Gollum

How'd I KNOW you'd be the first to respond. I should have just asked you directly to begin with. I'll keep the san jose local on the backburner. Would love something about 20-40 miles farther north though.

Hey, I've got some free time this weekend (unusual) and wanted to see if I could find a place to weigh my 280Z. Anyone know of anywhere in the easy bay? I'll also be down in san leandro saturday morning/early afternoon, so pretty much anywhere around there up to fairfield is a reachable area for me. I know some of you guys go to truck scales, but: A) I don't trust them, as they're measureing giant multi ton vehicles The highway scales here frown upon cars comming in and normally tell them to leave. C) Possibly the biggest factor, I'm not the most outgoing person and would feel awkward telling a truck scale to weigh my car for no real reason. So does anyone know of someone in the bay that does car specific weighing or has some wheel scales? I'd really like to get a 4 point weight of my car now before doing anything to it.

boodleproof said pretty much all I'd planned to say. So I'll just say this: Look and attitude are much MORE important in many ways than talent. She has talent, I'd suggest a really good vocal trainer to make her skilled. Singing is like playing guitar in the fact that initial skill doesn't determine how good you can become, it just changes how much they have to work in order to become reconised. Steve vai, one of the worlds best guitar players, admits to having almost zero talent, and worked extremely hard to become as good as his is (and I believe him, to an extent). Then there's freaks of nature that become extremely talented overnight. With vocalists they tend to not put in the same type of work schedule just to become better, they treat their voice as "this is what God gave me, and I'm stuck with it" when that's not the case at all. She's got talent, get her professional help and she can become skilled and talented, the best of both worlds. After that, it's like I said before... Image, look, etc. Those are the things that can make or break an artist. There are well know vocalists that are KNOWN for their voice that won't go on stage without autotunes (pitch correcting devices). Oh yea, with all that said, though that was a rough track, the engineer definately knew what he was doing with the compression, reverb, and mic choices.

The adjustment screw is for idle air mixture. If you open it up (black plastic cover) you can adjust it to make the computer think there's more or less air than there really is. That's the main "adjustment" an AFM can make that's actually meaningful. Was the engine warm? I'd say let it warm up and see if it responds any differently. It's definately either going rich or lean upon rapid throttle, and until you know it's hard to tell what might cause it. I'd bet it's going rich, but that's just me. Try tightening the spring on the AFM (mark it before you do anything) and then loosten it and see which improves it. If making the spring more loose helps then it was going lean and now the ECU is adding more fuel per air molicule. If tightening it helps then the opposite is true, as more air is getting in without the ECU knowing.

Oh man, i wish you'd had my number, i'm in benicia nearly every night. I'm sure I could have helped you out in some way, even if it was just a casual drink to take the edge off the drama. And my car looks like a POS and I'm going. These shows aren't as much of a car show as most, it's about just hanging out and meeting new people. Most of these norcal bunch are pretty easy going people. As far as getting the most out of the L28E - Mr.Insane did a write up in the FAQ section on L series performance increases, but honesty he doesn't have much hands on experience (though I do appreciate the guy and enjoy talking with him) so it's not exactly biblical information. It's mostly just stuff he's got off of this site. But that being said without getting into the head or adding cubic inches you probably won't see more than 175 wheel HP out of that motor. Though there's quite a bit you can do to make it more responsive and alive. The sad part is that you're in CA which means smog, and one of the most infuencial mods you could make would be to go to a standalone ECU so you could run a MAF or MAP based system, which would meter air better and not choke the motor like the stock AFM. Most guys note a VERY noticable responce increase when switching to megasquirt. There's the other obvious things you can do like a lighter flywheel, free flowing exhaust, etc. Though it's basically like tuning any other mild performance NA motor, the gains are small and don't tend to add up to a ton. If smog laws wheren't in the way I'd say go with a standalone efi system, get a ITB setup, delete the cat and get a good header with a good size exhaust with a non baffled muffler. Then just work on messing with the ignition system from there.

