Tony D

It probably is accurate, but watching a test pot is a lot different than the actual flowing temperatures you might encounter during running the vehcile. My Megasquirt shows my engine running at 160 at idle, and it WILL NOT get any hotter unless I am driving the vehicle under a load! Now I have a 160F thermostat, but as soon as some load goes on it, the thing goes right to 170 where the 160 thermostat is fully open. But only if it's good and hot outside. During cold weather, the thing will fight to get to 160---which is why I usually flush and rethermostat in the winter... As long as your oil temperature is above 180 (and should be as it normally runs a delta above water temperature of at least 20 to 25 degrees) you should be fine for proper lubrican action. I wouldn't sweat it, people will say it should run "Hotter" but if you change your oil regularly "sludge" should not be a problem as you get near enough to 180 watertemp (meaning 200, 215 oil temp). Oil temperature is the real thing to worry about. I made sure all my warmup bins were satisfied by 155 degrees, so they are definately no in play while I'm driving. That would be more of a concern to me than the actual runnigntemperature of the engine. My oil temperature rarely if ever gets below 180 even at idle, so that is proper for lubricant action. And prevention of water buildup and contaminant cookoff at that temperature is acceptable. Ideally during a highway run you would probably get closer to 225, to 240 degrees, and boil out all the water, and flash off the gas. They want at least 180 oil temp to flash gasoline and alcohols out of the oil. Water, well it will slow boil at that temp, and make a nice brown pudding... Now if you can check your oil temps---THAT would make an interesting discussion!

Especiall since Moby's STicky details the 81 SPECIFICALLY after this morning! I just updated HIM on the stuff I was doing on MY 81 conversion. If you have questions, read his sticky, then e-mail me. I should be able to explain the differences between the 82/83 and the 81 setup. I used an 81 since nobody had done it before, and because we needed to know. Simple. Electrically, they are identical, mechanically there is a few things you need to know, and Moby's sticky shjould explain them clearly enough.

Ahhhh, and the dreaded "feature creep" is well on the march! LOL

I often have pondered what all the whining about "snow" and "cold weather and salt" was on the many forums... I would absolutely LOVE the opportunity to take the car off the road and rip into it for 6 months straight. You guys don't know what kind of hell we live in in SoCal. Always driving the cars, events this weekend, that weekend, ride to the beach, run to the mountians. Drive drive drive drive... it's incessant, and HELL I tell you! I would LOVE to tear into it and not HAVE to drive it every weekend...

Yes, John will fill you in on the details on the "Vision Plus" They are SAE pattern if I recall correctly, while the others are E-Code. i prefer E-Code, legal or not. Light and being able to see is what is important to me, If the cops want to ticket me for a $10 fixit ticket, I'll do what I have done for years: Scrawl in an illegible signature, put a badge number in the box and "CPD" in the "ORG" box, and send it in with the $10. Screw them! I'm not getting killed because of some arcane rule on diffuse light projecting up to read unilluminated street signs. I want to see what's on the ROAD, not what's in the TREETOPS! Do I mask my contempt at the laws well enough? John should be able to link you to a site on lighting that is trying to get the new standards for hte US to be the same as the E-Code. This would be good. I have run E-Codes on my vehicles sinc 1979...

Stuck with Hella as a brand name? Knock off lights with the bulbs you mention are available as a pair for a price close to what the Mass Merchandaisers are selling a reflector assembly for are availabe from http://www.h4lights.com Talk with John. he also deals as a regional Distributor for Hella, and may be a ble to answer your question. He is in SoCal.

