ZR8ED

Definately leave the throttle shafts alone. If they have been sitting that long, it is a good idea to strip them down... more importantly strip out all of the gaskets.. (just don't touch the gaskets for the throttle shafts) Soak the whole thing in carb cleaners. I used the WD40 with the red nozzle hose.. it fits into many of the passeges.. and when spraying it can help you figure if any are plugged. I also used lots of water in both directions through every single passages I could get at. After using water, let dry, and spray all the passages, insides with some penatrating oil (so nothing seizes up going back in) The floats are extremely critical.. far more than most know.. you need them to operate (distance to closed position and distance to fully open ) exactly what the manual says. dcoe 40 18's 7mm closed 15 open. measured including the gasket. it doesn't measure to fully closed either... it measures the point in which the float arm lightly touches the needle valve. 1mm difference is a big difference. Float heights are critical in setting rich/lean conditions.. a 140 main jet with a high float can flow more fuel than a 140 main jet with a low float level. it can make tuning a nightmare. make sure the carbs are mechanically balanced. again accuracy counts. spend the time there with the carbs off the car. it will make the initial tuning much easier. again. 1mm difference between throttle linkage lengths is too much... it makes low end driveability suffer. Thats all I got off the top of my head. Good luck

one other thing. put new plugs in or at least clean yours very well. It is extremely difficult to trouble shoot your plugs if they have already been fouled. It can take a very long time to see changes in any tuning you've made as deposits slowly burn off...if at all... And for the TPS I was not aware that the turbo had a two wire. Yes ours have the 3 wire, and we were only using two of them. The whole tps problem came after we both started modding our cars.. both were dead stock when we got them. Mine happened after I put on headers.. it would not run after the exhaust swap.. all done the same day!.. very frustrating.

One other little trick I learned. The datsun B210 valve guide seals are also used when using a very high lift cam. they are approx 3mm shorter and allow a little more clearance for the extra lift of the cam.... I know its a 4 cyl, but they fit exactly the same, yet have a different part #.. it may not help, but it is an example of different parts that fit perfectly on our valve stems. why I asked about the turbo was is if the turbo had a bad seal, it usually blows out the tailpipe. For the plugs to get fouled, oil would have to be coming from the compressor side, and if it did, the compressor wheel, as well as most of the pipe from the turbo to the intake would have oil on it as well. I also had a brand new engine in the Z many years ago.. smoked at idle right from day one.. now in my case, I found that some of the valve seals were not even installed!! We installed the rest of the valve seals (found at the machine shop.. he didn't think they were important... and wala.. no more smoke.

First. I read every post here, and I may have some ideas not presented thus far. 1st. Never assume new parts are good just because they are new. If everything in the engine was working fine, and you change 1 new part, chances are its the new part. (assuming nothing else was changed.. or broken, or bent etc etc..) 2nd. Crank case ventalation is important to these engines.. simply leaving the vent pipe open to atmosphere is not good enough.. Granted at idle it should not make much difference.. 3rd. which head gasket to you have. Felpro makes one for turbo and one for NA. both look the same.. the turbo one has a few more holes in it to allow oil and coolant to pass from the head to the block. 4th. why do you need to pull the head to look at the seals? there is not much to look at with the head off the car, and with the head off, you can no longer trouble shoot ideas with the car running... unless you think the valve or the seat is not right. 5th. My buddy and my self have 77 and 78 280's. We both had the same problem with our tps. we mearly left the rear most wire off (pretty sure.. its been many years since we had the prob) my buddies car is still running this way. it seems the ecu doesn't like screwy readings, and it prefers no reading to wierd ones. BTW we both had weber big throat throttle bodies. ( we eventually found out it had something to do with CA emissions. either the ecu the tps, throttle body, or the afm.. not sure which..) both of our cars are Canadian as far as we know it though... It took a long time to figure it out, but we have had no problems since unhooking the last wire.. last ditch attempt for the turbo seals, is to look at the turbo itself.. is there oil on the compressor side.. or even the exhaust side?.. the shaft?... Just putting out ideas for ya.... Good luck, and don't worry too much about the tps.. worry about it later..

Where did you see this car???? I saw this car labour day weekend here in Toronto! Is there a carbon copy of it? (sorry pun intended ) ??????????????

BWAHAHAHAHAA This guy is Canadian! I was stuck in traffic during the CNE two weeks ago, and I was infront of him for a 1/2 hour (watching the airshow since I was stuck in traffic!) On lakeshore blvd!!!! HAHAHAHA It is a very well done kit. he really blew it with the blower on it!!! it had a stocko engine in it. not even turbo'd. Oh and it is a honda prelude. He went from cool to ricer in an instant!

