Turbo time

D

Dr_Shemp

Well-Known Forum User
I've now owned my Z31 for 9 months ( longest I've ever kept a car ) and don't think I could part with it. It's nice to come out of Tesco's and find curious people gathered around it wanting to know just what the hell it is. Thats just part of the attraction, then theres the sweat, work, tears, tyres, aggrevation, frustration, and cash that I've commited to this car:eek: .

Well its obvious I love the car and the attention it gets, so its only right and proper that I should convert it into a turbo. I've already swapped the auto box for borg warner manual turbo box so that just leaves the engine. I just got one with 30k on it thats been gathering cobwebs for too long and was about to start surgery when a whole car became available for less than a moderate Friday night on the tiles(thanks Stuart). There is no excuse now and work will commence on Monday.

I will post pictures daily to show progress and you can bet your left bumcheek I'll be doing low 15's at the next Pod meeting
 
Sounds cool... is it the white one in your gallery?

The 31s never really did anything for me... too square... 80s looking... :)
 
Well Ive made a start (check my gallery) nothing to much just yet as im busy with a knackered beemer which I hate and want gone from my precious Zed space. Ive opted to fit the engine I brought earlier this year as I'm undecided on what to do with the complete doner car I purchased. The engine I'm fitting certainly needs a spring clean and definitely wants a cambelt. I'm assured its only done 30k she was well covered and had all the important holes plugged
( thats creepy! sounds just like the x wife ).
Tune in tomorrow for the next thrilling installment

Cheers

Mick

P.s Yep Mark its the white one getting the exra Gee's
 
turbo tales

Well the engine is out and Matt was right (not that I doubted him) the cross member was different. Took 20 minutes to remove from my car but 2 and a half hours from the doner car as it was so rusty underneath that I had to use heat and a long extension bar to remove the offending bolts. Using a 3 foot extension is much harder when the engine is still in the car, but the cross member eventually came out and is now in my car. If anyone else is going to have a go at this then I found removal of the anti roll bar made life a lot easier. Gone are the good old days, one of my first cars was a Hillman Avenger and I remember changing an engine in an afternoon on that.
I've spent a bit of time cleaning and painting various bits of the new engine, I also wanted to refurb the new cross member and engine bay whilst they were accessible but am running out of time. Well, engine in tomorrow and the an adventure into electrics:eek: .Ive posted some more pics which should be available for viewing in my gallery soon. Its turned into a far bigger job than first thought but its passed the halfway point and theres no going back.

Sleep now..........................
 
1st rule of replying to thread, read it properly first, then ask questions

You not drunk them bloody stellas yet!
 
I'm trying, I'm trying, but the flippin camera is playing silly beggars. BUT the engine is in:D ,all the bellhousing bolts and engine mounts and starter motor are in, and all thats left is a huge amount of nuts, bolts, bits of pipe, and other things that i don't remember seeing before:unsure: . Will keep trying with pics and will take some more tomorrow. I'm having a full day at it with a serious and determined attitude:eek: , well not too serious.
 
Just managed to suss out the camera ( user error ) and uploaded some pics, more tomorrow. I wouldnt say its been particularly difficult so far, just time consuming, I'm also trying to figure out a better route for the air intake and a location for an intercooler before too many of the ancillaries go back on, suggestions welcome.

Cheers
 
Almost there now and I've finally finished the work underneath which is a big relief, I'm sick of bits dropping in my eye and having the same arm room as you do one of thse cheap charter flights. My car already had a turbo gearbox fitted, so I ignored my own advice and just swapped the engine. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and was made much easier with the intake collector removed as this allowed access to the two bolts through the top of the bell housing without taking of the crossover pipe .
Another thing that helped was removing the whole turbo assembly from the manifold (four nuts with two metal strips that you bend up to secure) these seemed more willing to shift than any others, also removing the oil lines by the banjo connectors on the block saved hunting for new gaskets. With the turbo out of the way access to the nearside bell housing bolts was dead easy and you can put thing on the bench to have a good look. I took the turbo from my donor car by removing the same four nuts but left the down pipe attached which again meant no hunting for gaskets and eliminated the risk of shearing off bolts.
Today I'm having a go at puting in the turbo's wiring loom, I did this a few months ago by unpluging everything engine side and coaxing it through into the passenger footwell. Yesterday I discovered its far easier to unplug it from the ecu and pull it through from under the battery shelf. WIth a few snips of cable ties it comes out as a seperate loom although the feed to the boost guage seems to come from elswhere?. Will either buy an after market guage or spend a long time trying to come to terms with the wiring diasgrams.Did take more photo's yesterday but left the camera somewhere under the car.
May have her running later but who knows:unsure:

ps. Going to fit a boost control valve, what's a safe figure assuming engine is in good nick??

