this with PID loops controlling the inlet and unloading valves independently, but generally it opens WIDE to induce stable flow. Some units using older control systems may sense a surge and then just unload until there is an operator input. If you wonder why Indy Cars never seemed to surge...they controlled boost through blowing off excess pressure to atmosphere off the top of the plenum. The big BOOM you would hear when they manually shifted (I hate the sequential boxes and paddle shifters!) was that valve opening after they dropped throttle and it had to open and vent the plenum (throttle rotors in the head...) SSSS BOOM SSSSSSSSS BOOM SSSSSSSS BOOM. It's almost like a wired close wastegate on a stock Z and running off the emergency relief valve. But this has the thing spooled and running at maximum flow almost all the time! Now, the F1 Engines of the early 80's... oooooh... gaaaaarrrrgh! F1 Turbo Cars.......gaaagggaaaargggrrrrgggghhhh! Did I make that clear as mud, or what? It's better with graphic aids... My photo is decidely non-corporate! WONK WONK, GEEK GEEK! http://www.fs-elliott.com/template_cat.aspx?page=locations&grpid=211&catid=0&subid=0

Man, am I the only guy that covets the OEM Nissan Hard as a Board Fiber Valve Cover Gasket? I'm running original gaskets I harvested on the covers from the 80's, and they were 10 years old THEN!

Why not? Seriously! Why not? If sonic testing says you can do it...why not overbore like crazy put an LD Crank in there, and make everybody at the FIA Spec Races wonder how you are getting so much power out of a measly L24...

For even a warmed over Z engine, the 1.65 size is capable of supporting full engine power well into the 7500+ rpm range. In our testing 1.75" ITBs were worth about 17Hp at 7500 rpms over 1.42", and around 40HP at 8200 rpms over the 1.42" ITBs... Unless you are planning on going that high, 1.42 ITBs flow a healthy figure. 1.75's gave us a bump, but up so high would you really need it? The added tuning complexity inherent in the larger throttle bodies dictate a pretty advanced ECU incorporating Alpha-N/MAP blend for fuel economy and drivability. The 1.495" bodies are very well suited for an all around Z-Engine (normally aspirated) up to the 300HP to the rear wheels range. Turbocharged...WOAH NELLY!

CLOSE! The lucas slide valve was ITB style, while the actual NISSAN EFI campaigned in the early 70's in rally competition used Weber Style EFI Bodies much like available today, save they were cast with "Nissan" on the body instead of "HKS" or "TWM" stuck on the original Japanese Spec Triples Manifold (think old Nissan Motorsport Manifold). The JECS brain they had was VERY similar to the ECU used on the early VW Type 3's with all the wires leading directly into the casing with a strain relief on the outside and the sensor wires directly to the circuitboard. No MAP sensor like the VW, just throttle position and rpm based fuel delivery. (Alpha N) They had some pretty radical camshaft profiles, so I'm guessing the Alpha-N is the only way to go. I personally would like to drive that setup just once to compare it to the $400 Megasquirt on a similar setup today. I don't even want to THINK what that setup cost the factory in developmental and hardware costs. I was not in a position to buy those Nissan Throttle Bodies when they were offered to me...you don't KNOW how it haunts me. Talk about the ULTIMATE old-school Trump-Card at a car show where someone contends the EFI 'Is not Stock'---what can be more stock that something with NISSAN cast into it! What? You didn't know Nissan Campaigned EFI Equipped 240Z's in Europe in 1972? Oh... "Just livin' up to the name!"

C'Mon, it's an ESL situation here. This makes at least TWO Z-Cars that are running around Kuwait that I know of... This brings me great pleasure! There is a 260Z 2+2 in Oman, a guy with a 280ZX Turbo in Abu Dhabi, and now TWO guys in Kuwait with Z-Cars for me to visit when I go there! THIS IS GREAT NEWS. I have to also say his English is far better than my ANYTHING ELSE! Hopefully you are getting what you need The Z. PM Me with some contact information, and if I travel to Kuwait for business, as much as possible I will contact you for a 'wish list' of things to bring with me that are hard for you to get locally. I already have an L28 in an ABS tube for 'The Other' Z running around Kuwait! Just pray for KNPC to give my company a call, and make sure they ask for "Tony D out of the Los Angeles Office"

