280zedx

The supercharger in question is a M62 and yes its mounted on the passenger side. There isn't room for AC unless you decide to eliminate the power steering pump altogether. The design does make getting at the spark plugs a bit of a pain however with the bracket/stud design of the SC and intake plenum i can change a set of plugs in under 20 minutes without issue (which is probably better than most new cars - haha). The setup is proving very reliable and i have been road racing the car competetively for 4 years now with next to no issues. The only supercharger related problem i encountered was earlier this year my homemade tensioner pully started to fatique and i started throwing the belt at redline. I fabricated a stronger tensioner pulley setup and have since had no issues. It dynoed at 225hp with 245lb/lbs of torque without any head work and the stock cam. I do have a M90 on the workbench that eventually will get installed with more modified head/cam work once the engine starts to show signs of end of life (which doesn't appear to be happening). The race season is now over here so its time to park the Zed (as we call them here in Canada) and time to move onto ice racing.... I've attached a picture from a few years ago of the engine bay showing the SC setup. Cheers, Mike

Here's another supplier for full coil over kits for the S130. It obviously requires welding to install like the aussie company and are similiar. It looks pretty good as far as race application and quality but there's not much for reviews. (pretty pricy too) http://www.horsepowerfreaks.com/performanceparts/Nissan/280ZX/Suspension/Coilovers Mike 1983 Supercharged ZX http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/280zedx/DSC01190.jpg

Adam, just to clarify your injector troubleshooting...you unplugged #1 injector and it dropped to 350rpm (which is what it should do if that injector and cylinder are working correctly), you then unplugged #5 and the RPM went back up to normal? couple of questions/comments: -When you pulled #5 injector clip off had you put #1 back on? This needs to be done so you have a benchmark of "normal". As well, for the life of me I can't understand how an engine's rpm would return to normal by pulling off an injector clip. -Clarify what happened with each cylinder when you pulled off (and put back on) the injector clip. (They should all have had the same effect as #1, noticable drop in RPM which means running on 5 cylinders) -Also note how it is idling as is, (rpm #, choppy sounding, water/smoke from tailpipe, etc). Hopefully with a clearer description of your troubleshooting so far we can help.

Hi All, I wish I could help with the sideskirts manufacturer, but i bought them many years ago. JC Whitney does comes to mind but other than that, who knows. They definately haven't made them in years so....no, they are not for sale! The front air dam is a bit newer (the matching one for the sideskirts didn't survive the test of time) and was bought from British Victoria (now Black Dragon). The new wheels are the sportmax 006 - pretty sure they come +42 offset. I've got 45mm wheel spacers from Ross at Modern Motorsport and there's no clearance problems with 235X17X40. If anyone is interested in my other wheels, they are correct offset and direct bolt-on. Cheap, too! Cheers.

The blue "winter" washer fluid we use up in Canada is basically 50% meth. I have been using it for a couple years without any issue. The pink "summer" fluid is not the same as it has other chemicals for helping remove bug guts and stuff from the windshield. When in doubt check the WHIMS sheet for the product and it should tell you all the components of it.

It kinda makes sense not leaving air in them, never really thought of it.

The wheels are coming off soon for the winter here in Canada. I've got new 17x235 Azenis and was wondering if I should store them at a specific psi or whether it matters. I was last running them @42-44psi.

Wow, interesting feedback! (those are my wheels......) Yes they are cheap (and heavy) but they bolted right on and work fine at holding my even cheaper Canadian Tire rubber,LOL. I bought them years ago with the plan on keeping them for my street tires and running a second set for the track. Hopefully by this spring i'll finally have that happen.

They will work just fine until you go under boost, go really lean and blow your engine.... Sorry for the bad news. The non turbo injectors are much smaller than the turbo ones. (188cc for NA and 265cc for Turbo)

Graham -I was thinking of keeping my mouth shut and the hood closed until after the dust settled at the next re-match... The cat's out of the bag, now it's heads up! heh heh

Thanks for the compliments. No i didn't tilt the engine, but i did have to cut off a mounting bracket that stuck out the side of the supercharger in order to tuck it in closer to the block/head. The SC is a series 2 of any GM 3.8L. Heres a pic of the bracket if that helps anyone: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/280zedx/107-0730_AUT.jpg Hats off to the first Zcar that is twincharged!

Up here in the cold Canada we have all winter to get creative and work on the car. It's nice having the "down time" to screw around in the garage but it's frustrating as hell when you want to test your results. Thats where i am right now. The car was running real smooth with the megasquirt and stock turbo injectors but i was relying on the water/meth injection to keep the wideband levels in the 12 to 1 range (running well over 100% duty cycle). 1 thing led to another...60mm throttle body, 4"x12"x22" intercooler, 2 1/2" piping, oil catch can, 440injectors, FPR, fuel rail, and a total facelift to the intake vacuum lines. It was lots of fabricating but well worth it. You may notice that all the fittings are not automotive, they take a bit more to work with but are at least a tenth the cost (yeah i know i'm not NHRA legal or whatever the class requirement is). The entire upgrade including paint totalled less than a grand, just lots of labour. I'm now ready to eliminate my belt slipping issue which i was experiencing (it would usually slip at 9psi) and will be in the 12-15psi range with a bit of redesigning on the pulley brackets. The car idles fine now with new 440cc settings in MS but will require new tweaking on the high load end scale which i am unable to do when it's -30 outside. Here's some pictures of the adventure so far: A pic from the start of this project (a few years ago) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/280zedx/Jan_2_engine_compartment.jpg Here's where i had it last summer (as well as signature) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/280zedx/P0001470.jpg Here's a couple pics of it now, hybernating, waiting for spring... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/280zedx/280zx.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/280zedx/passengerside-1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/280zedx/intake2.jpg I'll add an update in a couple of months around April, which is usually when its safe to leave the garage here in Canada... Cheers.

