Z-Luke

Is the cylinder closest to the front #1? I find it easier to find out if it's on it's compression stroke by looking at the camshaft to see if the valves are closed, but I really don't want to take the valve cover off again. I don't know why I typed in flywheel. Lack of proofreading. This is why I did poorly in University. No such aluminum cover exists on my car. I have seen them in photos of other forum members' rides, however this is completely absent from my vehicle. Thus, I am setting timing completely blind. The best I can do is say that after over-advancing the distributor some more, the car labored more when accelerating at low RPM and started to ping when accelerating. I immediately lifted and set the dizzy back to the "safe" setting I've had for a while. I do but I'm not going to considering max advance at current setting gives me "close enough" and "safe" for now. Setting TDC on the proper stroke is the only worried I would have, as I'm too lazy to pull valve cover again after doing the valve adjustment a couple of times for hot/cold. After replacing the entire ignition system at this point, the car no longer afterfires at 5000 rpm, but does not rev out past 5500 rpm. I believe this to be a fuel metering issue at this point. Fuel delivery seems to be "lots" when testing the pump itself, float bowls are even and at the proper height, and the advance seems to be close enough. A couple of touches more and it starts to ping with 91 oct. It might be backed off a little too far right now, but I think I should still rev out. I did recently replace the float needle valve on the rear carb, but this has not affected the car in any way so far. The reason I replaced it is because the rear carb inexplicably started a small environmental disaster. Sadly I was too busy to produce any videos today but I'll try to get back at it tomorrow.

Today I installed the 3.0 Ohm Pertronix FLAMETHROWER coil. All I did was take the igniter RED + wire off of the resisted side of the resistor and move it directly onto the new coil. All other wires were swapped 1-for-1 to the new coil. Everything works, hard to tell if there is any improvement, but the spark leaps HUGE DISTANCES so I can probably increase the gap. Any peeps wanna chime in on the best gap for the pertronix + flamethrower setup? I now ceiling at 5500 rpm, where peak power should be. This is a little higher than I was getting with points. I think it's a fuel metering issue as now my ignition is completely and entirely replaced. As for the advance problem, I think I'm going to leave it. I put the dizzy at over-advance without the screw in a little past where max allowable is on the plate, and during acceleration I heard the dreaded tinks of doom. I think where my dizzy is at for max advance is a good safe setting for now. I don't think it's causing my lack of rev-out.

I'll do ya one better by making a video. I'll extract a frame from the video as a photo.

It's a stock L-24. Yeah my timing is way off, and I've never worked on the oil pump. The previous owner had the idle way turned up so it wouldn't die and said it had trouble starting. I advanced the dist and it runs good, but still doesn't seem like it's all the way dialed in.

Yeah the dizzy off by a tooth thing seems right. I'm not sure how to correct this, the shaft just sort of disappears into the engine. I have a question; what's vaccuum advance even for? Obviously its not used for hard acceleration, since the vac would be gone when you open the throttle. So it must be just for cruising economy? Sound right?

Okay, before I posted this topic I wanted to make sure I got rid of my points set up to make sure it isn't a rubbing-block issue or something, along with the rest of my ignition equipment. So I installed Pertronix, new cap, new rotor, new spark plugs and ignition wires. The only thing I haven't replaced yet is the coil. However, I still need to advance the distributor all the way it will allow to even run ok. If I retard it even a bit it starts to die. The vacuum advance is working, but it needs a decent idle rev to generate enough vacuum on the front carb. The engine only idles best if I take out the dizzy bolt and advance it past where the plate would normally allow, and even if I backed off for safety it would still be way past maximum. Whats up with that? I was really hoping it was the points, but they're gone now. There are no timing marks that I can find on the car other than the notches on the flywheel, but they are useless with the degree markings, so I have to go by ear and by vaccuum. At max advance allowed with the bolt in, I get 15hgs vacuum. If I over-advance past the plate I can get it up to 18hgs. The centrifugal advance works based on the changes I've seen with the timing gun. I haven't heard pinging yet at all, but I have serious afterfire out of the exhaust at 5000 rpm, which I'm told could be retarded timing. And when I say afterfire, I mean afternuke - scares the crap out of me. Thanks!

I decided to add to this thread instead of create a new one. I just finished installing Pertronix into my Z the other day, and I'm doing it one step at a time so if it fails I know the point of failure. Thats why I don't have the new coil in yet. So my set up right now is strictly a points-replacement set up running on the stock coil and resistor. Install was a real no brainer. You just screw in the two screws into their countersunk holes and put the grommet in the obvious spot. I ran my wires the longer way round so they wouldn't get pinched or bent. I had to grease up the shaft of the dizzy to fit the magnets on, it was a very tight fit. The pickup was not touching the tape, but barely. The wires were long enough to run to my coil without needing addtional crimping or splicing. I don't know what I was expecting, but starting the car with the pertronix setup and driving it felt almost exactly the same as when the points were properly adjusted. I have carb issues preventing me from properly "unlocking" the potential of this igniter I'm sure, but it seemed to run smoother and easier with the pertronix installed. It starts about the same. I was hoping that rubbing block wear on the points is what was causing me to have to advance the nuts off the distributor to run the car in any sort of decent way. Turns out I still have to advance it all the way, and I can still take the bolt out and advance it past the maximum a long ways before it reaches maximum RPM. I have no timing gun, nor any timing marks anywhere visible on the car to set timing with anyway, so I have to go by ear and by vacuum. All in all, thumbs up to easy install and good working order. I've only tried up to 4500 rpm so far but it was pulling it well up to there. The only reason I don't try any higher is because when I tried to with the points, there would be a massive afterfire explosion at 5000 rpm, and I'm worried about banana-ing the muffer.

