My solution to vehicular ADD: 75' 280z

[Nickanicus]

So I've decided to post the pics/story of my 280Z restomod project.... It all begins a long time ago...

 

I began messing around with cars back in high school. My primary specialty was making Volvos fast (or alternatively, less slow). Upgrading the turbocharger and raising the boost was a no brainer. Adding bigger injectors, standalone fuel injection (megasquirt), larger intercooler, stronger transmission/clutch, etc. definitely puts a Volvo 240 in the category of a respectable vehicle...

When it was all said and done though, the car was fast, yet it definitely was missing something. I had always planned to make the car handle by upgrading the suspension, changing geometry, and was even looking into doing an independent rear suspension swap. In the end though, it wouldn't give me what I wanted: a sports car. After reading, test driving, and consulting my bank account, I decided it was time to try something different. I looked into BMW e30s primarily, I wanted something European styled, light, good suspension on all four corners, a reasonably sized engine and most of all: small. Those Volvos are huge! I ended up with something very different.... something with its origins from the other side of the world. With the recommendation of a coworker, I ended up purchasing my first Japanese vehicle ever.

 

I was taken to the previous owner's residence on the word that the car needed a little work... boy was that the understatement of the year.

 

 

It must be noted that I'm a college student with a full time job. So big, long term projects aren't usually something I like to get myself into. The back-story is that the car hadn't been run in 10 years. Before that, it wasn't even close to having been properly maintained. "Oh well" I say to myself, "It has amazing potential."

 

After an amazing 5 hour experience to get it home (rear shoes were rusted solid to the drums), I now owned a 1975 280Z with big fender flares glued on!

I got the rear brakes freed up and got it into the garage with my roommate's 71' Corolla with a 3800 GM supercharged motor.

 

Well, at this point, I decided that I should just dive in and start fixing things. The short list goes something like this: Fuel pump, fuel hoses, fuel filter, brake hoses, clutch hose, clutch master, clutch slave, brake master, wheel cylinders, brake shoes, brake hardware, halfshaft U joint, air filter, oil & filter, ignition lock cylinder & switch, starter, belts, coolant hoses, spark plugs, spark plug wires, new fluids, and more crap I dont remember anymore. Basically, the plan was to get the engine running on the factory management, do other repairs to the car, then come back later for a full upgrade. I did get the engine running without too much effort:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUxgXYR1TWA

 

Unfortunately, the car ran very poorly on this system. I chalked it up to bad injectors coupled with possible other issues. Either way, the car was in no shape to drive... At this point, I weighed my options: fix this ancient EFI system or install the Megasquirt that was sitting on a shelf in my garage from my Volvo project. DUH!

 

 

I decided to ditch the distributor (one of the possible causes of my issues with the factory system), and run a very simple, efficient wasted spark setup. At this point, the car started easily and ran quite well:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-H8n21MAvw

[kelltainer]

is that a volvo engine in the top pic?

[Nickanicus]

...yes it is.

 

The specs on the Megasquirt are pretty basic. I'm using a version 2.2 board that I put together myself. Glensgarage daughter card, Volvo s80t6 injectors, Pallnet fuel rail, crank sensor wheel & bracket from a board member on here (forget his user name), mitsubishi 3000gt ignition coils and module, AEM UEGO wideband and a Volvo TPS sensor. I also converted to dual electric fans that I let the megasquirt control.

 

So yeah, the engine RUNS ok. It also SMOKES a LOT. Damnit.

 

I ended up pulling the head off to find what had to be the worst cylinder wear on an engine I've ever seen. I didn't take any pictures, but its no wonder the engine smoked, and I'm surprised it even ran. I procured another engine from craigslist for 150$. It ended up being a low milage motor pulled from a 76' Z. Cool deal, just put new gaskets on it, swap all my current crap over, install, profit:

 

 

I decided it looked good enough to skip any sort of rebuild on. If I'm going to rebuild a motor, I'd want to actually throw upgraded parts in it. I dont have the time or the money right now, so I let it go. The new engine runs well, and despite a little smoke from valve stem seals (which I plan on taking care of soon enough anyway), I'm happy with my decision.

