Are you going to swap out the ECU?

 

I cant remember if he said he was or not, but its a really good idea to do that, because the manual ecu has different fuel and ignition maps VS the auto. Since the torque converter is always dragging the engine down, it changes the idle and near idle fuel/ign maps considerably.

~Alex

 

i'm changing to the manual ECU once i program it to my tastes. I will maybe sell the auto ECU since it's more versatile than the manual ECU. If someone needs a VG ecu the auto one will run both auto and manual... rather than just manual for the 89's ECU.

just-got-back-from-friend's-apartment update:
Today i wrestled with, cursed at, partially disassembled, and partially installed the 5spd shifter on my GXE. Let's just say that since my exhaust components are impossible to separate from one another (i can remove it all... or leave it all, but my exhaust is one single unit due to rust), I had a hugely tough time maneuvering the shifter into position. I took the nut off the bottom of the rubber thing to separate the bracket from the shift rods, and i took the shift rod off of the shift lever as well. after getting really mad at it during the wedging and pushing and prodding, I finally got it all into a decent position, and began to reassemble it just enough for it to work out OK tomorrow. I just hope i can fit my torque wrench up in that ****. I also did the wiring. But got it wrong, due to a misprint in the FSM. I'm remedying this tomorrow, as well as taking new pics. But feel free to look in my album to see my method, just keep in mind i used the wrong wires. I will get it right, and test it tomorrow though, just to make sure it all works. Then i'll post a writeup. Point is, i was right so far... neutral/reverse switch is wired up with NO wire cutting and NO splicing.

 

I've never heard anything about this...Got a link?

 

Friend-left-to-go-show-off-his-HAI-to-brother update:
Shifter is kinda sorta installed. By that, i mean that the 4 bolts are in now (M8-1.25x30mm) to the floorboard, the bolt from bracket-rubber-midpiece to support rod is tight though not torqued, and the support rod is installed, and torqued, to tranny. Just got to reinstall the shift rod and I HAVE GEARS!! Then i gotta drill a hole and mount le pedal. And then I'll be VERY VERY close to driving it. VERY close. Mwhaha. So what if it took 7x the normal amount of time most people do it in.. it'll be a 2 weeks well spent.

 

What do you mean program it to your tastes? How will you go about doing that?

And I'm here to tell you: mounting the clutch pedal is the biggest PITA of the whole job. Do yourself a favor and take the seat out. Also, there's no point in changing the brake pedal...Make yourself a template from the M/T pedal and take a sawzall to the A/T brake pedal.

 

repgoramming the maps to make the AFR a little higher at higher throttle positions... basically "chipping" the ECU myself. If ya wanna know how, ask aaron.

As for the brake pedal... I don't know if i've got anything to cut it with, and I certainly can't afford to buy a sawzall if i don't already have one. So although i've heard it's unnecessary to switch them, i think I'll go ahead and do it, just for S&G

 

I think i see where youre coming from...
worst case:
A.)swap pedal anyway
B.)aftermarket pedal covers
by the way, cape, Enjoying the progress reports. SO WHAT if youre taking longer! You're working at your own pace, and finding ways to overcome age old problems(or is it the cars old age, cant remember...) remember what the outcome will be and smile

















Like this:

 

you going to pick up one of these

http://home.aanet.com.au/nistune/

 

Interesting............

 

you need type 2.
the VE is consult capable, haven't tried on the VG.

 

Would it need an emulator also?

 

don't think so.
the VE5 uses the Z32 ecu. ANYTHING that will work on the Z32 ECU (manual trans) will work on the VE exactly.
VE A/T is a different animal and no clue on that one.

 

from what i heard, i can unsolder the chip already in the VG ECU, and then clean it up, and put a socket in its place, then plug it back into the socket, for easy future removal. and then ues an EPROM burner, and a computer and edit the HEX codes of the ECU itself

my-friend-is-getting-impatient-waiting-for-me update:
Shifter, as i said earlier, is in, and shifting. Slave cylinder and all clutch lines are in. clutch master cylinder is kinda hanging in the hole i cut for it but not bolted in because i keep misdrilling one stupid hole. I'll fix that later. The brake pedal removal didn't go so not at night, so i'm finishing everything tomorrow. Once i have the pedals in, master cylinder hooked up and bled... torque down a few final bolts... and fix the wiring i did wrong b/c there was a misprint in the FSM... i'll be ready to reinstall the battery and intake, and take her for a spin. And yes, there WILL be a first-time-in-the-GXE5 video.. wouldn't miss that for nothin'.

and i got $35 in my banking account... and $46 in savings... which is why I can't afford any of this nice stuff you guys keep talking about. thank god i have 3/4 tank of gas so i'll be good on that for a little while. Long enough to survive until i get a paycheck again.

