Tony D

Please see my comment about Andy's Underpan coming off at speed!

My understanding it that both Sims 76 and Xander used the non-turbo Dizzy for the trigger. Matter of fact, Sims has just turboe'd his, and give seome details on using the signal straight from the reluctor in the stock ZX Dizzy. It's on this page or fairly recently. I used the 81 Turbo CAS for mine, and most others with turbos used the 82/83 CAS unit for triggering. I had no trigger problems with mine, it was all laptop related. I just have had ZERO time to revisit it in the past three months. Matter of fact, I am replying to this sitting in an office building in Taipei Taiwan right now... Looks good thusfar, though! Great Work.

Training Osama? Well we did train the Muj's in Afghanistan. Milt Bearden CIA Bureau Chief during that period personally regrets what we did only because it has been misused. From a guy who DID the training, imagine the ghosts he has to live with, how do you think he feels about justified steps to redress that "training error"? The point that once it's been learned, we really have no control what people use it for is very valid, and I persoanlly feel sad that Milt has such a hard time of if---but it was what was required at the time. You do what you need to do when fighting a war, and that's what we needed to do. That they took it to another extreme due to religous zealotry is another matter. What happens during wartime is usually redressed equitably at the ceassation of hostilities. (more on that later...) Remember that the Taliban, the Muj's all those boys had their butts KICKED by the Russians, regardless of their "proud fighting heritage". Until Uncle Sam came in and supplied them, they were residing themselves to the fact that they were done with their fight and were going to live out their lives in Pakistan because the Russians were too strong. Then, in a stroke of "get back at the bastards for VietNam" the US supplied them, trained them, and gave the Russkies a bit of their own medicine. The problem now is funding. Without these idiots being funded they will be snuffed out and defeated. Which is a reason for the tact the USA is taking in the war. As much shooting as snooping will be required. To prevent the terrorists from being funded (like we did for the Muj in Afghanistan, and the Russkies did to the HoChiMinh boys in VN) will require what normally would be considered terribly invasive investigative methods. This is required because of the way the Muslim World treats "charities"---many of them soilicit funds, but really don't keep books the way they should. Many links to "Martyrs Funds" and the like have been found from "legitimate" muslim charities operating in the USA. Without the investigative powers, there was no way to make this connection, and the funding would still be flowing. Like Hezbulloh in Beruit, they operate child care centres, typical charities, and...welll... other things as well. But who can turn down money for a child care centre, huh? Not to say 100% of your money (or any at all) will ever go for the centre. But hey, it's a charity! On another note, while Manzanar (yeah, from waay back in the post...) was for the Japanese, and they got offered reparations, my relatives of GERMAN and ITALIAN descent who were legal citizens for years by the time the war was declared were uprooted and sent to camps in North Dakota and the Midwest for the duration of the war. But the Japanese had a vocal lobby in congress, so they go a nice little payoff. And in many cases they didn't leave the state. Who mentioned that there is a little different treatment for different groups? We got the shaft on that one. My kid's college fund could use a boost. But many people took it for what it was: something that occurred in war, it was done, it was over, and you try to learn from it. As far as I can see, nobody is locking up people fromthe USA, they are usually from Islamic States captured on the battlefield (Gitmo)... It's like getting your hassle from a cop. Yeah, it's a pain, and it probably shouldn't happen, but what is the use of bellyaching after the fact? I can think that somewhere I am on some government list for making international cellphone calls from China to the USA and saying something like "CNC Bridgeport Mill" or referring to my compatriots in the states at assorted times as "Tom Bin Laden" or "Abdullah Allsama Bengali Viniard" then saying "semtex, C4, plastique"... Ever since I saw Bill Murray in "Wherre the Buffalo Roam" I have always had the urge to say "F... Hoover!" whenever I answer the phone in these situations. I digress. 8)

Good Information. That self-vulcanizing tape (we called it F-4 Tape in the USAF since most of the F-4 Phantoms were held together with it...) is a pain to get off once set. I like those split plastic wiring looms they use nowadays---you can still get to your wires when needed. As for the passenger's comment about sounding like you have a BOV instaled. I run open element off the turbo for now, and did for years on my triple-blow-through Mikuini setup. They are loud. Sounds like a jet turbine at idle. And when you let off the throttle, you may be getting a turbine stall or partial surge which makes a stuttering sound through the inlet. It is especially pronounced if you have simply a filter (or a tea strainer like I used...) on the turbine inlet... Later I ran a shortie glasspack on a remote filter out front, and it quieted it down just fine. My BOV/Compressor Bypass Valve waas routed into the inlet, so you didn't really hear it anymore when I lifted.

