Xander

The O2 sensor is not used to keep the engine "save" as you said. It is just for tuning and cruising. Above a certain load the megasquirt goes openloop anyway. But that is not any different than any other aftermarket ECU. Or stock ecu for that matter. You don't depend on assumptions or laws of physics. You depend on the right tuning of the fuel map. And I know that the megasquirt doesn't have things like knocksensing but even if your ECU hase knocksensing you should never depend on a system like that to save your engine. I well tuned engine does not knock, so a knock sensor is only a backup safety system. It is only in the last couple of years that wideband O2 sensing is applied. This offcours helps a lot. Yes and no. You can fully program your fuel injection and spark timing (as moby has proven to us all) but no it has no knock sensor, traction control, anti turbo lag control, wide band O2 etc... maybe the best way to discribe megasquirt is to say that is a sort of hitech replacement carb. It has all the features of a carb like accelleration enrichment and end fuel curve adjustments. nothing more nothing less. am I making any sense???? anyway I talked to another guy here in Holland. His name is Frank and he is working on a NA and turbo 280zx at the moment and after he saw my megasquirt system he decided to try megasquirt on his NA engine too.

also about 3 members that will say that megasquirt is a better alternative anyway. if we could we would use the MS-unit for lighting also, just think, fully programable flashing. RPM sensitive flashing!

I have my system tuned for economy right now. But last week my O2 sensor was broken. This made the car run 5% to rich. This made a good performance increase. Funny that when something stops working the car starts running stronger. This made me think. I could make some sort of cutout switch for the 02 sensor. When it is working I get good miles/gallon and when cut out I get good power. hmmm.. Xander

It could also be the battery but I doubt it. You might want to consider going to a internally regulated alternator. The swap is very easy and you can lose the external regulator. Go to http://www.zcarcreations.com/howto/voltreg.htm For more info. You could always put in an other full battery and drive the car home. And if you decide to go standard than yes, It is very easy to change alternators in a early Z. good luck

I have been running Megasquirt for half a year now. and run approximately 6000 miles with it. Megasquirt does not give you more horsepower. That is not what the system is for. It lets you meter the amount of fuel going into the engine a lot more accurate. A lot better than carbs anyway. The only way you can get better top end performance over a carb is if the carb was not properly adjusted in the first place. The main advantage is a matter of accuracy and flexibility. You can adjust the megasquirt for top performance thru the whole rpm and MAP range and not just at full throttle. You just cant do that with a carb. And if you ever upgrade to a bigger engine or even a v8 you can keep the megasquirt and run it on there aswell. I am soo happy that I decided not to rebuilt my flattop Hitachi's and went with megasquirt instead. I now run about 165 hp and 170 lb/ft with a stock 260Z engine and an intake manifold of a 280z.

I am not 110% sure on this but it if you go megasquirt&spark you can just fire the msd unit and not bother with ignition modules. This is what I want for my 260z. good luck

Don't forget that the ps2 also looks the best IMHO. That can be a real bonus in trying to sell it to the wife. They also come in silver. This is the only console I will put in my living room. Ofcours opinions differ. On the ps2 you can also play all the psx (the first playstation) titles. This greatly expands on the titles you can get. And this one will probably leed to some discussion but the X-box comes from Bill Gates. And I don't feel like I want to support this man any further.

Boyd, I had a problem with a jumping tach signal around and below 1000 rpm. It would somethimes jump to more than 10.000 rpm for an instand. After installing the "Dave" capacitor modification it all went away. I now run 700 rpm at idle no problem. jkube, I read somewhere in the megasquirt manual about this problem. Something about grounding the trigger signal externaly instead of on the board. I'm not sure. But I am sure the problem was talked about. good luck to both of you, Xander

Don't forget that if you go carb you will also have to get an mechanical advance system for your ignition. I have put more than 10.000km ( about 6000 miles) on my megasquirt. withou a problem. No Megasquirt problems that is.

I realize that most people just don't have the time to spend reading a lot on the internet. But still if you are interested in megasquirt go here http://www.bgsoflex.com/megasquirt.html Read the faq by Lance. It will answer most of the questions asked above. and pamos If my signature is bothering you just say so. I thought it was just a funny line but if it bothers people I will remove it.

Let me be the first to reply. The megasquirt unit is easy to build if you have some basic know how in soldering electronics. If you know the difference between a resistor and a capacitor than you are more than haveway there. But keep in mind that it is not a bolt on system. You will need to make a custom wiring loom and if you are converting from carb (like I did) you will also need to do a lot of fabricating. I used a intake manifold of a 280zx and used a throttlebody of a Fiero because it has the right TPS. The tuning part is not more difficult than any other aftermarket EFI system. I even suspect it is a lot easier than some. I tuned the car while driving on the street. I have allmost 10.000 miles on the MS system right now and it has worked flawlessly. Fuel consumption is about 10.5 km on 1 liter of petrol. (you do the math ). And I measured about 140 hp at the wheels without a well tuned top end. This was measured with a roaddyno. I uploaded a picture off the unit itself. I'm sory but I don't have pictures off it in the car. It's in my personal gallary overall I am very happy with the system. Would I use the system again? definitely. The only thing I will put more time in next time is the wiring loom. It is easy to forget some wires here and there. So Plan ahead and make a schematic of all the wiring. Dont forget stuff like the heating for the lamba probe. I did. If you are using a mechanical ignition advance system on your datsun You can keep it stock. But if you have a ECM controlled system you might want to consider going to megasquirt&spark right away. This is a expansion on the megasquirt system where you don't have to change anything to the stock megasquirt computer. Mobyvan will probably inform you about that. Good luck

