Captainnapalm

Nevermind. I've been a blind fool. There's a comprehensive pinout on EL-42. I should have RTFM more thoroughly.

Just like the title says. FSM doesn't really go into the pinout of the black 2-row multipin connnector that powers the VFD's and carries the data signals for the fuel, temp, and such. I've had my cluster opened, and I'm trying to reverse engineer a method of making the connection to the car a bit more reliable than the stock connector allows. Instead of reinventing the wheel though, I'm wondering if any of the more technical folks have tried any reverse engineering of the digital cluster like this.

Hello! Been a while since I've been here; Last I posted, I had an S130; Sadly, that met its end at the hands of an unlicensed driver dropping an unsecured load off of a truck. Since then, though, I've inhereted a new Z, a 1985 Z31 nonturbo. Sadly, it'd been run by a someone who saw engine maintenence as 'optional' and at 143k miles, the original timing belt took a dump and the engine ate its valves. I could rebuild it, sure, but I've always been one of the lazy types. To sum it up, I've managed to get a lead on a totalled '95 Quest that won't pass a structural inspection to be retitled as salvage, but the engine is fine. I know the Villager/Quest engine makes less power because of its less agressive cam profile, but that's secondary to me getting the Z31 rolling under its own power again. I've not seen the Quest's underside, so I'm asking here before I go trailer it: Is there any barrier to the Quest engine slotting directly into the Z31? I know I'd have to move all of the accessories, intake, exhaust, etc. to the new motor, but is there anything fundamental- oil pan dimensions, the different oil pump/filter location, different bolt pattern for the flywheel/flexplate, or bellhousing? I'd love to be able to get this thing back on the road while its original engine is rebuilt, and since having someone haul it away is cheaper than paying the environmental fees to have a scrapper take it, it's almost a free engine for me. Which is the best price for an engine. Also, apologies if this has been asked a million times before. I couldn't find anything in search about it. I suppose because it's seen as sort of a step backwards for most people.

Yeah, I know about the fact that cars '75 and newer have to be smogged in the Portland Metro Area. I haven't moved in completely blind and half cocked. I've done research on what's done; basically a CO2, Hydrocarbon and NOX test. Having seen 280ZX's living in Beaverton, I know the car can pass. But what I don't know is if a 30 year old cat would be able to pass the emissions test. Furthermore, if we list what shops to avoidwe'd never get finished. I would like to know what shops are reputable and do good work. If I recall, Braap owns a shop around the PDX metro area? I'm probably wrong though.

Hey all. I just relocated from Kentucky to Portland, Oregon. Or rather, Beaverton. But it's still in the Portland area, and as such, I'll need to do a smog check as part of my vehicle registration. My car is a 1980 ZX, a California model. So, it has none of the smog handling equipment that the Federal model had. I just rebuilt the head about a year ago, but didn't touch the block or pistons, as my local Z guy said the amount of wear he could see didn't look like it warranted such. My question is, should I have any issues with passing the DEQ smog test? One issue that bugs me is that the cat is, near as I can tell, original equipment. I don't know if I'll have to replace that or not. Additionally, are there any nice Z shops I can go to that will be able to tune the engine if I fail? I know that a few members are from the Portland area, and I want to go to a shop that won't ruin my engine out of ignorance.

Being an S130 owner, and being really into the history and concepts of the Z-cars, I have my own ideas why the S130 doesn't seem to get as much love as the S30. The S30 was a sports car, in the same vein as the MGB-GT, Opel GT, Austin Healey, and other small European sports cars. It was fast, cornered well, and was naturally a good car to go racing with, simply because of its setup. But tastes changed, and while you could argue for days whether the Z-car was developed for the North American market, there is no denying that the North American market is huge when it comes to cars, and to be successful there also means you're probably going to make a profit. And so the S130 was developed to cater more to the North American tastes. In evolving the Z to fit in the same market as the Camaro, Mustang, and Firebird, some changes were made. A different suspension setup, more electronic gizmos, more luxury, plush interior. It retained the same formula, but gave up some of its sports car abilities to become a little more luxurious. To be short, the S130 isn't a sports car. Yes, its very close to being a sports car, but it really falls into the Touriing car classification; It's a comfortable car which can take its occupants over long distances at high speeds. That is almost the very definition of a touring car. That's not to say the S130 isn't a good track car. Far from it: one must simply look at the success Paul newman had in it. And to the detractors of its rear suspension, well, BMW never seemed to have a problem racing on semi trailing arm suspension. In closing, there is a lot of love for the S130. A whole lot of it. It just doesn't seem that way from the S30 crowd, because the S30 crowd is into sports cars. And the S130 simply isn't a sports car. Instead, it is in the same vein as the BMW 2002, BMW 3.0 and the Corvette.

