nienberg.11

Kazuya, sorry to hear about that first motor. I'm definitely going to work on the timing issue before going any further. When you talk about compression ratios though... I was reading a web page somewhere and a guy had listed the types of pistons in each Z block. According to that page, I have n/a dished pistons. Obviously I'm going to sound like an @ss if there is no such thing, but if that page was right, I have about the same c/r as the turbo motor. The big difference is that I would still have thinner ring lands than the turbo pistons and simply can't run as much hp. Can anyone else shed some more light on this?

Bastaad, I think I might get one of MSD's devices for timing retard. I've looked into them before and found that they weren't that expensive or difficult to set up. Thanks for reminding me about that. Clifton, I wasn't aware of that. I'll move it further back. -Mike

zzzap, tell me the story about prox's clutch/flywheel so hopefully I can learn from whatever it was.

cygnus, thanks for the kind words and advice. I have given some thought to water injection in the past, but I actually have a very nice IC. I'm just saving up to have it installed. I don't have a welder, chop saw, tubing bender etc, so I'm having that part done professionally.

btw prox, what kind of boost are you running these days. I've heard from a guy who tried this same thing a couple times that somewhere around 15 psi, the n/a ring lands won't be able to handle the thermal expansion on them and will shatter. Also, I've haven't been able to find any numbers on your setup. Have you tested your top end? 0-60? Quarter mile? rwhp? I don't have any of this info on my car yet and won't until I can drive it on a regular basis spring quarter.

Prox, I thought your richness problems were largely as a result of running 370 cc injectors, and then you switched back to the stock injectors for a while. Anyways, mine is running great, and is probably somewhat rich, but certainly not filthy rich; no thin smoke like I've seen when turning the fuel pressure too high. As far as the timing, I'm sticking with the check valve setup for now, as the car is running strong. When I get it tuned with wideband, I'm going to have the timing looked into more closely also before turning up the boost.

Son of zzzap, it's good to see some other poor kids on here . Will you be running a similar setup or swapping in a turbo motor?

Bastaad, thanks for the warnings, I'm well aware of how helpful a few fresh sets of eyes on something like this could help bring problems to the surface that I had never thought of, and will take all the constructive criticism I can get if it will help protect my Z. However as you see I already have the 270cc injectors, plans in place to use a wideband, and like I told Pyro, the stock pump is gone and I went ahead and spent the money on the Walbro which supports over 100 psi fuel pressure. As far as I can tell, the only difference between my fuel delivery and yours is that you have the turbo ecu which I assume means you can get more injector pulse width than me. I'll just have to run a little more fuel pressure than you to get the same results.

As far as ignition timing retard, the timing is not very precisely controlled, but basically I have the timing set for it to run well under n/a manifold pressures, and some of that timing gets taken out when the car hits boost and closes off the check valve in the vacuum signal line to the dizzy.

At 5 psi it doesn't need much over the stock 30psi. Its around 40-45, which is probably a little high, but I want to keep things safe until I can borrow a wideband and see where I'm at as fas as air/fuel ratios. As i mentioned above, I'm not running any stock pumps. I removed the stock pump and replaced it with the a Walbro 255 lph high pressure pump which can support over 100 psi. You can actually see it in the picture below my fuel system description. It's the silver canister wrapped in black foam on the wall of the engine bay. I didn't trust the stock pump for high pressures at all, and I saw that a lot of people on this site run the same Walbro pump and it works well for them.

I'm sure all of you worry a little when you see how badly rusted the area around your battery is, from all of the corrosive gases it gives off. My battery box actually rusted through in 2 places, which I patched using some sheet steel. To keep it from rusting further, I painted the entire area with a thick coat of fibrous roofing pitch, as shown below.

