Hub280ZX

Wellcome Noz! I am reading the thread "What's a sensible boost for a 300zx on stock engine?" with upmost interest! I hope that you continue to develop your knowledge with us, Thanks!

Well... This is reactive forum! Thanks for all the answers and the lot of information! John, thanks for the details, and I will mail you for the wiring diagram info. Here are some comments to your answers: 1. First thing I will do is implement a Lambda probe to have it connected to the Emerald Ecu and software. I have had the use of it with the ZX, and I have difficulties to imagine any real data without AFR values!! 2. The fuel consumption was 90 liters for 750 kilometers. This is like you speaking in stones for my weight (!), so let's look at numbers that tell you something: 90 liters is 19 gallons for 450 miles, and this gives 23 miles per gallon! Not that bad, and I was not really expecting much less, however I was learning the drive with the car, and it was mainly on wet. I could not see any black cloud at the back of the car when pushing for fun (I could not resist when the road became dry in France, and even if my wife was side to me in the car!!). Maybe I am just having the cloud of small drops of water sticking the exhaust fumes on the back of the car, and this is giving me false impression. But I will know more when the AFR reading will be there, and I will check temperatures as suggested. 3. So, the cam angle sensor is using a lower resolution disk, but is connected. I will have to find the input channel to the ECU, and the wiring diagram should help. This device on the engine is very efective, and it would have been a pitty not to use it! I suppose that this is also the condition to have the injectors working fully sequential. 4. I will re-connect the racelogic traction control as it works from the ABS sensors. If I want to use the Emerald option for this, I will have to implement 4 new sensors on the wheels, and this could come later for other options like gear identification. I have a K6 version on the ZX that I have trained on. The one here on the 300 TT is a K3 I suppose. There is a clutch switch activated in the configuration, but I have to check if the wiring is done. This could be for the full throttle shift, but not sure that I will use this! I send you a mail John, so that you can return the wiring diagram. Tell me if you recieved it. Thanks again for all the data! The car pushes like a missile already, and I was smiling reading your comment October 2010 when you had some words about the mapping..."there is probably more in this.." How much more???:drool: Thanks to all of you for your immediate information! Even far away, the forum is definitely a real connection for knowledge and experience! Slick Pete, if I read correctly, you are the first with Emerald on non turbo version... and I have the first car with Emerald on TT version. Yes you are the original! Thanks! Jaffa, I feel less alone when I see that similar cars have Emerald management. I am sure I will have further questions for you! Mark, thanks for the message to John, and the further info on traction control.

Beside the very intersting thread discussing (finally!) about what are the real advantages of a good engine mapping, I would like to show you my small part of the Emerald learning on the subject... Maybe in my presentation http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?166760-A-Z32-driven-to-France-for-a-new-or-continued-life-into-a-nice-home! you have pointed that my Emerald experience started two years ago with the 280ZX IMSA Supercharged. The car was in parts with the supercharger, Sprintex 30 years old, not even assembled on the engine. The existing Emerald management on there was DOS based, and turned rapidly to a piece of museum history. Emerald proposed an exchange (half the price) for the latest version K6 unit. After two years, the car was in Spa Classics... on the track! (still with some issues...) but drove me from France to Spa, had the track sessions, and back to France! Emerald did provide a basic map, but there was no experience on superchargers with 2.8L datsun L28 engines. I succeeded to start the car, and after that I went through a learning curve that finally made me familiar with most of the parameters and possibilities of the system. I moved the power from 150bhp to some 250bhp with a small 7 psi boost on that engine from 1979. The forged pistons and the compression ratio lowered under 8:1 was giving enough flexibility without the risk of blowing the thing on a mistake! I now have the conviction that this car will stand 300 good bhp's, and i am in the process of changing the supercharger for a more recent one...and start again the mapping with 16-18psi boost! Now here come the real subjet with the 300ZX TT! Beside this supercharger project, I discovered the BazzaJG modified car... also using Emerald, and that gave me the idea of moving one step ahead with the Nissan VG30 TT! Some quite long discussions to clear the details and the UK origin to be sure to import it without too many problems, and the deal was done. I had a trip to Manchester, met Barry at airport, had a test drive with him and on my own, and that was it: I drove the car back to Reims. That drive was under pouring rain, but the car was safe, providing you were not pushing hard on flooded motorway! Barry did say to me that technical questions were not his favorite, so I got the whole file of what had been done, and for the questions, he gave me the names of the UK specialists involved. I must admit that the car is a real nice one, very powerfull, but also very drivable. Now that I am back here, I still have to discover quite a number of specials about the car, but I retrieved the maps and configuration with a computer to have a look at the data. No one here in France knows about Emerald, maybe apart a few Elise or Caterham specialists. So I am left with the same discovery as the one I had with my first experience, however I have a car driving nicely... and reaching the 500bhp line. I then started to read about Emerald experience with this model, learning about John Dixon who actually mapped the car that I have. This mapping was the first ever TT unit managed with Emerald back in October 2010, and it looks like I have a driving car, but probably not really optimized at that time: 1. There is no Lambda probe connected to the management, so no chance to look at the ratios for optimizing the fuel/air mix. 2. As a consequence, the car was black coated at the back after the 400 miles drive down home, and the mix looks very rich. 3. The Cam Angle Sensor had synchronization problems with the original 360 holes disk, and I do not know if it was replaced with something else, but what I know is that it is not connected to the management ECU 4. The racelogic traction control is disconnected, supposely to avoid any influence on the mapping if tires are sliding on rolls. The question is wether this traction control uses ABS sensors to act on injectors, or if wheel sensors are installed, so that the full throttle gearchange can be activated in the management. All these questions are probably to be answered by John as he installed the Emerald system, and Dave at Emerald would not know the configuration. Barry, the previous owner is trying to get in touch with John Dixon, but he has no answer. I hope that I can reach him (or he can read those lines?) so that I would know what has been implemented at the start, and what is new since this first installation... Anyone knows how to contact him, or ask him to have a look here? Thanks for your help!

