VinhZXT

Az240z, I have atleast 1 turbo EFI harness that I am not using. Email me if you are interest it. The difference between the 81 and 82-83 is just the resistor pack. The CAS is the same plug and length. It just that on the 81 the CAS is mount on the left side of the crank pulley vs. the 82-83 is in the distributor. I do warn you that if you buy a used EFI harness that the first thing you should do is to replace the 3 connectors at the ECU with the newer 300ZX connectors. The ECU connectors on the 280ZXTs are famous for not making good contact and causing many running problems. Good luck

lifegrdude, My future mod will be doing the Z31 ECU swap also. I hope you didn't cut all the unused wires from the Z31 connectors..lol.. You will need them for the Z31 ECU swap.. I will let you know if I go to San Diego.. Take care

guys, I actually have 3 of these 130MPH speedo from the 79. Unfortunately none of them display the correct speed. I had a couple of posts asking about calibrating my speedo and get no answer. I have the wrong speedo cog on my other car just to get the thing close to the actual speed. I am sick and tired of playing with the cogs to get the correct speed. So this just an attempt for something new just to see. I've read about the electronic pulse sender. I am interest in that device because I got my digital gauge to display up to 140 MPH but I need to reduce the number of pulses that the chopper wheel is sending to the speedo. What I did was I tape off 8 symmetrical cutouts from the chopper wheel. The problem was I need to tape off 9 but if I do the wheel becomes unsymmetrical and therefore at low speed it won't display correctly. For this one I just played with the cog to get the correct speed displayed so I didn't waste money on the pulse sender.

Mario, That's a 280Z speedometer inside a 280ZX housing. The 280Z speedo goes up to 160 MPH without calibrating.

Hey guys.. Since no one have done this I figure I will give it a try. Here is a few pictures of the earlier Z speedo inside the ZX speedo. This is just a mock up. Both the speedo and the tach is out of the ZX back housing. It shouldn't be too hard fitting the Z speedo into the ZX housing. Sorry guys.. the speedo is from a 77 280Z..

Has anyone done this before? Putting an earlier Z speedometer into a 280ZX speedometer? The earlier Z speedo goes up to 160MPH compare to most of the 280ZXs are just 85MPH. I have both speedos at home and will try to open them up when I have time. Thanks for any info that could save me time.

Wow .. This makes me want to take my newly rebuild Z to the Dyno. Currently I have the stock T3 in there along with all the goodies: Good IC, 3 " exhaust, 3 angles valve jobs, RR FPR but I want to get use to the T3 before I put in the T3/T4 and see a difference. I guess the best way to find out is to go to a Dyno... I also want to go to a weight station to get the weight-in for my Z.

Thanks for the link MikeKZ. My car doesn't overheat at all. It's just the valve cover and the IC pipings and the intake were hot.. very hot.. For the intake manifold and the intake pipe coming out of the turbo to be hot I can understand because they are right next to the exhaust manifold. But for the valve cover to be hot I was questioning it. Anyway I thought about it a bit and here is my explanation for the valve cover to be hot. It is not absorbing the heat from the air it absorbed the heat directly from the head and actually releasing that heat. So if it's hot that means it is dissipating a lot of heat coming from the motor/head. In this case it is good that I stripped the paint on the valve cover so that it can release the heat better. For the intake manifold it could be absorbing heat from both the motor/head and the exhaust manifold. The IC piping is absorbing heat from the exhaust manifold and the heat generate by the turbo. In this case the heat that cooking up the air inside it will be bad for my intake air. I would like to keep the temperature on both of these items down. I agree with you all that 1 way to minimize this is to vent the hot air under the hood and/or I can put some kind of insulation paint on both the intake and the IC pipes and the downpipe just like someone suggested. Thanks for all the replies guys..

JaimeT, Yes they originally came from Richmond VA. The car was owned by a Vietnamese guy in Richmond and he got a nail salon down there somewhere. He sold these to my friends in Philly. We have 5 of them altogether here plus the 6th one own by Mike from N. Carolina ( I think ) and he recently selling it on Ebay. I am trying to find the contact info about the guy from Richmond to find out more history about these kits. I do have his full name and his old address. Can anyone help me find him?

