Zed Head

Do some math before you start. Make sure you have enough room to move the engine hoist forward or the car backward once you get it lifted. Don't forget the that car will rise to the top of its suspension travel with the weight of the engine removed so if you don't get the engine high enough, you'll be stuck. Get a load-leveler if you can, it will help you keep the tail of the transmission low to get it out of the engine bay, then raise it back up to get it over the radiator mount. Consider dropping the transmission from below first, if you feel uncomfortable handling the bulk and weight of the two combined. Double check your lift points, the one in the back uses an exhaust mounting stud, which may not be as strong as it was. Don't forget to disconnect all wires, and the speedometer cable. Don't try to squeeze it out without removing the radiator. One small mistake and your down $150. Basically, play out the whole operation in your head or on paper, before you begin. It sucks to get half-way done and realize you need to reset the motor or transmission or car because you ran out of room.

The eccentric drives a mechanical fuel pump. Moves the lever back and forth. Only necessary if you have a mechanical pump, although you might need a washer to make up the thickness for the bolt (not sure on that).

Hard to tell from the tiny picture but there's something here that looks similar - Datsun 280Z Wiring (Engine Room) (From Aug.-'76) Shows up on the Courtesyparts.com site as available. Who knows... CLIP :: Nissan Parts, NISMO and Nissan Accessories - Courtesyparts.com

Motorsport Auto has lowering kits. You should call them though, their web site has out-dated information and seems to be missing information on the spring sets for the 74-78 coupes. Welcome To Motorsport & The Z Store! Nissan-Datsun 240Z-260Z-280Z-280ZX-300ZX(Z31/Z32)-350Z-370Z Parts! Cutting springs takes some expertise but will work. Finding decent shock absorbers might be difficult since Tokico is out of the Z car business, at least for the time being. Many people use KYB's but they come with a warning to avoid using them on lowered cars. It's a dilemma. Are you looking for a bolt-in option, or do you have some shop skills and tools?

Those two things are not well-tied together. Straight pipes, no muffler, and a header, would give the "best" performance increase, although the total benefit fit might be small. The stock factory manifolds flow pretty well, apparently. But they might not have the sound you're looking for. Post a link of an engine making the sound you're looking for, or describe it, and someone might be able to to tell you how to get there. It's very subjective.

Executive level fraud has gone on for ages, so no comment on the following link. I just thought it fit the thread topic. U.S. eyes bankruptcy link in GM ignition defect probe: report | Reuters

Your timing changes are probably masking or confusing the real problem. Seems more like an air/fuel ratio issue. Fuel supply or AFM issues. Considering all, I would hook up a fuel pressure gauge, zip-tie it to where you can see it and go for a drive. Verify that you have 36 psi or greater when the problem happens. If you want to check your mechanical and vacuum advances, just for peace of mind, hook up your timing light, set timing to zero (you'll have to adjust idle speed to keep it running) then disconnect the vacuum advance hose from the distributor. Rev the engine up until the mark stops moving. It should go to just about 20, the last mark, or ~22 degrees, depending on distributor weights. Then, at a low idle speed, connect the vacuum advance hose to an intake port that has full-time vacuum. The AC bottle port is a good one, although it's small so you'll need an adapter (tape works). Timing will jump to full vacuum advance. You might have to drop idle speed again to make sure you have no mechanical advance. It's a little bit tedious, with lots of connecting and disconnecting and idle speed adjustments, but you'll know exactly what the distributor is doing while you're driving.

Check between the head and the block right above the starter at the back of the engine. My last engine leaked there, from the headgasket, and dripped down the back of the engine. There's also a core plug in the back of the head that you can check.

