Finally getting around to making a thread for my Z. Wanted to get one going for my own sake just to track the history and changes on the car.

Currently the car is off the road and has been for the last year as I started a business in January 2021 and needed a sensible vehicle for that, not to mention not being able to afford running a weekend car while trying to get a business off the ground but at least I managed to save myself from selling it! It was my daily driver for a period prior to going back into hibernation thought. It has undergone some changes while it has sat in my garage, I think not being able to drive it tends to drive you to fettle! It is probably going to take a while to get this caught up to the current day but will update as and when I have some time.

The owner prior to me had a thread going which can be found below - but any core info and pics are in this post.

 

I actually managed to get in contact with the previous owner via email and they shared some old photos and confirmed some details about the car. Prior to him taking it on from a friend of his in 2011, the car had been stood after said friend damaged the turbo housings after a failed downpipe swap - I assume it then became a project that was never returned to. I believe prior to that it was owned by someone who was also personally known to the owner before me and was bought as a work vehicle from new. Pictures from its initial rescue from "barn find" state are below. 

The previous owners intent was to restore the car to OEM state only and when I bought the car it was indeed standard all the way through - including the original radio, etc. They mechanically restored the car and had a body shop perform a full respray in 2011 too. 

The car then spent event more time unused between the project completion by the previous owner before it was sold on and listed for sale by a dealer sometime in 2017. Once again it sat around, this time for sale at that dealership for a couple of years and I believe they originally had a very high asking price (at the time) for it - at least based on the comments on the Pistonheads article about it here: Nissan 300ZX: Spotted | PistonHeads UK  The comments in the link also feature some input from the previous owner and someone else who knew the car.

I ended it's time sitting at the dealership and bought the car in 2019. Pictures from the day of pickup are below.

Edited February 4, 20223 yr by Peage

Great to see this UK spec again! FYI built Oct '91 and #932 of 1548 cars.

First changes for me were to have the big belt service done and fit some Rays 350z wheels along with some coilovers and a boost controller and a Specialty Z chip.

After chip install I had the map checked and boost controller set at a local shop. It was making around 330bhp at this point. 

I had numerous issues after this which I will not go into but the car was in and out of the garage for big engine out jobs (turbos, head work, wiring looms, etc, etc) - a lot of this work was likely not needed or not actually correctly dealing with the issues as it turns out but this is not the place to go into that here. This was at a time when I was taking the car to a certain garage in Doncaster. I will leave it at that.

Obligatory breakdown picture below..

 

It had gotten to a point where I was being told I would need to rebuild my heads (after they had only been done a few months before, apparently) to fix a smoking on overrun issue when I finally turned to PowerZed/Jim for a second opinion. He correctly diagnosed the problem (It wasn't the heads!) and also performed a whole load of other excellent work for me. Suffice to say I wish I had gone to him sooner. 

The car ran perfectly after PowerZed had worked on it... not to mention the increased performance. There is indeed a reason everyone recommends him here and I could not recommend him any higher myself. He is the best for these cars. 

Spec at this point is as follows: 

- Z1 GT535R Turbo Kit

- AMS V2 Exhaust Manifolds

- AMS 3" downpipes (w/ 3" to 2.5" decat pipes and 2.5" mid section and back)

- Z1 BA Intercoolers

- Z1 2.5" Intake Piping Kit

- Nismo 740cc Injectors

- Specialty Z Flywheel & Clutch + Fork Kit

- Tein Coilovers

- HKS EVC S Boost Controller

- Specialty Z Tune

As before, I had the car setup on a dyno locally to set the boost controller and check the map. Instructed them not to go over 470bhp to save the engine as compression figures are not the best (will get a rebuild with PowerZed in the future, once my business is more stable and Jim has some time). Final figure was 465bhp, as requested. 

Edited February 7, 20223 yr by Peage

That’s a tidy uk Zed again another one in the best colour  ? glad jim got her sorted bud healthy figures too ?

Great thread. Following ?

With some some great parts and tips from phutumsch on here, I bought an updated rear centre panel and modified it to illuminate. My old one was tatty with some issues with the black painted areas, if you are wondering why I didnt just modify my original grey lettered unit.  Picture dump below..

 

Sanding away the original red lettering: 

Resealing with some oven heat and clamps: 

 

New & Old: 

Fitted Pics: 

Nice to see a car that's stayed within the owners club and the history is known!

Great work in getting the car back up to driving after it's been standing for some time and had some mechanical issues. Kinda like overcoming the final hurdles.

