Minnesota Datsun 280Z / NA Miata / 1990 F-250

Power steering pump exploded doing 70 in the Jeep. The pulley decided it didn't want to be part of it any more - looks like the bearing in the pump seized.

Took it to a garage to get fixed, beginning to hate the Jeep.

New ECU

I have long terms plans for keeping this car, so maintenance, cost and availability of parts is always a concern. Thankfully, there's a solution - enter the FAST EFI kit.

This replaces all the sensors in the engine bay with newer, cheaper, and readily available (as in walk in to Autozone and buy a replacement that day) GM parts. The rest of this post isn't going to be very interesting, as it's more for my reference later on if I need to buy anything. The nice thing about this kit is it comes with all adapters you need to hook straight up to the L28 engine, which is a huge convenience.

First up, coolant sensor and thread adapter:





TPS sensor, adapter and wiring loom adapter:







MAP Sensor:



Idle valve and K&N filter:






And a couple of elbow joints with barbs for routing this to a vacuum point:



Air intake temperature sensor:



The MAF is deleted - there's a nice aluminium pipe for that:



A load of vacuum points will also be blocked off, as all the cold start stuff comes off as well:



Fully labelled loom (yes, all the sensor wiring is also replaced throughout the car):



Wiring for the touchscreen:



RPM Converter:



Spare wiring conduit to tidy everything up - I really appreciate small touches like this:



O2 sensor - if anyone knows the part number for this, I'd appreciate it!





The ECU and touchscreen display:



And finally, the first thing I can actually tackle... the O2 bung:



Next up will be removing the exhaust manifold to have the O2 sensor bung welded in.

That looks good enough to hang on the wall, almost a shame to hide it by fitting it to the car.

I went to the storage unit yesterday - car hasn't been started for probably 4 - 6 weeks (and it's been cold as eff). After digging a ton of snow and ice away from the door, I had to jump the battery and the car warmed up absolutely fine... however...

There was a small amount of steam coming from somewhere near the thermostat housing. There's also a small puddle of coolant under the radiator. I'm hoping that it's just the cold cracking the hose a little, as the radiator is pretty new (and the hoses are not!). So, replacement hoses, clamps and a thermostat gasket ordered.

I was being super lazy about not wanting to take the inlet manifold off to get to the exhaust manifold, so I didn't have to drain all the coolant - looks like the car has decided that for me.

On a side note - is there anyone here that could possibly aid in translating some Japanese instructions?

From what I can read, its just marketing hype, especially in the second section.

Talks about improved response and power, and the 34, 38 are the carbs (if you hadn't figured that out already)

We just had another 8" snow and another week of hitting below -10°C, but I'm hoping to get to the storage unit tonight to do a bit more.  At least shoveling warms you up!

I believe I now have everything required for fitting the ITBs.  The last part was figuring out the fuelling - I could just try and reuse the stock fuel pressure regulator, but it isn't adjustable, and if I need more fuel pressure, I'd have to upgrade anyway... so I've got an Aeromotive 30 - 70 PSI unit which will accept my fuel pressure gauge.  Another issue is getting rid of the charcoal canister - I did this on my NA MX5 without thinking, but in the 280Z it's a bit more of a contentious subject.

The fuel tank has a vent that runs under the car, into the charcoal canister (bottom right of this image):



This is quite important for relieving pressure from the tank, especially on long drives.  The vapour travels through the line from the tank, and is captured in the charcoal canister.  On top of the canister, is a pressure operated valve that takes a vacuum line from the inlet manifold, and another hose that vents the vapour into the throttle body.  When the car is running, the valve opens, and the vapour is burned by the normal engine operation.

Wonderful.  However, converting to ITBs, there's no logical place for this to go.  The car absolutely stinks of fuel after a long run anyway, so I'm fairly sure something in the system leaks.  So I've ordered one of these:


A remote fuel tank vent, with a roll over valve.  It needs to be mounted the same height or higher than the fuel filler, so I'll start looking for a suitable spot next time I'm under the car.  

I also picked up a new tool chest for $99 on clearance, which is going to hopefully tidy up my working area a lot (lol jokes, I'm just going to fill it with more tools).

Slightly off topic, but what camera are you using for these pictures? They look really good. I'm in need of a new one as the 8 year old one I've been using has started to literally fall apart now.

That's probably more camera than I really need, but I'll add it to the list anyway, just in case one pops up since I can see it's a good bit of kit.

Just steal some trays from McDonalds and sled there! Geez, there's no need for that much snow in April, not even in Minnesota.