nienberg.11

Phil, my Z was showing zero oil pressure the last time I ran it. This is almost certainly a sending unit issue, as my turbo didn't die and the engine ran fine for 10 min before I got it back home and happened to see what the oil pressure was reading. Anyways, in the unlikely event that I need to swap out my oil pump, am I to understand that you did NOT have to remove the oil pan? The only time I've seen my oil pump is when I had the pan off to add the turbo oil return. If you don't need to jack up the motor and remove the oil pan, then where does the oil pump come out from, and how do you reach it and its fasteners? Keep in mind that I'm 100 miles from my car and haven't seen it in a month or more, so I realize that this question is undoubtedly pretty dumb and has an obvious answer that I just can't visualize w/o looking at the motor. Junkman, if you increase the oil pressure on a turbo's bearings, then more oil will be forced through the bearings in a given span of time. In other words, increasing pressure will increase flow.

That'a a neat find. I've never seen a TT manifold for an L28 before. I don't think it's worth $1500. I love the idea though, and would definitely try and pick it up for a few hundred if I didn't already have my turbo setup together. Gogriz, You would need a lot more stuff to get this working, of course. Wastegates, intake piping, a bov, oil supply/return lines, a custom exhaust system, the list goes on. It would be a great starting point, though.

MIB, Here are some pics of the car. I'm at school now and don't have any real good pics of the wheels, and the one pic was taken w/ a camera phone, so I apologize. If you want, I can get some good closeups of the wheels the next time I'm home. I also don't have any before pictures of the wheels, but the whole wheel was bronze with the exception of the shiny outer rim. This didn't match my paint at all, and the epoxy was starting to peel/bubble, so having them blasted was a big improvement in my case. It wasn't a perfect solution, though. Some of the sand reached the shiny outer rim and dulled parts of it from inadequate masking. Also, as you can see in the pictures, the front wheels now collect brake dust pretty quickly as the inner part of the wheel is now pitted. I've thought about cleaning the wheels up and painting them clear to alleviate this, but I don't know for sure how well that would work. Anyways, here are the pics:

Started out at over 1400K/s here. Nothing like using the office's bandwidth after everyone has gone home.

The stuff I used was a powerful paint stripper. I had to wear gloves, like you said, and it was actually like a paste that could be painted on and would stay in place. The problem is that what was on my rims was not even paint. It's was a thick epoxy coating. The stripper took off the gold coloring, but the black rubbery layer underneath that wasn't going anywhere.

My 280z has wheels from a later year Z, and they also had a bronze coating on them. Just a fair warning, no paint thinner will even touch the stuff. My friend's sandblaster didn't do it either. I had to take them to a shop and have them professionally sandblasted to get it off. It ran me about $80 to have all the wheels done.

What TheHelix is describing is basically a piece of metal tubing bolted to the block going into some rubber tubing which splits off into two sections and connects to a set of ear muffs so you can listen for pinging. Helix, sorry if I oversimplified the description of your design. I'm thinking of making one myself. It's so simple and cheap, there's not much to lose by trying it.

Sounds like an awesome place. You should post some pics. As far as the emblems go, I'm really not too picky on them being a little faded or whatever, as long as the pegs and clips are on. If you see some complete emblems that aren't entirely washed out, I'll take them. I'd rather not pay more than 5 to 10 per emblem, since they are just pieces of plastic. I've been wanting to get some from a jy b/c of how inflated the prices are for them on ebay.

Awesome, Phil. Thanks for offering man. I do have paypal, and while I'm thinking of it, the next time u go, see if u can get me a set of 280 emblems, minus the hood and dash emblems. If they don't have any with the pegs intact and and the barrell clips on, don't bother, but if you could find some decent ones I'd appreciate the hell out of it and pay you well for your efforts.

I envy you Phil. In Ohio it's lucky to find a junkyard, let alone one with any form of Z car. Are those seats going to fit in your 280?

It's a cheap Xspower/ssautochrome gate on the stock zxt manifold with a 1.5" open pipe.

I'll take one also.