Yea I've been talking with Bernard. That is where I got some of my ideas from. I know little to nothing about stock ecu's Not sure about your set up. you say your using 370 merkur inj. what are the stock inj sizes? L28 right? I'm using a VG motor, and the turbo VG injectors which I believe are 330cc (can't recall for sure) I kinda see what you mean about the ecu correcting the mid range. I suppose I should try upping the fuel pressure and not adjust the boost, and see how the mid range driveability is affected if at all. I have an aftermarket a/f ratio monitor that uses the stock o2 sensor. I've now learned that they are not much better than a toy, but it is better than no monitor. Thanks.

Hey guys. I'm looking at upping the boost in my z a few more psi. I'm running 11 psi now and am running an a/f ratio of 13:1 (cutting it close on safety I know) I have a large i/c and a free flow exhaust and a larger throttle body, and a t3/t4 hybrid turbo high flow fuel pump and an aftermarket fuel pressure reg. I'd like to run it to 13-15 psi. if I can. I have the fuel pressure sitting at or near stock. I'd like to up the fuel pressure a bit to eek out a few more cc's of fuel I've been inquiring into some info on burning a new eprom for my z31 ecu. Currently the ecu is from a 1986 300zxt 2+2. and it is stock. Do you think I can reprogram it to give me some more fuel from the stock inj? enough for what I want? and is it worth the effort? Any ideas? suggestions. An aftermarket ecu is out of the question as well as the jim wolf setup or even the msa unit. my engine failure this summer put me way over budget for this year, and maybe next, so I'm looking at some stop-gap ideas to hold me over for a while.

I bought the car from a guy who helped start the Ontario Z Car association way back in 1991. We did the first newsletters, membership, etc.. We have been friends ever since. He was trying to fix up this 240 he got from an uncle. He spent most of the summer working on it, and gave up just as he was finishing it. Now his job and his young family have taken precedence, and the car has sat for almost 12 years. The car came out 2 years ago for a new engine (old engine was 13:1 and needed race fuel to run) The electrical was butchered and never finished. He needs the space and said he probably will never finish it. I've bugged him for almost 10 years to finish it or sell it to me. Now I have it and plan to finish it, and enjoy it. Nothing too fancy, just a nice fun cruiser. I intend to keep the investment as low as possible so I can afford to keep it. Heres the next update. I have the Su's are now on, and am setting up the fuel lines. The carbs are working beautifully (mechanically speaking) I'm going to drain the tank and add some fresh gas and change the fuel filters. I just might get it to fire this weekend. Weather permitting.. even we here in the great lakes area are being warned to batten down the loose objects for when the hurricane stirs up the weather along the eastern seaboard. I guess they think it is going to affect even us.

The car is running great. I have identified my weak link. FUEL. or not enough of it. 11 psi and that is it. it is running at 13:1 a/f.. and this is too risky for me. I've got several hundred k's on the engine now, so Its time to bring it back and put in the synthetic. Castrol syntec 5W 50. (recommended by the guys who did the engine work.) Next step is to give it some more fuel. Any ideas on an adjustable fuel pressure regulator. do I keep my aftermarket pressure regulator and get a rising rate that is on the return side? Not too sure. I'm not going to go too nuts with this project.. just a few more lbs of boost.. (yeah I know I've said that before..) I've got a really good Mallory unit. and a 70gph 125psi fuel pump. I can bump the fuel up slightly over stock, but that is going to make me rich accross the whole rpm range. I"m going to start some research and find out some options. As for the other engine. its still dead, and a mystery. I've tired with that mess, and I just want to move on. I'll let the engine builder and machine shop come up with their own conclusions. In the mean time, I've driven the car every day and been having a great time doing it. I've forgotten how much attention it gets cruising around... several race offers and many more stop light challenges.. Its probably a high 13 or low 14 sec car at the moment. Feels pretty strong though. If I could launch it just right, I'm sure I'd be surprised. Even just driving around easy, I have plenty of torque, and I haven't reved it past 5k. I'll keep everyone posted on the results. Thanks.

