I'm looking into buying a 86' turbo 3.0 v-6 datsun 300 Zx 5 - speed for 1500 and it's in almost perfect condition. I was wondering what some power specs are on the car and what are some pros and cons of the vehicle.

I'd appreciate the feedback , Thanks !

well im told through my research its about 200 hp at the fly wheel and 170 to the ground
and as for the 1\4 is about 15.4
and 0 to 60 is 7.4
the numbers arent exactly outragous but can be helped a bit with the right mods and

for a list of some of them just go to z31.com

and ive found a few tricks like an externally mounted spring instead of bleed off theres also another method where the bled off air goes into the charged side of ther pipe also but the springs is cheaper but anyway if you dont wanna mod it i dont wanna rave it

the stickies have all the information you'll ever need... if you can't find it in there or by searching the forums, try z31.com, and if you still can't find the answer, then ask...

lol its in the stickies not hard to find

Thanks for the info , I am selling my camaro and want a lighter - 5 speed - car and the fact it's a turbo was a bonus.

I plan on modding the living hell out of it but I don't know any performance parts for the Datsun , I've always been a camaro and prelude guy.

your on the right track. Plenty of guys here that can help you, and have lots of knowledge on the very car you interisted in.

yes we can im new to the 300zx but am learning and have learned some good mods to start out with

i recomand that you start w/ the intercooler.. it's really hard to find a cheap intercooler for z31. the cheapest is speraco intercooler. i got it from http://www.expressautoparts.com for $635. 7inch h, 20 inch w. 2.5 inch piping.
what i started w/ was the boostcontroller. that was really bad.
so no boost controller w/out intercooler or you will pay alot to fix this z31. z31 parst are soooooo expen$ive.
then you can get HKS exhaust system. it's really nice. good sound and will give you around 10 more HP. cost around $350.

buying intercooler kits, i've figured by now, is for chumps... buy the intercooler seperate... save yourself like $300 bucks and get the aluminum piping bent up by the local shop... as long as you can use a measuring tape and have half a brain, it'll work out just fine... hell you could even take out the plastic pieces and bring it into the shop with you...

you can save a whole lot of money just by researching something and doing it yourself.... anytime you buy something brand name or in a prepackaged kit... you're paying way more than you should be...

just my .02

well actually a intercooler is not a needed item unless you plan to exceed 8 psi i am told and if you get an aftermarket ball bearing turbo it raises that number higher
now the reason being that you lose a slight amount of boost andf the chargde is cooled only so much so the result is that you boost the turbo up more to get the same psi and as a result the turbo has to woirk harder so unless you go aboce 8 psi then start with the exaust then the intake then get a boost controller and go to 8 psi
if still not enough power get the intercooler and go to 10 i dontr recomend going past 10 without an intercooler at any time unless yopu have really high octane then you can hit 12 usually with little or no problems
good luck and is it electronic controlled suspention
and does it work if it is???
mine is and i love it just dont hit too many bumps at 110 and try and slow down aty the same time in firm lol and also dont try and switch the position iof the knob whil;e hiting bumpos it usually sets mine into fail safe mode (all lights blinking on the knob)

I wouldn't waist my money on a intercooler, unless one was already installed is not as efficient as water/alky injection. With a IC, when you run high boosts you have to retard the timing to help keep from detonation. With water/alky injection you can advance the timing and also run more boost. Advance timing=power.

Can I get a waste gate and a turbo timer for this car ? I heard just getting a turbo timer can give you anywhere from 5 - 15 Hp.

I also want my turbo to go woosh. =D

To my understanding , the guy that is selling it has done a few things to it I guess like a K&N intake or whatever and a kevlar 5 point clutch , adjustable suspension which was like 800.00 and thats about it.

I just want the 0-60 to drop down to abuot 6. - 6.5 seconds. 7.4 seconds is too high. I know it has like 200 hp and 227 ft lns torque but is it possible to push them up to 250 Hp and around 280 ft lbs of torque without having to touch the internals or do any ECM tweaking ?

I don't know anythign about these cars but i'm willing to put forth the effort and some money to try to get her down to 12 seconds .

yah.. that's what i said before" i don't want to waist my money on the intercooler" guess what. I paid more than the intercooler cost to fix my car because of the high boost. i was running my car w/ 12 boost and had alot of problems. paid almost $700 for parts and labor... get the intercooler if you think about higher boost. it's the first thing you should think about. i have 3 Zs. and I have ouned 7 Zs in my life... for z31.... you will have alot of problems and some parts are hard to find in good shap in junk yard..

well z 31 . com will give you instructions on how to acheive that and as i said you can get the externally mounted spring in place of the boost controller and just pik up a boost gauge (liquid filled psi gauge going to atleast 15 psi (make sure you dont try and max it that will pop your motor in a sec but anyway

yes you can easily mod it to get 250 horse and the cost will be under 500 for those mods and it sur does make a snappy difference im not sure how acurate \his numbers are i did that amoungst others to mine and hmm sure is quick but i also did weight reduction also alot of it at that but you shouldnt be unhappy with your purchase

and for comparison my freind has an 89 camaro 305 5 speed that is actually about the best running 305 ive ever seen buit any way i smoked him in my 86 naturally asperated and my turbo made him look like a joke


and also to add to your list of mods get an electric fan in place of the mechanicle and ditch the ac and if you dont mind no pwr string that can go too but im the only person who seems tio feel that way everybody else says they prefer to keep it .... not me
and replacer the timing belt ...
do it by first taking off the valve covers and loosening the rocker arm shafts to prevent harmful spinning oif the cams causeing bent valves i found out the hard way and i still wannna cry but that was the na now i only need bearings for my turbo and im good to go

yah.. that's what i said before" i don't want to waist my money on the intercooler" guess what. I paid more than the intercooler cost to fix my car because of the high boost. i was running my car w/ 12 boost and had alot of problems. paid almost $700 for parts and labor... get the intercooler if you think about higher boost. it's the first thing you should think about. i have 3 Zs. and I have ouned 7 Zs in my life... for z31.... you will have alot of problems and some parts are hard to find in good shap in junk yard..

