Tony D

If you are a brave code hacker, you could post the request on the MSEFI forum, and someone there (Probably Bruce of Al) would tell you where in the code you would have to go in the routine to snip that portion of code and replace "XX Seconds" in the routine, to whatever you wanted, and then burn it to the chip. That really would be all you needed to do. Programming wise, it should only be a subsititution of the runtime number...

I would say if the setup like Xander is talking about, with "E" then hell yes you could get it to work! The 81CAS triggers off the crank, and indeed, about 40 degrees total mechanical advance is about what I could achieve. If I could slot the bracket and get another 5 teeth advanced on the trigger wheel, I think it would work unaltered (unaltered referring to the trigger wheel mod, that is!) I am busy as hell right now. I got to get over to ianz's garage to take some photos of the bracket and do some prototyping OFF THE CAR... I thought I took photos, but I didn't. And now the underbely splash pan is in place...so screw removing all that and laying in the dirt ot take photos again! I will get better shots in the nice sterile garage of ianz! LOL

I run a 160 degree thermostat, and at idle am lucky to hit that during any time but the heat of summer!!! During running around I will get up above 170, and underboost maybe 190 to 200 but rarely above that. With a four-core radiator, what can you expect? If I'm not driving it, it will not get above 159 degrees! Curiously I found the CHT reading about 10 degrees higher than the one in the thermostat housing. I suppose that is why Nissan moved it! Stock Clutch Fan and Shroud from 78 280Z

He's having problems with the vendors he used the last time. And now that MSA has undercut him, it's doubtful he will run another full run. You may want to e-mail him directly.

If you have a slipping clutch, you WILL see a dip in the power delivery curve. See if JeffP posted his "slipping curve" anywhere. It is very distinctive. When I burnt my clutch up, the thing went, and on the next pull it was worse. It does not get better. Same with Jeff when his slipped. First there was a little smoke. Then a little more, so he called it off. Mine, it was up to speed, they loaded it and POOF! LOTS of smoke. Next run, loaded it and poof! Same thing---would not transmit more than 25HP without slipping. Dyno operator commented "Man, sorry about your clutch. I never seen aturbo come on THAT hard before!" LOL, yeah, thanks buddy! ;^) I don't see that "dip" in your curve. Use wider tires, and load the rear with bags of gravel or sand in the spare tire well. 3 to 400 # of ballast seems to let them hook pretty well. In Japan, it was not uncommon to have five guys hanging out the back of a car on the dyno to make the numbers come up! No liability lawyers there, apparently...

Total advance OFF BOOST. To check your total advance, you have to look in your bins---and then do the condition to make them happen. What I did was set my advance light to 40 degrees (Mobys Initial Maps) and marked the trigger wheel. When you rev it, and snap the throttle closed, you WILL hit the high-MAP high-RPM bins that require 40+ degrees of total advance. If your makr on the trigger wheel does NOT line up with the "Zero" mark (this is what turning the advance-style timing light does, negates your timing so you can read the timing as a "zero sum") then you know your trigger point is not correct. How MUCH incorrect is determined by what it says when you do the test. If your timing light is above the Zero mark, then you have to advance the trigger point further. In my case, the trigger point was under the waterpump someplace, and then triggering off the wrong paddle was another problem I had...but let's not get down there right now. The car ran fine on boost. I would get my full 24 degrees. But terminally I would only get around 32 degrees. Typically, you need 35 degrees to run well under light throttle off-boost conditions (for best fuel economy)and decent throttle response. For fuel economy you need to add in that extra 7 degrees of vacuum advance that you would get at the same time---meaning 35+7=42 degrees total advance. Without that full advance, throttle response is a bit off, sluggish if you will. And on-boost response (transition) will make it be a little sluggish as well. The best I can describe it was it felt like my car when it had triple blowthrough carbs running far too rich. It felt like it was being "held back" somewhat. It actually, well, uh....FELT STOCK when it came to boost in first and second gears. AFTER I did my modification...MAN! The way it pulled was incomparable to before. Throttle response was CRISP, and the car would bump off the rev limiter in first and second. It would rev that quick! So check your timing with an adjustable light. Doing a quick 'snap test' will tell you where it's at! JUST BE AWARE! The "TDC MARK" on an 81ZXT is NOT the paddle! It is a line on the timing disc bolted to the pulley! THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT MARKS! One lines up on the CAS, the other lines up on the "Timing Scale" on the right side of the engine. Stick a pencil in the #1 cylinder and when it's near TDC on the compression stroke take a look at the timing disc and clearly mark the "TDC" line on the disc. This will save confusion down the road (BELIEVE ME ON THIS ONE! LOL) THAT is the line you need to watch to see where your timing is really at. If you use the paddle as the "trigger", you will be off by 20-24 degrees!

