Hugh

This thing is not a noise suppressor. Its there to support the voltage if there is a drop in it. It WILL do that, but a good battery would also not drop below the required voltage. (Optima, etc...) I am in no way defending this thing.

I was browsing for parts an came across this guy's car. It looks to be a pretty sweet deal. (not a street car, though) http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6187&item=2490333811

That is awesome. I wish I had the time/money/space to do something like this right now. I may have to buy a second Z one of these days so I can complete the same job you're doing. I'm daily driving mine now, and it can't be laid up like that.

The price on HID systems has dropped hundreds of dollars over the past couple years. They were over $1000 before. OEM systems are outrageous. I'm concerned that those 7 inch housings are absolutely atrocious looking!!! I would love to fit the HID lenses into my H4 housings (as stated above) But I wouldn't be caught dead with those nasty round things on my car.

Yeah, this crap started in Japan last year I think. I was living over there, and all of the sudden every shop had these in stock. There were several manufacturers, and they all made outrageous claims. Can you say "Tornado"?? I asked the guy who ran a performance shop what exactly was in the box, he couldn't answer... he had no idea what it really did. He just sold parts. It can't be anything too special if it only connects to the positive and negative battery terminals. Hell, most of the ones in Japan weren't nearly as big as that.. so you'd probably see something from that one. (at least some dead weight)

I've used the fuse panel already with good results. You can find constant 12V in there as well.

Is there any way to build the exhaust with a skinny muffler that comes off at an angle out to the side and avoid those 90 degree bends? There's a lot of exhausts like this for the Silvia/180sx (I had one on mine) and they have almost no backpressure for turbo applications.

So is it impossible to get a decent job for $2000? The Earl Scheib crap thats on my Z right now is all gonna come off pretty soon I think.

The Disco Potato will make the same or less power than a stock S14/S15 Silvia turbo. Thats a huge waste of money. Dyno sheets and pricetags have proven... its magazine hype. Nothing more.

Alright, one he said was a main 12v feed somewhere under the dash that was disconnected. I have to look over the schematic to figure that one out. He said my fusable link coming off the battery is gone, and replaced with a wire that is far too small of gauge. He confirmed what I already knew that there's no ignition signal at the voltage regulator. He was going to continue into the ignition problem, but I stopped him and left it at that. In the meantime, I pulled the Ign 12V from the fuse box and ran a hot wire out to the voltage regulator. I guess the fuse I couldn't find is actually in the fusebox, but I think the wire thats supposed to run from there to the voltage regulator is actually bad. (black w/white stripe) I'm going to start systematically rewiring all the important power lines and grounds in the car... Like a backup harness or something. There's just too many wires that are old and brittle or were rewired by someone else who was just plain crazy. But its running great. I drove it to work today and checked my voltage a couple times from the fusebox with my multimeter while stuck in traffic. It's running 13.6-13.8 volts now.

Thats what I was thinking. I just wanted to drive it...

Car came back repaired..... get this: Three wires were bad or disconnected. Three of them. No wonder I couldn't fix the damn thing myself. The mech spent hours this morning trying to figure it out. He's been working on these cars for 20 years... and this one stumped even him. He did fix it, and it didn't set me back too much. Car charges now!! Whoo hooo!! I think I learned a lot about the ignition system on this little adventure. If anyone has problems like this later, I should be able to help out a bit. SO I'm back on the road and enjoying life.

What sort of ignition will you use with this thing? It won't work with the idle air controller, just like the Tec3 doesn't. The SR IAC is weird. I just use the throttle return stop screw to adjust idle. The stock water temp sensor will work, the knock sensor won't. You should run it with a 3bar map and intake air temp sensor. It can work with either a hall effect or magnetic sensor... which do they reccomend? Will you be making something like my trigger wheel, or will it be like an SDS where you put magnets on the crank pulley? Whats the crank timing resolution, anyway? The tec3 is 60 teeth, SDS has two magnets or something like that. Just wondering. I can help out a lot when you're installing it all, feel free to email me with questions.

You know, I'm not sure about the chassis ground. Thats an excellent point though... even if its not the solution to this problem, I need to take a look at that anyway. Today I had the alternator tested at Kragen and its fine. The battery is fine. I bought a voltage regulator and that didn't fix it either. At this point, I broke down and brought the car to a professional to fix it for me. I need it back on the road before my 240sx sells. (and its gonna go quick) I just want to drive the car...

Oh, and here's a video or two to show you what it ran/sounded like: Short track race against a badass skyline GT-R: http://66.194.152.253/%7evideof6/zeroyonvideos/1bad180sxVSskylineGTR.mpg Just doing a burnout: http://66.194.152.253/%7evideof6/features/zeroyonSep03-linelock.mpg

Here's my engine: This one shows the crank trigger wheel I fabricated. (crank pulley has teeth now) Here you can see the engine with the mag sensor bracket mounted to the front cover to read the crank trigger wheel: Another angle: And here's a shot of it in my old 180sx. I'm not a clean install kinda guy. I usually put the kitchen sink in and leave it if it goes fast. That was all installed in this car: and here's the old dyno sheet from just after tuning the Tec3: Thats 399.8rwps which converts to ~395rwhp

Very cool. I love the flashlight piece idea. Smart dude. I'm wondering how he spaced all the holes evenly??

