cygnusx1

I went crazy trying to find wire for wiring up my car. Price differences between suppliers were ALL over the map. If you can find a small repair shop that does very low volume work, you might be able to buy wire off of them for the "old-days" price. I found my best wire prices at a run-down hole in the wall auto shop that had no idea that copper prices have sky rocketed. I ended up paying old-world prices. Sorry they don't have stuff that large though. Maybe you could slip a few bucks to a power company worker in your area for some left-over cable. Follow those power company trucks around... or instead of 3 conductor, use three separate lines. http://store.solar-electric.com/wc--2.html about $300 for three 50 foot lengths.

It won't boot no matter what. I bought it assembled and my electronics skills are only good enough to get me into trubble so I am going to send the unit back to Matt for his diagnostic pleasure. I am sure it will be an interesting find and I will certainly share it here. The unit showed the same symptoms on the bench originally, but it was very intermittent, it happend once before in the car but it went away. Now it's permanent, so it should be easy to spot. ....Z-Less for a few days.

Umm just a question...can I reflash if it's not powering up at all? Going to the megamanual now....bbl.

I already brought this issue up with Matt Cramer and DIY Autotune said to send in my MS-II for a check over but then the problem went away so I decided to roll the dice and keep tuning. Well today, I drove to my parents house and had a father's day lunch. When it was time to go, the Z would not start. The MS-II will not boot up. It is getting all of the signals and the power and grounds but it wont boot. I tried hooking up the stim board with a separate power source, hooking up to the laptop, and to the megaview. Nothing I do will get the MS-II to boot. The LED's flicker on for a fraction of a second when I give it 12v power but then it just sits there lifeless. I pushed the car to the side of my parents driveway and pulled the MS-II out. I am going to try to reflash the code tonight on the bench and see if I can get it out of cardiac arrest. Otherwise I am going to take up Matt Cramers offer and send it in for a checkup or replacement. The car was running really well before the death.

I know we have alot of family guys over here and this is my first one as a father so let's get out there and enjoy our kids, our dad's and our Z's!

That is for the MS-II Extra code. I am still learning to tie my shoes with the MS-II code. EAE sounds interesting but it should be used after you have a well tuned VE table. I am still dialing in my VE table and probably won't get into a solid dyno tune until this Fall. Until then I am playing with my butt dyno. MS-II Extra looks interesting but it omits Automatic Mixture Control which is a bit dissapointing since I like being able to Autotune with the wideband O2. On the other hand, I suppose once it's dyno tuned I wont need Autotune anymore. I drove it to a car show tonight and it ran pretty good. Not as good as it ran with the stock 83 EFI but it's driveable.

Volunteer! Volunteer! Volunteer! Ask around if anyone is doing a swap or major work on their car and ask if you can help them with it. It's the BEST way to get a good, free, solid, education on car building. Also they might even help you when it comes time to do your car...and loan you some tools.

Very nice. I know how it feels. Sounds like a great start to a never ending project.

Can these be used as "skins" for 3D car models in driving simulators? Cool pix.

I forgot to mention I am using MS-II. What is EAE? I actually got it running better. I spent some more time at the keyboard and driving and was able to tune most of the flat spot out. At this point, I will just wait until I get up to the Dyno for a real tune.

Are there any tuners out there that can help me with this little issue. If I am cruising along off throttle, when I open the throttle slow or fast I get a real fast swing on the O2 mixture gauge. If I snap throttle quickly open, the mixture gauge snaps max rich and then max lean within a half a second. I also feel a flat spot in the engine response until it recovers and pulls smoothly into proper mixture. If I snap throttle open slowly, the O2 just spikes very lean and then stabilizes. The same flat spot is felt in the motor for a second then it goes fine. I tried messing with accel parameters but nothing seems to make it much better. When I use full MAP for accel, it seems better. I checked the TPS calibration and functionality. It seems fine and reads correctly in Megatune. Could this be a function of the large 440cc injectors taking time to respond in 2-Squirts-Alternating mode? If I let it idle really rich (12.5:1) and keep the map rich for a few load points off idle, the throttle response is better, but it blows whiteish smoke if I rev it in idle and it's smelly.

That's pretty much what the skunk saw when I tried to avoid hitting him the other night! I was pretty much in the same attitude but at the last second I got off the brakes and straightened it back out before a spin into the woods. Really nice photo DavidK! If you are going to bleed the brakes, put in some fresh racing fluid like ATE Super Blue. You can get JC-Whitney swaybar urethane bushings, and see a big improvement over stock for not a ton of money. Also make sure you set the proper toe angle, that's free too. You can also tweak your caster a bit with washers, also pretty much free. Springs are pretty cheap but they lead to shocks which gets more expensive. However, it would be the best way to steady the car.

Glad I stayed up past my bedtime! ....Phenominal. It is a benchmark Z.

I went to that Rally in Wellsboro, A in 2003, It was a mudfest! Too bad I missed this years, looks like they had good weather. Thanks for the photos.

I bought it on ebay three years ago. It was drilled and tapped for the stock idle air controller metal tube to bolt on.

I would build a bigger garage with 50K. Save some money and buy this. http://cgi.ebay.com/American-Scissor-Lift-Table-6-000-Lb-W-Conveyor-Top_W0QQitemZ170120662796QQihZ007QQcategoryZ42913QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I'm using that first sensor from a 240SX on my MS-II setup and it is linear with no dead spots. I am using the pigtail wires. I don't know the voltage numbers off hand but I calibrate it by stepping on the pedal in calibration mode.

Make sure you have a good solid connection between the battery and the alternator. Generally, go over all the grounds and wires looking for corrosion inside the wires. Disconnect and clean all terminals in the vicinity of the battery, regulator, starter, and alternator. Also, take out the fusible links under the white covers on the right inner fender. Clean all those connectors as well. I am assuming the regulator is working but might not be getting accurate voltage readings due to faulty connections or wires.

I was not very happy with the way Google video processed my upload so I signed up for Youtube. Youtube did a much nicer job. Much better clarity and sound. Check it out. Note: I tied the light for the boost gauge directly to the fuel pump relay. This way I can always tell if the fuel pump relay is on or off.

It really was 90% fear of the unknown. Once it's done you kick yourself and say, "that was easy". The only gray area may be getting a timing signal out of your ignition system. Matt Cramer at DIY will help you figure that out if you even need to go that far for help. Take time to make wiring diagrams. I did separate ones for power wires and ground wires. The diagram for the signal wires is already done for you by MS-II. Did you get the relay board and the stim?

Welcome to the US and to HybridZ. That is a really nice treat. We don't see anything like that very often. I really like the fly in the shift knob! Nice touch. Oh and by the way, is that your son? Cute kid.

I have the idle control page "none". I am using the factory 280Z-ZX air idle valve. I feed it 12 volts when the key is turned on and that's it. I set the warmup mixture corrections using the warmup wizard in Megatune, I just hit the INC - DEC buttons to richen-lean the mixture while the car warms up. I just try to make it as lean as it will go without stumbling until the head temp reaches about 160. After 160, I use no warmup mixture correction.

Funny you mentioned that because since then, I ran a hose from the idle air valve back to the J-pipe. If you boost, with the engine still cold, yes, the valve would escape boost. It acts kind of like a cold-boost-safety-valve if it's open. I don't like the hissing sound it makes so i am going to leave it connected to the J-pipe.

I already have my future sports car. I don't really care too much about the pseudo, facsimile, wannabe, un-affordable, exotic stuff, anymore. Don't get me wrong, I like some of them but they are no substitute for the smelly, bumpy, loud, hard-to-drive, monsters of the past.

Stickers, lots of stickers.