Im not sure how the 2nd gen bumper cover is but I haven't had an issue with high IAT and I run right at 30psi.

Found a way to go front mount with the intercooler. I chose to use the biggest intercooler I had. It came from a Mercedes diesel. I cut my radiator support as opposed to my bumper cover. I'll need to trim a little from the bumper support to get a little more clearance. The core will fit as it is, but I'm hoping to make enough room to get my AC condenser back in there so I can hopefully have AC again once this is all done. Pics!!!!!!!
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Hopefully I'll have some more to share in the next few days. But I was pretty excited about getting a good intercooler in there I just couldn't keep it to myself haha.

Here's the dimensions on that core if anyone is curious.

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Tore down the turbo and cleaned it all out. Broke a turbine housing bolt that took days to drill out. Lame, but I got it drilled out and fixed the threads on the one hole. Thoroughly degreased it, and cleaned all internal passages. Taped off the import bits and coated it with 2000 degree ceramic goodness. Waiting for new bearings and seals and it'll all go back together freshened up.

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Also finally got my down pipe wrapped. It needs the wrap for obvious reasons but I don't really care for the look of it. I know you can use high heat paint on it. Any opinions? Should I paint it black or silver? I plan to get a turbo blanket eventually too.
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looking good.....keep up the good work!


lil inspiration for ya.....

there sems to be one pic left lol all the way towards the bottom.

https://maxima.org/forums/supercharg...bo-update.html

Man I had no clue you got "busted" by cops with your turbo setup and then got rid of the setup. That's a shame. California seems pretty crazy with stuff like that!

Were you ever able to dyno it? Or have any idea on power numbers?

I've been assuming this whole time you were still boosted but just didn't post much. Crazy to see in hindsight it's been going on 7 years now that you got busted and had to give it up.

cali cucks.....and thats the end of it lol

Wow, kinda crazy to see big E dog on my thread. Maybe one day mine will be as sweet as yours. My fab skills I don't think are quite there yet. Plus equipment is a never ending problem. I'm still plugging away whenever I have time or a few bucks to spend on the car.. Got one charge pipe done from the intercooler to the throttle. I find it kind of fun to piece together things. At this point it's almost as if someone silently challenged me to to the lowest dollar turbo build ever lol. Im using exhaust tubing as charge pipe. It's durable, scraps I'm using are free to me and I'm not real concerned about weight. It's not that heavy really . Welded little nubs at the ends where the couplers are to prevent them from blowing up. Couplers on this pipe are freebies from work. Intercooler side is a fomoco silicone piece off a 7.3 turbo diesel, throttle side is off a Mazda cx7 turbo.


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I went back over the sections of radiator support I cut with undercoat to prevent the rust. I'm slowly putting undercoat over the engine bay to clean things up. Gives a uniform look. I'm careful not to get it on anything but the old worn out white paint under the hood.

Oh yeah, I used silver ceramic paint on the downpipe. I like it .

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Did just a little bit more work this evening. Gotta turn in early so I can finish a cylinder head job at work tomorrow. (Boooo, it gets old working on fords 70% of the time lol).


Anywhoooo.....i installed my oil tee and feed line to the the block.
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I was very happy to see that I measured right and the feed line is just the right length to reach the turbo without excessive slack.

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Bay shot for fun.
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Once the turbo is back together and in the car I'll make a couple little brackets for the feed line. I don't want it to close to the crossover pipe or loose where it can rub on anything.

I like this thread

Nothing wrong with that charge pipe hell I ran retired 2.5" radiator piping off a semi for charge piping for years. Have also ran exhaust piping on another car.

im still here!!!!!
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finally got the turbo back together. all new bearings and seals :)
i got the turbo clocked and mounted. and need to secure that oil line still, but its on and primed. also got the drain on using 300psi flame retardant hydraulic hose. that stuff is a bear to work withAttachment 13971

heres a shot of the oil drain.
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and downpipeAttachment 13968

ill be going back and increasing the diameter if the remaining exhaust pipe later. but this is just to get here running initially.


and lastly, heres what im looking at as it stands....
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youll notice that i also got the water cooler lines hooked up with heat protection for the rubber. so next is plumbing turbo inlet/discharge, and finding a longer belt fkr the alternator. i started the engine yesteday after priming the turbo and it sounded healthy. well see here pretty soon how she does lol!

