yellow zee

I did the GM HEI swap on my 78 280Z with L28ET and it wont rev past 2000 rpm. Its like its hitting the rev limiter. Backfires past that and runs poorly. I did the swap as per skittles instructions. Any ideas whats going on? The car ran great before the swap with the original ignition but would die from time to time when it got hot.
20151028_1216222_zpsh9qx0nde.jpg Photo by mrdeath | Photobucket
20151028_1216392_zpsdmfcwp2j.jpg Photo by mrdeath | Photobucket
gm hei_zpsxctt1odr.jpg Photo by mrdeath | Photobucket

yellow zee

yellow zee

Skully

The wiring looks good. Since it fired up, HEI is good, 99% of time if they fail (there could be a slim chance its damaged, pretty rare), they don't work, and that's it. The only thing I can think of, is, run an actual ground wire from one of the bolt holes, to a good bare chassis spot, not sure if your allan bolts look coated, you need really good continuity to the ground. These things are finicky with the grounding and heat etc. Other than that, it could be you knocked something loose while doing this.

yellow zee

I will run a wire from the allen bolt to a ground. I checked for continuity and I had a ground from the allen bolt to the chassis and motor. Everything looks good.

yellow zee

I read somewhere that swapping the g and w terminals might fix the issue. Not sure though.

rogerz

one of your connections could be bad. I don't know so much about the l28ET but I wonder if there is a speed limiter similar to what is found on the z31 turbos? wiring looks correct for using a PNP transistor. When the base goes to ground (probably ecu signal or direct from CAS) the xsistor fires with current going to the coil. Emitter which you are calling a signal wire allows current to flow out thru the base and the collector C. when the base goes high the field collapses thus getting the high voltage generated to the sparky guy. to get the limit you have to interrupt one of those things

yellow zee

Thanks. I hate working with crimp style connectors. I would much rather solder to ensure a good connection. I will go over my connections.

rogerz

good quality electronic duty solder and a solder gun don't cost very much. Heat Shrink is your friend. I have two alligator clips screwed to a small piece of plywood. This takes the place of the third hand coming from your forehead that god forgot to include in his design review. don't twist the wires shove them together and let the clips hold in place whilst you apply heat. put the heat shrink on first.

yellow zee

I have all of that so Im good to go. Soldering skills are getting better as well. I do all of my guitars when I swap pickups. No prob there.

yellow zee

I moved the grounds and soldered all of the wires. Still the problem persists. I'm going to put the original ignitor module back on and see if things work again. The only issue with the stock ignitor is it fails when it gets hot. No probs in the cooler months.

yellow zee

Gave up on the HEI. I guess its too cheap of a module, don't know. I put the stock one on and cleaned up the wiring a bit and also using a pigtronix Flame thrower coil instead of the stock job. Started right up and I could rev the **** out of it. Took her for a rip and it was responsive. Felt strong. I cant count out the module dying in heat thing yet.

BlueKitsune

I've done this before on a jeep engine. But not a Z, tho your wiring looks wrong. W and G should both be going to the distributor, the only ground is the case screw hole. B and C are wired correctly.

Also if your signal wires are to close to any spark plug wires it tends to make it freak out.

Skully

Not on a turbo dizzy, which what I assume he is using since 280zx turbo swap?? Could be wrong tho, can't "assume" things. As long as he has the optical distributor then this is right wiring. This is why Rogerz is always pounding the "post car info" into newer guys

BlueKitsune

Woops! My bad lol

FricFrac

Dunno since a lot of the stuff works across all platforms...