Sparks, Mine was about the same price on ebay, all aluminum, bar and plate, and 3" thick. Also, 3" inlets and outlets. Yours looks like it might be exactly what I have. I hope it is. That looks great on your car.

Phil, My IC core is something like 17x24, and it's plenty big. I'm not looking forward to fitting it in the car. I guess for a 10" tall IC, it just depends on how wide it is. It's the area that matters, not the height. Nice kill btw. I love Stealths, but I'm so glad to hear that you were able to walk all over him like that, and go 140 and not die for that matter! Prox, since your efi doesn't depend on fuel pressure variation like mine, you should have around 30 psi at idle, and more like 40-45 at WOT. As long as the pressure doesn't fall off at higher boost levels, then the pump is keeping up with the demand for fuel. Keep in mind also that if you do lose fuel pressure, you should check for any restrictions in your fuel lines before jumping ahead and buying a new pump. I had a fuel filter way back next to my tank that was clogged which I didn't know existed. Every time I'd step on it, I'd lose all my fuel pressure and the car would die. Once I tracked down the problem, it was $5 for another filter, and voila, its fine now.

Not crazy Prox, I assure you. You should get an external gate and be one of the cool kids.

Prox, you should monitor your fuel pressure at high boost levels and see if the pump is actually falling behind or not. Were you using a boost controller and decided to turn it to 16 psi, or did a wg signal line come loose or something?

I run an Xspower/ssautochrome WG and it works fine.

Hey Phil, how is that 15 psi feeling man? I think you're one of very few people to have ever run that much boost on the n/a motor. Also, have you looked into getting a different IC? I swear you'll be able to tell a difference with a decent bar and plate IC from the volvo radiator you're running now.

My open external gate is really quiet compared to what you guys are describing. If you're listening for it, it sounds like a hillbilly playing a jug. That might not seem like a good thing, but it's a nice sound. Make's me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I'm almost certain your turbo has died, or is well on its way there. If the bearings were shot, the turbo would be very difficult for the motor to spool, causing all kinds of heat and power loss to get it into boost. Also, I've never had my turbo glowing at all. There would have to be some serious problems for it to glow red hot after only a minute of driving. It's likely that your bearings are worn out, filling up with coked oil, or have been starved for oil somehow. Edit: I didn't see that you had already replaced the turbo, but have you considered that the problem could be oil delivery and the new turbo has been damaged?

JMACH, thx for the suggestions. What is an igniter though?

Phil, like I said, I ran live and then ground directly from the battery to the coil with no improvement.

Guys, I'm running new NGK wires, new cap, rotor, plugs and an MSD Blaster 3 coil. The trouble is that my spark is pretty weak which may be the cause of one of my cylinders not firing. I tried swapping out plugs, wires, and coils, and that didn't help. I then tried connecting the coil directly to the battery, which still didn't improve the situation (although surprisingly enough the car ran the same with the ballast resistors bypassed). Do any of you know of a sure fire way to get stronger spark out of a mechanical ignition setup like that on the 280Z? Any advice would be appreciated. -Mike

Hey Phil, I'm actually intent on keeping the n/a ecu to prove that it's more stable under boost than the turbo ecu w/o aftermarket efi. I am looking to get some 370 injectors, but not right away. The car pulls so strong just as it is right now. Also, I'm gonna be honest w/ you Phil. It's my opinion that the volvo intercoolers are non-bar and plate pieces of crap. Using one can only result in big pressure drops across the ic. I already have a very nice aluminum ebay ic..bar and plate, 3" inlets and outlets, and a huge core. It just needs to be installed. If I need 2 of the 370 cc injectors you'll be the 1st person i talk to, but for right now, i just need one zxt injector, which is the one i got from autozone and apparently doesn't work. I've switched out the injector clip and spark plug wire on that cylinder and it just doesn't run. The car ran so great b4, apparently on 5 cyls, that I refuse to change it too radically for now. I will post some dyno numbers eventually, but for now I'm just a poor college kid trying to pay his rent and can't afford a dyno run.