What are you guys using on the power line or alternator to filter noise into your MS unit? I have just gottne the MS-n-S running like it did when I first fired it up in MAY 2003! Trouble is when I reconnect the alternator, it starts cutting off the injector pulses in a rythmic cycle. With the alternator disconnected, the thing runs fine. Put the "F" termninal back into the alt, and it will run fine for about 2 minutes, then start the surging again. i don't know if it's a bad diode, or that I've removed the line filter I formerly had on the system. New VR and Alt, but who knows if they are good or not. Will test some more, but as long as voltage stays below 14.00 V it seems to run fine. BAH! At least I can tune for a while, charge it up and continue... This alternator thing may have been the "killer" of box number 1... now that I think on it some more...hmmmmm

The JCR kit is available once again. Sandy Cook came to the Group Z meeting last year when they were ready to re-roll it out. It is now separate components: intake and supercharger with drive, and Fuel Control. The kit for the S/C was the price the complete unit sold for before: $3400. Sandy realized with so many EFI systems out there, the "hard parts" were in more demand, with the customer using what system THEY were familiar with. I remember Seeing Ed and Lavern at the Atlanta Convetion, then again in Denver, and once again in Thousand Islands! That car keeps going and going and going---and getting more powerful and impressive to boot! I remember his comment at Denver "We ran the 12psi pulley for this trip, we DO have to drive 3300 miles back home!" On the back straight at the Denver Stapelton Airport, the Z32TT's were hitting their rev-limiter hard at 155, and then along came Lavern whizzing by---you could hear that S/C whining away from the spectator area while he passed them on that straight! Impressive to say the least!

You should have no problems. I have run a turbo on the N42 to 21# myslef, and many of the Supercharger guys from way back ran them fine simply because P90 and P79 heads were not available. As long as your compression ratio is manageable, it is nothing different than any other head. At worst you have to install a 1mm head gasket to drop your compression a point... Ignition and fuel control is far more important than compression at the start, unless you are going to stratospheric boost pressures unintercoolled. Does anybody have alink to L Burkholder's Supercharged L28 from the Ontario, Canada ZCC? That car has been running for a long time, 12 to 17# on an N42 if I recall correctly...

Question is what do you want to "save"? If you have bare MS, and are converting, that's one thing, if you are even considering MS-N-S, just install it from the start, and leave the spark tables like Moby's post until you get around to it! Concentrate on fuel alone. I have moved files and configurations from box to box using several laptops and a thumb (or pen) drive! That is how I moved all my MS related stuff from my original Vaio Laptop with the Com Port Problem to the Dell I am using now (with a USB to Serial Converter!) It's just files like Xander said. Once they are written, you can move them around. THE IMPORTANT THING IS THIS: MS-N-S requires BOTH Megatune and MSS to tune the respective regions, Megatune for Fuel, MSS for the sprak table, so they are separate and distinct files. I am NOT SURE what the new MS-N-S "Extra" is configured like, and from reading the information, it allows tuning of both tables from the SAME "NEW" megatune program... This may make a combined programming file, and may make it difficult to separate them to go "backward". Anyway, I entered my values into thetables manually from a Photograph of the screen shot I saved off Moby's sticker. So at worst, you will simply need to load them manually, wich only takes 2 minutes! Just dome't be like me: givethe files a DISTINCT file name when you save them so you know which ones were working and which ones didn't... DOH!

I actually have a little jumper of springy wire and yellow insulation taped inside the cover of the MS, and just stick it in the two jumper holes while bootloading.Unless you are loading stuff continuallyu like some of the developers, a switch may be unrequired expense. The first box where I was continually loading stuff I had installed a switch, but when it went "poof" I just taped a jumper inside for if I need it!

Don't waste your time with the MSD. Go straight to MS-n-S and run it just like the stock system did. It's an unrequired extra step that costs a lot of money. WIth the Moby Sticky Values, you have a decent, safe spark curve to start with, and you can concentrate on tuning fuel until you get that down, then start playing with the timing map, but don't expect to change much! I think the MSD is unnecessary, especially since the MS-n-S is fairly straightforward in it's application to both the CAS units found on the L28. You go with an MSD box, and start with an L28ET, unless you have an 81 model, you will be pulling the front cover and swapping distributor drives to run a convention distributor you have to modify.... Why go through all the hassle, only to swap back later? Doesn't make any sense at all to me... Unless you only have an N/A engine to start with. Then it's a simple matter of swapping in an 81 Dizzy and bolting on the front pulley and CAS later to convert to MS-n-S with a tru Crank Trigger Unit...

right! The only thing you get for the mix is slightly less fuel economy due to lower heating value of the Ethanol. It sounds cool having a 13:1 street engine, but my bus was a bear to start when it got below 40 degrees. And getting 5mpg on a 1950cc VW Type 1 engine does not lend itself to long trips with a 10 gallon fuel tank! LOL This is why you get a blend. I am just too lazy to do the math myself, but it works out that they can use sub regular or something like that and still get 93 octane. Sub Regular. I like that: 84 Octane, available in Michigan at Sunocos.... I mean, what's that" Lawnmower gas? LOL

I suppose I should actually get this version running correctly before swapping, but the draw for feature creep putting me over my head even further is irresistible...