You can thank me by showing up to the vacaville show on the 29th. I'm hoping to see some HZ cars

Sweet deal. It's amazing that there's still so many great deals on these cars in norcal. Congrats. I really wanna see some of your guys' cars up in the north bay. Any of you napa folk gonna be able to maybe make it to the vacaville meet/greet event march 29th? I'll be there most likely, and with my new 280Z of course. More details and upcomming events: http://www.thezenthusiast.com/calendar/month.php

TPS = Throttle Position Sensor. It's 99.9% of the time located on the throttle itself on cars. You'll see it on the outside of the throttle, oposite side of the block. It'll be a little black box screwed into the throttle body with some wirse comming out of the top. Take it off, let it air out, maybe blow some air on it and in the hole via a compressor. I've never had water damage my TPS for good, and it's had it's chance.

Could be a bad fuel pressure regulator. That's the piece that makes sure that there's pressure in the fuel system, without fuel pressure the injectors won't be firing much of ANY fuel. Usually they tend to go out slowly, dropping pressure 5-10 psi from normal, till eventually you've got barely any pressure at all. I wouldn't buy a new or OEM one as they're severly over priced. I'd find a junkyard unit or get an after market one for around 50 bucks, which will be adjustable and perform better anyways. Check and clean the connections on everything, mainly the AFM, ECU, and TPS. And i know this sounds really dumb, but check timing. It's amazing how often people either misplace a spark plug wire, or screw up the orientation between the distributor and the oil pump rod that drives the distributor. You only need two things really to get a car running. Fuel, and spark. Unless you have massive filter issues it'll draw it's own air. As long as you have spark you should be able to get it to run spraying your own fuel source into the intake while holding the throttle part way open. If it's not running at all once you KNOW you have fuel, then it has to be spark and/or spark timing related.

Did you read my post? I said that it's not just a simple bolt in swap like you might think. I then proceeded to LINK YOU TO all the info you needed, and even said at the end of my post that it seems like the MOTOR can drop in, but that's it. What other info can you need/want? This isn't a commonly done swap, so you can't expect there to be a wealth of info out there. I gave you links to the most relevant threads on this site that cover as much info as exists on this site. Then you get a post from one of the very few that's done this swap, and yet you still have questions. I'm not giving you attitude. I've given you all that's availible, as spoon fed as I can manage, and you're complaining? Please read ALL of a persons post, and FOLLOW AND READ the links they provide when trying to HELP you. Maybe then you'll actually get the info they intend you to get.

What do you mean who is wrong who is right? You've got all the info you need. If you need more spoon fend info you won't last long here. Engine: Bolts in Transmission: Need to fabricate a mount. Then there's also gonne be the wiring for the ignition, guages, etc. Pretty much all the normal engine swap stuff that I'm willing to bet will overwelm you if you need to be so spoon fed this early on.

I'll be looking forward to it. Hopefully I don't miss it as I tend to not check the non-tech section on a daily basis, and stuff gets by me. If you start a new thread and I don't respond PM me if you remember. I have a sickness called passion. I'm overly passionate about pretty much anything I do. It's a good quality about myself, but it means that things that aren't important many times get left in the dust. I'm not the more organized person, and it takes much dedication to even appear half organized. (sorry for the off topic discussion)