You didn't read my post. I said use a water/alky injection system. Better cooling and no restrictions. Been using it an my street Z and running 20+lbs boost and never had 1 minutes problem with it. Anyone that runs high boost without some sort of cooling will end up with problems.

turbo timer as in the timer that allows it to run for several minutes after you turn it off to allow the turbo to cool????
just let it idle
or the ignition timer that adjusts the timing to increased boost at a set rate?

turbo timer will not add any hp... it just allows the car to run for a programmed amount of time with the key out of the ignition.. it's just a precaution after driving hard and heating up your oil... if you don't allow it to idle and circulate the oil, you'll cook the bearings in your turbo

hey how exactly (roughly) did you hook up the water alkyly injection???
just so i get a rough idea to play with while i replace my bearings...

and what is alkyly????
you just use windsheil;d wahser spray pump and anytime you use high boost have it turn on from the c terminal in the tps?????
what is the ratio of alkyly to water???
does it come premixed
where can i get it ???
please help

and what is alkyly????
you just use windsheil;d wahser spray pump and anytime you use high boost have it turn on from the c terminal in the tps?????
what is the ratio of alkyly to water???
does it come premixed
where can i get it ???
please help

its alcohol...and ask zgringo for the mixture...i think it is like 60/40 or something like that. 60 being water...

zgringo is the pro when it comes to water injection...i dont know if a windshield washer spray will provide a fine enough spray/mist. you need an injector of some sort...you know like a fuel injector, it actually sprays the gas in your engine, it doesnt stream it like a garden hose.

alot of pepl use regular windshield washer fluid all it isi alchol and water mixedwith dye

alot of pepl use regular windshield washer fluid all it isi alchol and water mixedwith dye

really??? i didnt know that...

but would the windshield fluid sprayer supply a fine mist like, what is needed run a water injection system??? i dont think it would. even when you add the little nozzle, it still isnt a mist. hot air will absorb some of it but if the spray isnt fine enough water will get in your engine and thats not good. your just trying to cool your air with the water and it vaporizes instantly.

and cant you just use regular water...its just not as effective as the water/alky mixture.

yep you can use regular water, there's a good article i was just reading on it at 300zxclub.com in the z31 section... i think al made a big post on it here a while back... maybe try searching it and see if you come up with something?

I tried to find the post "D" but it's lost somewhere's in the jungle.
Windshield washer fluid is 75% water an 25% alky. It works fine for everyday use, but if your running Hi boost and no intercooler it would be best to use a mixture of 60%-40%. If your running IC then 75-25 is great.
And no you can't use a windshield washer pump. It don't put out enough pressure to create a fine mist spray as needed.
In an effort to run more boost without having to resort to running race gas full time, and to help keep our engine cool during extended high-speed runs such as hot lapping, we installed an Snow competition water/alky injection system. Unlike the crude windshield washer pump-based systems of old, the Snow system uses a sophisticated, solid-state, piston-type pump that pumps the water at 125 psi. At this high pressure, there is little likelihood that boost pressure can reduce water flow significantly. A windshield washer pump, by contrast, can only run 10 to 20 psi. If you only have a 10 psi water pump and are running 20 psi of boost pressure, you will end up reverse-flowing boost pressurized air throughout your water/alky injection system. Water/alky injection relies on water's naturally high specific heat, which means it requires a lot of heat to change liquid water into water vapor (steam). The high specific heat is one of the reasons why water is an excellent coolant. When injected into an engine, water does several things. When it is first injected, some of the water vaporizes absorbing heat from the incoming intake stream. This helps cool the hot intake charge in much the same way nitrous oxide injected into the intake of a nitrous-equipped car does. Since the Z's stuffy engine compartment and intake tract suffer from heat soak, we will really need this intercooling effect. Once inside the combustion chamber, the water is fully vaporized into steam. This vaporization absorbs a tremendous amount of heat from the combustion reaction, helping cool the engine internally to prevent glowing hot spots (areas of self-ignition where detonation propagates). The heat absorbed from the water's phase change also acts to buffer the combustion event, slowing it down. Thus, the water helps regular pump gas behave much like slow, controlled-burn, high-octane race gas. The superheated steam also acts like a powerful steam cleaner inside of the engine, removing compression-raising, hot-spot-propagating carbon deposits from the combustion chamber and spark plugs. This is a pretty cool side benefit of water injection. Since water absorbs power-producing heat, it does not produce quite the same horsepower per psi of boost as race gas does, but it does allow quite a bit of additional boost. Because of its cooling and combustion buffering effects, water also goes a long way to eliminate engine-damaging detonation. The Snow water/alky injection system uses a unique proprietary atomizer nozzle to introduce the water to the intake air stream. The nozzle produces a range of droplet sizes from a fine fog to a coarse mist. This helps the water work more efficiently. The fine water fog vaporizes almost immediately, helping reduce the intake air temperature by about 20 to 30 degrees. The larger droplets do not vaporize until they reach the combustion chamber where they can perform their internal cooling and combustion buffering duties. All of the droplets are small enough where the even distribution of water throughout the manifold plenum is assured. Since most modern fuel injected cars have manifolds that are designed to flow dry air only, not a mixture of liquid and air, the maintenance of correct water droplet size is critical for even cylinder-to-cylinder water distribution. Since we first tried the Snow system, we have had nothing but success with water injection for both increasing power and getting more reliability out of heavily boosted engines. The Snow an Aquamist system works so well that almost all of the psycho turbocharged Group-A rally cars in Europe use this exact system with up to 3 bar of boost. Some rally cars use two pumps with multiple nozzles for even more water flow. In fact, the European-market Ford Sierra Cosworth uses this system as original equipment from the factory! This alone speaks highly of the system's reliability and performance. In previous testing, the Snow system was able to keep a turbocharged SE-R's engine from getting coolant temperatures above 200 degrees during hard track lapping on a 100-degree day. Stock SE-Rs will normally overheat under these conditions, no less turbocharged. This is a strong testament to the ability of water injection to keep an engine from overheating under extreme conditions. Since the Z's tight engine compartment suffers from poor air circulation and the Z is also prone to overheat under track conditions, the Snow system is going to be one of our strategies to help keep the engine cool and in one piece at the track. The Snow system can be tuned using different sizes of jets ranging from 0.40 mm to 1.0 mm. We opted for twin 0.5 mm jets, treating our engine as two, small 1500-cc three-cylinder engines. We used the Z's rear-mounted windshield washer reservoir as the water holding tank for the Snow system, since the Z is so tight that there was no place else to fit an additional water tank. Because of the Z's lack of space, we were forced to mount the Snow pump to the backside of the front bumper support. This sounds less than ideal, but because space goes for such a premium in a Z, this was literally the only place we could find! To partially offset the power-reducing, internal-quenching effect produced by the water, a leaner fuel-air mixture and more ignition advance can be run. Advancing timing on a turbocharged engine that has been retarded to avoid detonation will not only increase power output, but also reduce exhaust gas temperature--a good thing. JWT will program a special ECU that has a special map to complement the water injection system once we get close to getting our engine running. The water injection system is almost like having a perpetual tank full of race gas--without the $5-per-gallon cost. After all, water is cheap. For once in the history of hot rodding, something can be done for nearly nothing. As an interesting side note, water injection also reduces toxic oxides of nitrogen emissions by reducing combustion temperatures. All of these advantages and cleaner air to boot.

