olie05

I'm starting to think its vapor lock, because I removed the heatshield off the intake manifold and i'm running a header now, and it's really hot over here now. I noticed it only happens at low rpms when I accelerate more than 1/2 throttle. Freeway cruising is no problem and it seems to get worse when I'm at a stop for a while. That's why I think its vapor lock. Also the other day I touched my fuel rail and it was too hot to touch for longer than a second. Does it sound like vapor lock? I have a pallnet fuel rail ready to install, but i don't know if that would help with this problem. I'm going to have to insulate the fuel rail and see if that fixes anything. -Oliver

Since this is the "my car made a funny noise" section... Today, I was at a stop sign and I accelerated from the stop to about 5000rpms in first gear. Around 3500rpms and up to 5000rpms it sounded really raspy and louder than usual. When I stopped again and accelerated, this time calmly, the engine stumbled a bit. I drove home carefully and It sounded like a slight miss above 2500 rpms. I popped the hood in the driveway, and checked out everything, nothing I could tell was obvious. So I drove the car around the neighboorhood, getting on it and the raspy sound was still there but there was no miss afterwards. I hope that was enough information for someone to give me an idea of what could be going on. thanks. -Oliver

Will do... If there are any z's when i go i'll compare the cable and pedal assembly to see if it will work, if not it's probably cheap enough to just buy and have laying around. (extra parts!!!) Do you want the pedal too, or just the cable? -Oliver

I noticed my linkage is going out, bushings are really loose now and its sticking. Has anyone used the 240sx cable set up on a z? I'm thinking entire set up.. from the pedal to the bell crank on the tb. J/y would have it for sure, and cheap. -Oliver

you have had the coolest cars... you're going to have to tell me about this silvia. -Oliver

wow. Ok I have alot of reading to do! Thanks for the replies and info! -Oliver

Yes, i agree with ed. The problem with most 914 owners is that when they get fed up with the fuel injection, instead of fixing the problem, they swap over to carbs. Fuel injection is far superior to carbs! I have noticed this happen to a few 280z's over the years, and in the long run, maintenance becomes more of an issue. Tuning on a carb car can be tedious if you don't know what you are doing, and FI is foolproof, for the most part. Make sure you know what you are getting into. N47 had no fuel pump hole, P79 did not either, but the N42 and the P90 still had the holes.

so zcarnut, are you saying stay with the stock system?

I would think if you had the muffler on the downpipe and no other exhaust it would have no bends, and so the sound would travel straight through. With a full system and muffler out back, the sound is deadened by the bends a little. Sorry i don't know if it would have an effect on performance. -Oliver

Use the flywheel that you have with the clutch that you have and the throwout bearing collar that corresponds to the transmission you are using. That has always worked in my experience, but always do as much checking while you are doing the swap before installing parts that don't work together. You are ok with your 76 flywheel and clutch. -Oliver

I was looking into high performance coils, since they are cheap... but i started wondering... what will this actually do for me? so my question is what increasing the voltage a coil puts out do for the driveability of the car. Obviously it increases performance a little, but does it also increase gas mileage, i.e. does it burn the fuel more completely than the stock voltage would? I also have 10.3:1 cr with stock everything else (flattops) would upgrading a coil help me take advantage of this cr? -Oliver

tech inspection consists of a guy with really bad teeth takin' a peek at your car, writing a number on it and making you sign the waiver... not very tech-nical at all... btw the header is still working great! I'm addicted to my newfound horsepower and the sound is amazing!!! -Oliver

yes. only difference might be the clutch throw out bearing collar.

carbs vs. efi, I'm totaly down!!! haha our set ups are actually pretty similar (besides fuel delivery of course), it should be an interesting battle. -Oliver

Shhhh.... no one has to know...

I like that idea. Get another block and find a better machine shop than a-1 supergay.

I think you're complicating matters more than they should be complicated. As long as you have the #1 cyl. at tdc, and the exhaust and intake valves at 10 and 2 o'clock, then you should be able to install the head. Are you doing all this outside of the car? If so double check the bright links on the timing chain, and the dowel on the cam sprocket to be put on the right position. Little insignificant mistakes will do that sort of thing to you, so double check you work. -Oliver

good tuning will get you around the ping issue. Other things you can do to make it more reliable is to use a header (duh) to keep the gasses flowing and smooth the combustion chamber, like spark plug threads that aren't needed, stuff like that. Check out the detonation post in misc. tech I recently revived. It has alot of good info.

hey... I never quoted any numbers... I just said it pulled from a lower rpm. you want some numbers? try 100hp extra, but that's just due to the blue header paint I used.

well, you can easily run 10.5:1 on the street, of course you would want to run pump gas, but what your mechanic was telling you about only a 4% increase is false. The good thing about raising the cr is that you can get the most out of a big cam. If you put a big cam on a low cr motor, it will lower the dynamic cr too much by bleeding off pressure in overlap and actualy hinder performance. The increase you will see by switching to a higher cr and larger cam will be alot more than 4%. If you just do one or the other you won't see such a noticeable increase. I am running 10.3:1 on my engine and just use premium, and with the stock cam, and 2580lb I ran 14.8s in the 1/4. Obviously the compression did something over the stock 16s 1/4 of the 280z. you won't start getting unreliable until higher than 10.5:1. that is the highest you can run on premium on these engines. That is the general sentiment on this board. -Oliver

I guess you are past the trust kit, but couldn't you have spliced in another U joint and relocated the steering rod for clearance? running that setup would be really rare and I'm guessing really powerful too.

My old set up was the stock manifold with a half-blocked off egr outlet, and the msa turbo head pipe with only 2/3 bolts holding it to the manifold. Obviously I had some leaks. My new setup is the msa square port header, which I ported out to match most of the gasket. (mostly the top edge) It fits right on to the turbo exhaust with no problems, apparently. Well, I just drove the car and the difference is ridiculous! The exhaust note has quieted down, there are no more exhaust leaks (the cabin is not as exhaust-y) and there is a noticable increase in power. as In real pull from 3k rpms instead of 4k. Anyway, I thought I'd report my results for anyone considering switching to a header. -Oliver

can someone make this a sticky again? I found it by accident.... Thanks... -Oliver

200zr mounts might be worth a shot. -Oliver

yeah, what did the numbers look like with the spikes?