It's taken the better part of a year, but my ’77 280z turbo on the N/A project is finally at a stopping point. Before I get into the details of the project, I have to thank the guys who helped me on it. One of my best friends and Hybridz's own TheSkrich was right there on the opposite side of the engine bay throughout this project, doing everything from wiring to breaking loose the infinite supply of rusted bolts, to providing the entertainment. Also, my dad was a big help, especially when those rusted bolts didn't come out so great and we needed precise drilling and tapping done. My parts supplier, Frankie from Z Performance Racing, provided hours of free phone support which helped immensely as he's done several similar setups. Thanks for everything guys! I also have to give some background for why I did this project this way and why it took so long. First, I'm a poor college student living 2 hrs away from my tools, garage, etc., so I really have to make the most of what little time and money I can devote to the car. Secondly, my N/A motor runs great and only has 43,000 on it. Finally, the junkyards here in Ohio are few and far between and have almost no old Z's. This makes it basically impossible for me to find a good turbo motor, and even if I did, I would have to hang it from a tree limb to put it in the car because I don't have an engine hoist. I'll try to list the modifications involved in this project in a logical order... Exhaust: Garrett T3/T4 .63/.50 Turbo with stage 1 trimmed turbine wheel and water cooled bearings; Modified 280ZXT manifold; external wastegate with 1" stainless pipe going straight to the atmosphere; 2.5" straight-through exhaust piping with a performance glass pack inline with a Magnaflow muffler; '83 zxt downpipe Intake: K&N universal 3"x10.5" filter; turbo afm with n/a guts; '83 zxt j-pipe; N47 manifold with egr and pcv recirc. removed; Eclipse BOV; pvc and household plumbing coupler intake at the moment; I have a huge aluminum bar and plate IC to be installed professionally, and when it goes in, real intake piping will go in with it. Fuel Delivery: Walbro high pressure pump; BEGI FMU; under-hood fuel pressure gauge; all new soft fuel lines; '83 zxt injectors Ignition: MSD Blaster 3 coil; NGK wires; stock dizzy, still using vacuum advance, but with a check valve installed so that it doesn't see boost. Engine Management: I plan on catching a lot of crap for not using Megasquirt, but from everything I've read it's a project in itself and I don't have time for it. I run the stock '77 ecu with the tps unplugged so that its only input is from the afm. Under boost, fuel is added by the fmu. Simple but effective. Boost Gauge: I realize this isn't really a category, but I have to show off the custom work I did here. I got a cheap eBay boost gauge and adapted its guts into my clock housing. After a couple hours of work and a little glass cutting this is what I came up with. Since it’s in the clock housing it fits perfectly in the dash and lights up using the stock green backlighting. You're probably wondering how the car drives. I only got to drive it for a few short minutes before heading back to college last weekend, but the car felt awesome at 5 psi (I have an mbc to install and plan on running 10 psi after tuning with wideband). It also sounds excellent. Under normal conditions it's deathly quiet, which is how I like it, but under boost when the wastegate’s own exhaust is opened, it takes on a louder, deeper sound which complements the car's acceleration under boost nicely.

I got mine from Z Performance Racing, but they don't sell Garrett's anymore. I basically got the last one they had. Turbonetics upped the number of turbos they have to buy each year to get wholesale prices, so now they sell cheap xspower turbos unfortunately. If you look around online though, I'm sure there are plenty of places that sell real Garrett t3/t4s. As far as your wg and actuator, the actuator mounting bracket and pushrod would have to be modified to work with the larger compressor housing. The wg would onl work if the t3 turbine section of the t3/t4 had the same bolt pattern on its back side as your current t3. Garrett may have changed that pattern on their new turbos, though. I just got an older slightly used t3/t4 and external wg manifold from Z Performance Racing and used the original wg as a spacer so everything matched up right, as I mentioned above. This obviously has its advantages since the external wg sounds awesome and essentially adds an extra inch of exhaust diameter under boost. Another thing to keep in mind is that a stock wg is not very well matched up to the kind of power people typically are making with t3/t4's because of its small port.