The numbers are high by about 9 psi. It's odd because your pictures show what appears to a be a stock fuel pressure regulator (FPR) with the vacuum hose attached. There's an old trick people do where they dent the top of the regulator to put preload on the internal spring to raise fuel pressure. I wonder if the PO did something like that. This wouldn't really explain the lack of power. You would have a gassy exhaust smell and might foul plugs but it would probably still rev higher with reasonable power. Overall, just another wrongness. I still wonder about the AFM/ECU match as a cause. These engines will actually run without an AFM, on idle fuel enrichment, indicated to the ECU by the TPS idle position. With high fuel pressure you might have just enough fuel to match the air to get you to 2500 RPM. You might not be getting any AFM enrichment fuel at all. Try disconnecting the AFM plug and see if anything is different. That would tell you something.

Make sure that you turn the engine in the normal rotation direction when setting the pointer on zero, or put a wrench on the sprocket bolt and back it up to tighten the "tight side" of the chain (the left/driver side). There's enough play in it with no oil pressure on the tensioner, to get your marks misaligned if there's slack on the wrong side.

Maybe they'll discount you what they would have paid to have it fixed if you had sent it back. That would be fair since they had planned to pay it anyway. Worth a shot. Everybody's happy. They'd probably like to know about the errors their rebuilder made also. Future customers...

I have a minor exhaust leak on my engine but it seals up and goes away once the engine warms up. It might even be a crack, I won't know until next time I take things apart. But it sounds pretty bad when the engine is cold. You might let the engine run for a while, and listen to see if things get worse or better as it warms up. Also, if you hold your hand close to the manifold-head pipe connection you might be able to feel the pulse of the exhaust leak, if it's there. And, if you have the old manifold gasket take a look to see if it was leaking. If ti wasn't and the noise is the same as before you can discount a leak at the head. If ti was leaking before then it should be quieter now if the leak is fixed.

Captain Obvious had the same problem and built his own spray bar (link below). I notice that the eBay bar is straight and sets the squirt holes farther back from the lobes. It seems like Nissan put a lot of effort in to getting the bar closer to the lobes than a straight bar does. Nissan could have made a straight bar for cheaper than their multi-piece bar, I would guess, but didn't. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/engine-drivetrain-s30/44750-camshaft-oil-spray-bar-redesign-rebuild.html

There's a procedure in the Engine Mechanical chapter of the FSM also, showing an illustration of the notch and groove at the camshaft that atlanticz pictures show. Those two resources together should allow you to check, without removing the front cover. You can also adjust for stretch without removing the front cover as long as you wedge the timing chain and tensioner before you remove the sprocket.

Did the engine run before without the noise, even for a little while, then the noise appeared after the valve adjustment? Kind of sounds like an exhaust leak, especially as you backed away. Also possible that you didn't get the lash quite right. Might be worth re-measuring.

Here's a thread with a spreadsheet of part numbers, put together by a CZCC member. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/electrical-s30/34192-280zx-distributor-advance-curve-reference.html Probably the most important part of any of those would be the vacuum advance breaker plate. The bearings get rusty and cause the plastic bearing retainer to break. If you find some that are intact, don't try to make them rotate. Take them home, take the plate out, take it apart and clean it up first. Or throw it in the rat hole until the appropriate time. If you try to force rotation it will probably break. Any original E12-XX module is probably on its last legs. The centrifugal weights and springs are interchangeable. The weights are stamped with the maximum advance they'll allow. The mounting bases are handy to have, at least one of each style. The magnetic pickups are a little spendy for the 280Z's, probably worth saving. The turbo distributors are worth keeping. With the cap off you won't see anything except a blank cover, protecting the optical stuff underneath,.

Don't forget interacting variables. Not enough data to draw a conclusion yet. The more stories, the better. CrazySwede, do you have heat shields over your headers? Siteunseen has his heat shields intact, as you can see in the pictures. Edit - also, we're really just working on about a twenty minute window where there's too much heat. Right on the edge. It could be some small thing that is enough to stay below the threshold. Who knows, if it's radiant heat that's the problem, ceramic-coated injectors might do the job.