Take a look at the MSA 2008 Nationals Photos in the AutoX section. There are photos of Frank280ZX's 79 ZX running the 13X8 Diamond Wheels. The thing took 5th fastest time of the day running cut 2+2 springs, Illuminas, stock sway bars and stock drivetrain with a stripped interior. It was LOW and STUCK LIKE GLUE! It's the white car with the John Coffe FRP Hood (black) that cost more than the car and parts did combined! I would recommend the 13X8 with some good slicks. They cleared the brakes fine, and with the Portefield R4S pads they would pull you up out of the seat on braking! The gear ratio advantage you get makes the stock gearset nice. You will be in second/third and sometimes even 4th on faster courses! Frank was really happy with the setup. No flares, no coil overs, and if he had the MSA Swaybars on that thing the body lean you see in those photos would be gone!

Take a trip up to Rome/Utica and hang around the neighborhood near the Brewery. You will see other shining examples closer to your home! Though I must defer to Carl Beck...living in Florida gives him a special appreciation of the definition of the word (panhandle trash?) and more expertise than me. What I have found is living in California, 'white trash' has little to do with Income level as well. You can be a millionare and still be a toothless, unhygenic slob with a stained t-shirt driving a truck around with dogs in the back and a penchant for your neices... Though by the descriptors thus far, I'm probably close to qualifying on the surface if you were to drive by the yard on any given day. I rationalize to myself that at least I try to make what is laying around look presentable, or at least make an attempt to keep it from public view. I mean, when you got 32 cars in the yard, and at least two of them are supported by either wood or old rims laying on their sides 'White Trash' surely must come to mind! But code enforcement has a LOT worse than me to deal with in my neck of the woods! LOL

Why in the world would you use an ill-fitting wrench on ANY aircraft part? IMO that's a poor analogy of the real world. You have to know what works and what doesn't. He's working automotive, not A&P. I got $10K+ in stuff from Aircraft Spruce because it was the only place I could find things like the 37 degree A/N flaring tools like I used in the USAF. Parker Tube Bead Rollers anybody? Some stuff is specialized. Automotive work is not, at least not from what I've seen compared to Tactical and Strategic Aircraft Support. ILM ain't punching out Main Gear Struts for SR71's any more, either. Working AT ILM, I used Craftsman. Working ON ILM's products in the Military, I used the Snap On stuff they provided me. Being promoted to Captian for pay purposes while I sat in the brig for $100K in damage to an aircraft because I used something I was trained better than to use did not appeal to me at all! "Your Tax Dollars at Work" I have to agree with Carl Beck on his prioritizing of debt as well. BUY A HOUSE WITH YOUR DEBT NOW and pay with future income. Buy what you need, to do the job, with cash as you go. The house will pay you off 100X what your tools will ever dream of doing in a similar timeframe! Hell, 30K in a house will pay handsomely in a 5 year or even a 10 year window. All those tools will do is depreciate! No matter what you use them for!

Low battery voltage causes problems in ALL ECU's. It was the primary reason for the redesign of the ECCS after 1981. The 81's are especially susceptible to frying the ECU if the battery dips much below 9.6VDC during cranking. It's why Nissan went with the gear reduction starter on the Turbo Models! If you don't have a GR starter, you might consider it to drop your cranking draw...

Yeah, my guess would be the Megasquirt Forum on this site... Though, honestly, in the Engine Components Section under the HybridZ index, it is called out as 'MegaSquirt' and not 'megasquirt'...but you would think it shouldn't make a difference when you search...

