Virto

Bit of a zombie post here, but I'm pretty sure what you're looking at is bulk-feed dog food. I know growing up that Moor-mans used to sell dog food that was essentially identical to the pieces you're getting here. Another thing I remember is that both tree and ground squirrels and some mice would swipe it from the dog feeders and HIDE it. Specifically, they would hide it in the 77 LTD and the 79 F150. Being on the farm, especially in winter, you would occasionally start one of the cars or trucks and get a shudder and some thumping while you discovered small critters had (unwisely) decided to nest in a warm engine bay, right in the path of the radiator fan. Long story short, you're likely looking at dog food that woodland creatures were stashing. We all know how mice are easily capable of getting up into these S30s.

I'm starting this thread as a bit of a placeholder, moving this issue out of my old exhaust manifold/status thread since it's likely I'll need help. The background is listed in the exhaust thread, so I'll keep it focused on the EFI here. Bottom line, car hasn't run in a year, head was pulled and tanked, and the car is back together now. The car will crank easily but not fire. Injectors show 12V but no pulse via NOID light. Zed Head has helped give me some places to start - I'll likely only have access to the car over the weekend, so I can't just run out and mess around, as much as I'd like to. I'll add to this thread as time goes on with status and results. If anyone else has any questions or direction (/wave FastWoman, ) I welcome your input.

Seems unlikely unless some mice got into it while it was sitting. Haven't seen any evidence of that, but I'll go over it to be sure. I'll check pin1 and see what kind of reading I get. I'm not entirely clear on the purpose of the relay in the injector cycle - I have to do some searching and reading. The wiring in this car is a bit of a hodgepodge. I'll see if anything the PO did (or un-did) might have come loose.

OK. There was spark when checking by pulling the boot away from the plug, but I'll check it again to be sure. I'll take a look at any connections running from the coil. I assume that's standard across all 280Z years - the FI bible was last revised in '75, so I'm not entirely sure what differences I'll run across. Edit: Could testing PIN1 for battery voltage diagnose an issue with wiring between the coil and ECU, rather than tracing back all the wiring?

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack... Holy hell, things have been a mess. Let's see if we can catch up on where we stand. The car has been at the same garage for over a year at this point. Once winter set in (and boy, was it a LONG winter in Chicagoland) I made the call to just leave the car there rather than pull it outside and risk salt exposure - it's rusty enough, as it is. The head came off and got sent out, came back beautiful and clean - replaced the valve stem seals and removed the nasty old stud. It's back on the car, timing cover is back on, headers are on, all good, right? Of course not. The TB to intake manifold boot disintegrated, as they're prone to doing. I ordered one from MSA, but they were backordered. Somehow, they still managed to get it to me within 2 weeks. I could have rigged something, but the late 77 and 78 boot has the side spout that connects back to the manifold. So, awesome. Back in business! Ha, you should all know better than that, by now. It won't start. Fuel pump runs, car cranks no problem. Injectors have 12v with key on, but no pulse. NOID light never so much as flickers. Now is where I get to beg for help again. I'm desperate to get this thing back home and in my own garage again, where I can cut out more of the rear wheel well than I had originally planned (yay for an extra year of rust). I know the mechanic at the garage will eventually figure it out, but he's the stereotypical old man mechanic with a heart of gold that spends 10 hours a day fixing bad brakes and old clunkers asap for people that don't have a lot of money. He just doesn't have the time to commit to diagnosing this thing for a full day. I can get to the car once a week or so (my work schedule sucks) during times that don't make it look like I'm robbing the shop when nobody is there. I'll probably get over there this weekend and try my best to make it go. Any ideas where I should start? I'll wiggle a ton of wiring around and look for loose connections. I THINK I'm right in saying that, with 12v at the injectors, that the ECU isn't toast, but I don't know about the relay for the FI. Of course, 78 has a different relay that nobody has aside from Z Car Source and it's over 200 bucks used before a core refund. Hoping that's not my issue...

The G3 (or generic equivalent) works perfectly on my 78, smack in the middle of the tank to pump line. The delphi/delco/generic silver pump with white ends does work - I have one and it's just fine, but some folks do note a high failure rate with them. I suspect that part of it could be that they lack the mesh filter over the inlet like the OEM pump. Installing a small filter in the input line will help, but is a great idea for these cars with any model of fuel pump. When you change the fuel pump, you'll need to prime it or the line in order to get it to pump. The easiest way for me to do this was to install the pump, install the G3 filter in the inlet line and then use my mouth to siphon on the line until the fuel filter had gas in it. Then I went too far and sucked a mouthful of gas, but after that the pump primed instantly and fired the engine easily.

