Chopper

The car has been running for about (2) years now. I've had it out to Canby twice and run it in the Motherlode 400 Rally a couple of times. I will get around to updating this thread in a bit, but feel free to ask any questions. Thanks

anyone on here wire a can am box to a vg30? and knows how? The short answer is that it will not work with any of the ECU's which use a ground (-) to control the fuel pump circuitry. That means any early VG like the z31 and the s12. The Can-am box is designed to switch the positive side of the fuel pump....KA,CA, SR What can be done if you are dead set on using the box is to basically use only one of the relay circuits in the box and leave the other (2) unused....not really practical. The better thing to do is to retain the (2) relays from the donor car and harness and wire them into your project...not difficult at all

Actually thinking about making the trip from Virginia....need to get out and see some of my Datsun mates.

So just to be clear, I take + power at the battery thru a fuse to a toggle switch and connect it to the key power CA terminal. Correct, just like an ignition key switch would do, only you don't need a key...just a switch on your panel Looking at the VG / CA wiring diag. It would appear that permanently grounding the CA box would keep the # 34 pin energized all the time? The coil side of the RUN relay gets its power from the ignition switch....so the switch side of the relay doesn't work until you flip the ignition switch thus providing power to pin 34 at the ECU and the other items on that circuit...the O2 sensor, idle air regulator, and the ignition coil. You must pickup this wire G/W where it would have originally connected to the fuse box. If you don't have the pigtail for the ignition coil and transistor from the original harness then you can pick up this G/W wire at the large yellow/white connector. That way you will include O2 and idle air as well as the ECU....You will then need to splice in a wire for the coil to that circuit. The #9 pin in the ecu does not activate the starter solenoid, so I assume you mean take + power at the battery thru a fuse to one side of momentary push switch. Then connect the #9 wire and another wire to the other side of the switch then on to the starter solenoid? Correct...The ECU needs to see a "Start" signal thats why we connect the start switch/solenoid to it through pin 9. This can be done with a wire from the starter button(where the start signal originates) or with a wire from the starter solenoid at the other end of the wire(where the start signal terminates) So your control panel should have at least (4) switches....(1) master power, (2) ignition, (3) starter push(momentary), (4) fuel pump( this is a ground switch that connects the fuel pump relay at the CA box (FPLSS) to ground)....no hot wire to this switch.

I dont have my CA box yet and was wondering about hooking up my ignition on/off toggle switch. Does it hook to the CA box "ground" terminal? No, please connect the ignition on/off to the KEY PWR terminal on the CA box, Make sure that you fuse the switch between the battery and the switch. Connect the ground terminal on the CA box to a good body/chassis ground. Also my starter button, does it hook to the CA box "key power" terminal? No, please connect the starter button/solenoid using the yellow wire to pin 9 at the ECU, this wire can be found/picked up at the large yellow/white connector in the harness near the ECU.

That looks like a familiar car. I crewed for Fletcher Williams for several years during much of the 90's. He campaigned a 240sx out of the South East and was a constant figure on the GT3 SCCA Runoffs grid for 15 yrs with that car. Best Runoffs finish was on the podium in 3rd place in 98, 4th in 97, and 5th in 07. I spent several years under the Nissan tent at the Runoffs.....lots of successful Nissan history there. You need to document your build and race results on this forum...looking forward to your updates...I wish you much success.

Looking at the circuitry I would say no. You should be able to run the fuel pump separate from the ECU. If you choose to use the CA box then you would need to just wire up a switch that connects terminal 85 of the relay(FPLSS) direct to ground, FP1 to positive side of the pump, ground the pump negative to the chassis. That should activate the relay separate from the ECU. Love to see some pictures of your build

Chopper, I just re read your wiring. So are you saying if I use CA box for fuel pump that after 30sec run time it will die? Thats correct. As it is indicated in the wiring diagram provided in this topic. Nissan had the z31 and s12 VG ECU control the ground side of the fuel pump. Different from the way the ECU controls the power side of the fuel pump on the CA, KA, and SR engines. The voltage to the pump was varied most likely through change in resistance of the ground. I would assume the lower voltages were used to lean the mixture for cruise efficiency. If you look at the FSM it provides the fuel pump circuit diagram showing the ECU controlling the ground as well as the conditions under which the voltage to the pump is varied. I would suspect that the ECU provides full ground by activating the fuel pump relay(providing ground to the FP relay coil through pin 20) closing the contact and making a full ground....then as cruise is reached the relay is turned off and ground is switched to pin 108 which must have varied resistance to control voltage. Your needs are much different from a typical street driven vehicle. I would think that you want to monitor fuel pressure with a sender and gauge. Also quite possibly replace the stock pressure regulator with an adjustable style like one from Aeromotive. Individual cylinder EGT's. That way exhaust temps could be maximized for HP. It may even be best to invest in a complete controller from someone like Electramotive...when you sort things at the dyno then changes can be made more easily. Giving Dave Rebello a call or Dave Auerbach if he's still around may get you pointed in the right direction. What are the guys running this motor doing for engine management? The CA box although a great product might not be the right choice for your application. Keep us posted.