I had this exact problem. Mine is a 1980 NA, but I had the no spark issue. First thing first: Take the dizzy out. Make sure it's connected to the coil. Now run it with a power drill until it sparks. If it doesn't spark until over 1000 RPM or so, it's probably a borked pickup coil or reluctor or other such part. Check the pickup coil, and check the reluctor airgap. If poth of these are fine, then it could be the ignition module, so you'll need to test that. If it's none of these, I dunno what to say. I spent 4 weeks making myself crazy with no spark until I found the airgap specs. I would get a spark if I cranked with no plugs in the cylinders, but no spark if the engine had compression. Thats what led me to run my battery of tests on the dizzy.

Thanks a bunch. The junkyard owner is pretty neurotic, and wouldn't let me nar it with a tapemeasure, unless I was "absolutely" going to buy it. Guess he was afraid I'd steal the little fiddly bits inside the car.

Hey everyone. I tried searching for the cure for my ills, and couldn't find it. So here I ask: Does anyone know if interior door panels from a Z31 model 300ZX will fit on the doors of the 280ZX? I'm wanting to install speakers in the doors of my S130, but I don't want to chop up the existing door panels unless I have to. And there is a total lack of S130's in the local junkyards. However, there is a 300ZX 2+2 that looks to be a very early Z31- 4 lug wheels and all. And since the Z31 was essentially an evolution of the S130, body wise, I hold out hope that the door panels might interchange with minimal cutting and/or fabrication on my part.

The bulk of my problem has been the lack of 280ZX's. None of the junkyards around here have them; Mine was the first 280ZX I'd seen since I was a child. But, I found a known good distributor from a 280ZX; a guy owned a 260Z with a 280ZX dizzy and was going to EDIS so he let me have the dizzy. Turns out my problem was the air gap. I haven't tried it yet, but I anticipate that this dizzy will fix my problems.

No new distributor yet. Autozone takes forever to get things in. Just out of curiosity, and because I can't find my Hollander book, and I can't find anything conclusive in Search, what distributors will fit a 280zx? Both from Nissan and other makes? After having his bad luck with the stock dizzy, I might go with another make.

well, an update. I get fire if I pull all the spark plugs; the engine cranks at around 4k RPM at that point. running the distributor with a drill, with a snapon multi-tester, I find that the RPM needed to induce spark is almost 1000 engine RPM. now I don't know how fast a Z car has to crank to start; I'm used to American cars which can crank fairly slowly to start. But I have narrowed this problem to the new distributor; It seems faulty. My spark is erratic, and the noid is erratic. I update this because I had never encountered this problem. Nor has anyone else except for one person on the IETN. And he's worked for almost a year on his 78 280Z with no luck. So the infos will be here if or when someone here has the same problem out of the L28.

Well, I have spark now. buuut... When the distributor is turned just slightly out of time, I get a good, healthy spark. But when I put the distributor in its original position, I get nothing. Also, about carbon trails; This is a BRAND NEW distributor, pickup coil and IC ignition module. All items test just fine using the FSM testing procedures. It's also a stock coil, but tests just fine. has anyone else had a problem like this? It's extremely perplexing. Not even my local Z guru, a man named Garland (don't know his last name) has seen this behaviour from a Z before. Everything seems to check out electrically, but it's just not working.

Yeah, the dizzy is spinning. And the dizzy has no reason to not work with the car; it was ordered for a car of that production date. I do know that parts changed after september of '80 so I got the parts for the '79 and early '80 model. Opening it up both were identical, except that the magnet in the old one is cracked, the the new one is intact. the only variable between the distributor working and not working is being bolted into the car.

I'm in need of help; this problem seems to defy logic. I'm putting a new dizzy on my 1980 S130, manufacture date Aug/79. I have no spark. But the behaviour is puzzling. With the dizzy out of the car, and connected to the factory wiring harness, turning it by hand causes the coil to fire. The same happens when using jumper leads to power the dizzy and coil, effectively isolating it from the rest of the car. Turning the dizzy makes the coil spark. Now, the puzzling part is, when the dizzy is installed in the car, no spark. Both with factory harness and when it is isolated. The only solution I can think of is that the IC control module need to not be grounded; of course the dizzy is grounded since it is bolted to the block and shares the block's common ground. I came to this conclusion after being shocked through the dizzy casing. My only guess is that my ground strap wasn't on good enough and -I- provided the path of least resistance. Now I'm asking to draw on the knowledge of the community; has anyone else ever encountered this downright weird behavior, and does anyone have a fix for it? The dizzy and IC control module are new remanufactured units. I know manufacturing errors occur... but neither I, or an ASE mechanic of 32 years have ever seen this sort of behaviour from a distributor before.

Vapor lock is the phenomenon of fuel evaporating in the line due to heat, and causing a pocket of gas within the fuel system that impedes pumping. Vapor lock used to be very common on cars with fuel pumps under the hood; ask your parents, or anyone that was driving in the 60's and 70's what Vapor lock is; they likely encountered it very often in the summer.

