240Z w/ 280ZXT Hybrid Power Train

[zack_280]

Well, I probably should have started this thread a while ago, but I didn't plan on this being as much of a project as it has become. I guess it's better late than never.

 

I bought the car about a year ago from a guy outside of Atlanta, GA. He had a motor built by Jim Thompson at Sunbelt. He spent entirely too much money on it and got married and didn't drive it. So I did a compression check on the motor and talked to him in detail to get an idea of what exactly the back story was. He seemed legit and everthing checked out. He had done some body work and painted it. He had deleted the back bumper and welded in sheet metal over the uneven areas and smoothed it with bondo. There was some sign of the bondo cracking and the paint was chipped in a few places. Overall it looked pretty good. The floor pans had been replaced also by the previous owner and the welds didn't look that great, but everything seemed to be pretty solid. He also re-wired it and the wiring was in need of some serious work, but I am an electrical engineer and therefore qualified to do not much in the real world, but theoretically I can fix any wiring problems with my circuit 101 witchcraft. It looked like he (or maybe some other PO) had spliced every wire in the car. I figured that rewiring it would be a nice way to pass the time during the frigid Tennessee winter. The motor had everything that about $14000 will get you from Sunbelt. That price included the head, turbo, block, ECU, and some dyno tuning (not sure if this was done on a local ECU or the one that the PO used). Speaking of tuning...That was another task the owner undertook on his own. He had installed a Jim Wolf Technology reflashed ECU. This was supposed to include 420CC injectors IIRC.

 

Well, when I picked up the car it wasn't running right. I'm not sure if it was a wiring issue or a tuning issue or what. So I had the car delivered to a shop near where the PO lived. R&D Automotive run by a character who calls himself TurboDave in Powder Springs, GA. They cleaned up some of the wiring and piping and dyno tuned it. It was still not running exactly right but all of the quirks seemed to have been taken care of. So I drove the car home and whenever I got on the gas as soon as boost started to build it would completely lose power as if the car had been turned off. So I took it for a test drive trying to diagnose the problem and it completely died. A fuse blew. I'm not sure what the fuse was powering as there were now two fuse boxes in the car, but the ECU appeared to be fried. I did manage to find 3 shorts with my trusty multimeter and a little patience. So I fixed that and tried to determine the damage to the ECU. That was when the odessy began.

 

Since the JWT ECU is pretty rigid I decided to go the Megasquirt route. I bought a preassembled MSII and some sensors and 6 IGN-1A ignition modues from DIY Autotune. Then I bought the EDIS stuff and Derek's adapter kit. I took the car back to R&D Automotive and ordered some shiny suspension parts from Dave at Arizona Z Car. He makes great parts by the way and he is great to work with. Well all of the stuff from AZC finally showed up, but for some reason nothing was getting done on the car. Eventually I ended up bringing the car back to Chattanooga where an ex-employee from R&D who was also kind of on a Lemons team of mine was going to work on it. Well things were happening pretty slowly and I was pretty busy with work. I actually worked out of town from September through the end of the year. So I brought the car back to my house and have been slowly working on it myself.

 

I was under the impression that the motor was pretty solid, so the plan was just going to be to do a brain transplant and a new suspension. That is until I broke the cam gear dowel while trying to remove the front pulley to install Derek's kit. (I know I should have held the flywheel instead of using a vice grip on the cam, you live and learn). Some other dumb stuff happened that I don't need to get into and then I removed the head. To my surprise there was a noticable amount of pitting on the combustion chambers and what appeared to be water damage on the block. The pistons looked fine on top.

 

Then I took the head to a shop where I paid them some money and they didn't fix it (but they were good to work with) and I bought a new head from KTM on this forum. Since the bottom end except for the block was in pretty good shape, I decided to find a new block. I ended up trading the old suspension parts for a new F54/P79 long block and two fenders. The block is being bored and decked at a local shop. That's basically where I am today.

 

I had made a bit of a mess in my clean (I use that term loosely) garage, so I decided to roll it out and clean up the garage. I think I'm also going to paint the engine bay while I'm at it. Here are the pics I took after washing the car (the garage still needs a bit of work). Note that I have removed some parts and it is awaiting the heart/brain transplant. I am also in the process of cleaning up the new wiring.

 

I'm not going to put the fenders back on until I get all of the wrenching done.

 

Enkei wheel. This is a 17X9.5 wheel with 255/40/17 Kumho Ecsta Xs Tires. They seem to clear everything without the need for flares or rolling the fenders. I'm going to have to finsh setting up the suspension to be sure, but it looks doable now.

