I just bought a 79 280ZX it seems sorta sluggish could this be an exhaust leak? The guy I bought it from said he thought that's what it was.

First money I'd spend is a new fuel filter. Passenger's side fender, behind the radiator, $10.

Sluggish could be from the timing be off, not so sure about an exhaust leak causing it. You should do a cheap tune up for $50 before setting the timing though. Distributor cap and rotor button, new spark plugs and maybe wires. Chain parts stores have the parts, cheap too.

Here's a good helping of tips and with plenty of pictures. Tech Tips

Go to "electrical" and read about cleaning the grounding wires, it will help bring it back alive.

Edited August 31, 201410 yr by siteunseen

First money I'd spend is a new fuel filter. Passenger's side fender, behind the radiator, $10.

Sluggish could be from the timing be off, not so sure about an exhaust leak causing it. You should do a cheap tune up for $50 before setting the timing though. Distributor cap and rotor button, new spark plugs and maybe wires. Chain parts stores have the parts, cheap too.

Here's a good helping of tips and with plenty of pictures. Tech Tips

Go to "electrical" and read about cleaning the grounding wires, it will help bring it back alive.

I checked the plugs, and rotor and the fuel pump all are new. While doing so and looking into it a little further, I felt an exhaust leak from the rear of the manifold and the front. Big enough to cause a poor vacuum, hoping this may fix my cruise control not working too.

Thanks for the info on grounding.

"Seems sorta sluggish" is relative. Is your other car a Corvette? Exhaust leaks and vacuum leaks are not the same thing. I would do a full tune-up before going crazy on parts. One thing that often gets overlooked, for people coming from the hydraulic lifter Chevy, or US domestic, world is valve lash. It's critical to good performance.

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