Car Blog

Update

2008-04-05T14:01:00.003-06:00

Well, after saving money and buying stuff, I have all the hardware except for a few hoses. Got the rails and injectors assembled and need to pressure test them, and then I can start The Job.

Also realized that the final result in a boost pressure from the turbos of around 15psi, and my stock vaccuum/boost gauge stops at 14psi. Have new gauge ready, to be mounted on A-piller. Also, may end up with more torque than the stock clutch can handle, so a new one will be the next step.

I just have to make sure the fuel lines are all tightened properly when stating the car, or it'll be Tiger, Tiger, burning bright.

Semi-technical reason for why my car is invisible

2007-12-10T17:40:00.000-06:00

Soooo........Like I said, the fuel injector for the #3 cylinder is dead. Doing some research, I found that the injectors for the early Z32 (through '94) are not only $50 or so more than the newer style injectors, but also don't deal as well with the additives in fuel now. Ok, so I think about replacing the injectors. Well, the newer injectors don't fit in the older fuel rails. By the way, here is the procedure for doing it, but I only recommend looking if you have an idea of how an engine is structured. Seems simple enough, just need to get the new fuel rails, only around $130. Unfortunately, those don't mount on the older lower intake manifold (aluminum block in the middle of the engine that channels the air into the cylinders and where the fuel is added to the air). Oh, okay. I guess I can get one of those. I'll be adding upgraded Nismo injectors later, anyway, so I might as well get this out of the way. It's only a couple of hundred dollars. To replace the the manifold, I need to remove the timing belt.

Fuck that!

That's a pain in the ass I do not want to deal with until I need a new belt, which should be somewhere around 53,000 miles from now.

That leaves me with a rather intriguing option: aftermarket fuel rails.

As far as I can tell, the best set for my car is made by the company 300 Degree. Here's a picture (the six red things sticking up are the injectors). Better fuel flow and they mount the newer injectors to older-style manifold. Perfect! $405. Crap. Well, might as well do that. I'll end up doing eventually it anyway, now is probably a better time than later.

Speaking of which, those newer injectors cost around $105 apiece, and the Nismo injectors are only $15 more, what's that get me? $720! Ooh. so, $1125 so far and that's without the extra little bits of hardware like seals and such.

Oh, and to use the new injectors properly, need to upgrade my ECU. Well, that's something I was definitely going to do. $250 to $600. Well, I'll go with the most reliable company with the best reputation. $550 or so.

$1675 so far, and while I'm in there I'll replace several 17 year old rubber hoses for a couple hundred dollars.

Anyway, since driving the car with one cylinder dead can cause permanent damage, I'll set aside money and drive either a family members Honda or the broken truck in the mean time. So, my car should be out and about in the spring.

A post

2007-11-09T15:38:00.000-06:00

I really need to post more often.

So, I figured out what the hesitation is caused by in my car. The #3 fuel injector is dead.

Sooo...

I'll be not driving anywhere for a while, at least not far and not in my car. It'll just sit in the garage until the part arrives, and then until it gets put in the car (pain in the ass).

More to be added later.

This makes me very sad

2007-11-04T13:31:00.000-06:00

Stolen pearl white 300zx found.

2007-10-24T19:25:00.000-06:00

GEE-TEE-ARR

news 9/24

2007-09-24T00:09:00.000-06:00

Wheels and tires all swapped out now, very nice looking.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my car has just started sounding weird.

News 9/8

2007-09-08T22:28:00.000-06:00

Have front tires and one wheel, and I'll be ordering the other one next payday. Buying auto parts on a budget sucks. Next comes either exhaust or some suspension upgrades.

Hey look! It's a post!!

2007-08-08T18:57:00.000-06:00

So, I took my car to the Nissan dealership out in O-Town yesterday for an inspection (just a periodic look around the car and let me know if some thing's wrong), and had planned to pick it up this morning. So, I head out there at 11 or so, and when I get there the guy tells me their chief mechanic needs to talk to me, but he's on a test drive at the moment. Slightly dreadish feeling there, but it passed.

So he gets back, and tells me that a new guy backed a truck into my left rear quarter panel. I can bring it back and they'll fix it for me over the next week. Also didn't charge for the inspection.

I was pretty calm going through all that at the dealer. Only later in the day did anger kick in. Now feeling angry and in a bit of a funk. If they try to charge me for anything, I will start to get angrier and start to hate.

Edit/update: Repairs took a long ass time, but now everythings okay, and it looks good as new.

Fun car go blah

2007-06-03T02:02:00.000-06:00

So, the Twin Turbo 300ZXs come with a rear wheel steering system called HICAS. It kicks in at speeds over 40 mph and turns the rear wheels slightly. This is all well and good, as long as it doesn't malfunction.