wow nice article i think it took me 10 mins to read and about those rally cars running it on their cars ive heard this and pretty cool because it is a really cheap efficient system and dayumn 3 bar .....

i didnt know the cosworth however came stock with the water/alky injection system interesting...


how much did the Snow competition water/alky injection system cost??

Ok , I went ahead and bought the vehicle , Apparently it was listed wrong and it's an 84' but anyways , Runs like a top. Boost seems to work proper. I did some dieting for it today , Completely removed the entire A/c system and brackets. On a side note , that damn ac motor bracket was a bitch to get off. So that's up for grabs , 50.00 Plus shipping and you get it all if anyone wants it. It's a new A/c motor too. Yes - To the earlier question of it having the electric control suspension. The guy put coil overs in the back , I'm going to cut the stock cat out and put a magna flow hi-flo cat in probably tomorrow. I stripped the interior - The carpet was shot. All the panels from the door back are up for grabs too if anyone wants them. They are a light brown and none are broken.

I do have one issue though , I hit about 35 mph and my speedometer quit on me , Now the bastard doesn't work at all.

Does anyone know what's up with that ? Is it just a fuse somewhere , a short , Or is the gauge blown ? I'd really like to get it working since I don't quite have insurance on the car yet and getting pulled over for speeding and being asked for insurance papers would be a bad thing.

Thanks for the feedback in advance guys !

The Z is a great car. Smoked me a Civic XD

I tried to find the post "D" but it's lost somewhere's in the jungle.
Windshield washer fluid is 75% water an 25% alky. It works fine for everyday use, but if your running Hi boost and no intercooler it would be best to use a mixture of 60%-40%. If your running IC then 75-25 is great.
And no you can't use a windshield washer pump. It don't put out enough pressure to create a fine mist spray as needed.
In an effort to run more boost without having to resort to running race gas full time, and to help keep our engine cool during extended high-speed runs such as hot lapping, we installed an Snow competition water/alky injection system. Unlike the crude windshield washer pump-based systems of old, the Snow system uses a sophisticated, solid-state, piston-type pump that pumps the water at 125 psi. At this high pressure, there is little likelihood that boost pressure can reduce water flow significantly. A windshield washer pump, by contrast, can only run 10 to 20 psi. If you only have a 10 psi water pump and are running 20 psi of boost pressure, you will end up reverse-flowing boost pressurized air throughout your water/alky injection system. Water/alky injection relies on water's naturally high specific heat, which means it requires a lot of heat to change liquid water into water vapor (steam). The high specific heat is one of the reasons why water is an excellent coolant. When injected into an engine, water does several things. When it is first injected, some of the water vaporizes absorbing heat from the incoming intake stream. This helps cool the hot intake charge in much the same way nitrous oxide injected into the intake of a nitrous-equipped car does. Since the Z's stuffy engine compartment and intake tract suffer from heat soak, we will really need this intercooling effect. Once inside the combustion chamber, the water is fully vaporized into steam. This vaporization absorbs a tremendous amount of heat from the combustion reaction, helping cool the engine internally to prevent glowing hot spots (areas of self-ignition where detonation propagates). The heat absorbed from the water's phase change also acts to buffer the combustion event, slowing it down. Thus, the water helps regular pump gas behave much like slow, controlled-burn, high-octane race gas. The superheated steam also acts like a powerful steam cleaner inside of the engine, removing compression-raising, hot-spot-propagating carbon deposits from the combustion chamber and spark plugs. This is a pretty cool side benefit of water injection. Since water absorbs power-producing heat, it does not produce quite the same horsepower per psi of boost as race gas does, but it does allow quite a bit of additional boost. Because of its cooling and combustion buffering effects, water also goes a long way to eliminate engine-damaging detonation. The Snow water/alky injection system uses a unique proprietary atomizer nozzle to introduce the water to the intake air stream. The nozzle produces a range of droplet sizes from a fine fog to a coarse mist. This helps the water work more efficiently. The fine water fog vaporizes almost immediately, helping reduce the intake air temperature by about 20 to 30 degrees. The larger droplets do not vaporize until they reach the combustion chamber where they can perform their internal cooling and combustion buffering duties. All of the droplets are small enough where the even distribution of water throughout the manifold plenum is assured. Since most modern fuel injected cars have manifolds that are designed to flow dry air only, not a mixture of liquid and air, the maintenance of correct water droplet size is critical for even cylinder-to-cylinder water distribution. Since we first tried the Snow system, we have had nothing but success with water injection for both increasing power and getting more reliability out of heavily boosted engines. The Snow an Aquamist system works so well that almost all of the psycho turbocharged Group-A rally cars in Europe use this exact system with up to 3 bar of boost. Some rally cars use two pumps with multiple nozzles for even more water flow. In fact, the European-market Ford Sierra Cosworth uses this system as original equipment from the factory! This alone speaks highly of the system's reliability and performance. In previous testing, the Snow system was able to keep a turbocharged SE-R's engine from getting coolant temperatures above 200 degrees during hard track lapping on a 100-degree day. Stock SE-Rs will normally overheat under these conditions, no less turbocharged. This is a strong testament to the ability of water injection to keep an engine from overheating under extreme conditions. Since the Z's tight engine compartment suffers from poor air circulation and the Z is also prone to overheat under track conditions, the Snow system is going to be one of our strategies to help keep the engine cool and in one piece at the track. The Snow system can be tuned using different sizes of jets ranging from 0.40 mm to 1.0 mm. We opted for twin 0.5 mm jets, treating our engine as two, small 1500-cc three-cylinder engines. We used the Z's rear-mounted windshield washer reservoir as the water holding tank for the Snow system, since the Z is so tight that there was no place else to fit an additional water tank. Because of the Z's lack of space, we were forced to mount the Snow pump to the backside of the front bumper support. This sounds less than ideal, but because space goes for such a premium in a Z, this was literally the only place we could find! To partially offset the power-reducing, internal-quenching effect produced by the water, a leaner fuel-air mixture and more ignition advance can be run. Advancing timing on a turbocharged engine that has been retarded to avoid detonation will not only increase power output, but also reduce exhaust gas temperature--a good thing. JWT will program a special ECU that has a special map to complement the water injection system once we get close to getting our engine running. The water injection system is almost like having a perpetual tank full of race gas--without the $5-per-gallon cost. After all, water is cheap. For once in the history of hot rodding, something can be done for nearly nothing. As an interesting side note, water injection also reduces toxic oxides of nitrogen emissions by reducing combustion temperatures. All of these advantages and cleaner air to boot.

