My Turbo LSX Z31 Builld

[nismo kid]

The last item I was able to install prior to the show was a MSA front lip. Originally I contacted MSA to order the lip but they were trying to charge me 285$ just for shipping, which seemed a bit steep. So I held off. Some time went by & I got married. My wife & decided to take a road trip for our honey moon. We visited Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada & California. While in California we stopped by MSA & purchased the lip in person. The crazy thing is we drove over 3800 miles on our honeymoon for cheaper than what would've cost to ship that lip. Matter a fact it we spent almost 100$ less than that shipping quote. These lips do require some sanding & trimming so they fit. Which is to be expected. 

I drove the car to the gas station for the 1st time after installing the lip. 

[nismo kid]

That very next morning was the day of the Nismo Fiesta car show. As the title hints it's a car show for Nissan's/Datsun's. Matt (Flawlez) & I rolled into the car show together. The gate attendant lol'd when I told him I'm in the show. I only registered in the show so the car could be viewed by everyone. There was only 3 LS swapped cars present. A Ls1 Z32 300ZX shop car, Ls1 240Z, & myself. My car definitely caught people off guard & attracted good amount of attention. Majority of people enjoyed the car. Initially some people would talk shit about the Kirkey's. I offered all of those people to take a quick seat, then tell me what they thought. I let almost 50 people sit in the Kirkey's that day. They all changed their tune & were shocked by how comfortable they are. Note this was without my padded covers(didn't get them in time). I had great time @ the show. I was flattered by all the love it got from everyone. Especially people that had much nicer builds than mine. I.E. Mark Rolston, he's built a badass RB26DETT swapped 240Z & AWESOME tube chassis 240Z w/fully carbon fiber body powered by a twin turbo VQ35HR. Here's pics of said cars.

His Carbon 240Z

Here's some pics of my car @ the show. 

Thanks to Frame Photography for this pic!

[nismo kid]

The drive home was from the show was entertaining to say the least..... While on the way home my 4303 sucked my surge tank completely dry. No biggy. I filled it for about 5 minutes by cycling the key. A few miles later the 4303 sucked the surge tank bone dry again & popped a fuse this time. I replaced the fuse, filled the surge tank completely. Finally made it home. Needless to say I wasn't a happy camper. I was hoping the Walbro to keep up better. Especially since it has an entire gal head start along with the return fuel filling the surge tank as well. This issue frustrated me to no end. After a quick pressure test on the Walbro I removed fuel cooler, surge tank, & stock tank. Then pulled the Walbro from the stock tank. It appeared the baffle was reacting to the E85. The baffle felt mushy. What was even more concerning was the appearance of the Walbro. Heavy pitting was present on the bottom. Normally E85 compatible components are fine. This is the 1st time I've seen this type of damage happen to a Walbro 450. I took pics & approached Walbro with my findings. Tech support couldn't give me an immediate answer. They told me they've never seen this pitting happen before. I offered to send it for inspection/investigation on my dime. Unfortunately they weren't interested, even though I made it clear I wasn't looking for a replacement or money back. I just wanted answers to why an e85 compatible pump looked this way after only 10 months of use. After a few days a Walbro self claimed "scientist" informed me he thought it was contaminated or too high ethanol content fuel. Funny because I sent them a pic of my fuels content which was 85%. I did discover e85 inside the connector during removal. Their supplied connector was used. I brought that up to Walbro as well, but they said it wouldn't cause my damage. So I took it upon myself to tear it apart in the name of science. Notice the pitting continues on the inside of the plate. The top plate had similar pitting. These were the only parts to experience this pitting. I spoke to a few others about this, including a metallurgist. Which said the plates appear to be a pot metal composed with low grade materials that are susceptible to the E85. He's seen older carburetors meet the exact same fate with newer fuels. After the tear down the Walbro was tossed. 

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[nismo kid]

When went to check my pre & post filters it became clear that the E85 had became contaminated. There was heavy gel build on both filters. Sometime between my 1st start up & my 1st drive. Which there was about 4 months the car sat during upgrades. Nor did I treat/pickle my fuel. The only place it could've drawn in moisture is from the open fuel tank vent. Living in San Antonio it's very humid pretty much everyday. So that's a huge possibility.

[nismo kid]

At this moment I decided to check the remaining fuel system components. Dis-assembly of the Magnafuel 4303 began. Here's a pic of it mostly broken down. 

