FricFrac

Almost... MS will read the voltage dropped across the resistor - it doesn't care what the current is. The sensor is probably half of a voltage divider and the other half will be on the MS PCB. The MS PCB will use an ADC to read the voltage. You calibrate your thermal sensor reading in your MS tuning software. EF & EC - 88 in the '83 280ZX FSM (www.xenons130.com) gives you a graph of the thermal sensor values based on temperature. Since it's a variable resistor it doesn't really care which way the wires are hooked up....

Yes it should work. I was just saying that you would loose the timing retard if there is any knocking for the turbo ECU application.... Great idea btw using the '82-83 turbo dizzy. It should be more accurate than the reluctor dizzy and welding/bolting/otherwise disabling the reluctor setup on the NA dizzy. The '81 turbo was the first Z to have a CAS and the '82-83 is a CAS as well - it's just hidden in the dizzy (and optical vs reluctor) so I suspect if you wanted to get technical the '82-83 turbo dizzy probably isn't leagle either....

I'm running Rota RB-R 17x9.5 on all four corner with Yokohama S-Drive 235/45/17 up front and 255/40/17 in the back. I'm also running HPK255 spring/struts and there is lots of room in the back. Yasin is running the same setup but 255 on the front and 275 on the rear but IIRC he's running coil overs. What do you mean that you're bottoming out in the rear? Are the tires rubbing against the struts or are you physically bottoming the strut out on the bump stops? You mention squating. That's only going to be resolved by your spring rate. I don't know what the ST springs are but the Tockicos are about 200lbs in the rear IIRC. Personally I think 250lb would be optimal but you are better of checking with the guys that track the cars frequently.

Doesn't the '81 turbo CAS put out the same signal as the 82-83 optical encoder in the Dizzy? They have the same plug connector for the '81 turbo CAS and the 82-83 turbo Dizzy. As far as I know the '81-83 turbo ECUs are interchangeable (other than the '81 requires ballast resistors for the low impedance injectors and the '82-83 ECU has them built in). The 82-83 Dizzy is essentially an optical CAS whereas the '81 uses a reluctor CAS. It would be interesting to see how this works with a turbo setup as the turbo ECU controls timing normally. The boost retard is a nice feature as well. The issue would be with the knock sensor. If the ECU no longer controls timing it can't retard the timing if knocking is occuring. From what I could see in the 6AL2 user manual there is no input for a knock sensor.

...and a few updates..... Completly refurbished climate control system....

Thankfully I had read about the dry ice trick before I started. The trick is to wait long enough for the tar to get really cold.

Playing around with modifying the door panel carpets. Before: After: Ok not quite before and after - just mirrored the picture of the other side for comparison.... you get the idea

If you don't know about the seam sealer on the S130 then it's something you need to do if you are planing on keeping your car. As you may or may not know the seam sealer is poreous and absorbs water. It esentially does exactly the opposite of what you want it to do which is seal the seam and keep the water out. It's fine until the seam flexes and the factory paint cracks allowing water into the seam sealer. Once the water gets in it stays there and follows the seam bringing rusty destruction along with it.

The worst of the rust. The frame rail was dented and instead of rusting the actual rail it ended up steaming the floor and rusting a small hole through. Conquest, Rust Killer primer, enamel paint and temporary patch. Mostly surface rust and the odd bubble. Also I cleaned everything with vinegar to kill any mold so any bare metal would turn to rust almost instantly. The biggest killer on the S130 was the seam sealer ironically enough. It's poreous and absorbs water once the paint cracks. Water follows the seams and they rot out. Simple fix is to remove the seam sealer BEFORE it all rots away and put in a modern urethane based seam sealer.

The defrost wasn't working properly though so I ended up pulling the dash and spent about eight hours completely rebuilding the climate control unit. Reuel gave me a spare one when I was down in Portland so I used that as my guinea pig. Its hard to see but the vaccum lines are colour coded depending on what "circuit" they are on (sorry electronics guy's view of a pneumatic system). There is a "schematic" in the FSM that shows you how the whole thing works. I figured a quick little trick is to cut about 1/4 inch of the end of the vacuum line where it gets all hard and push it back onto the fitting for a nice tight fit and no more leaks. I used a lot of open cell foam to get a better seal between units and piping now it blows like a hurricane! I was showing my brother how all the vacuum relays work with the dash still off and he was standing a few feet from the back bumper with the hatch opened and the wind was still quite strong all the way back there. I cleaned the evaporator up inside the car and vacuumed the pine needles, etc out. Took a while to get the greasy fuzz out as well but she blows good. Not sure about the other side of the AC yet though. I think the belt is missing IIRC... We'll take a look once the interior is done and we get 'er up on the hoist.