I remember seeing it at PowerZed in December 2020 and also when it was on sale - the place wasn't too far from me, but when I enquired, it was sold!

 

5 hours ago, Peage said:

With some some great parts and tips from phutumsch on here, I bought an updated rear centre panel and modified it to illuminate. My old one was tatty with some issues with the black painted areas, if you are wondering why I didnt just modify my original grey lettered unit.

You’ve scratched off the black that hid the red, then the red was removed, making the 300ZX see through.

You did then put the red back on and then put the EL sheet against, have I got that right ?

2 minutes ago, phutumsch said:

You’ve scratched off the black that hid the red, then the red was removed, making the 300ZX see through.

You did then put the red back on and then put the EL sheet against, have I got that right ?

Hi mate! Are you asking if I sprayed a layer of red paint back on before fixing the EL sheet? If so, yes ?

Good work my man.

I used to do that, not many have you know ??.

The later panels are a little more difficult to get apart than the earlier ones, think they used a different sealer.

Some interior bits here. I bought some looking mats from Banzai as I always liked the shag pile OEM JDM mats - even though mines a UK. Sadly these all seem to be in various states tattiness these days, if you can find a full set at all. 

 

Mine Came like this, even tattier than the average actually: 

 

I wanted to neaten them up and change the colour - I went through various different dyes and attempts before ending up with a set that looks much better.  I also elected to add a new rubber heel pad while I was at it. (Not sure why the forum is flipping some of these 90 degrees?)

 

I also had some tired looking leather on my seats and over shiny leather on the steering wheel. I had both refurbished - so keeping the original factory leather. Results below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 20223 yr by Peage

Nice work Peage and thanks for sharing. ?

All looks brand new! How did you manage to get the original leather to look that good? looks like it's had a retrim. 

21 minutes ago, Raja93 said:

All looks brand new! How did you manage to get the original leather to look that good? looks like it's had a retrim. 

Wasn't me, paid for a company to do it. They treat, repair and redye the leather in a similar way to how it's done from new I believe.

The company I used is here: https://www.interior-revival.co.uk/leather-car-interior-revival

Looks great bud what did you have done with the seats ?

2 hours ago, gray said:

Looks great bud what did you have done with the seats ?

Thanks! Had them treated and redyed by the company here: https://www.interior-revival.co.uk/leather-car-interior-revival

23 hours ago, Peage said:

Wasn't me, paid for a company to do it. They treat, repair and redye the leather in a similar way to how it's done from new I believe.

The company I used is here: https://www.interior-revival.co.uk/leather-car-interior-revival

They've been added to my 'approved' company list for working on Zed's! Absolutely fantastic finish on yours, looks as good as AndrewG's seats! Anyone who's seen his car knows what I mean. 

Like they’ve never been sat on. ?

Bit of an interior bits and bobs update here.

When the car was on the road before, I fitted some generic boost and temp gauges. I like having a water temp gauge as I like knowing the actual water temp at all times - not the dampened gauge in the stock cluster. I chose these because they best fit the aesthetic of the stock gauges:

 

However, the boost gauge soon became inaccurate so I decided I would switch over to some higher quality gauges while the car is off the road. I liked the look of the Stack gauges but their black gauge face only come with white needles so I purchased with the intent of recolouring them red to better suit the car. 

The standard look:

Modification: 

New Look, used fluorescent needle paint:

 

After removing the needles, both would need recalibrating - as best as I could manage. Water gauge was set according to a food temperature probe and I set my boost gauge while fitted to the car at the same time as doing a boost leak test. I don't have pictures of this but I set it according to the pressure gauge on the leak test bung.

 

I also acquired from Sayers on this forum a Racelogic TC system, with the digital adjuster. I have not fitted this to the car yet (I need to get the car back on it's wheels and turned around in my cramped garage to get access to the passenger side - once I am done with what I am doing on the drivers side). But I have made some changes to the adjuster - again just to better suit the the car... In my opinion anyway. With all digital screens, I have tried to keep as close to the white LCD style of the factory climate control (and clock - but mine is now gone). My wideband gauge, boost controller (HKS EVC S) and (shown later in this post) Tein controller are all white LCD.

 

So I wasn't too keen on the green old Nokia style LCD on the Racelogic. I am not knowledgeable in electronics so I spent more time than I ever really wanted researching LCD screens aiming for a white on black effect. All white on black screens that I could find were only semi compatible - with the issue being, if I could find screens which matched the pins of the original screen, and were white and black, they differed in voltage spec on one of the pins. This basically results in the screen not being driven properly and being pretty much unreadable. 