 

Empty enging bay

 

 

 

Zack

 

 

[Supra510]

Nice write up. Enkei's look good on there.

[zack_280]

Thanks, Supra510. I was a little unsure of how they would look when I ordered them, but I'm pretty happy with the result.

 

 

Update:

 

Yesterday I spent 2hrs making up 4 3-pin weatherpack connectors. I'm starting to think that maybe I should have orderd the special crimper. I'm going to take a few days off and I hope to get the block back from the machine shop next week. I'm planning to start the engine back in together and back in the car as well as paint the engine bay (hopefully this will be done by next Sunday, but somehow I think I will run into some problem or need a part that will take a week to get)....We'll see.

Edited June 3, 2011 by zack_280

[slowspeed]

what offset are those enkei's rpf1, and what 5 lug kit are you using? Nice write up.

[LegnaZetr0]

love rpf1's. Great looking car.

[zack_280]

Thanks for the compliments. The Enkei's are +18 offset. They are 17X9.5. The 5-Lug kit is from Arizona Z Car.

[turbonat240]

Wow! That's some wide and light wheels. After years of searching the various Z forums I had come to the conclusion that the widest wheels I could fit with only coilovers and some fender lip rolling was 17x9 offset+12 in the back and 17x8.5 offset +4 or 5 in the front (245-40 tires all around). What free lenght of springs do you use front and back and did you check for full lock steering clearance of the tires vs the frame in the front?

You have a nice project going on by the way. Looking forward to some updates soon!

[zack_280]

Thanks Turbonat. I don't have a lot to update, but I have done a bit since my last post.

 

First thing...I have installed camber plates and fully adjustable suspension components with the wheels. That makes it easier for them to fit under the stock fenders. I fully expected to cut the fenders, but it looks like I may not have to. We'll see how it ends up when I get the front fenders back on. For now there is no steering problem at full lock.

 

 

I have installed the bearings, crank, pistons, and head. I timed the cam today. I didn't really know what I was doing, but after a little trial and error I think I got it exactly where I wanted it. I actually didn't adjust the cam at all from the factory settings. I bought a cam timing kit from Summit Racing. The one below to be exact. After a little research and a some trial and error I found that the cam was timed exactly at the ISKY recommended settings.

http://www.summitrac...arts/PRO-66787/

 

 

I bought the head from KTM on this forum. It had the standard ISKY 'Turbo' 0.490 lift cam installed. Here is the link to the classified section.

http://forums.hybrid...__1#entry936681

 

 

I have an EDIS wheel kit on the way from Derrick. It is his first attempt at the 'cheap' single pulley MSA damper. Unfortunately it was supposed to be delivered yesterday and I still don't have it. Why must the USPS be inefficient when I need them so!?

 

Anyway, I will try to post some more pics/progress tomorrow.

 

 

Zack

Edited June 25, 2011 by zack_280

[zack_280]

The engine build has been going slowly, but it has been going. Here are a few pics from today.

 

 

Here it is this morning.

 

 

And here it is this evening.

 

 

Intake/Exhaust Side

 

 

Oil Filter side

 

Bottom (AZC oil pan)

Edited June 27, 2011 by zack_280

[turbonat240]

Nice progress. How much power are you expecting from this engine and at what boost levels?

[zack_280]

Hopefully ~400HP at 18PSI. We'll see where it ends up though.

[zack_280]

Well hopefully I will be able to start the car today. I have a few more wires to land this morning and I have to calibrate my sensors and some other misc stuff, but then I'll be ready to start it.

 

Here are a few pics of the intake going in.

 

 

Here is the 90 deg bend that connects to the throttle body. I had a local welder weld the IAT bung on it. I also got the 3"-2.75" reducer coupling from http://www.siliconeintakes.com. I am very pleased with silicone intakes service, price, and quality.

 

Here is a pic of the 4" intake to the turbo. All couplings/aluminum tubing from silicone intakes. The Spector filter was courtesy of Autozone.

 

And here it is installed. I think it turned out fairly well.

 

Then it was on to the wiring. I'm still not finished, but I am thinking that my wiring and I have a mutual hate for one another.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to post a video or news of it running later this weekend.

Edited September 16, 2011 by zack_280

[zack_280]

No running yet. I got megasquirt connected and it looks like all of the sensors are reading correctly. I cranked it for a while without the ECU to see if I could read oil pressure on the gauge, then my starter stopped starting. The battery was reading low (12.6V), but I don't believe that was the problem. I tried connected a starter/charger, but the starter was still dead. I ended up taking the starter off and checking it off of the engine and it seems to be working, so I put it back on and I'm planning to try again tomorrow. I ordered a 'new' starter from Advance, so if it is a starter problem I will have one on standby.