I had a feeling we'd break some, so I ordered a full set of studs from MSA when I got the exhaust. I was hopeful that none would break off so far in that they couldn't just have a bolt head welded on and then pulled out. Not so much my luck, apparently. We shall see how things look once the head is off and we can get a better picture.

Bit of a follow-up on this, for those that are curious. I still do not have the car back. We pulled the manifolds and found that the #1 stud was previously broken off deep inside the head by the PO. Provided the existing exhaust wasn't cracked or leaking, we'd probably have heard a tick from the lack of sealing well up front. We only broken one other stud, which makes replacing them easier. The mechanic does NOT feel comfortable drilling out the broken number 1 stud because it's cracked off inside the head and it's not a clean break, so he thinks there's a good chance he'd hit the head, and being aluminum, he doesn't want to risk it. This means the head is coming off and getting farmed out to the machine shop where it'll be drilled out with a press. While it's off, we'll replace the valve seals and check the condition of the seats and such. The car doesn't smoke currently, but may as well get things done now rather than later. I already ordered the seals and new gaskets from rockauto, so I'll get them sometime next week, and then hopefully things go a little more smoothly from there. Oh, the airbox to AFM boot is cracked, big surprise there. I'll have to tape it up like nobody's business. Any I should have known that something was going to go wrong, because I got lucky and scored a good, uncracked set of hood vents on eBay just the day before we pulled the manifold. Just my luck.

Oh, I was just thinking generally. You don't see too much in that range of blue on the road, at least not around here. Maybe a Subaru would be close...

I'd think a little alcohol and a cotton swab would probably work well for cleaning the gauge face. I've never tried it on these gauges, but it worked when I swapped the cluster in my F150.

This thread has the best info I've found on getting to and replacing the lights. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/interior-s30/41689-diy-brighter-gauge-lights.html

Exhaust being sucked into the cabin thru the hatch, possibly? I know rolling the windows down will often make the effect worse. It's possible that you have a fuel smell under the hood - rolling the windows down would allow it inside the cabin. I'd think you'd be able to notice it under the hood if you're leaning over while outside the car, though.

Looks great. She'll really stand out of the crowd.

Sad day, but it sounds like she'll be loved where she's going. And the whole time it's on the highway on that car carrier, every few miles someone will catch a glimpse of her and say "wow."

Sounds like tank rust for sure, clogging the pump inlet or the fuel filter/lines. Been there, done that. Pop the bolt out of the bottom of the tank and see if you get any rust. Depending on how long the old gas was in the tank, it could be so thickly varnished that all the lines need to be replaced.

I know, right? He's done more in 5 minutes of each day he's had the car than I've done in 5 years.

She looks like a monster truck. Nice and solid looking. Oooo front overrider... I lost the one for my 78 during one of my several moves.

I may be tempted to just hit the car with a straight coat or two of paint after I sand the grit out of the existing paint. The current paint is good from 25 feet or so, looks ok in pictures, but it's textured like sand in some spots and it lacks even coverage. I think it was a maaco super-cheap job that the PO did over another maaco job that he'd done years before. I'll need to at least prime the areas that I knock rust off of - I may just go ahead and paint at the same time and then let it go for a year or two while I get the rest of the car sorted out and then go for a quality paint job later.

Jeff, I know you didn't thin your paint, but how many coats did you end up laying? Did you wetsand afterward?

Marine/boat paint seems to be the way to go. Interlux Brightside is one of the more popular options. The downside to it is that it's not available in as many colors and I don't think it can be mixed to color match. It does coat well with little or no thinning and is self leveling. You can accomplish in 3 coats with brightside what rustoleum takes 6 or 7.

That actually looks awesome, and the front end really makes me think "classic" honda.

The last couple of times I've gone to drop parts off at the shop, I've seen my car in the middle of all the typical everyday stuff, and boy, it looks tiny. Of course, when I get in it, it FEELS tiny, too.

Headers and exhaust came today - I unpacked everything to look for damage. Everything was very well packed, thick gauge cardboard, lots of bubble wrap. MSA did good, here, and it looks like FedEx didn't beat the hell out of everything while they had it.

I'd say parts car as well, unless the rest of the underside is somehow magically clean and the surface rust on the hood and fenders was easy to grind off. Looks like it has some good to it, but it would probably not be worth the money or time to fix properly.

, blue. I love how patchy and badly streaked it looks in the video they provide.