taaron

Does anyone do remote tuning for the S30 chassis (or know anyone that does)? I have a 78 280 that I've been putting together for a few years. I've finally got it to a point where it can drive on back roads, but I'm not happy with where my tune is. I'm using a Megasquirt 2, with a 280zx distributor and 285cc injectors and its a NA motor.

Hi All, I'm looking to build a tail light harness for my '78 280Z. I have one harness but I can't figure out how to identify the sockets on it. Does anyone know which sockets fit/ that I could order to build a new harness?

I'd be interested in reading it. A VQ swap has always been on my mind just because of the ease of getting a donor car

Its bad lighting. Compression is solid on the engine, and I had just replaced the oil right before this. The knocking was the cam lobe hitting the rocker arm that had jumped off the lash pad. There was a second one that was also starting to fall. I got it back on, set cold clearances (was tired and not up for hot). Also ran a can of BG EPR through the engine (I personally like this stuff), and switched over to some Royal Purple (I've run it in all my other cars). Replaced plugs with clean unfouled ones. Car ran like it did before, beautifully. Idled at the right RPM, no knocking. So hopefully this weekend I can get back into the tuning side.

All is good with the leaks. It seems like everyday theres something new. So I had recently been experiencing some knocking sound. (Car sits in my garage, not road worthy so engine isn't getting really abused). Finally took the valve cover off last night and was greeted by this sight. Turns out I had a rocker arm completely jump ship. I'm going to get this all back into place then re-set my clearances. Hopefully fixing the knocking. Then I can check timing again, then get back to tuning properly.

So. My exhaust manifold was absolutely loose. Like badly. Definitely wasn't helping things. Unfortunately now I also have some pretty bad knock I can't get rid of, and definitely can't get the car into a lower idle. Does anyone know of any tuners that could take a look and tell me where I'm being dumb. I'm hoping that the knock isn't fatal.

Super possible its an air leak. I'm waiting on some new fittings this weekend to try and get all my air situation sorted out. Theres a few different idle control settings, but I'm definitely limited by not having any kind of controllable input. I was planning on playing with this Idle Advance settings once I'm sure theres no air leaks left this weekend.

Thanks everyone who keeps responding! I'm absolutely making progress. My rich smoke is gone. Basically this morning, went in and confirmed my timing was correct. Not sure if it matters, my offset was set to 363 degrees for some reason, brought it back down to 3 degrees. Confirmed with a light I was at 10degrees btdc. Also was thinking, what could make my idle MAP reading so high, and I started thinking about vacuum leaks. I realized that my intake manifold was littered with hoses I had forgotten to tighten up. After I did that, I checked my connection to the Megasquirt, and realized that the air fitting I have on there is way incorrect. The hose was a bigger ID than the fitting OD. Using some tape and a hose clamp, I was able to tighten that guy up in the mean time. Got in the car, fired it up, and my MAP was reading right!! Hanging out between 30kpa and 40kpa (I don't remember exact numbers). I need to order some better air fittings to finish everything up. I also went ahead and lowered a bunch of Fuel VE values near where I should be idling, and low and behold it brought my AFR closer to 14.7. It brought it close enough that I was infact able to actually run the engine and use the auto tune to smooth things out a little bit. Honestly, today went so well, that I decided to drive the car. For the first time in 3 years, it was on the road. The engine sounded strong and healthy, yet smooth. I even managed to capture a shot with my daily and other side project. I feel totally reinvigorated after today. Thanks everyone whos helped! Obviously I still have a far way to go, next task is to figure out why it doesn't always like to come back down to idle. It tends to sit up at like 1100-1300 rpm after driving just a little and never come back down. However, thats fine tuning.

800 rpm, looks like 10.1. I can't seem to get it to drop below 10.1 Does the MAP effect the AFR or vice versa Edit: So I'm making progress. The TPS was reading pedal inputs completely wrong. Got that wiring corrected and is happy again. I then realized that 10.1 may not be a reading and instead a fault. And it was. Power wasn't connected to the O2 sensor. So now I'm getting readings around 11 at idle and still near 800 rpm. I try and run the auto tune and it doesn't seem to be changing anything/ afr isn't really coming up.

