randy 77zt

when i got tp switch wet when cleaning my motor it did that.

since i work as an auto technician at a dealership and also managed an owner operated repair shop that did custom work i will tell the inside truth on having custom work done.%90 of auto repair shops dont like to do it.it ALWAYS takes longer than its supposed to or the job was estimated at.the shops only like to take jobs in that can be estimated with mitchell time manual(stock newer cars).if you find somebody that does a lot of custom work he probably charges for time and material(no mitchell times) and your job will end up being big$$$$.another problem is locating parts.since the average shop owner thinks in tenths of an hour(flat rate speak) if time on the phone he is loosing money.if you cant do your own assembly and mechanical work(i farm my machine shop work out) and dont have big bucks a project car is not the best thing to own.sometimes a shop will do project work but it will be a low priority item and if cash flow work comes in (brake jobs,water pumps)your car will be worked on when ever.alot of old sports car are owned by people with money and the shops that work on them charge big money.here in central california you are looking at $80 to $100 an hour.

most of the new laptops only have usb ports.i have a very old ibm(vintage 1996) its has a 9 pin port for db9 cable.a bigger screen would be good .should be able to fine a good enough laptop for $100 or $200.some thing with a cigarette lighter power cable would be good too.

it would depend on what you have your engine built for.a stock l28et wont build power past about 6500 because of camshaft/head flow problems.a modern engine with a good 4 or 5 valve head can use more revs.just because the megasquirt will support the revs doesnt mean you should do it if want your engine to live long.

i dont know about east coast but just the health insurence bill is a killer.if your car insurence man finds out about using a car for commercial purposes than you will get hit hard with a big bill.start adding up projected monthly expenses.i was off work on a planned job change for awhile and was left with no health coverage.since i ride a motorcycle i picked up major medical coverage but it still cost alot of money.good luck.

after installing megasquirt on my 77 maybe i should put 1 of those random technologies 3" cats back under the heat shield and forget about a muffler.with some good tuning it should be fine.going to have to get 1 of those license plate covers that makes it hard to take a picture of if the plate is read off center.if you get snagged by a remote sensor you will probably get sent to a referee station .since the law states that even though your car doesnt need a smog test it is still supposed to have all the original equipment on it good luck if you have a chevy in there.if i ever get any heat from smog nazi's my car will be sold out of state.

do you have the jumper in the fidle relay?i have my mega squirt firing the power transistor on the stock 280zxt coil.but i need to change the settings because the transistor runs hot.its set for %50 dwell not inverted and there is a 2.2k resistor in the fidle relay sockit for pull up.

msd 6 box has a male spade in the box for a tach. try moving tach wire on coil to the tach jack on msd box.

did your truck look like a female buffalo?

when i did my zxt install i ended up with afm mounted to top of radiator core support using holes from old air filter assembly.i had the afm mounted in the motor compartment but it was on an angle and the gate inside hung up making a rich condition.the gate in the afm has to swing freely.i had the hinge point on the bottem.

get the stim board-it checks the megasquirt when it is hooked up to your computor.if you got your megasquirt from diy it is preloaded with mss&E.you just have to download megatune to tune it.the fidle is your spark out put.i drove my z/zxt for years with no idle control(throttle body stop screw set for 1000 rpm idle)with no problem.the reason for fast idle is my car has ac.the fidle relay has to be removed from the relay board and a jumper installed.i probably have about 20 hours on my install and 100 hours reading online websites learning about megasquirt.iif you really want a professional looking install(car looks new oem) it takes time and much more than just the megasquirt ecm.my opinion about megasquirt is that there is so much info online that the info is hard to digest because its in many different places.i have notes on wiring in a binder-subjects like pull-up resistors.i am still working on my car but it runs smooth at least.i had lots of problems figuring out how to set the megatune up for mss&e because i am a professional auto technician-not a computor geek.changing those lines with the set/unset thing frustrated me and it took about 4 or 5 hours to figure it out.between my my 2 years of college electronics in early 80's and my automotive background it still took lots of time to get megasquirt going and i am still learning more.most of my problems come from having 10 thumbs on a computor.