The song started fading out at 2:40, that's on par with an MXPX punk song. A slower, low key song needs time to breathe and develop. I agree though, 3:30 is fine for a radio song. But like I said before, don't feel bad, I had good things to say too. I'm just being brutally honest hoping you can take it. If you can learn to take critisism and learn the difference between help and opinion, then you can truly grow from what others say. Another good note I forgot to mention... I love that you've actually got GOOD stereo imaging. Your stereo work is much better than most of what you hear from individual's projects online these days. As to the question about myself: I grew up in a very musical family, and even in my extended family I have about 40+ cousins and I'd say 90% of them played some instrument for at least 3+ years, some of them becomming pretty dedicated musicians. Example: http://www.myspace.com/shobeemusic I first picked up a guitar when I was probably around 10, and learned a D chord... I learned a few chords here and there from my brother, but never really thought "hey, I can do this, this is fun". It was more like "hmm, this doesn't seem hard, I should try to remember these chords". I played flute for a good solid 7 years during grade school and became pretty decent, as far as grade school bands went. I'd met a couple flautists who thought I really had a chance in the future of the instrument, but sadly when I started homeschooling I dropped the instrument completely. My female flute counterpart when on to get a full musical scholorship for her flute playing, and our competition with each other was probably what drove both of us to exceptional hights for our age (who wants to be bested by a girl in grade school?!). But at age 16 I picked up the guitar for real. I learned stairway to heaven (i know... typical) in one day. It was about 8 in the morning and I'd printed up the tabs to the song I'd found online. I was playing it on my brother's ibanez RG and as he left for work he said "what's that" and I said "stairway to heaven" and he kinda chucked and said "good luck, needs some work though, couldn't even tell". When he got home I played through the whole song (minus solo) and he was pretty emotional (mad, upset, ready to tear my head off...) How I finished homeschooling high school while keeping up this guitar addiction is a mystery unto itself, but I did, and did well. Decided I didn't really want to go to college yet, and I've kinda been floating since. I've been part of a couple band projects, and play every sunday at church. I've played for probably around 20-25 churches here in the bay area and can never find enough time to play with the various worship leaders I've met along the years. One of my good friends is a graduate of Expressions school of the media arts in emeryville, ca. He has a bachalor's degree in sound engineering so I tend to pick his brain for all sorts of stuff. I'd been dabbling in sound engineering since before I even started playing guitar, so I've had quite a bit of time to work on those skills and learn what I could from my friend. I'd link you to some stuff, but most of it is either old, or very poorly done. I guess I can link a youtube vid. It's nothing serious, it's something I put together for a guitar recital some time ago now (probably about 2 years ago). I recorded it for youtube just to test out the waters and see what it took in the realm of video editing to put something on youtube that looked good and didn't get out of sync. http://youtube.com/watch?v=CzeEKjmq0zc Man my hair looked nasty... glad I stopped using gel/mousse. Blaa.

I tried to fix the spelling/grammar the best I could so people could understand what he meant (or at least I hope he meant). I'm not trying to be mean, just trying to help out.

Ok, I should have specified, sorry. L28ET - stock Stock EFI Will soon be stock injectors (has the L28E white tops rightn now) Stock boost levels. The stock fuel curve isn't really bad, and as long as you have the right size injectors increasing fuel pressure per psi isn't needed unless you're going to be running double the stock boost. From the dynos I've looked into, the main thing making the L28ET go lean under boost is injectors that are running out of steam. I don't plan on getting an intercooler for a while, so stock boost levels will be what I'm tuning for. The main reason I even want an adjustable FPR is so if I'm running at the track I can tune WOT conditions a bit better, and then when I'm cruising the streets I can lean it back out for better MPG. I'm also hoping that when/if I get an intercooler, bov, maybe even a newer ball bearing type turbo I can have the ability to swap injectors and use fuel pressure to tune it or 10-14psi. I don't really see myself going with more boos than that really. This is going to be a 95% street car, and I try to stay out of trouble on the street.

As a musician, I'd be looking for honest but helpful critisism, so here I go. Too short, even for radio. The intro is long for the length of the song, could probably due without at least 2 bars of the intro. Dynamics are too flat. Some well done strings in the background could really help elevate the crescendo a bit. The Drums fading in seems weak. I'd try to main a definitive POINT that the drums enter, and it might require a fill of some sort. It might help to use some light cymbol work earlier on in the song. The song fading out is another weak point imo. Though 80% of the time I don't choose a fade out for a song. Fade outs are over used this day in age, and a bit teenybopish to me. I usually just avoid them. To me they show lack of creativity. I'm sure you can come up with a good way to end the song. The vocals. I'm not gonna say you did anything wrong here. I actually understand what you're going for and thought you did quite well. But the vocals are DEFINATELY too quite in the mix. You might need to record a few more vocal tracks and play with stereo fielding so they don't dominate too much as you increase their presence. You're going to need some compression on those vocals too. Sounds like you used a dynamic mic on the vocals and you're getting some proximity effect breathe pops. Either get a better screen and stay farther away from the mic (a consistant 3 inches with a good screen is good for a shure SM58 in my experience), or you can get a good condenser mic. Song could use some more variety. Either a better defined chorus, or a bridge. Now, with all that said. I like it. I think you have something to work on, but you can't just lay a foundation and call it a song. You have a good idea that can really go somewhere, but it's just a skeleton right now. You need to add some meat and flesh before calling it done. The midi drums are... well... midi. Get some real drums recorded if you can. Let the song breathe a little bit, get the mix a bit tighter and you can have something that actualy has a shot at some good radio play. It's definately pop enough of a sound that it could make radio, but the quality really is gonna need to be stepped up if you want it to stay there. Hope this helps ya.

