roger.svoboda

hell you can buy a whole turbo car for $500 why pay big bucks for an engine with problems. an l6 is pretty bulletproof if the rings are gone then it has a WHOLE lot of miles or got run with any oil in it for a while. On the other hand if the guy who owns it is a moron it might nothing more than bad oil seals on your valves causing it to burn oil which many blame on the rings. IF the engine is able to be turned over by the starter (even on an engine stand) you can run a compression check which will tell you a whole bunch about the health of the unit.

when you say you switched plug wires I hope you swapped both the distributor end and the plug end other wise they would both spark at the wrong time. Next try might be to fire it up in the dark and check for sparky things in the wrong places. Somehow the spark is finding a way to ground that is easier than jumping the gap on the plug. Any carbon tracks or other oddities that can be seen on the dizzy cap? I had a new dizzy cap with the contact point for the plug bent in enough that the rotor was hitting it. Bent it out and all was good. You might have the opposite contact point far enough from the rotor that spark won't get there when engine running. have you tried different dizzy cap and rotor? Remember just cause you get a jolt from the wire doesn't mean that the spark is jumping the gap of the plug. High voltage does strange things.

the caliper is self adjusting. If it is stuck (and they do) you will get one not working as well as the other. I'd pull them both make sure the piston is free and easy. You can do this by screwing it in as you must when putting in new pads. Harbor Freight has a handy tool that fits the cross thingy that you can move the piston. you can do it with some needle nose but the tool is much easier way to go. I tried freeing one up on a 83zxt and finally gave up and got a reman. After you know both pistons are free and able to adjust themselves properly I would then check to be sure cabling is free and easy to move. In #31 on the diagram the big unmarked thing is the piston and the cross looking thing on the end is what they give you to turn it with. Daughter just moved down your way with boyfriend. Going to visit in a few months. You got a car club? I'm going to visit her and be nice to see what you guys do down there. email me krs@whidbey.com

no reason a new plug can't be bad out of the box. Even marginal and will spark under atmospheric pressure but won't go under compression pressure. Try new plug or do the 5,6 swap suggested.

good writeup but he fails to take into account that the body and etc take the form of many conductors in parallel which using Ohms law of parallel resistances equates to an imperceptible resistance in that circuit. But if you are having ground problems for say the rear lights then running a conductor back there is going to help immensely but with a lot of welded sections working together you don't have the problem the Brits did in the early days where things were bolted together and developed high resistance at the joints.

get rid of those crappy one size fit all connectors they are a disaster waiting to happen. especially on dark and stormy nights. It is cheap enough to buy new cables with real terminal clamps. On 280zx and z31 Nissan original cables went to the body then to the starter. I don't know why they wouldn't have done that on the Z. Even if not original I would take my negative to a convenient nearby bolt (or weld in a stud) and thence to the starter. YEs going to one of the starter bolts in the conventional way to run the ground strap. Another way tho not as good in my opinion is to buy a ground cable with a 10 ga take off and run a wire from there to one of the many convenient m6 bolts located about the engine compartment. Tired of chasing odd electrical faults - Ask Lucas prince of darkness about insufficient earthings. I take two 10 gage wires from each side of the engine compartment and then back to battery to ensure even grounding all around.

interesting I never really compared the 81 to the 83.

thats off an 83 the 81 and earlier had the same metal but the reservoir tank is differnt - two separate tanks

maybe it is due to the coriolis effect down south. seriously they face out and to the left if you are sitting behind the wheel. best pic I can take without removing the heat shield and the spare is too hard to get to but you can see the little rascal peeking out between the mc and washer tank if you squint

check the website zccw.org for activities. 280 only got one line from plenum to the waste gate. run a line from wherever you mount the boost controller to the where the plenum line is now connected (this is your inlet). Run the output line from the boost controller to the waste gate. we mounted the one on my son's z31 to the left front fender where there were some convenient mounting holes. You basically have a pressure relief valve which instead of exhausting to atmosphere exhausts to the waste gate actuator. thus your waste gate stays closed until the pressure relief valve lifts and puts pressure on it. As presently configured the waste gate gradually opens until full because there is just one line going to it from the plenum. If you can't figure it out from that drive over to my house and I'll show you. you can check out my new z31 turbo

there are two and on left hand drive they face out towards the fender. They are on centerline of the cylinder (90 degrees alignment from the brake lines)

Yes poor grounding is a common problem. as above lead size also can affect performance. (try using a 10 ga ground wire to your starter and see what happens). I would also have the battery load tested most places do it free in hopes of selling you a new battery. Once you know the battery is good and fully charged if you still have problems I'd bypass the switch and see what happens.

bought a fairly nice 86 turbo over the weekend but the driver seat is shot being as it was one of those vinyl/leather mistakes that nissan put in there. So I'm wondering anyone got ideas for a seat out of a junker that is comfy and would fit. I can change frame rails no problem there. Just trying to get some ideas in lieu of going thru every junker in the yard. Example friend of mine put vw seats in 280x. they look good and sit well and were cheap.

can't be that complicated. cut the hose to your waste gate run the pressure end to boost controller and the outlet to the waste gate. Coming to the car show at Performance in August?

napa does have the hood struts for a reasonable price but you need to grind off the rivet and retain the bracket that mounts to the hood on the stock units. napa supplies a special bolt that you then use to mount the hood bracket to the strut. Don't put em in backwards as did my son. bends the ear on the strut and then you have to bend it back.

if you are good with a soldering gun I'd open the combo switch. do a search plenty on that. look for burnt or loose connections. how do you know it is the switch? other stuff in that circuit besides the switch.

I think he meant download the Factory Service Manual (FSM). you can get it from carfiche.com and xenon.com

really not that hard to get a turbo. must be a real dog driving with low compression and high capacity injectors doing not much of anything.

don't know for a fact but looking at the t5 tranny in a zxt it is like three parts. bell housing, tranny and the back end for the shift linkage and accept the tail shaft. I would doubt that borg warner made a t5 unique to nissan for the simple fact that it makes their maufacturing more dificult. Much easier to build a tranny sell it and let the end user design the front and back end so I think that what you propose would probably work. but you know about assume.

rent a torch and braze the piece in. Has 90% the strength of a weld and you will have to grind or file off whatever you do to smooth things out. You can flow the braze wire nicely without blowing a hole in the original steel.

yes

thanks jeffp one of the most cogent explanations of why coils work I have seen on this site. Most people seem to think it is some sort of black magic. As you pointed out anyone tells you the voltage out of your coil better have a meter you can look at that specifically shows a high voltage range. they ain't too common. Also pressure in cylinder affecting spark ability is often overlooked (if known at all) by many.

they are larger capacity injectors so you may be getting too much fuel with a stock n/a ecu. The only line you would have off the fuel ring goes to the fuel pressure regulator or comes from the filter. the fpr has a vacuum line running to it. on an n/a engine there should be a line to the cold start valve (injector)

if you should do this again you might try marking with a sharpie and/or take some pics before you dissasemble you'd be surprised how helpful that is. Another thing might be to study how an engine works and learn the suck,squeeze, bang, blow cycle then you wouldn't have to ask silly questions like where is tdc.

hope you aren't paying alot for a zx that doesn't run. Since you are a self confessed not a great wrench you may have a driveway ornament for some time to come. zx fairly simple but still require some knowledge and thought to get one going. unless it is ultimately cheap I'd keep looking for one that runs unless that one is super inside and out appearance. If body interior are excellent then yes learn the mechanics. lots of knowledge on the web out there (here of course). check around see if you have a local z club usually plenty guys willing to give advice.