NA to TT Swap : My Quest For Boost : Build Log

[frapjap]

Wow! Crazy progress. Good work man!

Sounds like you need a few pals to help you out with the transmission.

[itsa300zx]

I have done this a few times, my main issues were, battery cable in the way or the engine needs to be tilted backwards.

[abazz009]

im glad that the transmission was equally as frustrating and it wasnt just my stupidity lol.... anyways i went at it again today (armed with the new knowledge that everyone hates and has trouble with this) and after about 2 hours i was just about to give up...... then i give it one last pull and BAM the Z32 gods shine down on me...sorta....! it goes in farther then it has ever been so at first im excited then about 4 hours later i finally have the damn thing in.... i did end up using a jack and some wood to tilt the engine back not sure if that helped but its in now! and im pretty satisfied, thanks for the tips and the encouragement

20170707_124211 by sounderror, on Flickr

[itsa300zx]

glad you got it, for me tilting the engine back always helped. I was never able to do it without tilting back, especially with new engine mounts. It allows more room in the trans tunnel, so you can lift the trans higher.

[abazz009]

Ok some more questions, firstly does this plug/ring attaches to the back of the starter?

20170708_122237 by sounderror, on Flickr

Secondly does this have a wire that connects to it because i dont have any extra spades hanging around

20170708_122253 by sounderror, on Flickr

thirdly i have these 2 Eyelets on the Alternator / Transmission Harness , i originally had them grounded to the car body... which i was questioning when i did it but moved on and now revisiting , i do believe one of them attaches to the alternator (since i have no ground connected to that) but what about the other one?? and is there a good way to tell the difference, one has a much fatter wire then the other..... but this is the harness i got with the TT engine, not the original one on my car, one of these Eyelets was actually cut off and i cut one of my other harness to repair it.

20170708_123144 by sounderror, on Flickr

thanks in advance!

[itsa300zx]

1st pic: yes it bolts to one of the bolts behind the starter.

2nd pic: should be a spade connector from the alt harness.

3rd pic: one them is grounded to the alt body at the back, sorry not sure which one.

[abazz009]

thank you itsa300zx! thats hooked up now

now its just the 2 connections for the alternator, one is a ground the other connects to the battery. still no idea which is which, i examined my old harness as i didnt Re-wrap it like the "new" one im using.

one wire is just a thick black wire and that is wrapped and could only hit the Top post which is the "BAT" the other wire is actually 2 white wires going to one eyelet which on the original harness has a longer reach and would make sense to be able to get to the lower post which is the ground. this old forum post i found

300zx-alternator-wiring-diagram-t540668.html

Says that the thin wire is the ground and the thick is the Positive or "BAT". now it also says the thin goes to the top right and thick to the bottom.. which when looking at my alternator from underneath the car they dont really match up to his description my "BAT" is on the top left. then if i jump back to my old harness my single black wire single eyelet would connect to that. then my thick double white single eyelet wire would connect to the ground?

so as you can tell im confused and really dont want to connect these backwards as it will probably end in me having to buy a new alternator, and since this one is brand new and only has less then 100miles. heres some pictures first of my alternator from underneath the car.

20170709_101455 by sounderror, on Flickr

then of my old harness showing the single black which is wrapped closest to the connector , then you can see the one i cut off to repair my "New" harness. which is that double white wire to one eyelet

20170709_103126 by sounderror, on Flickr

also found this, it says that the double wire is my Positive, and my single wire is ground still am worried

http://www.twinturbo.net/nissan/300zx/f ... owing.html

[Zinprogress]

Hey i just pulled my motor and figured i might be able to shed a little light on your issues.

first apparently there are different kinds of starters because as you can see here mine definitely doesnt have a spade


as far as the alternator goes this was grounded to the 8mm bolt furthest left in your alternator picture. Its a single smaller gauge wire


This wire was a larger gauge wire with white insulation and it goes on the lug right above where it says bat. Typically on most alternator setups the larger wire is the battery wire.


Hope this helps!

