gearmiester

Alright, been a while since I have been here so I took some time to review the last 25 pages of posts for an idea before posting. I have a 78 280Z with the L28. the only mods that have been done are removing the sock air intake for a Cold Air intake with open air filter. Replaced the exhaust from the manifold back, no cat, high flow muffler. Issue: every so often the car just dies wile driving down the road. when it does this i smell fuel as if the car was flooded. It will not start again without sitting for about 10 - 15 min. Issue: when issue 1 is not bothering me then then this one pops up. It does not matter how much I drive the car, once it is warmed up and shut off it has a problem starting up again. ie the engine runs very rough, idle wont kick up, but if i rev the engine up intermittently for a few minutes it will smooth out and be fine. Issue: sometimes issue two repeats itself from a cold start. with all issues there is always that strong fuel smell. I have read the service manual and the only thing I can think of would be a bad EGR valve. I have a new one but have not replaced it yet. (this weekend) but I wanted to share if there are some other things I should be checking as well. Thanks for the help. BTW these issues have been with me since I purchased the car and before I did the few mods listed above.

Alright, while I am really new to the Z-car family I have been a mechanic most of my life. So while I may have a competent knowledge of the ins and outs of engines, I find that I am still human and sometimes my brain checks out while trying to perform simple tasks. Case in point: I recently discovered that I had a fuel leak in one of the small injector feed lines (number 6 to be exact) so I figured that it wouldn't be too hard to change it out. So I did a quick review in the FSM and looked at what I had to deal with to remove the fuel rail. During the process I found that there was only one mount bolt missing (pretty good for a 78 280Z) So tip one: when removing the big bracket mount bolt in the center of the fuel rail (mounted to the head under the valve cover)don't try to figure out how many pieces of a socket assembly you need in order to bend your way around the fuel rail cause more than likely you will find it doesn't want to bend right or stay on the head of the bolt (besides the fact that the bolt s like 1-1/4' long and works really well at trapping the socket. solution: take 5 minutes to loosen the bolt with a wrench then walk your happy ass around to the passenger side of the car where you find your hand fits nicely between the valve cover and the fuel rail and take the damn bolt out with your fingers. DOH! Time wasted before brain kicked in -- 40 min and a busted knuckle tip two: Murphy's Law - when you replace only one injector line and get everything back together two more will start leaking. Sure you could try to replace the other two 'cause now it only takes 5 minutes to remove the fuel rail (see tip one) but when you finally realize that every damn hose on the engine needs to be replaced due to age and dry rot it's so much easier to just replace all of the fuel injector lines at once. Time wasted before brain kicked in -- 4 hours over two days for what should be only about an hour job This thread is dedicated to all of us who have learned everything the hard way when it comes to working on our favorite Z-cars. Feel free to post your favorite idiocy instances to help the yung'uns not have too. (Or don't and just laugh at their stories)

So to ensure acurracy do i need to replace both the speedo gear and gauge? Or with new gear mesh on the gear will I not need to replace the gauge? The RPM gauge seems pretty accurate though as it does not bounce or lag at all. thanks for all the input. I am currently replacing the back tires to 205-55R16's I'll keep the 205 50's on the front. We'll see if there is a noticeable improvement in speed accuracy.

Thanks for that info. While I have been researching I found that out as well though I had the incorrect stock tire size. Seems though that if change the sidewall by mere 5mm to 55 it will be pretty much dead nut for stock. But that only means that I'll have to either check my speedo or the speedo counter. I'll look again at the rear end and positively id the diff.

Alright I am a newbie to this forum and to the Z car world. I have recently purchased a 1978 280Z (always wanted one) and have a question about speed. At present I have yet to confirm that everything in the drivetrain is still stock but from all the research done in this forum and other tech pages I believe that right now this is what I am running. LS28 engine with fact headers, Cold Air intake, 2-1/2" exhaust straight to mangaflow (no cat) 4 speed trans with following ratios 1st 3.321 2nd 2.077 3rd 1.308 4th 1.00 3.54 diff 205/50r16 all around now according to two different RPM to MPH online calculators I should only be seeing 80mph in 4th at 4000 rpm. However the speedo says 90. She cruises very nice here no vibration, no squirlieness. And from 70mph @3100 rpm to 90pmh it feels only like a heartbeat away. I have only had her to 100mph at 4800rpm (sorry bubblegummers) and she still handles like a dream during lane changes. So the question is can I really be 10mph off on the speedo and I am really going slower? here is the beast Uploaded with ImageShack.us