DJZ's 280ZX

[DJZ]

Took it outside today for the first time in approx 10 months. Spent most of the rest of the day trying to get it to idle and run a bit better. Bonnet, guards and front kit are back on so the car is 100% back together.

Figured out that just like the L series when I had the throttle bodies on that that it has low and very erratic vacuum. Originally it was jumping very erratically between 0 and 5InHg, I connected up both ends of the vacuum log and took the PCV valve out and put a fitting in there and tee'd them all together and managed to get it reading between 0 and 10. Engine revs a lot better now and I had it just touching on the rev limited when set at 4000rpm.

I'll bring in the vacuum log that I was using on the L28 tomorrow and hook that up. The throttle bodies on the RB don't have individual fittings so I'll have to figure out a way of hooking everything up. Might talk to NZEfi as well and see if they normally have problems with RB26s and vacuum signals.

[DJZ]

Gearbox out and back in today to try and fix an oil leak, thought it was the rear main seal, looks like it was actually leaking out of the bolts that hold the sump onto the rear main seal holder, two of them needed to be shorter than the rest which I didn't realise, hopefully it's all good now. Also removed the filler bung from the gearbox which I forgot to do before I put it in, when I tried to get it out with the box in the car it was impossible. We ended up rooting it so I'll have to have a dig around at home and see if I can find a spare.

Gavin got the new bands for my wheels on Friday so hopefully I'll get them back before this coming Friday.

I got some aluminium pipe to make a reasonable size vacuum canister out of, should have that finished tomorrow. This will make the vacuum signal more stable.

Bought a fuel pressure gauge to see what was going on with the adjustable regulator, it was turned up about .5 bar higher than factory so I wound it back down.

Have been thinking about getting adjustable cam gears and a turbo beanie before it goes on the dyno but I don't think I'll have time to put the cam gears on, I've got quite a list of things I need to finish off before Saturday.

Mate drilled the downpipe and welded on O2 sensor bung on for me while I was mucking around with the gearbox.

Outside for a little bit while we swapped the cars around.

[DJZ]

So after a very late night last night and an early morning today the car is down at NZEFI waiting to be tuned on Monday.

I managed to get the gauges in last night, they look pretty good. Got most of the interior back in as well apart from the passengers seat and trim.

Hopefully everything works out alright, after making a vacuum canister I still wasn't able to get a decent vacuum signal, it might get better during tuning when it actually starts running correctly.

Wheels are finished and should be on the way back now, I bought some new bolts from the States so I'll have to wait for them to turn up before I can put them back together.

[DJZ]

Well, an interesting day today. Got the call at about 10:30am that something wasn't right with the car, when I dropped it off it wasn't running on 6 and I thought it'd probably just fouled up the plugs again. They compression tested it and it had no compression on number 4.

Phil took the rocker covers off and found that the exhaust cam was broken in half pretty much in the middle, this probably happened when I put the head back together, I followed the instructions in the manual for reassembling it but might have just tweaked it slightly. So by the sounds of it the motor has never actually been running on 6, the exhaust valves on 5 & 6 have been closed the whole time and the valves on number 4 have been very slightly open. This explains a lot as to why I could never quite get it sounding right, strange smoke coming out of the spare ports on the inlet plenum etc etc. I did think about compression testing it after I got it running but I haven't got a tester and never got around to borrowing one.

I still had the original cams out of the motor so I took the exhaust one down, Phil put it in the motor and got it going again, luckily the valves on number 4 weren't bent. So it goes again but the clutch is slipping even on low boost and there is an exhaust leak somewhere, I'll see if Phil knows where it's coming from tomorrow.

The motor has been run in on the dyno and it's been tuned on wastegate pressure, I'll find out how much power it was actually making when I pick it up tomorrow. I heard it winding up when I was talking to Walter on the phone and it sounded pretty good! Does anybody have an RB twin or triple plate push clutch they want to get rid of?

[DJZ]

Picked the car up today, told it had 3 problems that needed to be sorted out before tuning it again:

1 - The clutch is slipping

2 - There is at least one exhaust leak, maybe more

3 - The boost is creeping, wastegate spring pressure was 8psi and it was creeping up to around 14psi at 8000rpm.

The clutch I was expecting to slip sooner or later, turns out it was sooner. The exhaust did sound like it was leaking from somewhere but I couldn't pin point it, it may be the v band on the back of the turbo, it was a pain to get it sealing up but I thought I'd got it but we did knock the exhaust a bit trying to get the car on the trailer. The boost creeping is a bit of a pain, I'll have to take the manifold off again and look at running some bigger pipe to the wastegate.

But, the car made 361rwhp @ 14psi as it was and to be honest it sounds really really awesome. I drove it home (with no brake booster) as I live like 2 streets over from NZEFI, gave it a little squirt and it sounds amazing. I've achieved my main goal which was making more power than the L28 did hah.