I just bought a whole t3/t4. I'm sure you could have yours upgraded, but since the bearings, compressor housing, and compressor wheel would all need to be replaced in your case, it might make more sense and cost less to just get a new one also. My best advice if you're shopping for a turbo is to get a real Garrett, not one of the ssautochrome/xspower knockoffs being sold on ebay. I had an xspower breifly before returning it and it was riddled with flaws. The compressor wheel was off center from its shaft, the flange where it mounted to the manifold was sloped, making it impossible to properly tighten a nut onto it, and who knows what other problems i'd have found if i actually installed it and tried to spool it. Also, you might want to know that getting a new turbo may mean a different bolt pattern on the exhaust housing, making it impossible to use a stock integral wastegate or stock downpipe. My exhaust had been custom made to match up to the stock t3 with stock downpipe, so when I upgraded turbos, I got one with the same style t3 exhaust housing. Therefore, I was able to put a stock wg on for correct spacing (I sealed the integral wg port and use an external wg now) and still use the stock '83 downpipe so that no modifications to my exhaust pipe were needed.

I live in Columbus (OSU) during the school year and near Findlay in the summer.

Darrell, I would recommend that you upgrade rather than repair in this case. A t3/t4 won't cost significantly more than a new t3 or t3 rebuild, speaking from my own experience with a broken t3. -Mike

Phil, congrats on getting the n/a switched over to turbo. What did you end up figuring out with the afm? If you still need to modify a turbo afm, I took some pics of mine this weekend you can reference. I finally got my setup running, and 5 psi also feels pretty good after not having the car running for several months.

Like mine shows in the pic, it's an Oris guage, and I bought it knowing that the face diameter had the possibility of fitting into the clock housing. Other than that, I got lucky with how well things matched up between the clock housing and the guage.

The boost guage was just a cheap $30 thing from ebay, but I removed its guts and adapted them into the 280z clock housing, which required a couple hrs. of custom work. If you want to make one I'd be happy to tell you more about whats invloved. It looks great now since it fits perfectly in the clock location uses the stock green backlighting.

I put 3 different clocks in my 280z, and none lasted more than 2 months, so I found a better use for the clock housing... Anyways, if you're serious about having a reliable clock, the best thing to do is have it rebuilt with a quartz mechanism by someplace like zclocks.com or find one of the original quartz clocks which were an option for the '78 280z.

I once had some nasty sounding thumping on acceleration, and it turned out to just be my new muffler vibrating against my rear skirt.

Ouch. that is a very bad situation. I have my own turbo oil supply horror story, which was completely my fault, but I can tell you from experience that turbo bearings wont last long at all with insufficient oil. I ruined a t3 for life driving it less than a mile without enough oil during a blonde moment. Don't let the shop convince you it's all right and let it slide. If you have time, remove the compressor housing and check the edges of the compressor wheel blades. Mine were beaten to hell from hitting the housing, which was the noise I heard when I killed my turbo. The turbine wheel was the same way. You'll probably have to replace the turbo, as well as thouroughly clean any metal shavings from your intake piping if in fact the compressor got beaten up. Sorry man. -Mike

Phatty, my 280z's motor only has 43 grand on it, and since i've removed the pcv recirculation lines with breathers, it has always puffed out a little smoke once it's warmed up. It's not bad smoke or anything. Never gets more than 6 inches from breather before dissipating completely. If this is what you mean, I wouldnt be too worried.

Bastaad, i never really read your signature before, but now that I do, it sounds like the turbo installation I'm going to be doing on my 280z will be very similar to the setup on your 240z. I also have a BEGI fmu, and will be using stock engine management. I've also got an external walbro 255 lph fuel pump, a nice generic bar and plate ic from ebay, MSD Blaster 3 ignition, and I'm upgrading to 280zxt injectors. I will also be using the stock 280zxt manifold, turbo, and downpipe, as well as a 1st generation eclipse BOV, and manual boost controller. I start work on my istallation tommorow. Do you have any advice?

All right guys, what about this... In a few days I'll be installing a custom turbo setup onto my stock '77 280z motor. I was planning on moving the stock afm between the intercooler and the intake (as close to the intake as possible). With this setup, I don't see what the problem would be with venting my BOV to the atmosphere since the afm will be metering the air flow AFTER it has passed by the BOV. Let me know what you think of this idea, which is actually from a friend of mine who runs Z Performance Racing in NC. He claims to use this setup all the time without problems.