[abazz009]

hey zinprogress! thanks for that! odd that there is different types of starters though it makes since to not have the spade and just the wire or vice versa. that defiantly clears it up for me and when i get my new fusable link i will hook it up. and hopefully i didnt do any damage to anything else

[abazz009]

Well, i have been working on the car, not much for pictures its been pretty boring stuff, such as i installed my walbro fuel pump, did the FPCU bypass/delete, here my custom harness for that.
20170809_155612 by sounderror, on Flickr

got some new guages,well only one is pictured but i also got a boost gauge, they are glowshift, so they arent to impressive, those defi ones i had gotten for free didnt work.
20170811_114536 by sounderror, on Flickr

Here is my middle panel pretty much ready to go into the car, i will be putting a radio in the bottom DIN, but my boost and redundant temperature gauge with be in the top din
20170817_161453 by sounderror, on Flickr
iv just added fluids and kept the battery on float charge, then attempted to start it, but it never fired, so i checked my ECU code and it was throwing an 11 which points to the CAS. i cleaned the connector but noticed as i was messing the the wire that my fuel pump would come on, figured there was a short in the wires there so i took my new CAS connector soldered that in place and BAM! car at least fired up.

now the issue is i cant get the car to stay on by itself i have to pump the gas peddle constantly. what i have done was set my TPS so thats at .45V also my fuel pressure is set to 43.5psi like suggested. though at idle it seems to hover around the 40psi mark. i really dont know what else to do there doesnt seem to be any oil pressure but it has went up to the first mark on occasion though it didnt in the video i took (so im guessing the gauge is working), i did mess up since the oil cooler doesnt have any oil in it and not sure when the Z will dump it in there, between every start i checked my oil level it hasnt dropped yet, but the oil cooler does seem a bit warm. well anyways heres a video of what its sounding like keep in mind i have no exhaust hooked up, so its straight out the dump pipes. i have gotten some smoke but that was more on the first start/rev's i feel like every time i get it started it just sounds worse and worse. a belt is squealing when i rev im hoping its not the timing belt but it wouldn't surprise me if i somehow didnt do it right (before the swap my AC belt would always squeal so im hoping that still my issue, for-whatever reason that belt always gives me trouble) . anyways any tips/suggestions on what i should do to get this car idling on its own would be much appreciated. just click that or follow the link

20170823_163914 by sounderror, on Flickr

[Zinprogress]

I would verify oil pressure and flow before you proceed any farther. I never trust a factory gauge for an accurate oil pressure reading but the fact that you have none in the oil cooler is pretty concerning. if you disconnected the coils and just cranked the motor over it would eventually after a about four seconds, make oil pressure and would fill that cooler pretty fast. Ive seen cars make as much as 40psi on a test gauge just cranking alone.

A timing belt wouldn't squeak unless maybe an idler was seized but you would know if that was the case pretty quick, a motor deprived of oil however can squeak. As for your idling issue there are a few things that come to mind. Vacuum leak, mass airflow sensor and timing belt being off (i would suggest iac or something related but on my black donor car the wiring was rotted off and the car would still idle just not properly when cold). Not sure how mass airflow dependent these cars are but usually on a car that has a big enough vac leak to prevent idle you can unplug the mass airflow and they will idle up or at the very least change in a positive direction.

Well anyways before you get too crazy trying to diagnose that idle you should above all else verify oil pressure.

[abazz009]

hey zinprogress thanks for getting back to me. unfortunately i don't have a oil pressure gauge so i will have to order one of those to get a number on what PSI the engine is generating. i did mess around with it today i found i was a little low on oil (less then half a quart) after that as soon as it fired up my gauge in the cluster went as high as 60psi but hovered at the 50 reading. but still no idle on its own again i had to pump the gas pedal to keep it alive, also my squealing belt was my alternator belt so thats been solved lol. also thank you for verifying that the only reason a timing belt would squeal (i've been paranoid of the timing since i have messed up that in the past on another car, it haunts me).

i went over the intercooler piping made sure all my clamps where tight, went over all my vacuum hoses everything seems to be in place so there is no obvious vacuum leak, except for at my boost solenoid (its an aftermarket apexi one) i left the port labeled "NC" vented to atmosphere ( which i'm under the impression that's what its supposed to be)

now i have 2 MAF's one playing as a dummy, so i switched those around still no improvement, then i just unplugged it all together,the car fires right up jumps to a pretty high RPM 4k-ish then immediately drops down and dies, the oil pressure gauge also jumps up to 60psi then goes down in the same way as the car dies. one thing when i decided to keep the car alive by pressing on the gas the car sounded/felt/responded the best and sounded the healthiest though i did have to hold it over 2k to keep it from sputtering out.

