Pomorza

Check the usual places that tend to rust. Make sure you check the area under the battery tray, the wheel wells, interior areas, frame rails, ect. From your info your in Ireland? I've never been there in person but I'm sure it isn't the most favorable environment for 30+ year old cars. Take a nice HARD look at the car. Don't rush into it just because it looks awesome (I know that one from experience). Take the car for a ride if possible. Let it get nice and warm and see how the engine acts. I've seen plenty of "rebuilt" engines in my lifetime that weren't in the best shape. Run through all the gears and make sure they are in good sound shape. Listen to the diffy as you drive for anything out of the ordinary. The best thing I can tell you is to take your time and check every area of the car if it was the MOST important part. Hope that helps. Jan

First off Kia engineers are going to be confused by the number of weatherstripping pieces being ordered. Secondly I can't wait to get this stuff. I have the "precision" weatherstripping on the rear hatch. Hatch doesn't close all the way and in general looks rather off. Water gets in and it makes a mess. This stuff looks awesome and in general a whole lot better than anything I've seen. (other than OE Datsun stuff) Thanks for the GREAT idea Jan

Beautiful mate sheer beauty.

Music is for people who drive there car slow enough to hear it . I have no AC so I drive with the windows open all the time. But in all seriousness I'm going to basically make it so that my MP3 player will hook up to the speakers. Thanks guys Jan

Thanks guys for the help. Did find that the hose was actually the drain for the A/C system. It would explain the hole in the top of the tranny tunnel I've found earlier. Did put everything back together and noticed that one yellow connection and one while connection were left free. Didn't find any wires around that were unhooked so I'm assuming that they are for the radio. Thanks again Jan

Hello guys. Finally decided to fill the empty space where the radio went with a panel for gauges. It will eventually have a oil temp and lambda (air/fuel) gauge, just need to save up the money to get some. Here are the pictures of said panel. Thanks Jan

Hey guys. Decided this weekend was a great time to pull out the center consul and see what is under it. Found two things that caught my eye. First off there is a weird wire that comes from the firewall area to the where the radio is (first pic). Can someone please tell me what this does and where it should be connected? Secondly I found a vacuum line that is not connected to anything. Does it need to go someplace? Thanks a lot Jan

Your description is dead on. I'll be driving along and bam out of nowhere the car just looses all power for a second and then gets it back the next. I'm not sure how old the fuel pump is but by the looks of it (rusty, dirty ect) I'd guess that maybe a five years to a decade. (just an educated guess). The pressure regulator is pretty new as it was replaced a few months before I bought the car. I'm not getting the smell of gasoline but I'll go back there sometime soon and feel around for gasoline. I have an inline fuel pressure gauge and it holds rather steady at idle. Its rather hard to see when I'm driving (as its under the hood) but I'll try to reproduce the issue with the car just standing (revving the engine). Thanks for the information Jan

Hey guys. About two weeks ago I did the timing chain on my 280z. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the problem but, since then I've had two times where I have lost power in the Z. The last time was this past afternoon. I just left Nissan and got on the road. Upon start up the car drove fine for a bit but then for about five or six seconds I lost power of the motor at 2.5k. No matter what I did I could not regain power. The engine then regained power as if nothing happened. It did this once before. On that occasion I started the car in the morning I was about halfway down the car refused to go beyond 3k on the tach. When I floored it, it sputtered and acted like it was getting no gas. Got to the stop sign down the street from my home and the tach dropped to 500 or below then went up to 750 then down again. I started driving again and within a few seconds all was good. Power returned and all was right with the world. I drove the car about 20 miles afterwords and nothing of the kind happened again. I added a third of a bottle of seafoam to the tank before doing the cam chain and all. Since then I've filled up so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. My car has a top end rattling noise which could be a lifter I have been told but I'm not sure how that can play into this. Thanks guys Jan

Thanks guys for the response it eases my worries and curiosity. Jan

Hey guys. This isn't a problem but I'm just curious about something. My Z usually runs at about 180 or so on the temp gauge. Recently I was working on my Z after taking it for a drive. I noticed that the upper radiator hose was much hotter than the lower one. Is that normal? A friend told me that usually the thermostat my be clogged or stuck when such a thing occurs. The car does not over heat, does not run hot and doesn't seem to have any problems. I'm just wondering if I should replace the thermostat, although its only three months old. Jan

Run the valves. I've heard this a number of times from Datsun guys use the term to describe doing the valve clearances. So this week sometime I'm going to pull the cover and do the valve clearances. (along with trying to figure out exactly what is making a rattling noise up there on deceleration) I just got back from a drive with said Z. Hell of a lot of fun now mate, drove it for about an hour or so. Jan

Yes I did look at the bolt. Its rather large but it seemed odd to me that the crank and cam bolts were both tightened to the same torque specs. I have driven the car since the said advance in timing. She most definitely has lower end torque now. I usually drive between about 3 and 5k. Anywhere above that is really pushing a stock motor in my opinion. I'm going to run the valves here soon so I'll torque the cam down to the stated torque. Thanks Jan

