My new 280z

[Pomorza]

Hello all

About three weeks ago I purchased my first Z. A 1976 280z with a 5 speed. The car is in pretty good shape with only a tad bit of rust located in the wheel well under the battery box. The interior is in pretty good shape as it has a complete dash cover. (so I'm pretty sure the original dash is cracked).

Engine is in great shape but does have a fairly annoying ticking noise coming from the injector side of the engine. Not sure what it is yet but I will figure it out. Its fairly loud, (can hear it in the car when driving.), but I'm thinking the injectors are just old.

As for problems. At the moment the gas tank is leaking from one of the connection points. I'm looking for a "new" so if anyone has any ideas let me know.

Any comment, thoughts, criticism or anything else is welcome.

Thanks

Jan

P.S

The noise is not the valves, had them adjusted already and it is coming from the injector side.

[IdahoKidd]

Congrats on the car!

As for the ticking, look to see if it isn't an exhaust leak, either at the collector or at the manifold to the block (probably at the collector though). You might be able to see a black carbon trail near one of the three studs that hold the exhaust pipe to the collector. IF that is what it is, the gasket is about 6 bucks. Getting the nuts off the studs without twisting off the studs is the challenge. LOTS of PB Blaster. If you have a thread chaser (die), cleaning the threads could help. It is a major PITA to get out a broken stud. In fact, you may have a look and see if there is a broken one there now and it is indeed causing an exhaust leak.

Leonard

(just spent some 5 hours drilling out broken exhaust studs------Ugh!)

[scotts pearl]

more than likely a valve sticking. this happen to me and i let it go to long.. the valve finally kissed the piston,, so make sure this is not your problem before you drive very much,,,

ps you cannot tell this my adusting valves..

hope this helps

[Pomorza]

Scott:

I had my valves adjusted a week ago to .12 when the motor was hot. If anything they would be loose and not over tight. Secondly I've used a car stethoscope on the valve cover and all I hear from in there is the pleasant sound of the cam rolling. (no ticking). I'll do it again to make sure today and will let you know

Leonard:

Thanks for the advise. I'll crawl under there today and take a look at the entire exhaust. Will take pictures if anything is found (or not found really).

Thanks guys

Jan

[sblake01]

You do know that the injectors themselves make a ticking noise as they open and close, right?

[Pomorza]

sblake01:

Yes I do know that the injectors "tick" when the car is driving. Should it be loud enough to hear while driving? I'm not saying just normal noise, its fairly loud and increases with the RPM

A bit of an update:

I borrowed a friends stethoscope today and placed it on the valve cover and on each of the injectors. The valves make no noise at all. When placed on the valve cover all I could hear is the cam rolling. All the injectors TICK (as they should I guess). Not exactly sure if that is the noise but its pretty dam close.

It's hard for me to really locate the noise as it comes and goes erratically. One day it will show up after 10 minutes of driving and other days I'll go the whole dam day without it appearing. I will try to record it next time it shows.

I did climb under the Z today and took a look at the entire exhaust. I didn't find any obvious leaks but it is pretty dirty. (rusty). I took some pictures, let me know what you all think.

Jan

Edited September 6, 2009 by Pomorza

[sblake01]

I'm glad you didn't take that as a 'know-it-all' type statement because I surely didn't mean it that way. These Nissan injectors are fairly loud IMO plus they're uncovered. I guess I just got used to the sound when I had my 280Z and my 810. If there wasn't much ambient noise around the car, yes, I could hear them even when driving. Not so much on other cars, like my GTO, because the injectors are partially covered by the fuel rail covers, etc. I never really noticed if the sound got louder as the RPM increased. I guess I just didn't pay that much attention to the injectors at that point.