Hey guys. Now that my ordeal with my 280 has pretty much wrapped up, I'm concentrating more on my new 240 that I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I now have a completely rebuilt brake system in it. Everything works great, and the E brake is freed up and working nicely. I have sorted through and cleaned the interior bits and pieces, and I have everything I need. I just need some carpets for it. I cleaned the seats up, and I think I'll through some seat covers on them to clean it up. They have some vinyl cracking on them. Not too bad though. The dash cleaned up nice. it has two minor cracks in it. The sunroof works good and has a good seal. I'm still sourcing a complete wire harness for it. the electrics are pretty brutalized. I got the wipers working nicely. They were seized up a bit from lack of use. I've been greasing all the suspension fitting, checking the wheel bearings etc. and the rest of the suspension is looking good. It has an aftermarket front sway bar, and has a nice stock looking rear sway bar on as well. We also got the fuel pump working again, so I should be able to fire the engine soon. I sold the triple webers off the car to shoulder some of the expense of the car. I have a nice set of SU's being prepped up this week. I dug around in my parts bins and found a nice set of head lights with mounting brakets and trim rings for the car. this is a bonus as the stock lights are not properly mounted. They also use the removable bulb style halogen lights. The chassis while looking rough, is sound. the welds are sloppy and slightly overkill, but it is plenty solid. 16 guage sheet metal floors! The cage is a 6 point chromemoly roll cage with side bars. Its a bit of squeeze to get in, but not too bad. They will definately have to come out as I get older! I have not fired the engine as of yet, but everything looks good, and it turns over just fine. Compression is good. The steering rack and rod ends are good. It looks like it will be a strong runner once I get this electrical stuff out of the way.. IT has lots of 12 guage wire in it! some house wire connections as well!! I really need a wire harness to get right.. I'll get some pics hopefully this week.

Hey all. An update. I have the car at home, and I am figuring out what I need to do and not do. I have the brakes all finished (rear cyl were 110.00 each!!!) The electrics are in pretty bad shape. I have more of the interior than I thought. The body has some chips and a few little bubbles showing on the car... nothing too serious. wheels and tires look good. I got a battery for it, so we can try and start her up. (day or two away still) The floors are not done very nicely, but are plenty strong, and in good condition. All in all I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm only interested in making it safe, so I can do some cruising with it, and let my GF drive it from time to time. I'll post some pics later this week of it.

Well its back!! I am now running the jspec vg30et. using my manifolds, turbo, intake, etc etc.. boost is set to 10psi. (not bad) All new seals, gaskets, belts etc. new alternator as well (mine had oil in it, and caused some issues when I came to pick up the car... after a test drive, it had only 8 volts ) Its a long story, that I'll tell when I have some spare time.. still unsure of the original cause of the failure. I'm running some mineral oil in the car for a couple of hundred K then I'll change the oil and switch to synthetic. Then I may start playing a bit with some more tuning.. (no more shop time that takes away from driving the car) I want to enjoy the car before our season is done.. Thanks guys for the responses and help!

Nice! Welcome to the new wheel club! Lots of us here on the hybridz site this year...

Check the pics of my car. I have been using the lawn edging for many years now. I like it. I don't worry too much about speed bumps with it...if it gets too scraped up (mine is 2" off the ground) I just replace it. I too had the rubber stuff..it folded under the car at high speed. Mine is attached with SS bolts, and some complain it looks too tacked on, or too racy with my clean looks of the rest of the car. Too bad for them... Has held just fine at the high side of 140mph for years now...

Well Progress is being made, and I've been spending most of my time investigating this failure. The other day, the mechanic who built the engine went over the situation with me, and the machine shop is going to get in on this. All of the tolerances were absolutely dead on, and the same across all 6 pistons. All six were the same to 2 decimal places. The engine was built to the middle of the nissan spec range.. ie if the tolerance spec for the crank was 2 thou under to 2 though over, mine was built right down the middle. The reason being he didn't want to build the engine too tight, but not as loose as one of my race prepped engines from before. Now what is done is done. But we are all pretty curious as to what may have happened. The crank journal is polished, so everyone is in agreement it was not oil starvation.. there is no black or blue marks on the crank. the rods and crank were used, but were minor polished, shotpeened, and everything was balanced. ARP rod bolts were used, and everything else was genuine nissan parts. ie bearings, seals etc... Esentially what happened was the lower bearing spun and stacked itself under the top bearing which gave it enough clearance to allow the piston to reach the cyl head. (piston visually looks ok.. rings are good etc... What kind of things can cause a spun bearing?.. on a rebuilt engine? very little metal was found in the bottom end, and everyone was mildly suprised to see how little there was in the pan...etc.. (engine had 2500km's on it, and had 1000kms before the first oil change.) I was only running approx 9psi of boost. I ran some 15 psi runs in 5th gear as I was setting up the boost controller. The engine temps have always been reading dead in the middle of the guage, oil pressure is approx 20psi at idle and 70 at WOT. My O2 sensor reads 1.1 volts (near stoich) and at 3Krpms and part throttle, reads full rich (4.8 volts) Could someone give me some basics on what could have caused the failure.. we are really scratching our heads at this point. When we have some more time on our hands, we will finish disecting the old engine down and looking at more of the insides... Thanks.