Hey guys. This past weekend I installed a new timing chain kit on my Z. As I'm going to run the valves this weekend and have the valve cover off I would like to reassure myself I did it right. First off I used the #2 hole in the cam gear to set the chain. This was the way it was when I took the old one off. Is that OK to do. Timing at the moment is 12@1000 RPM (idle). Secondly I have two manuals that have two different torque readings on the cam gear. The FSM says 90-100 ft lbs while the Haynes manual says 40 ft lbs. Which one is right? I set it to 40 ft lbs as the 100 just didn't seem like the right number to me. Thank guys Jan

Yea welcome to the PO mistake fixing club. My Z has paint over rust, radio wiring that isn't attached to anything, missing speakers, no heater, timing was off, AFM was set so rich the car barely idled the list goes on and on. Its a matter of finding and fixing said mistakes. Jan

I second this explanation and reasoning. I live in Arizona so I use VR1 20W50 as it gets rather hot here in the summer. My only advise to you is once you choose an oil stick with it. Don't switch back and forth. Jan

There's a multitude of things that can make rattling noises in an engine. I know that's not the answer you're looking for but I can't really get really into detail. Remember that an engine is made out of hundreds of parts so it rather hard to answer your questions. Here's a try. Hypothetically speaking let say that your chain is slapping the cover. This would indicate that the chain is stretched enough to slap around. Stretching can lead to the cam and crank to be off time a bit. If the chain is stretched enough it could in theory skip a tooth or more on the cam leading to issues. In the most extreme case it can snap completely and cause the piston to meet the valves. After rereading your first post you said that "The 4th plug is fouled wet and black, and I'm sure it's not firing because the engine doesn't bog when I remove the plug wire, but it is getting spark." Now for what I remember if you remove the plug wire from a plug you should hear a difference in engine RPM as it is running on one less piston. So here's my concern. If the engine is running on 5 cylinders it is possible the noise you are hearing is a dead cylinder as suggested below by Johnny'O. This could be cause by either a weak spark or a fuel issue (too much or not enough fuel). Hope that helps mate. Jan

I have check many of the things mentioned in the link you posted. Thanks a lot though. The noise does not occur when the engine is cold though if that helps anyone eliminate anything, it only occurs at or near operating temp. Jan

Well sadly replacing the timing chain did not fix said sound. I'm not saying it wasn't needed as the old chain was about an inch longer than the new one and the tensioner spring was roughly a third of the size of the new one, so it wasn't all a waste. Atop that the cam was off time and there was about an inch of sludge in the oil pan, so it was most definitely needed. Anyhow the sound has now become more localized from when it first appeared. For what I can determine (and my mechanic I go to) the sound appears to be coming from the mid to rear section of the valve cover. Before I go further this is what occurs. The sound only appears between 1 and 2K on the tachometer. Only does it on deceleration (not on acceleration) it doesn't really vary with pitch or frequency even if I go up to 5k and release the throttle, it seems to be rather constant and only occurs at said specified ranges. My mechanic suggested that maybe one of the rocker arms in the motor is wobbling or moving when decelerating (that is load being taken off). Any ideas guys? This is rather annoying. Jan

The only advise I'm going to give you is, if YOU don't feel safe driving your car for any reason don't. I can't tell you that it is safe or not. I'm not there and I don't know your driving style or the condition of the car. There are literally hundreds of things that could go wrong with a motor and all of them in one way or another can be unsafe. (A broken fan belt could in theory lead to a crash) Hope that helps Jan

Thanks for the info. I would first determine the frequency of the sound (how often if occurs). Knowing this will give you a bit more information to work wit (duh) but it can also let you know what part of the motor is occurs on. What engine RPM is that video at? It sounds to me a bit high 1500 or so? Jan

First off. What oil did you use and what oil was in there prior to the said oil change? How much did you put in? How does the sound act? Is it present at all RPM ranges, does it change pitch, noise level, area where it seems to be coming from? To answer a number of your questions. Sounds tend to travel in metal objects so don't trust your ears. My advise would be to either pull the cover or the chain inspection cover and have a look at the chain. Pull it and see how much of stretch you have. If you have a remote starter hook it up and slowly crank the motor with the distributor off. See what the chain does where does it go, how does it act those kinds of things. Also look at what your valves do. Now I'm not in any way a trained mechanic (I'm 22 and owned two cars in my life) but to me that sounds like an exhaust leak or air leak of sorts. I can't really tell you exactly as I've never owned a carbed car. Have a look at the exhaust and intake manifolds and see if there isn't any leaking air. Check the vac lines. The one thing I've learned on Z's is to go step by step and rule things out as you go. Just because the parts "looks" good doesn't actually mean it is. Hope that helps and let me know what you find. Jan

The coolant lines on picture one are rather odd in my book. I would take them all out and go back to the standard way it should be. (which on my 280 is the lower hose attaches to the water inlet and then to the lower heater core hose. Then from the lower heater core hose it will go into the engine block via the rear intake) As for the second pictures. I'm not a 240z guy (nor expert in any means) but I believe that is either the outlet for the coolant lines that run through the intake or its for somekind of sensor. I'm not 100% positive on which one as I own a 280. Hope that helps. Jan

What fuel injector cleaner did you use? How much of it did you run and what gasoline did you use while using it? Jan

Thanks. By the looks of it I'm missing one piece that allows the water to flow back to the engine when the valve is closed. As the temps here are getting rather warm I'm not really worried. I'll get it fixed when winter comes again. Thanks a lot guys Jan