chaseincats

I had it boiled out/coated about 8 years ago, so it shouldn't rust I'd have thought. Since it looks kind of goopy and doesn't stick to the metal I didn't think it was rust at the time. Interesting articles/google post - thanks! The google post talks about using a "fuel system cleaner." I added one of those small Lucas bottles (this stuff) last fill-up - should I add another bottle?

It sits on the bottom though and when the tank is filled it floats away. Are you sure it's rust since it doesn't stick to the metal?

So I finally figured out why my car was periodically running lean/down on power: I was driving the car yesterday and it started to drive poorly in the same way as it had in the past - so I went home and popped open the top-loading fuel sending unit (since it's a '78) and looked into the tank. There is some what looks like brown mud that was sitting on the bottom of the tank that I suppose gets diluted when the tank is full (because I saw it disappears with a full tank when I looked in after filling it)? I filled the tank and took it out for a spin, and sure enough, it ran perfectly again. So my question is what is that brown stuff, is there a way to get it out, and why is a very low fuel level (gauge reading near empty) an issue when the clear paper filter between the gas tank and fuel pump looks brand new (it's a few years old)? NOTE: The tank was boiled out/treated in 2017

I believe I originally gapped these to the USA spec. Would dropping them down to the Canadian spec have me lose power but gain a smoother idle? Basically just curious what differences I should notice. EDIT: I forgot to bring up that the PO installed a "Jacobs Electronics" spark box in the car. Should I still go with the canadian gap with my resistor plugs?

Gotcha, so for the moment, go with the canadian spec gap since I have a resistor plug or the USA spec anyway? Yep, they are ngk wires.

Hi all - I was looking to check my 1978's spark gap and on the FSM it has 2 different plug gap values (one for Canada and one for America). Does one provide better performance than the other? I'm in Texas.

I adjusted the valves about a year and a half ago, but that's a good point - I'll give it a look and report back. Regarding the spark plugs, I can't seem to find any bpr6es on amazon for the 78 head thread. Would bpr5es work or would that be too hot a plug? Interesting article - thanks! EDIT: I believe we ended up going with colder spark plugs since we're running the engine learner than usual (14.7 cruise) to guard against pinging. EDIT 2: I just confirmed all of the valves are still in-spec

UPDATE: after driving it for about 100 miles, here is what my plugs look like. The spark plug tips are quite white on some of these, but the ceramic in the middle isn't as charred. Besides burning some oil, what do you think? Looking at these, I'd say a good chunk of this engine is running lean, but my AFR numbers look great. Just as some extra info - before I started driving it heavily again (after we fixed it) I pulled the plugs and noticed cyl #5 was the only one with a dark plug, so I swapped it with cyl #6. The cyl 6 plug is now dark, but the cyl 5 plug did not clear up. The spark plugs are NGK BPR7ES (5534) Any ideas?

Thanks, I didn't know it took that many rotations. I held the key this time for about 10 seconds and got a pretty uniform flow so it looks like we're good there. It looks like the far right injector is low but that's just the light for some reason.

Hi all I unbolted my fuel rail and put each injector in its own individual cup so that when I turn the key I can see if they are all injecting identical amounts of fuel and for some reason am not getting pulse with the rail unbolted, but the car runs with it connected. I tried directly connecting the efi ground to the negative battery terminal but still not getting pulse. All 6 injector connectors are getting power (confirmed with a test light). Any idea what I'm missing here as the only parts that have been unbolted are the ones related to the fuel rail/its removal. I made a video which might help here Any ideas?

I'll take a pic of mine when I get home tonight - hold EDIT: I checked and apparently I re-used the rubber grommet I had on there when I swapped out the switches

the bezel is molded into the metal of the switch housing

The bezel is part of the switch now. This is what I got and removed the rubber grommet for the right switch but it looks like the left one with the 4 wires is NLA. That said, you could just get one for each side and ignore the buzzer wire.

Right - the passenger side is just for the light so it only has 2 wires, the drivers side has 4 (2 for the light and 2 for the buzzer)

Anyone tried both the KYB and Koni ones? I'm on KYB currently.

Hey Jim - my tires are from 2018 so they definitely aren't the newest, maybe that's part of it.

Hi gang, Question for you which I think I know the answer to (that's how it is). I refreshed my suspension with all new rubber bushings except for the strut bar end links which came in poly form when I got the beefier strut bar. I replaced the shocks with the only ones available (KYB) and you feel every bump. Granted, Dallas doesn't have the best roads, but it should be smoother than this I'd think. I have 205 width tires on 280zx wheels at 28 psi.

Update: I took the car out today with about 1/8 tank of gas and added the small lucas fuel additive bottle in full and the car ran great - definitely 100% of what it was before which is fantastic. I really wanted the lucas bottle liquid fairly undiluted which is why i didn't fill the tank first. After driving it for about an hour with no issues and awesome results, I filled the tank, took it around the block to make sure nothing changed and parked it in the garage - thanks for everyone's help! case closed

@Yarb They're about a year old remanufactured Bosch OEM units, so we should be good on that front @Zed Head Fair point about the the clean injectors contributing to how it starts, but it's just odd that it used to start without that stumble before all of this. @Captain Obvious Trying to get back to that and figure out what the issue is @siteunseen Mine is the standard '78 distributor but I confirmed everything is in spec using the FSM (including the air gap between the reluctor wheel and pickup coil)

The skip noise it makes is normal? I don't remember it doing that in the past when I didn't use the CSV. Does your 280 do that?

It's the opposite where if I manually trigger the CSV it starts right up, but if I don't use it, it stumbles like it's not getting enough fuel

In the past when not using the CSV it hasn't done that skip/stumble noise it does now in the video at 0:16

I made a video of the hard start here which should help. It did start quicker yesterday (this video) but usually the skip at 0:16 lasts a lot longer. This is without manually triggering the CSV.

gotcha, fair enough

Gotcha, I'll keep using the switch to trigger it then. We'll see in the spring when it warms up if it's still feisty haha.