I think I remember the previous owner saying it had a cam in it but I'm not sure. Could it be something like a vacuum leak?

So I've had some luck using the auto generating Fuel tables. However, I'm noticing that my idle MAP sensor is about 60kpa. Every thing i've seen online shows people typically idling near 35kpa. Is this plausible? At ambient, imat like 83kpa which seems right for Denver.

I do have a wideband installed, just not the ability to really drive around at the moment (15 feet in the alley is about as far as I can go). I know that Tunerstudio has the auto tune functionality, I'm just not sure how much you need to give it as a base. Like I've heard it auto tunes out that last 5% but you can't rely strictly on that.

So I finally have my car up and driving a little bit (no where near road ready but enough to move under her own power). The problem I'm having right now is my base tune. The car is smoking like a fiend and I'm fairly certain I'm running rich. Plus I'm an utter novice at all this. I was wondering if anyone had a base tune they could share with me, just a 78 NA with 265cc injectors (but living in Denver [5000ft]). Any help would be appreciated, I'm tired of fouling plugs after a few minutes.

I was wondering if anyone can help me ID the code on my door cylinder. Seems to be super poorly stamped.

Has anyone ever taken the dash core support out of the foam, cleaned it up and sealed it off with new sheet metal and used that as a dash? Im running a megasquirt and have planned on using it with a tablet to replace all my gauges anyways.

Hey, I was wondering if anyone knows if its possible to use the factory tachometer (78 280z), with a megasquirt 2. I tried taking the line that typicall goes from the resistor, and replaced it with the line that I send to the megasquirt, but to no avail.

Unfortunately I've been working more on the mechanical aspects of my build than this, but with the long weekend ahead of me maybe this is what ill pick back up! I promise its not dead, just waiting for it to be actually ready for reveal!

Yeah, not sure if it needed the reboot or I did hahaha.

In case anyone was curious, I solved it by unplugging all my wires and replugging them back in. I also ran the relay board ground to the battery instead of the block. Everything works and the car fired for the first time in a year!

Hey guys, wondering if anyone has run into this problem. I recently started rewiring my car after doing an engine out restoration. Plugging in the old MS 2 3.57 w/ relay board, and all the associated wires. I've found a problem where I was getting voltage on my ground (on the relay board). I was able to narrow it down to the Tach In terminal on the relay board. If I disconnect it, everything grounds right, if I plug it in, I can read 12V at my ground. Anyone have any idea what may be going on here? It does it even when the distributor wire is removed from the distributor. (Also I know the relay board is sacrilege, however I have it and its worked in the past, dont have the funds to upgrade past it at the moment).

Lol yeah, I assumed as much. Figured on that first compression/decompression plastic ones would pop fairly quickly.

Definitely going to have to look into that zip tie method. It was definitely a little unnerving putting them back together like this, but I guess its nice that I don't need to use a spring compressor to get them back together! Thanks for the help!

Still up in the air. I've got the system I want to use ready and shown to work, but it still needs a bit of work before its ready to be totally shown. Thanks! It hasn't really been a thought strictly because getting all that in the housing seems like it would be tough (not a ton of room at all to run the wires through the stem. Plus getting the controls ran back to the car and mounted cleaning could be a bit of a pain. I'm sure it'd be doable with enough time though.

So question for those of you that have installed lowering springs on your cars. I've been working through my front suspension, and realized I had two blown struts on original springs, so I decided to go ahead and order a full new set of struts and springs for each corner. https://www.ebay.com/itm/STAGG-4-SHOCKS-LOWERING-SPRINGS-fits-NISSAN-DATSUN-260Z-280Z-74-75-76-77-78/401626649426 I've got these installed with the whole strut housing removed from the vehicle. Unfortunately when I went to see how they sat fully bolted up, I realized that the spring isn't remotely seated into the assembly. Is this normal for lowering springs (first time I've ever done suspension work like this). At the top of the assembly, I've got bump stop, top seat, bearing, then that top bushing.

So I'm happy with the design, unfortunately this part of my project is on the back burner for the moment. Focusing on getting my engine back in and running. But I'm super happy with preliminary testing. The plan for now is going to be to print them in ABS, finish them with acetone smooth and regular sanding, then mount them up.