I just got about 300 miles in with my rebuilt motor in my blue Z.. I went thru the same stuffs you went thru with my blue Z. It was a 79 and I put the turbo motor and all the wiring in it to save all the guess works on wiring. I did had problems with fuel, electrical that caused the bog under boost but I finally figured everything out. It runs like a champ now. Good luck

Guys, That was my post that I asked a few weeks back. Yes I have read that page many times before. I have a 3.7LSD and a blue cog in my BW T5. Both of my analog speedometer displayed different speeds vs. my RPM and they are both not correct. I need someone to recalibrate the magnet and the needle inside the speedometer. I opened up the speedo to check and there is nothing to it. Just a dumb magnet attached to a rotating metal wheel that used to turn a needle. The needle is restraint by a little tiny circular type spring. I bet you this little circular spring is dead or weak and therefore display incorrect speed. I guess I can recalibrate it myself if I have some type of device to turn it at a certain RPM and then I can find ways to strenthen this springs. Anyway I will look into it closer.

This must be zippy from Zcar.com. If you take it out and it bogs underboost get ready to go to the junkyard to get the 300ZX ECU connectors.

Ok I found some photos of 2 of the 5 Nalle Cobra Kit car .. Enjoy Next to the red Cobra is my 81 280ZXT with 60K original miles with HKS IC installed by Nissan. Also behind the 280ZXT is my front Cobra clip standing up and the rest of the kit are on those selves behind the car. Also this is a new garage I bought last year 5000+ Sqft. I showed my friend the picture on Zparts.com and my friend (Sang) said that was the picture of this blue car above before he bought it.

Hi all, I got the a couple of 79 280ZX speedometers and they both display the wrong speeds. Both are displaying different speeds also so I think they are both off. Anyone know how to recalibrate this type of speedometer? Thanks for any help

Spark, Those are old 16" Riken rims I got a long time ago from Ross Corrigan from Modern Motorsport. Phantom, Are you asking the ground clearance for the 3" exhaust? If so we (the ZXs guys that used JeffP's DP) don't have a problem with that. I have to give a lot of credit to Jeffp for the design of the DP. It fits perfectly in the tunnel and above the frame rails. This picture shows what I am talking about Afsin, Thanks for checkin .. Anyone else on here got Jeffp's DP ?

305240, I will continue to look for ways to relieve that hot air. I like the idea installing fan in the fender well. This should be perfect for me since I have 2 fender vents lol. Should be able to blow right thru those vents. I am also thinking of building a deflector at the bottom driver side to suck the air up from the ground and then the air from the hood scoop should push it down if the car is moving. This should relieve a little more than just leave it the way it is. There is a problem with this because if I go fast enough and the air doesn't push down fast enough my car will become a balloon and the front end will be push up. Maybe I should start out with a small deflector and test it out. I wish there is a way to blow some smoke into the engine while driving to see where the air will end up at.lol..

I saw a couple earlier post about that too and still thinking about that. The only problem is I have an 82-83 hood with the air intake scoop that will force air down to the bottom of the car. This same vent should allow heat to come out if the car stand still. I don't have AC in this car but I do have an IC in front. That shouldn't restrict incoming air that much. I am going to get a thermometer to compare the underhood temp between the 2 cars. The heat felt so hot and it just worries me a bit. My CAI is in the front of the radiator and so far it has not cause any major problem yet. BTW my water temp is not that hot. Still questioning why?

Hi all, What can I do to keep the temp under the hood of my 280ZXT down? I have another 280ZXT (the Brucemobile) and the underhood temperature doesn't feel as hot as this one (Blue one). There aren't many differences between the 2 engines. On the blue one I stripped the insulation (paint) on the valve cover and the IC pipe coming out the compressor. These 2 items feel very hot after a 30 minutes drive. I did the same test on the yellow 280ZXT and it didn't feel hot. Also the yellow ZXT doesn't have the hood scoop that will intake cool air to cool down the turbo. While the blue one has one and yet it still feel alot hotter than the yellow ZXT. Anyone have any idea why? Thanks

Any auto part store should have relays and the relay sockets. However they are not cheap in the auto parts store. Try Kmart or Walmart they may have it cheaper. good luck

