Tyson's Turbo 240Z Thread

[tyson]

Well I figure I should start documenting the car, and everything that I'm doing to it. The fact that the previous owner (Drax240Z) had his car documented here led me to believe that I was in fact, buying a car with the upgraded engine internals (granted, I got receipts...but still) VS buying a story.

 

Car and it's life from the previous owner. Drax240Z as he's known here is an awesome guy, and his description of the 240Z was absolutely spot on. I felt completely comfortable spending $200 on a plane ticket, $85 on a ferry ride, $125 on a hotel, and to hand him $X,XXX for the car after he gave me a ~5 mile drive around town. Honest, the first time I drove it was after handing over the money and driving the car out of the driveway for the very last time.

http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?/topic/71690-drax240zs-devil-z-turbo/

 

Drax240Z escorted me to the ferry to near Vancouver, where a headlight flash and a wave was the last we saw of each other. I ferried to near Vancouver, drove south to the Blaine boarder crossing back to the USA where I provided the documentation to customs and was on my way after paying the import duty (car had never been in the USA). I was a little worried at this point since the car had a re-assigned BC vin, but everything went silky smooth.

 

I left customs and headed south to Seattle where my wife was arriving in at 9:00PM. She had to wait outside the airport for about 30 minutes as I was running late due to traffic. She was waiting outside in the pickup area and knew I was there before she even saw the car...She heard the unique growl of a straight 6 with aftermarket exhaust. We went to our hotel and dinged around in Seattle for the next day.

 

We started our long drive back to Minnesota, driving 700 miles across Washington, through Idaho and stopped for the night in Bozeman Montana, just outside of Yellowstone National Park. If I remember right I averaged about 22mpg on that leg compensating for speedometer error (small diameter tires) with the GPS. Considering we were ripping across the USA at about 85mph, and tearing through the mountains I'd say we did pretty good! Oh, the engine was still breaking in, and had only about 1,000 miles total by the end of that leg...so I never even got into boost.

 

Next day we woke up early and drove into Yellowstone, just outside Yellowstone I parked at a service station and a woman in a nice 240Z pulls right up next to us...We talked for a bit and then left. Yellowstone was OK, kind of a bust since it was very very busy with a low speed limit and even slower traffic. After leaving Yellowstone we went up Hwy (?)212 through Bear Tooth Pass...Its one of those roads YOU NEED TO DRIVE if you haven't. It was awesome in a Z! Only made it to Billings MT that night, we decided that instead of going home through South Dakota and seeing the Badlands again we would cut through North Dakota to save time.

 

Our final day we started driving at 0700 in the morning, we had about 1,000 miles to cover and one more park to stop at. Theodore Roosevelt National Park was an awesome place, not quite as awesome as Zion, Yellowstone or the Black Hills....But awesome in that there was hardly anyone there. Left TRNP after a couple hours and kept heading for home. At around 7:30PM I stopped for gas, and like always looked at the tires (DOT slicks) for any abnormal wear, what I discovered was that the front tires were wearing to the belt on the insides....F%(@. I had expected to replace the tires due to possibility of rain, or due to wear...but I didn't want to even think of it after 12 hours of driving, late at night in the middle of nowhere. We decided to limp it along to Fargo at a much slower 65mph. At 9:30PM we arrived at Fargo where I found a late night diesel mechanic working, he let me borrow a jack and some hex wrenches to adjust the camber plates so the tires wouldn't wear so much on the inside....15 minutes later I was heading down the road again. At 0230AM the next day, after 19.5 hours of straight driving we pulled the Z into our garage. I've never been so tired in my life.

 

Now that the story has been told, the build thread starts on the next post.

 

- Tyson

[tyson]

Build thread starts here

So, obviously the car runs good but needs tires. It came with 280ZX 15x6 snowflake wheels and 205/50/15 DOT slicks. I absolutely LOVED the way these tires gripped the road, and response was incredible. I didn't like the way they looked since a 15" wheele with a 205/50 sidewall looks undersized. So I began looking for some 17" wheels so that I could fill the wheel well and maintain the low profile and avoid sidewall flex. Well, I didn't find any wheels for sale in the amount of time that I wanted to, so I bought some decent tires.

 

I did a bunch of reading on tires, both DOT slicks and street tires. I didn't want to spend a ton of money since I'd be going to a new size sometime in the near future. I finally chose to go with Kumho Ecsta XS in a 205/50/15 through Discount Tire Direct for $440 shipped. They do have a deal starting 8/31/12 where I'd get $100 off, but I didn't want to wait another week to drive (I'm in Minnesota...we only have so many days per year!). When they arrive I'm taking them to Walmart, can't beat their mounting/balancing price of about $30.

Cost $490 (after estimated mounting/disposal/valvestems)

 

I also changed the oil. It had it's oil changed at 5 miles, 50 miles and about 350 miles (before I took it home). I went with Napa Synthetic (Valvoline) 15w-50 and a NAPA filter.

Cost $30

 

While waiting for the tires, I figured I should have the injectors cleaned and flow tested for peace of mind. I received a few extra 440cc injectors in addition to the 6 installed, so I took 8 of them in to be serviced.