Ditto Here. I was seeing 162 degrees at idle under some circumstances. Not bad for only having moved about five miles total, huh? I am running a 160 degree thermostat, and tweaked enrichments to not come in at the temperatures they normally would. This was one of thereasons I went with MS, was I could tweak and run the lower thermostat without the fuel enrichment being on all the time. I have had very good luck with 160 thermos in the desert with carbbed cars, and figured "why not". I change to a 170 or 180 during winter, though. So I am somewhat diseased... You guys might consider the 160 thermo yourself to help performance if you are seeing the temps track similarly. Good Datalog, information good for everyone, not just MS users!

Two things I can say: 1)OY! Looks like it's time to upgrade my G-Tech to the new generation! 2)Egads, forget the graphs, that R33 subframe swap is beaut! Thanks for that link, M8!

backwards, rich... when signal from O2 sensor goes out of spec for more than 3 seeconds, ECU goes "full rich" and stays there until signal is rectified. You have false air or vacuum leaks in your system. Get out the spray bottle and find them.

"E" and "ET" are two different things altogether. I have never heard of an L24ET. L24E, yes, quite a few. THAT was available in the US market in the Maxima, true, but never in stock turboed form! The only L-Turbo engines I have ever been aware of were available in L28 and L20 form. The power of the L24 when turboed would not make any marketing sense. The L20ET was marketed as the same HP as an N/A L28, allowing for the same performance without the Tax Penalty of being over 2-Litres. The L28 would be king in the stock power wars at the time. I would not see any reason for a Turbo L24, as from most taxation perspectives, the L28 would not draw any higher a taxation than a turbo L24. I doubt the existence, but if someone shows some documentation, it would be interesting to see!

take a look in the megasquirt files site at yahoo. perry harrington devised a circuit that will isolate all the ignition noise on the input section for the board altogehter. he will make the circuit and install it on your board for $50, but the parts are far cheaper than that, and installation is fairly easy. remember I had a problem that was traced to my LAPTOP and the way it handled the com. Who knows why, but it did. I haven't tuned yet, due to similar jumping, but as long as I just download a program into it, and don't hook up my laptop, it runs fine. The minute I hook it up, it starts doing crazy things. I'm sure you read my travails in the turbo forum under the MS sticky. But the resistor may solve the interference. One thing I did was install a stereo power filter on the input power line, taken directly from the battery positive connection, as well as on the switched power input line (yeah, I wass reachin'...) and while it did not solve MY problem, it DID make the power traces on the O-Scope MUCH cleaner. I used the big black box rated at like 20A from Radio Shack... Good Luck!

Jon, what I did was update you on his current thinking which isn't necessarily on the website. he "thought" he needed the external gate. SO after a $1200+ custom manifold, the cost of the gate, sevearl flanges, etc etc etc he's got it all together, and wonders if all the money was needed to be spent at all. I have no vested interest either way, I just wonder how much money is spent on all these projects that need thiss or that, when in reality, properly engineered pieces are replaced needlessly. I would also not say in any way I characterized JeffP's work as "ghetto" anything. Matter of fact, if anything it's overbuilt for the application, to ensure long term reliability. But taking his lead, and applying his already proven path, you can eliminate about $10,000 in development costs he went through. Which is the reason he has the website up there: so anybody can use his model, and simply bolt together a particular HP level using his experience as a guide. I also note you are now at 400 to 500HP level, instead of the 350 you mentioned that evening... Building to 300-350 is different than 450-500 in both materials, and costs involved.

