madkaw

Beautiful day here in Bloomington Indiana-high 70's and not much humidity Current set up is; pilots are 62.5's at 1.5 turns out. The engine is happiest at this point. NO hesitation or bobbles and AFR's hovering around 14. The engine idles best here and restarts the easiest. The 65's semed too rich and made my wideband go crazy-whic is usually an indication that my mixture is taking big swings. Main jets are 155 and main air are 180. Since my O2 doesn't like big swings it is a bit more difficult to diagnose the main side. Plenty of power, but maybe more is available. Accelerator pumps; went back with the 40's and the engine likes it. There is no bobble when bipping the throttle or heavy tip-in. With the 47's the engine sounded like it was drowning in fuel. Back to more R&D

How do you know the valve timing is set on the #3. Did you have the timing cover off and saw the bright link on te crank gear lined up when the cam sprocket was on three? Your in this deep now, maybe you should consider taking off the cover and start counting links!

I'm a little surprised that the valves came close to the pistons- assuming the pistons are close to stock specs . That cam isn't very aggressive , but good thing he checked. Was the head milled much? Looks like a runner.

Well I had a chance to troubleshoot the wiring. I basically starting removing things from the circuit using a process of elimination to find the issue. The rear left brake light would not work at all, so checked out my combo switch. The white with red stripe wire looked burnt on the switch and that's the wire for the left tail light. So I cannibalized some other combo switches and rebuilt my switch. Bingo- everything works!! I also made sure I isolated the grounds on the marker lights

The fuel sending unit drops in from the top, it is what your feed and return lines go to on the tank. The reason I mentioned this was I had a 280zxt that would just basically die and then later clear up. Long story short, when I pulled the sending unit it looked brand new, but the return side was plugged with what looked like a petrafied bug. Another mechanical adventure in my life with a problem similiar to yours was on a Ford Capri. A girl I worked with went to every shop and paid hundreds and hundres of dollars to try and figure her dying and loss of power problem. In the end it turned out that a mouse had been in her car and had ate away on the insulation on her wires under her seat-where the brain box went. The car would act up and then be fine. So I would make sure your grounds are good-especially stuff around your ignition. I'm leaning towards a wiring issue-unless that sending unit is plugged! It seems that you have covered your basis well and I feel your pain. It seems like you have been diligent in finding this issue, I hope we can help.

WOW- and I thought Ive had car issues- my condolences . Fuel- did you or anyone pull out the fuel sending unit from the tank? The return or sending side could be plugged with junk causing pressure build or no fuel at times. Cylinder head- get a new compression guage and do the test yourself- google the proper procedure. Also, you can borrow a pressure tester from autozone to test for a bad gasket. It works pretty easy by just measuring the radiator pressure while the car is running. You can watch the pressure build and pull spark plug wires one at a time to see which cylinder is bad-- if the pressure is building. Electrical- those years had a brain box for the ignition- right ? I would try and replace it. I think I have one of those that came off a late 73 240 that you can try if you can't find one. Coolant- have you run any type of rust removal product or flush through the block?

I did remove the marker lights from the fender and it had the same symptoms. So I am leaning towards a bad socket in the front blinker is shorting something. Is there a replacement socket that can be used on the blinkers? I have to dig into the assembly to see what's up

So while I was replacing rear main seals and doing a headlight realy upgrade and slapping on some Triples I decided to do that little trick to make my front marker lights blink. I referenced the Daniel Stern Lighting website that shows you how to switch the wires around so the front markers act as blinkers. The problem is that the front left blinker doesn't want to work with headlights on now.The blinkers and hazards work fine without the headlights on. Now I did notice somewhere in all this work I did with my headlight upgrade that the left front blinker wires when moved around was causing issues with bulb-like there was a short. I know I might have already answered my question here, but I searched for possible replacement bulb socket assemblies and couldn't find much. Now I know someone has dealt with fixing these assemblies, so I am hoping someone can give me some insight.

This might be old news to those of you that play on Hybridz, but I , or should I say Todd, figured out my issue. My CAI box backing plate was covering up the float bowl vents, so it was cutting off the fuel to the carbs. I drove her today and she drove alright. My jetting is still off. Right now I have 200 main air jet 60's pilots 140 mains When my O2 sensor was working it showed 14.5 at cruise and sounded great 13+ at idle, but the O2 sensor is more erratic at idle WOT I was 16+-waaayyy to lean On the horn with Todd now. Pic of my CAI that is almost finished except for a good polish. Todd very much liked the CAI and it's got him thinking

Well I see it's been a week since I posted, so I will update. Talked to Todd and he sent me 62.5's and 65's for the pilot jets. Meanwhile I took all vacuum possibilities out of the equation by removing my vacuum log and any else vacuum. Todd once again was a bit adamit about just getting out and driving the car to shake it down. I told him I see no possible way it is coming out of the garage running like this-falling on it's face. Todd did get me the jets in quick fashion as he always does, he really does do a great job of doing business! I threw in the larger jets(65's) right off the bat thinking I was way small anyway, but they didn't make a large impact. Still wouldn't even idle at 1 turn out on the pilot, it took more like 2 and it would still fall on it's face about the same rpm. So now I'm really wondering what's going on. How much am I going to ahve invested in jets before I get this right? So with nothing else much to try I looked at my jet collection and realized I had a set of larger main air jets that came with the carbs-200 main airs. I'm desperate so I throw them in and what do you know, it was much better. The stumble now moved up the rpm band by almost double and it wouldn't fall as hard on it's face. Logically, I don't know what I've done, since I thought the main air jets were not part of this equation-or are they. I will say that one of the brief moments my O2 sensor was working it looked like the idle AFR was between 12-13,( with the 65's) but the damn thing is so flakey I don't know if I trust it. It's another thing to throw money at I guess. I'm kind of missing my SU's right now

