lymon

Get a chip first.. That'll most likely solve your detonation problems. -Eric

what kind of injectors do you have ? and what kind of chip ? -Eric

Any hissing sounds from the engine bay ? I suspect one or both big plastic hoses running from the intake to the turbo is either not connected or has split. These hoses are real bitches to get back when reinstalling the engine and since you say the guy that did the work had no experience with Zeds I suspect he didn't know how to get these hoses back (in one piece) The detonation + heat is probably a result of a far too lean mixture, since the turbos are able to "suck" up a lot of extra air that isn't registered by the AFM.. -Eric

Set the timing to 17 degrees by turning the Crank Angle Sensor (You'll have to use a timinglight to do this)

I know an ever cheaper solution: Set the CAS to 17 BTDC (on a TT this can lead to detonation though)

a tempsensor that gives incorrect readings to the ECU can cause the car to run (very) rich. if the exhaust leak is before an O2-sensor it could cause the car to run rich as well, but only on one cylinderbank.. -Eric

yup, on the sides at the back of the engine

Have you checked the PCV valves + hoses ? The rattling sound you hear could be the PCV valve. The PCV's and hoses are at the back of the engine and under the plenum and are a bit hard to get to if they need to be replaced. Also the hose in the middle of the balance tube running to the idle control valve has the tendency to dry out and split. -Eric

black smoke is unburned fuel. together with the rough idle, it seems some cylinders are not getting a good spark. So as Andy said, check the PTU, coilpacks and sparkplugs 90% of the problems like you describe are caused by bad and corroded connectors and wiring...so wiggle the connectors of the coilpacks/PTU/AFM and tempsensor to see if idle improves. If it does you have found the cause. It also might be worthwhile to connect a consult/conzult to the car and see if some sensors are registering faulty values. -Eric

http://www.courtesyparts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CP&Product_Code=22020-00Z32

If they come off a Jspec TT then they'll fit. And it doesn't matter if the car is a 2+2 or 2+0 But I suggest you don't decat your NA (unless they're clogged) ...you'll lose a LOT of low end power. The NA engine needs the backpressure from the cats.

http://www.splparts.com http://www.splparts.com/Z32/Drivetrain/Clutch.asp

Maybe something that might help for getting the shaft in (ehrrr...): (You'll need 2 persons to do this...) While one pushes the gearbox towards the engine, the other turns the crankshaft by hand . I did this a few times this way and it works pretty good...at least a lot better then a lot of cursing while twisting/turning the gearbox until the shaft falls into place. -Eric

Stuart, personally I wouldn't go with Tomei's, because they only have 89mm pistons and a bore of that size is too risky on our engines. One of every 5 blocks once sonic tested will test negative for anything bigger than a 87.5mm piston and may crack if bored bigger. -Eric

I'd check the tension of the belts ? I wouldn't waste too much money on performance upgrading a NA. intake/exhaust, UD-pulley, higher rev-limiter (chip)..that's about it. I currently have a turboed NA (test project car) and it's very fast, but for the extra money spend you have a good TT. -Eric

JUN/JE pistons are made by Cosworth. if you want (cheaper) forged pistons, I suggest you go with Wiseco pistons. you can get them for around $600 (includes polymer coating). The part numbers are k549m875 for 87.5 and k549m88 for 88mm overbores. Compression ratio is 8.55:1. more info: http://twinturbo.net/net/viewmsg.aspx?forum=technical&msg_id=741180&words=polymer

I am beta testing one at the moment. It's a very nice tool, but to make full advantage of it you need to have access to a wideband o2 sensor. Best is to tune your car with the zemulator on a rolling road. You can also switch between any chip image while driving (eg. run the JWT tune around town, the mines tune for the motorway, etc ;)) -Eric

If you disconnect the AFM, do you get the same problem or does it get worse ? It sounds more like you have a huge boostleak somewhere, like a leaking intercooler or one of the recircs has seized, but usually you still get a few psi boost then. Unfortunately you'll have to remove the frontbumper to get good access to the ic's -Eric