A little crusty in the engine bay. Now she has new plugs (rust free!), wires, cap, rotor, PVC valve, MSD coil, refurbished J-Pipe with DMS BOV until I get the intercooler setup installed. The "security" starter switch which was wired to the solenoid on the starter is a safety issue so that needed to be fixed (you can see the wires going from the battery through the firewall to a switch below the steering column). Turns out they were trying to bypass the broken ignition switch. New ignition switch installed. The reverse lights weren't working but the NC portion of the tranny switch was working so I hooked a relay up so the reverse lights work for the safety inspection.

3.7l - that I've got to see. Run a Z32 tranny - it will hold up to whatever you'll be throwing at it and they are easily adaptable to the L series Run S13 coil overs. There are plenty of swaps and info on the minor mods you need to get them to work. Of course you're going to need to slot the rear cross members if you are running the stock suspension but lowering the car any significant ammount.

I was just going to rip the carpets out of the 280ZXT since the interior was in shambles. Unfortunatley I didn't get a lot of great pictures before I ripped everything out. You can't really see the grey household carpet they used inside the car or the grey household carpet glued to the back panels, etc. The seats were grotesque under the covers. It was pretty musty too and there was a lot of green stuff growing on the outside of the car. I think she sat for a while. Anyhow ripping the carpets out lead to taking the underlay out. Then the sound dampening material. Then all the body panels.... then the well I guess I should post some pictures so you can see how I got a little side tracked with the interior....

Finally found a 280ZXT 5 speed. I've wanted one for about 18 years now. She's a little rough but not too bad. I was going to use her as a test mule for my NA to Turbo swap on my NA S130 and that's still the plan but I got a little carried away on not fixing her up. Here she is when I first picked her up. Rusty in the strangest spots - below the rear tail lights but solid in the spare tire well. The bottom of the hatch is really rusty but not a big deal - hatches are easy to find and a simple replacement.

ANY slick tops in Canada are pretty rare with the exception of the '79. We tend to get the models with the most features (and the extra charge associated with the extras if not more). I've seen ONE S130 with crank up windows in Canada in the last 18 years... and that was a '79. I think with the limited amount of solid S130s you grab what's solid and swap in what you want.... I like the '82-83 with the power rack and pinion steering which makes the turbo swap a lot easier. We envy you guys in Cali with all the clean cars.... until we find a clean one and swap in whatever we want

Is there a way to fix this sticky since the pictures are no longer working?

Interested as well if anything comes of it. Fiber glass fenders are notorious for not fitting properly....

The front four should be two pieces. The middle one is the only difficult molded piece in the kit but you can tape a flat piece in place to fit. The last piece is the rear deck. The smaller pieces to the side are for the strut towers.

Correct the manual doesn't have the thermal sensor. With the updated info I'd say either the fan itself has a bad solder connection/connector or in the harness to the fan as the first suspect. Do you have a fan unit you can swap out? You can also try running the fan by itself and tap around with the handle of a screw driver, etc to see if you can induce the fault.

Hayes says it's probably a R200 3.9 and a lot of them were but the real world doesn't always match with what gets put into the cars in reality. I think the turbo with the T5 is always matched up with a 3.545 that I've ever seen or heard of. The rest is fair game Sounds like you have it out of the car already when you pulled the trans? Easy enough to figure out if that's the case.....

Take some pictures of the kit laying on the ground by themselves. There shouldn't be two pieces in the foot well. Yours looks like it's split at the front seat rail mount - should go from under the pedals , over the front seat rail (where yours is split) back past the seat to where the body goes straight up towards the speakers. The third piece (first two are one on the drivers side and one on the passenger side) should be on the body that goes up from the floor behind the seat towards and over the speakers. Last piece should lay flat in the rear hatch area,

Oh and don't forget the FSM at www.xenons130.com as well for troubleshooting....

Is the thermal sensor by the glove box working properly?

Welcome to the S130 club Don't see too many with the analog clock. I pulled the guts out of a ZX clock and fit it to my 240Z - works great! Slick tops are pretty uncommon as are models with the bare bones hand crank windows, etc. More common in the 79 and 80 models though. Most of the ZX were R200's although there were a few early ones with R180s. IIRC some of the early ZX has a manual rack and pinion. If you are going to do a turbo swap you'll want a rack rather than the ball setup for clearance.

Guys are running rear mounted turbos on various cars. Has anyone bothered running a N/A header on a turbo setup with a S30 or S130? Personally I'll be running a port matched stock log....