argniest

haha this really made me laugh :-) I like your description being pulled by divers from the ocean bottom. Does make me wonder how the Z engine fares in the wintertime for those who just leave it sit there. Seems like it would be fine.

Well I think it says right on the can its also a fuel stablizer too besides the other things it does. I have had several mechanics (of Z's too) say to go ahead and use sea foam for the winter time. So I dont think its bad to use it. :stupid: but what do I really know. Not much :-)

I know this is a generalization, but how many times idling a car will end up screwing it up. One time, 10 times, 100 times? Just wondering what kind of scale we are talking about here. Rusting out a tailpipe doesnt bother me as much as contaminating the oil...which leads to other bigger problems as you eluded too. If the problem from idling in the wintertime is contaminated oil, then a fresh oil change after winter and before serious driving would sovle that problem, no? PS How long does it take, do you think, to recharge a battery if you were idling the car? Thanks for the clarification of this topic. Thanks

I read those instructions!!!!!! WOW very helpful. But I am unsure of which Z connectors are plated or not? is there someway I can tell. Man, I dont want to be filing/sanding things down only to find out it was a plated connection and that I had royally screwed it up by sanding away the tin or whatever!

This a great place online. Thanks so much for your help!

I have heard different opinions about this, and have been giving it some thought. I have a 78 280Z that I have running but needs some TLC. Its wintertime here in the midwest and I have my Z car in a heated garage during the winter. The temperature generally never gets below freezing in the garage since its insulated and heated during the day when I am around, and can get up to 65 or 68 degrees when I have on the heaters full blast for a little while. So anyway, I put fresh gas in it in december 1st and also add some seafoam because I heard its good to stablize gas in the winter. I got to drive it a few times this winter after all snow melted. but that was pure luck. Usually we have snow all year or enough to make me never want to drive my baby on the salted chemical filled roads. Soooooooooooooo that means I want to back it part of the way out of the garage and let it idle till it gets warm. I am doing some electrical work, and also new custom stereo in it. So I am using up the battery too some nights. I have let it idle a few times this winter for about 20 minutes, which is about how long it seems to take to get warmed up. To me, it doesnt seem like it should matter if I am driving around 20 miles an hour, or letting it idle or goosing it while in park to rev up to 1500rpm or 1800rpms while its warming up. Does the car really know its not being driven while its warming up??? No. it doesnt know. So what is the school of thought about letting an old z car sit and idle once every few weeks during the 100 days of winter? Thank you

Well tonight I let the car idle, to listen for another noise I have noticed it making since the wintertime blues have struck us. Well, the interesting thing is that both times I have idled the car until it got good and warm, it was making this alternating noise under the hood. I couldnt pinpoint where it is coming from. But it almost sounds like a whoosing sound, or water moving and then not moving, and then moving and not moving....but once car got warmed up, it never made the sound. And I know for sure I never heard it in the summer or fall time. So its definately doing something different when its warming up now in the winter time, that must not be happening in the warmer temps. When the noise happens, it keeps making the noise for a few seconds, then stops, then starts again for a second, then off, then on for a few seconds and off. And it really seemed to me that the warmer the car got the less it started happening. Until all of a sudden you just dont hear it anymore. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I will listen for it each time I warm up the car and or drive it, assuming I get gutsy enough to do that around my neighboorhood at least (after snow melts too). More interesting, is that once it got warmed up I decided to turn on my lights and immediately they came on right away. I was like what theeeeeeeeeeeee heck???? So I turned them on and off a bunch of times, and they always worked. And I left them on after I turned off the car and pulled back into garage. And they stayed on. So what is up with that????? I wonder. I mean I am glad they worked, but this is just crazy stuff I didnt expect them to work....because when it was still warming up, guess what, they didnt work. Only when engine was good and warm.

And that is exactly what scares the bejesus out of me. I am good with computer hardware, any a/v equipment, and numerous tech toys for 20+ years now. But a 33 year old car, where everything is old and interconnected and fragile. I jsut have feeling this is going to end badly and I will end up calling in the calvery. But hopefully if I am very careful and patient, and just do a few things at a time, then retest everything in the car....I can slowly move through all my connections and clean them up. I have looked in a few of them under the hood, and I see a little green crusty stuff in there. So I just used a little mini screw driver to clean them up for now. And today thankfully I found some deoxit D5 at guitar center. So I can start using that too.

