Muskrat

This is wierd. Every time I try to look at someone's personal gallery or album pictures I get a "Not Authorized" message. Anyone know why?

Thats the beauty of the one wire setup. Its simple. One charge wire going to the battery. Simple. Seriously though, I believe all you'd need to do in order to convert to one wire, is to run a new charge wire to your battery and just disconnect your T-connector. This is simplified even further because you have already converted to an internally regulated alternator, eliminating the need for voltage sensing wires going to an extrenal unit. One wire, straight to the positive battery terminal. If you want, you can ground the alternator chassis to the engine block, if you feel that the bolts wont be enough.

http://zcarcreations.com/howto/voltreg.htm To answer your question, the '85 Maxima and the other years in that generation, should bolt up directly, though you will have to swap pulleys and the wiring connectors. I personally have done some looking around at local parts vendors (NAPA, Autozone....). From what I've seen, many of the higher amp alternators, including the '85 generation maxima 90amp, are only available in one-wire configurations. At least thats what I've seen in the aftermarket. It's not a direct bolt up, it takes some modification to the mounting holes and a swap of the pulley to a V-belt spaced out to not hit the housing, but you could take a look at a '95 Maxima swap. The earlier versions are 110amp, and the later ones are 125amp. Hope that helps, and you're able to get a good enough alternator the second.... fifth?... time around.

Have you tried driving your car around the block? If the idiot light is on just at idle, I wouldn't let it bother you... if it stays on though, you may have made a bad connection somewhere. I know I'm generalizing, but it's early (late?) and its snowing. I believe that you do have all of the connections that you listed installed correctly, however. The field wire should be plugged into a switched ignition source with the idiot light installed on the same circuit. This will supply current to the alternator (from what I've read) while the engine is revving up to speed during startup.

Sweet, snow in Texas... even better in big cities like San An and Dallas. The prospect of going slideways through this mush makes trying to start the Z in the cold almost worth it.

This is great, it's like Grumpyvettes tip of the day. Every day I get to read here and build my library of useful stuff. Thanks grumpy!

I second that. More information would be great.

I just got done talking to another Z guy I know that suggested a solution he found for his alternator problem. Check your fusible links, you may have connection problems there. Oh yeah, its alternator season, according to the guy at O'reilleys.

Yeah, 400ci would be nice. I'm just about finished with my turbo swap, so I have yet to see how much more power I want. Mike, another gathering of the local guys (Houston too) would be great! Especially with the end of this evil cold in sight. Hopefully I'll have my swap done by then, it would give a pretty good excuse to get a new set of tires.

Smells like we may be getting another unburned hydrocarbon 400ci monster Z in the area.... I can barely wait.

NismoEd, if your gauge is reading anything much above 12 volts with the car off, your gauge is likely out of adjustment. I bought the diode for my alternator swap at RadioShack for about 2 bucks for a 2 pack. The package says 'Epoxy Rectifier Diodes' on it and the part number on the package is 276-1143. I'm not entirely sure if this is the diode that I should be using for the internally regulated alternator or not (haven't swapped alternators yet), but its rated at 3amps and 200PIV (whatever that is). Hope that helps.

Good general knowledge information there. That alternator is really just a boat anchor now, I'm picking up a 125 amp unit from a 95 Maxima tomarrow morning.

That is probably the coolest DIY project that I have seen on this site. So basically this thing will run your LCD numerical display that comes with it (is that an RJ-45 connector?), run a stock O2 sensor feed with the simulated narrowband channel or a wideband feed on newer engines, and then plug it in to your laptop when your done! Again, that looks like a great project. How many hours did it take you to complete your assembly?

NIC rebel, you must have been looking at one of the actual circle track application side pipes, not the one they make for street rods. Good points, I suppose I wasn't specific enough with my first post. All of the muffling would have to take place inside the transmission tunnel, which would really require something like a glasspack instead of a muffler. I am midway through reassembling my 280zxt engine to swap into the 240, which is why this would essentially be a standard 3" exhaust system, up until the side exit. As I said, I have no idea if this is a workable idea, but some measurements of the transmission tunnel will help greatly. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be another good idea, right up to the point somebody takes a tape measure to it.

