75280z Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 I decided to do a turbo swap and have not come very far since then i have megasquirt and am just waiting (procrastinating) wiring it in for the time being i will try to get pictures up soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted April 23, 2010 Author Share Posted April 23, 2010 WOW it's been a while let me start by saying still have my Z. I should hopefully be getting her here with me in Colorado in about a month. I have finally finished my Bachelors. I am now a proud member of the USAF and working full time in my position, so now that I am fully settled it is time to get the car back and working well. A brief synopsis of everything about the car posted below, I will try to actually get pictures posted soon. I got this car when I was 17 it was butterscotch brown and in decent shape. I ran the car for about 6 months until I saved up enough money for paint. After that I drove her for a while then swapped in a 5 speed from a 1979 280zx parts car. Then trouble happened I decided to swap in a turbo . It has been a learning experience. I swapped it in and got her running, but not running well. I then decided I wanted MegaSquirt. This has been one of my favorite things I have ever done, that being said it definitely hasn't been all roses. I got MS and all the parts over the span of about 3 years for gifts/ extra money when I had it. I finally put it all together and got her running (boy that's making a long story short), but she wouldn't run well for very long. It turns out a car left sitting for about 5 years without moving with gas in the tank might get some crap in the tank when the gas goes bad. So I got her running but the fuel pump would clog off and starve my engine for fuel. So I pulled the tank had it coated, left her sitting for another 6 months still has some crap in the tank (I put in a fuel filter and am hoping to run a few tanks through to see if this clears it up). There she sits at my parents waiting for me to either ship her or drive her here. Last time I drove her was Easter day 2010 so not too long ago. I am 24 married with 3 kids and I am still in love with my Z. Now for the good stuff the car itself. The Car: 1975 280z red w/ 2 black racing stripes The Body: A little bit of rust here and there but nothing bad, a few dings and dents the paint job is now 7 years old. MSA front spoiler Shaved rear bumper 240z front bumper Deleted lower side and rear emblems All chrome trim was masked off and painted black I think it looks really good. The Interior: 2001 Toyota Celica cloth seats: fabricated using a mixture of the datsun and celica mounting hardware 5 point harness drivers side (over kill and thinking of going back to a 3 point (Youthful thoughts of coolness with the harness) MSA Dash Cap Generic Boost gauge The interior was actually in pretty good shape and I have tried to leave it alone mainly The Engine/Drivetrain: L28et from a 1983 280zx Pallnet fuel rail 60MM TB Ported Intake 2.5" MSA DP, full 2.5 inch mandrel bent exhaust and some muffler I got a long time ago, exits from a 3 inch chrome tip I literally found on the side of the road . MS1 V3.0 board running MSNS. 280zx radiator (I ran my mechanical fan through my first one revving to high and clearly something else was wrong) Single 12" electric fan comes on when the car gets hot (I forgot the temp) Oil Cooler (Compliments of the turbo auto car know I didn't have to just wanted to) CIA (I know so cool) 5 Speed transmission from a 1979 280zx Regular turbo clutch Other Stuff Push button start (stupid ignition switch after replacing the 3rd one I just gave up, now it requires a key and the push button) Swastika rims SS brake lines We can clearly see that I am missing suspension I realize that. Once I get the car to me here and she is running she will be getting a suspension make over I am not setting her up for track, just good performance for daily driving. I hope you enjoyed reading and feel free to comment even if it is to make fun of my adolescent choices in paint before suspension. I didn't get bitten by the speed bug for a little while. I would also like to thank the hundreds of people that contribute valuable information to this site my car is coming along and wouldn't be nearly as good if it hadn't been for all of the HybridZ contributors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted August 16, 2010 Author Share Posted August 16, 2010 So a quick update. The car is on a car carrier right now I should be getting her tonight. I am thinking about getting some tires put on her tomorrow, I will be updating this a lot more often and with pictures as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted August 27, 2010 Author Share Posted August 27, 2010 (edited) Well I have had her for about a week and a half here at my house so a quick update I changed the water pump, had tires put on, rebuilt the relay wiring harness, cleaned up the engine bay some, and now I am going to start driving her so she can be tuned. The electric fan relay burnt up some how in the past, so I decided I would have MegaSquirt control the fan as well. I am so happy to finally have her back. Next on my to do lists: Keep an eye out for a good deal on an Intercooler, BOV, and piping Get KIA Sportage door weather stripping and find a good replacement for hatch weather stripping Tune MegaSquirt (This requires more than 5 miles of driving the car a year) Now for the pictures. Engine Bay some pictures are when I got her here and the ones where she looks a little cleaner are now. Some of the Interior (And Strongbad) Yes I need to clean up this wiring mess I know! If I am going to keep the 5pt Harness I need to cut