JelmerPatrol Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 I plan on building a L28ET for my 1984 Nissan Patrol. Parts that I already have: L28 block P90 turbo head Euro turbo exhaust manifold Flat top pistons RB20DET turbocharger US turbo intake manifold My goal is torque, not so much high Hp numbers Can I run a Z31 ECU and wiring harness on this setup? What about tuning this setup? Which year Z31? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 How much you plan on saving by going this route? Seems cost unproductive in the long run. If you're trying to save every penny then go with speeduino or microsquirt. As to more directly answering your question, the NA Z31 parts would be hard to use out of the box and you'll spend a good amount of time getting it to run right. The tune on the turbo z31 would be a far better starting point, but I can still guantee that things like spool response and torque curve won't be near as good as having a modern programmable ECU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JelmerPatrol Posted January 25, 2019 Author Share Posted January 25, 2019 I'm not trying to cut costs. I had Megasquirt on my VG30DET (now sold the engine with ECU) and liked it but it needed small re-tunes after a while or when weather changed a lot. I like the steadyness of a factory ECU, that is why I keep the factory ECU on my VH45DE too. I did mean a Z31 turbo ecu, not an NA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgsheen Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 The early Z31 ECU will plug into the L28ET stock harness with minor re-wiring (a few ECU pin relocations on the plug IIRC). The stock Z31 ECCS harness would need quite a bit of re-work on an L28ET. In either case, the stock harnesses are old and are generally the cause of many problems we have with engine swaps. I gave up repairing harness bits on my own car and now believe strongly in building a new harness when you're changing ECU's. That's what I would advise in your case... (After the stock ECU on my L28ET, I went with an Infiniti M30 ECU with Nistune Type 2 daughterboard installed. (the Leopard model In Japan - in the US fitted with the VG30E) It ran the L28ET very well even though it's a "non-turbo ECU". We did use Nistune to re-tune it slightly) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JelmerPatrol Posted January 25, 2019 Author Share Posted January 25, 2019 I only have a euro N/A harness so that is not usable. Making a new wiring harness is not a problem but getting all the parts to make it run will be a task I guess. The euro models don't have that much extra stuff on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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