NismoPick

Nice! Yeah, I forgot to mention that you have to cut off a bracket to make the ecu fit. I think I just bent that bracket back & forth until it broke off.

Makin progress! I like your fb pics... the swastika wheels were just meant for the S30.

duowing

Oh I had another question, what did you do when you installed the MAF into the S30? Did you just run that stock rubber boot from the L28ET, the one that goes from the Turbo to the AFM and then just plug the MAF in there and wedge it over enough to run hosing and an air filter through the radiator support? I need to do something like this as when I drove it, I just have the MAF wide open and I just zip tied it down so it wouldn't flop around everywhere.

Yeah I'm so glad to have it at home and actually see the thing making progress each day. It's been a long time coming.

My wheels are kinda beat, I need to work on them more and see if I can bring them back to life. Otherwise I want to do the standard thing and go with the Konig Rewinds.

Oh one more question for the ECU, did you just bolt it to that one hole that was available, or did you drill some extra holes? Either way I have it mounted to that one, and just zip tied around another bracket to keep it held in place, but because there's kind of a bump where it mounts it doesn't sit flat so the back of the ECU can move around a bit, I was thinking I could grind down that area where it mounts or maybe just wedge some foam or something on the other side to keep it seated properly. Also got my new clutch master, slave, and hydraulic line in. Managed to bleed it by myself by wedging pliers in between the pedal and the pedal stop, also adjusted the pedal more so I don't have way less play at the top of the pedal now. Took me alot of times pumping/bleeding before I even started to really get anything, probably just because with all new stuff you have a lot of air and no fluid at all? Also ran my new speedo cable, still waiting on new bulbs for the dash, installed my HIDs from the HybridZ group buy. I've been wanting to check them out, but with no dash I can't really do that, I don't really feel like fishing that whole harness out of the dash to just plug the stuff in. Urethane airdam mounted, fiberglassing is coming along on that rear portion of the car, I'm hoping to have this thing going to an exhaust shop next week. Get a full exhaust, have them weld in an extra bung for my Wideband and then work on tuning this thing out a little bit. The car definitely feels a little sluggish still, I believe it is running rich, I probably need to adjust down the fuel pressure a little more, and I'm using the N/A Cam. I also don't know if right now with stock boost and having a rising rate fuel pressure regulator if that's almost going to make it start running richer than Nissan already had tuned it out to be. When cold it still bogs right around 3500 RPM, and it's only for a few seconds then it straightens out. I need to take it for a good drive to really see, when I did drive it home I stayed really conservative since I had no use of the clutch pedal and the ECU was laying on the floor, the wobbly shifter, etc.

Oh and I found a writeup on that atlanticz.ca site about using Chrysler brass door bushings in the shifter to get rid of that extra play. It's so much nicer now with how stiff it sits in the transmission. It no longer feels like it's in neutral regardless of what gear you're in and it's so much easier to put it in gear now.

NismoPick

Here are some pics of my setup. I did use the stock AFM to turbo boot & blocked off the 2 vacuum ports. Then ran the boots through the stock intake radiator support hole. I just used the lower bolt on the ecu.

As for bleeding, did you just leave the bleeder wide open while pumping? I just pump like crazy & make sure the res stays full... then once you get fluid at the bleeder, do the open-pump-hold-close. Use a 2x4 against the seat if you are alone.

duowing

No I didn't leave the bleeder open, I just did the open and close thing, no wonder why it took me forever. Clutch feels good now. As for where your MAF is did you have to remove the bracket that the old AFM mounted to? Because I'm having a really hard time getting the MAF to sit kind of in the position you put it and have that stock Turbo boot connect to it, I already cut part of that bracket out and it's fitting better, so I'm gonna keep working on it. I don't have an air compressor so I've been using a dremel and one of those little cutoff wheels.

NismoPick

Ah yes... I did remove the stock AFM bracket. I carefully drilled out the top of the spot welds until I was able to just yank it off. Then I cleaned the area & hit it w/ paint.

duowing

That's not a bad idea, I'll either do that or just keep on cutting. I figured I pretty much need to remove it so I can have enough room.

duowing

Well finally got the dash back in, and upon reinsertion of the vent hose tubing I managed to knock half the bulbs out of the tach. Luckily I'm able to lay under the dash and get my arm up in there to get the bulbs back into the tach. I finally finished cutting out that stupid stock AFM bracket, and just ground down the remainder of it. I bought a K&N filter and some ricey chromed out Spectre intake piping that all clamps together nice from Autozone, now I need to see if I can fit that all in there nice. Either way as long as I have an intake.