Yesterday I was at Bodyshop (not the car kind but the one where you can get nice presents for your girl) And there was a sign at the counter, next to the condoms, that the bodyshop does not suport testing on animals. Being next to the condoms this really made me think twice. cia

I was looking for a good picture of my car from the side, but it seems that I don't have one . I also have the 5 slot wolfrace wheels. I am running 195/65-14. They look well but are actually to small. 195/70-14 was OEM on this car. Perhaps 215/65-14 is a better choice. this like may be usefull: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html good luck

Some english reporter ones asked (not to lang ago) david Coulthard how he prepared for a race. He made a comment about how he liked to have a wank before going to bed. The reporter didn't know where to look. Very funny

I'm 29 now. 3 years older than my Z. It's funny to think that when I was discovering LEGO some guy in Japan was putting together my future car

Cool guys, Thanks for the info

guys. We have a problem. We like to think that we are cool and up to date with the rest of the tuning world but... According to the clock on the homepage we are running almost five minutes behind on the rest of the world!! I think I need to go to bed. It's 2 AM and I have nothing better to do on a saturday. oh.. You can check the current time here: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/ Sorry about this complete waste of bandwidth

I used to own a nissan sunny coupe and was thinking that maybe the seats will be nice in my 260Z. I will try to locate one in a junkyard (shouldn't be to dificult). But I was wondering if it was ever sold in the US. here's a picture from my album: It was a rather nice car. It had a 1.6 liter 12 valve engine that was very smooth. Not very powerfull but fast enough. Don't think about siting in the back for long though. A friend of mine also had one. We ones went to euro disney with that car. On the way back I fell asleep in the back (folden double). That was the fastest 350 miles ever. Closed my eyes in Paris and when I opened them I was near Amsterdam. To bad He parked it backwards in a ditch at high speed though. Car was totaled but even worse. His girlfriend wass upset. xander

hmmm, guys. stop talking german. This was in the netherlands. I often see this. Americans can't tell the difference between german/dutch/danish/swedish etc... well I guess I can live with that. I can't tell the difference between vietnamese and thais either. This happened on 13 of may 2000 in the city off Enschede in the east off holland. I believe the guy that you see filming didn't survive that last blast. A whole neighbourhood was destroyed. 22 died, 950 injured . http://enschede.freeyellow.com/page4.html pictures http://enschede.freeyellow.com/page3.html movies The smoke was even picked up by the weather stations: http://www.vwkweb.nl/index.html?http://www.vwkweb.nl/weereldnieuws/dossierEnschede.html this is a link site about the disaster. It is in dutch but if you search for BBC you will find some english info there. http://enschede-ramp.pagina.nl/ I was working for a asbestos research laboratory in amsterdam at the time and we were asked to go to the site and join the army of personel that did the asbestos handpicking on day two. I declined because I didn't feel like going through the area and possibly comming across body parts or stuff like that. And of cours it would have been emotionally very taxing. Now three years later people can handle the jokes like the news about a new movie called "Indepenschede"" (it sounds allmost like independance day if you pronounce it in dutch). what is the highest structure in Enschede? the curb. Why did the queen cry when she visited the site? she missed the fireworks. xander

I have been running an a megasquirt unit for 6 months know. That is 6 months of daily driving and it didn't let me down ones. The building of the unit is well documented on the megasquirt site especially this one is a good site to start: http://members.shaw.ca/megasquirt/MS%20FAQ.htm I guess for me the hardest part was fabricating the wiring loom. I think that that is where most off your brainpower should be spent. My car is a 260Z converted to injection. It would be a lot easier to start with a fuel injected 280Z. That way you can use stock injectors, pressure regulator, fuel pump etc... .Then ones it runs you can upgrade anything and be able to reprogram ass you see fit. The reason I went for the megasquirt is that I didn't want to spent money on the useless flattop hitachi SU carbs.

Just to revive this thread. Look what I found in an old stack of comics. The date on that piece of art is actually '89. It's about time they started on the movie.

I welded two new 3/8 npt fittings on the stock tank. this may look like it is hanging to low, but it is actually higher up than the dif and cross member. This cured my fuel starvation due to rusted pickup and return lines. And yes that is rust in the filter. I have since derusted and epoxy coated the tank. sub note: I think that creating some kind of surge tank or baffle is a better and cleaner install. But I opted for a surgetank up front. Now my high pressure fuel pump (MSD 2225) is below the level of the fuel. This way it doesn't need to suck up the fuel. This made the pump a LOT more quiet.

I hope The other O2 sensor is a heated one. I used one in the same location as in the picture (6into1 manifold though) And it didn't get hot enough to operate. Now I have a heated one in there (three wire) wich is hooked up to the fuel pump wire. It only starts heating when the engine is running. I also reinstalled the auxilary air valve. This worked great for extra air when starting cold. Just wire it into the fuel pump line aswell. then let the tuning begin. xander

LOL I may be crazy but I am not stupid. Have you got any idea how hard it is to get this engine second hand with low milage. (btw: although I live in Amsterdam, I have never ever smoked anything in my live (I'm 29 )

I think there would be some hood clearance isues in a early Z. But look at the hp en trq potential. Anyone up for the challenge. http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ccsshb/12cyl/