DJ's 280ZX

Restores, Revamps and Repairs
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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Fri Nov 03, 2017 7:49 pm

Got it started on Monday after a bit of dicking around, I wired the TPS backwards but it also looks like the new Aliexpress plug that I got isn't making a good connection so I'll have to fix that. Started fine with a bit of throttle and cleared up after a few seconds, looked to be running pretty rich but I didn't bring the vacuum manifold and with big cams the MAP sensor reading is probably way off.

Since then I've mucked around with this a bit, cut up the throttle cable out of the parts Laurel and connected it up to the dyno throttle control thing, then ran it for about half an hour the other night and warmed it up fully. Have put an oil pressure sensor in line with the turbo oil feed, just have to wire it up.

Put the wide band on it as well, looks to be running at about 0.80 lambda at idle, so quite rich. Also started on the new vacuum chamber as well, made the ends 4mm thick so I can tap them rather than having to weld on tubes like I did with the last one.
Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Tue Nov 07, 2017 9:10 pm

Have mucked around with this a bit, cut up the throttle cable out of the parts Laurel and connected it up to the dyno throttle control thing, then ran it for about half an hour the other night and warmed it up fully.

Put the wide band on it as well, looks to be running at about 0.80 lambda at idle, so quite rich. Also started on the new vacuum chamber as well, made the ends 4mm thick so I can tap them rather than having to weld on tubes like I did with the last one.

Wired up the oil pressure sensor last night and ran it again, it's still running pretty rich so it fouled a plug while I was trying to start it. It looks like it's running about 50psi of oil pressure at the inlet to the turbo at idle which is still a bit higher than Garrett recommends for the ball bearing turbos, once we start to rev it I'll keep an eye on it and see if it increases much, if it does I might have to make another restrictor.

Changed the TPS plugs to DTM connectors while I had the crimping stuff out.

Noticed on Monday that the bosses new McLaren has the same kind of small push button bonnet catches on it's "hood", if they're good enough for them they're good enough for me so I'll fit those over the next couple of weekends.
Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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nzeder
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Post by nzeder » Wed Nov 08, 2017 8:02 pm

I used 2 of the mini quik-latches on the 73 260z full caged car that I sold a few years back - work really well - where I had them on the bonnet on the S30z it was triple layer skin in the corners of the bonnet - mission to drill with the hole saw (undersize then finished with a round file - some paint then bolt them up.

I used rubber grommet on the pin so there was bit of movement/flex in the pin worked out great. I will use them again.

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djz
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Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Sat Nov 18, 2017 4:49 pm

nzeder wrote:I used 2 of the mini quik-latches on the 73 260z full caged car that I sold a few years back - work really well - where I had them on the bonnet on the S30z it was triple layer skin in the corners of the bonnet - mission to drill with the hole saw (undersize then finished with a round file - some paint then bolt them up.

I used rubber grommet on the pin so there was bit of movement/flex in the pin worked out great. I will use them again.
Yeah, I'm a little bit worried as they're the smallest ones and it's a fibreglass bonnet, they should be okay though, I don't think the reverse opening bonnet would put too much upwards force on them.


Cleaned up the driveway enough to get the car out of the garage which I'll do later today so I can give it a bit of a clean and line up the bonnet properly.

Haven't done too much more to the engine, welded up a new vacuum chamber after work one night, haven't fitted it the engine yet as I'm not sure where my brass fittings have gone. I made it pretty simple with 1/4" NPT threads in either end and that's it for the moment, it's really just to see if it helps with the MAP signal.

The boss is away again from Thursday so fingers crossed next weekend I'll get it tuned.

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Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Sat Nov 25, 2017 9:12 pm

Plumbed up the intercooler, totally legit setup. Also redid the exhaust/wastegate piping.

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Zac doing some tuning.

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Managed to turn this stainless steel tubing blue/purple.

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Killed my O2 sensor somehow, possibly from heat, luckily Zac had a spare one in his car so I whipped up this copper heat shield.

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Things were getting very hot.

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We got the engine tuned up to 4500rpm before calling it quits, Zac did all the work but this was the first time the dyno had been used in anger and we were discovering some issues, the whole exhaust system was getting extremely hot and we were worried about setting the wall on fire, also with being so close to the engine it was very difficult to hear any knock.

We may do some ramp runs next week but at the redline at 4500rpm on wastegate pressure (around 8psi) it was making 200hp - I don't know if the dyno has been calibrated and I didn't have any weights to do it so that figure may be way off. When tuned at NZEFI it was making around 160rwhp at 4500rpm so it's probably pretty close.
Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Sat Dec 02, 2017 8:43 pm

The boss came back early so no more progress on the engine - I'm trying to wrangle being able to be at work while he's not there after the 15th, I'll take the car up, finish the engine and put it back in and make a new down pipe and do a couple of other jobs.

I rolled the car out of the garage again today so I could move the V8 so that it's not in the way anymore. The fibreglass bonnet hits on the factory latch so I took that out, also ground down the front bumper a little bit so that it doesn't catch on the bonnet anymore. Also removed one of the bonnet springs which is just about perfect tension on the bonnet.