I'm posting this in the non-tech section because I thought I remembered seeing somewhere that ebay auctions should be posted here. Well, at any rate it's not all that "technical" of a thread I guess, so hopefully this is a good enough place to park this thread. I'm looking into buying an adjustable FPR in the near future, and as some can probably guess, i'm looking for the cheapest one out there that will get me by. I'd like to get one with an intergrated guage, so I don't have to bother with installing one in line. Budget - Less than $50. I'd idealy like to keep it under $30 but that just not gonna happen. Here's the units I've been looking at one ebay, if anyone has any comments feel free. I'm going to go ahead and list my notes of what I think of them from my point of view. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=270215647131&_trksid=p3984.cWAT.m240.lVI This one looks decent, but seems to come with the least amount of hardware/fittings. I'm not a fan of colors... My prefference is Brushes, then black, then chrome. All other colors are just as undesireable as the next. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=380001457332&_trksid=p3984.cWAT.m240.lVI I like this one, but I don't like that I'd have to bid on it, and win with the entry bid in order to get a price I like. (i'm ordering these links in price assendeing btw) http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=230227916064&_trksid=p3984.cWAT.m240.lVI Looks like a good value, but it's not like I have a lot of experience here. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=200203461317&_trksid=p3984.cWAT.m240.lVI This one listed that it comes with "all hardware and fittings" but they're not shown in the pictures, so I guess it's a crapshoot. So if anyone has a comment about any of these FPRs, lets hear them. If anyone has another FPR that they'd recommend and is a reasonable price, let me know about it.

Well, I always tend to name my guitars and cars. Can't really explain why either. I'm also a bit of a Gone in 60 sec fan (old and new) and for some reason giving my car a girls name just always fits. I guess that's ok since I've met several girls that consider their car their 'man'. My 280ZX is Chelsey. Just sounds like a girl next door name doesn't it? Again, I just can't explain it, it just fits. The new 280Z is still nameless, but I'm thinking Elaine or Helen, which are basically the same name if ya didn't know. I'm leaning towards Elaine because if I name her Helen people will ask about the relation to troy, though I do like the sound of helen more.

Well that sure fits the overal atmosphere of this "other" engine section of this forum... ...now lets talk about fitment in a z...

I was gonna say "stained monitor".

I'm not understand why you're so eargent, but I'm certainly curious where you heard it would "fall right into place with out no custom mouter mounts or nothing", as you put it. It's not a bolt in swap. Never has been, never will be. You WILL need custom mounts, and if you can't figure that out on your own odds are you won't be up to the rest of the swap, possibly any swap for that matter. No offense. Here's some links I found doing a QUICK 10 minute search. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=111683&highlight=mopar http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=124084&highlight=mopar (good looking data in the last post) http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=121169&highlight=mopar So it looks like you can use some stock mounts for the engine, but you're still going to have to figure out a solution for the tranny mount, then you also need to have a driveshaft made/shortened. Then there's also things like throttle linkage, ignition wiring, fuel system improvements, etc. The list could go on. A swap is never just a "bolt in affair" which is what it sounds like you were hoping for.

Ok there's a flat black, well done ZX that there were pics of here on this site that had a shaved butt. I know I have some pics of it on my PC, but that's at home, not here at work. Lemme see if I can find it. EDIT: Tada! I found it. Here's a link to the HZ owner's gallery picture. http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=4520&cat=500&ppuser=8583

Oh no, I've been found out. Actually I have a new found strength thanks to my new title...

Hmm, I'm not digging the upper shoulder wings, but that's just me. I'll be wanting to keep an eye out on this if you do get them. If it's not too hard to get them to fit, I might consider them, or maybe one of their other seats.

I liked the video, but watched them with the volume down low (i'm at work, like almost any time I'm on here lately...) so I missed a bit of what was said. But the 0-60 of the GTR was certainly impressive. Even though the idea of paddle type gear boxes doesn't really apeal to me, cars like the GTR sure prove their worth for solid, consistant, idiot proof accelleration. Still waiting to see some privateer times at the ring...