Tony, That's a beautiful job on the exhaust. Did you do it or you send it to a shop? I can't find any shop around my area that has the mandrel bender so I had to order the pipes and weld them up myself. Not as pretty as yours but it looks good enough and I save a bundle on it as well. Yasin, I didn't have any problem with the fitment of the MSA front spoiler. I didn't use the stock bumper either. I will probably add somethign there just incase I get into a slow speed bump it won't screw up my IC. For the MSA spoiler I fab up 2 thick pieces of aluminum and mounted them under the headlight buckets to hold the MSA bumper up. I can take a picture and show you but I think you know what I am talking about. Also I suggest you to add some more fiberglass to cover up the gap between the hood and the front spoiler. I see everyone put this MSA front spoiler on and that big gap makes the car looks really baddddd especially if you have a bright color on the car. Go to Cardomain and do a search for all the ZXs and you will see what I am talking about. Also check out my old yellow Bruce mobile that I had the same spoiler but no gap between the bumper and hood.

Yasin, lol.. yeah that's my brother , never listen to me. I told him to put the pipes on the table to weld and he didn't listen. He likes to sit down to weld and then at the end of the day he was complainning of back pain. lol... BTW I just put more pictures of the exhaust and re-organize my cardomain web site. It would be better to go there to check out all the pictures instead of going to uploadit.org. Have fun everyone.. http://members.cardomain.com/Valerie280 Thanks Yasin...

I just finish installed Jeffp's pipes. Jeffp's pipes are excellent in both design and attention to all the details. I would recommend it to all the ZXs guys out there. I didn't get the whole system because I was going to run 2 pipes exit in the back but then I changed my mind. I had to finish up the cat back pipe. What a PITA. I regret that I didn't get the whole system from Jeff. Luckily I had all the right tools and some good help from my brother. I had pictures on another post please check it out. I would suggest you one thing though .. no need to reinvent the wheel. Also I would love to see a 3" pipe with 2 45 degrees that will fit the 280ZXs. Thanks Jeff...

This sounds like your starter relay is getting old. You can either find it and replace it with a new relay or you can run a whole different circuit. To run another circuit you need a relay. Then run another wire from the starter go back inside the car. Use your starter wire from the ignition as the input for the relay. Here is the pin layout. Pin 30 - connect to the new wire going to the starter selenoid pin 85 - Connect to ground Pin 86 - Connect to starter wire from ignition Pin 87 - Connect to constant 12V source thru a 20A fuse Here is a problem I found with a relay before: My sunroof would close but not open. I can hear the relay clicking. I open it up and I can see the selenoid kicking the switch.. But I look closer and it never made the contact. I guess it been kicking the other leg for so many times the other leg eventually lean to 1 side and won't make any more contact. Therefore no work.. Good luck

This start to sound like a Nissan dealer tech. Since they know you put in the new downpipe they have to come up with the reason "Oh your car breath better now so it detonate and you have to buy a new chip".. That's a load of BS.. Do they know you also put in a few other new items? Yeah buy another chip that should fix your problem. lol... Sound just like the dealer... Doesn't it? It doesn't take a genious to figure out your probem. How many people in here had upgraded their exhaust system to 3" and had any problems? None so far. I doubt it your fuel rail. Let try another FPR first what do you think? sorry I had to vent... For something like this you need to take 1 step back before go forward and that is go back to what you know worked and then take 1 step at a time and add 1 thing at a time and test it out. Is that logical ?

Wow what a long day but I finally finished the 3" exhaust system. The downpipe was bought from JeffP. My camera battery went out early and I couldn't take better pictures so here they are: http://server2.uploadit.org/files/VinhZXT-exhaust1.JPG http://server3.uploadit.org/files/VinhZXT-exhaust2.JPG http://server3.uploadit.org/files/VinhZXT-exhaust3.JPG http://server3.uploadit.org/files/VinhZXT-exhaust4.JPG http://server2.uploadit.org/files/VinhZXT-exhaust5.JPG http://server2.uploadit.org/files/VinhZXT-exhaust6.JPG There is no way I can finish this thing in 1 day without my brother's help. We made a couple mistake early and it slowed down the whole process. I still have the T3 in there. The T3/T4 will go in another day sometimes in the next winter I guess. The tone of the exhaust is not what I expected but it is not loud and that's good. My yellow ZXT has the stock 2 1/2 " exhaust with the Sebring straight thru muffler and Sebring silencer and it got a nicer tone compare to this Magnaflow.. But I guess I have to get use to it. Take it easy everyone.