I broke a brand-new, never used AT100 Snap-On (BluePoint) die grinder dropping it and snapping off the air inlet portion of the casting. It was $105 at the time. I replaced it with a Harbor Freight die grinder ($9.99 at the time). It broke as well doing the same thing... Then I took them apart. Now, realize this was 1996, and at that point Harbor Freight was probably getting their air tools sourced differently than now, but... Aside from the casting that said 'Blue Point' and the other from HF that said nothing on it...they were identical---by identical, I mean they both had 'made in japan' stamped on the bodies in the same spot, with the same stamps, the NTN bearings inside were the same, the vanes were identical, the rotor body had the same part number stamped on it.... It was the LAST time I spent $100 for a Die Grinder from Snap-On. Similarly, the 1/2 Drive Impact Wrenches from HF were $58 at the time, and the I-R tune up kits were $58. The parts interchanged. They were knockoffs. Working for I-R for five years, I learned they source parts the same as anybody else. What matters most is that for the tools you use the most you buy the best quality tool your income allows you to at the time. But don't get crazy hung up on brand names or cost thinking that something expensive is automatically better. I watched through dissection many Snap-On rebrandings of other far less expensive tools (for instance Black and Decker Professional Angle Grinders, Snap On price $256, B&D price, $68! Same exact electric angle grinder save for the stickers on it!) The link above about who makes the tools is a good start. But if you keep your eyes peeled, you wil find the same tools you can get from "Snap On" from their OE Supplier with their own brand on it far more reasonably priced. The key is the stuff you USE, you want to be decent quality. As stated above, when you start out maybe you don't NEED the best. It's like school loans. Many people go out and get $120K in debt for college. Woo Hoo, now they got a $70K job...and $120K debt to service. Same goes for mechanics and technicians starting out. Some times 'community college' makes FAR more sense, ESPECIALLY when you are in the trade and think you may 'change majors'---sucks to have $30,000 in Hand Tools in a big roll-around box when you find out you're in production management. Nice for working on the car at home...but what could that $30K have bought you otherwise? As someone who has conservatively 3 full sets of tools due to having had to maintain a home set, travel set, and shop set in the past. Collating them all together when you go work in the front office makes you stand back and either say "MAN, I'm glad I bought Craftsman!" or "Woah, how am I going to sell some of this stuff off now?" Tools are always on sale, for sale, or up for grabs. Remember that. There is little to go wrong with an open ended wrench or ring spanner. Pawn shops are great places for deals on partial sets, or to fill in what you don't have. Beats paying full price, and the warranty is still the same. I would search the socket bins at the local pawn shop for BROKEN Craftsman sockets, and buy a couple good ones at the same time. Usually the owner GAVE me the broken sockets "Oh, you can HAVE those, I can't sell them!" Wanna know where I went with broken Craftsman Sockets? Hard to beat free or nearly-free tools. I digress...

I don't think the car wash will give you anything even if you have it on video that they employ little elves in wetsuits with little hammers to hold on to the foam strips and bang on your sheetmetal! A mechanical carwash has about a million signs at the entrance (ESPECIALLY in California) disclaiming any liability for damage that may be caused. Sue Mazda for making cheap sheetmetal doors. They have bigger pockets and are just as liable in this as a car wash roller set to industry standards that is functioning properly and which just maybe happened to rearrange your door profile. It didn't do it to 100 other cars that went through that day---so that kind of points to the car more than the car wash as the more liable culprit! Sucks to have thin sheetmetal. You should wash the car by hand. Perhaps your car is giving you the buttface because you threw it in the nasty abrasive foam strip cleaner. Left it at the elve's mercy. Ever watch Herbie? Buddy Hackett was on to something there... Go out and apologise to your car, take it for a nice dealership oil change and 30K service, get it hand washed and detailed...and maybe, just maybe it will unding it's door for you showing it the proper attention it felt it deserved. You masher! You probably use Wire Hangers on your clothing as well! Putting your car through an Automatic Car Bash. For shame! For SHAAAAAME! REPENT!

I wasn't busy. Bernard and someone else was busy. All I did was deliver two head gaskets and suck beer. I may have held feeler gauges at some point, but that was about it.

That explains the curious 'Duckman Waddle' you exhibited during the show. If I Don't ask, I can't tell!

I have done just that! One dyno said 147HP. Same day, across town another brand of dyno said it made 202HP. I have seen dyno operators who host 'club days' on a sunday or saturday when business is slow 'tweak' for higher numbers than they normally would get. Keeps 'em coming back. I know people who 'shop' dynos---the braggers JC is talking about. They avoid places that show 'low' numbers. The numbers are really pointless. It's the variation between pulls from the adjustments made that are worth their weight in gold. Two hours playing with cam timing (advancing and retarding) are probably the best $200 you will spend on the car. Our Bonneville engine went from undriveable (wouldn't pull the next highest gear) to a record setter after two hours of judicious tweaking, making a run, tweaking, making a run...until as Drax mentioned, the 'power under the curve' was maximized. It didn't return the same PEAK HP number as previously, but the car would pull between the gears like a banshee afterwards. When it's all said and done, no matter what your dyno sheet says...if you can't hook it, and translate it to a track result, it's nothing more than a number on a piece of paper that you will use for bragging and not a whole lot more.