you're correct, Z-Tard. My experiments with some static pressure probes shows the vents on a 280Z hood are about the farthese back you can go without hitting the higher pressure area caused by the diffuser action of the upright windshield at speed. Take a close look at the positioning of the 280ZX Turbo Vents, and porportionally you will see they are actually closer to the back of the engine, relative to the 280Z due to a better windshield angle on the ZX, and consequently the lower pressure at the base of the windshield, and smaller high-pressure area on the ZX. Somewhere long ago I actually drew pressure maps from what I read on my 240 with the static pressure probes attached. I have no idea where they went---that was like 15 years+ ago! I had much less life then, amd far more time on my hands for such foolishness! Anyway, my understanding of the 280vents was more for radiant heat removal during slow-speed than for high-sepeed venting. Though the pressure under a hood at speed (say 100mph) is considerable, so I would expect a good stream of hot air being forced out through these vents, and mixing with the slipstream across the hood of the vehicle before being dammed up once again at the windshield. This may sound funny, but on the old Buicks and etc at Bonneville in the 50's there was a common tactic of cutting 12" diameter holes in the firewall, and ducting that firewall area through the interior of the vehicle, to the rear windshield area using stovepipe! In one instance related to me by Dave Bearden, their vehicle showed no appreciable increase in speed from one year to the next after putting in a big hemi engine, of about 2X the HP from the previous year, sticking around 190mph. After doing some "yarn studies" and watching the car at speed, Dave went into Wendover to a hardware store, got some stovepipe, and did the above modification. The speed went from 190 to 237, and they got their record. This story also involves an engine fire, and the pipes burning through towards the end of the return run... but that's for another topic. Since then, that specific modification (termed in the SCTA Rule Book as an 'air vent' or 'pressure vent') has been specifically disallowed in all classes. Now you have to figure out how to accomplish it without using the easy piping. It becomes increasingly difficult to cheat when you have guys out there who have literally been doing it for 50+ years! 8)

DON'T! I have seen guys with 40 years on flatheads walk by a roadster at teh GoodGuys show, not giving the engine a second look, unitl I say something like "Hey! That's EFI!" Usually it's "No, those are strombergs, son." And then you ask what the little black switch is on one of the throttle plates, and BOY, the sunglasses come off, people stoop, scrutinize, and "I'll be damned" usually gets uttered a few times. Unless you look closely, you can miss it. Unfamiliarity is not stupidity. We have all been there.

How about he re-hot tanks it for FREE since it shouldn't have been painted in the first place? He screwed up, it's not like it will cost him anything to strip it off again... Aircraftstripper would work, but if he hot-tanks it, take it over someplace and have it hard-black annodized (milspec coating)---that will increase the heat transfer abilities of the aluminum almost 1.5X! Emissivity is greatly helped with black hard annodizing.

"Lag Inherent"? Maybe for stuff made during the 60's from OEM, but not today. Most monster turbos make 2-3psi already at 2K rpm. JeffP's does, and he's at 500HP+ now. Lag comes primarily from improper driving technique, and unrealistic driving expectations from a small engine. For the added $$$ and complexity of a second turbo, you could install modern engien controls and turbocharging components and experience FAR better response. At FAR less cost.

Why do you "need" an external Wastegate? JeffP went to 500HP and still had the stock wastegate actuator on the car. After changing to the external unit, he started wondering if he "needed" it at all! And in fact is considering bolcking it all off to check the performance of the car with his 600HP tune just to see if it was possible without all the money and fuss. See, he laments swapping to the External before even TRYING to make his HP number without it. So I would say unless you are headed north of 500HP, an internal will do you just fine, and save you considerable $$$ and Headaches!

Concur, Hydraulic Ram! I would go with a Hydraulic Ram that is hand-operated with a separate pumping unit. That way the cylinder/actuator is easily switched to a powered hydraulic pumping unit. This way, you can use an electric pumping unit, or an air-powered pumping unit to lift/lower it (as well as pumping it up by hand) If you choose Electric or Air, if your utilities go out, you are SOL. WIth Hydraulics, you can still go by hand, or swap between any of the trhee motive forces for the pumping head (if you use actuator-only). Harbor Freight has some very inexpensive 4 and 10 ton air-powered pumping units for hydraulic rams, and their 4/10 ton porta-power kits become usefull for scavenging parts when you start fabbing stuff like this. Good Luck!

Eric, Chances are they were running a four-barrel Air-Door which looks just like a carburettor. I would bet they are EFI cars. My 260 Project looks something like that. Two 550CC injectors in the float bowls of the carburettors, hidden wiring, hidden sensors.... Muahahaha... Now even Moon Equipment is selling Stromberg Replicas so o9lder Flathead Fords can have two injectors per "throttle body" and EFI, but LOOK like old-school Triple or Quad Strombergs complete with the littel "ship vent" stacks... If in doubt, check it out. Some guys are very adept at cultivating a look. A non-EFI look.