Exactly how did you set yours up? i ran my car to the "Full Advanced" position as limited by the bracket, and when checking the timing with a separate timing light, I would only get around 30-32 degrees total advance. The car would run fine under boost but off boost the thing was soggy (compared to now!) It will RUN, but I simply could not get full advance for high vacuum or cruise bins. I will have to look at the 81ZXT motor I just pulled out. You can set it on TDC, and then check the teeth to see what kind of total advance you can physically get. If I recall, the stock trigger wheel has nubs at about a 2 degree interval, so it's just a matter of counting them and checking the CAS. Mine was set around 20 degrees advanced, and I could increase it slightly with the adjusting screw to get it to run, but not at anywhere near a 76 Degree Trigger Angle! Not without that 72 Degree "move the trigger wheel trick" posted on the Cardomain site. This kinda digressed from Badjuju's original question which was about running his setup. If he has an 81ZXT, then he has a decision to make. His post is a bit vague on calling things CAS and Dizzy, so I'm not sure what he currently has.... In his first scenario, with MS and MSD with an 82/83 Dizzy. I would say "No", you want the 79-81 Dizzy from a N/A vehicle. The 82/83 has some built-in advance that it gets tricky trying to get anywhere below 11 degrees initial timing a idle. For the SECOND Scenario, suing MS-n-S, I would say "NO" you need an 83/83 CAS, which happens to be IN the distributor, but will NOT work as a distributor in earlier models. I don't knwo what the modify the CAS in his dizzy comment means---if he has an 81ZXT, then all he has to do is change the timing on the current CAS, and install the MS unit! if you plan on putting an 82/83 CAS unit into an earlier car, you need the drive spindle from the doneor also, as the drive spindle is different between the Turbo CAS unit, and all the other distributor/oil pump drive spindles. He totally missed the option of skipping the distributor option altogether, installing a Plug in the Dizzy Drive hole, sticking in an LD28 Oil Pump stubdrive spindle, and using the MS-n-EDIS option after installing a 60-1 Trigger Wheel! LOL

Cam Profiles That is why they limit the selection to mechanical grinds. The profile for a hydraulic cam is different to use the hydraulics to proper effect. Look at the Chevy Grinds for a great example. They have hydraulic grinds all over the place since that's what you got from the factory. The Flat-Tappett Mechanical grinds are so noted, and usually come with lifters. The profiles on the ramps on the two look very different. That would be my take on it.

Lemming, hell, I got my wife's 260ZT conversion DONE and that's why I'm griping about them not telling me they had it available. I JUST moved the car off the stands, and to install that pipe would have been GREAT since it WILL have a stock turbine housing (wife's car remember, nothing more than 300hp...) so that would have COMPLETED my "under the car dirty work"! I'm willing to be a piggie, too, but now I'm headed out of town...probably till SEPTEMBER, so much for getting the thing installed promptly! Bastards! LOL

Ask 1FastZ! he has set up his "low load" Kpa Bins to universally run 18:1 AFR in ALL rpm ranges. This is probably totally safe, as the old Chrysler Lean-Burn Emissions Engines ran 17.5:1, and some Hondas run close to 20:1 in some instances! As long as you aren't lean UNDER LOAD, you will be fine! With this kind of setup, Bryan is breaking over 30mpg on the highway with his MS-Powered 280Z. The GREAT thing about MS is that figuring out where "load" is couldn't be easier, the first two bins in the kpa column are a given. From there, it's a matter of what kind of driving manners you require from the engine, and what your EGT's are. For crusing at light load, that 18:1 is probably fine, and you can tailor the accel shot to make it transition without the typical "lean pop" like you would have if you jetted a carb that lean. Another reason to go EFI! (Yeah, I had a fire in the Mikuinis on the Black Car yesterday, and thought "only a few months and it will be cool, and I can convert these damn things!")

RE: Knock Sensing... Most OEMs, Nissan Included, disable knock sensing over 3500rpms. Where they pull out the timing is in a range where you are not particularly loaded enough to damage the engine... Now, in fourth or fifth gear, if you get on it at highway speeds, do you REALLY want to pull spark back a few degrees to let you pull past 3500 under FULL BOOST and FULL LOAD and have the knock sensing eliminated? I would rather hear the onset at a lower load and rpm level, and get out of it manually, than get a false sens of security and load it up to where it will do damage---which is what happens on dyno pulls on the stock ECU's all the time. Oh, BTW, that photo is trick as hell! I like how the wiring matches the diagram in color. Trick Trick Trick!