Looking at picking up some S2000 seats on ebay, got a Passenger seat for a pretty decent price, so now I'm holding out for a driver seat. Also when it comes to wheels I was curious, I kinda want to get some rewinds, but I'd probably try to keep the swastikas around and clean them up as well. Is there any advantage of 16" over 15"? I do eventually want to do ZG flares, but I was wondering if there are more tire sizes or a better size for performance. I do want to be able to do some autocross, occasional track day with this thing.

duowing

I haven't rechecked, but I just did the seafoaming the one day and didn't find any leaks or white smoke pouring out from the exhaust manifold gasket, but I keep seeing people saying that these cast turbo manifolds have a tendency to warp and is the reason why they don't seal? Is this true, or is it just a crappier gasket that isn't sealing? I also don't have those giant concave washers on the very end bolts, I just have a set of 3 big cast washers I threw together from my old collection of Z31 nuts/bolts. I hope to take it out for another drive maybe this weekend and see how it's running now that the ECU won't be sliding around, I have an actual filtered intake, and can use the clutch and drive it a little more spiritedly.

Unfortunately my S2000 driver's seat won't be here until Tuesday, maybe I can just mount the passenger on the driver's side and take it for a spin.

Oh a few more questions, I know you said that you just let the car run the prime cycle before starting since the FPR doesn't hold pressure. My car even right after the prime cycle, my pressure gauge will drop pretty quickly back to 0. I don't know if this is also part of the reason it has a harder time cold starting? I remember reading about when your pump check valve would go bad and your system would bleed off pressure overnight and you'd have a harder time from a cold start. Also I'm wondering if maybe I still have some issue with tuning/timing with my setup.

I'm wondering now if my cold start issue where it will hit around 3500 RPM and bog down if it's running almost too rich/too retarded timing when cold. It doesn't take long for it to switch over and seem to rev fine though.

And finally did you notice much/any difference in idle or running when you swapped to the N/A cam in your L28ET? At first I was going to run the Turbo cam, but when the cam and one tower decided to seize together before I even got the car with new head running, I removed the cam towers from my P90A and put the N/A "A" type cam in there pretty much because it was the only solid cam I had. I also wonder if that would cause a little bit of difference in the way it would run on a stock tune.

NismoPick

The reason the exhaust manifold leaks is because the gasket settles (due to hot/cold cycles) and the studs / nuts become more and more loose, allowing the gasket to burn. I always re-torque them after about 60 minutes run time on a new manifold gasket.

Before you turn the key, clamp off the return line after the FPR, then turn the key on to prime, turn off, and check for pressure drop. Then you will know if it's the FPR or check valve at the pump.

I wasn't ever able to run the n/a cam at full throttle to see how it did... that was back when I reworked my cylinder head just to find out it had a rod knock, so I tore it all back apart & used the turbo cam again.

duowing

Thanks for the info on the gasket, I'll check them after a few runs. From what I remember it is the FPR that bleeds off pressure after the pump stops running. I'll have to check again though.

duowing

Drove the Z over to a shop today to get the new exahust. Was quoted about $200 to have an exhaust made up from the downpipe back with a magnaflow muffler, and adding in an O2 bung. Sounds pretty good to me.

Anyway the car drives pretty well, but still doesn't run quite right. It seems kind of sluggish in the low end, not terrible then if you get on it it'll sorta start to climb hesitate for a moment then the power will come on and it will take off. I'm not really sure where to start looking. Sounds almost like a sensor issue. I don't know if this
could be timing related?

At one point the oil pump was not lined up correctly and I couldn't get the timing adjusted, the mechanic I had been working with pulled the oil pump back out and realigned it, I also don't know for sure that the Timing Chain is lined up exactly. I wanted to be there for putting my motor back together, but unfortunately he did a bunch of it when I wasn't around. So I really don't know that it's 100% correct. I do know that after he readjusted the oil pump I've had no issues with getting my timing marks between crank pulley and the timing plate to line up with adjusting the distributor. I would assume that if I'm getting the timing on those things to line up fine that my timing chain should be lined up properly. Still leaning towards a sensor or possibly a grounding issue somewhere. Although like I said I'm still not sure where to start looking.

NismoPick

Have you pulled your plugs & read the tips lately?

