1980 280zx w/ 1979 swapped motor running good;but only on 5 cylinders;Standstill here

[r53123]

Master mechanic of 40 years and I put in a 1979 L-28 with 80k miles into ,1980 280zx, we used same rail injection and distributor as old blown head gasket L-28. Have tried to figure out why only hitting on 5 cylinders not 6.. Injector and spark timming are perfect; but just cannot get #1 cylinder kicking in-it has good compression. Am hoping it is not a burnt valve; but at a very big loss as to what it could be-hopefully something simple; maybe electrical. MAF, and sending units seem to be working properly. Thank you for looking into this as we are very stumped here!

[Wade Nelson]

Time to get back to basics. You SAY good compression, what are the #'s, dry and wet?

If you spritz starting fluid / faux fuel, does cylinder #1 start firing? Then it's a fuel / injector problem.

When you pull the wire off the plug do you have spark? Then it's an ignition problem.

If you put a stethoscope on the injector, can you hear it clicking?

[Captain_Zeros]

Compression.

Fuel.

Spark.

Your #1 cylinder high tension spark plug wire in good shape? Distributor cap in good shape? Spark plug in good shape?

[superlen]

If all the other cylinders are running great, you can skip all the sensors. Maf, coolant, fuel pressure regulator & the ECU would all affect all your cylinders. If it's just #1, I would do these in order: I'm sure most you already have.

1. Swap plug and plug wire with #2...see if it follows those, if not, your wire and plug are fine for #1.

2. Swap the injector connector with 1 and 2. Same reason.

3. Swap the actual injector (this is more of a pain, so while they are all out inspect, clean, test, ect)

Lenny