240Z turbo question

[speedingpenguin]

A friend of mine and myself are, just for the experience and fun of it, going to turbocharge his 84 Datsun Maxima (Has the inline 6, same as the 240z). We're working on a VERY tight budget, so no fancy fuel management systems are possible. What I'd like to know if is what could we do / use to get more fuel into the engine with the turbo and stuff? Any suggestions or advice? THanks,

-Chris

[ChrisA]

Hi Chris,

You might want to try www.hybridz.org. They have a huge amount of info on engine modifications. Turbocharging the L24E in the Maxima will take some money that might be beyond your budget. Call the local salvage yards and price a 280ZX Turbo engine. If its within your budget, a swap sounds like fun. A sleeper turbo Maxima could be fun.

Good luck,

Chris A.

[280~Master]

You need to start with a turbo exhaust, a 77 280Z computer, J pipe, down pipe, and the turbo.

I would get a boost control just to keep the engine from blowing..

[hls30.com]

Get at the very least a pair of L28ET manifolds, and bolt them on the Maxima block, then the rest of the factory pieces will fit, put a boost bleed valve on the wastegate and set to completly open(NO BOOST) as a starting point-no sence killing your engine before you have the chance to tune it... For additional fuel, you can add a 100k pot to the temperature sensor to fool the existing engine management to thinking the engine is always running cold and always adding fuel via the cold start valve-this will not be enough fuel to really add much boost. I would explore larger injectors (greater flow) that have the same resistance coils, a bolt on low fabrication mod), if you don't find any of those, I would seriously consider finding a cheep 280ZX turbo that is close to running, and just move everything over(the last complete turbo car I bought came from ebay for $145) If this isnt in your budget, I am sure rebuilding the Maxima engine after adding too much boost and not enough fuel won't be either. If you don't have $1000 for the conversion, or are a great scrounger, I would leave this on the drawing board before you cause a huge repair bill, or a permanent move to the salvage yard for a running car. If you are set on experimanting, start with no boost, and tune the engine, make changes very slowly (add boost very slowly), the L24 will need to rev higher to spin up the turbo than the L28, so you will be turning more than the 2200 rpm that an L28ET takes to start producing boost and when you hear detonation, realize that you ARE killing the engine. Interesting project, and you are doing it right in reading and "dis-cussing" before trying and cussing then!

Will

[Dtsnlvrs]

Go with a swap from a L-28et. The L-24E had smaller rod bearing journals, and could be destroy itself very easily when boosted. Just remember that the Maxima used a front sump system, so the pan will have to be swapped from the L-24E engine, and the oil dipstick tube will have to be located forward like the L-24E. When you look at the block, you can see where the block was cast with the capability of either pan system.