Yes I like that idea the best. That is what I will do. Then I am connected directly to fuel pump. I can always connect somewhere else, if its a wiring problem in the car somewhere. Ahhhh man you make me laugh its not that hard huh. Welllllllll, I have never done anything like this before to a car. So it is very intimidating. Now, I am a computer builder, software engineer, audio/visual maga freak, and geek toy researcher and user...so I do have some skills with hardware. But not with a car, and that is 33 years to boot. Everything is pretty fragile. Im scared about totally f-ing everything up like a snowball effect! Thankfully my relative who restores cars, can eventually bail me out. But that will be expensive. I really really do want to learn all this stuff. In such a fast paced world and fast paced career I am in, I am not used to things taking a long time, like I know this will. So I am combating against that now too. What do you adjust? where? The thing is that this (the car dying) happened with the old AFM and the new one which I installed one day after the car died the first time on Jan 1st of this year. So that tells me it must not have anything to do with the AFM...right? So problem must be elsewhere I am assuming. because this fuel pump cutoff switch I am assuming is inside the AFM. If not, then please correct me. Thanks!!!! Well I wasnt really meaning that my digital fuel pressure guage would be permanent. I only meant to have it installed (assuming it even exists) during the time I am having problems then I would take it out. THANKS AGAIN!!!! Youre awesome!

Another mechanic told me about that, but it scrared the hell out of me thinking about having the fuel hose running all the way up there. I wont do that. Too chicken I guess. Which is what got me thinking about buying a fuel pressure guage that had a digital read out that I could put in the cockpit. That would be safe...and fun to watch the fuel pressure while I was driving so I can understand what is going on with it. Yes, I was thinking about temporarily hard wiring a simple test light (like one that that has an alligator clip on it), into the green power wire, that is found under the carpet on the passenger side of the car, right behind the seat. I havent figured out the best way to do that without destroying the two bullet conenctors on those two wires that power/ground the fuel pump. I basically want to make a T connector, so I can leave the existing bullet connectors alone, and then also add my test light into the circuit. That way, if/when the car dies and wont start, I could see if the test light is on or off. And combined with the ability to see my fuel pressure would help me diagnose if the fuel pump itself was not putting out pressure (for any reason), or if the electrical connections feeding back to the fuel pump are having issues. I have that color coded wiring diagram, so I will look for those that you mentioned. And see what condition they appear to be in. man on man....am I in for a long long journey. So many things to check out, cleanup, work on, etc BOY I was niaeve to think my car wouldnt end up having these kind of problems.

Well :-) I was just thinking that if there was a *problem* with the fuel pump, and it was changing my fuel pressure in a somewhat abnormal manner, that having a digital readout in the cockpit would allow me to see what was going on, and when it happened. One of the problems that my Z car just starting exhibiting was this situation where it seems to buck, or lurch, and then pickup speed again, and then do the buck or lurch again. It has only happened 4 times now on three test drives. but it never did that over a period of 4 months when I got to drive it in the warmer months. It was 5 to 10 degrees when this happened each time. And also, its also died two times as I mentioned. The problems seem related to me. A mechanic suggested to me that he saw these problems happen before and he fixed them by replacing the fuel pump. Of course he diagnosed the problem before actually replacing the fuel pump :-). He had a voltmeter (I think he said) and fuel pressure guage on the fuel line, and had the car running up on a hoist in his shop. When the problem happened he immediately looked at the fuel pressure guage and voltmeter, and said it told him it was the fuel pressure. Once he replaced the fuel pump the car never had those problems again. And the car has been driven for years after that with no occurance. He told me some other stories about other cars he fixed, with similar problems. Sooooooooo :-) I was merely thinking that if I had a way to monitor it from my car, while I was driving, it might help me see whats going on. I suppose they dont even make something like that anyway...as an addon for an old 78 car like mine. Im just freaking out that my car is doing this now, for no apparent reason. And now I cannot even think about driving it anywhere for fear of it dying in a bad place. I guess I can drive it on side roads to see if it happens again. I have been cleaning some of the connectors in the car, and today I am getting that deoxit D5 stuff. So I can shoot that stuff in all the connectors that are easy for me to see.

