Turbo conversion pages:

  • Page one (current)
  • Page Two
  • Page Three
  • Page Four
  • Page Five
  • Page Six: Final

    Lets start with the easy stuff... Swapping the fuel system. The only major changes between the NA and Turbo engine control ECU's are their calibration for different injector sizes. Other fuel system interchange information is located here.

    ***DO NOT operate a turbocharged 300ZX with a non-turbo fuel system (only really ECU and injectors are different). The fuel mapping is far too lean and incorrectly calibrated for a turbocharged application, expecially if you plan to swap a turbo onto a 9:1 compression NA engine.***

    Remove your old ECU in the passenger side kick panel, it is held in by two bolts. Install the new ECU as shown. At this time you may need to make a few small wiring changes depending on what ECU/injectors/O2 you are using. All 84-85 car owners will not have to worry about this if they are using an 84-85 turbo ECU. Again, that interchange information is here.

    Now, you can run the car with a turbo ECU for a test on NA injectors, but it's not a good idea to do it for very long as it will be very lean. Now comes a slightly less simple part, removing the intake plenum to gain access to the fuel rails. All of this information is provided in the Haynes manual (available at any auto parts store), if you do not have one... you should. The fuel rails will come out easily along with the injectors if you just cut the fuel lines, you should replace them anyway. Once you have the plenum ("collector") off stuff something into the manifold runners to keep stuff out of there. It should now look like this:

    Now put some tape over the lower intake's injector holes, again to keep junk out of there. You may wish to replace the lower injector seals at this time if yours are at all brittle, they are very inexpensive and should be replaced. Now get something to scrape with and remove the old gasket (mine took about 2 hours of tedious scraping with a razor blade to completely clean off). The new injectors and fuel rail (or you can use your old rails) should have new hoses and clamps. Use only high pressure fuel hose and fuel injection hose clamps (NAPA carries both), you don't want to be cheap when it comes to gas in your engine compartment. After you put the new injectors in and remove all of the old gasket it should look like this:

    You can now put your intake "collector" back on using a NEW gasket (available at any Nissan dealer PN 14033-0B000) or by making sure both surfaces are completely clean and using an RTV gasket maker compound. Be sure to plug everything back in. Now cross your fingers and if you did everything right your car will run about the same as it did before, though maybe a little slower beacause of the turbo ECU calibration. Yay. Fuel injector/ECU conversion is done, now get ready for the hard stuff.

    Part 2: Try Harder

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