rome03

I forgot to add that I was looking at the tps sensor and it has three pins in it but the plug from the harness only had 2 metal connectors and two wires going into the plug. According to the FSM this connection has two readings, "idle" and "full throttle", and the metal connector for one of those is missing in the plug.

Thanks for clearing that up Seattle. In the mean time, before I go and spend money on megasquirt, I bought the Innovate mtxl wideband sensor/gauge since I knew I was going to need it regardless. I disconnected the old O2 sensor and replaced it with the wideband sensor (which isn't connected to ecu), so I'm running without an O2 sensor. Here are the initial AFR readings. This is when I was getting 15 mpg on the freeway at a steady 80 mph. It gets really rich at 80. I was also getting headaches from all the fumes when i would drive out of town since i was doing about 80 the whole way on my trips. Cruising with no load 80 mph = 11.2 70 mph = 13.3 60 mph = 12.6 Almost anything under 55 at cruise with no load 13.5 Under boost pretty much all gears would go from 10.5 at WOT and lean out as revs increase. Then I started playing with the AFM and monitoring the AFR readings. Here is what its at now. Ive been looking for the stock settings online and the FSM but I can't find them. Im going off of what I've seen in other posts. I don't know what the limit for running lean under boost is or how lean it should be at cruise. Cruising with no load 80 mph = 13.3 70 mph = 15 60 mph = 14 Almost anything under 55 at cruise with no load is 15.5 Under boost at WOT all gears would go from 10.5 at WOT and lean out to about 12 as I hit the redline. So the fuel mixture didn't change much at WOT but I did get it to lean out for cruising. The idle was really lean at about 19.5 but would idle ok. I adjusted the idle air screw a bit to bring it down to 18 and it idles well.

1978 280z. Full interior and spare tire. Rolling on heavy Diamond racing wheels. Without me in it........2650

I agree with you 100%. I want to do it so I can learn about it and stop having to pay or rely on someone to do it. Plus, I think its awesome knowing you took on a task that you knew little about and took the time to research and accomplish it successfully. Only problem is that it is my daily driver so I would hate to have it sitting there for weeks if something went wrong. Also, the shop isn't wiring a new harness for 250, he's charging 250 to connect the stock harness the the MS ECU plugs. Seattle just want to make sure I understand this correctly..... A: Use the long MS harness and wire it directly to all the sensors, replacing plugs and connections as necessary (as the guy mentions new plugs etc or soldering to really short pigtails, most new plugs will come with short pigtails or crimps and a plug). Essentially your connections will be only at the accessory, i.e. to take off injectors you will have to physically remove the injector plug. If bought the MS harness from DIYauto and wanted to use that harness and wire it to all the sensors and injectors, you're saying i could cut the oem harness and solder it to MS harness at the sensor or I could replace the plugs and not have to cut the stock harness at all right? cgsheen, I would like to have a new harness as well since I could clean up the engine bay a bit. I read something about getting noise into the wiring system and having a shielded harness but I don't understand that concept..... How does it work? Would I run into problems if I used the harness for MS that they sell at DIYauto?

Thanks Pharoahabq and Seattle, Ill have to figure out if I want him to wire it for $250 or wire the MS myself and save the money. Im good with following diagrams....is it something I could do, or would someone with experience need to do it? Also, since I'm going to be needing a wideband gauge when I get MS, I was thinking that I could get it now and hook it up and see how rich its running at idle, cruise, and boost. I could also check all my sensors. I read that the coolant temp sensor causes it to run rich. Is it easy to install the wideband gauge/sensor? does it replace the stock o2 sensor or can I screw it in to another hole in the down pipe?

So It looks like I will be doing megasquirt sooner than later. The car has been giving me 15mpg on the Highway and is still running rich. Seattle....I hope you can shed some light. I bought the 12 foot harness just so I have more room to move it around in the cabin. It depends on if you want to match up the megasquirt harness in the engine bay to the sensors, or make pig tails on all the sensors and run them into the cabin and match them there. If you have a ton of wiring the 12 foot may be a waste. How did you connect the harness. Did you plug it into the megasquirt ecu and run the wires to the sensors and injectors. Essentially getting entirely rid of the old harness? I dont understand what you mean by the second option of making pigtails on the sensors and running them into the cabin...... I do plan on running the same injection and keeping the stock distributor. I just want to control spark, air, fuel and obviously be able to tune when I get larger injectors and intercooler. If you plan on having a shop install it, I would ask the shop what they recommend. The installer is going to have a preference and his reasonings if he is familiar with the ecu (which he should be if he is installing it). Here is an email I sent him and his reply, ME: Thanks for the help Tim. One more question. The guys on the forums said that you wouldn't connect the existing harness to the ms ecu. They said it's better to buy the ms harness which is like $65 and wire it to the engine. What do you think? Tim: I don't know why you wouldn't do it how I'm saying. either way it's the same. run really short wire from ms to factory harness which then goes out to say a fuel injector. or run really long wire from ms to an inch before the injector, cut and connect there. plus, doing it my way, we keep all the connections INSIDE the car and away from any water and most weather. only other way would be to have uncrimped connectors and plugs for all the injectors, sensors, etc. I have no idea where you'd get that. So he's saying, keep the stock harness connected just like it is to everything and cut the wires from the ecu pugs inside the cabin and match the stock harness wires to the new ms harness and ecu. Should I do it this way? thanks