I didn't mess around with unplugging the IAC but that was a part i had thoroughly cleaned to solve an idle problem back when the car had the N/A engine in it. it also has a brand new connector soldered on.

when you say the timing belt off you mean its possible it was off by like a tooth ? i did follow the guides to a "T" my main concern was the auto tensioner which was in spec to what it was supposed to be. so im guessing my next step is checking to see if my timing belt is still right. which i'm assuming cant be done without taking the pretty much the entire front end back off (yay).so i suppose that will be my next task unless there are any other ideas (which i really hope there is lol..)

[Zinprogress]

Glad to hear you got oil pressure. I unplugged my coils today and cranked the motor over before doing the first start after my swap and after about four seconds of cranking i got a little over 30psi. My guess is something with your oil pressure sending unit made it take a little while to register. Idling issues are easy to fix but oil pressure issues usually aren't.

I also tested unplugging my mass airflow sensor to run my motor without the throttle body charge pipes hooked up and it worked just as I described earlier. Wouldnt really idle but as soon as I unplugged the maf it idled a little over 600rpm fairly smooth. You have a selin translator right? Have you tried unplugging it altogether?

As for the timing being off causing your idle issue, the timing belt is pretty hard to mess up with the idiot marks directly on the belt but its not unheard of (Ive totally done it on an ae z31 i used to own lol). If timing was off on one of the cams it would cause a rough idle and a lethargic rev but should still idle. If the timing was off on the crank, that would have a larger impact but should still kind of idle without help. My guess is that you either have a vacuum leak or an air metering issue, id start with unplugging the maf translator altogether. If that makes it idle better you could have a bad translator which you could test by putting on your na y-pipe intake and single maf and if that changes things but doesnt fix it then id move onto a vac leak.

[abazz009]

i actually dont have a selin ( i know thats the correct way to do dual intake) im just using a "doolz" with the tune. ok so after scouring the web i did come across a forum post with the same type of car wont idle problem and someone suggested replacing the Coolant temperature sensor as it can cause a bunch of problems. so i took the one off my NA engine (im guessing its newer since its actually an aftermarket one not OEM). during the same time i also put on my last MAF and cone filter which i was using on my N/A. one last thing i did was turn my idle screw counterclockwise for awhile. start the car and i actually get idle for about 2 seconds which was long enough for me to jump out of the car and keep it alive while messing with the idle screw which did nothing.

so after that i decide to try what you suggested and i removed my doolz and put back on my single filter, start the car and BAM i have idle (just under 1k). ( i took video of this see below) now the issue here is when i rev right after letting go the car almost dies it doesnt but wants to, i let the car idle for awhile then rev'ed some more the problem did get a bit better but its still there.
Click this picture it takes you to the video
20170825_101741 by sounderror, on Flickr

now when i ordered my tune from CZP i selected Doolz on their list, i plan on getting in contact with them because if the car is tuned to be seeing more air then its actually getting then that could be my "why it wants to die on rev issue" so since the car wont idle with the doolz in place im assuming its wrong, now i have no issue with just running the single filter being safer and more reliable ect (though it sure doesnt look as cool as the dual) either way hopefully CZP can help me out. im happy that i at least have an idle now

ok quick edit i chatted with nick at CZP he is more concerned about my injectors (which he isnt the only one) now i do wish i could just replace those in the next few weeks but replacing those is more like a year away. he urged me to look into flow testing which i will and may do if its not to expensive. but if it is i guess shipping my chip back for a reflash to edit it to a single intake is the next option. i do plan on checking my timing and setting it to 15°BTDC then setting my idle and what not. see how much doing that helps.

[Unglued13]

Any update on this? I've been following because I'm thinking of going down this route myself. Really want a 2+2 TT and don't want right hand drive.

