grannyknot

Tell China that, we need to sell Canola

Not many of the old guys left that know how to do separate seal, glass and trim, window guys now just glue them in. The most experienced Z window installers are members right here.

Looks like a pretty solid car, love the black lightning bolt. I found generations of mice in my car, had to have the car dipped to get the smell of the mouse pee out. They won't be in the dash so much as the heater box, they love it in there.

Well, it's always good to plug this in before trying to start the engineThe timing was off as well. My soul feels lighter now.

Hazard switch ?

To use @siteunseen's phase, I bow down in shame. The engine is running fine now, my mistake is so humiliating I can't even admit to it yet. Thanks for your help guys I certainly know the FI system inside out now.

Those numbers aren't so bad and may improve, you could put your money elsewhere for the time being and circle back to the engine after a few months of driving and another compression check. You could run a thicker oil, say 10w/40 and see if that helps, the #1 piston is the one to watch.

I think I have 3 covers and I hardly ever use them, when I come back from a drive or a car show the Z has a fine layer of road dust and brake powder on it. Unless I'm going to wash it again before I put it away I can't stand the thought of throwing a cover on it and rubbing all that abrasive dust in and causing all the micro scratches to the paint, that road dust gets on the inside of the cover so when I do put the cover on a freshly washed car it scratches the paint again. How often can you wash the car cover? Probably way over thinking it, so I end up putting the car away with no cover and when the car gets too dusty blast it off with a stream of water from the garden hose.

I think they are, the starter is too noisy to separate out the injector clicking. I did pull the spark plugs today and they were wet with gas. Maybe I should pull the whole injector pack and fuel rail unit and see if they are spraying and or dripping. Grasping at straws now.

Installed a proper fuel pressure gauge today, turned the key to start and the needle goes up to about 35 psi and stays there, I clamped off the hose after the gauge and let the pressure get up to 60 psi then unclamped the hose and it came back down to 35 psi so looks like the FPR is working, do you guys agree? I have gone through all the tests from page 47 to 71 and all were good except for test #1-3b air flow meter, resistance, ohmmeter leads between pin 7 and pin 8, there is suppose to be a small amount of resistance but continuity. My resistance was 144 ohms which doesn't seem small. Also, test #3 - 3 cold start system circuit, voltmeter leads positive to pin 21, negative to ground, the results should be; Little to no voltage at first; then battery voltage after no more than 15 sec. My result was battery voltage almost immediately. So still no start, I guess I'll pull the cold start valve tomorrow and maybe exchange it for my spare. Any patterns emerging to you sparkys out there?

The new Walbro fuel pump is installed, still don't know the exact fuel pressure but the needle pegs at 21psi and stays there after I stop cranking but still no start. Still backfiring and puffing out the AFM. Not sure of the next step, get a proper fuel pressure gauge, change out the FPR for my spare or a new one, go back and do the No Start tests again, or maybe find a new /77 ECU ? This really isn't my strongest area. Thanks

No I haven't used ether yet but I set the distributor back to exactly where it was when the engine was idling well before tear down. I picked up the Walbro replacement fuel pump today so I should have that installed by tomorrow afternoon, hopefully that will do the trick. I also have a spare FPR so I'll get that ready just in case.

Yes, with a spark plug wire pulled and grounded during cranking I get a good fat spark. The ignition system is stock. The fuel pressure gauge I have only goes to 21 psi, it is mounted between the fuel filter and the fuel rail, the needle doesn't really "peg" it creeps up. I checked it again last night after posting and it is taking even longer to get up to the peg and then the pressure releases.

When you do the freeze plugs tap it in on one side only, you want it to pivot on the center, once you can get a pair of Visegrips on the lip pull it out. Set your pressure washer nozzle to the needle setting, all kinds of crap will come out and get everywhere so if you are going to keep the pistons, rods and crank in make sure they are sealed off. But it is just as easy to pull all that stuff and then you can clean them, check the measurements and inspect the bearing wear.

So, all connections are clean as well as all grounds, all new hoses and vacuum tubes so there are no vacuum leaks, tank is resealed, new filter, yada yada. I have performed all the tests on page 32-33 of the FI bible "Engine Will Not Start" most were all good with these few exceptions Bruce, I did your modified test for injector clicks, I never once got a spark from the center coil wire to ground and when grounding and ungrounding the Neg side of the coil, sometimes the injectors clicked every 3rd time, some every 2nd time and some two times in a row and that was the same for all six. No pattern that I could see. Fuel pump works when it is suppose to but I never heard the fuel regulator buzzing, also I only have a 21 psi fuel gauge hooked up but it takes 4-5 sec for the fuel pressure to ramp up to 21psi and as soon as I stop cranking the pressure needle backs down at the same speed so there is virtually no pressure in the line by the time I get over to fuel line and open it.(I suspect this is the real problem) While cranking the engine there is some back firing and puffing out of the AFM. The damned thing is I had the engine running roughly for about a minute on Sunday then I turned it off the get the camera ready to shoot a little video but couldn't get it going again. Open to suggestions from anyone.

I did a lot of testing today and most of it had good results but some were strange, I'll check everything tomorrow and do those tests again just to be sure I have hard numbers.

That's thermostat opening, not sure you have a problem. Get or borrow an infrared temp guns and see what the actual temp is.

Captain my Captain, thank you sir, I'll report back.

I did it with my mind,

So if you jacked the front wheels off the ground and grabbed the tire at the top and bottom you should be able to move the wheel in and out like it's doing while on the ground? Sounds like the rubber isolator at the top of the strut is worn and moving around or the ball joint is severely worn. This is bizarre.

I'm on page 33 of the fuel injection bible, http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/efisystem/280zfuelinjectionbook.pdf No. 5 Power relay control unit injector test, it says to disconnect and reconnect the ignition lead wire several times while listening to each injector, so what do they consider the ignition lead wire? The pos side of the coil, center lead of the coil? I have a no start situation so working my way through the steps. Thanks

Okay I have everything put back together so will go get 10gal of gas tomorrow morning and see if I can get it running, I got all the signals, lights and engine running well before I tore down so if I'm lucky ... I'll shoot a little video if all goes well.

As Mark said, heater control valve or quite often I find the push cable that actuates the valve can bend and the valve never opens.

Hung sounds like a perfectionist who just isn't in to commuication .

That could be an air pocket, to be sure all the air is out open the rad cap when the engine is cool and jack up the car front of the car as high as the jack will go, start the engine and turn the heater on full. Leave the cap off as long as you can before it overflows then cap the rad and bring the engine up to normal temp, turn the engine off, leave it the car on the jack and let it cool over night. Next morning open the cap and top off the coolant if needed, that should do it or at least it has always worked for me. If that doesn't do the trick you could replace the thermostat or at a minimum pull it out and test it in a pan of water on the stove with a thermometer.