NismoPick

Cheaper yes... ghetto / less effective / more time consuming too.

snwbrderphat540

GHETTO! that right there isn't further from the truth. there is nothing ghetto about it, less effective, barely, like i said narrow bands suck at metering unless its a far cry from stoich which by then the plugs will tell you. more time consuming.... yes and no, it takes some time to install the guage nicely in a car.

veyenyl

I'm not gonna re-argue the narrow band usage but if you were to get one, I would go with the 4-led one to avoid the "light show". Very simple and easy to read and mount. Or you can just use a volt meter to read the voltage if it's just for temporary diagnosis.

NismoPick

uhg... this is getting old. We could battle all day long whether narrowband works or not... It works great for me (maybe because I know how to use & read one). It helps me diagnose probs & tells me my a/f ratio under boost. When I dyno, I can use wide band to check the ratio & tune from there. I'd much rather have a gauge that will tell me my instant a/f ratio, rather than pulling my plugs AFTER detonation.

EDIT... oh and most people can hook up an a/f gauge in the time it takes to yank & re-install the plugs.

duowing

Sure wideband would be better, but a normal A/F gauge would also be useful if you had a boost controller. You can up the boost little by little and see where you start to lean out. Something the plugs can't tell you. They can only tell you at one point you were running lean. Also just because you may have been running lean for a few minutes doesn't necessarily mean the plugs will have the build up or the coloring to show it.

Although I think thxone should do what I said and check the LED light on the ECU to see if it's getting a signal from the O2 sensor. If it's I'd think an A/F gauge would be pointless as it gets the signal from the O2 if I'm not mistaken.

Also I still haven't heard if he set the timing with the TPS connected or disconnected.

snwbrderphat540

im not arguing it cant be usefull, but your mentioning tuning the AFM with it, and my point is you cant, and with it that far off to make his car run like it is he can just pull the plugs this ONE time and see how it is instead of spending money for this one time problem. but if he thinks he wants one for keeps then maybe a wideband would be usefull if he thinks he is going to start tuning his car one day. its what i would do, i have yet to hook up my A/F guage and drive it to see how the turbo stuff works with NA type compression. after i use it and realize its all good, my use for it is done. id sell it and go wideband because i do plan to tune my car if i dont swap motors yet again. thats all im saying.

NismoPick

That's weird... I've tuned AFM's using a narrow band a/f gauge MANY times. Works great.... huh... I guess it CAN be done.

snwbrderphat540

its wrong..... thats all there is to it. it may have helped you some, but its not at acurate. w/e im done stealing his thread, i'm starting a new one, see you there

thxone

Ok, just got home from work and read all the responses. The boost gauge works and even when the car is actin a fool as it was when I got off work it is reading just below the red mark so I think boost is fine. The Dizzy is making a hell of a noise and I know it is under the cap for sure, I never changed the rotor button when I changed the cap. Oil is good and level is correct. All I have done to the car is change the water pump and time the car. I timed it with the TPS connected. Like I said...she runs great until some boost is requested.

Ok, I have alot of paperwork for the car from when it had work done to it...it got a new head gasket...it could be possible that they fouled up when they put the chain back on by not lining up the marks correctly...I know that is a long shot but why would it run better at an est. 40*? I don't know but I am gonna go re-do the timing and get some smokes. Oh, when I was typing this...my car rolled out into the street all by itself

duowing

Well try timing with the TPS disconnected as well and see what happens.

thxone

Just got back from the final test run...disconnected the TPS and checked the timing...same as if the TPS was connected...so I went ahead and timed it again....the mark is at the back edge of the tab and the dizzy will not go any further so 30-35* is what it is at and I will be leaving it there. No more bogging, missing, stumbling, or backfiring. I took it down a long straight back road and stopped in the middle of the road...revved it a few time keeping it around 3,500 rpm and then popped the clutch and gunned it...the *** slid to the right and I held it at about 4,500 rpm for a good 70 or 80 feet in first gear just sliding..I was looking just to the right of the left dash speaker through the windshield as I was doing it, thats how far it kicked out. Now I am happy again.

snwbrderphat540

yeah, well it should run good at only that setting though, i would look into it at least. leave it for now i guess. but look into it.

thxone

Ok, I keep messing with the timing cause the car started acting funny again. Right now it is at 25* and is driving like a formula one car...here is why. I remember the guy I bought it from telling me he would have to kick, yes kick the ECU sometimes to get the car to run right, so on my way to my friends house I remembered what he said. When I got there I disconnected all three plugs for a few seconds with the car off and plugged them back in...went upstairs for 20 min or so then got in the car and left. It is running perfect. Does this mean my ECU is screwed up??? Why would unplugging it make a difference???