CAn you take a look at this list, and tell me which one you are talking about? I see D5S D100S, etc http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?FTR=deoxit&search_type=main&WebPage_ID=3&searchFilter=deoxit Also, I think this is what you are talking about. And its the only place in my area that says they have it. http://www.guitarcenter.com/CAIG-DeoxIT-D5S-6-Spray--Contact-Cleaner---Rejuvenator--5-oz--101175859-i1134929.gc I saw this special kit with more stuff in it??? Think this would be useful in my cleaning endeavors? Or just the D5 product above. http://www.guitarcenter.com/CAIG-Audio-Survival-Kit-429166-i1134928.gc

Well you are right, I dont want to buy parts just for the heck of it :-))) Im glad to hear that fuel pumps dont normally go bad. I looked at local car shop fuel guages and it seems like all of them are for connecting to newer cars on the fuel rail, I guess there is some port on the newer cars which the Z doesnt have. So its like I need an old school fuel pressure guage. Im scared of getting the wrong kind. I read some threads on here about fuel pressure guages, and people said different things. Liquid filled???, air filled??, etc....so now I am nervous about buying the wrong kind. sigh. What I would really like is a old school fuel pressure guage, that has a digital LED readout I could put inside the car. I would pay lots of money for something like that, if anyone knows where I can buy something like that!!!!! I looked online and havent found anything like that. Thanks for advice on cleaning stuff. I will be very careful as I always am, before I do anything to the car. I study things, and think it through before I go ripping into anything in this car. That comes from my software engineering background I suppose. 80% of the work is in the thinking and design phase, and 20% of the work is actually doing it. Well, I will find that deoxit and start pulling one apart at a time and cleaning it. I have color coded wiring diagrams that are laminated. I bought them off the internet. I am assuming they are accurate. I will compare to the original 750 page manual that I have, to see what I find. The person swore they were accuarte. I was looking at them tonight, seeing where/what the headlights are connected to. They are very pleasing to look at, and little did I know I would need to know every square inch of them!!!! Right now, Im the most scared of having my z car die at a bad place, like when pulling out into an intersection and then getting clobbered by some big vehicle. It bums me out so much that the car died two times now, in 3 drives. Of course as I said it was like 5 to 10 degrees both times. And it never happened when it was summer and fall outside. Just on Jan 1st and 3rd when I got to drive my car, because the roads got rained on after it hit 60 degrees here, and then the roads were clear for several weeks. But its snowing again, and we are probably stuck with it for a while again. So I wont be driving anywhere for a while. Only idle it once in a while in the garage (with door open of course) So, when it died, I was just driving along 20 to 30 mph both times and BAAAAM, the car just stopped running. It didnt start slowing down and then die. Just BOOM, dead. The electrical was still on, because I had on my stereo playing. But something caused that to happen, and besides the car starting on fire, that is the second worse thing to happen in my book anyway. And now I am the lucky one that has to deal with it. Tonight I put my old Air Flow meter back on the car (because with the new refurbished one, it ran much much worse in fact it barely idled without me holding down the gas) And then I just tested a few things. I noticed the back brake light worked, then it didnt work, then it did work the next 20 times I stepped on it. The front runner lights still didnt work, and the headlights dont come on yet either, but only when switched to high beams. This stuff is making me crazy. I cant believe that I am going to have to pretty much check and clean every wire and connector that I can lay my hands on. I never thought I would have these kinds of problems with it. Because nothing like this happened until winter time. I never had one electrical problem at all in my 1000 miles of stop and go driving all summer and fall. For hours at a time I was driving all over the area, testing the car. Maybe I was naive to think that a 33 year old car would not have problems like this. Maybe I was lucky that nothing happened all summer while I drove it. I just dont know....

So you are saying to clean them with sandpaper first on both sides of connector male and female...then squit deoxit on both ends, pull/push them a few times, and then connect them together, insert a metal clip (assuming I have that metal clip in the first place). And then let it dry. I have also heard that I could put some diaelectric grease in all connectors. The only thing about that is that once I do that, it would be next to impossible to ever clean it out. If that was ever needed for any reason. So I am leery of doing anything that is next to impossible to undo.

