motor-ray

No real history on the car. The last owner was a guy with no mechanical skills that paid to have it worked on when it broke, which is why he got rid of it. I do not believe he had any major work done to the car while he owned it (judging by the receipts he gave me). My guess is any major work must have been done prior to him (if there ever was any). Also, the more i think about this it may be all in the gauge as it appears to have a 15-20% error in it. At 200lbs the true reading would be close to 40lbs off which would put me close to factory. A little carbon build up could make up the difference. Someone mentioned a wide band O2 sensor. Is this similar to pipe sniffer (probe in the end of the tail pipe) set up or is it something different? Could it be my cam timing is off by a tooth? I know this is easy to do in some engines and would cause similar issues in these motors.

I tried to check out your website but nothing came up on the home page. Still a work in progress? I would like to check it out when you get it going. On another side note, this 280zx came from DFW (northern Grand Prairie).

I am not sure if the catalytic converter is still there. My guess is that it is gone (I'll have to jack up the car and take a peek)as they had made their own y pipe to go to the exhaust. Will the lack of a catalytic converter cause any problems?

You have a good point but I also do not have a second gauge to check against. So I hooked my gauge up to my air compressor with the regulator set at 85 psi. My gauge read just under 100 psi. It does explain some of the problem but not all of it. I guess I need to find a Matco dealer and see if my gauge can be recalibrated. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks for the tip on the book. It looks like a good one! I have the FSM and the original fuel injection book and have been reviewing it. Is there anyway to truly verify if the injectors are clean and operating properly? I have never dealt with EFI and am learning as I go.

Thanks for the response. I did not do a wet test. So if the compression is not the issue, do you have any ideas for the hard starting when hot, hesitation under light acceleration? I know the AFM has been monkeyed with as the mixture screw is visible (I believe they were capped from the factory?). Does anyone know the baseline settings? Are there other likely culprits? Thanks again!

I have a 1982 280zx n/a with an automatic transmission. My end goal is to make it a nice driver and do some lapping days with it later on once I do a 5spd swap. Before I do anything major I want to get the car in good running condition and here lies my problem. The car has a lot of hesitation off of idle and will sometimes backfire through the intake. It has also become hard to start when its hot. I have done the following things to the car thus far: new spark plug wires, new spark plugs, distributor cap/rotor, fuel injection pig tails, egr, dist pig tail, air by-pass valve pig tail, st timing per FSM at 8 degrees btdc, new K&N factory style air filter, new fuel filter, replaced several rubber efi lines. When I recently did a compression test I got a range of 205-225 psi with cylinder 6 being the lowest but never lower than 205. This seems exceedingly high for what appears to be a stock engine with a P79 head. Could this be the source of my problem? Has anyone else encountered something like this? Am I an idiot and did the test wrong? When I tested it (with a good quality Matco gauge) I took the air cleaner lid off, removed all the spark plugs, and held the throttle wide open. The car does seem to run better if I set the ignition timing closer to 15 degrees BTDC which is far as I can adjust it. But, it is still not right. I have excellent spark and I believe my fuel injectors are ok (put a screwdriver against each one and they sound like they are all firing). But, the car does appear to be running rich at idle (smells rich but plugs are not exceedingly carbon fouled). Hopefully this hasn't all been covered before but I did not find anything searching the forums. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am looking to buy all the parts I need to do an automatic to manual transmission swap into a 280zx. I am looking for the transmission (including flywheel, bell housing, shifter, clutch), drive shaft, clutch pedal box, etc. Prefer to pick up. I am located in Louisiana and can travel in any of the surrounding states. The best way to get hold of me is email at 606industries@gmail.com. Thanks,

Looks good. Is thatt a reproductioon dash?

Well, time to stop lurking! I signed up yesterday to the forum and have enjoyed reading your posts. I bought a 1982 280ZX N/A with an automatic this past spring for $250 bucks! Unfortunately, my company re-org'd about three weeks after I bought it and I found out I was being relocated (but happy to still have a job and still working for a good company). So I rushed through getting the brakes to work and the car running so I could load it on a car carrier. Finally got settled in Louisiana and am now starting to work on the car. I have the front suspension apart and am installing urethane bushings all the way around, ball joints, tie rod ends, Tokico blues, and 1" lowering springs. Overall, the car is in fairly good condition. Very little rust (a little around the windshield), a couple of minor dents and hail damage. My plans are to eventually do a SBC swap with a manual transmission (if I can dig up enough info). If not, I have a free automatic at my disposal. For now I just want to get it on the road and start driving it! I plan on starting to do some auto cross and then graduate to some track days. I have had a fair amount of track time but it was all on motorcycles. List of projects on this car: finish front and rear suspension rebuild figure out low speed miss, adjust valves, and check timing new wheels and tires (need help figuring out what will fit fit with current suspension) get power windows to work rebuild power steering rack, pump, and lines strip out interior, replace carpet, install roll bar, paint interior panels black (currently very worn red), racing seats/harnesses body and paint work to include front and rear valences and possibly a spoiler My hope is to use all of your experiences to build the car with as little pain as possible so please feel free to pass along any advice you have to the newbie! (please excuse the low res cell phone pics. These were taken as I was getting ready to load the car for shipping)