Pomorza

Hey guys. I've been driving my car pretty much non stop for about a month now. I drive at least two miles a day minimum. Noticed a few things that I hope you can help me with. When I back out my car from the parking spot I have a clunking noise coming from the front end. It pretty much lines up with the speed of a wheel turning. When I come to a stop the noise goes away. Secondly when I move forward I have a rattle noise coming from the front end of the car. Again the noise tends to line up with the speed of the wheels. Anyone have an idea. Could it be the brakes? Bearings? The tie rod on the car is pretty much gone, as the passenger side tire moves about an inch or so with it in the air. Could that be a possibility? Thanks Jan

Hey guys. This Friday I was working on the Z going through some of the parts in the engine bay making sure all was good. Unlucky of me I somehow put to much weight on the breather hose (the one going from the throttle body to the T elbow) and it snapped. I went over to the local auto parts store and bought a heater hose (as they don't have the actual one) and somehow fitted it on, doesn't look good but it works. Does anyone know where one could procure one of these hoses? Any help would be appreciated. Jan

Omega to be honest with you I'm pretty sure that you can do the timing chain yourself if you have the time. Its not as difficult and complex an operation as it may look. Get all the parts first (chain kit, gaskets ect), most of which can be bought fairly easily find some spare time and replace it. I did my timing chain with the help of Z train about a month ago or something. Its actually a fairly straight forward process. Just remember to get the car to TDC (there's write ups someplace about it here) before you start and where each bolt goes. While everything is off you can clean it and get rid of all the sludge (if you have any). It took the two of us about two days to get it all done. (And that was with the running around to get certain gaskets..) I don't know if this was the answer you were looking for, but I'm just expressing my opinion. Jan

I've driven three different cars in my short lifetime that were manual. My dad's 1987 BMW has that exact same noise when in neutral. Car and transmission have nearly 400k on it and they both work fine. My friends 98 Jeep Wrangler also had that rattle when the car was in neutral. My 76' 280 has the same noise. I personally really wouldn't worry about it. It seems that all manual cars have some kind of "rattle" when your in neutral. Hope that helps Jan

I'm not sure if this is insult to me but come on guys really? 1. I would love to have a RHD Z. 2. Just because I live in the desert doesn't mean that rust isn't an issue. I have rust under the battery tray in the fender. Its rather bad to be honest. If I would have just took the time to look at said fender(s) i would of easily noted the rust and more than likely bought a different Z. As must as my lectures might be rather odd, I still say take the time to look at the car so you don't buy what I bought and need a body shop. Jan

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