jewelz

Thanks for the part numbers. I need something for an '83 zx if you happen to know that number. Thanks everyone for the advice! I was thinking I probably needed to go out and pull apart the distributor to see exactly what was causing the issues.

So I think we finally narrowed down the issues with only being able to go half throttle to the vacuum advance. I've been looking for the part everywhere, but can't seem to get any hits. I'm not sure if I'm asking for the right thing. We've been going for a Vacuum Advance Canister, and they've been looking into the distributor parts and still can't find anything. I'm wondering if anyone knows the exact part name for this, or if you may know where to get one. It's the little saucer that's attached to the distributor. When pulling off the vacuum line and sucking on the line, nothing changes with the way the motor is running. It also seems to be stuck when we pull the cap off and see how the advance moves. Any suggestions would be wonderful! Thank you!

I'm still kinda new to all of it too...but have you checked fuses? I know I kept having weird stuff go in and out of working with my gauges and such and it turned out to be issues with the fuse box. My car isn't stock though, so I'm not completely positive where the fuse box is supposed to be located. A PO was an electrical engineer, so things are weird on mine.

Thank you so much for the direction! I wish I could say a little more about the swap...I'm pretty sure he just did the straight swap with everything except the gas tank. At least it appears to be 280 fuel lines and such. After market exhaust header too. I'm thinking something to do with throttle position as well. It doesn't matter what the RPM is from what I found tonight, it just has issues with full throttle. I haven't done the fuel pressure check yet. I still need to get a fuel pressure gauge, and the car has me a bit broke at the moment. Checking that and timing will be my upcoming goals. I really appreciate you helping me on all this!

So we just finished the compression test. Looks like I have all cylinders at 130 PSI. This is with the motor cold. I got her up and running today and she drove much better. I'm still having issues if I give her full throttle...she'll completely bog down at about 3k rpm that way, but has no problems accelerating steadily if I keep it at half throttle. I think the other night's issues may have had something to do with the colder weather. I think the plugs were just wet...they smelled like gas instead of oil this time....dunno what's going on there. Diagnostics continue!

Yes, all six plugs are fouling. It smokes a lot when pushing past half throttle. A lot of black smoke....we were worried about burning oil, but my oil level doesn't seem to be dropping at all or having issues. Of course, I haven't had the car running long enough to have a good basis for a conclusion against burning oil.

Hello again... So, I drove the car for a while the night I got it running. Things seemed like they were going pretty well, but I was still having some issues when pushing the car past about half throttle. The car was kind of "bogging" down. When I went to drive it the next night, I was experiencing the same problems as I was right before the car got bad enough I couldn't start it anymore. I pulled the plugs again today, and they were already fouled. From what I can tell though, it seems like the plugs are getting fouled with oil. That's what it smells like at least. Is there anything specific I should be looking at now? I'm really worried about problems with rings or something....compression test is next. I'm just curious where else to be looking. Thank you again for all the great advice Stephen!

Those are fun little motors.

Thank you sblake!!! I luckily didn't even have to get that far. I had put new plugs on the car, so I didn't think about the possibility of that causing my problems. I went out and double checked the plugs though and they were fouled. I replaced them and she started up and is idling beautifully! I really appreciate all the help you give. It's probably a good idea for me to check fuel pressure at some point anyway.

Ha! Definitely a fun little car. All I had was FWD at that point so it felt like a beast. I got the 350 and now can't stand FWD. Yours would have been the SR powered version right?

So I bought a 240z about a month ago. It has the L28E swap from an '83 280zx. The motor is fuel injected. The guy I bought it from let me know that the gas tank was never swapped, so it is still has the 240 gas tank with the 280 fuel set-up. He said this was causing a little gas starvation when mashing the gas pedal or taking hard turns. The car ran fine the night I got it, then started up fine the next morning. As soon as I got out to the road, I went to accelerate to make a left turn but couldn't seem to get any power out of the car. I made it to the median, and the car died. After a little bit of work, I got it started back up. I had to nurse it back home then left it for the day. We changed out the spark plugs, cap and rotor. The car ran much better for a couple of days after that. I went to start the car a few days later, and now it turns over, but never catches. It just sits there kind of sputtering, sounding like it's right on the edge of turning over. I went back later and tried to start it again, thinking it just sounded like it was flooded. After a lot of coaxing I got the car to start. I let it warm up for a while, then attempted to drive it. The car wouldn't stay started unless I pumped the gas peddle quickly, then it wouldn't rev high enough to actually move until I had been pumping for a while. After some time, the car would kind of catch then would rev up high enough for me to move it, but would drop back down a little bit later and I would have to start the process again. Now the car just won't start at all. I've been thinking it sounds like it's just not getting enough fuel to start, so I dropped the gas tank and cleaned it, but that only slightly helped. It now tries a little harder to start but still won't catch. We've put a brand new fuel pump on, rigged up the G3 filter between the tank and pump, checked the fuel pump relay, and fuel pressure regulator. Everything is turning up to be fine. I know that we're getting fuel pressure at least to the fuel rail but I'm not sure how much. Here are my questions: Does this even sound like a fuel issue? If so, what is the best way to test the injectors, and where should I go from here? Is there a way to check fuel pressure without the car being able to start? I'm working my way through that Z fuel injection manual, but I'd like to see if there is a smaller place for me to start to attempt to fix the issue. Thank you!!!

Ah...that makes sense. I had a Spec V for a while that I threw cold air on and it made it perform a little better. Sounded a TON better though.

Have you tried a cold air intake to replace the stock intake? It helps a little...

HAHAHA!!! Very true. Sadly, the same can't be said for the new stuff they seem to be putting out. We need to get together a Nissan meet again. That was definitely good times.

Hey!!!! Geoff right? How are the cars doing?? Your 240 definitely helped me fall in love with classic Zs.

That's an awesome pic! Congrats on the licenses! Maybe I'll see you out this year. My boyfriend has been racing his CRX a lot if he's not drifting his s13. Hopefully someday I'll get my 240 out as well.

And thank you so much for the service manual links!!! I was having such a difficult time hunting those down.

Thanks for the tips and the welcomes!!! I have the fuel injection manual....one of the many helpful things I found through searching this site. I just wasn't sure what I should reference when I go through all the ECU testing. If I can just use the Z manual, then life is much easier It doesn't have the carbs...it's the fuel injection with the ZX motor and tranny. I guess it still has the 240z gas tank, so I'm thinking I need to swap that to make sure that isn't a big part of my problem. Other than that, when the car does run it's beyond fun! Definitely doesn't take much to fall in love! Thanks for the compliment JonnyRock. I will definitely make sure to get more pics ASAP. I'm working on doing little restoration stuff to the inside as well as getting it running. As soon as all that's done, a ton of pictures will end up posted It's awesome to know there are more New Mexico people on here! Red-Eye...do you ever get out to any of the races around town or anything?

Hello everyone! I just got a '72 240 with an '83 zx motor swap a few weeks ago. I've been using the search on this site a ton so far and figured I'd finally say hello. Everyone seems massively awesome! I'm new to classic Z's, but I had an '03 350z for a while. She was actually what got my blood boiling for old school. I currently have a Nissan Versa, and the 240. I'm not amazing at working on cars yet, and have been having issues with the 240 already, but have found this site way helpful. :classic: Here are some pictures of the Z....I'll have more recent ones up as soon as I get the car moving again. Thanks for looking! I'm also curious if anyone knows if the service manual for the z's will help at all with my zx setup or if I should just work at finding the zx manual? The z manual is much more available from what I'm finding out.