I got my full setup for $2000. (knew someone with a bit of a discount) The market price is more like $2300. It's difficult to install, only because you must fabricate the crank angle sensor. If you have built stuff out of metal before, it shouldn't be a problem. Then of course you must build the entire wiring harness. This took me two days. ALl the wires are installed into the ECU connector, but must be ran to where you need them, trimmed, then terminated into the supplied connectors. You don't need the narrowband sensor that Electromotive sells if you have a wideband. I bought the Innovate Motorsports LM1: http://www.innovatemotorsports.com This wideband is fully programmable and they also have calibration info specifically for the Tec3. It can also be used to output to a second device. I use an Apexi turbo timer with A/F display. I then calibrated the second output of the LM1 to display correct A/F on the Apexi gauge. You can do that with any A/F gauge, or even a simple digital voltmeter. The LM1 is wonderful. You can get both the Tec3 and the LM1 from http://www.ka24de.com He sells this stuff cheaper than anyone I think. (and knows the engine)

I own the Electromotive Tec3. I absolutely love this computer. It's very expensive, though. The Haltech E6X is plenty for what's needed. A lot of guys have made a lot of power with that computer on the SR. The E11 would be nice, but once again... very expensive. I like how Electromotive includes their full ignition system, and most others don't. If you figure the cost of a good standalone, plus ignition, then the Tec3 doesn't sound so bad. I also piggy backed the hell out of my stock SR ECU in the beginning. I had a ROM tuned ECU with an SAFC on it. The ECU was tuned for a GT2530, and I had a T04S! hehheheh.... people couldn't believe it ran as well as it did. Of course it only made 345rwhp like that. It also ran pig rich in the low end without any solution. The piggy backs can only do so much. The 395 I made was with the identical engine setup as 345, but with the Tec3 and me tuning. A good computer and ignition can go a long way! 50hp!

The voltage regulator and alt were already in the car when I bought it. They both 'look' new. There's a guy here in oceanside who offered some brand new parts to try out on it, alternator, regulator and stuff. I'm just really concerned about that ignition 12v not coming into the regulator. I will be meeting up with him soon to try some stuff out, though. The battery cables are not so old. I replaced the negative terminal and added a ground from the alternator to the battery. This made no change. Thats when I realized my alternator isn't making any power at all.

The name started out as a total joke 4 years ago. Since then, its been hard to drop. I eventually made my 180sx keep up with the cocky sounding name. (395rwhp stock internal SR20DET) The S14 comes with a ball bearing T28 that can make 300-310hp at the wheels with great tuning. The S13 turbo is much smaller, and will top out around 270hp. The response of the S14 engine in stock form is better, along with the factory rating of 15hp more. I personally use an S13 engine. Once you're going all the way with either engine, the S14's advantages don't outweigh the price. Many will still disagree with me on that point, so take it for what its worth. The top end capabilities of both engines are equal. The GTI-R doesn't have a ball bearing turbo. It's also some weird combination that people call a T28... the compressor housing is some type of T3 whereas the S14 has a T04B housing. The whole stock turbo argument gets thrown out when you see the other turbos that you can buy for $1000 and make 350-400hp without an aftermarket manifold. Of course you need good fuel management. I'd start any Z SR swap with a good standalone. Drop the SR wiring harness altogether. The cost of these parts pays for half the standalone. Later on, you have the ability to do anything to your engine, as well.

Sorry about starting two threads here... if anyone has any answers on my alternator problem, please post them on the thread Mike kz linked to above.

Ok, I rewired the amp gauge out of the system. The big wires headed into it are now shorted to eachother and wrapped up in about 8 layers of electrical tape. I put my Optima battery in the car because the other one was pretty much toast at this point. The Optima is reading 12.4v standing alone. I power up the car, Optima reads ~12.36 Start the engine, and it dropped to ~12.34-12.33 There's definitely no charging going on. I read the alternator from its ground to positive terminal, and it shows like .23v across it. I then tried injecting 12v into the small two wire connector on the back of the alternator (after I figured out which was ground, and which was open.) But this did nothing either. I checked power going into the voltage regulator connector, and the 12v ignition switched power at the black/w wire is not there. I injected 12v, and still no charge to the battery. The Chiltons manual shows a 20 amp fuse inline up the way from this wire, but I cannot find it. This has me really, really confused now. What signal does the alternator need to start producing power?

The blacktop RWD SR20DET's have cast pistons, exactly the same part number that are found in the Pulsar GTI-R engine. I've been told that they cast skirts with forged dishes on top... not sure how that would work, but they all look cast to me. The later S13 and S14, S15 all have these pistons in them. The redtop pistons (early S13) are missing the oil channel that catches the flow from the squirter up underneath it. The oil squirters are standard in all the turbo SR20's. THe oil squirters on the blacktop motors flow more than the redtop (all because of the cooling channel under the piston) THe head in the Pulsar is what makes it so great. The valvetrain has solid lash, whereas the RWD has hydraulically adjusted lash. This leads to rocker arms flying off at high RPM (like past redline) This can be solved by putting in a rocker arm stopper kit (cheap) or by going all the way to solid lash (expensive) The individual throttle bodies are great for response, and were designed for the Rally engine in the GTI-R. They pick up quick, but fall off in the top end. You're better off with a single larger throttle body and plenum if you're looking for big power. The individuals are fine for a low power motor, though. Basically, you don't want the individuals with a really large turbo, or it will hurt more than help. The single throttle body at 60mm has made over 500rwhp on several SR's. I'm personally putting on a Q45 85mm throttle body with a Greddy surge tank. I'm headed for 600rwhp with the new turbo kit.