Great thanks for the help Seattle. I'm going to keep reading and post more questions. In the meantime....I took my car to a shop and he said the spark plug spacing was too small. He opened them up a bit and also said the timing was retarded which was probably causing it not to burn the fuel correctly. Finally he adjusted the afm a bit. I drove it home and miraculously could hardly smell fumes. I did notice that the down pipe is missing an o2 sensor so its leaking exhaust. But nevertheless, with his adjustment I can hardly smell fumes even with the leak. Im going to drive it for a couple days and check my fuel mileage. If its horrible ill have to do megasquirt and ill think about your comment and figure out my plan. Thanks again, you guys have really helped. I've been sticking to the plan haha.

Thanks guys. I found a really good website last night that had the manual and most FAQ and it explained things pretty well. Here it is for anyone that wants it http://www.msefi.com/index.php The website says that you need the main board and a processor. When you buy the MSII preassembled unit, does the processor already come with it? Some people have said that you shouldn't buy the harness that they sell because the wires are not shielded for noise? I don't understand this concept but nevertheless are they right? Could I use the stock harness and connect the wires to the MS ecu, this was the wires are shielded and everything is already wired up? How much did you pay for the MS3pro tooquick? was it preassembled? Thanks

Once again, Thanks to the advice guys. I'm one step closer. Finally got a turbo engine from an 83zxt. Next step is megasquirt since the car is currently running extremely rich and kind of crappy with the stock ems from the zx. Have any of you done megasquirt? Its giving me 12 mpg and the n/a gave me 25. Also, I never had any problems with fumes or gas smell. Now I smell like gas every time I drive it and it gives me headaches. I posted some questions about megasquirt in that forum. I hope I can figure it out and get it running nicely. I was reading at some of the old posts and read that you have ms on your z pharoa. How is your set up? Ill just paste the questions I had on the megasquirt forum here, maybe you can help me out. I just swapped in an 83 l28et into my 78 280z. We got it running with the stock harness and ecu, its 100% stock. Its been running extremely rich and giving me 12 mpg. It was sputtering really bad so I leaned out the arm a lot and got it to stop, bad thing is I don't know how lean or rich it is. I would think its still rich since I smell gas everywhere and my eyes will burn sometimes. I really need to get it running right since its my daily driver. I'm looking into buying a preassembled unit, but i don't understand how It works with the stock harness. So my question is, Is it best that I buy the preassembled unit including the 8' or 12' harness that plugs into the megasquirt ecu? Would I then cut my stock harness wires from the plugs that go to the stock ecu and connect them to their respective wires from the megasquirt harness? essentially its a plug and play/tune since I'm keeping the stock harness and just wiring it to work with the megasquirt ecu right? Lastly, how would one decide to go with MSII or MSIII? I plan on running the 83 distributor and keeping it stock for now. I just want it to be reliable, run smooth, and give me good mileage like the N/A engine did, which was 25 on the highway. Performance can come later.

Hello everyone, I've searching through the forums trying to understand more about megasquirt but its hard to digest, especially with all the acronyms and electronic parts that I don't know. I was hoping that you could help me out. I just swapped in an 83 l28et into my 78 280z. We got it running with the stock harness and ecu, its 100% stock. Its been running extremely rich and giving me 12 mpg. It was sputtering really bad so I leaned out the afm a lot and got it to stop, bad thing is I don't know how lean or rich it is. I would think its still rich since I smell gas everywhere and my eyes will burn sometimes. I really need to get it running right since its my daily driver. I'm looking into buying a preassembled unit, but i don't understand how It works with the stock harness. So my question is, Is it best that I buy the preassembled unit including the 8' or 12' harness that plugs into the megasquirt ecu? Would I then cut my stock harness wires from the plugs that go to the stock ecu and connect them to their respective wires from the megasquirt harness? essentially its a plug and play/tune since I'm keeping the stock harness and just wiring it to work with the megasquirt ecu right? Lastly, how would one decide to go with MSII or MSIII? I plan on running the 83 distributor and keeping it stock for now. I just want it to be reliable, run smooth, and give me good mileage like the N/A engine did, which was 25 on the highway. Performance can come later. If you guys have links to good threads let me know. I have read a lot but many have upgrades, carbs, or people make their own harness and I haunt been able to find the answer I'm looking for. I know that with megasquirt you loose the afm and it will work with my 83 distributor. I guess I'm concerned with the harness. Thanks in advance

Thanks Pharaohabq. No it's nothing like a boat anymore haha. The suspension is nice and tight with the bushings and coilovers. The dash is the only interior part I've been able to work on, beside my cool new steering wheel ha. I want to get the seats upholstered this week. I hope it works out. I'll feel much happier with nice seats since they're totally trashed right now. I'm really saving up for the turbo swap at the moment. I hope it gets done by the end of January. I'll be running the stock ecu from the 83 until I can afford to upgrade the EMS. After the l28et goes in I might focus on the interior again, or save up for the body work and paint.