Haven't worked on lining it up yet, it actually hits on the factory stoppers near the windscreen, they're adjustable but I think that's where I'll put the latches so I haven't touched them yet.

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Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Thu Dec 14, 2017 9:43 pm

Made a mounting block for the AAC valve tonight, just need to face off the extra material and profile the back to match the tube that I'm using for the vacuum chamber. All going to plan I'm going to take the car up to work next week and put the motor back in it up there.

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Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
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Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:05 am

Machined the curve into the back of the idle control flange, haven't done anything more with it yet though.

Did a little bit more tuning yesterday, saw 300hp on the dyno which I think is pretty good for wastegate pressure and no tuning of the timing yet. I was working the dyno by myself which was quite interesting, doing the "sweep" ramp runs doesn't quite work like I thought it would but everything seemed to be working okay, only gave up because I emptied the water tank and didn't have it refilling.

Will be putting a fuel pressure sensor in before I run it again, I've been though 40L of 98 so far and don't really get a warning when it's running low. I was originally planning to put one on the fuel rail as the aftermarket ones I've got have -6 fittings but I didn't get the correct o rings for the injectors but I think I'll just put it in front of the dyno fuel filter as that's -6 as well.
Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Wed Dec 27, 2017 9:52 pm

Have been mucking around with the tune on this a bit more, got it pretty much sorted on wastegate pressure so I've started to add a bit of boost. Highest HP I saw on ~8 psi was 360ish. Now that I'm adding boost it keeps either blowing the exhaust pipe off the downpipe or blowing intercooler pipes off, I've welded two bits together to get rid of one silicone joiner and bead rolled them and now it's blowing off the other side. Giving up for the night and will look at it again tomorrow maybe.

I made a little knock amplifier which seems to be working okay.
Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Sat Dec 30, 2017 11:31 am

Running out of time so I did a little bit more tuning yesterday then pulled the motor off the dyno. I spent a couple of hours trying to fix up the exhaust piping but it was still either blowing off the downpipe or blowing off where it attached to the pipe going through the wall so gave up, on the last run that I did it looked like the peak was 441hp, whatever than means on that particular dyno, that was on 15psi and 5 degrees less timing across the board than the last tune.

I'd say it's probably pretty close power wise to where it was before which is okay, I'll tidy it up a bit more on the road and add a little bit more boost then at some stage get NZEFI to check it over.
Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Sat Dec 30, 2017 2:52 pm

Cleaned up the engine bay a little bit, there's still more to do before the engine goes back in.

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Also definitely going to have to do some heat shielding on the inside of the bonnet.

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Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:15 pm

Got it 95% back together yesterday, still need to finish the exhaust and wastegate piping and put the bonnet back on and get it to fit properly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J38_6wf1jM
Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Thu Jan 04, 2018 8:39 pm

Some photos from the last couple of days.

In the big shed at work.

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New flywheel on, this was the slightly lighter Japanese one.

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Clutch back on - it actually feels slightly better now than it did on the old flywheel, not sure why.

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Used the water jet cutter to cut out the bits to make the left hand side engine mount. I made the right hand one ages ago.

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Engine back in the bay.

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Up on the hoist to put the cooling system back together.

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Outside after the first test drive.

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Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

User avatar
djz
Posts: 849
Location: Christchurch

Post by djz » Fri Jan 05, 2018 11:08 pm

Spent heaps of today sorting out the exhaust, I ran out of time to look at redoing some of it in stainless so will look at it next time. It took a lot longer than I thought it was going to but it's sorted for now.

Put the bonnet back on and found out it was hitting on the radiator outlet so ground out part of the bonnnet, then found it was hitting on the radiator mount bolts and also the oil cooler mounts so changed the bolts to button head screws and redrilled the oil cooler to lay it back a bit and cut off the front of the original mounts.

Mounted the bonnet pins on both sides and with Zac and James' help we marked and drilled the bonnet for the clips. I don't have a way of holding them to the bonnet yet, but they work and they look pretty good. I think I'm going to have to add a stopper in the middle to stop it bouncing/moving.

So after all that I drove it an hour and a half home with James riding shotgun, it was a slightly dodgy drive with no boosted brakes and no power steering, it went pretty well apart from a new leak from the windscreen right on to the steering wheel and a few odd noises from the right rear which need a bit more investigation. Need to sort out a couple of bits and pieces then it'll be ready for a warrant.
Nissan 280ZX 2 seater RB26 powered.

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nzeder
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Post by nzeder » Sat Jan 06, 2018 9:27 am

Looking good DJ. You know me I have always had a soft spot for the 280zx 2 seaters. I once owned a black one too.
76 RS30 260z
70 Mini Cooper S (replica)
Previous
73 RS30 260z track
70 HS30-00016 240z
72 HS30 240z 2.8 track
71 HS30 240z 3.2 road/track
79 HS130 280zx
82 HS130 280zx T top
2x 73 KP710 160JSSS
74 KB210 120Y Coupe
71 510 1600 Deluxe

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