WOW...ill read chapters 5-12 later!!! :lol:

Oh , I had the question of -> Would cutting the cat out help or decrease performance ? I would fill the whole with a straight pipe leading out to the muffler.

depending on how plugged up it was (probably quite a bit) you'll notice a pretty amazing gain with it out of there..

Well it's an 84 and it has 130K original miles on it and they guy said it was his dads car and the exhaust is all original. So I imagine it's probably pretty plugged up lol. after 21 years of use ?

Will it sound good out the muffler too ?

Will the turbo have sufficient back pressure as well to spool with the cat gone or will it be too free flowing and i'll only get like 2 lbs boost ?

WOW...ill read chapters 5-12 later!!! :lol:

Thats only the opening...Fuck with the 'ol man an you'll never get to sleep..just be careful what you ask..:wink:

Will the turbo have sufficient back pressure as well to spool with the cat gone or will it be too free flowing and i'll only get like 2 lbs boost ?

yeah you will be fine with the cat gone, just make sure you dont have problems with the policia, ese!!! :lol:

anyways, it may get "tinny" with the cat gone but i think you will like it. the Z31 has a very nice deep exhaust note. i wish i had a digital video camera so you guys could hear mine. i got a noise ordinance call last time i was cruising around but i was buddies with the cop so he was like rev it up again, just to piss them off. so i did. :D

Well with it running now with cat and muffler , I can't hear jack shit out the back , like barely a wisp of air so I think the muffler should hold it down enough to avoid noise violation. I'm all good for emissions too , got a emission buddy for 50 he hooks me up


I don't really need more boost , I just want the turbo to sound like an STi's turbo , Like a massive Wooosh.

yeah 3" straights and youll sound like a race car in no time and the removal of the cart will free the ponies up and you wont even lose any torque due to th turbos turbines they will actually allow boost to come on sooner and if you put 3" all manderal shell be so loud lol so so loud
loud pipes save lives
i must have saved a few with those on then lol
but yeah remove the cat and puit a pretty tip on there a 3" cone on her and new performance plugs wires cap and rotr and i bet you think its a new car

I already bought a 3" intake filter x 10" long. I put some platinum plugs , working on fabbin up my msd 8 mm wires , measurements suck =D crimping is boring too. I will probably throw a 6al on it too sometime this weeked and cut the cat out. If I am going to run with no cat , then there really isn't a need to get 3" exhaust as there is less than half back pressure after removal. I will just get some upgraded muffler that will keep it silent. Probably get a hypertech rotor , msd cap if one is availiable for our cars and leave mods there for a while.

Also , Has anyone fabbed up some performance headers for the Z ? And...last but not least , Are the turbos upgradable ? Ie : Can we throw a t3 - t4 on ?

ok with your speedo not working welcome to the Z31 world lol comon problem its the control module box for it gets corroded connections its located under dash riht next to steering wheel on right you can clean it all iseen an article where some dude did it on z31.com or you can get anew one or convert the bastard i hate digital cant see shyt when the sun hits the biznitch lol ..... does it say you hve oil pressure ???

lol another common problem oil pressure sending unit

No , I got the dial system that says 0 - 145 , not the digital. The needle doesn't move anymore and I have no idea if it's cable driven or electrical drive motor for the needle on the speedo.

I heard the Z's were a electrical nightmare form a buddy of mine who used to own one. The oil thing seems to work fine as far as I can tell , lowest it's gone is like 20 psi on the gauge next to my boost read out.

All I know was I was doing about 35 and the bastard jumped up to 145 , then down to 80 then back up to like 120 and hit 0 and now 0 is where it stays all time.

well i would say its your speedo cable then might be loose or may need a new one

and with good exhaust and intake modes and simple ignition timing youll be doing a nice whistle but the wioosh usually comes from a ball bearing tubo that spools up real quicjk and the woosh is from the throttle slamming shut and his blow off kicking in i believe..
but doe those and youll be whistleing a different tune and be as little restrictions as possible witht the exhaust

yah that whooosh is a nice BOV get one of those SSQBOV and theyll hear it dump miles away lol pretty loud one the loudest i believe --- blitz makes it i think

I'm looking into buying a 86' turbo 3.0 v-6 datsun 300 Zx 5 - speed for 1500 and it's in almost perfect condition. I was wondering what some power specs are on the car and what are some pros and cons of the vehicle.

I'd appreciate the feedback , Thanks !

86T is 200hp at the flywheel...0-60, from my personal first hand experience in my 86T, is in the high 6's...1/4 mile time, I dunno...never took mine to the track. Sink ~$700 in it and you can be running with a 350Z easily. $1500 is a good deal. Get it. I'm on my 3rd Z31. Don't go to Z31.com...I used to love that site but it's just full of assholes now. You'll get a bunch of asshole, smart ass answers no matter what you ask on that site now...it used to be great. If you need anything, feel free to e-mail me...rmp5s1@excite.com...I'll help you out.