All it means is that if you want to use the MS-n-S EXTRA code, you will have to order the unmodified box, and then installe the jumpers yourself to enable the features you want. Apparently the MS-n-S is not being loaded by them as they see the Extra as the way most people will go. You may still be able to get the MS-n-S Download from the Yahoo site Magnus set up---where all of us origianlly got it. I just went to the http://www.msefi.com site, and checked out the MS-n-S Extra forum post, and looked it over. Doesn't look that bad to make the hardware changes. I will probably go to Extra since it will possibly allow me to reconnect that stock Nissan Knock Sensor into the circuit, and allow for some other features that looked interesting, but weren't really "necessary" to my application, but would help with making is into a monster (here we go with another car 'for the wife' that ends up being 350+hp and a bit hard-edged for her... bummer!)

Do your math! The ETHANOL is 110 octane. Mix 10% ethanol with lower octane base stock by volume and you RAISE the octane of the base-stock! Similarly mixing 87 and 92 in your tank to make your own "mid grade" for about 5 cents a gallon cheaper than the station charges (and usually with 1 octane point better to boot!) Anyway, Ethanol adds octane so they can use cheaper base stock for the "high test" while at the same time having the same terminal octane, and meeting federal oxygenated fuels requirements! Trust me, you do NOT want to try to run straight ethanol in 20 degree weather! It does NOT like to atmoize in a carburettor! This is why the higher percentage blends of alcohol are now becoming popular. With fuel injection almost universal on the consumer market now, the drivability issues with more alcohol are easily "programmed" around. When it was only carbies out there, and only the VW Type 3 had EFI in the USA it was a different matter, I assure you! :^)

Oh maaaaan! This thread comes up, and I got a nice Nikon camera now. Unfortunately that turbo took a dump, and another is on it now with no water cooled center section. When I reinstall a water cooled center section, I will post them to my cardomain site. That thing turned red hot, and I found brazing material around the turbine housing. HOT HOT HOT! (Don't EVEN ask---it was my own stupidity, but succife to say floorboarding it to show you can do 12psi launches using retarded timing is really really really hard on your turbo!!!)

I used two Water Temperature Sensors for Datsun, and simply altered the tables using ET4D utility like mentioned in the Megasquirt Sticky from Moby. I installed the seecond temp sensor behind the throttle body inline with the throttle shaft so it's not impeding airfolw anymore than the TB shaft is. The spacer for the SX TB is a great place to mount stuff like that. I would have mounted it in the cold start injector position, but that's where the idle speed control air bypasses the throttle body now... he he he I second what Moby said, save to mention he has a sticky that details it all pretty well thanks to contributions from those of us experimenting with the system on our cars.

I can hook you up with an impound yard in the area you plan to settle in if that's accurate. You can get a towed ZX for around $200, and scavenge what you need from it. Same yard where I got most of the junk in the back yard now. A lightened flywheel will not cause a fail unless there is something else severely wrong. Mine has passed several times with a lightened (and super light actually) flywheel. One has a 13#, another has an 8#. Though the 8# car has to be in top tune, and the tech has to nuderstand the car reacts VERY quickly to throttle inputs (4.11 gearset!) My bud in Phoenix didn't tell the smog meatheads that during his test, and they jumpped his car right off the rollers into the dyno fan! I told him "get them to fix your hood" but he pussed out...

You know how I gobbered up my relay board with jumpers to make it all nice with the MS-N-S install. I will have to see how the jumpers need to be configured before I make any decisions. I have been away from the country most of the last 6 months, and sadly the red car languishes in neglect, half finished. I did charge the battery this afternoon though~!