I would have to agree with Moby and Sleeper. I would cycle the fuel pump for several cycles BEFORE starting it. If you had a fuel gauge in the rail, it would help. Many times the stock fuel rail will actually either bleed down, or boil the fuel in the rail. This is why the ZX's started turning the fuel pump on for 3 seconds every time the igniton was switched. Early 280Z's have a habit of having thos symptoms in a very narrow window of time AFTER a hot shutdown. Mine will be fine for 5-10 minutes after a hot run with the hood closed. But try in the key at 15 to 30 minutes and it's stumbling until I get that hot fuel out of the system! By "priming the fuel system" you cover both bases from bleed down due to check valves, and boiling from alcohol fuels and heat soak. Vapor Lock is not "technically" what it is, but it's what everyone understands, so that nomenclature works. I have actually seen people put in BYPASS switches to the "s" terminal for their early 280Z and ZX's so they can hold the key to "crank" without turning over the engine, yet start the fuel pump. Simply turn to crank while holding the bypass switch, and like Sleeper mentions, after say 5-10 seconds let the bypass spring back to normally closed, engage the starter, and away you go!

If anything, the torque required the second time will be LESS if the lubricant is gone. The lube makes it easier to torque, and if it's gone, you undertorque the fastener. The most common cause of failure on engineered fasteners or yield-type fasteners is using the wrong lubricant, resulting in less turning friction than designed, and overtorquing causing failure. Atlas Copco used standard bolts in 3 of 6 designs. Those three had Loctite on the threads. On the other 3 designs, they had a "stretch bolt", and it was engineeered to go in DRY. When field personnel applied the "two drops of Loctite 242, just like everything else" the bolts were overtorqued, and would fail in service within 4000 hours. I can't remember HOW many warranties I declined over that decision to not read and follow manufacturers' instructions... That segeues into reading the instructions. The Nissan Retorque criteria is to loosen and retighten them. I would e-mail ARP for a specific recomendation on their procedure if it is not spelled out explicitly in thier literature. Normally retorque is a gasket manufacturer's requirement. If the gasket has compressed under a fastener, and it turns when you go to check it with a click-type wrench THAT is how you know what one is loose. Otherwise the bolt will just stay there and "click". The degree of rotation before clicking on the retorque will tell you compression! For most gaskets, I just go back and check torque at the setting required. The point Bay Area posted makes a good thing to consider, also! Normally you will run the bolts down several times and back off several times during mockup of the engine so the fastener is settled down to it's "real" turning torque by the time of final assembly. Technically you are to take turning torque, and ADD it to total torque required to make sure you don't undertorque a fastener. Not usually a problem, but on larger things where you have coarse threads, the turning torque can be considerable. On stock stuff, it gets broken free, and retightened simply because of the bolt breakage issue on stock bolts. Hope this helped somewhat. Good Luck.

what WAS the price on those... Damn, I guess I better check the link! I was in there TODAY, and nobody said SH*T about them! They lost a SALE today... Had I known, one would have been in my truck for the drive back home this afternoon! I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope they put some thought into the termination so that their already produced 2.5" N/A exhaust will bolt right up. That is how the JDM stuff was designed. One exhaust, but either a header, or a turbo downpipe. Made the swap easy easy easy! $299 for Stainless. I can polish it myself... So much for JeffP's 3" DP Project that he approached them about earlier this year.

Just as a general rule, ECU's from FEDERAL cars have better drivability. Non US-Spec ECUS usually have more power, and even better drivability. For a little inside anecdote, long ago when some manufacturer's reps would get their company cars delivered in CA, they would IMMEDIATELY take the cars down to the service garage, and reflash the proms to the MEXICAN program. All drivability and surging problems were solved. Before turning in their "company leased vehicles" they would return to the Service Garage, and reflash them to California specification. When taking delivery of a CA Spec vehicle in other states, there was an active reflash program for the Federal Programs, also! This was not Nissan. And was over 30 years ago now (or darned close!)... Drivability comes from torque, and torque comes from being a tad rich...

Muahahaha! "I would imagine that a company like Jim Wolf might be able to answer your questions. " Yeah, they could the even BIGGER question is wether they would! Bernard and JeffP have been collaborating, and have a pretty good grasp on some of the differences, you may want to post the Z31 question to them directly. They are not so secretive as JWT... LOL

I have to say that what Xander dedscribes is EXACTLY the scenario that Electromotive TEC2 used---you would set your map, run on the WBO2 that was incorporated in the system, and then datalog the correction offsets to refine your fuel plotting. As an aside, the TEC2 had 8X8 spark and Fuel maps. It also cost $1700, BARE, in 1999 dollars! I would agree, for the money outlay, the Megasquirt especially now with the 12X12 Maps!) is HARD TO BEAT! I have recently taken apart the Period-Correct ECU from an original 81ZXT. I think the hype over "automotive grade componentry" in the ECU is really overblown. The stuff in the FACTORY ECU is all "consumer grade" stuff, and they lasted well over 20 years. I am more convinced now that the Megasquirt is THE alternative to replacing an ailing EFI system in any of the early cars. It is, INDEED, a clear STEP UP even if you onlyrun the fuel program on an 8X8 map! Congrats, Xander, nice datalog. Keep us posted. Tell Frank to get his working now! LOL

