mines twinturbo

guys i think the money question is a red herring as the only way anyone would lose money is if every owner started burning their own chips. Most do not have the equipment and would prefer to get their chip installed by a specialist anyway. Most of our cars are such an age that you would and should want a clean bill of health for your car before you chipped it anyway. Dyno charts would not give anything away about how the mapping achieved things. All it would show is how 'good' a chip is vs another. Individuals would anyway choose a variety of chips because most people have different needs. Sure the crappy chips will lose all credibility and probably only then be able to be sold to un-informed owners and there may also be a rush to a clear 'best' chip. Nevertheless what do we need to do to get the cars and the chips on the dyno's in a scientific way - baseline car then chips dyno'd one-by-one Chris

I think it is time for the chips debate to start producing some good data for us all. What we do know is there are many chips out there Good and bad. However most of the knowledge burnt into them is quite old with the bulk of the R & D done many years ago and i would suggest the bulk of the money made back by the respective tuning houses getting a good return on their investment. This has all been and gone during the (at the risk of being controversial) 300zx's hey day. In Japan for example it is claimed that the Mine's :bow: 'Light tune' chip (actually sold within a sealed 're-manufactured' stock ECU complete with a Mine's :bow: plaque on an exchange basis) was the best seller for the 300zx. They used to list three a) Stock engine VXROM b) light tune VXROM and c)Full Tune VXROM which was only fitted to the exchange engine that you bought as a Mine's Full Tune package. Technically these are still available but when you call Mine's or their UK importer and say 300zx they mumble away about nothing left in stock and hard to get stuff nowadays. That tells me that it is a product listed but no longer available. Interestingly stuff like the HKS autobox upgrade is the same, listed but no longer available. The Jim Wolf Technology (JWT) chip is another highly regarded chip whose quality probably reflects the fact that JWT :bow: is the number one tuner for zedz in the US and their chip was the number 1 there. So in true american style you can assume it is the number one selling 300zx chip in the world. (probably may even be true given the number of zedz sold there) Stillen is another well known US name also. There are also some dodgy chips that are very crudely mapped that get 'results' but maybe not to the same quality. e.g. As a former race engine tuner myself it is very easy to get higher horsepower than stock at some point in the rev range but just as easy to do that at the expense of lower down power. You can then claim "our chip does 60hp over stock and gives 10hp over say the JWT chip" but when you look at the data (e.g. a dyno curve) and being 100% honest you may then have to add "also drives worse throughout the rev range gives crappy fuel economy and detonates on all but the best fuel you can find once in every 4 fuel stations." Some people who know all the various chips will tell you which ones they are. Others like me who only know a few of the chips can only tell you what they know and therefore may mis-lead. If you see chips on flea-bay for example claiming this kind of 70 bhp stuff be very wary. I personally would never buy a chip without seeing the dyno curve and I do that realising from my tuning days that truly no two engines are the same so even putting the same chip in different cars may not get the exact same results. :headvswal. Add to that mix your own driving style and preferences, the road and fuel environment of your country and you then have further factors that may make one chip more suitable for you than another. You have to be very careful also driving a car with a chip before you purchase your own because the seat-of-the-pants dyno is often wrong especially in inexperienced drivers. A peaky power curve often 'feels' faster because of the rush you get with a good 'powerband' but in the real world of fast road driving or circuit lap times often lower horse powered cars with good power delivery and torque can beat much higher powered opposition. Perhaps the best known example of this is the legendary Mine's :bow: GTR that holds the lap record at Tsubka complete with its road going interior trim! I only carry a torch for Mine's because IMO they are a REAL tuning house not a publicity shop selling more T shirts than product. Sure the Max power boys will always beat a path to Top Secret because their GTR has 1,000BHP and Mine's only has 585.....So Top Secret's car must be better right???? That is treating cars like a game of Top Trumps and thinking like a school kid. Get that 1,000bhp laggy dyno wonder out of the dyno shop and into the real world and see which car wins. Think about how we all use our cars and which one would really suit us to drive every day or weekend? Now lets consider the moral side of the next section:- As the zed is getting old and the top tuners turn their attentions to newer cars to make their money they are less likely to care about their previous work. As zeds hit the breakers all over the world these chips are turning up everywhere. We could therefore liberate some of these chips and see what is their secret sauce and the data will show us. Most Z specialists will have seen most of the chips by now and if they have the kit can have copied the maps. Some are now 'adding their own value' by slightly modifying these chips for our market. e.g. the JWT chip was mapped for a crap fuel market (the US has generally lower RON fuels than the UK). Although I think the morality of this is dubious (piggybacking someone elses hard gained R&D without permission) I think Z specialists may have earned the right by continuing to hold the torch for the 300zx and adding some value to the blagged source maps in some way. In God we trust all others bring data:- Meanwhile we (the wider 300zx community) are missing the data we need i.e. all the comparitive dyno curves and some lap time data so that we can all make informed choices about chips. I would say we need this urgently to help us all from potential heartache and worse wasted cash. We need at minimum to run a dyno day where each of the main chips are fitted to a single car and back-to-back tests are done. I will propose my car as one of the guninea pigs and I will pay for my cars tests as long as the charts are posted here for the club members viewing. My car is a 92 auto in 'light-tune' state (intake, boost up, intercooler upgrade, aftermarket exhaust) so probably is reflective of a lot of members cars. It has just had new 360degree bearing (but stock size) turbo's and the gearbox re-conditioned / upgraded. The engine is according to ryan at Z-tech "In A1 condition" so it should be a good stable test subject. I have a stock ECU and also the Mine's Light tune ECU. We would need the rest of the main chips and a similar manual box car. I suggest also completely stock auto and manual cars. Making 4 test cars. The really high powered cars really need their own individual mapping anyway so this data would not interest them. For most of the people in the club running stock or mildy tuned cars knowing the data would help alot. Can any of the specialists bring the rest of the chips and suggest a venue / date? We could get one of the mags Jtuner perhaps? to cover the session. If anyone has the data already can we get it posted for everyone's use Chris

