Pharaohabq

Well do some reading and see what you can figure. Also check your running fuel pressure. I suppose a regular Fuel injector could be sticking too. Is any one cylinder more fouled than the others?

So this is quite the interresting conversation. A questions here just to make sure I have my head wrapped around this: All three thermostats would certainly work in the same car and Datsun provided guidance for them. In my 280Z's I've never had to change the thermostats, they work fine down here in the desert SW. So I'd assume they're either the 160 or the 180 deg thermostats. BUT in my 260Z, we have heat problems all the time. We've hunted down replacement heat shields and put in a new Thermostat. I believe it's a probably a 180, we never checked, it's just what Autozone gave us. I wonder if a 160F would help the Vapor locking issues we're always having?

There's been a lot of discussion on the topic. A good search could lead to a few. But really the main issues are keeping the suspension geometry correct, and the possibility of loosing rigidity in the frame rails.

In the meantime you could pull out your stock radiator, Flush it out with water from both ends and see if you can't clean it out. You may even just take it to a radiator shop and have them boil it. It should be a lot cheaper than buying the Alum rad. Inspect your hoses while it's out, you could have a blocked of collapsing hose messing with your flow. I had my upper hose shred internally and pop on christmas day some 10 years ago during a "white christmas" storm on my way to my old GF's house. Needless to say I was about 3 hours late. Thanks to a hose it's awesome to see massive steam pour out of the 280Z hood vents though.

Great update. No fun about the bogging down. Have you checked your fuel pressure at the rail? If that pump is going bad, or the fuel filter is getting clogged it could cause this issue. I'd guess the filter is clogged much more than the pump going bad, but it happens. Hopefully you'll be back flying down the road soon. I guess you decided to wait a little longer on the paint...?

Well reading the FSM is certainly a good start. You should also read the Fuel injection bible. Really it's not that thick, only a few pages, but it'll give you a really good understanding of the Bosche fuel injection. Once you get all that in your head, Rip it all out and put in Megasquirt. I am always impressed at how well an L28 Runs on a properly setup Megasquirt. You won't have to learn too much about schematics if you buy it already put together with the harness. DIYAutomotive... Now should you decide against Megasquirt, there's a few things you can test which could be making the difference you're seeing. First though, Why is your fuel pump on a switch? Is your harness all hacked up? That aside, it's great that it runs, but it's obvious your mixture is being thrown off. FIRST thing to check is to look for cracked hoses, missing hoses, cracked bellows to the AFM, stuff like that, since a vaccuum leak can cause the car to run poorly. NEXT, a good possibility is that your temp sensor or thermotyme is gone bad. If either are shot the Cold start injector could be dumping extra fuel where you're not needing it. This wouldn't normally cause that extreme of surging you described, but could definitely cause the rich running condition. check those couple things and maybe start with replacing the temp sensor. The thermotyme isn't cheap, but good used could be had for not too much. I'd imagine a combination of the CS injector dumping extra fuel and a vaccuum leak could together cause high RPMs but I don't think that's likely.

Great! nice to see an Update... Sounds like you've got a much better feel for your car in the past couple years. It'll be nice when you get your engine back in. I expect you'll feel a nice difference. Are you keeping the stock EMS?

Well, I see the 280Z pictures, it doesnt' look too bad, BUT there is some rust. Rust isn't good, but almost all these cars have some. The rear arches look to have a good amount. I'd expect there's rust in other locations. You'll need to read up on where it's common. Mainly though, you want to be sure the frame rails are intact, floor pans, rear deck, tirewell, and especially the inner fenders in the front tirewells need to be checked. It all can be fixed. Panels are availible to repair most of it from Tabco.com. Now the 73' is there a lot more rust on that body as compared to this? Again, What is your goal, What do you want to do with the cars? You'll really need to figure that out before you take on these projects. Figure what you want and we can help you get there, it's just a matter of how much you want to spend doing it. Are you just looking for a daily driver? Without seeing picts of the 240, I'm recommending the 280 at this point. How long have these cars sat? you could have some bad gas/jellied gas issues which can be a seriously pain in the * to fix. oooh post 1500 for me

Thanks, MIG welding really makes it easy to make nice welds. then lots of grinding and then primer and paint. I may have to mod this crossmember more to clear the steering shaft with that AC pump, but we'll get there in a while.

Yeah Pictures would really be nice. As for the Z's, well the 240Z is Carburated and 2.4L , the 75' should be fuel injected and 2.8L so right there you've got some advantage to the 280Z, but the 240Z is lighter w/o the huge bumpers. It's really going to be an asthetics theme between the two. Also what is your goal? Are you looking for a good daily driver? If so I'd tell you to fix up the 280Z. If you're looking to race and such, then the 240 may be a better option. But really you need to look more carefully at the condition. Look for Rust in all the usual places, how are the frame rails? Does the 280Z have a 5 speed? There's really a lot of factors so it's hard to tell you to go one way over another. Paint is nothing compared to rust repair. The engines for each are a dime a dozen to pull out of junkers. These cars are all 35+ years old so keep that in mind when thinking about parts cost, new parts = $$$ So, look at the project and think about where you want to be with them, Tell us that and we'll give you a better idea of what we'd advise you to do. In the end it's your money and your call, but lets start with some pictures and what you want to use the cars for...