 

To fix the issue, I removed the component marked with the  red X below and introduced a new power feed to that pin from an external little voltage regulator and just adjusted it to the spec of the new screen, as per the yellow line:

Testing:

 

Final Solution:

And finally, success:

 

I also wanted to dull the bright silver of the adjuster but it seemed a huge shame to just paint it black as it has a nice machined finish. Decided to just wrap it with tint wrap and am happy with the result as it keeps the machined line sheen. Ignore the bubbles on the screen, this was before final fitting so the protector is still applied. Still not sure where to place this - open to suggestions. 

 

Also sourced a used Tein EDFC Pro kit a while back which is compatible with my pre-existing Tein coilovers for a great price on eBay. My clock had already died so I decided to cut into the centre console to place the control unit in the clocks place - it just barely fits but seems the most natural place for it. 

12 minutes ago, Peage said:

So I wasn't too keen on the green old Nokia style LCD on the Racelogic. I am not knowledgeable in electronics so I spent more time than I ever really wanted researching LCD screens aiming for a white on black effect. All white on black screens that I could find were only semi compatible - with the issue being, if I could find screens which matched the pins of the original screen, and were white and black, they differed in voltage spec on one of the pins. This basically results in the screen not being driven properly and being pretty much unreadable. 

That being said you have done a pretty good job there!

2 minutes ago, AndrewG said:

That being said you have done a pretty good job there!

I can thank the hours spent staring with a confused look on my face at far too many manufacturer spec documents for LCD screens. 

The Z has been the reason behind developing more skills and acquiring more kit than I ever planned to... like that chunky lab power supply. I suppose thats a positive though - not sure ?

Do I remember reading in your build thread that you also run a Racelogic? Or did I imagine that? I may have some questions when it comes to the laptop configuration - if you happen to have done any fine tuning of the settings?

Yes I have a RLTC with an analogue controller. The setup and configuration s/w is running on a W7 laptop with a RS232 serial port.

Screen shots of the setup (I referenced this on TT.net http://www.twinturbo.net/nissan/300zx/tech/tc/tc.html)

 

Edited April 14, 20223 yr by AndrewG

34 minutes ago, AndrewG said:

Yes I have a RLTC with an analogue controller. The setup and configuration s/w is running on a W7 laptop with a RS232 serial port.

Screen shots of the setup (I referenced this on TT.net http://www.twinturbo.net/nissan/300zx/tech/tc/tc.html)

 

 

Thats awesome - Thank you for that... will come in very handy when I get to that.

Continuing on the RLTC side of the work... Sadly the used unit I purchased is faulty and the (LONG) story so far on that is here. 

I completed the wiring install, creating connectors for the interception of the injector wires and splicing into the ABS sensor wires at the rear and running new shielded cable to the passenger footwell. New shielded cable was required as my RLTC ABS portion of the loom was cut and very short. 

The fault appeared when doing some initial testing and I could see the wheel speed sensors were showing wild fluctuations, as seen below. 

Keep in mind, the car is on jackstands and definitely not moving when I took these. I ruled out any digital adjuster fault by also checking via laptop and seeing the same incorrect readings. I bought a cheap oscilloscope to troubleshoot the signal coming from the new wires I had run and these checked out as fine and clean. Tested by directly probing the end of my new cable and spinning the wheels with my hands. Clean signal shown below of speed change as I spin the wheel..

 

At this point I thought it was electrical interference and came across some filters that someone was producing in Germany years back to deal with this issue. For those interested you can read his write up on those here: mounting_traction_control_v2.pdf (lotus116.de)  Our passive wheel speed sensors can be very vulnerable to interference. The upshot is he was able to kill wheel speed reading spikes at low speeds on his unit and set a much lower "start" speed where the RLTC starts to function. RLTC has a setting where it will ignore the wheel speed below a certain number because interference is particularly common when the signal is weak (low speed). My example was extreme though and less so spikes - more constant wild speeds. 