Amen, Chris, Amen! Pick up the top of a friend's skull and place it back on top of him while wiating for the cops and ambulance to arrive tends to change your prospective of even a "little friendly game of chase" between friends. While YOU may not take the confrontation very seriously, and only see it as "friendly fun" due to being totally mismatched in HP terms (say, a 72 Chrysler Newport 440 Convertible and a 69 VW Beetle with a 1500 Single Port and 4 200# occupants...)---on the street you never know what the OTHER guy will do. And that is a receipe for Tradgey. While some call it preaching, others look at it as trying to prevent others from ever having to do something that they will/can never forget, and could live without. Believe me, I could live without that memory. I could live very happily without that "life experience". Amen, Chris, Amen!

Just an observation to throw in: IN 1986, RS Okinawa was running 444RWHP as recorded on a Bosch Eddy-Current Dyno in a N42 head, N42 Blocked Twin Turbo setup in a 75 Fairlady Z. This engine utilized Blowthrough Carburetion, and when asking the Owner about it, was simply told "It's what's available". There were no P90's available in the JDM market! "Best" is totally subjective dependent on the market! EMISSIONS is what drove head design for the US market. THe N42 was available with several different chamber configurations outside the USA. And was available FAR longer than in the USA. I have several 77 and 79 N42 heads I harvested in Japan. Some with monster Porting and Welded Combustion Chambers... Anyway, remember "performance" was not necessarily the decision to be made. "Performance within required emissions parameters" is the actual phrase that should be used. I agree with the comparison made earlier using the smog choked 76 Vette and the LT1. No comparison when going for a performance application. When it comes down to it, "what's available" is what you will work with. I wouldn't waste any effort nor would I fret about percieved advantages or drawbacks to this head or that. Unless you are running for a national championship, a land speed record, or some serious competition I would go with what you have within reason. One of the worst things a new person can do with a new car project is spend a lot of money on what everybody tells him he "needs", leaving little else for improving the other parts of the vehcile. Like John C says, 160hp on STOCK parts. My EFI L28 in a 2+2 dynoed at 147, runs a 15.30 with my 335# holding it back, and CONFOUNDS those who look at it. You don't need a lot of speed parts. Optimimze what you already have first, learn to drive it well, and optimize handling and control and LASTLY, add horsepower. Though when I was young and stupid (a comment on myself, not anyone else) I build stupid horsepower into ill handling vehicles. I have MUCH more fun now with something that handles the power I HAVE, and can still build stupid power if I want to go crazy... (Bonneville 2006/7 204+mph anyone? The check book is getting warmed up now... )

All I can say is I was very disappointed at how the underpan fit on the Bonneville Car. I was underneath the car last night while changing an oil pan, and was looking at ways to properly attach a bellypan to a 260Z. When I saw Boyd's Alumatub Underpan, I thought "Tha'ts what OURS should have looked like! Surrrre, I'll just go have Marcel make one for me... Riiiight! I really like the way the back portion of ZR8ED's pan looks. VEry nice, our pan for Bonneville was not nearly as clean, and was held up by (uh, forgive me) bailing wire... Anyway, I havne't done any Z-Yarn studies, but I have some Dywer Manometers to use for some static pressure stations you can attach to the car at various positions. The pressure that builds up in front of the windshield is quite substantial. For the street, you guys have it made, you can do ALL SORTS of stuff we are PROHIBITED from doing at Bonneville. Like ducting underhood pressure to the Wheel Wells (someone mentioned low pressure there: RIGHTO!) You wanna increase airflow across the radiator, make some big holes in the fender wells to allow stagnant underhood air to vent to a low pressure area behind the wheels while going down the road. A full bellypan would also make this necessary (or at least some louvres along the spine for letting out exhaust heat!) The bellypan WILL make the floor of the car hot! You need to carefully balance airflow across the undercar components to keep them from raidating heat into the floor and into the car. JohnC mentioned this in his post in July... Aerodynamically, the belly pan and blocking the radiator opening helps with top speed quite a bit! Even more than running that full exhaust... Thought, on the street, a side-exit muffler would be acceptable... I digress. The yarn thing really isn't that difficult to do. Just make sure your paint is appropriately adhered, and DON'T BY YARN IN SKEINS! Use "Latch Hook Yarn" which is ALREADY precut in bundles of like a thousand threads for making carpets. Not that I ever stole latch hook yarn from my mother to yarn up my 62 Microbus after reading some atricles that said your head temperature went up 15 degrees with the windows open... (I am truly diseased, and have been so for a loong time!) I have some 8mm movies on Kodachrome of me driving my bus with about a million Blaze-Hunter's-Orange threads scotch taped to the side! (It was the 70's what can I say? Mom had som bizzare ideas about what colors were acceptable for carpets well into the 80's...)