[DJZ]

Gauge install, they aren't quite straight I know, I'll straighten them up once I've got them set up fully as I still need to put the clear plastic part in front of the gauges and the front part of the surround.

Sorry about how crumpled it is, I think one of the cats was sitting on it in my car! I like how the power is still going up at 8000rpm bit of a speed difference compared to the old motor, looking at the old dyno charts it was only doing 160Km/h at the red line in 4th with the L28 & 3.7:1 diff, looks like it's doing 232Km/h now! I'll have to dig out the last dyno chart that I had done with the L28 & 3.9:1 diff.

[DJZ]

This should really be here:

[DJZ]

Well shit. Don't know what happened but the wheels have ended up wider than I wanted, bead seat to bead seat they measure 274mm which is 10.8", this means they sit well outside the guards.

With the centres mounted on the outside of the wheel not the inside where I wanted them they aren't as bad and could probably work, these is not a lot of clearance between the wheel and control arm but there is clearance.

This is the new wheel compared to my current wheel with 255/40 tyre.

[ProZac]

I'll just leave these here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GhnSvDQVio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ALk5nymh8

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

He even let me drive it. It's quite fast.

[DJZ]

Took the turbo and manifold off today to have a look at the exhaust leaks and see what I can do about the wastegate, I think I'm going to have to find another manifold.

1. The holes for the pipes for the wastegate in the collector haven't been matched to the size of the pipes, there is a huge lip but I don't think I can get the die grinder in down through the turbo flange, I'd have to cut the pipes off, grind them out then weld them back on.

2. There is a leak coming from the collector, part of it hasn't been welded and there's pretty much no way to get the tig torch anywhere near it.

3. The manifold was leaking out of number 1 & 6, I knew it would be like this as the manifold was a bit bananaered, it would probably come right if it was surfaced but I'd end up with the flange being thicker in the middle than at the ends.

I'm keeping my eyes out for a decent manifold, may have to have a go at fixing this one to keep the car running then swap it out once I find a goody.

[DJZ]

Haven't managed to find a new manifold yet so I've decided to try and fix the existing one. I chopped the wastegate pipes off around 20mm from the collector and I bought a new carbide burr and we got a new giant compressor at work which made the job a whole lot easier. I ground the lips off from both pipes, the overhang would have been made 6 - 8mm, the holes would have been maybe 2/3s on one side and 1/2 the size they should have been on the other. I put a bit of weld in there to try and smooth out a nasty lip from where everything was welded together.

I got a piece of 2" staino pipe (thanks Jabo) to redo the wastegate pipe with, I've chopped the wastegate pipes off around where the red line is and I've squashed the 2" pipe up to match, I'm going to need to put a little bend in it towards the block so the wastegate clears everything, I'll probably have to "lobster back" it as the pipe is to short to bend.

The main leak was coming from where the arrow is but on the other side of the flange (the block side), I managed to get the tig torch in through the turbo flange and I've put a bit of weld in there, I can't see light through it like I could before so I'm pretty sure its good. Now I just need to get the head flange skimmed and then I can jam it back on.

Haven't really done much else to this thing so far, the bolts for my wheels are still sitting in Germany for some reason, they left the factory on the 6th so they've been sitting there for 20 days. I'll have to ring DHL up next week and see what the deal is. I'm going to get the 235s and 255s put on them and then jam them on the car to see what they look like.

[DJZ]

Wheel bolts still haven't arrived, looks like they still haven't left Germany. The company I bought them off started an investigation with DHL but I haven't heard anything since.

I spend some time the other day undersealing the RHS wheel arch, I've been holding off for a while but it's done now. I put some slots in the exhaust manifold not quite all the way through between the runners for 2 & 3 and 4 & 5 to try and get it to sit flat on the head, I couldn't find the feeler gauges at work but I could still fit a piece of paper folded in half under each end so it didn't really help. I really wanted to get it going again but I'll have to wait till next week then try and get it skimmed flat.

The lobster back wastegate pipe turned out alright, my tig welding is getting better but is nowhere near perfect, learnt some skills from Zac on how to do it and borrowed his drop saw which made things heaps easier. I spent some time cleaning up where the runners are welded onto the head flange and also where they merge at the turbo flange. The wastegate position is much better than it was before and the wastegate pipe can now pretty much follow the downpipe rather than being at right angles to it.

Measured up the S14 hubs and bought some hubcentric rings, not too sure whether they are going to work with the wheel spacers that I've got but I can either get the rings or spacers modified. Not really sure what to do on the back as I don't think the wheel actually locates on anything as the hub barely sticks through the rotor. I need to pull a back wheel off and have another look.