Just to tweak your thinking process a little bit - the position of the oil pump shaft only matters in that it allows you the proper range of rotation for the distributor. You could make the timing right by removing the adjustment screws to allow more rotation, setting the damper pulley to zero (or ten degrees before zero), turning the distributor until the teeth on the distributor trigger are aligned, then setting the plug wires so that the rotor is pointed at the #1 spark plug wire. That's what the FSM description is trying to make happen, without going in to all of the details. IF you do that, it will also give you and idea of how many degrees off the spindle is, or may also show you that one of the plug terminals can be used, by turning the distributor until two different teeth align. A spark happens every time the teeth inside the distributor align. Your job is to get the spark to jump to the correct terminal of the distributor cap. The basic procedure, in few words, is to set everything up so that a spark happens at ~ten degrees BTDC, then set the spark plug wires to distribute them correctly.

Sounds like you might just have the plug wires off one hole. OR Which distributor are you using and does it have the mounting base that matches? Z and ZX distributors have a different base with holes for the adjusting screws in different spots. If you have a ZX distributor on your 1975 280Z base,or vice-versa, it might cause problems like you're having.

Started a new hot-start survey thread - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/fuel-injection-s30/51835-hot-start-issue-efi-who-has-who-doesnt.html#post452360 I'll let people post their own details so I don't screw them up. SU, I remembered that you had not had issues. Referred back to your post in this thread from the new thread. If you could re-post over there that would be most excellent.

Many people have reported having the typical 280Z EFI hot-start problem, where after ~10-20 minutes after shut-down (hot engine), the engine starts but runs very rough for what seems like 5 minutes but is actually about 30-40 seconds. Some people with EFI though, report that they don't have the problem (see #43 here - http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/fuel-injection-s30/51601-hellfire-status-release-date-annouced.html#post452357). If we collect enough information, maybe a common solution (or non-cause) will appear. So far, headers and a straight fuel rail seem to be common to one engine that does not have the problem. If you have the hot-start issue, or if you don't, and have the time, please report here what you're running on your 280Z/ZX EFI system engine. For the sake of the passengers in these embarrassing situations, please. 1. Me - 1976 280Z, stock EFI system, stock fuel rail, 1978 stock injectors, 1978 stock exhaust manifold and 1976 intake with heat shields intact. Consistent hot-start issues if the cooling fan (my own modification) is not turned on

I've wondered if the heat isn't coming from the bulk of the exhaust manifold. I also bought some used headers to experiment with but they need work. A survey of behavior with headers and EFI versus stock manifolds and EFI might tell something. We're filling superlen's announcement thread with hot-start discussion.

Yes it squirts when the starter circuit is hot. The injectors also squirt a little extra, supposedly. It's shown at page 10 of the Engine Fuel chapter in the FSM. 3) "Start" enrichment.

Actually, I've also primed "forever". Until the bubbles in the tank stopped plus more. No effect. I've also rigged up a perforated tube and a fan to blow air directly on the injectors. Which works for me. That's why I think that it's the injector's getting hot that is the problem. What exactly happens when they get hot is unclear. It could be electrical; the solenoid gets weak when it gets hot, or mechanical; something expands or warps and the solenoid can't move it, or physical (like physics); gasoline flashing to vapor before it can get through the orifice. Somebody check my punctuation, I've never used that many semicolons at one time. Not an English Major.

You might have had two problems going on - the original plug-fouling and "copious amounts of smog", and now the more normal hot-start issue. The hot start issue doesn't usually produce the haze. It's one of the first things I noticed about the situation since I've had many old cars that used to flood occasionally. With hot-start the car runs like it's flooded or flooding but there's no copious gassy haze. With all of the work you did you should just reset and see what the current state of affairs is. The CSV is run by the Thermotime switch. The "thermo" part describes the bimetal strip that opens the contact when it's hot. There's also a heater wrapped around the bimetal strip to make it open after a certain amount of "time" with current running through it. So the engine doesn't flood when trying to get it started. It only gets current when the starter is turning. Kind of ingenious.