Richard, thanks for your warm wellcome to a froggie that finds your forum of upmost interest! Sure i will not hesitate to post any questions on here as I can feel there is a lot of knowledge shared with specialists. The french forums are more "drift" oriented, and this is not my cup of tea. Osty1, the cherry on the cake is more the size of a garden tomato! I had long exchanges with Barry before confirming my decision, and this was for two reasons: 1. The spec of this Z32 is such that you cannot have a quick summary around it: "Power with driveability" is exact definition, and I can confirm this with the flooded safe drive I had from Manchester home! 2. Looking at the total invoices for this result, you just wonder why it comes for sale! You then try to find the hidden black hole that justifies such a decison to sell...but i cannot find any! The meeting was just giving me the confirmation that honesty was part of the deal: I like that! Thanks again Barry! The display of the cars is open to any member here driving through Reims! I have two limits to this only: I am travelling quite a lot, so hopefully your dates will coïncide with mine for avaliability, and I hope that you are not organising a club meeting in my place... as the space is limited! Beside this, you are wellcome when the opportunity is there! I am sure that some of you were dissapointed to see this car going to France, but it has now a nice new home with all the required attention!... and enjoyment! Thanks again for you warm messages, and I hope I can return this in the future.

Andrew, thanks for the technical information! Emerald Ecu is working the same way as the OEM ECU, so the ABS sensors can be used by the Racelogic system with the "intercept" of the injectors signals. I just wanted to insure that there was no incompatibility there. The existing wiring sould be OK! Barry, thanks for the information too. The re-connection should then be quite easy, without any influence on the other parameters. I will look at the wiring installed, and raise further questions if any.

Hi Barry! The pleasure was shared with your wife and your brother (even if we came close to a diplomatic risky situation with the talks about performance as we were gone for the test drive!). The drive back home was a discovery, but the more I was driving, the more Catherine was enjoying it! When men's toys are sold to the wifes, you cannot be better!! I will try to keep the philosophy of your car: "drivable beast with nothing as a compromise", hoping that you will enjoy the future of it, and not regret too much the decision to sell it... We keep in touch! Hubert

Starting to track things that are not fixed on my Z32 TT, and I have a first question after my presentation in the newbies section: The Emerald ECU has been mapped and gives 501 Bhp according to the test report: Fine. The Racelogic traction control has been disconnected for this mapping, and I wonder if this was just for performance measurements without the interference of the racelogic, or if there is some non compatible reason for this disconnection? I suppose that the racelogic system on a Z32 is connected on the ABS sensors to detect rotation speed differences from each wheel? To have a power adjustment, the racelogic system is also connected to the injectors, so that it "cuts" the fuel delivery according to the detection. Anyone knows if there is a difference between Emerald drive of injectors and other ECU drives? I know that the emerald ECU is driving the injectors by actuating them with permanent live on them, and opening signals through a mass contact. Emerald is also using independant wheel sensors for detection: Is this due to non compatibility with ABS sensors? Thanks for information if anyone has experienced the same issue!