exactly Tony. So many projects gain a lot of weight the longer they go on. I see you said you're playing with the Datsun harness. You may want to wait on that till you get the GC harness in, you'll likely find that you want to use the fusebox and power distribution from the GC. Look at the FSM for the GC and see that a lot of things are setup modularly, as is really common in most newer cars This means you can retrofit off the newer harness to the old accessories and preserve a lot of the newer systems. So I'd recommend you get that GC engine in place then start with the main body harness and then see what sub harnesses you're going to need. That'll save you a lot of time down the road when you find out all your marker lights and headlights all can be plugged straight in, or pig-tailed off the GC harness. I'd hang the GC harnesses on a 4x8 sheet of plywood and label each plug as you're deciding to use it in the S30. Don't go cutting out anything from your GC haresses yet even if you think you're not going to ever use it. You're not worrying about weight at this point. It's much easier to troubleshoot when you know you haven't boogered anything up yourself. So again, eye on the prize, Get that engine and diff dropped in.

Yeah, well if it passed then I'll say it, "don't worry about it." As for your "Clunk" noise, it's probably not the shock, it's probably your half shaft has a failing U joint. You should fix/replace that before it gets too bad. And don't let anyone tell you the U joints aren't replaceable. They're a pain, but they ARE replaceable. (though may be cheaper to pull one from a junker, Ask your local Z club for parts cars, or there's a myriad of sellers on here.) As for Legal, you just need a C.A.R.B sticker, Too bad MegaSquirt isn't certified... I imagine they'd sell a lot more if they were able to get that. Now one CARB legal swap I've been itching to try is the Jeep ECU MPI system. (normally it's for upgrading carburated jeeps to EFI, but it should work fine on the L28 since it's made for the 2.3L and the 4.2L engines using the same ECU. ratio's are adjusted in the ECU based on the O2 readings. Ala Hesco, Hesco is too expensive but the system is the same, you can get the CARB sticker from them for buying a harness or other main components. The downside is though it'll run fine MPI, it's not tunable like MS is.

I've definitely seen worse jobs. How much bondo did you re-apply? How many layers? The Sill plate worries me, in a traffic area, you should never use bondo, likely it'll crack out in a year or so. Still it looks like you've patched it up pretty well. With the rust that was in front of the rear wheels, I'd be wondering about the floorpans and the frame rails. Metallics are tough enough, and you'd added the black stripes. Is that a scratch on the hood? All in all, outwardly it looks pretty darn good... What's next?

Off topic: That depends on the tank, some have foam which takes the place of a baffle. you'd need to ask Summit about the particlar tank and what your intention for use is. If you're doing Track, then yes baffling would be good. Drag, you'd need a smaller foam filled tank. Also a lot of rules say you have to have metal separating the tank and your passenger compartment. Opening your hatch to refuel sucks too. On Topic: Which Intake manifold have you found? For Turbo, you'd probably want to find a non-EGR intake, That's going to dictate a little, and it's a good start, since you can then choose your TB. Which I didn't see on your list. Look up L28 turbo conversions since 95% of this is the same as converting a NA L28 to Megasquirt Turbo. The Tank, Pump and manifold are all just returning the car to "stock". you may be able to DL some "tunes" already setup. (the beauty of MS)

Looks good, You smoothed out those welds a lot. Hopefully it'll be fine for passing inspection. I hope that steering cross member works well, You certainly made it beefy enough. I hope you can get the steering shafts to clear. You'll still need to make a brace to hold the end of the steering shaft before the U joints. I was going to triagulate mine to the fenderwall, but it'll be great to see what you come up with. You gearbox mount looks good. Mine's very similar to Austin's but I'm thinking I'm going to redo it since mine sticks out too far and may touch my fuel lines. Your gearbox mount looks pretty good, though keep the exhaust in mind, since it has to run past it. (Thus Austin's C shape half pipe cutouts.)

Lots of really good advice on this,Moving the steering wheel all the way to the left is probably the best, since you don't want to mess up your ignition lock. I'd recommend getting a bar or pipe of some sort and wedging in in the engine bay across the Steering isolator to help save your U joints. Then hit it with a breaker bar and maybe a piece of pipe as an extension. turing it clockwise (tighten) then oil it, then counter clockwise to loosen. back and forth till your "threads" are lubed, it should come off. If not the dremel may work, if you cut it most of the way through, you can stick a hard chisel in the cut to snap the nut loose especially if you cut it on two sides, without hurting your "threads". You'll need a Die to chase the threads. A machine shop could probably do that too, but if anything requires removing the column, then it'd be cheaper/easier to replace it. Now if your nut is boogered, AND the steering column threads are trashed, you may be able to get a welder to replace some metal on the column, sand then rethread so that a new nut could fit. Any good mechanic shop should be able to fix this issue for you. The issue is time and cost, I wouldnt expect less than a couple hours Labor to repair/replace that column. (replace with you providing the part) Don't worry if you have to replace your column, there's a lot of wrecked Z's around, and nobody usually replaces the column, so you should be able to buy one cheap. ask your local Z club, there's like 6 or 8 clubs in Ca. Doing it yourself isn't really hard, it's also a great time to replace the 40 year old rubber isolator and maybe steering rack mount rubber. Rubber or Poly is fine for this. I prefer rubber, less vibration. If you could take a picture, that ALWAYS helps us know exactly what we're trying to help you with. Phar