Hopefully you were able to get it on the road in the last few months.

[abazz009]

hey unglued13!, yes and no i have been holding off on updating because i wasnt sure what i had been doing was all that much but here it goes lol...

made an order since i had to remove the plenum (more on that later) so firstly i wanted to upgrade all my fuel clamps under the hood to the recommended spring type (which in my case was 10), i also ordered a new fuel tank gasket was noticing a slight gas smell, which actually isnt the gasket maybe i will touch on that later

20171114_085757 by sounderror, on Flickr


ok so i didnt replace thise small peice of hose last time i had this apart... i didnt actually have the fuel line at that time and i thought the other peice felt rather new.... stupid, but now its new and all good lol... one note on the spring type fuel clamps is they take about an hour to really tighten down, when i had first put them on i could easily pull and move the hose around... after an hour i couldnt.. noone mentions that
20171114_102740 by sounderror, on Flickr

went ahead and started to solder in what i was missing as far as new conncectors on the harness. so temp sensor the Fast idle one,and the MAF one...
20171114_123201 by sounderror, on Flickr

Also went ahead on soldered on these new style injector connectors that i had literally boughten maybe a week after buying the car to begin with, i had planned on replacing those connectors then but i didnt realize that the car had old style so these just sat.. even attempted to sell them on CL for $10 with no takers.. which is lucky because i did purcahse new injectors and would of had to rebuy them (more on the injectors i bought later)
20171114_111729 by sounderror, on Flickr

about a week later i ordered new coil pack connectors since they where falling apart and iv replaced all the other ones seemed stupid to skip these..
20171121_095609 by sounderror, on Flickr

out with the old
20171121_114854 by sounderror, on Flickr


Would of loved to switch to a 1 piece drive shaft but funds arent there... so i just replaced my carrier bearing and will worry about that at a later date.. i do know some people prefer to 2-piece will see how it lasts.... its under a bit more pressure now as a TT then it was at a NA so we will se how long it lasts
20171118_094536 by sounderror, on Flickr

So while trying to actually decide how the hell i was gonna get piping to my catch can i noticed this very much un-capped vacuum leak will be ordering a silicon plug for it though not 100% on what size i need. it does make me wonder if this had something to do with my earlier issue of it not being able to idle maybe who knows....
20171121_120533 by sounderror, on Flickr

Recieved this package today its my Megan test pipes... i do live in an emmisions county.. so i will be adding some high flow Cat's to these. and making an attempt at selling those Downpipes as i dont need them but based on all the parts iv been trying to sell i dont imagine i will get anywhere with that..

20171122_125516 by sounderror, on Flickr

well thats my update for now, like i said i do have new injectors. but i forgot to get new O-rings for the adpater kit so im waiting on that and my Re-tune on the Epprom. at which point i will share which injectors i actually got and the other small things iv done with the plenum.i keep saying i want this car running in some type of time frame.. but i do actually think there is the light at the end of the tunnel.. hopefully in a week or 2 haha yea... till next time!

[Ace2cool]

Dibs on the downpipes! Are they stock 4 bolt? Cause if so, I've got a need for em!

Lookign like it's coming together! Also that vacuum leak will cause a lot of issues.

[DCaff300ZX]

Dibs on the downpipes! Are they stock 4 bolt?

The flange I can see looks just like mine did, 4 bolt...looks like maybe you both are really happy then!

[abazz009]

hey ace2cool, yep they are stock 4 bolt, i dont really have any idea on a price so feel free to throw one + shipping out there. not sure if a flat rate box would be cheaper or not i have no experinec shipping things this heavy

so my o-rings and chip came in a couple days ago so i installed my injectors

20171130_151711 by sounderror, on Flickr

so i ended up getting AUS 740's they had a 3 year warrenty hopefully they are decent. heres the flow chart to anyones who is interested, i made sure to install them in that order, though im not sure it would of made a difference if i didnt
20171130_151723 by sounderror, on Flickr

so im having a dilima with my exhaust,so i ordered test pipes.opened test pipes,threw away box for test pipes,go to hang them, realize that my DP's are 3 inches and my test pipes are 2.25... i guess i was to excited to even consider measuring but whats done is done

20171202_091142 by sounderror, on Flickr

so the flange bolt holes line up just fine, but i would be introducing a decent sized lip, which im sure will jack up my exhaust flow, but i was just connecting this all back up to my stock exhaust for now anyways. so should i be overly concerned about this lip? i was looking into exhaust reducers but i dont think these would help my in my particular problem.https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-g4751/overview/
thoughts? advice? would be much appreciated,

20171202_091240 by sounderror, on Flickr

[NolimitZ32]

You can run the car as is but for the long term you should definitely get yourself some 3" or 3"-2.5" test pipes.