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got a belt thatll reach the alternator now. its actually the old AC belt with 2 ribs sliced off but its the perfect length. so now i know i just gotta pick up a 4k470 belt after work and ill have the "proper" size.

Good job man, coming along nicely.

I'm not sure I understand the bit about the alternator (and maybe you mentioned it earlier in the thread and I missed it). Are you needing to tuck the alternator in closer to the block to clear the intake side of the turbo - and thus require a shorter belt?

well i did tuck the alternator as far as it would go to help clearance, but the actual issue was the the alternator wasnt normally driven that way. if you look at the picture youll notice a second unused portion on the balancer. that portion used yo drive the AC compressor on a separate belt, and the compressor had a double pulley with a 3rd belt that went down to run the alternator. i was just lucky that the alternator lined up with the water pump so i could use one long belt insread of the old three belt set up. i have no idea why nissan did it that way from the factory.

i havent actually driven it yet. still gotta tuck some things back up and im running on a ghetto inlet pipe i mocked up with PVC temporarily, but heres a quick driveway teaser....

and one more.....

i cant get over the sound of the thing. cant wait to drive it.

just took it for a test drive. still no fans so it was a short run. AFRs in the mid 10s under boost. getting 5psi at the manifold. pulls hard. i definately have run jacked up injector letting out too much fuel. ill figure out which one at work tomorrow amd swap it. itll surely be quicker than haha.

awesome are you on z31 ecu and fuel system? if so should be able run around 12psi give or take before start running out of fuel and max out the z31 stuff.

well, tecnically. im running the 1986 300zx T3 turbo and computer. my injectors are from a later model maxima but they ar 260cc at 35psi and 11ohm resistance so the computer sees them as original since the specs match. also running stock maxima fuel pump but it has the same flow as the original on the 1986 300zx. so i should be able to get quite a bit more boost out of this setup.

heres some road testing at 5psi. still needs work. sorry for audio quality, i was using a dashcam with a suction cup stuck to the sunroof. its what ive got.

Nice job man

thanks man. its a good feeling to have it running. still sorting out minor little things.

got a pusher fan installed on the front side of the radiator in such a way that it also pulls a little air through the intercooler.
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i also got a used turbo smart boost controller from a friend so i can get the boost up to the stock 7psi. im assuming the reason im getting 5psi is a result of pressure drop across the intercooler.
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im still having some off idle trouble i cant seem to figure out. i have the idle switch adjusted properly, less than 4,000 miles on the plugs/wires/cap amd rotor. found a partial break in the MAF ground wiring. replaced the pigtail with a good used one i had. all solder connections. it only haplens once its warmed up. idles fine, runs strong, doesnt miss. but whenever i take off it stumbles between 1100 and 1400 rpms. any ideas on this guys?

I would guess a possible misfire. I had something similar with #1 cylinder. Random misfire. It would happen every once in a while but only when the car first started. I ended up replacing/gapping all my plugs and the misfire stopped. If you haven't already go with one step colder plugs if you decide to change them.

Also your boost controller can essentially double your wastegate Spring. Or at least close to it. The gate will probably start to crack open at sat 8/9 psi on a 5 psi spring with mbc bleeding of pressure.

CHTS could cause some issues like you are having with the stumble

ok, some updates. CHTS and pigtail have less than 4,000 miles on em. replaced when i did the timing belt & cam/crank seals. i waas wrong about the cap and rotor, cap was new but i forgot i had swapped distributors during some diagnostics a while back. rotor tip was burnt up. replaced rotor and noticed a marked improvement but not complete correction of the symptom. afterwards i swapped airfilters for a freshly cleaned slightly different shaped one that fits the engine bay better. used MAF cleaner and sprayed the crap out of my Z31 MAF and re-installed. problem seems 80% resolved now. im gonna double check my TPS adjustment and get some fresh colder plugs soon also. i was wrong about injectors being an ussue because they work perfectly at all other ranges. also, i pulled the upper plenum, clampled the return line and primed the fuel system. fuel pressure gauge i got in the dash show 60 psi amd held it for the 15 minutes i waited and i saw absolutely no leakage down the runners of the lower intake.