[nismo kid]

I noticed it didn't experience any pitting. Upon further inspection I discovered armature bearings were rusted & very rough. Every needle & roller bearing was rusted as well. As for the gears & pump housing they had some flash rust that wiped right off. I was informed by Magnafuel they rebuild & flow test all their pumps for free. The only charge applied is for parts. So I reassembled the pump & sent it off. Magnafuel ended up taking almost an entire month to rebuild the pump. Here's few things to take into consideration. (1) I was told pump rebuilds take a back seat to new pumps because new pumps are their bread & butter. So don't expect a lightning fast turn around. (2) If you'd like tracking information be sure to request it & provide an email. Once your pump is rebuilt it ships super fast. I received mine in 2 days. Outside of these minor points Magnafuel customer support has been top notch. Tech has always been able to answer all my questions & point me in the right direction. 

I found very heavy gel build up in the injectors too. Here's a quick video showcasing my findings. 

https://youtu.be/aBdMMCYJCkI

Both the injectors & hats were ultrasonic cleaned. The injectors only flowed about 75% of their 210lb rating, while the largest flow loss came in @ 30%. After ultrasonic cleaning all the injectors flowed 215lb with a 1.1% variance. The fpr was also disassembled & cleaned. The fuel cooler was cleaned & flushed out as well. Luckily all the lines were spotless but were still flushed out just in case. 

[nismo kid]

IMO the E85 Pros easily out weigh the cons. Especially if you have it readily available. I will continue to run E85 in my car just wanted to share my experience. Even if it was a rare occurrence. I truly believe with ethanol treatment added to every fill up & more driving the gel wouldn't have formed. Shockingly the car never ran rough or experienced any hindering. I believe a vast majority don't tear down their fuel systems unless an issue arises. Kinda a "Set it & forget it" mindset. My problem was a massive miscalculation. The Walbro still functioned normal. Imagine if I blindly added a 2nd Walbro to "solve" my issue. A catastrophic failure would've been imminent. I'm no longer going to be running a surge tank & plan to run my Magnafuel 4303 intank. Several manufacturers were approached in hopes to manufacture a billet fuel pump hat for the factory Z31 fuel tank but most declined. Only 1 company was able to provide me a quote. It was 440$ + material for just a billet fuel pump hat with 2 ports. This wouldn't include the hanger or any fuel pumps. I opted to design/build a custom fuel cell that would retain my factory floor & stockish filler neck. Armed with posterboard I created a mock up fuel cell. It's dimensions were 22in x 27in x 10in. Here's a few comparison pics. 19 gal Factory fuel tank vs 26 gal mock up cell

[nismo kid]

Materials were gathered to build the custom fuel cell. Including 1.5in aluminium hose barb, (2) 8 ORB bungs, (3) 1/2in NPT bungs, SAE 5 bolt sending unit flange, 3in aluminum C-channel, 6in x 10in fuel cell fill plate & flange, Improved Racing trap door baffles, & aluminium tubing. .090 5052 Aluminium was used to make fuel cell. A sump was created that housed a baffle with trap doors to keep fuel around the fuel pump at all times. 4in C-channel was welded to the fill plate to secure the 4303. 2 8 ORB fittings with a short section of aluminium tubing were used to create a stationary union on the fill plate. This was done to make pump removal a breeze. A Earl's 8 ORB swivel union (part# AT985208ERL) connected the 4303 to the fill plate. As for the pre filter a Magnafuel stainless steel filter sock & fitting kit (part # is FL-7071) was used. Here's the fuel cell after fabrication was completed. 

[nismo kid]

The fuel cell was powder coated for added protection. Here's another set of comparison pics. 19 gal factory fuel tank vs 27 gal custom fuel cell. 

[nismo kid]

While waiting for the fuel cell to be powder coated I remove the last bit of sound deadening. It was located in the hatch area & weighed in at 8lbs 4oz. Bringing my overall weight of sound deadening removed from the entire car to 60lbs 6oz. I also created a large access hole so the filler plate could be removed without dropping the fuel cell. 

 

[nismo kid]

Roll over vents were also needed for the fuel cell. I've seen traditional vents allow fuel to spit out during fill up. This is because the fuel can't lift the steel ball, so it flows right around it. I found Tecmo roll over vents that have the ball & a plastic insert. This plastic insert will float up to close off the vent during fill up. Thus allowing no fuel to escape. Many companies sell this as their own for over 5 times the original msrp. True msrp (not cost) is 14.99$ ea. Coyote-Gear on Ebay sell them for just under 20$ ea. I installed 2 Tecmo 1/2in NPT 5/16in roll over vents. These are both connected to a single evap purge valve. This evap purge valve is used on Coyote F150's. You can get them for 20-30$ shipped on Amazon. This valve remains closed when the car isn't on which prevents my E85 to draw moisture. The valve opens when it sees 12v switched. All pressure that's builds up inside the fuel cell vents out the gas cap when sitting. Call me paranoid but I'm not taking any chances this time around. 