I'm chasing a similar problem. After cleaning the carbs and putting seafoam in the tank, I can get to 5000 rpm pretty good, but then there is SHOCK AND AWE coming out of the muffler. Explosive, cuncussive afterfire. Oddly enough before the Seafoam it would just wheeze out at 5000. I'm suspecting the points being worn. As I've found in other parts of this forum, i'm going to replace the ignition components (and I mean all of them) before I go back to fuel. The floats were even and pretty high, the needles were not sticking, and the pump delivers a lot of gas by eye. I'm getting my Pertronix with new coil next week along with new plugs, cap, rotor, and points/condensor just because. New plug wires are already on the car. I'll let you know how it goes.

A lot of fuel problems are electrical. I'm guess there's an electric fuel pump back there - check to make sure the wires have good continuity and there is a good connection. My '93 civic was flaking out and wouldn't run or start hot, turned out that the fuel pump wires had un-soldered themselves somehow after 250,000km.

Just so anyone else who has this problem in the future knows, I managed to get the brake line disconnected at the rear valve without breaking off the threads. I spent 2 days occasionally soaking with PB Blaster, tapping with a hammer and screwdriver, and wire-brushing the visible threads. Oxy acetaline was used, but very briefly as it was causing large flames to lick over the gas lines - and that is not kew. Left a propane torch on it for a good five minutes of uncomfortable contortioning. Smokey smokey! Held it with big pliers because it wiggles back and forth, and twisted the brake line free. Victory! Watch out for boiling brake fluid leaking out. Safety glasses are a must. I bent a new line in. The lines are 3/16's Japanese Metric (at least here in Canada) and you can pick them up from any auto parts store. Both PartSource and Canadian Tire had ample supply, they was SAE standard, Euro Metric and Japanese Metric. The J-Metric was the correct type for my car. I bought a tube bender from $9.99 from Canadian Tire. I have not tested the system yet as I have to resolve my broken off bleeder screw on the other side.

I don't even try getting to the crank. I also just rock the car forward in fourth gear. It only takes 1.5 feet to move the entire motor through a cycle in fourth gear. Take the plugs out and it rolls pretty easy.

Okay, so the good new is the Eibach/blues ride AWESOME. Compliant, but noticably firm. They take big impacts with grace and protect your chassis and spine over railroad tracks, but their limit is curbs. On large drops the soft travel section gets eaten and the hard section shows it's fortitude. Surprisingly, the rear ride height seems to have not changed, perhaps it sits slightly higher. But what a difference the rear made alone...I glide over railroad tracks and deep ruts, and enjoy a supple ride on the street with the expense of some firm hits on uneven heaves and perpendicular breaks. The bad news? The rear brake system doesn't work at all at the moment. It holds fluid with my JB weld job, and I put a bolt in where I can't get a bleeder screw to thread far enough, but I'm only working off front brakes at the moment - which isn't that big of a difference since the rear never worked before either, suspecting air in the lines previous. So now I've got a conundrum. Do I flare and compression-fit the broken line, or replace the entire rear brake system right from the main valve? Since the rear brakes never worked, there is a possibility that the prop valve or other hydraulic function will never work. Is it financially plausible to replace all the lines?

hmmm barrel connectors, I will have to look into this. It's amazing how small of a job the actual suspension work is compared to the bullshat around it. I bounced the struts out, compressed the springs, unthreaded the top nut, oxy-torched and pipe wrenched the insert lock and had the new components in within a fairly short time frame. About ten times the amount of time was spent struggling with the things needed to be taken off prior. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the old shock absorbers were COMPLETELY DISINTEGRATED. They came out of the strut tube in pieces. First the top retainer fell out, then some rubber gaskets, then the shiny tube that runs through the entire shock body, then about a liter of shock oil, then the canister all that was supposed to be contained in. No wonder they didn't absorb any shock.

Believe me curves, everything on this car has been extreme. I soaked all the bolts for 12 hours with 7 different kinds of penetrating oil/foam/lube. Each bolt was first attacked with the shock method of taking a center punch and whacking a hammer on. Believe me, everything without being heated to red hot (and sometimes melted a bit by accident) just snapped off. Luckily, no permanent damage had been done until the brake line just twisted in two with almost no effort. The prop. valve under the rear of the car is extremely difficult to access and did not respond to heating. I think the only permanent solution is to buy a new prop valve and go right back to the engine compartment with new lines. Flaring the line and jamming it into a another line sounds like the only good temp solution. I'm wondering if I can connect two hard lines using some kind of flex line with hose clamps. I'm also wondering if brake lines respond to solder at all.

I can't disconnect the other end of the line, I can already tell it's just going to break off, with the threads forever stick inside the proportioning valve under the rear of the car. The only thing I could think of was drilling out the fitting, bending the old broken off tube into the fitting, and glueing it shut with JB weld. So right now the JB weld is drying.