That's true about the Diff. that 2.73:1 diff is pretty high geared, I wonder what the V6 is rated torque wise. That being said the Mustang V6 is a 3.9L which is slightly bigger, I doubt it's built as stoutly as the VQ37HR, but I haven't seen all the Specs. The VQ's breathe really well, but being the the 3.9L is from a mustang, you can bet there's already a lot of aftermarket support for it. The mustang V6 has been around longer than most of the HR versions of the VQ. The DE VQ is a great engine, but a tight fit. I wonder how tall the 3.9L is. I don't think the 3.9L has the vvt for both the intake and exhaust like the VQ37HR has, but if the price is right... I'd still like to see another V6 ported to the S30 chassis. Let me know if you have any questions, maybe I can help.

Socorob, Thank, Glad it fits, Let me know if there's any issue, I'll stand behind the part. Dan_Austin, Okay, so taller buttons, that's no problem. Do you think 3mm taller would suffice? You wouldn't happen to have any pictures would you?

Well it's been some time since I've got to post any progress, since having a kid and all has taken a lot of my spare time away, not to mention funding. As I mentioned before, I'm still in the tearing down for pain phase of my project, but it's nice to start putting some things back together. Here's some pictures of my Steering Crossmember I'd put back in so I can get the car back on it's wheels. Here's the Steering crossmember bolted back in place. Sorry the Black is hard to show detail, but you can see how much we cut out. It's reenforced under the Rack. In this detail you can better see the cutout for the HR oil filter. I should still be able to clear at least 1/2" around the filter. I cut it mainly because I didnt' want anything to rub. and zoomed out a little. Pardon the crap under the car, cardboard is softer than concrete to lay on. As always, any Questions let me know. Phar

As I was saying, we've got some real concerns about the Rack placement and Steering Geometry. There's nothing that says your metalwork has to be symetrical, so if as I mentioned in the other thread, if you rotated the Subi rack back so it points under the AC compressor you may be able to mod the rack mount and frame rail to route the shaft back though I don't know about how the turbo would fit. 45 degrees is about the max for a U joint so keep that in mind when you're trying to route the steering.

Right, okay, Well looking at the new steering crossmember for your rack, it's quite a bit different than the stock location. You may also need to add longer inner tie rods to adjust the angle. That's not to say it won't work moved an inch forward, but I'm not sue there's that much adjustment in the tie rod ends to allow it to be aligned. You've got it there, so you're going to be the best judge of what works. I get really concerned about the steering linkage angles using those Subi U joints. They're huge. Is it possible to rotate the Subi rack back so the Pinion points under the AC compressor? If you did that you could lower the rack and move it backward in the compartment under the main crank pully and the AC compressor. you may have to cut a scoop out of the driverside frame rail, to allow the shaft to come up to meet the steering shaft, but you'd get your steering back more to a stock position, while keeping your AC compressor. The Stock 350Z steering U joints are much smaller, which may make it easier to fit. I pulled 3 steering columns from the junkyard so I'd have enough U-joints, I'm sure you can order them from Nissan if your JY doesn't have them.

I've not heard of anyone making that swap, but I would love to see it. If you're really seriously thinking of doing that swap, I'd give you a little advice first. I'd ask you to read through the VQ Engine swap information thread and apply some of the same points of the VQ swap to the Ford Engine. You should find the actual dimensions of the Ford engine to ensure it would fit under the hood of the Z31. The points on harnesses, procurment (donors) and mounting of the engine in the VQ thread should also be applicable to the Ford engine. Expect the cost of the swap to exceed your initial estimates, as there are always unforseen issues. You're lucky the Truck Driver stopped and tracked you down very few people actually do that. My wife's car has been hit 3 times and they never stopped to find her or anything. 3 hits on uninsured motorist doesn't look good on our insurance payment. (yeah I know it's not supposed to affect, but it does).

Nice, I didn't think of that one, that's a great idea. I'll add that to my list of things to model. Modelling the door and printing in black should work well. My series 1 console is pretty cracked. Too bad I don't have the ability to print things like an entire console. That would be nice. I'll look for a Series1 Door, as I need one too.

hmm well if it's melting then something is geting hot. ABS can't handle too much heat. (your sprinkler parts are probably ABS) but if we can see why it's heating up it shouldn't be a big deal to print more pads. The glass bed on the printer is actually really good for making a surface on each part really smooth. I need to go to the local Z junkyard n see if they've got any busted ones to take apart.

Dan, Thanks. I'll look into that part. If that cracks, then the whole Combo switch is bad right? I'll try to find a busted one, since mine is still working.