Well, it's down again, this time stuck in the parking lot at work. The ignition went out. I got a new module and pick up coil, as the module tested bad, but the magnet under the stator is broken into a dozen or so pieces, and the car run like its timing is retarded to the maximum. SO, yeah. Not running anymore.

Not at all. I just think the S130 2+2 looks better than the S130 coupe.

Since a couple of other people posted ZX's... Since with the ZX the 2+2 was made as a seperate model instead of a stretched coupe, the 280zx 2+2 manages to look really good in my opinion.

The headlight switches will vary depending on what options the car has. If yours has cruise control, you'll need one from the same model year with cruise control. Also, the dim lights sounds like a bad ground or old bulbs. The lights on my S130 are just as bright as any modern car's. Headlights dim with age, so if they're very old, replace them. Otherwise, check the wiring. mine were super dim and had a bad ground.

I plan on polishing them, or doing a paint and polish, since I've seen the iron cross wheels with paint in strategic areas and they look really good. I'm also not too sure about the paint job. It's got a couple of little rust bubbles and a few scratches, and it'd be really hard to match those paint colors. I've been thinking of a two-tone paint job, with the body one color, and the hood another. But paint is a finishing touch. I still have some body work and interior work to do on her. Ignition switch crapped out on me, lol. It had been going, but it finally just went. Managed to hotwire it (wow, Z's ARE easy to hotwire!) to get home, and I'm laying out a pushbutton start. I'll get pics of that tomorrow. I plan to use the key as the ignition switch does operate to turn power on and off. And because a pure pushbutton would be easier to steal than a stock Z.

So I was able to get oput after work today with my camera, and take a few pictures of my Zee. I took her to a local sports park to photograph. She needs a bath badly, but I need to reseal the windshield before I can do that. Anyways...

Hello hello. I've been a reader of the forums here, and I posted like, 3 times. But now I have an actual car to speak of. In September of '07 I purchased a 1980 280ZX 2+2 for 2,950 from a rather shady used car dealership. I admit, I was probably drawn by its paint colors at first, (blue with orange flames) but after looking the car over, I decided that I had to have it. It's my first Z-car. Shortly after, around December, problems started to manifest. BIG problems. The dealership was shadier than I thought. It turns out the car's owner was the lot owner's father, and it was a very sick S130. So it was placed on this lot and there it sat for two years. And so I parked the car in January, with a blown head gasket, and started to tear into it. I pulled the engine completely apart, and learned a LOT about how the Japanese do things, and a lot about the L28. And was very pleased to see how little wear the engine seemed to have after 179,000 miles. In total, I have replaced the fuse panel; it had originally been completely routed out of the wiring by the previous owner, replaced every gasket in the engine, completely de-sludged the engine, sprung for a new radiator since the old one had several holes, and had been patched with stop-leak.. As I got into the electrical, I discovered that the center gauge cluster had caught fire; the previous owner had applied patch upon patch in the poor abused electrical system, and nearly burned the car to the ground. And to my surprise while working on it, I found I was the owner of a California car. Which is good; it has very little rust, which I felt was odd for such an abused car. I plan to update this thread with pictures for the curious. I didn't get to document the build, since I didn't have a camera, but it'll be a work in progress, as far as "refreshing" the car, as I have no interest in a restoration; she's my daily driver.

The fan is the injector cooler, designed for the 280z, 280ZX application of the Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection system. The designers, it seems, were worried of the injectors vapor locking due to the intake being on top of the exhaust manifold. It comes on after the car is shut off to keep the injectors cool while the main fan is off, and the iron exhaust dumps heat into the aluminum intake. Ford engines had much the same setup, except theirs connected the blower motor to a copper pipe, with a nozzle spraying air directly on each injector. On my own 280zx, I've built this setup, as it seems to operate a little better than just pushing air in the general direction of the injectors.

Hey there. I've used search, combed google, and done everything I can to figure this one out, and I just can't. My car is an '80 model ZX NA, pretty much stock, with the only aftermarket parts being new injectors, which were ordered to replace the stock injectors. So my problem is this. When I step on the throttle, it hesitates, then revs. This started when I got in it and checked the vacuum lines, and found someone had plumbed the lines between the vapor canister, BCDD, and the dizzy vaccum advance wrong. I tried re-plumbing them according to the factory manual, and when I did, the hesitation started. I have read that the BCDD isn't vital, and that it's part of emissions control. And that if there's no inspection, it's not needed. However, I have an ASE mechanic with 30 years experience and a lot of time on Datsun-era Nissans tell me that without it, my injectors will clog somehow. So I ask this. Is there a vacuum diagram that makes more sense than the factory manual one? Or can someone explain to me in plain terms how to plumb this group? I'm certain the problem arose from me trying to plumb this correctly. I'm I'm wrong, correct me. This is my first question, so I'll try not to sound too clueless. This is my first Z-car, and the first time I've run into equipment like this.