Last Nights Photo Shoot

Its nice to look back and see how far your car has come. Here is a picture from last nights little photo shoot. Hope you like it. I thank everyone that has posted on this thread. Ive been following your steps and advice to restore this beauty. Next month I should be getting the complete turbo swap from an 83.

Seattle, Thanks for the response. I was the one that peeled the signal wire back to check it. I also checked the power wires that continue after the links into the harness and those are fine. I opened up the ignition relay and it was in good condition and all the connections were in place. Nothing happened to the fuseable links, I checked them. The problem was coming from the main power wire that connects to the starter, the burnt out one in the picture. Once I replaced it with 10 ga wire and connected it to the fuseable links the power came back and the car started and ran like before. I have noticed that sometimes when I turn the car on, the starer makes a little bit of a grinding sound, like if it got stuck after the car is on. Not sure if this could have caused the problem after months of driving the car. The previous owner replaced the old starter. You make a great point though, I will be trying to figure out what is causing the overload that would have burnt the wire. I'm just glad I can drive it when I need to. I'll get the voltmeter and start to see if there is some kind of overload.

Been working in the Z over break. Decided to work on the dash following what others have done. It turned out ok. Wish the texture would have been different. It's still a million times better than before. The cracks were tough to fix. I used a dremel to clean out the bad foam. Filled in the cracks with foam and topped it with a bumper repair kit from autozone. Sanded it flush. Did 2 layers of fiberglass and finally painted it with the bed liner paint. In the last pic the dash wasn't dry so it looks shiny but it did dry with a matte finish.

Thanks for the tips Seattle I will be purchasing the tool. In the mean time, I started to check the wire that goes from the starter to the the fuseable links. I found that the main wire that is spliced and feeds power to the fuseable links was burnt. I kept peeling it and it was pretty much burnt all the way to the links. I also checked the small wire that connects to the starter and it was ok. The large power wires that are after the fuseable links looked ok. Only the ones before were burnt. Since the wires are part of the piece with the links how can I fix the car if the wires are burnt. Can I bypass them temporarily. ?

I don't have any voltage readings to share, i don't have a voltage reader. I hope to have some today, my friend will let me borrow one. Ill try checking the grounds again. Battery is good because I took it to auto zone to get checked. It turns on other cars and I even tried another battery from a running car. The ignition feels the same. Lets just say it was bad, why would that affect the power to stereo, lights, blinkers, everything? Also, Sunday night was the last time it ran and what was weird it that it idles perfectly but on Sunday when I turned the lights in it started to idle a bit different. There was a slight change in the revs. It would go up and down up and down, similar to a vacuum leak. You couldn't notice it much and it would only change when I turned the headlights on. So is the crazy clicking from the ignition relay normal?

Hello everyone, I'm having trouble getting my 280 to start. I have been driving the car for months without any electrical problems and she starts up every time right away. All of the sudden, from one day to the next it no longer wanted to start. It wouldn't even turn over. I started to get that crazy clicking noise coming from the Ignition Relay. I opened it up and the connections seem fine. I have a good battery. The posts are clean and wires have a good connection. I have cleaned the fusible links, they're nice and shinny to ensure good contact. I check all of my fuses and they're all good. The car has no power. Nothing in the car turns on: lights, stereo, wipers, turn signals. I don't understand how the car would loose power like this. The white wire that is connected to the solenoid with the power from the battery also looks good. Is there a main relay or fuse from the car's main power that could have blown? One of the times I tried to start it I heard a small pop-hiss sound. The kind of sound a fuse makes when it goes out. It sounded like it came from the engine bay but I'm not sure. Need help. This is my daily driver.

Hahahahahaha. So true, maybe tripled. Next up is turbo swap, then seats.

Thanks for the help guys. Here is the steering wheel installed.

Plata, It worked!!!! Thanks for the help. Its pretty short too, probably 3 inches. I finally got rid of the huge stock steering wheel.

I have the same steering wheel! If mine doesn't have the splines I'll show you a pic. I'll find out tomorrow. I really hope it works out, I'm tired of having to return things. Nice dash by the way......was it restored or did you do it?

Hey Plata, My friend and I both ordered the hub adapter that you told me about, he got his today and it doesn't have the splines/teeth. It is smooth. How is this supposed to work with the steering column? How did you make yours work?

I purchased my Z in August for 2700 and I already put 4000 into it. I replaced bushings, weather strip kit, coil overs, wheels, tires, and other minor things. Im still rolling with an ugly interior and paint. I got lucky and found a car with a decent body and no rust. Personally, I would rather buy a stock Z in good condition and then spend the money building it the way you like it. Also, I learned that it is much better to get the car in shape and running well before you worry about being fast. Once that is all good, I've read that swapping in the l28et is the cheapest and easiest easy to make power.

It rides pretty smooth. I would search the name on google maps and call them, It doesn't look like they use FB much.