Other than that I've barely touched the car in 2 weeks. One other thing I did was buy some more braided line and a couple of 45 degree fittings to replace one of the turbo water lines, it was never really right and was actually touching on the downpipe - even though it had head protecting stuff around it it is still slightly burnt so time to fix that.

[DJZ]

Yay, my wheel bolts have finally made it into the country, it's only taken 33 days. I finished putting one of the front wheels back together today, will do the other one tomorrow. Hopefully the bolts will actually get delivered this week then I can get the tyres fitted and jam all 4 wheels on.

Gave two of my wheel spacers to the guys next door to work to get machined so the hubcentric spacers will work with them. Sent the exhaust manifold over to MPL Automotive to get machined flat, should get that back this week as well.

[DJZ]

Got the manifold back and on the car today, need to take the computer & battery back out of the Skyline, top up the oil after I changed it the other day, fill it with water and it should be good to go.

[DJZ]

New shoes, thanks Chris @ Firestone Papanui for pimping my ride. The rear tyres are too stretched so I'll have to look at getting some 275s pretty soon. One of the front tyres is pretty average but my Toyos are too narrow to go on the 9s.

This first photo is just for you Damien.

[DJZ]

New rear tyres yesterday, thanks again to Chris @ Firestone. Ended up with some 275/40/17 Nitto NT555s, they are a pretty sick looking tyre and should do the job nicely. Might have to change the front ones at some stage, looks like there is a 235/45/17 available in the NT555 which would suit well, very similar rolling diameter and correct width for the rims.

Spent Sunday doing little jobs, mounted the power steering cooler, put the correct bolts in for the front bumper mounts, took the gauge cluster out again as I thought I'd rotate the speedo slightly and ended up pushing it into the dash - I roughed up the aluminium, reglued it and left it to set for ages as I rushed it last time seems to be better.

Didn't get up to much today, gave the car a quick wash will probably do it again on Saturday.

Got some new long wheel studs for the rear now I just have to tackle the fun job of changing them in place, got a really bright red LED & resistor to connect up to my oil pressure switch. Measured the 4 corners of the car and the left hand side is slightly higher than the right for some reason, I tried to raise the right hand rear but I think I need to take it for a drive to settle in before I can be sure it's changed enough.

Dudes next door finished up my wheel spacers for the front the other day, they look pretty good. I pressed all the 12x1.25 studs out of my non legal spacers and have started fitting them to the new ones.

[DJZ]

New wheel studs, bit on the long side but should stop my wheels falling off. Had to grind just a tiny bit off the bottom of the control arm to fit the studs past.

New tyres:

[DJZ]

Got a wastegate pipe made up today, couldn't be assed doing it myself so took it down to Uniweld, and it looks beautiful - 2" from the wastegate back to the exhaust in nice gentle bends. I was in the process of looking for a cat converter as I thought I was going to have to get one put on as well, had a quick look at the LVVTA website and the rules changed in December and now I don't have to! Will double check with the Hoff tomorrow.

Have done a little bit more work on things, tidied up some wiring for the fuel pump, had a play with my blow off valve, I think I'm just going to buy a proper Tial one with the correct spring as I changed from the tiny hose I was using before to some 5/16" fuel line and it's still not going off, too much spring pressure I think.

Need to mount my battery properly before the track day and raise the front suspension up slightly. Car is booked in for a wheel alignment on Saturday, it'll be interesting to see how far my rough eyelignment is out.

[DJZ]

Got the wheel alignment done yesterday, thanks again to Chris. I raised the front up the night before, the sides were uneven but once I'd evened them out it was too high so I lowered it again to about half way between.

I've booked it in for cert on the 13th and I've taken the week before off to get the car ready for cert and the track day on the 9th.

Chopped the spring for the bov down by 2.5 coils, it's very slightly open at idle so I might have to try shimming it, I took it for a quick test drive and it's actually going off now.

I wasn't really feeling it today so I mucked around with the battery mount, not too sure what I'm going to do there. Might have to chop off the spare wheel mount that's in the tyre well to get enough room to do something. I have the old battery tray that I used to have in the front somewhere, might have to weld that in as the bottom of the tyre well isn't flat and the battery doesn't have a good place to sit.

Forgot to take my rust killer, bog and sand paper with me so I didn't do anything to the drivers door like I'd planned.

Had a look at the driveshaft hoop as well, shouldn't be too hard but I'm going to have to pull all the seats and carpet etc out again to do it so that can wait till next weekend.

[DJZ]

Got some Redline friction modifier and jammed some of that in the diff today, thanks Brock! Haven't driven it yet, I'll take it for a spin tomorrow. Played around with the idle and the boost control as well so the car doesn't start at 2000rpm and might run more than 6psi now.

Started making an aluminium battery tray, welded up most of it after work. Need to add a couple of tabs and chop out the spare tyre mount then test fit it and see where it's going to live.