I saw this filter was being bundled into group buys over on the Aussie 300ZX forum and widely used over there in our cars, likely elsewhere too at the time? As expected, these filters are no longer available to purchase but the creator was kind enough to provide details in the previously linked PDF so I essentially copied his homework on this to attempt to recreate it. From what I came to learn of the device, it is a low-pass filter which was designed to filter out noise outside of the expected signal range of the wheel speed sensors. Through the process of recreating it, I realised it was not really fit for our cars and, in my opinion, potentially dangerous. His calculations for the components in the filter were based on the VX220 speed sensors - which have far fewer teeth than our cars. Essentially, he figured out the reasonable range of the signal in Hz based on the number of teeth on the sensors, the expected top speed and wheel circumference and then designed the filter based on this. He had some German blogs at the time which I translated, here is the relevant part on his filter design (the 2m circumference must be a faulty translation or typo his side): 

Quote

At a vmax of 300 km/h, a wheel circumference of 2 m and 29 pulses per revolution result in a possible signal frequency of around 1,200 Hz

Our cars have 46 teeth, the VX220 has 29. Wheel circumference is also very likely to be different. I cannot remember the result when I worked it out now but suffice to say that this filter installed on a 300ZX would result in the Racelogic losing all wheel speed signals at a much lower speed than the intended 186MPH. I think it was around 110 MPH or so from memory using my own wheel size, etc. At very least this would disable the traction control but who knows how the system responds to the signal being suddenly reduced when running at that speed and I did not want to find out.

At this point I had the Hz range I needed but this was now far beyond my abilities as some redesign of the components in the filter was required. Thankfully I have a mate who is an electrical engineer and was able to calculate and choose the components needed to rebuild the filter for our cars. Due to the interplay of the components and the components actually available to purchase, a completely custom Hz range is not really possible. What we ended up settling on was a low-pass filter designed to leave the wheel speed signals alone at anything under around 275 KMPH on a 300ZX. 

Excuse the ugliness - It does not look pretty at all, but I don't think that matters. It was made with connectors so it can be easily added or removed in-line on the ABS sensor feed to the RLTC.

I did some testing outside of the car by rigging it up to some the speaker cables for my TV and playing sound tests from YouTube. You can play sound files at a set Hz and this will be seen on the speaker cable and the filter was found to be doing its job within the Hz range we need. One big bonus I noticed was significant smoothing (of the speaker signal at least) within the accepted range of the filter. Below is a screengrab of pictures I sent to my friend who picked the components that show this. You can see the signal smoothness of a 1000Hz signal before it enters the filter and then after. 

So it was all looking great and I was hopeful this would help but when attaching it in-line on in my car... the problem of wild speed signals persisted. This was the case even with no ABS wire connected to the RLTC loom. I then reached out to RaceLogic and they advised me these are (of course) end of life. Eventually though they did offer to take a look for me but I would need to pay for inspection, labour, components, etc and there would be no guarantee of fix with it being end of life and lack of component availability. To be fair to them, they were very reasonable if eventually offering to have a look when it was not initially something they could help with.

By this point I was obviously determined to solve the issue so did send it off. They came back with the following: 

Quote

 

Apologies for the delay in getting to look at your Traction Control module, but I have now spent some time investigating the issue with your erratic wheel speed readings, and in short, I have not been able to absolutely conclude on it, but my suspicion is that the main processor is failing in that area.

 

On initial inspection, and from the image that you sent, I suspected that the primary wheel-speed Op-Amp had failed, but having replaced that, this was not the case.  Moving onto the secondary Op-Amps (WSP1 & 2 go to one of them, and WSP3 & 4 to the other), replacing these also had no affect on the outcome.  All of the resistors and capacitors seem to measure and perform correctly.  

 

Unfortunately this only really leaves the main processor.  A part that has been long obsolete and out of stock.  I did manage to re-flash the firmware code (not an easy task,as it requires DOS commands from a specific LapTop of ours), but that too made no difference.

 

So I am sorry to say that there is no more that I can offer on this occasion.  Obviously I will not charge for the components used but I do have to charge for the inspection.  A member of the admin team will send you and invoice with payment options shortly.

 

Apologies again that we have not been able to provide a more positive result on this occasion.

 

 

Again, Racelogic were doing their best for me and through some further emails they agreed if I could somehow source the processor myself and get it to them, they would attempt replacement and repair. I will not bore you (anymore than I already have) by detailing the process to trackdown these chips (had to be be new and unused, of course). I was eventually able to source some from abroad and yesterday forwarded them onto Racelogic. 

Fingers firmly crossed this will finally solve it.

 

 

Out of curiosity the 4 ABS signal wires into the TC ECU are what colour at the plug?

In the picture below they are all red (circled). They could also be a group of red, blue, yellow and green.

With all the work you have done so far you probably know where I am going with this.

Edited July 8, 20223 yr by AndrewG

They are definitely of the multicoloured variety.

I actually didn't know they could be red so definitely interested to hear where you're going with it. Is red for the non-abs cars by any chance?