on another front, i installed the boost controller and set it to 7 pounds with a few 7.5 spikes. its holding the boost pretty steady. pulls much, much harder now. i was amazed how much difference 2 psi made. im still running 93 octane of course and have had no signs if detonation. under full boost im seeing 45psi fuel pressure and 9.0-9.3 AFRs. everyone ive talked to says to increase the boost till the AFRs get less stupidly rich LOL. im not increasing boost until a couple things have happened. i need a proper inlet pipe, a better curve to my discharge pipe, need a blow off or re-circ valve because the turbo flutters on de-cel and i wanna keep the compressor wheel in one peice. lastly, my 2.5 in. down pipe meets the 1.75 factory exhaust all the way back. i need less restiction in the exhaust before increasing boost. id also like a discharge temp sensor and gauge but that may be overkill....got about 70 miles on the build so far.

so, on that note.....heres a pull from 5mph to 75mph. had a friend record the gauges so we could re-watch and verify whats on the gauges since you can only glance at the gauges while driving.


enjoy.

Very nice. Forgive me for not remembering but do you not have something to control fuel and timing? I say this because leaning this beast out at this point would probably be a good move. You'll probably gain power too.

A bigger diameter exhaust is going to help out big time. At this point beside the plugs that's probably something I'd have high on the list. I recently read making your inlet exhaust diameter as small as you reasonably can and you outlet exhaust piping diameter as big as you can is the best way to make power. Seems like something that makes perfect sense but sometimes isn't used in practice.

in responce to your first comment, thats partially true. i have an Apexi Neo air/fuel controller. so i can alter MAF signals to adjust fueling to a point. I do not have a way to adjust timing. i have to rely on the factory programming in the 86 z31 turbo ecm im using. nistune is not gonna be in the budget any time soon unfortuneatly.

i definately have exhaust high on the list of things to do next. i also need to replace my busted speedo cable and renew my registration sticker lol

so.....apparently there is no aftermarket replacement for the speedo cable on an 88. dammit. nissan wants $65 and 2 weeks get me one. the 85-86 speedo cable is available online for $8?! i dont know how its different or if i could use tho. grrrr.. thats what i get for modding a really uncommon/unpopular car. /rant

ill sort the speedo cable later. more important things to do lol. i figured out my low RPM stumble when i removed my ghetto inlet pipe and put in some better tubing. it was the 300zx mass air flow meter. the car runs smoothly with the original maxima MAF. was running too rich tho. i was cruising at 13.5 and idling at 10 with 9s under boost. after i was under the hood fiddling with the hood pins, now i think i messed something up. i saw 13.4 under 7psi boost and backed out of it of course. i must have a leak between the MAF and the turbo. so im gonna go thru my inlet setup again in the morning and see what i boogered. aside from that situation the car is running better than i expected it to. i pulled my hood latch out since its flimsy now that the radiator support crossbar had to come out to fit the intercooler. hood is now pinned. took the dim marker bulbs out of the front and popped in some nice bright amber LEDs i had laying around. also swapped the backup light bulbs out for some high output white LEDs. now i can see behind the car at night.

heres my pinned hood. custom artwork by my wife. im an old school video game nerd...
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new marker lights...

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current engine bay shot. still a lot of work to do....

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and lastly a better shot of the pusher fan i got in there somehow....

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Nice job man. I enjoyed your 5-75 run video. Car seems pretty quick. Any idea on an estimate as far as power level with the 7 PSI?

I ask because I want to say the Z31 turbo only had something like 200 hp but I assume you're making more raising the boost.

You might have mentioned it but are you measuring your boost at the turbo, or are you measuring the boost actually making into the engine?