So after replacing the alternator did you check voltage-not amps-voltage at the battery while it's running. Low voltage will exhibit your symptoms. Don't take for granted that a new alternator works right, I have gotten bad ones right out of the box. OR, the alternator was not the problem all along. Plus I am not sure about your statement about putting out 50 amps-did he really measure amperage? 50 amps is a TON of amps. Did you have your battery load tested? Bad batteries cause numerous issues that show up in other areas. Start back with the basics and don't assume anything

Triple Mikuni's were advertised as a 18% boost in HP, back in their day.

Hey guys , does the 77 use an oil pressure switch- maybe more wires that are being overlooked

Those headlights look like the ones on my locomotives! Wonder how much HP you loose from the alternator when you turn them on. I have about 1500 amps available so the lights don't effect my alternator -

http://www.wiringproducts.com/contents/en-us/d136_fuse_block_fuse_panel.html Steve, This looks like it, but mine is good for 60 amps I think. The lead wire is 8 gauge and I connected it directly to the alternator

Well I can't wait. My headlights weren't bad before, I was really wanting to keep from burning up any wiring or combo switches. I'm quite sure I will see the difference and I don't won't night time to be a deterent from enjoying my Z

I don't have the headlights yet, so no report on them, but I will!

WOW, I started this a long time ago. So I have had this lit laying around for over two years-what have I been doing? So like I said, I bought a headlight relay kit from Daniel Stern Lighting and just recently ordered some Cibie(spelled it right this time) headlights. I had just pulled my motor to fix an oil leak(another story), and I was looking at that empty engine compartment and thought this would be a great time to do this upgrade. So I referenced the above web site and found another good one; http://alteredz.com/Headlight_Relay_pg1.htm and started to get working on it. Pete's site is the best for telling you exactly the right wires to use and a very simple plan on how to do this. If I were to recommend anything to the DIY'er, I would get some kind of relays and holders that came with wire leads already attached to the holder. I also didn't care for the headlight sockets supplied with the kit, but just my preference. I ran my wires from the relays all the way to the headlights and eliminated the original sockets, again, just my preference.

I'm a liitle confused of what you have from what car, but I would look closely at that L24. Do you know anything about any of these engines. Does the L24 need to be rebuilt and why are you stuck on making the L26 work. If it were me, I would want to make the E-31 head work on one of the blocks, it doesn't really matter which one, but do your research. The E-31's had issues and need some close scrutiny, but if I was going to pick a head to invest in a rebuild, it would be the one, and I would probably stick with the L24. Done any compression checks? There is a lot of info on here and Hybridz as far as mix and matching of parts

A member on Hybridz just had a similiar issue and it was as simple as clogged filter screens on the inlets. CAptain Obvious has given some good advice and it IS a good idea to keep any vacuum related components out of the mix until you get the car to idle. Have you tried just removing the fuel line just aft of the pump and putting the line in a glass jar to see if the pump is pulling up fuel? These fuel lines are small on this car and can get clogged easy-ask me how I know;) Known condition of the gas tank? Tear into the carbs LAST, make sure the support systems are working first. Carbs aren't doing any good without gas

Blue, After reading your thread again and again I have new leads for my issues with my Mikuni's . Not sure if Mikunis have an inspection plug for the progression holes, but thats where I need to look next since my engine falls on it's face over 1500 rpm just sitting in the garage. I should have inspected them while I had the carbs off- they maybe clogged.

I just removed and installed my motor only, but I have pulled and placed the motor and tranny at the same time. I was worried about aligning the ngine with the tranny still in the car, but I took measurements so I knew when the input shaft and crank should have been lined up. It is a bear to push the engine against the tranny, but my time under the car was very minor and no struggling on my back. One person can do either job-hope you have an engine hoist leveler! If I had everything out of the car, I think I would want to put the engine and tranny together in front of me where I can see what I'm doing better.

Hey Blue, When you get time-can you do a thread like this on the Mikuni's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very nice work, and I do mean work to put all this together-thanks

Two good days and I got my new rear main seal in and got my motor back in the car. Things really couldn't have gone much better----or could they. I in stalled pilot air jets-#60's in my Mikuni's and it really didn't help much. THe car would start great using the starter(enrichnent) engaged, but wouldn't idle or run worth a dam without it. I started it up and BOOM, rock steady idle around 1500rpm, no spittting, sputterring, coughing, just smooth great sound-but my AFR wouldn't hardly come off 18. Now if I blip the throttle the car revs up nicely--atleast I got the accelerator pumps working good--the wideband will finally come off 18 and drops briefly into the 14 range. I ran a range of adjustments on my NEW pilot screws with no avail. It acts like there is not nearly enough fuel for primary functions. I did get the engine up to temp and pulled a spark plug and it was colorless. I had cleaned the plugs during all this work and they looked new before this start up. Well they still looked new and showed no color. Pilot air jets need to be bigger yet because of my vacuum log

"The grommet is not that elastic and from both ends, there are fairly large plugs that have to go through it. " You'd be suprised! I did it WITHOUT removong any connectors. Prepare for a battle on some of the connectors and grease things up so they slide easier, but they will go.