76Datsun280z

Nice looking 280!:laugh:

Was I leaning on your fenders?:ninja: If so, very sorry about that!:nervous: I'd like to find out a little more about these events if there's a link to them, sounds like they would be fun to attend! -Austen.

Yup, it would have been a lot of fun to talk to you guys if I knew your faces! I will have to get a picture up in my profile of me so people will recognize me for next time. I Was wearing a white University of Washington hooded sweatshirt and my dad was the one with the dark hair and the camera if anybody happened to remember faces, that was us. Did any of you happen to see that "Dat O lantern" truck? That was pretty different.

You guys may have wondered why my car was not in the show. Before we left for show, we wanted to put a new battery in it because the battery in it was not the correct one which meant it didn't fit the battery hold down frame which I bought. We thought it would look better with the battery hold down frame in there for the show, so I meat we drove down the Sears to by a Diehard battery for it and that's where it all started. Once we bought the battery, they offered to install it for free. Once they said that, I just about cut the guy off and told my dad I'd put it in when we got home, but my dad said since they offered to install it for free, why not have them just do it. Then I'm thinkin' at the point, well ok, I don't think they can mess it up by just swapping a new battery in it. Well you won't believe this, the moron that stuck the battery in it, conncected it up wrong by reversing the terminals ( putting positive on negative and negative on positive). Can you believe that!?! Isn't this their job, putting batteries in cars all day?? We were furious! Went to start the car and the radio wouldn't turn on. So after an hour of them pulling the radio out to replace the fuse which blew behind it we were on our way back home. The next day (Saturday morning) we got about 2 miles from home and the car wasn't charging and died on the side of the road. My dad called the manager of Sears and they paid to have it towed to their shop so they could "fix it". Sears has horrible customer service there and we spent 3 hours waiting for them to look at it and they told us it needed an altenator. This same situation had happened once before when my dad connected up the battery terminals wrong and we had to have it taken down to an electrical shop and the altenator was not the problem. We weren't convinced this was the problem because of what happened the last time which ended up not being the altenator. They offered us a new altenator for free (some remanufactured piece of crap which we weren't having them put in there) and what really pushed out buttons was the fact that they were going to have the idiot install the new altenator that caused this whole mess in the first place!! Can you believe that? The manager also for some reason just left and we couldn't get a hold of her again. The electrical shop that had worked on it the last time happens to be right down the street from Sears and the manager said if they couldn't find the problem that they would have it sent there. So at this point, we just got in and drove down there and that's where it is now and my dad is going to fight Sears to pay for all the expenses. Trust nobody to work on you car! On a more positive note, we we did drive down Saturday night and stayed the night in the Canby Country In. We got up at the show today at about 9:00 and left around 11:00. I got to see all your cars which was really cool! You guys have some great looking cars, we were impressed! I thought the show turned out to be pretty fun except for those rain showers, but we had a great time. We took a bunch of pictures and hope to have them on here soon (my dad's got the camera now). I really felt horrible about what happened and not being able to take it down as I've been looking foward to this for a long time. For sure it will be there next year painted, or if there are any other up comming events in it would be fun to make those too.

Well, we'll see you guys there on Sunday!

Yup, you're right about the cold start valve being opperated only when the key is turned. Big mistake of mine. I also forgot to mention how the temperature of the engine effects the length of time the cold start valve stays open. So, since the thermotime switch grounds the cold start valve from flooding the engine from when it's warmed up since it does not need the extra fuel, wouldn't that be something to check to see if it is opperating correctly? In other words if the thermotime switch is getting a bad connection or the heating eliment inside the switch is not working correctly (bi-metal not opening) wouldn't that be causing the car to run rich?

