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Are you using tubing connected to the end of the bleeder screws so that you can see the air bubbles? The bleed screws only need to be loosened 1/4 to 1/2 of a turn. Make sure your helper is not pumping the pedal when you have the bleed screw open. You should be pumping the pedal 5 times or so, holding the pedal down, crack the bleed screw, tighten the bleed screw, then the helper can let off the pedal. No letting off the pedal or pumping when the screw is open. Did you take the MC off the brake lines ? If you did, you need to bleed all the way around. Air was introduced. No way around it, don't care what the FSM says about it. I'll just share what I do, and what works for me and maybe you can try it. I use a mighty vac to pull brake fluid through the lines first before bleeding. This primes them well so that you can then pump and bleed manually. If you have too much air in the lines, you will never be able to bleed them manually unless you "bench" bleed the system or use a vacuum pump. What I do is take the mighty vac, pump up a good amount of vacuum, and starting with the MC I'll suck brake fluid through both bleed screws, then tighten down. On the MC I'll have a helper hold the pedal to the floor once when I do this to open the system up. Then I will go to each wheel cylinder and do the same thing. I make two passes to the whole car. Then I have a helper manually bleed them with me by pumping then cracking the bleed screw with a hose attached going into a small cup. I make two more passes around the car with the manual method. I have the helper pump the pedal 5 times. I don't poor the brake fluid directly back in, I always use fresh fluid from the bottle. The fluid that's being pumped out is full of tiny bubbles that take a while to settle out. This method always works for me, 100% of the time and usually takes about 20-30 minutes.

If bubbles are still coming out, you aren't done. Your helper isn't letting off the brake pedal while the bleed screw is open are they? You will need to bleed the master cylinder, then you will need to bleed through all the wheel cylinders too, starting from the farthest away, which is the drivers rear due to the way the lines are run and circle around ccw. I usually make several passes until I'm 100% positive no air is in the lines. The pedal should feel solid once you are done and not get anywhere near the floor.

Yeah, but you are supposed to hone it out too.

it's not difficult if you are patient and learn the techniques I'm not an expert and don't have much experience doing bodywork, but I'm pretty handy and know my way around a garage.

and for getting under the car, just use jack stands, and some big blocks of wood for extra insurance

I purchased mine "beck arnley" from Rockauto.com. They have super fast shipping and great prices. Plus you can choose from multiple brands. I use MSA plenty for more "z" special parts, but for just regular maintenance items I've been real impressed with rockauto's setup. I'm pretty sure a lot of Z owners use them.

So what was the leak down percentage ? Also, oil burning after startup. That sounds like valve guide seals. fwiw, you probably could use a a rebuild, but again I don't think it's your main issue of running how it is now.

with a compression test, you are looking more at the variance between cylinders, rather than the absolute number. They aren't terribly accurate. If you want to know for sure if you need new rings, do a leak down test. That said, I don't think this is your main problem. Sure, the motor may be a little tired and a little down on power, but it should run smooth regardless. Do the fuel pressure test as you said. If you have rust in your tank or a fuel flow problem, the car wont run right. The fuel pressure has to be in spec. 2nd, test the water temp sensor. If you are getting too much resistance in the water temp sensor it will run rich. if one and two test ok, send your fuel injectors off to get cleaned and flow tested. My suspicion is that you have a bad injector, or a couple of injectors leaking. 4th, do a proper valve adjustment. If the valves aren't adjusted, the compression will be low. Was the compression test done hot? A proper compression test should be done hot, and with the other plugs pulled so that the motor turns easy. Missing this step alone along with a proper valve adjustment could be worth 15psi.

If it's not backfiring and it's stumbling bad and missing, I would start troubleshooting the ignition. Get a new cap, rotors, plugs and wires. Install those then do a balance test to see if all cylinders are firing.

Primer is on rear apron and left hatch side. Time to move on to other areas...

On the clutch fluid, it is too dark. That's degraded rubber from the seals and hydraulic hose. I flushed mine out completely and got it clean again, however it only took a few weeks for it to turn black again. I decided to buy a new master, slave, and hose. It didn't cost much, and it's one of those things that you can check off and not worry about again. I don't want to be one of these guys who gets stuck in 1st gear when my slave cylinder starts bypassing and I can't get it out of gear. I figure I've got all new brakes from top to bottom, it's a good idea to refresh the hydraulics on the clutch too.

Got the filler on, finished patching holes in rear apron. Ready for primer today and undercoat on the back side of the patches.