 

yep you can do that i found all the stuff and a write up on it for a 300z (would be the same) but i think by the time you did all that and got the stuff you need the nistune would be better in the that you would have data logging and real time so that you would not be pulling the chip every time that you wanted to change something. if i can find the 300z thing again i will post a link for you.

 

oh yea and i feel you on being poor i had to sell my car for gas money.

 

http://ztechz.net/id10.html

check that out

 

that is eff-ing cool, but i think the site is discussing the vg30de(tt?)
mapping info would be totally different.
of course, if i am right, the principle should remain. we should start working on something like this, here. and if i read that right, all for the cost of a JWT ECU...

 

300Z =/= 3rd gen max with VG30e

 

when i owned the 89 and still have a 90 pathfinder the plan was pull engine, rebuild, add nistune to j30 ecu, use pathfinder intake, move windshield washer for piping, battery in trunk, tt sitting on top of tranny, in the 85 but it's all good now i'm just forced to look at a VQ swap

but now that we have totally hijack the thread and are way of topic, shell we say back to you, before he has to rename his thread again.

 

thank-god-my-grandpa-is-out-of-my-room-now update:
I drove my GXE today.

Problems/leftover work:

• the severity of my bad engine/tranny mounts is GREATLY GREATLY GREATLY amplified by the ruthlessness of a solid clutch.. I drove the car hoodless, and could see my engine. moving. A LOT. cyl#2 corner was just bucking violently when i let off or pick up throttle, particularly in 1st and 2nd gear, which in turn causes the shifter to move right A LOT. Which is scary. And caused a mis-shift from 2 to 1
• the clutch master cylinder clevis thingy needs to be drawn out a little more to take up the slack at the beginning of the pedal travel. probably bad hydraulics but i can't buy new ones right now so i'll worry about that stuff later.
• differential or something in the car whines a lot, kinda like a supercharger. I DID fill the tranny and will recheck the fluid level.. but I put in 4.5 qts of pennzoil synchromesh (until it started to run over). Granted the tranny was dry for like, a whole week, but the axle seals are new, tho having to have the axles removed then replaced once but before the tranny was spun. whining is speed-based
• dash is not installed yet, nor is the hood
• reverse lights don't work... i suspect a bad N/R switch b/c the N stuff doesn't work right either. I will investigate the problem.

things that did work:

• all 5 gears, the clutch, everything "absolutely necessary"
• the clutch start switch
• the car in general

still don't know if cruise control works or not. I wired it up pretty but I dunno if it'll work or not. And next time I decide to tap wires straight from the SMJ, smack me.

 

could the whining be wheel bearings or CV joint from the extra presser from the off set of the carrier or how tight did you put the outer drive shaft nut on cuz that will squeeze the baring.



but it's good to hear that you got it going.

 

Good to hear - not the whinin... Did you drive with the tranny, was it noisy already earlier?

Wassup granpas, I am one.

 

the outer drive shaft nut is torqued to "alot". I don't have a tq wrench that measures that high, so i used a 4-5ft breaker bar and pulled hard on it with at least half my weight. I used enough force to where the car rocked a little bit, even with the handbrake up. didn't roll any, just the front wheel rocked a bit. too tight? back it up a little bit and just use the little plate to make sure it can't turn? maybe i'll jack the car up again, put it at 20mph in 2nd by shimming the throttle body, and listening to where the sound is coming from.

but it could be the carrier bearing whining. to me it sounded pretty central, but i'll find out tomorrow what is making the sound.

and if i'm lucky i can get the front engine mount off the parts car WITHOUT killing myself.