Ok GT2 I will tell you what I did to get my Dime up and running with the VG30. Hi, so I'm building a tube frame race car with no existing wiring at all. I'm using a 87 na VG30e and engine harness. I will be getting a CA box. I think I have the wiring figured out but have a question. The CA box uses the wires from the stock main relay and the stock efi relay ( # 6 and # 114). Does this mean I can strip out the stock relays and their fusable link connection? Thanks, Tim I used a motor and harness from a 1984 300zx(z31) with an automatic. I sourced a trans, flywheel, etc from another z31. I would suggest that you find a copy of the 87 FSM to refer to. It will help to make things plain. If you don't have a copy I believe Icehouse has listed the link at the beginning of this topic. I initially stripped the harness of its wrap in order to make sure that I had identified each and every circuit and where each wire started and ended, and what it was spliced to. As I started to remove the original harness tape I replaced it with zip ties about every 12" or so. This way the harness remained intact, but all wires were visible and accessible. Next I identified every connector and labeled it so that if I wasn't using that circuit, input, or output I could remove it from the harness which streamlined installation. Many of the wires that you will need to connect to the CA box can be found at the yellow/white connector which ties into the body harness at the passenger side A pillar next to the ECU. For me I was able to remove at least 4 or 5 wires that connected the ECU to the automatic transmission lockup module that came through this connector. I also knew that I wanted to eliminate the EGR circuit. I traced both wires to the EGR solenoid (B/W, L/W). L/W terminates at the ECU pin4. I cut this wire at the ECU connector leaving enough to re-connect it if need be, put shrink tubing on the butt end and pulled it through the harness to the connector. I found where the B/W wire spliced in to the harness and cut it loose from the splice, then re-wraped the splice section. Since I was concerned about driveability and smooth idle and I wanted the engine to run as if it was original to my Dime like the factory would have intended I retained most of the idle circuits and controls. Some elect to remove these items from the intake manifold and use block off plates. You must then set the idle with the throttle plate screw and not have it controlled by the ECU. I did remove part of this circuitry though. The idle-up solenoid and FICD circuit adjust idle for increased engine load when the headlights are turned on, the A/C is on, and when P/S oil pressure is high(parking). I don't have any of these luxuries so the wiring to these "sensors" was removed from the harness...not the wiring to the idle-up/FICD valve. Again I cut these inputs at the ECU leaving enough wire to re-connect if necessary. Use common sense when removing wiring. I did, however leave this valve on the intake manifold as it incorporates the idle adjustment screw(basically an air bypass). I left the air regulator valve and circuitry intact as this controls the engines warm-up idle. The harness that came with my donor car had been modified by the dealership at some point in its life. There was an injector campaign to prevent engine fires from leaking injectors in the early 90's. Part of this campaign involved cutting and shrink wrapping the wiring to injectors 1,5,2,and 6. Then wiring 1,3,and 5 together, and 2,4,and 6 together... effectively changing the injectors that fired during batch mode. The VG ECU fires in (2) modes...simultaneous( above 3000rpm) and batch. This really didn't change much about how the car ran...but I wanted the computer to control the injectors....not the wiring change. So I re-wired the injectors individually per the FSM schematic. So lets get to powering this thing up. Follow the 88 z31 VG30E wiring diagram that Icehouse has provided. Lets start from the bottom....(1) connect the yellow wire from the large white/yellow connector to the starter solenoid, this goes to pin 9 at the ECU. (2) make sure that you properly ground the spots in the harness with ring terminals...grounding to the intake manifold(engine), and to the vehicle body, also run a proper ground strap from the motor to the chassis. (3) Remove the red wire from the fusible link harness connector or safety relay connector and connect it to ECCS BUP...this goes to ECU pin 114 and supplies hot to the injectors. (4) Remove the B/W wire from the EFI relay connector(usually green) and wire it to ECCS1...this goes to ECU pin 35,27. (5) Remove the red wire from the EFI relay connector and wire it to ECCS LSS...this goes to ECU pin 6. (6) Pickup the G/W wire where it would have connected to the fuse panel....this should connect the ignition coil and ECU pin 34 to RUN1 on the CA box (on the 87 on it also powers the O2 sensor and air regulator)....for the 84-85 harness hook the L/W wire from the fuse box to RUN2(this powers the O2 and air regulator on these earlier years). (7) Secure a good ground for the GRD terminal on the CA box. (8) Connect ignition power to KEY PWR on the CA box( B/W wire from the original 510 fuse panel). (9) This is where things get a little interesting.....Nissan controlled the Fuel Pump on the z31 and s12 VG30 by using ground through the ECU. The CA box controls "power" not ground and works well for all the other Nissan engine configurations except the early VG30. I wanted my car to have the ECU control the fuel pump operation as it did from the factory. In order to accomplish this I removed the FP relay from the CA box and wired a stand alone relay that functioned as the factory intended. I used a standard Bosch relay with (2) 87 terminals(not an 87 and 87a)much like a headlight relay. I connected 86 to ignition hot and positive side of the fuel pump...you can pick up ignition power at the previous FP relay plug on the CA box...check with a test light, 85 to Y/B to pin 20 at the ECU, 30 to ground, and 87 to fuel pump neg. and the other 87 to B(pin 108 at the ECU. If you wire the fuel pump using the CA box the pump will not prime with key on, it will run during cranking and the engine will start, but it will shut off after 30sec of run time, and then not prime on shut-off. I will provide pictures tomorrow if I can dig through 2' of snow to get to the garage. Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions....I have a ? for you....What group do you plan on running this setup with...SCCA?