If you buy an auto factor in the cost of replacement / upgrade. they are all dying at around 70k kms to 100k kms.........

Seek out the articles from the US circa late 80's / early 90's that had JUN :bow: engined Zeds running 250+mph at bonneville, you may save a lot of time and heartache bro............ I think i have them somewhere to scan and post but its a trip to the loft me-thinks Chris

OH MY GOD TELL ME ITS A PHOTO SHOP WIND_UP. Lets christen it though:- Pay and dismay, The Laughs and the spurious, FrankenZtein, Nissan Scaresladies, When I tell my kids "the world ends everywhere you see a starbucks built" this is why !!!?????!!!! He must have done a shed load of max power drugs before during and after the build !!!!! :(

The front mounted or side mounted debate rages on forever but what I do know is that the intercooler upgrade does make a difference even on a mild car. I first got a Mine's :bow: light tune ECU mapped for the following spec:- Intake filter upgrade, Boost upgrade, aftermarket exhaust and upgraded intercoolers. I fitted the ECU but didn't do the intercoolers until I found some stillen's on flea bay for dirt cheap. So i have a before and after seat of the pants data set. The mine's ECU got me 13 PSI and performance to match. The real and only difference felt with the intercoolers going on was that they just made the car behave consistently like it was a cool day (denser charge getting through?) and i hence got more performance than with the stock units :D I think the positioning of the Z intercoolers is as much to do with their efficiency as well. My stillens have been supplemented by Stillen ducts that ram the air into the bigger surface area so you may want to think about that if you are going to upgrade as when you get in there you will see that even if you did have bigger coolers the air would not naturally want to go there. Chris

Interesting thought but my autobox did this behaviour JUST before it died and took the prop-shaft bearing at the same time. The bottom line is these boxes are 13+ years old and they were at the design limit of horsepower and auto-boxes when they were designed (read z enthusiasts guidebook). Most of our cars (whether we admit it or not) have got autobox timebombs in them. Note adding and HKS ALC :( just accelerates the demise. If you have an auto; start saving now is my advice. If you want to convert to manual do it but if (like me you favour an auto in this big GT car) then get it upgraded & re-built. Mine is right now at Ryans (Z tech) getting the autobox upgrade/re-build. The upside is that the engine is a great design. Mine checked out at 14 years old with great compression, zero oil leaks and sweet as a nut. With its new turbos, oil pump, water pump, belts and autobox I am hoping for another 100,000kms with no sweat. Heres to being re-united Chris

Does anyone know the roll out plan for tesco 99ron? It is obviously what we all need, is way cheaper than optimax and with their turn-over of fuel it should always be fresh as daisies. Come on tesco put something on your website !!!!!