I thought it sounded steep, but this shop supports our Z club, loves working on Z's, and specializes in high performance work on highly modded and exotic cars in Toronto. I've had crush/bend custom exhaust systems built front to back for me for under 300.00. with custom y pipes etc.. This would not be a SS system. He is talking about aluminized mild steel, and includes the downpipe, all the way back to a SS high quality brand name muffler. Maybe I should get some more info from him? Its way beyond my skills to build it, but I suppose the most expensive part is the labour to make and fit it under the car. maybe I should just replace the down pipe and the stock 300zxt part of the system, and leave my 2.5" part of my custom exhaust alone.. it is only 1 year old..and seems fairly free flowing minus the reduction of the diameter to make the bends. Any more thoughts? this will be wrapping up next week, and I want the car done so I can enjoy the end of the summer with it.

Awsome story! Nice twist at the end.. Nice to see people can still be honest and decent..

Well since I'm depressed a bit about my engine woes, I'll wallow in the past.... I hit a calculated 147mph in 5th gear@7400rpm. 2.9L N/A 280 with serious engine mods, and moderate aero mods ie car lowered to 2.5" off the ground, front belly pan, one side mirror, no antenea or marker lights, mild rear flare, smoothed out front end, Calc's were based on RPM, wheel dia, tranny and diff ratios etc... The Z felt pretty solid, as I waved out the window as I passed the Ferrari I was racing with at 135mph!

You'd think being at the drag strip is safe from cops. Well just west of Toronto, the police set up a drag net, and stopped and inspected every car leaving the drag strip. Geez! they want people to stop racing on the street, yet they wait at the exit of the race track and harrass everyone on the way out! The very next weekend, some of the guys did not want to go to the track for fear of being harrassed again... its ok though..they went to some back streets to race instead...at least there were no cops... What are they trying to do?... get everyone to congregate at one location so they can catch everyone, and get a profile of all the "race cars" so they can single them out later on the street? I know.. it sounds kinda paranoid, but it sure stirred up more sh** around the GTA. Damned if you damned if ya don't... nice situation to live with eh? Just drive it more underground...

I've done some casual searches here for some info leading to dyno proof of a larger exhaust for a turbo engine. It looks like it is going to cost approx $1100 for a 3" mandrel bent custom made exhaust..this price is very approx because it includes the down pipe, and of course he said the price may vary slightly because of the custom nature of my engine swap. I'd like some opinions if this mod is worth the money? I will probably have it done, I'd just like some opinions if I'm an idiot to spend the money or to not spend the money.. and no I don't have a money tree in my backyard...maybe a money weed...but certainly no tree!

I know that the 3" is preferable for a turbo system over a 2.5", but I'm wondering the effects of one over the other. I have a 2.5' system on my car..but I'm using the 3ft of the stock 300zxt exhaust.. (like a cat back system without the cat) Car is in the shop, and everyone is telling me my exhaust is much too restrictive for my t3/t4 hybrid turbo..and that I have too much lag..I do have more lag than when I had my t3 on it, but i was expecting more lag, so i don't know if it is normal or not... 2500rpm if I floor it, boost will only come up to 3-6psi..and I wont' get full boost till just past 3500rpm..approx...maybe 4 sec..??? I'm not sure if i should go through the hassle of replacing it with a mandrel bend 3" system? would I notice a difference, or are we just talking a few hp? It does feel laggy...if i floor it at 4k, it comes on pretty hard... My hp goals have just been drastically changed (see post in engine problems forum) I'm not sure if it I'll see enough gains to justify it.. anyone dyno'ed before and after?

I got it right between the eyes today. Engine is done..finished..kaput..dead..gone..*$@! Crank is worn out of spec, one rod needs resizing, cyl bore is damaged, one head has a partial piston imprint in it. Got some $ estimates.. safe to say, I might as well rebuild the entire thing and start again... Mechanic refuses to install critical repaired parts in a high performance engine..(I think he knows me hehehe) Well the car will be up and running by Sept 5th. I am going to throw in a JDM engine, throw my intake and turbo on it, flywheel and clutch.. water pump, and anything else we can verfiy as good off my other engine...and a new timing belt and tensioner. I'm not wasting any more time on this car. Pissed off may be an understatement at this juncture.

Well guys the verdict is in... Spun #5 bearing.. chewed it up actually...sound was piston hitting top of cyl head... How the Friggin $*&@!@* did that happen on a brand new engine?...I'm starting to think that maybe the oil in the pan was sloshing around and then it starved the pump for a second... Well the motor is out of the car at this point.. nothing upon preliminary examination looks damaged beyond repair,.. but then we haven't measured any of the tolerances yet either.. I hope to find out more today or monday.

Sorry Sparky. I have 4 sets of SU's already.