I built some simple valves into my boost gauge setup so that I can read at the turbo itself OR at the intake manifold. It's interesting to see the pressure loss across the system. I usually prefer to leave mine set to read from the intake manifold so that I can read vacuum too.

hey james, thanks for your feedback. im glad i was able to get somekind of video for yall to see. once i get my speedo cable fixed ill setup a camera on the cluster so we can get an acurate count on the 0-60. as far as power goes, i double checked to verify some numbers. the 300zx made 200hp and 227tq at the crank with 7.8:1 compression at 6.8 psi. im using the same turbo, ecm and injector size. so doing some math, in a perfect world i should be making 215hp at the crank at 7psi on 9:1 compression. torque is anyones guess. i can tell you i had the car dynoed last summer before the turbo install and put down 134whp and 161wtq. using a drivetrain loss calculator would tell me that that is roughly 160hp and 190tq at the crank. which is 9hp and 29tq higher than the factory rating. that was with a high flow muffler, short ram intake, 60mm throttle and port matched/smoothed upper and lower intake manifolds using a villager lower manifold(better torque, similar to pathfinder). in short, i think im making alot of torque. it feels like a lot of torque. my 2013 focus ST makes 252hp and 270trq at the crank, is similar weight and only feels slightly faster. im kinda mad that i couldnt get out to nismo fiesta this year because of work. i really, really wanted to get it on the dyno again :/
as far as boost reading goes, i wanted to see what the motor was actually getting and also vacuum. so my reference is taken from the upper intake plenum just behind the throttle. thats how i know im really at 7psi. even tho the integral wastgate is set at 6.8 psi, i was only getting 5 at the manifold at first. i assume that was all pressure loss from my oversized intercooler and crappy homemade charge piping. more boost is coming after i get my charge pipes better sorted and get the rest of my exhaust increased in diameter.

I think you'll see an instant hp increase once you change the diameter of the exhaust.

....which 300zx AFM were you using? There are two types, yellow or blue label, it does make a difference...i believe the yellow is for Federal and blue for California spec Ecu,s.
...keep videos coming,

its a yellow tag AFM. both AFM and ECM are FED spec'd . ive good good AFRs with em and good driveability.

Kk...i thought you swapped back in the stock smaller Maxima AFM....I had issues trying to substitute the Maxima/200sx small afm with 300zx turbo ECU
......i was curious if you are running the stock O2 or did you delete?

oh yeah. i did switch back, but only for a day. i also had ussues with the smaller maxima/200sx style maf. it ran way too rich at cruise and idle and was not funning fat enough under boost for me to be comfortable with. so i went to a 2nd used 300zx maf that i had. i chucked the first one after i figured out it was bad. also, im not currently running with O2 feedback, i deleted. 86 ECM requires the weird titania type O2 with the smaller bung. i do intend to get a bung installed next to the wideband sensor and install a titania sensor that the ECM can read later as funds permit. i know my idle and cruise would be both smoother and more fuel efficient if i had OE fuel correction installed.

alright. trucking along on improvements and button ups. still dealing with a very light low RPM hesitation. its been getting better one step at a time. i thought it was all resolved, it only happens with old 300zx MAFs. doesnt do it at all with the maxima MAF. maybe i really just need to get a NEW 300zx MAF. anyway, im just ranting at this point.

updates...
got 90% of the engine bay done with rubberized under coat. looks way, way cleaner that way. i fixed my ghetto hot side charge pipe, properly mounted my boost controller, built a 4th turbo inlet pipe(that doesnt leak), and got my air filter halfway into the fender.

before and after of the charge pipe fix.
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you may also notice the ignition coil relocatio. in this pic. it was in the way of me getting the filter to a cool air source.


and here is a before and after of the new turbo inlet. this part was some creativity with used parts i had from other projects.

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ill be working on relocating that coolant hard line soon. i dont the tangle of piping there, especially because its a heat source and next to the turbo inlet. working on a bracket for the relay box, need to tidy up my EVAP vent line....lots of little things. i got another slim fan to mount in pull configuration on the radiator hopefully tomorrow. ordered an atmospheric blow off valve and i dont wanna blow my turbo theust bearings lol. thatll be sometime next week. waiting for free funds for the Z31 inlet pipe amd STILL looking for a damn speedo cable. i cant stomach the nissan price for such a simple part. using my GPS for speedo and mileage right now. so far ive put 140 miles on this build. im happy/surprised at how few teething problems the project has had. im also real surprised at how well the high comp vg30 responds to boost.