I’m a little frustrated that with all the progress I’ve made I haven’t really finished anything on my to-do list for the s30.  I had it running, but was short one injector and didn’t have a turbo bolted up, so it ran … terribly.  I also had no shifter, and the seats weren’t bolted in so I was pretty surprised when I found out it was in reverse.  Oh right, and no clutch installed.

Note to self:  avoid that kind of excitement in the future.

There has been other progress in the meantime, mostly in the engine bay.

Intake

I bolted up the new intake manifold (from an n47 engine) that’s slightly bulkier than the black (n42) manifold I had, but is complete and a running car with a few extra pounds is better than a non-running car with a few less pounds.  I finished up the installation of the injectors now that I had enough threads to bolt them all in, and hooked up all the wiring.

Fuel

The 280zx-t fuel pump bolted right in to the rear frame like it was made to go there.  I still need to put the stock fuel tank back in (I removed it to clean out a bunch of sediment) and hook up all the lines to it.  Once that’s done, the mechanical portion of my fuel system is complete.  I’m planning to install Megasquirt (the mileage gains pay for the cost of a complete Megasquirt kit in around 4,000 miles) and tune that to replace the stock Nissan l28et ECU, which is notoriously inefficient and unreliable.

Exhaust/Turbo

I’ve finally assembled the turbocharger setup, with the wastegate spacer/flange and 35mm wastegate.  I have a spare wastegate and turbo that I’ll sell off, since I finally decided to use the t3/t04e Turbonetics hybrid turbo.  It should fit this engine perfectly, but I’d still like to get the compressor map for it to confirm.

My intake ductwork is on its way, I’ve decided on slightly oversized 2.5″ piping to the intercooler, then to the throttle body.  I only ordered the piping, since I need to figure out how I’m going to fit it and order an intercooler that’s the right size for the space I have.  Expect an update on that as soon as the intercooler ductwork is in.

The exhaust will happen after the car has been driveable for a bit and I trust everything else.  Exhaust fabrication is relatively quick and straightforward work, so I’m not too worried about it.  I’m much more concerned with the intake ductwork.

Late last night I finished rewiring the injectors I bought from odistiger, replacing the cracked old connectors with fresh new ones, soldering them in, and heat-shrinking the connections.  I also took a closer look at the wiring harness, and have to wonder what the hell Nissan was thinking.  There are butt-connected wires for the + side of all the injectors, and it’s just a messy hack-job that’s a sorry excuse for wiring under the factory heatshrink.  I’m going to have to clean it up a bit, but there’s really only so much that I can actually fix in there.  The wiring harness is simple and straightforward though, so I may just rewire it from scratch using the stock end connectors.

I excitedly started attaching my injectors to the intake manifold, hopeful that I’d get to hear the engine turn on its own power.  Each injector has a mounting adapter and two screws that hold it onto the intake manifold, and ensure a tight connection.  You can clearly see properly mounted fuel injectors on my intake manifold in the picture to the right.  On my intake manifold, one of the screws had been torn out of the intake manifold at some point, ripping the threads out with it.  I filled the hole with jbweld and will re-tap it as soon as I get my hands on a tap kit.  Until then, I only have 5 injectors and can’t hear the engine fire.

I’ll be sure to get some more pictures of the final setup once the jbweld hardens.

As you may already know, I’m in the middle of installing my turbocharged engine into my 240z.  It’s been a fairly long and arduous process with a few mistakes made along the way, but overall it’s been a good experience thus far.  Since I’m installing this in preparation for a long cross-country trip from Oakland, CA to Boston, MA it’s worth making sure it’s in good working order.  I’m starting by double-checking my accessory systems, like the fuel tank, seats, and ignition, and have now made my way to the beating heart of the engine: the fuel injectors.

Fuel injectors are essentially small electronic valves with fluid on one side (fuel) and the inside of the engine on the other side.  When they receive an electrical signal they open, spraying a precise amount of fuel into the engine, hopefully matching the amount of air entering the engine exactly.

After a quick visual inspection of my original fuel injectors, I decided that a replacement was in order.  The wires were cracked and brittle after years of heat from being soaked in hot air emanating from the turbocharger.  A few of the pintles (the valve itself) were broken off, causing inconsistent fuel delivery.  Lastly, the injectors fitted on the engine from Nissan are rated at a measly 275cc/min, meaning that in one minute, they could fill a 275cc container with fuel.  I already have a larger turbocharger set up for the engine, so I’ll need to increase my fuel capability to keep up with the increase in airflow.  While there are ways around purchasing larger injectors (such as increasing the fuel’s pressure), I was uncomfortable going that route.  These factors provided me with ample reason to start shopping for something new.

I ended up ordering my injectors through osidetiger, an online injector cleaning service provider.  After a few back-and-forth emails, I decided upon a set of 480cc/min injectors, offering nearly double the fuel supply.  At under $200 completely refurbished and flow-tested, I consider them to be a superb deal, and that’s not even counting the mounting hardware.  Osidetiger took things a step further, including new allen-head stainless steel mounting bolts, spacers, washers, electrolyte grease, injector wiring connectors along with lengths of wire (pre-stripped, even!), some solder, and all the miscellaneous bits and pieces that are required to fit the new injectors.

The only downside I came across was the pintle caps.  They simply don’t fit inside the factory n42 or n47 intake manifold injector holes.  That means I’m forced to use these injectors without pintle caps, which changes the spray pattern of the injectors.  Maybe someone can explain why the caps are important better than I can, but my understanding is that a boundary layer of air causes more turbulence for the fuel and air to mix in.

Overall, the experience with the vendor was superb.  They gave me a sheet with the exact specifications of the injectors, everything required to install them (even solder!), and their communication is some of the best I’ve ever seen.  I don’t have a way to double-check their work, but I’m confident that they’re honest about their processes and results and that’s good enough for me.  They offer injectors for practically any application you could want, and it looks like they purchase used injectors and refurbish and clean them.  The results are quite simply superb.  I expect this company to build up a very strong reputation if they continue along the path they’ve been headed down.