 

Thankfully all of them seemed pretty good right off the bat.

Leaks were negative.

Spray patterns were good.

Static Flow for 12.4 seconds wide open went from a spread of 103-106cc to 105-106c after cleaning/servicing.

Pulse flow for 27.2 was a spread of 56cc-58cc to 57-58cc after.

Lbs/hr was a spread of 48.4 to 48.8 after cleaning.

I had 6 injectors that flowed at 48.8 after cleaning, so I put those back in the engine and left the other 2 as known good spares.

Cost - $177

 

Total rounded cost for this post.

$700

Edited August 24, 2012 by tyson

[Drax240z]

Thanks for the good words Tyson, it was great dealing with you as well. A good stand up guy, true to his word and didn't sweat the minor issues we had at all, even when faced with a 2000mile journey home!

[m1ghtymaxXx]

Good story. I took much of the same route 2 years ago bringing somebody else's 1 Chevy dually from San Francisco to Winnipeg. The Beartooth pass is definitely a must-drive road, made even better since I had no idea what I was in for when I chose the logical exit out of the Yellowstone. Even driving the damn diesel locomotive was a fun. To its merit it has gobs of torque, stiff springs, lots of tire on the ground and a hell of a track width However driving the switchbacks involved putting the outside front wheel on the shoulder while the inside rear encroaches nervously into the oncoming lane.

 

Anyways, good luck with your project!

[tyson]

Figured I'd let anyone following know that I've got an appointment with a chassis dyno for this coming Tuesday afternoon.

 

Update on the tires

After having them on for the past 2 weeks I figure I'd give a little review of the Kumho Ecsta XSs. I haven't tracked them yet, so this is all street driving. I read on a couple sites that suggested heat cycling the tires, so I did the best job that I could on the street with a set of cloverleafs a mile from my house. I then went to a large parking lot and put the car through several tight turns in each direction at about 30mph. I don't own a pyrometer, but they felt fairly hot to the touch. Parked in the garage on jackstands for the next ~30 hours.

 

Overall I'm not terribly impressed, yet I'm not completely disappointed. I came from a hard R compound tire that was well past it's competitive life also going through several winters outside in Victoria. Even after that the R compound tires were quick to warm up and felt quite sticky afterwards (once hot I could hear them picking up sand/gravel everywhere I went). The sidewall was very firm without much flex giving the car immediate response through the steering wheel.

 

The Kumho Ecsta XS just aren't the same. At 30psi the sidewall flexes much more than the R compounds, and I had to raise them up to near 40psi to get the level of response I desired. Unfortunately at near 40psi they offer little traction off the line. I'll probably try to compromise in the low 30s. They do handle well, and are fairly forgiving when pushed to the limit. The few fast starts I have done resulted in some tire squeal, which I don't like.

 

The $440 price also isn't bad at all.

 

Verdict: Decent tire, just don't expect race compound performance. I'll spend the extra money on better tires once I get the wheels that I want.

[Drax240z]

I'm super interested in seeing what you can find on the dyno! There is a lot of power on the table yet with the tune you left here with. Curious whether you'll achieve the 325-350rwhp I was building it for. By the way, doesnt really matter what tires you put on the rear, even with the Quaife they will be challenged.

[tyson]

I'm super interested in seeing what you can find on the dyno! There is a lot of power on the table yet with the tune you left here with. Curious whether you'll achieve the 325-350rwhp I was building it for. By the way, doesnt really matter what tires you put on the rear, even with the Quaife they will be challenged.

 

Yeah, even at the lowest boost first or second gear bakes the tires. Third can produce some wheelspin at freeway speeds without a passenger in the vehicle.

 

If I ever 1/4 mile this thing I'll probably get lower ETs by putting 200lbs of sandbags in the hatch eh?

[tyson]

Dyno numbers

 

At 8.2PSI it made 246 horsepower and 266 ft/lbs at the wheels on a Superflow dyno. The first run was pretty rich, so I trimmed back the fuel values by 5 points each on the SDS Manifold pressure scale. Rock solid 11.5-11.6 A/F ratio throughout the curve after the tweak.

Max torque at 3500RPM

 

At 10psi the clutch (I think it's a Centerforce dual friction?) wouldn't hold. It's possible that we were getting wheel spin but we tried a few runs and nobody could see the tires spin, nor was there any rubber on the nice white floors behind the rollers.

 

The car ran really well, the only thing was a decent amount of smoke coming from the valve breather under boost so I have to look into that a little bit.

 

Overall I feel bittersweet. I went there mainly wanting to make sure it was running well, which it was. But after that was confirmed I really wanted to start seeing what the car can do. The numbers are pretty impressive for only 8PSI, so I've got something to feel good about. The car didn't blow up either, so that's another good thing =)

 

An hour of fiddling with it on the dyno $75

 

*edit* as a reference, my old automatic 280ZXT starion intercooled, 3" downpipe and SVO injectors only made 190HP & 215ft/lbs @10psi on a dynojet.