If you take the fuel rail off to get the injectors out, you can take them down and have them cleaned by Napa Auto Parts and they will clean them for you. We had this done on my car. It was pretty expensive, so I would start out with the small things first such as checking your themotime switch for continuity. If you do a search on this site under "thermotime switch", you'll learn just about everything you ever wanted to know about them and how they work and the other "ins and outs" of how the efi works on these cars and the problems they can have and such. Basically what the thermotime switch does is control cold start (which is essentially a 7th injector) to add more fuel (about 10seconds) when the car is completely cold for easier starting and will then ground it out thus cutting fuel to the coldstart valve. If the thermotime switch is getting a bad connection or needs to replaced and not working correctly, the cold start valve could be on all the time which would account for the rich bad running. If you've got a volt. meter, you can check for continuity which there shouldn't be but for 10 seconds or so right after you started it when it was cold. Since it sat for so long too, if you haven't already done it, drain the old stale gas out of the tank. Even better, if you check out and read the efi bible, you can learn even more and you'll learn where all this stuff is and how it all works together and how you can test it if you've got the right equipment.

If that doesn't work, also check your thermotime switch. Here's a link to the EFI "bible". It's very easy to read and follow, you may want to check it out! http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/efisystem/280zfuelinjectionbook.pdf

I actually have taken it off and cleaned out via. instructions off the internet which were spray it all out with carb. cleaner and to then soak it in warm water and to dry it out. I did that and also stuck it in the freezer to see if it would close which it didn't and it didn't seem to help it none.

I ordered a new one online off the nissan.cc site so that should help.

I was curious on how far the rpm's should go up when the engine is cold and has the "fast idle" for a minute or so? Mine will goes up to about 950rpm's and it just seems a little low. Is this what it should be at when it's warming up? I think you can adjust the air regulator with the nut on the side the rpm's of when it's on the "fast idle" but need to know what to set it at, other wise I'll probably end up buying a new one.

Beautiful beautiful! Very very nice work!

I thought it might be fun to hear your opinions on v8 conversions on these cars. To me, I wouldn't do it in a Z car because to me it would just kind loose the "heart" of what makes these cars so fun and cool. Not that it wouldn't be fun to have a v8 under the hood, it would just loose the essence and feel of the car and I'm a huge fan of these of engines and these engines are part of what makes a Z a Z if you get my drift. If I wanted more power, I would modify the stock engine.

I've always thought the old magazines, diecast car or ads that feature the car always looks kind of cool sitting next to the car. Also, a lot of the time people will have a booklet of photo album sitting next to the car that people can look at of the restoration or fix up that they did on it. Sometimes people can go a little crazy on it the stuff they bring to the shows, but a few old ads and magazines always seem to go along good with the car.

This is just my experience, but I'm running 20-50w Valvoline synthetic in my Z (engine is stock) and haven't had any problems at all with it like seals leaking or anything like that.

That is one beautiful 280!

This will be interesting, I've woundered about this too.

Just wanted to say thanks for the help. I found what I needed at Z Specialties, the hose and the "t" connector and got all the hoses and everything hooked up as they should be under the hood. I also have about 10ft. or so of extra hose so if any of you ever need some, feel free to let me know!

The one that he is reffering to is the mixture screw inside the afm (cover must be off). But there is also a seperate screw for mixture at idle down below on the right that you can access without the cover off.

Cool site! Many of those cars have been on Ebay before...

Thanks for the info Blake on the efi, that makes sense. Any how, do yourself a favor Cybidium and replace those plugs as that will atleaste emliminate part of this issue and should help in getting it started. Also, maybe your fuel pressure regulator might be something to look into?

Well, I'm thinking that one of the possibilities that it's not starting (other than fouled plugs) that the car may be flooded. By pressing the gas pedal down, this will inturn send a message to the computer to shut the fuel off because the computer "thinks" that the engine is flooded while you are holding the pedal down, therefore shuts the fuel down while you hold the accelerator about half way. And I totally admit, I am by all means no expert mechanic at this stuff, but from previous experience working on cars with with family and such, this has worked in the past.:ninja:

I might get a bunch of disagreements here, but hold the gas pedal down and crank the car over and see if it starts. Don't pump the pedal, just hold it and and crank it over and see what happens. Also, check your spark plugs. Foulded up spark plugs can cause hard starting, so if that suggestion doesn't work, you may want to clean them or better yet replace them and I bet there's a pretty good chance it would go after that. Let us know what happens!

Either that or any automtive high temp. paint will work.