Welllllllll, I was driving home tonight, and mine failed. Don't worry, there was no fiery death, nor was there a collision of any kind. Although, now I find myself looking at a kit that will eliminate the HICAS and make my car behave like a normal car.

Also, I discovered that it may be cheaper to just get a custom exhaust made rather than buy one.

Correction

2007-04-26T23:43:00.000-06:00

Well, I just found out that in 2000 and 2001, Acura released an Integra Type-R. So, I was wrong about that. Surprise to me.

Addendum

2007-04-13T11:01:00.000-06:00

So, whoever put the old wheels on the car last should be fired, re-hired at a lower salary, and fred again. I shouldn't have to take 10 minutes t get one lug nut off. The wheels look pretty nice though, and I have traction. There'll be a picture when I have access to a digital camera.

Hey, I'm posting stuff

2007-04-11T23:19:00.000-06:00

Yay, new wheels arrive tomorrow! I have new corner lights that have no amber plastic. Yes, it is important. The front end looks much better without it, and the pattern of the plastic actually matches the pattern on the fog lights.

This is related to those situations I grumble about sometimes. These lights are made by Nissan for Japanese 300's from '99 until the 350 came out (we stopped getting it in the states after 1996). I think they improve the look of the car greatly, and it's only a minor change. There are also taillights without amber, and I will be getting those eventually too, but they're freaking expensive. And then there's the HID headlights from Nismo, but I'll have to sell a kidney for those (how much does a kidney go for these days? Can you install a dialysis machine in a car?).

Anyway, there have been a crapload of cars that have been produced by japanese companies that were never sold in the US. The Nissan Skyline (I really mean the GTR) is one that irritates me the most. Okay, so the most recent Skyline has been selling in this country, labeled the G35, but they didn't have a GTR of that generation. We sort of got the Silvia S14 (that's the generation of the car in the early to mid-ninties) and the 180SX, both as different years of 240SX, but the engine was not as high performing, though larger. Honda has never sent us a Type-r of any of their cars. No Civic or Integra, let alone the NSX (which would be a bit much, but the principle's the same). Toyota has done one of the best job thus far, although the AE86 Trueno is quite a popular car for tuning. It came over here a bit neutered as the Corolla. Aside from that minor note, there's nothing. The Supra was pretty much unchanged, which is a good thing. Oh wait, I fogot about Mazda. They have no major issues. Apparently, RX-8s in the US don't perform as well as the Japanese ones, but I have to look into that one.

Think that's enough of a rant for now? I guess I can stop there.

Forgot something

2007-03-08T23:20:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I had, for some reason forgot to post about the turbo timer I installed in my car. First off, let me tell you not to order stuff from Performancecenter.com. I ordered my timer from them in November, and it was only through constant complaining over the phone that I was able to finally get them to ship me one in February, and then it looked like they ordered it from a different online store instead of the manufacturer.

So, for those of you who actually read this and don't already know, a turbo timer is a piece of hardware you can plug into your electrical system near the steering column. It allows you to let your engine run for a set amount of time after you remove your key from the ignition. This is important if you want to keep your turbos healthy. When you run a turbocharged engine, oil gets fed into the turbo to keep friction down, just like most moving parts in a car. The problem lies in that if you were to just turn off your engine with the hot oil still in your turbos, it will bake in and eventually damage them. For this reason, it is recommended that you let your engine idle for a little while after you are finished driving, especially when pushing your car. This lets the oil cool gradually, settling back in it's container, instead of just sitting in the turbo.

The turbo timer will do this automatically by telling your engine to run. On the model I purchased (like the one pictured above, only black instead of silver), you can set it to any time up to 10 minutes, or set it on automatic, so the timer reads the information going through it on how long the cars been running above certain rpms, and gives a time that your car needs to idle. Honestly, I could just sit in the car myself and run the engine, but that would not only waste my time, but I would also tend to over-estimate the amount of time, and that would waste my precious gasoline.

I think that's a good post, so I'll leave it at that for now.

...

2007-03-02T23:12:00.000-06:00

Okay, obviously, I have not a clue what to put here just yet, and not really a whole lot of auto news, so for now...oh, wait. I just ordered some new wheels and tires (for the rear end of my car, anyway). Granted, with only 2 new wheels, my car will look a bit strange, I will be getting new front wheels too, just later. Unfortunately, the wheels are new and not yet in stock, so it should be about 2-3 weeks.

Here's what the wheels will look like.

2007-02-06T13:29:00.001-06:00

Okay, well here is my new blog, complete with nothing at the moment, because I haven't decided what to put on here yet. There will be some initial postings, though.