a hole in this seat any suggestions on how I should go about this? Now The Exterior I never noticed how crooked my tires are how do I fix this? Two of my 3 kids in the next pictures (They like "Daddies red car" but they think "Its stinky") Sorry the video didn't work *Edited so when the pictures were clicked it wouldn't lead you away from the website* Edited August 29, 2010 by 75280z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted September 4, 2010 Author Share Posted September 4, 2010 So a small update I am having trouble getting all cylinders to fire and the spark is leaking through my spark plug wires so before I can really move on with a good quality tune I am going to have to invest in some better quality plug wires. Today I am going to try and get some of the self etching mag cleaner that Atlantic Zcar tips suggested to clean up the Swastikas pictures to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GLSHLE Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 (edited) Nice. I like the black chrome. Looks like painting first worked out. Carry on. Edited September 4, 2010 by GLSHLE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted September 6, 2010 Author Share Posted September 6, 2010 Thanks Yeah after I painted her I hated the way the chrome stood out so a lot of painters tape, and news paper later and a couple of cans of a nicer gloss black spray paint there she is I love the way it turned out. I did that about 4 years ago, unfortunately I have only put maybe 500 miles on her since . but that is changing I had her out today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted September 6, 2010 Author Share Posted September 6, 2010 Here is a sneak peak of whats to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted September 17, 2010 Author Share Posted September 17, 2010 Well went ahead and put off the inter cooler, I need to just run my car for a while and get the tuning right. I think with all of the running super rich while first tuning I might have fouled my wide band O2 sensor so I am going to recalibrate it, and see if that helps if not replace it, luckily I have 2 extra ones, is there a chance that my injectors are not spraying well and thats why I can't seem to adjust my idle to a good fuel mixture? These are thoughts I have I will go searching and find out hopefully in the next few days. I went ahead and sold my Subaru OBX that was my daily and picked up a 71 510 Wagon for a daily. I pick up the rest of the parts from the guy I bought it from on Saturday. The Wagon is clean, and beautiful the PO did pretty much everything I just have to put it back together, it has a KA24E/5spd out of a 97 Nissan pickup. Here are some pictures once I get it a little cleaner I will post more pictures of my Datsuns together. Sorry about the washed out color, the one that shows the color the best is in the garage with the Z its a darker red, very nice looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplyedmind Posted September 19, 2010 Share Posted September 19, 2010 Very nice 510 wagon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted September 19, 2010 Author Share Posted September 19, 2010 Thank you. It is definitely very clean, just put back together all the interior yesterday. I am only missing 1 interior panel because it was to ratty to put on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplyedmind Posted September 20, 2010 Share Posted September 20, 2010 Your 75 is also very sick. I have a 75 280z also . Ever get the intercooler on the z?Dying to see it,About to Throw mine on in a week or 2 so excited I'm sure u are to . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted September 20, 2010 Author Share Posted September 20, 2010 Thanks for the compliment, Yeah I decided I still need to work the issues out of my car before I go upgrading stuff. I still have a lot of little issues that need to be worked out with my car. It is running incredibly rich, the high beams don't work, just little things, it also runs pretty well in stock form, so I am just going to leave it like that to enjoy for a while. I think maybe my injectors are clogged up and I want to clean them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted September 21, 2010 Author Share Posted September 21, 2010 So a quick update, I was looking through my settings on MS and noticed that my injector opening times were only 1ms and remembering that thread in the MS section the 280zx injector takes 1.2ms to fully open I decided to change the value appropriately. HOLY COW the idle sounds so much better, it is running so much crisper, how did I miss that for so long? Just goes to show you how much I still have to learn. So next step is to go do some burn outs . Actually I need to reground my fan relay to a better ground, and I found out the wiring connection of my coolant sensor was not making good connection so I re-wired it, so hopefully that will fix that problem I was having. The coolant values were going crazy, and then not showing up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted October 1, 2010 Author Share Posted October 1, 2010 The MAP sensor was reading incorrectly it turns out I am stupid and didn't set the configurator for MS to the correct MAP sensor, so now that is fixed. I need to tune the aps, but I am happy to say my car is now 100% driveable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 (edited) So a quick update, been a few months I am driving my 510 Wagon daily and it has been doing a good job, I just got my tax money back in the last few weeks, so I have set to work on the Z I am thinking about doing some autocross. It is high time this car stops being a garage queen and starts tearing up