That's actually a bit on the anemic side as Busa motors go! Rick Yaccouci mad e over 450 from his 1000cc Busa motor, and 619 with a 1350cc! At 10500, utilizing a Megasquirt fueling system., He used it to record several Land Speed Records. His main page is http://www.turborick.com, but for the life of me, I can not find his dyno charts there anymore, and most of his land speed stuff is well hidden now, including his 300+mph run at Bonneville two years ago. It was a nice WMV---definately a "carnk it up" moment on the ole laptop! As for stregnth of the parts, On Rick's first pass at Bonneville, he stripped the teeth off the drive chain sprocket. On the next run, the 1350 sheared the output flange off the crankshaft.... So he installed the "lower powered" 1000CC engine, and ran 245 or something like that. At the next outing, the 600+ hP{ unit was back in the "red dart" and he broke 311 on a two-way average. Funny thing was had he not sheared on the one run, his speed was well over 325 at the time, and by not making a return run under power, he lost out to having "fast time" of the meet. Which went to a V8 powered Streamliner with far more money and horsepower than I can comprehend, but only a 299 mph top speed!

Smog Techs sometimes don't know the first thing about the vehicles they are working on---especially when it comes to older cars. If they have even the slightest tinge of doubt, they will fail you and send you to a referee. Then they look even closer because if they pass a car that has been altered, and is a ringer from the BAR (Bureau of Automotive Repair) sent out to trick them for even an honest mistake, they get NAILED with loss of their liveleyhood (revocation of Smog License) and a hefty fine! You keep referring to "Aftermarket EFI" as if this whole charade is about actually CLEANING the air. It is NOT! Unless you can very carefully totally conceal the aftermarket ECU, and make it look TOTALLY BONE STOCK no matter how clean you run, you STILL FAIL!!!!!!! Actual functional efficiency is beside the point in this pointless charade here in the Golden State. (They call it "Golden" because that's the color of bread, and Bread most accurately relates the condition of the legislators that promulgate these rules: "Half or Fully BAKED!) What they want is old cars off the road, and if they had their way, you wouldbe buying latest technology every 7 years. Regardless of your cost. Hey! THEY don't have to worry about what it costs---they can simply raise more taxes... It's a sad disconnect between reality and the people on the hill in Sac'to... If you get lucky, and it pipes clean and the EGR vavle opens like it should and it passes the functional tests without attracting any attention to it, you are golden. But if you open you mouth and start saying "I did this and this and this..." you are only ASKING for trouble. I don't know if the BAR Computer verifies the VIN as to Turbo or not. I should be able to, and tell the smog tech that you have a non-stock engine in there when they see the turbo. What I would suggest is that you make the car as close to stock and stock looking as you can---using all the ZXT parts. Keep it registered as long as you can where you are currently unitl you are READY to do the test, or get busted and have to license in CA... If you are in LA, I have several ZXT's you can scrounge from, they are only parts donors for me! Get it looking sotck, and then keep your mouth SHUT, and take it to a Smog Station for a "PRE TEST" If it passes, and the Smog Tech will (HAS TO) tell you if it's going to pass. Then pay the money for the pre-test, have him run it through the test again officially, get the certificate receipt (they send that electronically to Sac'to) and THEN start the registration on your vehicle like you drove there YESTERDAY. This way, you will know ahead of time if you will pass or if you will have to go to a referee station. If you do, no biggie, there is some "engine swap" paperwork you will have to do---as long as you pass their visual and functional testings, they will re-issue a sticker for your door, that says you should be tested as an 81 ZXT, and you're through. It was (in the old days) easier to get a 73 Z with an LS6 454 Corvette Engine in it smogged than it was with a functioning 71 L24 in it! Once you get the BAR sitcker for engine change, you will be set from there on it. Like I said, if they catch it, you have a hassle and paperwork, and no way around it. Not a biggie, just more flaming hoops to jump through. If they don't, you then have the argument that "it passed the last time and nobody said anything about it!" argument. Your saving grace is you have an 81, and the turbo was available that year---so you may slide through un-noticed. Keep your fingers crossed. Look me up when you get here---I would welcome someone cleaning out some of this ZX trash from my back yard (so would the wife!)LOL

The heater return goes to the same spigot the lower radiator hose attaches to. There should be a fitting on there to make the ehater work again. BEWARE! Do not simply loop the head line to the inlet tothe lower radiator hose. As obvious as this sounds I see it all the time when a heater core fails, and then people wonder why they have "overheating" problems: they have created a 5/8" direct shunt around the radiator! You only need the 8mm recirculation line from the carbs for proper block preheating before the thermostat open up---using that head line is a good way to do it if you don't want to deal with a bypass line around the front of the head c luttering things up there.