Edited September 18, 2012 by tyson

[tyson]

After watching the video, I think it *might* be the tires.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJzXNlGHDkQ&list=UUJ8Bi4XgzR__v8Xpw40GYyQ&index=1&feature=plcp

 

The Z as it sits lacks decent tie-down spots so we strapped to the control arms. It may not have been pulling down with enough weight to keep the tires from slipping? I'm going to do a freeway pull with some weight in the rear (to be certain) and see if it is the clutch, or the tires.

 

Either way, I'm ordering some tie-down brackets.

Edited September 18, 2012 by tyson

[tyson]

I did a few pulls at ~8.5psi and then turned up the Eboost2 to 10.5PSI and did a few rapid freeway pulls in 3rd and 4th gear with no signs of slippage. I need to do more testing before it gets back on the rollers.

 

Either way, I ordered 2 sets of hooks from Z Car Custom so that I can strap it down better.

http://www.zccjdm.com/catalog.php/azcarbum/dt55266/pd1761636/240Z_FRONT_REAR_TIE_DOWN_KIT_

[Drax240z]

Gotta love the dyno! Correct, the clutch is CFDF, it probably has 30,000 miles on it. However, based on the video and the tie downs on the dyno, I suspect your problem is wheelspin. Is there anything pulling the car down, or just those shallow angle straps heading backwards?

 

Valve cover breather... most people aren't fans (myself included) of the vented to atmosphere PCV system on a turbo car. Lots of info on this site about options. Something I never got around to.

 

246hp/266ft-lbs at 8.2PSI isn't bad at all for that setup. Once you've got it sorted and throw some more boost at it, things should get very very interesting... That turbo isn't even working hard at 8psi, and its certainly not in its higher efficiency ranges.

[tyson]

Gotta love the dyno! Correct, the clutch is CFDF, it probably has 30,000 miles on it. However, based on the video and the tie downs on the dyno, I suspect your problem is wheelspin. Is there anything pulling the car down, or just those shallow angle straps heading backwards?

 

Valve cover breather... most people aren't fans (myself included) of the vented to atmosphere PCV system on a turbo car. Lots of info on this site about options. Something I never got around to.

 

246hp/266ft-lbs at 8.2PSI isn't bad at all for that setup. Once you've got it sorted and throw some more boost at it, things should get very very interesting... That turbo isn't even working hard at 8psi, and its certainly not in its higher efficiency ranges.

 

 

Basically the only weight on the car, is it's weight on the rollers. We tried looking for attachment points for the straps and the control arms were the only things that would work. When I get my hooks I'll go back, and maybe even put a couple hundred pounds of weight in the back to help.

 

I've been looking at getting a catch can for the PCV, especially since I'm going to be painting the valve cover soon.

[Drax240z]

A lot of dynos use a tie down system that pulls down, as well as back. If you are just relying on the weight of the car, you are going to have wheelspin issues. A bit of weight would certainly help too.

 

 

For instance, this system puts the straps under the bar in the foreground, so it directs much of the strapping force down.

 

Try a bit of weight and see!

[tyson]

 

For instance, this system puts the straps under the bar in the foreground, so it directs much of the strapping force down.

 

Try a bit of weight and see!

 

 

That's the setup I've used in the past but it wasn't possible due to this dyno being an in-ground type. The nice thing was not having to worry about clearing ramps to get it on there!

[frank280zx]

Nice build is this mister tyson my old mate

[tyson]

Nice build is this mister tyson my old mate

 

Heey what's up Frank? It's been a long time!

[frank280zx]

Same old Same old, work and datsuns ok and an m3 track car, Ian and i where talking about you the otter dat! Do you still have Thatcher vind we made?

[tyson]

Same old Same old, work and datsuns ok and an m3 track car, Ian and i where talking about you the otter dat! Do you still have Thatcher vind we made?

 

Yeah I have that video somewhere, I'll have to try and dig it up.

 

Tell Ian that I said hello. The last time we spoke you two weren't on good terms.

 

Have any trips to the USA planned out?

[frank280zx]

Yeah I have that video somewhere, I'll have to try and dig it up.

 

Tell Ian that I said hello. The last time we spoke you two weren't on good terms.

 

Have any trips to the USA planned out?

 

Yearly MSA trip man!! anyhow if you can dig up that movie it would be great!!!! Those sure whee good times Hows Mary ?

Anyhow Great seeing you back in the Datsuns!! nice ride .. and what is up with you and those silly snowflakes

[Tony D]

Tyson should come to SoCal for MSA and stay at the house with Frank.

I got Johnnie Walker Black, 100 Pipers, Bundaburg, and by the time MSA rolls around, more bar stock!

 

We got two spare rooms now!

 

OR FRANK, we could set up something on the East Coast and "Caravan" to the event. It's just getting a couple of Z's from here to there. The Turd is Capable. We can store them at Big Larry's house outside Baltimore, and go from there.

 

I got enough Airline Miles to do that, and the Z's... Just got to get two in similar shape to the Turd!

 

Sounds like a plan for 2013 Frank... We can swing by my Bro, My Dad, and ride US2 all the way into MSP.

 

And Frank, I gotta pick up Guns at Dads...

Edited September 24, 2012 by Tony D