Also, remember they are designed for a constant velocity. For the triples to work, the sizing on an L24 would need to be more like that on a 1600SSS motor (38mm). When you do the math, there is no flow advantage doing it that way, and the triple 46mm units are way too much to work correctly without some serious rework. This was a common argument in Corvair Circles, being the placement of the carburettors on the heads in dual configuration was always suspect. When you checked reversion pulses and firing/intake order, though it really WAS the correct way to group the cylinders. If you look at the SU manifolds, they really ARE "equal legnth" when looked at from reversion and firing order! Same as the Corvair. Sometimes, just sometimes, the millions of dollars put into R&D by the engineering department really does yield a good result that wasn't killed by some accountant somewhere! Refer to the Corvair instance if you REALLY want to get people going in regards to "factory added additional carburettors"... The 140HP engines had four 1-BBLs on them, the secondaries opening up like on a normal four barrel. Their placement was also hotly debated, but time has proven out they are also in about the best spot possible....

Bastaad, I got to apologize! ianz just left the house with a freshly-killed 81 ZXT motor we pulled from an 8/81 production date ZXT, and like an IDIOT I did not take the time while I had an engine out and sitting on the ground to dissect that bracket to find out about the alterations to the bracket. Now he has TWO sitting at his house... I got to go over there and look at that damnable bracket and figure this all out! I do have the ECU here at the house, though, and internally the 81 is different from the later units. I believe this is due to the injector grounding circuitry in the ECU, as well as some ground plane modifications.

I wonder where Bastaad heard about that meat thermometer trick? LOL I second his advice, verify ANY temperature reading before jumping out to buy stuff to "fix" a problem that may not exist! On earlier cars, espeially, the temp gauges tend to read high... Water temperature is really irrelevant---it's oil temperature that is critical! 180 is the minimum oil temperature you should have, and 215-220 is usually optimal. Oil temperature is normally 30 degrees higher than water temperature, so you can do the math and see if you aren't running synthetic that coking or a water cooled center secetion may be a good idea for longevity of the turbo at least, and will help with the elevated temperatures...

I gotta say I would second that, the numbers you got are almost identical to the numbers I got in 1993/4 on a Clayton In-Ground Dyno on my 73 240Z running Alcohol Injection, no I/C, and 17# of boost with a T3 Carburettted Blow-Through. I think that T3/T4 has more for you... Perobably will last longer than my T3 did running those boost levels the way I drive, too! LOL But good numbers nonetheless. I think there's more to be had. Probably with some more spark advance. I believe I was running 20 degrees at 17#... And that was on an 8.5:1 C.R. Block (N42/N42 JDM Block and Head) Keep us posted on the progress. I will be interested to see what the terminal numbers are---there is more! Muahahahahaha!

Yeah, the reason I mention the V-8 car is because I know the owner, and have seen the car myself. It is a cool little setup, lotta neat hotrod tricks like relocated filler neck, custome hood vents, and really a sleeper. He did not spend a lot of money making a "pretty engine" he made a very dependable daily driver out of it, which speaks volumes of the conversion. The trick is "getting power out" and on a Chevy V-8 you gotta ride the "short bus" to not figure out how to accomplish that in short order! LOL

Well, right now there is a nicely converted 283 Converted V8 car all sorted and ready to drive all summer (owned by adults and driven for years---a sorted conversion) selling for $4000 in SoCal. This was a topic sometime ago---to buy and convert, or to buy someone else's conversion. Well if it's in your budget..... This probably isn't waht you wanted to hear, but it does open up another viable option! It is HybridZ, ya know! LOL

yeah, I like those funnels. Gaaaaaarrrrrgh.... Well, like the guys with the 32 Coupes adn Moon Manifolds with Strombergs, just gut those floatbowls, fire the injectors under the throttle plates in a spacer plate, and run the wires for the injectors into the folatbowls through a vacuum tube... Hell, now those guys with the Moon Manifolds can actually BUY a casting of a Stromberg "replica" specifically cast to hide injectors in the float bowls! Lucky Bastards! Then again, you can always find and old Inglese Manifold and swap on 48IDA ITBs.... I have an old "Manifold Destiny" ad from a speed mag on the wall out in the shed showing that setup in black and white. Probably been hanging there for close to 20 years now... I know what you mean about that look of two rows of four!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Nice Pet Cock!