[Zinprogress]

You can run the car like that but like nolimit said, its certainly not ideal. It will have an impact on performance but it wont be huge, id definitely order yourself some 3" or 3"-2.5" test pipes just as nolimit said.

Called it on the boost/ vac leak! Doesnt take a big leak on these cars to throw them into a frenzy.

[DCaff300ZX]

You can run the car like that but like nolimit said, its certainly not ideal. It will have an impact on performance but it wont be huge, id definitely order yourself some 3" or 3"-2.5" test pipes just as nolimit said.

Called it on the boost/ vac leak! Doesnt take a big leak on these cars to throw them into a frenzy.

Unless the OP is looking for "big horsepower", I think that he will be just fine with things as-is. I'd definitely look at dynotune results looking for any lag issues that won't tune away, but the only possible issue is restriction at the ID change point which can really only happen with a REALLY big turbo on both sides, and the throttle wide open for awhile. As most know, a little back pressure is always necessary so there's a balancing act in play, and in this case the effect of this transition is minimal as stated and certainly not a bad thing as far as engine health/operation unless again, the OP wants maximum performance and is nit-picking everything searching for every erg left untapped. And then there's the test pipes and more if needed.
And as for the vac/boost comment, I couldn't agree more and too often it's that 18 feet of piping all crammed in there

[Ace2cool]

hey ace2cool, yep they are stock 4 bolt, i dont really have any idea on a price so feel free to throw one + shipping out there. not sure if a flat rate box would be cheaper or not i have no experinec shipping things this heavy

Well, turns out I may be getting a set of sport 550's, so if that's the case, I'll be needing a 5 bolt setup. If I end up going with 500's though I'll definitely make you a fair offer.

[abazz009]

@nolimitZ32 thank you glad to hear it will be ok for now, i will touch a bit more on this in my small update..

@Zinprogress haha yeah you did call it im defiently going to invest in a boost leak checker before i even start it up again thats for sure!

@Dcaff300zx defeintly not looking for high horsepower though i wouldnt mind getting the most out of what i have but at this point i just want to be able to drive it since i bought the car i put more time into fixing it then actually driving it (though i did buy a beater so that was to be expected) as long as it actually works and doesnt break immidietly i would like to do the full breather type mods (2.5 intercooler piping ect.) to help support the bigger turbos

@Ace2cool alright man no worries, let me know, i will probably just throw them on CL with all my other parts noone wants lol..


ok on to my small update, i bolted up those test pipes after about 3 seperate trips to ace hardware, i wasnt a fan of the hardware included with the kit, ontop of that they must of wanted you to re-use bolts that where to far off to be re-usable. now i bought the megan test pipe in hopes that they where going to have little trouble in the fitment department... now the paassanger side pipe went in great lined up hassel free to an extent... as for the driver side not so much.... that took much more messaging and i still am not happy with it, im expecting to actually have an exhaust leak hopefully it will be minimal of maybe even no existent that would be nice

now as for the hangers on the pipes there is no way those would of ever matched up right, as you can see they are touching where the hanger bracket is

20171208_124140 by sounderror, on Flickr

so to prevent it from banging i removed the bracket, though the bracket also has what im guessing is a counter-weight on it, it weights idk 5-6 pounds? do you think its ok i removed that? i didnt really wantt to have to chop the hangers off the test pipes since i may try and sell them if i dont choose to have them modified (to support both my 3 inch DP's and the need for catalitic converters fit with the hangers ect.)