some tires and braking things because of use rather than just rotting away. What I have done lately. Replaced the weatherstripping with stripping out of a Kia Sportage. Replaced the intake tube going from the filter to the turbo connector While tuning my LC-1 gave up the ghost so I am in the process of ordering http://14point7.com/SLC-DIY.php to replace the LC-1 Order some vinyl decals from RTZ as well as some HybridZ stickers for the car. Ordered a battery tie down. To Do: Order/Replace window channel felt Build and install the new Wideband controller. Drive the car, maybe burn some tires off Edited February 17, 2011 by 75280z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted June 20, 2011 Author Share Posted June 20, 2011 A couple months have gone by I built the SLC DIY and really liked it here is my review of the product. I also have driven the car quite a bit and worked out some bugs I still need to replace window felt and some of the other stuff. Now that my wideband is back in it I am concentrating on tuning the car again! I got my SLC DIY-1 back in February of 2011. I immediately opened it to make sure all the parts were there, they were. I then packaged it all back up and stored it until I could work on it. I ended up putting it together in March, but when I came back to it I found I ended up losing some of the molex pins when I contacted Alan he promptly sent me the replacement parts and at no charge which of course was not expected, but a very nice and definitely made me a more happy customer. The board looked to be good quality and the components were separated out by values. It was easy enough to solder all the parts on to the boards and the sockets make installing the IC’s much better than say putting them on the board themselves. That being said there were several locations where I wish the solder pads were just a bit further away from each other that way there is less worry of solder bridges, that however is just a very small gripe. When first put together the board didn’t work 100% due to the fact one trace had lifted and separated from a pad coming from Molex pin 5 once found a dab of solder to reconnect and the system worked flawlessly. The 4 Seven segment display is a great added feature and one of the main reasons I actually purchased the kit, I don’t have a dedicated AFR gauge and didn’t want to have to run with a netbook all the time in order to watch the value. That being said the display updates very fast so if you don’t have a very stable AFR you can tell. The display can be toggled to display things like oil pressure, RPM, AFR, Boost these are little things that can be added to make it a more feature rich unit. The SLC DIY1 has now been replaced by the SLC DIY2. If the SLC DIY-1 is any indication of the quality and features of the DIY2 (which come pre-built and tested) then I would say that I think this is a great alternative to the LC1 or even the more expensive MTX-L, with the added benefit of being a small DIY type company. The extra gauges and information it displays can be used in conjunction with Megaview or in place of a small netbook. I really liked this product and hope more people using MS give it a try as it works very well with it. All in all I think for all people wanting to have a more do it yourself wideband option this is the way to go, as well it will give you the option to have a gauge all you need to do is mount it where you can see it. Link to 14point7 as well as a vendor that offers good discounts here on the website. I try to not just sell products here, but I really do like this product and any one with Megasquirt or other things I would like to get the word out about these products. I will post pictures later. My link My link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakeoster Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 (edited) Slick car man, I had a 280z with those stupid bumpers and it's nice to see you got rid of them. I have a 240z now, but I gotta say I prefer the 280z tail lights haha. Edited June 20, 2011 by jakeoster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted July 14, 2011 Author Share Posted July 14, 2011 Alright a couple of updates. I picked up an IMSA 3 piece rear spoiler off craigslist, I doubt I will put it on anytime soon, but I have got it when I decide I want to. More importantly I got my polyurethane bushings in the mail today I think I am going to start switching some stuff out in the next few weeks. I probably wont get to the rear suspension until i get my new springs and shocks, and that won't be until I sell the 510. Pictures to come hopefully later today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75280z Posted January 25, 2012 Author Share Posted January 25, 2012 (edited) Once again my Z is sitting dormant. I drove her off and on through the fall. I really enjoy driving this car. She is now hibernating for the winter. There will be many updates in the months to come here is what I have planned. For the next month or longer it isn't like I need her put together right away. - Tokico HPs (I ordered them they should be here Thursday 27 Jan 2011 hopefully. - Eibach Springs (Came with the HPs. - Poly Urethane Bushings. I already installed several of the front I am dreading the back ones. - Exhaust is way to loud I am going to be doing some work on the exhaust. I will take pictures before and after of my ride height. I will also try and take some before and after video of my exhaust. I am getting very excited I have been putting off suspension for a long time I am ready to start it. Edited January 25, 2012 by 75280z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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