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My Turbo Swap is Suckin!


Guest szlash280z

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Guest szlash280z

I pulled my old NA engine no problem. I put the Turbo engine in there, no problem other than putting in a clutch with no alignment tool. Adding necessary accessories is a big problem. I checked and rechecked lots of stuff to make sure my swap went easy, but there were a few things that I didn't check out and sure enough they are causing me grief.

 

1st Problem: Stock 83 oil cooler won't fit a 78 body with stock hoses. What to do with the oil lines then? I don't have a real freakin clue, so I just jb welded em closed until further notice. I don't know if this will stop the oil from flowing properly though, anyone know if it is a bad idea to do that? I just forgot to research it.

 

2nd Problem: Turbo oil return line wouldn't mate with the turbo. WTF? did I bend my pan? No, when the turbo was rebuilt they didn't clock the compressor correctly. Easy fix, I just re-clocked it.

 

3rd Problem: Imagine that, the AFM doesn't fit with the stock boot. It probably would if Nissan didn't weld the 78's AFM bracket to the fender. I have limited access to any kind of fabricating equipment, so I was thinking of using some black PVC piping to connect it. But it is probably too close to the exhaust to survive the heat. Anyone have any pics of their turbo AFM in an S30 body?

 

4th Problem: PCV valve with my NA manifold gets in the way of the turbo outlet. I remember someone said to get a 90* NPT pipe elbow and it would work. I have found that nothing on a Z is NPT. I will try it out just to see.

 

5th Problem: Fuel rail. I made my aluminum rail, but could not get my stupid braided hoses built. They just wouldn't go! so I decided to use my NA rail for the time being until I get my crap straight with the bling bling rail.

 

6th Problem: Wiring. I THINK I did it right. On a 78 there is a connector with 4 contacts that had connections that seemed like it had a ECU ignition switched starting signal, EFI relay switching lead for Constant Power, Tach signal, and Air Regulator power. I just ran the appropriate lengths of wire to this plug and connected them to the 83 harness in the appropriate spots. I can't wait to find out that I did this wrong too.

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1st Problem: Stock 83 oil cooler won't fit a 78 body with stock hoses. What to do with the oil lines then? I don't have a real freakin clue, so I just jb welded em closed until further notice. I don't know if this will stop the oil from flowing properly though, anyone know if it is a bad idea to do that? I just forgot to research it.

 

Mine is a 73, the oil cooler is on the passenger side extended with some 6" steel pipe from Home Depot. I have it going through a body hole, next to the radiator.

 

3rd Problem: Imagine that, the AFM doesn't fit with the stock boot. It probably would if Nissan didn't weld the 78's AFM bracket to the fender. I have limited access to any kind of fabricating equipment, so I was thinking of using some black PVC piping to connect it. But it is probably too close to the exhaust to survive the heat. Anyone have any pics of their turbo AFM in an S30 body?

 

I am using the stock connection thingy, but yeah it does not fit terribly well. I had it tied in place with some solid strand copper wire, near the coil area.

 

I can't wait to find out that I did this wrong too.

 

If you mean at the key, I compared the key on the 280ZXT and my 240Z since the wiring color scheme is different, and then connected the appropriate wires. I could swear it was 5 wires, not 4.

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Guest szlash280z

I am talking about a plug that connected to the 78 EFI harness a couple of inches away from the ECU itself. I traced all 4 of the wires on my 78 wiring diagram and one wire went to the Air Regulator straight from the fuel pump relay, one went to the ignition switch and the starter motor (that is the one that I connected to the 83's Yellow start signal wire, it makes sense to me) One went to something else (forgot) and the last one was directly connected to the Tach before the tach resistor.

 

there was a B/W wire that came off the EFI relay on the 83ECCS that is supposed to go to the ECU and to the Coil wiring. I only have 3 wires for the Coil, A B/W that goes to the EFI relay, a Y/W that I believe is the fire signal from the ECU and a Blue wire that I think is the Tach signal wire. does that sound right for the Coil? I haven't connected that yet.

 

I think I fixed my AFM mounting problem. I got a rubber 3" to 2" reducer connection from Lowe's, it seems to hold it in place just fine. If it starts to melt (I doubt it, but you never know) I will replace it with a silicone reducer of the same size. That also solved my many vacuum lines to cap off problem as I have now eliminated 3 ports. I just have to make some intake piping that leads to my AFM.

 

I guess I should have waited a bit to cool my head about the oil cooler not fitting. But I thought I was going to be able to try to start the car yesturday and needed a field expedient fix. Oh well, I just jacked up my oil cooler lines. I think I will try one of the universal oil coolers now. Try to find one of the adapters that I read someone talking about here. What did you do Mudge? Just cut the hose and hose clamp the new pipes in?

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I replaced the nasty stock lines on the factory cooler. Just cut the things off retaining the fittings, got some appropriately sized hydraulic hose from NAPA and replumbed the thing with hose clamps. It's been working well for nearly 6 years. I mounted my oil cooler in the forward section of the right fender - right beside the frame rail, and my air dam duct points right at it.

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Here is how I dealt with those issues in my car..

 

1st problem: I went to a place that custom makes hydraulic hoses, they had all the fittings to make any configuration of hose you want, for oil, AC line, brake lines, ect. I got a real nice set of custom lines for about $75CND I drilled two holes in the bottom of the rad cradle and mounted the oil cooler in front of the the rad with the original cooler mounting bracket. (I had to cut the upper bracket off the cooler with a hacksaw though) I'm not 100% sure, but I think if you just block off the oil lines, you'll be getting NO oil to your engine :shock:

 

3rd problem: look carfully at the stock afm mount, you should be able to see the "dimples" left from the spot welds. Go and buy yourself some TITANIUM tipped drill bits and drill out the welds and then chisel them off.. it's really not that hard, but don't bother with regualar steel drill bits as you'll just dull them out before you even get a hole started. Then you can make a new bracket to hold the afm. Or, you can do what I did... get your hands on a air intake tube off of a 85 or so N/A 300zx it'll slide through the hole in the rad cradle and connect up to the stock turbo air boot perfectly! (it looks as if it was made for it) Then you can mount the afm and air filter in front of the rad. Bear in mind this might be kinda pointless if you plan on running a intercooler right away.

 

5th problem: The hydaudralic shop that I went to had ooddles and ooddles of fittings metric and npt and even converter fittings That is where I got npt to metric converter fittings to connect my autometer boost and oil pressure gauges.

 

6th problem: wiring is of course the biggest headache of them all, I recently sent a email to one of our members describing exactly how to wire up the turbo injection harness to the main wiring harness. It was very long and don't care to repeat it right now, but if you email me a request, I'll see if I still have a copy in my outbox and I'll send it to you.

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can I get a copy of that to for my 83-77 conversion?

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I said in the last post that I sent a email to "one of our members" I didn't use the name, because honestly I couldn't remember yours unless I went back and looked for it. So, having said that.. Why would you want another copy? :?

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  • 2 years later...

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