I just finished my VG30 installation into my dime. I will post up my complete wiring info in the next post. Jeff's box is a good addition to any conversion. No worries about the speed sensor.

The starter/battery/alternator circuit is up and working. The fuel injection harness was a lot of work....stripping out the circuits that aren't needed. Then planning the installation and shortening the harness to fit the 510 was time consuming, but I'm fairly happy with the results. I ordered an aluminum sheet to mount the ECU, CanAm box, and fuel pressure regulator controller on...should be here this week. The goal for the weekend is to final mount the upper intake and get it running. If possible I'll start on the exhaust build. Coming along....

Thanks, I completed the battery/starter/alternator wiring yesterday and was able to do a circuit test...all good...motor turns over....getting closer. Next will be wiring up the fuel injection to see if this puppy will start and run. Lots of little stuff to do.

The VG30 project is getting closer to start up. I began the wiring this afternoon. I am using a Braille Lithium 15lb battery mounted under the rear seat between the crossmember and the drop for the floorboard. Also using a remote solenoid to keep the B+ starter wire powered only during start. I also decided to use the stock engine harness, but lighten it a bit and re-wrap it to improve the aesthetics and protection. I was able to remove several circuits...the external regulator and wiring, the third gear relay and wiring, and lastly the electric choke relay and wiring. If I can get a little time in tomorrow I might be able to actually test the start circuit.

Got some work in on the VG project today. I received some of the parts needed from Riley at Lynchburg Nissan. Secured the valve covers with new hardware, the same for prepped and painted upper front timing cover and new lower cover. Powder coated pulleys and front damper. Also made a visit to (2) local pick and pull lots and found a couple Z31s. 86 Turbo I was able to pull starter, alternator, lower intake, injection harness, heater piping, coil, and some misc. stuff. 85 NA also got the starter, alt, full intake with all the items, harness and computer, MAF, distributor/wires, in-tank fuel pump and flange to weld in 510 tank, misc stuff. Also found a 92 Jetta with the digifant fuel sump pump. So I've got more than enough stuff to do both cars when the time comes. I used the turbo alt mount to put the alternator on the passenger side. Installed the 200sx manifolds with the down pipes...hope to start building the exhaust....waiting on a 1 3/4" into 2" merge collector. The old fuel tank is drained and pulled, should get the modified(300zx pump)tank installed in the morning. I would use the current hard line to the front as the return except that when I bought this car it was plugged up with rust and dirt....got it unplugged/new filter and used it with the 32/36 no problem...don't want any rust issues with the fuel injection so I'll be running (2) new 5/16 hard lines to the motor. I think the best spot for the ECU and Can/Am box is the passenger toe kick....1/8" panel suspended by anti-vibe mounts...that way I could see the code lights if need be...cover it up with removable cover. Couple of recent pics

Got the VG30 mounted and in the 510. I have been working on plumbing, exhaust, wiring, etc. One of the items that I'm not sure of or undecided upon is the configuration of the air intake, filter, and MAF prior to the throttle body. I would like to use the stock MAF which has a OD of 3 1/8" on both ends. The intake which is from a 200sx has the z31 throttle body on it(same diameter as the 200sx) has a diameter of 2 3/4". Most of the aftermarket air intake pieces and parts that I find from suppliers are sized for 3", 3 1/2",, 4" etc. I have seen various pictures of VG30 install using the 200sx intake, but have no idea what is done to get around the sizing issues. The other challenge is that I will need to provide air supply for the PCV system and the idle air control valve. Spectre makes/supplies fittings so that you can drill a hole in the intake tube to accomplish this, but I haven't found other sources. What filter media is preferred for this application as there seem to be many options? Lastly I have read a few threads that claim decreased performance from the aftermarket air intakes. I know that they are louder due to no factory baffling, but not sure about the performance issues and what could be done about it given that the engine swap almost requires this form of air intake. Thanks as always for your input. Chip