Well , I have a free weekend ahead of me so I will do a crap load of tinkering , first thing - Valve cover gaskets ! heh. Does anyone make chrome or anodized valve cover gaskets for this engine ? stock ones are ugly as shit -_- and the style is horrible to boot !

heres a sight for an inexpensive boost controller and blow off valve if you would like...http://www.zeeyalater.net/mods.htm#booster
here is another way of doing the same thing in a different perspective(another way) you might wanna go this way
and if they are both to hard here is a non bleed off externally mounted spring wich is what i did and acheived a solid 12 psi of boost with no spikinghttp://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/techstuff/boost.htm
and notice they are all relativelty cheap and all are a different means to acheive the same goal at a fraction of a price and i now all though its hard to get the sweet spot of the spring it is prefered to me due to its like increasing the spring tension of the wast\egate spring itself as in not blocking or bleeding any air and start out small and work up and dont exceed 8 psi boost on stock engine without intercooler or cooling of some sort and high octane and if exceeding that injectors are also advisable...
i just said hell im going 12 and now im waitng to rebuild again....

yah i made a ball and spring type manual boost controller and it only cost me $6 hardest thing to find was the damn ball bearing lol havent installed it waiting till rebuild

I already bought a 3" intake filter x 10" long. I put some platinum plugs , working on fabbin up my msd 8 mm wires , measurements suck =D crimping is boring too. I will probably throw a 6al on it too sometime this weeked and cut the cat out. If I am going to run with no cat , then there really isn't a need to get 3" exhaust as there is less than half back pressure after removal. I will just get some upgraded muffler that will keep it silent. Probably get a hypertech rotor , msd cap if one is availiable for our cars and leave mods there for a while.

Also , Has anyone fabbed up some performance headers for the Z ? And...last but not least , Are the turbos upgradable ? Ie : Can we throw a t3 - t4 on ?

Plenty of turbo upgrades. Check out www.jimwolftechnology.com for all kinds of turbos for the Z31.

Why are you fabbing your own wires? Go buy a set...they make those for the Z31...

Get a 3" exhaust...take the cat out, but get a 3" too...when it comes to turbo cars, good flow is good...better flow is better...the turbo already creates enough back pressure...don't need 1.5" piping to deal with too...cat or no cat...

There are no headers on the turbo Z31...the turbo bolts directly to the exhaust manifold and there's just a downpipe after the turbo.

yeah i gotta drop some bearings inmy bottum i spun mine its shitty when you actually feel your car brake at the same time you let off the gas
somehow yes you can feel the bearing singe or maybe its just me but i did before it even started to tick i was like shit my buddy was like what then it ticked i was like that he said OH that i aid oh well time to go na pistons lol

Yeah , I don't need any crazy amount of boost or anything for a while. I just want to get a upgraded waste gate , blow off valve , maybe a boost controller , turbo timer for longevity purposes and a few electrical / engine mods here and there. I've been waiting like 3 years to get a turbo vehicle so I'm going to take some time to get to understand all the shit difference between things. I had a 88 prelude turbod then it died , I trashed it because I know nothing of turbo compression / engines or turbos. So this time I hope to know more for the future with them plus build mine up in the process !

and the down pipe being all is how it should stay lol just kiding vent thast out the side just behind the front tire lol i fab my own to but i make mine all equal length and crimping i can do 12 ends in under 20 minutes and that counts finding my nips but i geuss after doing them for about 6 cars you kinda get the hang of it and yes everything is equal length lol

Yeah , I don't need any crazy amount of boost or anything for a while. I just want to get a upgraded waste gate...

Why are you going to upgrade the wastegate? Do you know what a wastegate does? :smile:

There are no headers on the turbo Z31...the turbo bolts directly to the exhaust manifold and there's just a downpipe after the turbo.


I know it's like stock manifolds but what I was wondering if anyone has better ones , header style ?

I've been mostly into raw engine and muscle cars all my life. THis is a different swing O.o


Also , Should I worry about anything internally after getting a manual boost ?

Also , Wtf can I put a gawd damn intercooler ? It's so tiny in that radiator compartment.

Eh..Doesn't the waste gate create he pressure ? Aren't the upgrades tunable as well ?

My buddy has a GN and he went from stock and got a 25 psi wastegate or whatever O.o

I know I want a upgraded blow off valve because anything OEM = made to fail when least expected. Plus I want to protect my turbo from compression surges. Also , I need a 'real' intake set up. Polished aluminum intake =D less weight , looks nice , smoother flowing air , cooler temps , lighter. What suggestions do you guys have from personal buys and which is best ?

Also , I seen the spearco doesn't make that intercooler anymore , they discontinued the item - wtf. oh well , someone else will have one I guess.

dont try and exeed like 12.5 psi and expect it to last more than a 1/4 mile hell dont go to 11 psi and expect to last more than a week or 2 lol unless the proper mods (or mods that would sufice) are done to compensate just dont exceed 8 psi without a few other mods first
go and skim through thwe z31 site
this will tell youi a good deal to start with just skim it if your too lazy to read ithttp://www.z31.com/faq/turbo.faq.shtml
at the bottom it tells you limits of stock components

i want to know aboiut the intake to i need to get one when i get mine glued back together
and if not maderel bent 3 " 1 45degree bend and one 90 and about 1 foot of straight nd your good just find those peices and the couplers and you got it if you find them at a GOOD price let me know

bov its a spring you gonna snap it??? is it gonna stick ???? go mod the stock one for higher psi so itll hold a good 10 and set you boost for 8

Lol , I was just there reading up about turbos , I'm just going to do one thing at a time , I can't afford to be with out the car so I will stay within stock limits for time being. Reason why I am making sure on every little detail from you guys who have tinkered with this car before. It's just my own safety , not stupidity =P but yeah , I'll get a blow off kit and a better intake set up sometime within the next few weeks. From there I will just go with spark for the next month ( I have a shit load of bills or I would have it up to 250 + by this weekend ) then from there the whole fuel pump thing. By the way which is really friggin easy to do since it's right there in the rear , middle of the car. I stripped my car out today cause the carpet was shot and found the lovely 3 point cancer system of the Z. Lol - Right behind the seats in the corners and that rear driver side bank behind the wheel well , or storage compartment , whichever. Those are first before anything. Also , I am going to rhino line the interior and never use carpet again =D Also , the dash is screwed so I am going to experiment with it.

But yeah , as I said for the next week - 2 to a month , I will just go with a better blow off valve , better intake and maybe some more weight reduction through out the vehicle.

