Hi everyone! I recently bought a 77 280z, trailered it home and put 5 galons of gas in her. When I tried it, it fired with a little coaxing. The idle didn't want to stay even and when I'd give her some throttle she tried to die. On second try she fired right up, I noticed the tach is at 2000, and doesn't move, but idle is still rough, when I give her throttle, she bogs and then made a clapping sound then tries to die. Playing with the throttle would keep her running, but sounding bad. Slowly bringing up the throttle was a little better, but would end up with same smack or clap sound and try to die. I checked the dizzy and noticed the #5 and #6 plugs were backwards and it was turned as far clockwise as it would go. I checked the firing order and reconnected the 5 and 6 in the right order and turned the dizzy to about center gap. She fired up, but sounded terrible. I didn't have my timing light (friend borrowed it) so I thought maybe the P.O. had stabbed the dizzy 180 out, I pulled the #1 plug, hand turned till at top, checked the rotor, which was pointing opposite the #1 wire, then unplugged the wires and re-plugged starting at that point, put cap on and tried to fire her. Loud pings then. (valves?) so I stopped. Got my timing light back and put the dizzy back to the original state I got it in, but with 5 and 6 in right order. Tried the timing light and couldn't see the marks. checked the pulley and the only marks are a brown paint mark made by P.O.? No notches or indicators other than that. I'm assuming my first order of business is to establish that the dizzy is actually in correctly and then find proper TDC. The motor is suppose to have only 10k on a rebuild. This is my first Z and my first inline six, so I'm a bit lost as to where to begin and how to go about it. Sorry if this is basic stuff. I downloaded the FSM, have the haynes and chiltons manuals as well. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry to write a book, but I wanted to be sure I included anything that may be pertinent.

-Ray

How long did the car sit before you got it?

I would get ahold of a timing light first and find your marks on the engine and balancer so you know where you are at. Then look at all the plugs. If the PO was trying to run it with the wrong firing order you may have a couple fouled plugs. Then ohm the plug wires to make sure they are all good. If all that checks out then you may want to drain the fuel tank if it has sat for awhile.

Good luck.

car sat for 6-8 months on stands while PO worked on it. gas tank was empty till I put fuel in. timing marks on the pulley are "homemade" no markings to confirm they are correct. I'll ohm the wires and check plugs tonight.

well this coming from an american car guy but i know sometimes that if the dampners have a rubber isolator the outter ring can spin throwing off timing marks.

for order of business would be to find TDC on #1 compression stroke. then mark the balancer to the reference mark. so now u have set 0 degrees of spark timing, so now set the dizzy on cyl 1 and re wire the plug wires. then set to right timing

Ok, got my timing light back, removed dizzy cap and plug wires, turned motor till #1 was at top, checked cam lobes to be sure both were up (like bunny ears). Then placed dipstick into spark hole and rocked crank back and forth, marked TDC on pulley. rotor on my dizzy is pointing at the drivers corner of radiator. replaced dizzy cap and started with #1 and wired counter clockwise 1-5-3-6-2-4. She fired up and after 1 or 2 starts. Set my timing, she idles fine now. However, there's no more pinging or clapping, but the throttle response is garbage. If I bring her up slowly, everything seems fine, revs right up. But if I "goose" her, I just get a big hesitation. I tried pulling it up and down the driveway, she's fine as long as I just lightly go along, give her a pump and nothing.

One thing you might check is the plate in the distributor. Make sure when you grab the rotor and twist that it will advance and return freely with no binding. On my sons I just sprayed some wd40 under the plate in the dist. I haven't taken it apart yet to do it right but it did free it up. Also you may be able to bump the timing up a little and see if it helps.