With a weld like that, I would not worry about the integrity of the cherry picker. With what I have seen lift engines gobbed together with a bizzbox while the welder was half drunk, you could probably pass for a cherry picker to lift components for the space shuttle... Though then what it looks like on the outside isn't what they check...

Gads guys, elimination and troubleshooting of this problem (at least the ignition module portion of it) is so easy. Buy a can of freez-it. When it stalls, pull the center terminal wire of the distributor, and have someone crank it to see if you have a 1/2" spark to ground. If not, pop off the cap, spray freezit on the inductive pickup in the distributor. Put it back together and check again. If you have spark now, it's the reluctor, if not, then... Spray the hell out of the module and crank again---iof it starts sparking it's the ignition module. If you have spark at step one, when you first pull the center terminal, then it's not electrical (spark generation at least), and don't waste any more effort along those lines. Bad black boxes are common on ZX's. Very common. Originals are usually good for 200K+ miles, but time and heat take a toll, and eventually components fail. Nothing lasts forever, save the Nissan L-Block...

I could ship you any number of good US-Spec Turbo Manifolds (I PM-ed Frank this information) if you want one. I would be interested in seeing how the failure occurred, and what the "bellows" looks link in between the separate pieces. I would guess lining them up during intitial installation would have a big effect on longevity. The US manifolds are fine if you clearance the bolt hoses so they don't get into a big shear loading. If you want to do a swap for your broken one for a good US/JDM spec unit, let me know. (I have like three laying on the back shed slab right now!) I would like to see that manifold in person. It's really got me curious!

Yeah, that is an OEM manifold, and looks very similar to diesel truck manifolds of similar vintage. I would posit the joints are for the expansion that comes from continued on-boost operation like you would see in Europe. The manifold is much less susceptible to warpage from the exhaust heat (remember many people claiming warpage as a reason to ditch the OE manifold?). Like Frank said, the driving conditions in Europe are such that you could be under boost for an HOUR at a time. Quite a bit more strenuous on equipment than what we EVER would see here in the USA, or the JDM. It is very reminiscent of high-boost truck manifolds that spend hours over the road here in the US delivering groceries---the segmentation makes sense for the conditions. I was unaware of the manifold's existence. I would like to find the fiche where it comes from, as the oddity nature of it makes me curious... I would go for a stock JDM or US Market version if the parts are unavailable. But I can't believe a stock Euro car would actually have a non-computer controlled distributor. ECCS controls spark, and under the Euro conditions, I would have to believe the knock control of the ECCS system would be far better than the retard cannister on a conventional "spark scatter special" distributor! As for external wastegate, remember JeffP was making well over 400HP with an internal wastegate and ported stock manifold (and I posit he would have gone further had he gotten access to one of these manifolds....). He was reporting 23psi of backpressure in theexhaust manifold at 23 psig of manifold boost which is a phenomenal figure for a street turboed car (very efficient!) Sad about your broken pieces. I'm sure somewhere they exist, but I would have no way to find them. Odd it says "82Z" on the manifold, too. Odd indeed!

Bayport Machine, Laporte Texas. Harold Steiffel was the shop foreman when they resurected my Elliott ET18 Turbocharger casing with a machined insert so trick, even the OEM decided to send a broken casting in for them to reverse-engineer their fix! Like Harold told me: "We can fix anything, just a matter of how much you want to pay!" For the record, they repaired a broken casting that Elliott wanted $22,000 and 26 weeks leadtime. Their repair cost $2200 dollars, and was done in a week, and on the engine running before Elliott could even confirm their production schedule! Since you mentioned DFW, I figured Bayporte would be the place to ask...