I finally got around to firing it up and 7.1 put the idle right where it was before. sweet. Now i just have to wait till the snow melts....

great post Pete, that helps lots with getting me in the ballpark. thanks.

I am running a version 2.2 fuel only MS and had it fairly well tuned around 9psi but was running out of injector around 5500rpm with stock 260cc's . I'm squirting water/meth and that sufficiently kept me rich till red line but i still wanted to get my duty cycles out of the +100%. I just got some nice 440s and was curious if anybody had changed injector sizes while running MS. It calculates the new req fuel at 7.1 (before 12.0) but I was curious if the opening times or pwm changes? Theoretically my map should be the exact same (req fuel amount might need a tweaking) shouldn't it?

Here's a couple pics of the supercharger install for the passenger side. I made a steel bracket to hold the plenum and SC which bolt down to studs welded in place. I made 3 braces along the head side of the bracket that extend down and bolt to the block plus a main brace that bolts under the 2 engine mount bolts. Its solid. The alluminum plenum was simple enough and nothing fancy with a 2 1/2inch outlet. The smaller round hole is for the SC bypass chamber. The supercharger sandwiches the intake plenum and both can be removed easily in order to get at the spark plugs. In the front view pic you can see the changes to the power steering pump and alternator as well as the pulleys. For those that attempt this fiasco, prepare for lots of fabricating. The battery, fuel filter, vacuum bottle, power steering pump, alternator, and part of the wiring harness have to be relocated as well as mods to the fan system, spark plug wires, pulleys and fuel management. I hope this helps. Cheers,

Without a doubt, ditch the v-belt idea. I am having belt slipping issues at the 10psi level (i might be in the 15psi once i figure out how to stop it from slipping) I'm using a 5$ 6 groove pulley that i pulled off some old minivan or something and just centered, drilled and bolted it onto the existing pulley. So far no problems. I also went down the road road you're talking about with the SC on the passenger side. It took alot of bracket fabricating and rewiring (including moving the PS pump down to where the alternator was. The compromise is not having easy access to the spark plugs but i have designed it so that it takes under 20minutes to completely access/change them. If you decide to go M90 look at additional modifications as this will put you in an area of extreme airflow - not a bad thing! good luck. p.s. I hope to have mine back together very shortly and will post info and pics soon. It includes a smaller SC pulley, 440cc injectors, 60mm TB, bigger intercooler and piping, better water injection, custom fuel rail and a complete "facelift" for the intake manifold. -If you want more info on the passenger side supercharger mount, let me know.

FYI - an M62 will give you around 8-12psi and the M90 will put you closer to 20psi depending on the pulley ratios. as well, if your going through all the fabrication work definately use runners without the baffles. good luck.

Everything depends on where you place your throttle body. If you put the TB before the S/C like most are factory designed then there is no need for a BOV. The internal bypass mechanism that mounts to the side of the SC will control the boost by "sealing" the chamber when you go off vacuum (hard on the gas) and open when you go under vacuum (cruise and idle). This will work perfect with the MAF as well. If the TB is located after the supercharger then you have to have a BOV between the 2 in order to vent the pressure when the throttle plate slams shut (letting off of the gas). If not this pressure will back up into the SC because it has no place to go (even though the SC bypass is now open and thus not making more boost) and apparently they really don't like that! The tradeoff is the fact that the closer the TB is to the intake the better for throttle response.

As far as I know, with the CAS right on the crank pulley you got the best ignitition signal you want for megasquirt. Are you sure you need to change to the '83 turbo distributor?

This temperature concensus makes me feel a bit less paranoid. Just to point out- most people are talking about their coolant temp, not there cyclinder head temp, which i believe runs 10-20 degrees hotter. While it may not be frying the engine, I beleive it is forcing me to run richer than i want to - heat is the enemy!

I too have a heat problem, i'm getting accurate CLT log measurements with megasquirt over 215 degrees. see similiar post- http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=102838 I was wandering what kind of CFMs people's fan setups were? What would the stock belt driven fan put out? I'm looking at upgrading my fan setup and am wondering what's up with this 16" fan: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&Ntt=electric+fan&N=400006&part=PRM%2D19115&autoview=sku&Ntk=KeywordSearch I'm suspicious...that's killer CFM for only 9.8amps and half the price of anything comparible. (also the 14" is the same CFM). Is this a typo, ripoff or pipedream? Any suggestions?

doh...same question, different post, same time: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=102646 megasquirt question- it doesn't seem that serious hitting 215 on the CLT so can i adjust the scale in the code to show up to say 225?

My radiator and thermostat are stock new, the fans aren't shrouded, a 70% water mix, a bottle of water wetter. Damn it gets hot! The header adds a bit along with the spoiler restriction and all that black paint and the intercooler is poor but still not bad. A higher pressure rad cap and a killer high cfm fan gotta help if anything. I don't want to run it hard (or at all, i'm worried about the roasting i've been giving my engine while trying to tune it!) until this is fixed. The heat numbers everyone is getting are what i feared...something's wrong!arggghh.

what kind of temp readings are people running, and how hot is too hot? With megasquirt the reading is labeled "coolant" but is actually from the cylinder head temp sensor. Since i have black painted all my engine parts, and changed my fan setup to 2-10" spal fans (1360cfm total output) i'm worried about engine heat. I'm running above 200F and when i go under boost it hits 215F (and possibly a bit higher since the scale ends at 215) Can i change the scale to see exactly how hot i am hitting? My intake temps are usually between 90-110, and i can't tell what my coolant is exactly at since it's the digital "bars". I've checked my sensor with a digital probe and it is almost dead on. I'm thinking i need a higher cfm fan setup. How hot are other boost applications hitting?