[Nickanicus]

Once I had the engine working well, I pretty much began a strategy of working on interior and bodywork simultaneously. I'm not going to post a bunch of pics of the bodywork. Its boring and nothing to be that proud of. Instead, I'll post pics of my completed interior. You may recall that pic I posted in the first thread showing chaos in the interior. Blue seats, wires everywhere, household carpet, missing panels, etc. Well, this is the end result of the front of the dash area. I'm still working on things behind the seat, but the hard work is done:

 

 

I posted those pics in the interior forum too. They're Nissan Pulsar seats of the late 80's vintage. Cheap automotive carpet that I cut myself. Overall I'm pretty happy with the inside.

 

The bodywork required some basic surface rust repair in a few areas. Only a couple spots had actual rust-out damage. Mostly welded in sections and/or used fiberglass to repair flare damage. Again, I don't consider myself a bodywork fiend, so I'm not proud of it. The car is going in for its 20ft/20mph paint job this week. I'll post pics after I get it back...

[DLSOpFor]

This may be a stupid question, but what did you do about your distributor? I'm looking at running a similar setup on my '77

[Nickanicus]

I said bye this morning to my car... I should see it next week after its 1 color!

 

[UofA_ZCar]

Nice work. Those coil packs look so much meaner than the wimpy distributor!

[Nickanicus]

This may be a stupid question, but what did you do about your distributor? I'm looking at running a similar setup on my '77

 

 

Nice work. Those coil packs look so much meaner than the wimpy distributor!

 

There are no stupid questions! Adressing the first post: I'm not sure if you mean what did I do with the distributor after converting to wasted spark, or how I did the wasted spark conversion... If its the former, I just used a freeze plug in the distributor hole to block it off. If its the latter, read up on Megasquirt, then PM me for some details.

 

I HATE DISTRIBUTORS! Especially dealing with the trigger angle in Megatune. I'd much rather take the money for an MSD or some other CDI, and put it towards some 3000GT junkyard parts! With my setup, I'm not limited to the Ford EDIS rev limit, I can use all extra functions in megasquirt (rev limits, launch control, etc), I can control dwell, and best of all: if/when I go turbo, I don't have to make any hardware changes to my ignition system. Also, the 3000GT ignitor has a tachometer output, so I don't even have to build the Megasquirt tach output circuit (which works most of the time, at best). Not to mention the implicit increased spark energy!

[Nickanicus]

So we loaded it up and sent it to get painted...

 

And now its one color!

 

I'll pick it up Tuesday!

[Nickanicus]

Brought it home and started putting stuff back on it!

 

[DLSOpFor]

There are no stupid questions! Adressing the first post: I'm not sure if you mean what did I do with the distributor after converting to wasted spark, or how I did the wasted spark conversion... If its the former, I just used a freeze plug in the distributor hole to block it off. If its the latter, read up on Megasquirt, then PM me for some details.

 

I HATE DISTRIBUTORS! Especially dealing with the trigger angle in Megatune. I'd much rather take the money for an MSD or some other CDI, and put it towards some 3000GT junkyard parts! With my setup, I'm not limited to the Ford EDIS rev limit, I can use all extra functions in megasquirt (rev limits, launch control, etc), I can control dwell, and best of all: if/when I go turbo, I don't have to make any hardware changes to my ignition system. Also, the 3000GT ignitor has a tachometer output, so I don't even have to build the Megasquirt tach output circuit (which works most of the time, at best). Not to mention the implicit increased spark energy!

 

Ahhhh! Thanks! I kinda figured you just removed it and blocked off the hole. But since this is not only my first experience with a Z, but also with a distributor ignition system, I figured I would ask. At first I wasn't quite sure how you did the wasted spark conversion, but after a few nights on the search function and some MS board diagrams...it kinda hit me like a ton of bricks.