 

Yea thats way to tight jack it up in N and see if you can spin the tire (more then likely not) the way i set them is have the car jacked up and tighten as i spin the tire by hand till it get to the point that it starts to drag then back it out a tiny bit, or if you have a pull scale set to what the FSM says

 

oh yea then be sure to put the lock back on (the thing that fits over the nut and has the slots for the cotter pin)

 

ok so i just looked it up and it does say to torque but when i did the drivers side i tighten it and could not spin the tire so that could be the issue so check and see if you can spin the tire by hand with it in the air and if not loosen it like i said and you should be fine. hell i drove the 89 around the country like that. if it's to tight it will take out the bearings really fast.

 

well the FSM says 174-231 ft/lbs.. being such a high number i kinda figured it would have to be the "tightest i've ever tightened anything". so you mean you tighten the axle nut with the car in neutral the whole time... not even any resistance from brakes, or putting one wheel up at a time, or anything?

 

well if you have jack stands you could do both sides up, if you can't spin the tire by hand with it off the ground and in N then the bearings are to tight. if you want call me it so i can ex plane it better

 

well i get the part about making sure the wheels still spin in N... I was just maybe thinking that you only tightened the nut while the wheels were off the ground... instead of tightening a little, then putting the car on the ground and tightening to 200ft/lb... i'll break the nuts loose and tighten a little less this time.

i maybe would call but i'm tiiiiired. so i'm going to sleep now. it's 4am here... just 1 where you are, right?

 

well it's 2 and yea if you can't spin the wheel then tighten while off the ground as you spin the wheel by hand and you will be able to tell when it starts to get to tight.

 

oh yea ok your going to want both front tires off the ground to do it other wise your going to be fighting with the differential. so in short you going to be doing a bearing preload adjustment (like you would for the rear bearings)

 

Why would you have the dash apart?

 

I second the question. So aside from a few details you are done. Congratulations !!!!


do you just randomly make update titles?

 

He swapped in the brake pedal and the clutch pedal, and removing it made it much easier for him, and he claimed that removing it only took 30min or so.

His local friends apparently dont have a sawzal or something to cut the pedal with so he just swapped it over. NBD really...

Caped- did you figure out if the switch was any good?

~Alex

 

to respond to you two. I took the dash out, because there was no way that I could see to get the brake pedal out with that vent in the way. I don't have a sawzall and I didn't have time to go looking around for one, so I just removed the dash, which only took about 15 minutes. I haven't reinstalled the dash though, because I am still working out a few problems i've run across, and don't want to "finalize" the interior until I'm sure I'm done with all that stuff... and somehow I slept in until 4pm today so all I did today was slightly loosen the axle nuts and put the locks back on, after I cleaned up the driveway. And I took a few pictures of what is left of my front engine mount. That explains the shifter. The whining sound is still there.. raises in pitch w/ the speed, kinda like a supercharger attached to the driveshaft rather than to the crankshaft... and uh, yeah. I'm going to have to see what all the racket is coming from. And i'm going to do everything i have to to change the carrier bracket as well, because i may be stressing my diff bearings. The clutch clevis is almost fully adjusted, in which case it may be somewhat difficult to adjust it any more, but i only need 1/4 inch..

and no i still haven't figured out what's wrong with my N/R switch. I assume it's the switch, since the reverse lights didn't work on the parts car either.


yes i do randomly make up the update titles.

 

thank-god-that-nasty-storm-has-passed update: I started tackling my issues today. first is the clutch issue. I looked extensively at the pedal and pushrod... and deterimned that the fluid on the rubber boot facing the carpet was unnatural and was reason to believe that the master cylinder was toast, since there was a trail of fluid down my black rubber matting in the foot area. So i bought a new one. installing tomorrow. Also, just an annoyance, but the tiny vinyl thing that goes between the spring and pedal arm is gone... how on earth can i find a new one of those? i haven't messed with the mounts or shifter spring yet (tho in reality maybe i should just disassemble the ball bracket and clean/regrease it... what's it use, lithium/moly grease?)... or the axle thingy. I'll take care of that too tho.

 

If you're referring to the vinyl bump-stop I'm thinking of, you could put a glob of hot glue there for the time being.

 

Is there a possibility that it is just a manual transmission? They are not as quiet as an autotragic, ya know. You might have never heard it in the donor car as the exhaust was busted.

 

well the tranny didn't make any noise the whole time i owned it even the input shaft bearing was quite, and he would have been able to hear it when coasting. I think he has a bearing binding somewhere if it sounds like a SC when he's driving.