IMHO You need to really think it through. On one level you are getting ferrari performance for mondeo money and yes the quality of jap cars is way good enough to run 13-15 year old cars as daily drivers however............ When the Z was designed some elements were at the peak of the then known engineering. The most obvious is the autobox. If you buy an auto factor in the price of a replacement box as they are all starting to go now and it is not a case of if but when. Another more subtle example is the projector beam lamps which were brand new technology then and as such crap. Factor in the cost of HID upgrade to feel safe at speed at night. Think about it all main ancillaries such as water pump, oil pump, alternator, air con are now reaching the end of their design lives......If that sits ok with you or you buy a car that has had these things done then good luck. The second element is running costs. The Z has almost supercar running costs if the thought of a £500 service makes you wince you should not even be contemplating ownership unless you are a very very competent and experienced auto guy. Similarly if 19mpg of optimax and oil changes every 4,000miles sounds scary get something else. The only thing that offsets this is some parts are nissan cheap. Many are not though. My general rule when people ask me is say you are paying 4K for as good car then bank on paying that again in the first 2 years of ownership. If you plan to upgrade the car double the second figure. If you are planning to run fingers crossed 'save money' mode the car will bite you and turn into an absolute money pit......... If you can commit to the ownership though there is no car like it and unlikely to be for a while. I will run mine until the new Nissan GTR 2+2 arrives on these shores until then i think its the best 2+2 so far by far. Chris

Likewise.......... Fitted ALC, ran great for 3,000 miles, liked the crisp shifts etc. then my box started its death, not changing up revving to limiter in a false neutral then totally died with a horrible graunching noise and lost reverse gear completely.......... Welcome to the club mate these old autoboxes are dying one-by-one and the HKS ALC should be re-named Autobox Life Claimer as it seems to play a part in most of the recent deaths. Thankfully Ztech has my zed over chrimbo for two new 360 degree bearing turbos and a new up-rated autobox. hmmm cannot wait. :D Chris

I got the rear link bushes from luke at the Z-centre (see traders section) and the nismo :bow: upper control arm bushes from courtesy nissan in the US. Ordered them right off the website. I believe that some traders here might be able to get you them though so check out someone like chris at get greddy first. Chris

I run a genuine mine's light tune VXROM ECU (TT Auto version) which gives me 13.5psi and nice fuelling all the way up the range with blisteringly quick mid range response. Guys who have all the maps from the various chips rate is as one of the most aggresive with safe fueling a bit like the JWT chips which appear to be slightly less aggressive. IMHO I would take the JWT or see if you can get a second hand mines's VXROM on flea-bay they turn up all the time as more and more jap z32's get broken. Chris C

Hi Kevin, Just had mine done all round few months ago. See my diary in earlier threads Key note: The energy kit does not include ALL the bushes. The missing parts you will need are front upper control arm bushes (NISMO) ones are recommended. Also you need rear link bushes too as they are not in the 'master bushing kit'. (I got mine from luke at the Z centre) Thirdly the anti-roll bar bushings in the US kit do not fit euro / JDM cars. Finally check your kit has the later design of tension rod bushes as there have been concerns over tension rod failure with older design bushes but evidence seems thin on the ground. Advice it is all a pig of a job and you will need a press to remove many of the bushes. My rear subframe had to have some bushes burned out so be prepared for some long nights and a lack of knuckle skin. The upside is it is a great great upgrade for the car. My 92 JDM TT had been fully re-bushed, new stock dampers fitted with eibach lowering springs and it is PLANTED to the road now. Good luck mate

Yeah I can vouch for these pads. I just fitted the EBC sport disc kit with stainless hoses and ceramic red stuff pads before my autobox went pop. :( Until the bang the brakes were a great upgrade over stock without spending huge money on bigger brakes.

Without being too luddite doesn't the zed have re-circulating valves as standard? Isn't fitting dump valves a retrograde step? Unless you have fitted some seriously big aftermarket turbos what is the benefit? Is it just a matter of getting that 'cool' whooshing sound with actually worse performance?