Since the day I started reading these boards, I've seen continual posts from guys complaining about exhaust getting drawn in from the rear of the car while moving. Some have tried putting a longer tip at the back of the car with some success. Others put they're rear exit muffler at a bit of an angle to spit the gasses away from the back of the car. A few have even just run a cobra-style side pipe down the side of thier car (LOUD). Might be worth giving something like this a look. I just send an email to Dr. Gas to find out how long the street pipe is, but the actual cross section of the pipe is 8"x 1.25". Its got more cross section than a 3" round pipe for you ZXT swap guys worried about flow. http://drgas.com/item.asp?id=148 If nothing else, it would do a pretty good job of blowing the exhaust gasses away from the car at speed, along with being able to put whatever muffling you can fit in the transmission tunnel to make it quieter than the true-sidepipe option. Muffling it sufficiently shouldn't pose too much of a problem. I cant see any reason why this long muffler wouldn't fit, and if I understood the infor Grumpyvette posted correctly, a Vortex cone would not cause any noticable restriction, at least on a NA car. http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=SUM%2D630630&view=2047&media=2 http://www.secureperformanceorder.com/dynatechdragstore/vortex.cfm Never know, it might be worth look. I personally am going to put my car up on a lift this coming weekend and take some measurements, just to see if it would even be possible. I can already see a potential problem or two, however. 1. ground clearance, and clearing the framerail 2. driver or passenger pan getting hot 3. instead of sucking exhaust into the car at speed, you may end up fixing one problem only to blow exhaust in the face of the poor guy at the McDonald's drive-thru. If you guys can't blow any significant holes in the idea, I'll just be modifying the driver floorpan that is getting replaced anyway to fit the boom tube flush with the rest of the pan.

Thanks, that helps alot. I've been drawing up an idea for the L6 guys to stick a Dr Gas boom tube out the side of the car just before the back tires in an attempt to get rid of that terrible exhaust smell that some of us deal with. My only real concern aside from a passenger hot seat has been keeping it quiet enough to make it worthwhile. Something like this: http://drgas.com/item.asp?id=148 http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=SUM%2D630630&view=2047&media=2 Any thoughts? Or am I trying to reinvent the wheel?

Grapeape had some great info! Would a vortex insert cone have any significant power loss on a turbocharged system? I only ask because most of the information you post regulary (great info nonetheless!) is for naturally aspirated V8s.

Pretty good times Mike. Just think though... The easiest weight reduction is the driver. I'm flyweight, I swear.

I think my eyes are bleeding after all that. Keep it up!

There are several web companies that sell 396 LT1 stroker kits in the low $2000 range.

Thanks, that exactly the info I was looking for.

I just got back from getting my internal reg. alternator test at my local Autozone. I am unsure as to exactly what car this alternator came out of, only that it came with, thought not attached to, the engine I bought from All Z. It has the T shaped plug connection and lacks a "P" connection. The test machine came up with something like 16 volts, but a light came on indicating that the alternator has a diode burnt out inside the unit. The alternator was intended to go into my 240z sometime before my engine swap, which I understand will need a diode installed so that the key will actually turn the car off. Could anyone exlplain this?

Another Optispark replacement is made by Dynotech Engineering, to replace the Gen1 and Gen2 versions of the GM opti. http://dynotech-eng.com/dynaspark.htm The cost for both the Gen1 and Gen2 Dynaspark module is $599. If you are intersted in using your stock optispark sensor package, but want to get the high voltage out of the unit, you can switch to LS1 coils here: http://bailey-eng.com/LTCC.html To use the LTCC setup, you buy the LTCC box and wiring harness for $399, and from there buy 8 LS1 coils, plug wires, and figure out how to mount your coils. For anyone interested in excellent general information about the workings of the GM optispark, the December 2003 issue of GM High Tech Performance has an article thatis an excellent read.

Looks like the language-check demon strikes again.

The deep end indeed. So, I get a ride, right? Oh yeah, Mike, could I get some details on Ennis for next saturday?