The connectors in the car/engine/etc seem to be OK overall. Although I know what you mean. A few of them should be replaced because somebody broke the clips off. So that means they pull of a lot easier than they should be. But they are not to the point of just wiggling off by themselves. I am not saying they are that bad. however,I am sure they need to be cleaned. And I will do a better job of that, based on what you are saying there. The good thing, is that from what I can tell there are not that many connectors in the engine area. Yes there are some, but not a crazy amount. At least not what I can see from the top side of the engine. Very doable. The thing is this, it is hard to tell by just looking at them, exactly how clean or corroded they are. I mean I think I need to get a good magnifying glass so I can see down in them better. It is pretty small space to be looking at. I mean to be scientific about it, I need to make sure they really are clean. I used a tiny screw driver to scrape them off, and poke around carefully, inside each connector. And I think it did make a difference. But I want to be more thorough. So I will go back through each of them, once I get a magifying glass...and inspect them. And then clean them with sandpaper, etc as you described. Do you think I need to do this with the main connectors inside the car too. At least all the ones I can get at, without ripping the dash off. I have a feeling I will be doing that too (taking dash off) because now my headlights are not working, and only when I turn on the high beams, then I have headlights. And the two orange side markers on the front sides of the car dont work now. And I swear one of them was just working the other day. And also my passenger side brake light stopped working. And I swear I saw it come on last night for at least a few times. And I know I checked it before. So something in this wintertime is making my poor car a little crazy and me too. Another thing is that my turn signal light was dimly lit when turning on the lights to accessary position or to full lights on position. I wiggled the wires in back of the car (I installed a custom made 6x9 speaker board back there a few weeks ago, so I can see all the back sides of the lights in the tail end of the car). Wiggling/moving all the wires that didnt seem to fix it. However, I rapped on the dashboard a few times, and the turn signal light went off. And I have seen that trick make the headlights come on too. Because I noticed since this wintertime happened, and I idled the car, when I turned on the lights, they didnt come on right away. Sort of a delay, and then they would come on. But now they dont come on at all, unless like I said, I turn on high beams, and then they work fine. uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh None of these lights, brake lights, etc had any problem in the summer when I was driving. And the car sat in the garage during 45 days. And suddenly this wierd stuff starts happening???? very frustrating. Yet more setbacks for me and my car. There are a lot of wires in the Z car to track down. So I might be doing that before anything else. Why do I feel like I will have a degree in basic electronics and electrical troubleshooting when this is all over.

I definately want to learn a lot about the car. Its one of the reasons I bought it. :-) And yes I plan on keeping it a long time. And I have it insured for agreed value as stated in my policy. As I have done more work to it (or rather had more work done to it) I increase the insurance value more. I have learned a lot, but nothing compared to how much I want and need to learn. I thought about the ramps but they seem way too dangerous and easy to drive off of. I am somewhat leery of using jack stands. So I will use your idea. I want to be able to get the car up in the air, as safely as I can...when I need to get under it. Thanks. It does have fresh oil in it now. Maybe 100 miles on it, since the oil change. So its about as clean and shiny as its going to get. And then its been sitting since early december when the snowy roads happened. And I am trying to find connectors anywhere in the engine and pull them off and inspect them. I did see some corrosion on that water temp sensor, but not like it was caked on there and oozing out of it. But maybe a small thin layer on the male and female ends. So I scraped it off as best as I could, more down to the metal on the connectors. I took a small pick and small screwdriver and cleaned the male and female ends of the connectors on the water temp sensor in the front of the engine. I heard if that one particular sensor gets green corrision...that can stop the car dead like I experienced. So now, I am thinking I should clean up all the other connectors in the car, in the same way using a pick and small screw driver to scrape off debris. Is that an OK way to clean out those connectors? I dont know how else to do it.....because the connectors are mostly enclosed are hard to see. I dont want to do more damage than good. I dont know if my relative who did the initial compression tests squirted a little oil in there before they did the tests. The next time I get to talk to him I will ask him. The fact that there were little puddles of oil underneath each spark plug seems to tell me that he did it, or maybe mechanic#2 did it too. But I swear I didnt see him putting any oil in those before doing the test.

Well I was told I should keep seafoam in the gas over the winter (about 90 days long here where I cant drive unless I am lucky) yes, my relative works on all kinds of awesome cars. easily $100,000 to more for those BMW's, mercedes, even classic muscle cars. He is known nation wide, and is a busy busy busy guy ....he fixes some, and restores them too, troubleshoots them, etc. I am very lucky to have him. However, he is sooooooooooooooo busy. It can be a month before I can even talk to him. And he doesnt email either. not a pc guy. he has told me story after story about fixing all these crazy and difficult problems. And told me how fuel injectors have cured problems like what I am talking about. But he also told me about how a flakey fuel pump was causing a few car dying problems, like what i just experienced a few days ago. My head is spinning from all of this....

Yes I have heard that before. I dont mind using penzoil 20-50 year round. That is what someone else told me to use too. OK, well I have seen those kind in my local stores, however, I didnt think they could be used on the 1978 z car. I mean there isnt any port to hook it into on the fuel rail, right? Can I use this acton version that you showed, on the Z car. I want to leave it in there, while I go for a test drive. That hose looks pretty long. I just wanted to use like a few inches of fuel injector hose, right after the fuel filter. Can I hook that one in the URL, up to the 78 z car right after fuel filter? I may just go ahead and order one of those, or see if my local foreign car parts store has one. Once in a while I get lucky and they have a few parts for my car. I mean it cant hurt to change it right? And how easy is it to change anyway???