[nismo kid]

The return was next. A Fragola 8an 90° bulkhead fitting was installed with PTFE washers & Gasoila E-Seal Pipe PTFE Paste Thread Sealant to ensure a good seal. To prevent aeration a return tube was made with 1/2" OD Aluminium Tubing (Dorman part# 800-628) A 37° flare was made in the tubing using my Mastercool hydraulic flare tool. Fragola 8an tube nut & sleeve (part#'s 481808-BL & 481908-BL) attached the vent tube to the bulkhead fitting.

[nismo kid]

With the 4303 now being located intank a wiring bulkhead needed to be sourced. My previous wiring bulkhead setup was going to be adapted to this fill plate. Unfortunately the correct sized grommet couldn't be found. So I began to search for another solution. I wanted to maintain my 6ga power wires so a traditional ATL wiring bulkhead was out of the question. IMHO Behind bars Racecars had the best & cleanest wiring bulk head. It came with an o-ring to use as a seal. On their fuel cells there's a channel for the o-ring to sit in. My fill plate was too thin to do the same. The o-ring was too thick for my application. So I made a gasket using gasket material. 

A Radium E85 compatible fuel level sender (part# 20-0247-09) was also installed. The Bosch unit would've worked too but the Radium unit will allow much easier servicing. An adapter harness was made to connect the sending unit to the factory harness.  

[nismo kid]

Fuel cell straps were made using 2in wide strips of 16ga stainless steel. Extra pieces were welded to provide reinforcement for the mounting points. Rubber strap backing was installed on the straps to protect the tank from metal to metal contact & isolate any unwanted movement. I figure if semitruck fuel tank straps can be constructed this way mine would be more than sufficient. Hood bump stops were installed above the fuel cell to prevent any contact with the factory floor. 

 

[nismo kid]

Custom anchors were made by welding 3/8in grade 8 nuts to 1/4in steel. These would slide inside the factory frame & provide a robust mounting location. 

Gates 1.5in fuel fill hose (part# 23924 4663K) was used to connect the stockish filler neck & fuel cell. 

[nismo kid]

To finish off the fuel cell install the post fuel filter was relocated. I picked up a nice billet mount to secure the Weldon fuel filter. A new Fragola PTFE 10an hose connected the Weldon filter & fuel outlet on the fuel cell fill plate. 

[nismo kid]

As previously stated I'll share all problems/obstacles I encounter. Magnafuel rebuilt my 4303. Afterwards I disassembled it for inspection & everything was perfect. So I reassembled & installed it. When I tried to start the car I noticed 0 fuel psi. This was strange because the 4303 was running. I verified there wasn't any flow by removing the hose from the 4303 outlet then bumping it. Not a single drop came out. A bench test yielded the same results. I shaved down the 8 ORB swivel bung that was in outlet to assure it didn't obstruct anything. Still no luck. The next day I called Magnafuel searching for help something didn't add up. They flow test all pump after every rebuild surely they would've experienced this......right?? The technician that rebuilt my pump asked if I disassembled it. I told him yeah. His next question was "Is the inlet bung opposite from the serial number?". Not being 100% I quickly removed the pump while on the call. That's when the problem was staring me right in the face. I reinstalled the inlet housing 180° out. The bung was on the same side as the seriel number. The Magnafuel technician guaranteed me that was my issue. After rotating the inlet housing I reinstalled the 4303 & dropped it in the fuel cell. And what do you know, the pump was now operating properly! The Magnafuel technician hit the nail right on the head. I'd like to thank Magnafuel for the awesome products & support. The technician didn't have to stay on the phone with me while I removed my 4303. He went the extra mile to help me solve my issue. So here's my PSA. When inlet bung on the same side as the serial number of the 4303 it starves it of fuel. The fuel has no way to enter the pump. The proper orientation is 180° / opposite of the serial number. The technician said other common issues are the improperly sized/restrictive fittings for inlet & outlet. Outlet fitting making contact with the circuit inside the pump thus sealing the outlet. Undersized fuel tank vents. Coming in at #1 is poor electrical connections especially grounds. So keep those things in mind when building your setup. This was a rookie mistake I made. Hopefully me sharing this info this will help others. If not I hope it provided plenty of laughs lol. Any how here's a video comparing how the 4303 sounds. 