Hi Danny, how's life ? My experience with the different exhausts that I have heard/had, is that 85% of the tone is determined by the backboxes and midpipe (aka X-pipe, H-pipe) The tone gets deeper and more racy once you get rid of the cats. Unfortunately you can't make a twinturbo sound like a 355, since the turbos muffle a lot of the sound. On a NA it's a different story...I had a Greddy exhaust on my NA and it made the car sound VERY nice. I also had that same exchaust on my TT and there was almost no difference in sound compared to the stock exhaust. I now have a B&B Triflo (which you heard yourself) and I personally find it is still the nicest sounding exhaust for the TT ;) -Eric

Mark, that's indeed one of the things that have kept me busy lately :) engine internals have not been changed/upgraded. So yes, it still has NA pistons, heads, valves, camshafts, oilpump. It still has a compression ratio of 10.5:1. Things I changed were the injectors, oilpan, oilfilterbracket and I added a few extra oil and waterlines to/from the turbos. I know it's a bit risky...but it's an experiment and sofar the engine holds up fine. A wideband o2 is ideal for tuning your car with the Zemulator and Conzult But once the ideal fuel/timing maps have been created or the mixture has been optimized, you don't really have the need for the sensor anymore. I think EGT's are more usefull in the long run. -Eric

Mark, I have a Zemulator at the moment. I'm beta testing it in my project car (a turboed NA) and I'm looking with Ash Powers into possibilities to combine the Zemulator and ConZult into one device. Anyway ..Sofar the Zemulator is working very well in the Turboed NA. I'm running 0.5 bar of boost on a almost unmodified NA engine (only major modification are 370cc injectors). Did a few testruns against a TT running a JWT chip and 1 bar of boost. The TT had trouble keeping up with the "NA", so it'll be interesting to see what happens if I can get the NA to run higher boostlevels :) -Eric

the wideband alone won't help much...it's just an accurate lambda sensor. To actually make use of it, you'll need something that is able to finetune your mixture like a Electronic Fuel controller(Apexi AFC, Apexi Power FC, HKS F-con, HKS S-AFR, HKS GCC, Greddy Rebic, Greddy Emanage) or something that is able to make realtime changes in your ECU, like the Zemulator. -Eric

The 555's in a car with stock turbos are for safety, which is never a bad thing. Running above 1.1 bar of boost on stock injectors is pushing it and you run the risk of running too lean (which results in high combustion temps, which leads to detonation, etc) Since the 555's can flow more fuel you eliminate this risk.. Anyway, I have several 555 programs and if you already have an upgraded chip: I also have the ability to reprogram your chip to be "compatible" with 555cc (or 740cc) injectors and/or dual intake Contact my if you're interested Mark, I have heard some bad stories about the new AFC...apparently it has a few nasty bugs. Better wait for a new software update -Eric

'90 auto US-spec (stock): http://300zx-twinturbo.com/temp/90at_us.BIN '90 auto EURO-spec (stock): http://300zx-twinturbo.com/temp/90at_euro.BIN '90 auto J-spec (stock): http://cherrypicker.tripod.com/ECU_downloads/M4.bin.BIN simple tune, but should make more power and run safer than the JWT tune: http://cherrypicker.tripod.com/ECU_downloads/300Z.BIN all these images will work in a manual as well, but you will get an diagnostic error code 54: signal circuit from A/T control to ECU, which means that the AT-ECU cannot be found, but this doesn't have any effect on anything. Also read the info on this page..very informative: http://cherrypicker.tripod.com/turboupgradeforvg30dett/id10.html -Eric

Water temp : you can try using the sensor with single wire (black rubber connector), which is used for the stock gauge.. I'm not sure if the sensor works with your gauge though... Don't use the yellow connector, since it's used by the ECU and you very likely f#ck up the ECU's temp readings by splicing it. Oil-pressure: probably you need to get a adapter to fit your sender. There's an article about a VDO sender that should fit without problems on the aussie Zed site. -Eric