:mad:Ahhhhhhh, then sooooo sorry it was not three quarts. It went from H to slightly above the low mark in 1000 miles. What I am saying is that it was maybe a 1/4 inch or more above the L mark. So that is my bad for saying it was 3 quarts low. Let me know if this is correct: Are we saying I only used about 1/2 or 3/4 of a quart because it went from H to 1/4" above the "L" mark on the dipstick?Also, nope, its not leaking much oil at all. I see a small drip coming from the oil drain plug, but that never happened until a more recent oil change. Before that she never leaked one drip of anything onto my new garage floor. I would have noticed. I am still amazed its not leaking more. Also, my relative also changed the exhaust manifold gasket a while ago, when he was working on other stuff. He also said the fuel pressure was fine. He measured it in a few places he said. Also he removed fuel pump and did a volume test, and said it didnt have any problems pumping a lot of fuel like he felt it should be. That tells me the fuel pump and screen in the inlet were OK. Of course that was a year ago. We never measured fuel pressure, after the fuel pressure regulator. I am not sure how to do that?? They are cheap enough I should just buy a new one. Fuel pumps (good ones) are not cheap of course. I think my source has bosch type replacements. Also, I did just change the oil and havent driven it much at all...because of the icky snowy bad roads. I did put in some sea foam over the winter per direction from a mechanic. Since I didnt think I would be driving it at all until March. And I filled the tank (and the new tires) all the way up. Who knew all the snow was gonna melt and get upto 54 and 60 degrees in two days.Thats when I drove it, and found out it was dying on me. I attribute that dying to the cold weather. Something about the cold weather is exposing a weakness in the car!!!!!!!! that never happened during 1000 miles test driving in the summer. OH YEAH, and when I added seafoam, I put it in the gas tank (not anywhere else since I didnt know how to do that). I put 5 cans in there over the summmer. Each time I filled up the tank. I was not thinking about how much was or could have been leaking down into the oil because of the bad rings that I am sure must be there.

Yup, I have the FSM hard copy and electronic, and the 1975 Fuel Inj Bible too. Too bad it will take me a few years to understand all of it :-( because I am not a mechanic. But I suppose if I do all these things people are suggesting, in about 1 year I will be a Z car noob mechanic anyway he he I will check out that first link ...thanks

Well, I am reading over all your replies. Thank you. I have owned the car for two years. I dont know what the percentages were for leak down test. I have it written down somewhere of course in my piles of notes and emails about this car. They were all within 10-20% of each other I believe. All I know for sure, is that after he did those tests and the compression test, he said, hmmmmmmm, you need a rebuild. And he knew about the gassy/exhaust smell too. Also, for many months at a time, my relative had the car in his shop working on the differential, transmission, suspension, welding, etc. So of course it couldnt be driven. He changed out the old gas and put in new gas as needed. In summer of 2010 I was driving the car. It was a blast. Dont get me wrong. I had it zooming down the interstate. And it was feelling pretty good. I drove it for hours at a time, no problems. Well, what I mean is until Jan 1st/2nd when it died on me 2 times...I never questioned if it was reliable or not. but now of course, I am scared to have it die in an intersection or worse. The cold weather must be effecting something which is causing this to happen. Because I drove it a lot in the summer and never a hint of this. I will do whatever it takes to get this thing running. I invested in it heart and soul and checkbook too. But it seems like no one agrees on what to do exactly. So I am hoping to find more answers here. And things that I can do myself. I have the time nights weekends, and the patience too. Just need to know the proper procedure for doing various tests, so that I dont totally hose something up bad. I can tell, this is going to be a long road for me. As I mentioned I have 3 good mechanics giving me advice and doing some work on it. But they dont all agree. And none of them seem to have time to really get down into the details, to figure out what is truely going on. Two of them are not locals. And I am not a mechanic. Although I have learned many things about my Z car. I still feel like an idiot. I have the original hard copy manual, and the elctronic version of it, on PDF, as well as the 1975 EFI handbook which looks very nice, well written and thorough. I also bought every book published about the z cars. So to summarize, the car was driven over the summertime. Now I realize the spark plugs were slowly getting fowled up, and as that happened slowly (or fastly depending on how you look at it), it lost its power. So now I know that is going on. But when it has new plugs and new oil, and the correct timing on the car...it was pretty good. But I am also 1000% sure it has quite a lot more spunk to give. And then there is that gassy/exhaust smell when you roll down windows. I hope that installing my new fuel injectors will help it get better. This is probably the case where there are multiple problems...and I am just going to have to eliminate them one at a time. As far as burning that much oil, remember, I was adding a lot of sea foam and that star brite stuff. So we can assume the piston rings are somewhat shot, that means some of the seafoam and some gas is leaking down into the oil in the engine, and thinning it out. Which would make it burn up faster than it should. now that I am done using seafoam, it would be interesting to see if it still burns up that much oil. I am just guessing that it was 3 quarts based on how far down on the dipstick it was. There are a couple of pics of it....before and after I added new tires and rims, and side louvers. I also added an air dam which definatley stablized it at interstate speeds. Also when I first saw it on the showroom floor in 2008 in chicago. Thats when I saw it, drove it, bought it. But she is still definately sick and needs help. Its going to be along uphill battle.