Oh - I'm making the wires because I bought these for a firebird I had but I never got to completing the firebird and sold it , found these in the closet so instead of wasting them , I am using them. Just some heli core wires with out crimped ends. using the stock boost though O.o

Nick -

yah ya shouldnt be doing these performance mods without fully understanding what the purpose and consequences can be ...

only then ya should know if you can use it and modding a wastegate or getting an aftermarket wastgate only makes it so it produces more boost before the wastegate opens and bleeds off the exces boost produced .. the spring inside the wastegate is rated at a certain psi so when that gets exceeded tha wastegate opens ...

dude rhino lining is heavy if you wanna modd ur Z tahst gonna be alotta extra added weight over the carpet i would eitehr get replacement carpet or stay bare for the weight reason unless you dont care about it..

It will be just the floors. Not the entire car. and only the floorboars actually under the drivers and passangers feet. Not literally the whole car. Just a 2X2 patch on each side. the rest will stay bare through out the car.

Yeah , I don't want to put like a few hundred into mods and they kill my car , that would really pop my blow off valve XD

yah that would suck tahst why i dont abuse mine--- too much lol still waiting for rebuild gunna come soon and mods when i do rebuild so itll be good

Aftermarket Headers...not that I know of...but I just took mine off and I IMMEDIATELY wanted to upgrade them. Good luck getting them off without pulling the engine...

Manual boost contollers are fine as long as you get a good ball and spring type...don't get a bleeder type because they tend to have mad boost creep/spike issues. You can get a good ball and spring type for ~20 bucks.

Intercooler: I recommend a custom job. Get a WRX intercooler...not very expensive and very compact. You can put them just about anywhere...trust me...it'll fit...I've seen it.

Wastegate CREATE the pressure? No...not really...the compressor creates the pressure. The wastegate just holds the pressure to a set limit at what point it opens a valve on the turbine side to prevent overspooling. Upgrading the WASTEGATE isn't very common...adding a boost controller is, though...what they do is FOOL the wastegate into staying shut longer. The reason your dude with the GN probably modded his waste gate cuz he was running an aftermarket turbo with an external wastegate. GN guys seem to like to put their wastegates on the intercooler side. I love Grand Nationals...el drool...ugly as sin but still...el drool. If I had to drive a domestic car, that'd be my first choice. I could explain the whole wastegate thing more and more and more and more but I'm not gunna ramble. If you'd like the full story, let me know.

OEM equipment designed to fail? Eh...oooooooook...???

Polished aluminum intakes and all that...kinda overkill...save your money. 10" K&N cone filter will flow more than our little 3.0L engines will ever need.

92rs = the biggest post whore ever...:p

VG30ET boost limits: The way I was going to set my Profec B-Spec II was like this...low boost - 10psi...normal use...high boost - 12.5psi...for an extra kick in the pants...overtake boost - 15psi...for very short bursts on cool days ONLY. Do NOT exceed 15psi. Past this point, the stock turbo loses efficiency and produces way more heat than anything else...and heat is bad. You can get away with the raised boost levels for a longer period of time with an intercooler but the 15psi is still the limit for the turbo. That used to be in the turbo FAQ on z31.com but then they changed it. It used to be one written by some dude that was doing exactly what I said above and all he had was a 10" cone filter, 3" exhaust and a boost controller. That site went completely to shit...the turbo FAQ got changed, the board is full of dick heads now...you can't even ask a question there anymore without getting torn down completely. I asked how to get the cam gears off the other day and just got a bunch of ass hole answers.

If anyone needs anything, let me know...I probably can answer it...stay away from that board.

speaking of grand nationals i seen this video of this dyno it was the sickest freakin Gn i ever seen it was twin turbo -- turbos was sticking out the hood and then when it dynoed it was literally smoking tires once it hit it it was so damn awesome think it dynoed at like 947RWHP

anyone have this vid lemme know i want it again

Grand nationatls only have like 3.8 v-6s but produce - stock - like 440 + ftlbs of torque.

I'm not really being a post whore just really bored this late as too dark to do anything but be up and isomniated.

I got the come filter originally for a TBI cold air intake unit I ordered but my cown induction hood on my camaro wasn't big enough to clear the intake unit section.

I guess I'll just go with boost control and blow off for a while until I fully understand the depths of the turbo system and what I can and can not do to it before touching internals. anyways , i'm off to bed now - tired as hell , Thanks for all the info guys much appreciated.

then from there the whole fuel pump thing. By the way which is really friggin easy to do since it's right there in the rear , middle of the car.

dont fool yourself....thats not the fuel pump, thats the fuel level sensor. :lol:

you have to drop the fuel tank to remove the fuel pump. so if it aint broken, dont attempt to fix it. its not exactly a 20 minute process.

and too add to everyones comments...i would go ahead and spend the extra money on a electronic boost controller. they can be mounted in the car so you can change the boost settings when ever you please. and they more advanced than manual boost controllers at keeping boost spikes down to a minimum.

I don't want to spend 500 dollars for a boost controller though

Boost controller: Go to eBay and find a search for a Greddy Profec B-Spec II. You can find one, new in the box (NIB), for under 300 bucks, shipped and it's probabbly the best, most straight-forward, simplest one out now. I would avoid all the fuzzy logic and highly computerized bullshit cuz it's usually just REALLY expensive and a bit overkill...in my oppinion...but I'm a bit of a purist about some things.

But...if you don't NEED an EBC, don't get one...just get a ball and spring type controller. Save the extra ~250 bucks for other stuff as the spring type will do what the EBC will do nearly as well. It would be nice to be able to adjust the boost from inside the car, though.

Anything you wanna know about the turbo as it relates to the Z31, lemme know man...I'll fill ya full of info...:biggrin:

I don't want to spend 500 dollars for a boost controller though

yeah, like i said...if you really want to take your car and really tune it. i think the extra money would be a wise decision but if you are just looking for a cheap way to add alittle HP, by all means go for the manual bosot controller like LLTZ is talking about. he knows his stuff. i was just informing you of what 'i think' is a better investment.

yeah, like i said...if you really want to take your car and really tune it. i think the extra money would be a wise decision but if you are just looking for a cheap way to add alittle HP, by all means go for the manual bosot controller like LLTZ is talking about. he knows his stuff. i was just informing you of what 'i think' is a better investment.