Thanks Agl89 and Gary! The Capri was once qualified as "the worst handling car to drive on the road"! This is good training to learn before switching to other propulsion models...! The 300ZX is awesome, and I am still going through the details about what has been implemented. The engine is one side of it, with a serious job done, but the chassis, suspension, brakes, etc...have also been modified to have a "drivable" version with that power level. I was really convinced when driving the car!

Andrew, take the opportunity, and tell me when your next plans are fixed! It will be a pleasure: We have the old Reims historical 12 hours racing track (or some left!), and a kind of local sparkling wine that I am sure you will appreciate! Jaffa, fantastic present indeed! What modifications?? :tt2: This is just a british original Nissan import that has the same hologuation as any EEC model!! When coming from Japan or the US as private import even to UK first, the car cannot be registered without a complete check... meaning a lot of time and money to go through the steps... or even impossible when a single component not corresponding to the homologated version! The rules are more flexible for cars 30 years old... but this is still a long time to wait! The only required obligation is an expert report for the insurance company, and this is planned. Now, with the camera and speed control that we have here, the car will show the real performance on the track... or on german motorways...

Some pictures! The 300ZX TT driven back: The Capri CC Racing: And the article in Classic Ford Jan 2009: The Roadster 2000 Sport: The classic 240Z: The first 280ZX: And the 280ZX IMSA Supercharged: And wellcome to Reims for anyone coming to France!!

:thumbup: Merry Christmas to all of you! Many thanks to BazzaJG and his wife for their kind attention on my visit to Manchester to view the car in reality. The test drive was under flodding rain, but succeeded to have it safe! A very nice example of Z32 somehow heavily updated and very impressive. The deal was confirmed and we drove back to London first with my wife (no fear and delighted!), spent the Saturday in the city, and finished the drive to Reims on the Sunday... finally with wet road, but no more rain! The french MOT is done a OK, and I have the homologuation certificate to finalize the french registration quite soon... And I am still discovering all that has been implemented on this unit! So now, where is this nice Z32 going to have its new life? After decades of road eating due to my sales job, mainly with Mercs estate versions, the come back to more classic cars started with Ford Capris. I bought my first new car back in 1979, and this was kept since for a re-use. The original engine was weak with the V6 2.0 liters, and I swapped it with a 2.8L V6 for better performance. Coil-overs, transmission changed to 5 gears, rear suspension modified wit rigid triangles, thicker swaybars... and start of some trackdays for fun. Nice model, completed with the FC003 CC Racing Francorchamps Capri later, and the V6 3.1L Essex engine. Also a very nice example with much better handling on track, and some history drives at Spa francorchamps for the real fun. Datsun and Toyotas were my second choice on that initial purchase in 1979, but the price did not allowed the decision for any of them... but they were present in my memory with some nostalgy! I then decided to find a 280ZX and have a taste with the history of datsuns. That was done three years ago. I turned it back to triple Webers fo a more agressive drive, and it fullflled the target. But I do not like cars staying alone, so I decided to have a more powerfull one! Mike Feeney had an IMSA turbo version that was planned for supercharger, but never finished. He decided to sell it, and I completed the installation with Emerald management. The sprintex M-110 (25 years old) was providing a small 7 psi boost, but some nice extra power. I had a problem with the Sprintex recently as I was driving to Magny Cours for a track day, and the project is now on work for update with a more recent Sprintex superchager, expecting now 20 psi boost... I also have a traditional 240Z from 1975, and a Datsun Roadster 2000 Sports version, so that I can have the track days with my Daughter! Now comes the Z32, and basically, reading about the work done on this one, I realised that I could not do it for the price it was sold! So the family is enlarging, and I will wait for some dry days to have some drive with the 500 Bhp beast! You know everything now, and part of my choice was induced by my experience learning about Emerald K6 management on the 280ZX IMSA supercharged, and the fact that this Z32 is using the same management with twin turbos. I will soon place some pictures of the cars, and have some questions about the 300ZXTT and accessories implemented!:thumbup1: