hey all, New member here, thought I would start my stay off here with a riddle, of the car variety of course, thanks in advance for your help. I have a 72 240z with an early L28 swapped in. problem is below the picture.

about 5 minutes after I left home on a cold San Francisco day, the car starts to sputter and wont hold idle (engine just got off the full cold mark on the stock guage). It dies on me at a red light,I try to turn it back on, it cranks for about ~7-8 seconds and wont turn on until I start pumping the gas pedal. when it finally does fire up, it sounds like its not firing on all cylinders and I can smell gas out of the exhaust (leading me to believe there is unburned fuel in the cylinders). it wont will idle badly for about 10 seconds but the idle will continuously get lower until it dies, playing with the choke ,makes no difference. the distributor (points distributor, not electrical) did not move, its still tight. any suggestions? thank you.

Edited January 30, 201015 yr by brattesani

I would doubt that the car jumped timing, it is very rare in these cars without a good reason. Had you been doing anything else to the car before the problem happened?

Battery fully charged?

Points in good shape and gapped properly?

When you say the points do not move, what do you mean? Are they not opening and closing? Or is the plate not advancing? That part has me confused.

i meant the distributor didnt move (meaning the timing didnt run off). are the dists the same for L28s and 240 engines? as in can I use my 240 FSM to check the point gap?

L28s all came with electronic ignition, no points. If you still have points, you still have the 240Z distributor.

What fuel system are you running? SU's or fuel injection?

I have the SU's round tops i believe.

Electronic ignition or points in the dizzy?

points on the diz

Check to make sure your choke nozzels (directly below the carbs) have not hung open.......happens all the time. Reach under each carb and try to push 'em back up.

Any word on the carbs? I dont run the SU's I have the Webers and they dont have that problem, they have thier own problems!

If the choke nozzles are hung open it will run like Diseazd said, or if the choke isnt closing properly.

If the choke and carbs are good, then start by checking spark in all locations, voltage to coil, points for proper operation, cap for cracks.

Have you pulled a couple of plugs to see what they look like? Spark plugs can be your best friend in tracking down some problems.

ok, I pulled the plugs out, they were wet and smelled like gas. tested for spark (after checking plugs, got good solid spark out of all 6 plugs. the choke nozzels are gunked up but not stuck open.. but I also noticed there is now alot of gas in my oil. could this just have slipped past my rings while testing for spark (of course I forgot to disconnect the fuel lines) or am I in deeper trouble than I am aware of? please advise, thanks for sticking with me.

ok, went into napa and the only mechanical fuel pumps they could find were for 2.6L's. I have a 2.8. are they the same? they look identical on the outside. thanks