Mechanic #2 did do a leak down test, right after he did the compression test. He said several of the cylinders compressed faster than others. He called it like fast-fast-slow, or slow-slow when it was compressing. I also was in the car with my foot on the brake when he was doing this. So I witnessed all this first hand. The car wanted to move ahead when he was donig this, so I held down brake, and also turned over the car when he said to do that. I really dont know what the exact output of this test was (was there a psi reading he was looking at too?). However, after doing these tests, and playing with the AFR meter (with the sensor in the tailpipe, and after he looked at the valves, he surmised I need an engine rebuild. That the piston rings were all bad. And might as well go through the engine at that point. He said the valves looked OK. And he put the valve cover back on at that point of the diagnostics he was doing. I am just trying to find a local source for a fuel pressure guage I can hook up with a fuel hose, inline, right after the fuel filter. So far, they all look like they are meant to be used directly on the fuel rail. And not inline, like I want. I suppose that is because the car stores, dont expect an older car like this to need something from them. And good quality is what I want too, not some piece of junk. I dont care if I pay 5x more for it, if its reliable. We replaced water temperature sensor. Mechanic #1 told me it was bad. So that was replaced about 1000 miles ago. So I will assume that isnt a problem anymore. I bought new(refurb) fuel injectors from a datsun mechanic that has been working on these baby's since 1978. He has 3 warehouses of parts. But because of the snow (and my lack of wanting to drive on the bad roads) I have not been able to have them installed yet. I got the new injectors, rings, and quick disconnects just sitting here waiting.... Well, mechanic #2, did check the valves and thought they looked OK. This guy has worked on Z cars before. They had 50 of them at one point in time. So I definately have to trust his judgement. I watched him check the valve clearances...and he was like hmmmmmmmmm they look OK. So he buttoned it back up, and that is when he got out the AFR meter to run more tests. And yes, the compression test was done hot, within 15 minutes of when I rolled in there I believe it was. TO ME, THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN ALL OF THIS, IS THE EXHAUST/GAS SMELL. IT HAS FACTORY INSTALLED DUAL SUN ROOFS, AND IF YOU LEFT THOSE OPEN IT WOULD CHOKE/GAS YOU OUT IN 5 MINUTES....BUT AS LONG AS ALL WINDOWS ARE UP, YOU DONT REALLY SMELL IT AT ALL, OR NOT UNLESS YOU ARE IN THERE FOR A LONG TIME DRIVING AROUND THE OTHER THINGS IS THAT I FEEL IT HAS MORE POWER TO GIVE. AND MECHANIC #2 SAYS IT HAS 25 TO 35% MORE POWER TO GIVE TO ME. THE OTHER THING IS THAT IT SEEMS TO BE BURNING UP MORE OIL THAN TYPICAL. I DONT HAVE EXACT DATA ON IT. HOWEVER, I THINK BECAUSE OF THE FUEL ADDITIVES, AND THE POSSIBILITY OF FUEL LEAKING DOWN PAST THE RINGS, THAT THINNED OUT THE OIL AND MADE IT BURN MORE THAN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THIS SUMMER, WHEN I WAS DRIVING IT AROUND. IM SAYING IT BURNED UP MAYBE 3 QUARTS OF OIL IN 1000 MILES. AND MIND YOU, I AM NOT DRIVING AROUND LEAVING A PLUME OF SMOKE. NO MATTER HOW HARD I ACCELARATED, I NEVER SAW ANY SMOKE. THE ONLY TIME IT SMOKES IS WHEN IT FIRST STARTS IN THE MORNING, AND AFTER A FEW MINUTES IT GOES AWAY. I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS IN MY ORIGINAL POST (ABOUT THE OIL BURNING). SO I FIGURE I AM DONE ADDING ANY SEAFORAM, SO I WILL MONITOR HOW MUCH OIL IT CONSUMES THIS NEXT BATCH OF TEST DRIVES. HOPEFULLY IT WONT BURN UP AS MUCH WITHOUT ALL THOSE ADDITIVES POSSIBLY LEAKING DOWN INTO THE OIL.