I haven't changed my charcoal canister. Not sure there is really a need. As the charcoal gets older it will be less effective in soaking up gas fumes, but it shouldn't affect how the car runs. That's my understanding anyway. heavier springs in your vacuum advance will go the wrong way, you would want lighter springs. FWIW, I pulled the advance mechanism out of my distributor while the distributor was in the car, I pulled it apart completely and cleaned it, then reassembled. There was crud in there and it didn't move smoothly, although it was working. It's easy to pull apart, just take pics though and be very careful with the orientation of things. I went by memory and nearly had a panic attack when I got confused on the reassemble.

FWIW, when my distributor had the stock inductor and pick up coil setup, it was almost rotated as far is it would go, I could get it to about 17 or 18 degrees advance. now that i switched over to an optical trigger ignition, the distributor is right in the middle of the range, and just about lined up with the mark on the bolt for 13 degrees advance.

Interesting story. Seems to me that the best place to start would be with a good police friend who can look up the VIN for you to see who the current owner is ? Odds are definitely against you though that the car is still around.

Jenny, When you finish all the suggestions Sarah made, if we get to the conlcusion that those items are good, PM me your mailing address and I'll send you a potentiometer with bullet connectors on the end of it you can use to put inline with your water temp sensor. This will be a much better way to richen your mixture up for testing. It's only a 1000 ohms, and I needed about 1100 ohms on mine, which is why I have the extra. It will get you close enough for testing purposes though.

Actually I have, but instead of using a yogurt cup, I used a flat section of gorilla tape to seal off the mouth of the throttle body, and I used 3 psi of air hose to inflate it. At first i just listened for leaks, then I would watch the tape bulge out from the pressure and see how long it would take to deflate. I've also done a normal "boost test", I've done smoke tests, carb spray test, blow with the mouth tests, and propane tests.. I was pulling my hair out trying to find a leak. I was just offering an alternative to the carb spray idea that would reach hard to get to places I agree though, It doesn't sound like she has a leak.

another way to test for intake leaks is to use a propane torch. Put a 2 foot rubber hose on the end of it. Then turn it on, but don't light it. The hose will allow you to stuff it in hard to reach places, like under your intake and above the exhaust manifold. Propane actually works better than carb spray in my opinion. Pop a small vacuum line off and hold the propane over it, you should easily hear the motor rev a little. You can also hold the propane nozzle anywhere near the air intake for a test too, and it will pick the idle up. If for some reason you have to hold the propane torch upside down, just remember that the cold liquid propane will start to clog the nozzle after a few seconds and stop your gas flow.

When you say interior hoses, are you referring to the vent hoses ? I've been wondering where I might find some.

wow. Nice find. I'd love to find a clean 240 like that.

pics ....

Nothing. Car is getting painted when the bodywork is done. I can say that with the mig, and proper gas shielding (75/25), I'm getting very little spatter. I do have some copper backing plates, but I've not needed them yet as they are only necessary when weld filling large holes or helping fill a gap. Also I'm doing short tack welds, not a continuous bead. If I had big sparks, then that blanket in the hatch would go up in flames They do sell some welding blankets at Harbor Freight. Perhaps you could use those ?

I got the MSA kit and was pleased with it. I would purchase at least the front sway bar links. It comes with the bushings, however my links were rusted and worn badly and the front ones broke while getting loose. The pivot portion that goes through the control arm was badly worn, only half it's original thickness. I picked up some new ones at a local parts store from moog, then just used the MSA bushings.

Interesting about the notch. I'll have to take a closer look on mine. The orange RTV sealing your cover is definitely not stock. The cover has been off. Nissan used clear silicon to seal the cover. Also, I wouldn't put carb cleaner in the idle mixture screw area. It's got a rubber seal on the idle screw that is used like a lock nut to keep it from moving. the rubber is hard and probably brittle with age. I would think carb cleaner will just weaken the rubber. The idle air screw is just a big valve that allows air through that sqaure passage to bypass the flap, it's a fine tune on idle air mixture. Carb cleaner wont do any good in this area. No moving parts and the hole is big enough that it won't be clogged I wouldn't think.

Today's progress. A bit of hole filling on the rear apron. Still have a bit of smoothing to do with the grinder. Once I get the other side done I'll go over it with some filler and slick it out. I made some headway with my welding as well, my wire spool was a bit tight giving me some occasional sporadic wire feed, and I changed my nozzle angle a bit and turned up the voltage just a smidgen. Much better.. I knew a little more heat would help, but it's a fine line between hot tack welds and blowing holes. I think the spool being a little tight contributed to burning holes when my voltage was up previously.