Back when I first did my turbo swap into my 280zx, the motor was sluggish & sputtered a bit until it broke free & rev'd nice above 3k rpm. I found out one of the injectors wasn't spraying very well (after reading the plugs, one tip didn't look the same as the rest). I pulled the injectors, cleaned them, replaced that one, and it ran MUCH better. I even have a video somewhere online w/ my car on the dyno running 5 injectors... DOH!

duowing

I may need to actually take it out and drive it hard, it is supposed to be a rebuilt head so I don't know if valves need to seat and stuff? I'm gonna take it for a good drive once the exhaust is done. I remember pulling my plugs before I ever drove it and there were black, like it was running rich. Adding in the O2 sensor helped a good bit. I at one point pulled the fuel rail off the car, left the return line hooked up to the tank, and just hooked the feed line up to my old 280Z pump, with the line to the pump just in a gas can and individually checked each injector one at a time, and they all looked like they were spraying correctly. I did notice that it seems like since I fixed the leak at the fuel tank/fuel pump feed line my pressure had gone back up to 40psi. So I would have been driving at higher pressure that one time when I drove it home. This is the second time the thing has actually been on the road. I adjusted my pressure regulator down to just above 35psi. It's also supposedly a rising rate FPR. I did change out the plugs before I drove it home for the first time, but again I had it idling a couple times, and since the pressure would have gone back up the plugs may have started to foul. Not to mention when driving it home I drove it pretty slowly, and had to restart it at every light because I had no clutch.

Also before when I would have driven it the MAF was just sort of hanging in the engine bay wide open, this time around I actually finished the intake piping and have it running to a filter sitting out in the front of the car rather than in the engine bay. So I may need to readjust the throttle body stop screw again and potentially timing.

Oh one more thing. With the Walbro pump assuming mine is real, should you still need an inline check valve or a fuel damper?

Oh crap one thing I forgot about, I did seafoam it after I drove it home, but I pretty much only let it idle while revving it as it blew out smoke. I remember the last time I seafoamed my L28ET when it was in my old 280ZXT it started running really crappy until I changed all the plugs out. I'm probably going to get another set of plugs, seafoam this motor one more time and really wring it out, then change out plugs.

duowing

Well when I get a chance I'll have to pull the plugs and take a look as well as maybe recheck the valve clearance. Got my exhaust finished today, it's a 2.5" straight back with magnaflow muffler. Sounds really nice having that setup, plus I don't get that awful freeway droning like every loud car has. Anyway apparently my car literally just needs to be driven because driving it today from the exhaust shop it was running beautifully and it's pretty darn fast. I started rolling in first and just stomped on it to see if it would hesitate and take off again and this thing just revved up real smoothly as the turbo built and then took off. Got it on the freeway and it drove so smooth.

Few issues right now I noticed is that my e-brake light is on because I didn't plug the connector back in yet so it doesn't detect that the e-brake is off. So I could see that this light was flickering with my turn signal lights. Probably a loose connection somewhere, idle seemed a little more lopey too.

Also when I rev it up really hard it blows some smoke, it kinda looks blue, sometimes it kinda looks white, I'm not sure. I would almost say the smoke comes when I let off the throttle because it felt like I revved it up and then let off and then looked back and saw smoke. I'll play around more. I know before I got the exhaust on it when just revving it up and letting off it would definitely pop on the way back down. I'm hoping that it's just smoke from being rich or if I'm still possibly burning off extra carbon and crap. Doesn't seem to be smoking while idling and seems to be idling relatively smooth. It could just still be running rich and that could be the extra gas or maybe there's still like I said extra crap from when I seafoamed it? I did change out the PCV valve recently so that's pretty new unless maybe the PCV system is clogged somewhere. It's really hard to say. Any suggestions on this? The car has seen maybe a max of 20 miles now in the 2 years since I've swapped the motor. Still probably not even 20.

Also this head is as far as I know a rebuilt head so all the valve seals should be new/good to go. The turbo is original and would be at over 99k miles, I'm also wondering if it could possibly be seals on the turbo starting to leak.