Zhadman, if you are indeed in Ontario CA, let me know when you need the help. I know of someone within an hour drive of you (Carson CA) that has this very swap already accomplished, and know of many local sources in the LA area that already have gone through the ringer on this particular conversion and can help you out! E-Mail me and I can send you some photos of his conversion, now that they are on this laptop. He has already had his RB30 shortblock gone through, so you know where he is heading already... Thanks for the links.

Actually, you could not be further from the truth when discussing the emissions equipment you removed from your car! Each has a specific function that can NOT be addressed by the ECU at ALL unless you have some very compex subroutines in the way you sequence timing percylinder based on combustion temperatures and peak cylinder pressures... The EGR on the Z is a NOx reduction device, and MANY vehicle manufacturers still use it as an efficient way to decrease combustion temperatures at light throttle condition without punitive spark retard. UNless the engine is designed from the ground up to be of a Low NOx production design, there is no way around it to keep partial throttle NOx emissions lowere than by the introduction of EGR. The PCV is simply evacuation and captive disposal of the gearbox windage and promotes ring sealing. Nobody who makes serious HP runs without a real PCV, and in facs most drag racers on the professional level install SMOG PUMPS to use as a positive vacuum source for their engines. If they figure turniong a 5hp accessory is worth it, they must have found on a dyno the get back more than they consume with that particular mod! The Carbon Cannister is another example of emissions components that are not ECU controllable. It collects and provides a mechanisim whereby you can keep captive gasseous emissionf (gas fumes) from entering the atmosphere, and purges the accumulated stored contents of the cannister to the engine while running to keep from relesing them uncombusted and catalyzed. Every component you removed did nothing to increas your performance, and arguably did much to increase the pollution your vehicle emits. If you swap your engine over to the 240 you STILL must COMPLY with the regulations, you just aren't tested bi-annually. This does NOT exempt you. The ONLY people in the state of California withan Emissions EXEMPTION are people driving "E" plated governmental vehicles (nice how the lawmakers exempt themselves from the laws they promulgate, huh? "Let them eat cake!") and Military personnel stationed in the state who plate their cars in their stated home of record state. Even though you don't have to Bi-Annually test, remember the era of "REMOTE SENSING" is upon us, they are doing SHAKEDOWN tests of the equipment, and will start installing it in places of "noncompliance" to get you driving unaware. Not having to bi-annually test does NOT stop you from being flagged and run into any one of a number of roadside dyno emission cehck stations along the roadside all over the state during every summer... You fail at ANY of these remote points, chances are you WILL fail to "Gross Polluter Status" and will be PERMANENTLY reintroduced into the SMOG program (regardless of vehicle age) with an additional treat of having to test ANNUALLY at your own expense for the next five years after the infraction, after which you go back to the bi-annual testing FOREVER! EVERYONE else must comply with emissions standards. And with the new law that was passes (which I think takes effect in March) there MAY be a re-institution of INITIAL out-of-state Smog Testing to insure compliance before letting the vehicle initially register in the state. This would be a VISUAL as well as FUNCTIONAL test. Unless you meet a few criteria, but I am not sure how this would apply to out-of-state initial registrations... Long and short of it, you got to have all the stuff on your car to pass. Both a tailpipe AND a visual testing of the vehicle. Welcome to California. Don't forget to register and to Vote. Follow Rep Mountjoy's legislative agenda (R-Monrovia) he is a champion for automotive sanity in CA and has been for years. Support him, he is about the only gearhead in the legislature! Join and support SEMA they are the orginization that lobbied and got some lifesaving loopholes included in the last legislation that passed and is going into effect in March 2005.