[cygnusx1]

Very clean project. Can't wait to see the progress!

[zack_280]

Thanks cygnusx1. I used your Megasquirt fuel/air/spark maps as a starting point for mine. Unfortunately I did not get the car started this weekend. Had a few problems with the relay board, then the starter died, then I found out I had an igntion output problem. Here is a link to my ignition problem post. Hopefully I'll be able to resolve this early this week and drive the car by next weekend.

 

http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/102261-coil-per-plug-ignition-problems/

[zack_280]

The car is now running on Megasquirt. Once I figured out a few minor wiring issues I cranked it for about 15seconds and it started up. That was on Tuesday. I've been cleaning things up a bit and fixing some minor issues in the mean time and I still need to clean the garage and clean up the wiring. I have yet to take it out on the road, but I plan to do that tomorrow. I'm going to take it to an alignment shop in the morning and hopefully I'll be able to drive it there rather than trailer it there.

 

Here are a few pics I took this evening after washing the car. I'm probably going to have to raise the front up about 0.5" to 1", but it turns until the tire hits the T/C arm without rubbing. That's with Enkei 17X9.5 and Kumho 255 wide tires. I expected to have to roll the fenders, but so far everything is looking pretty good.

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2011 by zack_280

[turbonat240]

Nice progress ! Thanks for sharing as you go along. Can't wait to see the final stance of this beast after you get it aligned. Oh and also the numbers.....

this car is gonna be FAST I have no doubt!

[zack_280]

Thanks for the support guys.

 

Well, I managed to get all of the air out of the engine cooling passages (I think). I tried burping it with the cap off of the radiator and also with a relief valve in the top radiator hose, but apparently that didn't work since it was still running hot. I had to take the thermostat out and start it. That immediately dropped the level in the radiator and the car started running at about 185 on my MS display (with a 180 degree thermostat installed).

 

I drove it around a bit and it sounds like I'm getting some rubbing from the rear wheels/tires when I run over the deeper potholes. I am also getting a breakup of the crank sensor signal when I get to ~2600RPM. I'm going to try to troubleshoot those things today. There are a few issues left at this point (including tuning), but it looks like the car is starting and running pretty well.

[turbonat240]

Any updates on your project? Is the weather nice enough to drive a Z year-round in tennessee ? Just curious

[zack_280]

I'vegot a few updates. Not much earth shattering news.

 

Problems: I had a number of issues that reared their ugly heads after gettingthe car on the road. I've been trying to slay that hydra for a while, but it seems like there are more now than there were a month ago.

 

1. PositiveVoltage Spike - I was and still am getting a voltage spike to about 21V. Thiswent away when I disconnected the alternator, so I am going to trouble shootthe charging circuit.

 

2. VoltageDip (Negative Spike) - I was getting a negative voltage spike to about 6V thatwas showing up on my MS data logs. So I borrowed a friends oscilloscope andfound that it was happening almost constantly. I solved this problem (as far asI can tell anyway), by adding a 220nf capacitor on H1 of the megasquirt. Beforedoing that I added a 2 farad stereo capacitor on the 12V supply to the relayboard, but it had absolutely no effect.

 

3. Hesitation– The car seems to be completely leaning out like the fuel is cut for a splitsecond. The problem seemed to go awayimmediately after I added the capacitor, but then after about 100 miles it wasback. I’m thinking this may be acavitation problem with the tandem fuel pumps.

 

4. Braking– The rear brakes are locking up before the fronts. I have the track pack brakes from AZC with 6piston front calipers. For some reason therears are locking up first. That madefor an exciting autocross.

 

Upgrades: Ihave a few solutions/upgrades planned for the next month.

 

1. FuelSystem – I currently have a low pressure Carter pump feeding a Walbro highpressure pump directly. I am not sure,but I think that there may be some cavitation issues with this setup. Or maybe one of the pumps is bad. I had planned to install a fuel surge tankbetween the two, but decided to take care of the million other thingsfirst. Now I’m hoping that doing thiswill help me to solve my lean issue, or at least help me to troubleshoot it alittle better.

 

2. Brakes– I plan to install a proportioning valve in the rear line. I hope I can adjust out my bias issues.

 

3. Battery– Since I want to mount the Surge tank in the battery tray I have relocated thebattery to the ledge behind the passenger seat.

 

Once I have all of the kinks worked out I am going to try tofind a local brake dyno for fine tuning and then take the car to a race track(hopefully Road Atlanta). But notnecessarily in that order.