behind my scotty downpipe in just run single 3" with muffler where cat was.i run a 19"oval magnaflow.car is quiet on freeway.not much bling though.

i just installed megasquirt in my car and the only original z wiring i used was to tap into the 5 pin connector the goes to the original ecm for key on signal.car is a 77.i have a odessey gel cel in the back and it is wired to the megasquirt relay box directly with a ground included.

a lot of stuff from motorsport is for bling-not functional for real motorsports.having a spoiler fail at high speed could be dangerous.

colorado & oregon-a bunch of left wing tree hugger rainbow sticker on the volvo wagon types moved out of komifornia to those states.the kind of people that want to sue you for riding a dirt bike or firing a gun on your own property.i wish you luck.try counter-sueing the neighbors for harrassment.

i got all nissan weatherstripping for my 77.at less 20% it was $1200.but there was about 20 parts in all.

a/c work is tough at home becuase most people dont have the proper tools (evac pump.manfold gauges) to recharge the system.if you need a system you can piece one together from junk yard parts.75-78 z's used same parts.hoses can be repaired by cutting the crips off and crimping new hose on.mmany radiator shops can make custom a/c hoses.if you switch to r134(new stuff) you have to flush the old oil out of the system and should have a new reciever/dryer installed.the r12 compressor oil soildifies with r134.my 77 had a leaky evaporator core when i bought it.i found a car holding a charge at pick&pull(before treehugger laws on r12) and discharged the system and removed my part.your best bet would be to get the system installed at home and have a shop evac and charge it.but if you have a leak you will have to do this over & over till you find the leak.last i heard r12 is $100 a can.nissan still stocks some parts like pressure switches and prices arent bad.

the compressor housing on the turbo needs to be re-clocked .the bracket on the pipe bolts to the intake manifold.the afm is tricky to mount becuase the flap in the afm has to be vertical-or else it rubs in the afm housing and sticks.get your fabrication hat on.got welder?i mounted my afm on the radaitor core support in front of the radiator with a big k&n clamped on it.i used 3" pvc .this worked for years but i have megasquirt now.

i work as a ford tech at a dealer.the 4.6 is wide but the spark plugs are in the intake area so once you get the engine in it wont be a problem.exhaust will be a problem on drivers side.if you do the swap get the ford evtm for the original car.the evtm is the wire harness diagram book.nobody else had done a 4.6 yet.the 2000 up motor revs more freely.good luck.iif i was going to do this i would cut the mounts off of the crossmember and build a separate crossmember to hold up the engine to mount it back against the firewall.

if it was parked in a damp place the flywheel will rust and the disc will freeze to it.have somebody step on the clutch while you watch what is moving underneath

i have a yamaha fz1(1000cc) but i mostly run errands around town and this bike is major overkill.try a suzuki sv650 -small vtwin ,light but very good handling.

english and creative writing wasnt my best subject in school .so if i coundnt post an intelligent sounding opinion on a post i just didnt post. i dont mind reading about somebody else's point of view as long as they can express themselves with out offending other members.that is the hard part.so we are avoiding political/religious subjects altogether.my opinion is this might make the site a little too well managed.but this is only my opinion.if you see something i misspelled i will just blame it on my poor typing skills.this is the best single make car enthusiast site on the net.

i would be interested in a worn out bondo buggy with a good pink for early numbers.

i dont go to any other z site.its a waste of time.some of those people on zcar.com shouldnt be allowed to work on their own car.i have worked as a professional auto tech for over 20 years.once in awhile some newbs post but they usually get blown out for not using search button or they cant understand the answers to their questions becuase they got very technical answer-or something they didnt want to hear like time to pull a trans.the members on this site know their stuuf becuase they do the work.

you can charge on the high side with the motor off if you drop the r134 can in a bucket of hot water.probably add 1/2 can and check the vent with a thermometer.