It most certainly did...........I was well happy with the mod, crisp change sweet performance but short lived. Bottom line is these are 13-15 year old boxes so in hindsight i would have been better off putting the ALC money into a re-con / upgraded box.

No I did consider manual conversion but want auto as i regularly do 300 mile plus journeys sprinting from one end of country to another punctuated by crawling pace on the M6. It is during those bits of the journey you love an auto. I already have an RX8 with six screaming gears for blatting around the twisty bits so I get my fix from that. My 300TT is my mile munching GT. Anyway Luke at Z Tech is fitting a fully re-conned autobox for me and doing the turbos at the same time. Sweeeeeeet :D I thought the HKS ALC would accelerate the demise of the box but didn't realise how crude its operation was and how fast it shagged things. (6 months 10,000miles). My advice stay well clear.

Forgot to mention yes it did have the uprated oil cooler done so that is no guarentee your box won't go ping. Someone asked me about warning symptoms..............Not shifting properly when cold and intermittent holding of the power mode light when booting it.............

Team, The diagnosis of my Zeds death continues. Spoke with a very very knowledgable guy who knows zeds better than most and I am posting this thought because he does not really want to say it in open forum. My HKS ALC :rant: almost certainly accelerated the demise of my autobox. Whilst fitting it did crispen up the shift, it maintains line pressure in the box often when not needed and therefore puts the box under additional stresses that an already 13 year old autobox does not need. When designing the car the team found the best box they could to handle the stock power and then they struggled so it is no wonder all these old boxes are going bang. My advice is factor the cost of a new autobox into a purchase price of a zed auto now as it is definitely a case of not if but when it will blow. As principled individual my ALC is not going for secondhand sale, it will be burned in my garden bonfire. It seems the zed world would be a better place without them ! Anyway J300TTR is going to z tech for new box, two new full bearing turbo's and nismo suspension as well as some other cosmetic stuff. Will keep everyone updated

Guys the latest my box is shot, has lost reverse and is making a horrible noise. This slipping describe in the thread was the start of the demise. I Will contact ryan for advice on replacement. What else should I do if the box is out? Chris

this describes some of my symptoms having changed the transmission oil and fitted an autobox oil cooler upgrade. it only happens when cold so was wondering if it is due to recent cold snap. If anything my box is slightly overfilled too. No burnt oil, no metal bits just weird shifting Thoughts anyone?

auto box level good, oil ruby red no metal particles at all. beginning to believe it was propshaft bearing that went...........(hoping)

Well Guys, It happens to us all i guess the z died last night. Been noticing an autobox shifting problem lately that I'd put down to the cold snap and cold oil. As some of you may know I fitted the HKS Automatic Line Shifter some time ago and the z centre auto box oil cooler upgrade recently (5,000miles ago). There has been a noticeable cooling of transmission running temperature since fitting the cooler upgrade on high speed long distance journeys, where the heat that I used to feel through the handbrake boot is much lower. The shifting problem was the box not shifting up at full power with overdrive off until the car was about 5 miles into a journey. Maybe connected anyways............... Yesterday had a high speed sprint vs. a mild supra TT (totally evenly matched) then I had to get over to manchester (40 mile trip) late a night which was done at high speed. On turning off the motorway and coasting down the slip road the transmission started to make a horrible graunching noise which got worse and I limped into a hotel car park with the car by this time making an awful noise. AA trailered it home where pushing it back into the drive in neutral you could feel a 'notchiness' (in the propshaft bearing perhaps?). Of course my hope is that it is a prop-shaft bearing issue but it could be something more serious and buried in the autobox. Have dipped to trans oil and there is no metal in there so.........? Thoughts? :bow: Relevant Spec details:- 1992 JDM Twin turbo Auto Mines Light tune ECU Blitz Air filter Hard pipe kit Stillen intercoolers UK rear wheels HKS ALC line controller

Amen to that My HICAS is superb now all the bushes have been done. Makes and agile car even more so without it having knife edge handling!!!!

Anybody on the list retro-fitted the Original US suspension set-up (with damping force adjustment front and back) ? Wondered how much of a job it would be on a JDM car. New dampers? Actuators, Associated loom? Switch? etc. Chris