True. You do get a bit more control and convience with a EBC. But...for budget's sake...you can not BEAT the ball and spring type. They both do the same thing...just in different ways...and for MUCH different prices. For short term use, I'd go the ball and spring route (which I DID) because it's WAY cheaper, simpler and does the same thing...set it at 8-10 psi and cruise for a while and save money...then get your EBC. Doing it this way also saves you a bit of trouble cuz, when you get your EBC, you'll already have all the plumbing done...then you just gotta do the wiring and put the new parts in...cake.

Eh..I noticed something today , Why does my boost needle stay at like - 4 ?

When I turn on my car - But not start - it goes to like 0 but then when it starts it goes to -4 and when I'm pushign her hard at like 4500+ rpm , it doesn't move.
---O
-7 | 0 | 7+ , O = where needle stays.

Keep in mind that turbos are not only RPM dependant (like the inferior belt driven superchargers), but they're throttle dependant too. This is one of the reasons why turbos are superior to superchargers, as far as I'm concerned. To hell with belt driven superchargers. If you wanna know the pros and cons of S/C vs. Turbos, again...lemme know.

This said, you can be screamin along at 5500 rpms and actually have negative boost pressure (vaccume) if you're not on the gas...when you floor it, the needle should go up immediately.

In my 86T, my needle never went much past 0 either...I thought it was screwed up...then I realized something...it's measured in millimeters of mercury...not PSI. 700 mmHg (the "7" on your gauge) is really ~13.5psi...nearly the 15psi limit of the turbo. You only run ~5-6psi stock anyway, so it's not really gunna go much past the 0 anyway. Factor in that, over the course of nearly 20 years, it's probably lost a bit of calibration and you've explained why your shit looks a bit broken. It's all good man. Buy an aftermarket boost gauge measured in PSI and you'll appreciate the buy.

Awesome , Thanks for the info man , you've helped me out a ton.
I think I will get a boost gauge in psi that will fit in place of the stock one , it's round and deep and perfect for like a indiglo one or something O.o

I don't need a radio so I will put a aftermarket set up in there for water temp , oil pressure and temp and a volto meter it should fit perfect with a few screws and plastic peices then for the stoil oil psi and temp I think I will throw a air fuel gauge in there =D well , reverse the boost and air one , the boost one in place of oil / temp and a air fuel one in place of stock boost gauge. Sounds good right ? Heh.

Thanks again man , all your help is appreciated.

ps - Still haven't figured out the speedometer.

Eh , weird..I just started her back up after taking all the stuff off and putting her back together with clean parts and now there is a throttle lag..wtf like a deep moan before pick up..should I be concerned about this ?

uh what exactly did you take apart?

I just took off the tubes leading into the turbo , the cone filter and cleaned out their inners because they were greasey inside from the old filter ,it was originally blue but when I got the car the filter was black so I knew the tubes were gross and dirty.

Also could have been because I mashed when my car was cold O.o

probably a boost/vacuum leak... are you sure you tightened everything up good enough? how's the ilde? a little high?

Nope , it itdles at 1 K constantly.
I also did up some red silicone hose kit under the hood so I think I will go back through today on all the stuff I did and make sure everything is cramed on as far as it can go and tight as shit. I was thinking a leak somewhere but it seemed unlikely cause I know I put everything back on tight O.o will do though.

Going to try and track down my Speedometer problem again today. Oh , Does anyone make chips for the z31 prom ?

yah if you check out http://www.jimwoldtechnologies.com they sell chips and computers and many other various things for the z31..


is this problem when you first start your car in the morning or the day or is it completely intermittent or all the time???

did you check out the speedometer cable to see if it was cracked or loose track it all out and follow it inspecting it very carefully because that is most likely your problem maybe youll get lucky and its just loose..

Eh , it just happened today but I think I found it , the part that conjoins with the turbo intake flange is like loose so I tightened that up , haven't started it yet.

taht will doit a vacuum leak ..

i needa tighten mine uop but dayumn its hrd ta get to the nut on the bottom the the pipe its not exactly easy to get to but idk ill get to it when i go out to my car tomorrow

I just pulled the black thing off that connects to the turbo and peeled it's tightenening screw / strap off from it's tack weld and then put it back on , that way a philips screw driver can be put in there in various angles to tighten it up while being able to move the tensioner around.

Gawd damn it -_- I have a friggin tick now , wtf.
I felt the valve covers , no vibration from them , It sounds like it's coming from the center of the intake manifold which is weird. I tried to check my oil and she has F on oil , I even drained a cup and threw a fresh quart in and still ticks like a bitch. I also noticed , when cold start , My oil Psi won't go past 30 and under normal operating temps , about 150 - 160 ish , then oil psi is around 20 ish. Could this be the oil sending unit problem earlier spoken of ?

ahhhh no bad you over revved didnt you its bottom end bearings why us why now i just replaced my headgasket and think mayo cloged my port maybe i just overrevved it
better go get some bearings and dont drive it
where are you from anyway????
im from ny and gotta change mine or replace the engine (na under boost sounds fun) but first i gotta find the motor in the junk yard so hopefully there is one
but the reason i asy that is it will cost me more for the gasket set alone than the motor out the yard and i already got the cam seals so i can change them (cams that is) the turbo cams are higher lift and longer duration right

yah i made a ball and spring type manual boost controller and it only cost me $6 hardest thing to find was the damn ball bearing lol havent installed it waiting till rebuild
word of advice put the valve on before swapping so you know that you dont over boost first run and end up killing your turbo and fresh motor just tune it before even if its right before and hell id use it for a nuclear meltdown of the engine j
just get it set then block the hose off and take it out lol nuked
no dont relly when the throttle slammes shut it would end up
damaging the impellar
but tune before you drop you fresh one in
good luck

actually you can take your screw type boost controller and place it in car just need extra vaccum

also the gauge idea sounds great (hmm i got the oil pressure and h2o temp where the radio was and my a\f where the digi dash used to be lol
and it turns out it is the poiwer sending unit
and the red hoses under hood do look sweet or atleast mine do
i also painted alot of stuff during head gasket lol like a yellow upper intake plenum green lower plenum green intake tube red idle air thingys and a green throttle bodie s
sounds stupid but looks awsome as shit
oh yeah and blue timing belt covers left the thick red valve covers thick and red though