hmmmm I heard that it can go down to like 75% of the value, and not 95%. I think I read that in the EFI manual from 1975 for these cars. But who knows where I heard it or read it. I cant remember for sure. Sorry. I was there when mechanic #2 did this test, and I didnt see him do that with the oil. However, that doest mean someone else didnt do it. :-) Because mechanic #1 also did a compression test like a year ago. And I wasnt present when he/they did that. So they could have squirted some in there. I wiped it all out of there and will be noticeable if it comes back when I drive on another test drive. I just have to believe with 182,000 miles on it, that the rings have to be getting worn down. Im assuming no one ever replaced them. Can the rings be replaced without rebuilding an engine, and is there any downside to doing that without a rebuild?

So here are some of the issues...Im sorry this list is long, but if someone wants to read it over, it will get you up to speed on my baby's condition. Overall, I still feel like the car should give 25% more power at least, and maybe 35% more. Just a gut feeling based on what I think it should be able to do, if it was running correctly. It has 182,000 miles on the engine. The body is in good/great shape. 95% rust free. I have had lots of mechanical work done to the car (by a shop that fixes high end cars and restores them too), all new suspension pieces, new rubbers everywhere, new shocks, brakes, transmission rebuilt, differential rebuilt. Drive shafts, half shafts all ok. Exhaust in good shape. Custom frame rails/pieces were welded onto it to make it a lot stronger. All this work was done by a relative of mine. He wanted to make sure I was going to be safe in it. :-) Well at least safer than the condition it was in. I have had several other people see that work, and compliment the people who did it. (per suggestions) I did a 100 mile spark plug test and plugs 6,5,4 are all somewhat black and goopy, but 3,2,1 are all sort of powder greyish/brownish (I have been told by 3 mechanic friends those look normal). I did a longer mileage test, and the plugs showed the same conditions. I also just put some new plugs in myself this time (instead of a mehanic friend), and gapped them to .40. They are the BP6ES-11. The mechanic said they didnt need to be gapped. But I did anyway when I replaced myself. The car is sucking down gas too much. Gets about 11-18 mpg from normal driving. When spark plugs were new, and driving mostly on highway, it got 17 or 18 mpg. With the fowled up plugs (now that I know about them getting fowled up in the first place) it gets 11/12mpg or maybe a little less. I stink like exhaust (or gas???) after being in or around the car while its running and with windows down. It almost makes your stomach churn. If windows are up, 99% of the time I dont smell anything unless its really windy outside, or I drove for a while like a few hours. Its cold here in the midwest, so I let it idle with the back of the car sticking out of the garage, with the door mostly open. Boy did it stink once I got out of the car. I didnt smell anything in the car, but outside, oh yeah. It stunk up the garage real good. Its hard for me to say if its exhaust or gas smell. But I am leaning towards that its a rich fuel smell and not exhaust only. When I first start the car after a few days, I think there is a cloud of white or grey smoke. Its so hard to tell what color it is. But the guess is that there is oil leaking down past the rings, and its gets burned up when idling and goes away. Except for that smoke, I never see any smoke coming out of the car, no matter how much I accelarate. One of my 3 mechanic friends, says its only running on 5 cylinders. He drove car for like a minute, and that is what he said!!!!!!! And also because of it only running on 5 cylinders, it gonna burn more gas. He figures number 6 fuel injector is not working correctly. And is therefor causing a vaccum problem, and pulling down effectiveness of #5 and #4 cylinders, but not 3,2, or 1. I also wonder, if because fuel injector isnt working on #6, that its causing a no fire in the cylinder. And then shooting the gas out the tailpipe. Which is causing this exhaust/gas smell that is very noticable?? I mean it stinks up your coats and clothes when you walk inside...its like peeeeeeeeew what stinks. Oh its you. Were you out by the z again. Yup. Car was checked for vaccum leaks, mechanic friend says it has none. He has been working on BMS, mercedes, jag's, volov's, Z's, etc since late 1970's. And he checked for vaccum leaks right away after fixing all the mechanical stuff. But he still doesnt know exactly what is wrong with my Z car!!!!!!! We are working through a process of elimination. We replaced the AFM, but then it seemed to run worse then before. So I am going to change it back to the older (looks original) one. Just for now. Cant be changing too many variables at once. It has the adjustments turned all the way down as far as they can go. For whatever thats worth. The car idles at 800/900 rpm