"The one that was poorly maintained."

There is nothing really, truly 'new' in this area, we are all just rediscovering that which has been learned previously. There is common misconcpetion, and the odd few who test, try, and learn. Each generation has it's oddballs who took the time to try something 'different' and get results. But when you start really investigating, you find...for the most part...it's all been done by someone before.

Quit arguing with idiots on Myspace! I have seen on a dynapack, an L28 make 280ft-lbs at 8.39psi. The same engine after further tuning (identical mechanicals) made 300+ at 10psi. The same externals and head made well over 300hp on a bone-stock L28ET bottom end! Making 300HP at less than 12psi is not hard at all, and anybody saying it was impossible isn't worth arguing with in the first place as he is expressing his ignorance of the L-Engine's capabilities. 475 HP on a stock L28ET Bottom End? Sure, why not. More boost. And those are all RWHP from Dynapacks, Dyno Jets, Mustangs, and one Clayton in-ground unit. I won't get into which read the most 'optimistic' but I will say the Mustang was the 'heartbreaker' of the bunch. When using 1/4 mile and trap speeds as a predictor, the Mustang was the closest predictor of performance on the road. Mustang and Dynapack needed the least (if any) compensation to the fueling maps when driven off the dyno onto the real road. But back to the topic, I'm with Drax on this one: Claim you made 180RWHP. That is what the dyno said, that is what you made. Unless you use an SAE traceable Dyno (er...like the Mustang in some configurations) you will not be able to reliably calculate flywheel HP numbers. Stick with the numbers given to you. If you want an engine number, put it on an engine dyno. I tend to take any dyno number with a grain of salt, as it's a 'grabbed number' that could be higher or lower on any given day. The differential between your last run, and the present run on the same dyno is probably the only useful number you will get from most of the dynos out there. It's a tuning tool, nothing more. If you want bragging numbers, read the operations manual from the Dyno and figure out how to play with the smoothing and other operator entered variables...you can make them read almost any number you want if that is what your inclination is... Two Lane Blacktop Quote of the Day: "How fast she go?" "Depends on who's around!"

The same can be said for Centrifugal Air Compressors... Just that little caveat: 'As long as the manufacturing processes are correct (sic)'... You would be amazed at how 'simple' things really aren't so simple. The pricing is coming down through China, and through Fuji Heavy Industries producing in large quantities a similar differential. Once the OEM's get supply chain management going in third world machine shops, they have all the testing gear and training to make extras for everyone else! Believe me, this is not as 'simple' as it sounds. The forces on the gears internally are quite high, and metalurgy/heat treatment is critical to longevity. Quaife was amortizing developmental costs for a small market. The market has grown, and as demand has increased so has the competition. Expect to see lower pricing, or extinction of that alternate source.

I watched you cavorting with your concubines. Nice bells she had on. How do you keep her hooves so shiny? Nice to have metcha!

WOW! That looks JUST like a Head Gasket I looked at on Friday Night after the MSA BBQ! Muahahahahha! "You are not alone!"

You're fortunate that it's a 2+2, and not an early coupe like mine. The early (mine was produced 7/78) JDM 280Z(X)'s had a different configuration of rear deck and full size spare than US models. The 2+2's are very similar, though, save for the color combinations available. Looks like yours is standard tan, though, so that should not prove to be so bad. All engine stuff is readily available. But if yours is like mine (and I bet it is) you have a VERY different ECU, with stepper motor idle air bypass control, as well as an O2 sensor and dual-plate progressive throttle body. If you decide to get rid of that stuff, and go "US Domestic" help a brother out and send me a shout on what you are removing. I don't have any spare ECU or harness...and that dual-bore throttle body could come in handy for the future! BTW, you have a "Fairlady 280Z 2/2", from the looks of it, the GL model... Have fun, mine was stored 14 years, and needed a new fuel pickup, and fuel pump to get running. If it runs with starting fluid, you're on the downhill slide to taking it around the block...you know it got spark, you just need fuel! Clean your connections very well, and coat them with dielectric to prevent any further oxidation. Again, good luck!