Gonna pull/check the plugs, probably swap them out and change the oil when I get a chance. Should I be concerned about the smoke?

duowing

I'm debating on having my turbo rebuilt/upgraded so I'll have a nice new/better Turbo ready to go for when the car comes back out. Nismo when you did your T3/T4 did you just have your stock T3's housing bored out? Also where you able to have it done locally, or did you send it out. I'm trying to figure my options out on the Turbo.

duowing

Took it out for a much longer drive today, it's a cool day today as well. Low 50s. Anyway it started up then died, then started right back up for cold start. Driving seems to be really smooth, drives really well actually and has a lot of power/smooth delivery etc. When this motor was in my ZXT I definitely could not run it up to 6000 and feel like it still had some power left to give. I'm wondering if it's the combo of Fidanza Flywheel and N/A cam? Idle still isn't quite right, might still have a minor vaccum leak somewhere, I'll have to look around more. Also now that I put on the intake with air filter may need to readjust the throttle body stop screw again, also play with idle timing, etc. Stopped at autozone to return the steering wheel puller and when I came back out car started up with no problem at all. I'm wondering if most of my cold start issues are mainly just related to the fact that my fuel system doesn't hold pressure after it's shut off.

Still haven't really taken the time to pull plugs or anything to see how they look, also need to recheck my valves, torque my manifold nuts/bolts, and recheck torque on head nuts.

NismoPick

I had a local turbo shop do it (HTT - High Tech Turbo). $350 for a normal rebuild, + about $150 for the T4 compressor housing, wheel, & accessories. Took 1 day for them to do it. I've had them work on 4 turbos now.

duowing

Not bad, gonna have to look for a local shop around here if not I'll send it out.

duowing

Pulled the plugs out today to just get an idea of how things are looking. They look pretty good to me, but I'm no expert. Figure I'm going to change the oil, take it for another good drive, check ignition timing, check idle speed. Valves may need a readjustment as well. Then it'll be about time to put the car back away as the weather keeps getting colder. At least this time I'll be looking forward to pulling the car out and getting body/interior work done on it come this spring.



Need to grab some pictures of how it currently looks. The S2000 driver's seat and Momo Champion steering wheel make a pretty nice combo.

I'm still amazed that I actually made alot of progress on this thing in the past two months. I did not expect to be able to take it out for drives without fear of something going wrong at all this year.

NismoPick

Going from right to left, it looks like plug #1 #3 #4 are wet tipped, while #2 #5 #6 are dry. No?

duowing

If you're referring to the electrodes or the little arm, none of them were actually wet. There was some oil on the threads of some of them, but the tips were all actually dry. They looked fairly close, but it's hard to say. The 1, 3, and 4 Plugs were darker on the top and that may be why the flash made them look wet. I'm not sure though. I almost need to put in a new set of plugs that weren't run when the car was idling and running extra rich and such. Any thoughts though? Like possibly uneven injector spray?

JSM

This is where a wideband comes in handy.

duowing

Hoping to get my Wideband installed this weekend if I get time to work on the car. Anyway my speedometer still doesn't work, I'm thinking the cog in the tranny is suspect. Either that or I didn't hook the new cable up right, but the original cable looked fine and it didn't work either. Anyway I went and pulled the cog/sleeve out of my old auto tranny from my ZXT. I thought these cars all came with 3.54 rear ends, but everything is showing that the red cog is for a 4.11 rear end. This is confusing me, I'll put it in my 280Z and see if it works anyway. Also how do I swap the sleeves for the cogs? I see what looks like a little pin, but not sure how to drive it out.

duowing

Well I figured I'd post in this. It's been a long while, but I slowly continue to work on this thing. I think since last update I got it finally running really good. I've changed out the fuel pump for a Bosch 044 in-line pump, removed the pre-pump filter, mounted it lower and horizontally, re-wired it with 10 gauge wire to a 50amp Bosch Relay from a Nissan Quest ABS system. I removed the old 280ZXT ECU plugs and swapped them out with 300ZX ECU plugs which fixed a whole slew of wiring problems. I did some ok body work on filling the passenger door where the lock had been beaten through the door years ago. Probably will redo it at some point. Rebuilt the driver's door hinge so my door works now. Painted both doors. Put Rota RB's on the car with new tires. Just last weekend installed my Wilwood 1" Master Cylinder and starting tomorrow I'm planning to finally get my rear disc conversion done. The biggest step is that this thing seems to finally FINALLY be turn key and drive with no issues. Other than what I'm assuming is the diff clunking on gear changing/acceleration which I have a R/T Diff Mount ready to go into my car for, everything seems to be good. I'm hoping to get the thing just crappily into one color and really start getting some driving time this year. Need to mount my passenger seat so people can ride with me.

NismoPick

w00t!

One of my half shaft clunks... meh...