Cheers Mick
 
Hey just spotted this thread, good work! I'll keep an eye out for more photos later.

In my ignorance I never really thought of any wiring for a turbo, I thought it purely mechanical. Is that wiring for the ecu or is there a magic device that controls the turbo itself?

And you have a Senator! We had one of those for ages, loved it, shame we didn't look after it :( I have an Omega now though which is exactly the same except different panels (and v6 instead of straight6). Love that as well.
 
Hi Russ
Believe the ecu and its wiring are different on the turbo, Im not certain but I have the parts so in they go. Had the Senator for a year now and love it, its an auto but the gearbox is excellent and very responsive. Wouldnt part with it unless I got one of those 150 mph 24 valve jobbies that the police liked so much.

Cheers

Mick
 
Hello, been a while but the project is still underway. I've had a few hurdles to overcome and now that its almost done the DAMNED:mad: thing will only run for 30 seconds before the computer turns off the fuel pump.

I had it running a few weeks back but the turbo made a horrible cracking noise as soon as it fired. I shut off the engine immediately ,whipped out the turbo and found a fracture accross the housing once the exhaust knuckle was removed. The engine only ran for 5 seconds so the turbo must have been knackered already, fortunately I had a spare.

At this point I felt pretty negative about the whole job which I've been doing in the evenings after work, so turned to the cosmetic side of things which are starting to look good but I'm not posting any photo's till She's finished.
As I mentioned previously I've come to a halt:confused: . The engine starts first time and runs for about 30 seconds when the fuel pump shuts off, obviously I've fitted a turbo engine, I've also fitted a turbo ECCS, a turbo fuel pump, Turbo air flow meter, and all of the turbo intake system. The diagnostic wotsit is showing codes 14, 23, 24, and 31 which are speed sensor, idle switch, park/neutral switch, and air con. I cant see why any of these would affect the fuel pump signal (the idle switch fault stops blinking after the throttle is pressed).
I can't find any vacuum leaks and have quadruple checked everything I can think of.
One thing I found was that on the turbo (donor car) there is a small electical box inthe boot of the car near the petrol tank filler, which the Nissan parts catalogue identifies as a fuel pump control module. In the same location on my car are two boxes for kickdown control and something else to do with the auto transmision, but no wiring for the pump module. Could this be the problem? I'm open to sugestions and going nowhere:(

Cheers
 
Sounds like a pain in the arse...

Does it run for exactly the same amount of time each time you try it?

speed sensor - cant be... can it?!?
idle switch - if the idle switch is knackered maybe as it is switching from fast idle on start up to regular idle its killing the signal.
park/neutral switch - if it starts it cant be this. ( did you 'hot wire' this when you did your auto to manual swap? )
air con - surly not.
 
Hi Mat


Havn't put a stop watch on it but would say it does run for the same time. The four codes it flashes are apparently standard and cancel themselves (like the idle switch fault which goes after pressing the throttle) .The one that I'm not so sure on is the speed sensor, apparently on the turbo model the fuel pump is automatically shut of when 137 mph is reached ( for safety reasons ? ), so I wondered if its shutting down because this safety device is missing?.I'm baffled and frustrated and want to play with my new toy:confused: The wiring looms are quite different on the two cars I'm using and I've been considering swapping the whole lot over but I really dont want to do that.

Cheers

Mick
 
As far as the manual suggests, the possible control boxes in the rear would be OD control unit and kickdown control for autos and shock absorber control unit on early turbo. However, I checked with Ken at ZXS and there is an extra module above where your AT control unit would be - there should be an 8 pin plug to accomodate it. As a check, the part number on the fuel pump control module would be 17001-07P00.

The fuel pump supply voltage is controlled directly from the ECU in the NA model, but via the fuel pump control module in the turbo. The control module has its own relay controlled by the ECU (pin 16) and the fuel pump relay operates via pin 20 of the ECU. On starting, the fuel pump relay will operate the pump for 30 seconds and then expect control to be taken over by the module - if no module or module relay, then no operation of fuel pump.

Operation is also moderated by input from the throttle switch so that the fuel pump relay is switched back on at full throttle - I assume to feed full voltage to the pump.

There are obviously ways to fool the system with a bit of cunning rewiring, but the sophistication of variable pump voltage will probably be lost and pump life shortened...also beware of losing the auto cut of fuel pump when engine stalls or, heaven forbid, you have an accident.
 
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