NismoPick

It's not the ecu (tis been discussed many times that these ecu's are almost bulletproof)... pulling the plugs obviously proves that. It's the wiring. I had this same prob when I upgraded to the Z31 ecu. Turns out the bottom wires on the lowest ecu plug had a bad splice connector (the black ground wires). I found this by wiggling the wires till I narrowed it down... cut the bad connection out & soldered them back up... runs like a champ now.

I'm not saying it's those exact wires... it's just not the ecu.

thxone

So I should check the actually wire connections that go into the ECU and look for suspect wires...bent wires, cut wires, burned....or just loose?? I did not move each wire connector far when I unplugged them so I don't think it would be further down the line in the wires themselves but I did wiggle the actual connectors a bit...hmmm interesting NismoPick, I will look into it more when I have some daylight.

lww

If you went through and re-soldered all the wires to their individual spade plugs, you would eliminate most of the problems people mis-diagnose as a bad ECU. These things were designed in the late 70's and are literally indestructible barring a leak or a T-top off during a rainstorm that allows water to pool around the ECU. Just about anything short of that will not harm these things.

thxone

Well I have tracked the wire problem down to the bottom most plug on the ECU, I do not know which wire or wires are the culprit but I will soon fix that problem. I purchased an O2 sensor...a universal Bosh sensor (11027 $17), one without the OEM connector. I did this so I could add my gold plated T fitting...one connection for each of the following: The O2 sensor, the sensor wire to the ECU, and the last is to connect the A/F meter. All are removable as they are spade connectors. Hey, if they are good enough for car audio applications then they will work perfectly for this and probably better connections then OEM what with the gold plating.

The gauges I have decided to go with seem to be popular with Z drivers, Autometer Ultra Lite gauges with silver faces. I will be getting 4 gauges, Voltmeter - Boost - A/F ratio - oil. I am a little baffled as to why my Turbo has no voltmeter gauge. I think I will eventually go all silver faces in the main cluster to match. It is my understanding that mid '90's Miata gauge pods will fit the ZX's with minor adjusting for fitment. So A/F on the A pillar and I will replace the Boost, Oil, and Clock with the remaining gauges.

Just for those who drive the N/A 280zx's and haven't driven the ZXT...you are really missing out. Even with stock boost the difference is night and day for the better. I have went light to light a few times now with good results everytime and it is fun!!! I did get to embarrass two guys in a fried rice Honda and yes it was a cliche Honda...big lawn mowers sounding tip and unpainted hood. I pulled up to the light next to them and I heard the passenger whisper something about the Z. Anyway, I played the roll said there car looked fast like I was a noob and they responded by revving the engine. My car is running good and I knew if I got on it too hard I would sit at the light spinning the tires so when the light turned green I rolled on the gas in first and they pulled ahead a little...then I got on it full bore and it didn't take long to pass their 22,000rpm fart box. Score for the Turbo Z!!! 1 down 2 million ricer's to go.

snwbrderphat540

lol, if you learn to launch your car good you get lil spin on the tires and youll take those shitbox honda;s and all other FF cars off the line. AWD will own all off the line if they know how to launch that is, other wise they bog faceplant and then start to go good. and silver faces huh..... i like my black faced ones, they are getting harder to find and i couldnt find the black face silver bezel boost guage that does both VAC and Boost up to 20 er something for the life of me luckily my friend had one.

thxone

I did well on my launch but I am still getting used to the T-5 as it is a bit different then what I am used to. For the gauges, yeah I like the silver...kinda a dark silver but my interior is black and gray so it should match very well. The boost gauge that I have chosen is one that reads both Vac and Boost.

lww

What's the point of a boost gauge that reads less than 0?

Unfortunately, the 20 psi boost gauges don't go high enough for me...

thxone

Well, with a boost gauge that reads in the negative you can get an idea of how much boosted air is going back the other way when you let off the gas pedal...you know, the air that slows the turbo down? If you have A BOV you can better tune the BOV, if it is adjustable, by reading the gauge and how much it does or does not go into the negative pressure. It can be helpful. Here are the gauges I want to get and hey look, I found a clock!!!

snwbrderphat540

i don't like launching cars unless i'm truly racing for a good time at the strip, its sooo much strain and eats away at your clutch cause proper launches are a quick but subtle clutch release....

snwbrderphat540

not quit my friend, lol, its to read the cars idle, unless that was all sarcasm cause LWW's was sarcastic with the winky face guy, in my case, im soo glad to have a VAC reading because my cars VAC at idle is WAY WAY off from what it should be.

thxone

Yes, it reads vacuum...but what I said is true, I have driven a car with a BOV and a gauge that read both and when the clutch was pushed in the gauge read far less in the negative than when the bov was not on the car. Honest.

lww

You are both right, but my point was, you should never run your car without BOOST!

Time to put a CVT into the Z! WooT!