20171208_131806 by sounderror, on Flickr

ok so like iv mentiend im not at all happy with the fitment of my exhaust this far, which should be expected connecting unknown brand DP's to megans, back to factory exhaust. my deadline to fix it all to be able to get new tags is August.... so i still have quite a bit of time. my orignal thought process before realizing i bought test pipes that dont fit my DP's was to just get the HKS hi-power exhaust or the megan one both are realitivly in-expensive at around 600$ and should last... then have the high flow cats welded onto the test pipes. which is still the same, except its either buy those AMS 3 to 2.5 or having an exhaust shop modify the megans and adding high flow cats, going custom is never cheaper right? at least not to someone who doesnt already know someone with all the required tools.

as for actually starting the car again i still have the plenum off, im waiting on my catch can hose which should of already been here (routing it will be much easier with the plenum off), i ordered it over a week ago.then i would like to make a boost leak checker befor i even attempt and make sure im all good in that area not going to make the same mistake twice

again i really appreciate everyones help you guys are all awesome!

[Ace2cool]

I'd cut the hangers off the pipes before I removed that dampener

[abazz009]

I'd cut the hangers off the pipes before I removed that dampener

cool thank you! i went ahead and just cut the hangers off and put back on the dampener

20171209_151951 by sounderror, on Flickr

Finally, got my tubing for the catch can, i used the same stuff that i did for my oil cooler so it should last, i left a pretty big loop on the one side for now, i didn't want to bend it to harshly, a nice angled fitting would clean that up though. oh also got my silicon plug to fix my leak, i did also find another un-capped nipple both of which have been fixed, if anyone wants to know the plug size is 3/16th
20171209_125756 by sounderror, on Flickr

plenum back on all fresh gaskets, and thread sealer on the plugs (throttle bodies,egr delete ect..), i also shaved off the mounting points for the stock FPR and fuel dampener, though i forgot the one for the fuel hardline oh well...
20171209_152027 by sounderror, on Flickr

Got a fresh battery, as my other started to "burp" while on my battery charger, luckily its still under warranty so no issue there. so im all pumped to see if my car works and what do you know!?!? it doesn't

Turn the key, no fuel pump sound or pressure, so i check my connections, everything seems fine, i had done the FPCU delete so as soon as ignition comes on my pump should be priming. but im not getting 12v at the pump. its reading .02 so i check volts at the relay (in the footwell) and im getting 12V there, so i try a jumper wire at the relay, still not getting any 12V action at the pump.

im lost now on what I should be trying, nothing has changed since then and now except a bunch of new connectors and injectors, my only thought is just to bypass the entire stock wiring and go full racecar with a toggle switch (which isnt very desirable to me) but that should definitely make it work. any thoughts on my issue?

[itsa300zx]

Checked the green fusable link in front of the battery? Theres one for the fuel pump.

[abazz009]

Checked the green fusable link in front of the battery? Theres one for the fuel pump.

all fuses' and fusible links look good, i went through and pulled them all out and put them back in no change

[abazz009]

ok so i ran a wire from the battery to my fuel pump just to make sure it was definitely something wiring related and no go there. so then i decided to pull back out my fuel pump and found that my positive was pretty corroded and really loose.... so maybe its not making a good connection there (and i should be happy it didnt spark and yea....), i will have to go get another well nut and im gonna add an extra nut to both sides to prevent it from loosening itself up in the future,
20171219_153352 by sounderror, on Flickr

also while removing my fuel pump i managed to break my float, not sure if there is a replacement or not for just this...how would you fix it if no direct replacement was available?

20171219_154138 by sounderror, on Flickr

[Zinprogress]

Hey so a buddy of mine had a mid 90's impala ss that he replaced the fp with a 255 and it did what yours did every few months and it did it without blowing up. it melted contacts in and outside the tank and it didnt matter what gauge wire we ran to it, something melted one way or another. only car id ever seen that would consistently do that.

As for your car, from what i can guess is that you have had a slow fault and your bulk head might not be the only part of the circuit thats done some burning. I would do two things; i would test for voltage at the power wire to the pump while its disconnected and while the pump is out, i would power it up to make sure that it runs and all is gravy.

As for your float, id be happy to pull one out of one of my parts cars and send it to you