or so, but it seems a little rough to me. You can see a mirror vibrate when its idling. I also ran a few cans of sea foam through it, and some Starbrite too (another cleaner product). I cant say that stuff really made much of a difference that I noticed. But it must have done something good!!! When the spark plugs are new, it definately has a lot more power. Starkly noticable. Another mehanic friend adjusted the timing back to stock settings he said, or something very close to it. He also ran an AFR meter with a sensor hooked into the tailpipe. And after tweaking the timing and turning the Air flow meter screw all the way in....got it running as good as I had seen it. I could even burn out and lay some rubber. He said the AFR numbers looked OK. Maybe not perfect, but OK anyway. But he said I had low compression. Only 125 in two of the middle cylinders, and 135 in the others. He says thats too low. Another mechanic told me that is fine for an engine of this age???? Another different mechanic of Z cars, told me it should be more like 150 or 155 at a minimum and I think he said they were 165psi or so....new. What is the correct psi for cylinders for a 1978 Z car with 180,000 miles on it? Someone surely knows :-) a good guess. he he My mechanic #2 says the rings are bad and need to be replaced, and he feels I need to rebuild the engine to, in the process of fixing the rings. Mechanic #1 and #3 say that is the last resort and there are way too many other things to look at. And I agree with #1 and #3. I dont want to rebuild the engine until all other problems are resolved. When I changed the spark plugs a few days ago...I noticed a small pool of oil in the pit under the spark plug hole. Each these pits right under where the spark plug plugs into (on the outside of the engine I mean of course) had a small amount of oil in there. At least that is what it looked like to me. I mostly wiped it up, and I dont know if it has been there for years or not. So I will watch that closely. Mechanic #2 pulled the valve cover off and I think what he said was the cam and valves seemed ok. not too tight. I guess he was worried they were too tight or too loose? But he said that wasnt the problem. The timing chain is in good shape too. He looked at it. Oh yeah, all the snow melted and then it rained and got up to 60 degrees, one day. Then back below freezing. So that gave me a chance to drive my car. Welllllllllllllll it made some noises (like bucking or hesitating like no fuel was coming in), and actually stopped dead in two out of 3 test drives. I had been driving for an hour, pulled into a gas station, and BOOM. It just stopped running. Then I cranked it over 3 or 4 times and it wouldnt start. Mind you, it was about 9 degrees out at that point of the night. I sat there about to cry I think and waited 5 minutes. THen it started. The next day I drove and it bucked and chugged (slowed down for a second or two and then back to normal speed/power), but it never died. So right after that I drove back to my garage. The third day, the same thing happened when going up a big hill. It bucked/chugged like BAM, and then it kept running. I headed for home after that happened. It died while driving down a side road thank goodness. Then same thing happened. It cranked and cranked 4 or 5 times. Nothing. Waited 5 to 7 minutes, and it started right up. None of this happened while driving over a 1000 miles in the summertime this year. Something in the cold weather seems to be effecting this. I think the fuel pump is going bad. But I know it could be plugged up fuel tank, plugged up screen in the fuel pump, and electrical connection. I am going to buy a fuel pressure guage, and also hook up a test light to the fuel pump wires under the back passenger seat. And the next time it happens I want to see if the test light is on or off, and what fuel pressure says... Im just trying to list some of the main symptoms I know about. I could write more...but this thing is getting crazy long now.

I have a nice 280z car, blue 510 color. Too bad its sick and not running correctly. I have been reading these forums, and see lots and lots and lots of things that could be causing it. I have 3 separate mechanics talking to me about it, and some of them are not in agreement about what the problems are. Some say fuel injectors, wiring connections, fuel pump, low compression (and therefore need new piston rings, so they say they might as well rebuild it while they are at it)...etc .... I am in a tug of war here...stuck in the middle of all this. I am not complaining, but would like to get moving in the right direction. I owned a 300 zx for 10 years. And drove a blue 1984 Z back in 1990. Oh yeah, I also test drove a 1976 260z car, that someone in my town was selling. It had dual carbs on it. So I do have some experience driving a few different z cars, but never had the pleasure of driving a different 1978 280Z car. So I have nothing to compare my poor running engine too. Well anyway I am so glad I found these forums. They look extremely active!!!!!!!!!!