the oil pressue is the whole wore out bearing thing or atleast thats what im told by a good car guy that gives me alot of advice
until you ad in turbo then he says go find someone else to bother or drop a fod 302 in it i laugh and poke fun at how ill smoke his mouseterd anyday (and its even better now that i got a blown motor and tell him hey i can still smoke yoiu (knowing i have not a chance with the bearing impairment

well i guess im done harrassing the posts and stuff oh well good luck

Uhh..I didn't really make any sense of what your saying but I fixed my tick. The oil was way too thin to sufficently lubricate the lifters and what not. Tick gone after changing oil , filter , plugs and adding some quaker state hd 40 heavy duty oil too it , Oh , the oil guage seems to work now too O.o

word of advice put the valve on before swapping so you know that you dont over boost first run and end up killing your turbo and fresh motor just tune it before even if its right before and hell id use it for a nuclear meltdown of the engine j
just get it set then block the hose off and take it out lol nuked
no dont relly when the throttle slammes shut it would end up
damaging the impellar
but tune before you drop you fresh one in
good luck


well i dont have a boost gauge so i cant install it i dont wanna overboost it when trying to set boost so boost gauge is first and i was gunna install it after i rebuilt whole engine and broke it in..

ok just let it be sloppy as in not much pressure at first as to noty cause the slamming of the impellers as i stated before

Eh..I noticed something today , Why does my boost needle stay at like - 4 ?

When I turn on my car - But not start - it goes to like 0 but then when it starts it goes to -4 and when I'm pushign her hard at like 4500+ rpm , it doesn't move.
---O
-7 | 0 | 7+ , O = where needle stays.
it goes to 0 for the simple fact of no vaccumm or boost,
and the reason it goes to -4 when idleing its because the fact of the vaccumm, but not gaining boost hmmm, broken hose or perhaps a bad sensor .... no telling good luck (telling only i dont know the proceedure, other than spray all hoses with carb cleaner and see if there is a change in engine sound and other than that you may even have a faulty wastegate to many options good luck)

Well , I seem to have fine boost , I got a new boost guage and it's saying 6 psi but who knows , Also heres some pics of my 300 Z

http://photobucket.com/albums/y187/ohjiro/Nissan%20300%20ZX/

I stripped it , fixed the rear wheel well rust spot , some minor floor rusts , behind the seats rust spots and working on the one near the stoage bay. All the carpet stunk anyways =D . Pics of some modifying , weight reduction and such.

Uhh..I didn't really make any sense of what your saying but I fixed my tick. The oil was way too thin to sufficently lubricate the lifters and what not. Tick gone after changing oil , filter , plugs and adding some quaker state hd 40 heavy duty oil too it , Oh , the oil guage seems to work now too O.o
is it turbo??? i wouldnt run oil that thick in my turbo....
you know that the bearings in there are the tight spec ones that are in need of the thinner oil right just use good oil not thick and your results should be pleasing you also loose a small amount of horse from thicker oil too
but glad to see you fixed your problem

lol is it turbo-- he said he fixed his boost gauge and theres a pic of a boost gauge and he said it was turbo earlier lol

newayz nice fix man i always love looking at other Z31's lol i like all Z's just i have a Z31 so i gotta play favorites

lol is it turbo-- he said he fixed his boost gauge and theres a pic of a boost gauge and he said it was turbo earlier lol

newayz nice fix man i always love looking at other Z31's lol i like all Z's just i have a Z31 so i gotta play favorites

He's on some kinda drugs or something, besides he's SHORT on reading skills.

actually speaking of drugs,if you met me youd sware i was the biggest burned out hippie you ever met,but i stopped smoking like 6 months ago,lol,other wise i would have had to of agreed
and i didnt put 2 and 2 together i read the threads not the side bar all the side to side scrolling side to side hurts my eyes, and doesnt that support my theory of too thick of oil????

Just because I used thicker oil doesn't mean my engine has to work any harder to be properly lubricated , It's more of a wear and tear that caused the thinner oils to just kinda flow instead of act like molasis also putting in a stabalizer helped it a lot. Ever since changing out my plugs , eliminated my valve cover -> to turbo hose to preheat the air going into the manifold , changed plugs , changed oil and threw on some silicone hoses , It's been doing better than when I first test drove it. Ordering some cool mods for the interior such as -> Nismo shift knob , Shift boot , stea covers , 4 point harness , Custam making a harness bar , harness pads and a steering wheel. Here in about two weeks , I shoul dhave the interior where I want it and start to dig into the engine again.

sounds good man keep us posted

actually the heavier oil does require more to turn allthough it might not seem so it does its thicker good excample with molasses slide a spoon across mollases then across some vegtable oil the vegy oil is easier to slide it isnt it (dont use it eags use the rounded side ) it requires more forse with the mollases doesnt it sweet mods to do i got an old nismo shift nob its leather pretty phatty but good int. mods but get some seats too but sweet at any rate sounds tight

I threw on a complete silicone hose kit , got rid of all that old rubber shit that likes to erode away. Also got some gold terminals both + and - seems to give it about.35 more volts into the line than using standard lead terminals. I also want to convert to a electrical fan , Can someone give me a heads up on how / which product , to do this / Is best to use. I'd appreciate it.

yeah, i'd like to know that too for when i get the new zed... should be one of the firstish mods i do

i think http://www.amzperformance.com is going to start supplying Z31 Fluydine fans for the Z31 but i am sure it will still take some customizing to make it work.

where did you buy your silicone hoses from???

i think http://www.amzperformance.com is going to start supplying Z31 Fluydine fans for the Z31 but i am sure it will still take some customizing to make it work.

where did you buy your silicone hoses from???


Pep Boys :wtf: XD

Pep Boys :wtf: XD

oh...dont have one of those here. i am venturing replacing all my smaller hoses with silicone ones but we will see. i have to order all of them because i dont have a place around here where i can walk in and buy a half way decent set. thanks anyways...

Ahh , No pep boys eh that sucks. I just finished my body repair today and the internal rubberizing , Went through 5 cans of spray style , they weighed on the scale only 12.6 pounds for all of them so I have ripped out all internals , ditched the passanger seat and coated all the metal in rubber =D I did this mostly because the bitch leaks in the seals and I don't want future damage from the inside.