External vs Intank Magnafuel 4303

https://youtu.be/50ONV5vTfTQ

Unfortunately this success was short lived. I wanted to take the wife for a cruise in the Z real quick. To give my wife some more foot room I stuffed my ECU above my flip down fuse box panel. Figured it was just a quick ride & it wouldn't hurt anything. Boy was I wrong....... During a very small pull (40%throttle) something began arching & sparking above my wife's feet. I turned the car off immediately & killed all power to the car via my safety switch. A electrical burning smell filled the entire cabin. During further inspection it had became clear the ecu slide into the junction posts on the fuse panel. Which caused the sparking/arching. The Gold Box was the source of my burning smell. With the ecu moved to the floor I turned tried to see if there was communication between the ecu & Pidash. This is when I noticed my fuel pump ran well past the priming time. Once arriving back home after a short tow ride the diagnosis stage began. Initially I could only find 2 blown fuses and a few breakers tripped. While checking a few items that required 12v switched I began smelling raw fuel. Strange thing was I didn't see any. I promptly discontinued & began seeking the source of my fuel smell. It seemed to be from airfilter & catch can. This could only mean 1 thing. An injector or injectors were open with the key on. Wanting to narrow it down I killed the power to the fuel pump & disconnected the injector pigtails. I confirmed my suspicion using a noid light, the ecu would open all 8 injectors when powered on. Needless to say a Magnafuel 4303 & 8 210lb injectors move a ton of fuel in a matter of minutes. But how much you ask? Enough to completely fill my engine, intercooler piping, & intercooler. All totalling 9.5 gallons worth of E85. My misfortune continued when I shipped fried ECU to Efisource for repairs. USPS lost it. They couldn't locate it within their 3 day investigation. The package was fully insured. But to submit a insurance claim it can't be scanned for 15 consecutive days minimum 60days maximum. On would be the 7th consecutive day my ECU was located. So what should've been a 2 day delivery took 9 days. I'm just thankful it was located. Once Efisource recieved it, they discovered every single driver chip was fried on the entire circuit board. Normally it would be cheaper to purchase another unit. But luckily Efisource hooked me up with a new prototype board with additional features & safeguards for much cheaper. They also transferred my tune to this new board. This is just another example of their amazing service. I wouldn't expected anything less from Efisource. Once I received the goldbox I mounted it in the factory z31 ecu location. 

[nismo kid]

My bad luck continued as I discovered the coils on cylinders 2 & 6 were fried. I decided to replace all 8 coils. I also discovered the passenger manifold was a bit close to my plug wires. Which led to a few of them getting burned up near the ceramic boot. On these cylinders I switched to 45° ACCEL 9002C Extreme 9000 Ceramic Spark Plug Wire. These 45° boots place the wire on the other side of the exhaust manifold. Keeping them far from making contact with the exhaust manifold. As before DEI 010475 Titanium Protect-A-Sleeve was used for heat protection. I discovered one of my new wires was missing the spark plug terminal. I'm glad I caught it prior to installing it. Keep in mind just because parts are new doesn't mean they'll never be defective. 

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[nismo kid]

The map sensor was also replaced because it was fried as well.

I finally installed a front sway bar while the car was down during fuel system upgrades. My last update I attempted to install MSA front & rear sway bars. Key word ATTEMPT. Space requirements for a larger front sway bar was implemented during the turbo kit fabrication. Unfortunately the MSA sway bars are bent completely different than factory units. This difference caused the MSA front sway bar interfere with my crossover tube. I picked up a 88 Turbo Z31 front sway bar which is much larger than the non turbo unit my car came with. It fit without modification but I was concerned it could make contact with the crossover tube in high load scenarios. Custom sway bar drop spacers were fabricated & powder coated.

The sway bar mounts were stripped & painted.

Then Prothane polyurethane sway bar mount bushings were installed. Moog sway bar end links (part# K9543) paired with Prothane polyurethane sway bar bushings connected the sway bar to my adjustable control arms. 

[nismo kid]

I also participated in a fender brace group buy just to help push the deal through. I paid a higher premium due to mine having to be made differently than everyone else. What's a fender brace you ask? Fender braces reinforce the chassis structure at one of the cars weakest areas. Which is located at the firewall. Fender braces install on top of the frame behind the front fenders. This triangulation reduces chassis flex between the front section & cabin/rear section of the car. The braces came out pretty decent considering the guy only had pictures of my car to work from. They would require additional bracing to actually be functional/ beneficial IMO. Here's how they looked when I received them. 

Here's after my modifications.