Heroez

Sorry to hear about your car trouble, it reminds me of mine. Do you get a five second fuel prime before you crank the car? What is the temperature of the car just as you park it? Once the water pump stops and you park, and no air flow, the temp climbs before it eventually cools down. Does your aux fan come on after 3 minutes of being turned off after driving? These questions plus your fuel pressure dropping could be heat soak. Heating vapor in the rail causes more problems than heating a pressurized rail with fuel in it. No fuel prime would not cycle heated fuel or vapor out. Aux fan coming on would indicate a cooling problem that compounds existing problems such as described. Unfortunately I have yet to discover why one day my fuel prime stopped working on my 1980. Try to fill in the answers to these questions to verify or rule out heat soak.

I don't think it's in the ecu swap. I like several other people have a similar problem, even with the stock ECU. My latest test was to swap in a known good ECU. No change. If you want to read my painful struggle, check out the thread on zcar.com called "Never Ending Problem." As for the CHTS, if you unplug that on a warm engine, you should notice a change to running crappy right away. If you would please, read my thread and look for similarities or differences. My latest thoughts on this problem that some of us have is in the harness. Let me know what you think.

I took a look at the turbines. someone screwed the center caps into the wheel, so it will have those holes in them. Zoom in you may see. One has a nick on the edge. I will go back this weekend and take pictures of all 4, and let you see them.

Here is a cleaned up wheel that is unidentified. No markings can be found.

Anyone that I can contact about finding the identity of the unknown wheel?

$15 each wheel. Each style has 4 wheels. The bottom picture has 4 center caps. Maybe a scratch or two but no curb damage. Any demand for them? I don't mind saving them, but don't want to store them forever. I think the bottom one is 14x7 not sure on the top photo wheels.

The only wheel data I can find is at zparts.com and it wasn't a big help. Here are 2 pictures of wheels at a local parts yard that will be soon recycled. Are they junk or worth saving? Both styles have all four wheels, no curb rash but very dirty. No idea what these are. Kinda neat though. The second picture may be Western Cyclones or ARE hurricane? How do you tell? Is one better than the other? Why do some people call these 'turbines'? A nickname?

I did a poll here and other sites. All 280zx models 79-83 do have a 5 second fuel prime.

Good suggestions, thanks for taking it seriously. Its a 1980 deluxe, the base model. I see on page 6 a diagram that shows a relation between the relay 1 and air regulator. I was starting to think that a bad air regulator was responsible for the fuel prime not working. I did test all three fuel pump relays as directed by the manual, continuity and power switching. They all passed. So it's outside the relays. As for what's going on when the prime should happen, its a very brief low voltage on my meter. The relay 1 test directs you to testing the air regulator, so I may as well do it. Pin 21 checks ok. I will report my findings, so keep an eye out. If everything checks ok, it says check harness, like you mentioned. Thanks for all the replies on this topic from everyone. Keep them coming. I'm very surprised that this circuit is so unknown.

It greatly effects heat soak if you have a bad check valve on the fuel pump and the engine is heating gas vapor in the fuel rail, and its not cycled out by a fuel prime. A separate problem I know. I just want to fix a problem with the car. Im not positive but the prime stopped after my voltage regulator went bad and overcharged on the interstate. Melted my tail light bulb sockets too. Anyone out there have a suggestion on what may control the fuel prime on a 1980 280zx?

Ive done the tests in the FSM, which consisted of testing the 3 relays, and checking pin 21 at the ECU. They passed testing, and no other mention of the 5 second fuel prime can be found in any part of the manual. That is why I made a topic on it. In case anyone can fill in where the FSM falls short. So what do I look at next? The fuel pump wiring traces to a bulb checking relay, and fusible link. I swapped out the fusible link with no change.

I only did one of the resistance tests. cgsheen and hogman did the other two and the results were within 1 digit. It is true that my inexperience and autorange meter tricked me. If you say the manuals tests are accurate, then I must reconsider my views given your experience and credentials. I am just a confused hobbiest pushed to the brink of madness by a car problem I dont understand. Readers, please disregard my earlier remarks. I was letting my emotions dictate my words, and allowing my ignorance in these matters to come out. Im sorry for that. Your car troubles hit a little too close to home. It sucks to be helpless, and sucks that nobody near me can fix my car, and all I can do is watch it rot away. Maybe its time for me to let go of the turbo dream.

Thanks for clearing that up. The clear glass filter is mounted semi horizontal just before the mechanical fuel pump. I see that a more propper position would be vertical like the stock fuel filter under the hood. I will study it when I replace the filter element. Learning is fun.

There is no limp mode, but it does have fail safe mode. After 30 years the wiring is a total loss especially the wires near heat from the engine. How far will Grandma Z run if we keep picking her up? Would you be patching up the EFI if it was from the 50s? Maybe Megasquirt is the propper fix.

Just to add to the confusion, all good working 280zxt AFMs test bad according to the manual. I figured that out the hard way. Eventually we tested 3 known good turbo air flow meters and they all failed the resistance tests. So the manual isn't flawless. As for your other problem, its temperature related so look at temperature relevant parts. If your spark is weak, you may need that IC module on the coil bracket. All this is advice from a guy that has a similar problem, gave up, took it to some ASE certified mechanics, and they can't seem to make progress either. I can only conclude that the problem is the ECCS in general.

Hi, I installed one of those clear fuel filters before the mechanical pump on my 260z. When the engine is running, little bubbles of air can be seen forming in the glass filter, and there is always a large air pocket in there. The car runs and drives fine during normal driving. Are those air bubbles normal? If not, what does that indicate? I have not noticed any fuel leaks under the car or around the engine.

Hello again Z people. My 1980 280zx no longer does the 5 second fuel prime. I wanted to fix it correctly instead of a band aid fix. So no toggle switch! What I have done is test all 3 fuel pump relays according to the manual, and they are working as they should. I tested the voltage at the fuel pump connector under the hatch carpet. The results are at key on when the 5 second should happen, I get 4.2 volts for a half second. Repeating the test, the voltage varies from 2-7 volts, always for a fraction of a second. I admit that electrical is a weak area for me. I looked at the wiring diagram and don't see a timer unit or some other components that would be suspect. In later models like 82-83 the 5 second prime is controlled by the ECU. Since mine is a 1980, it works differently somehow. I'm stuck. If anyone can help or has an idea, please post a reply. I have no idea what to look at next. Its almost as if something is clipping the voltage. What do you think?

OK, thanks. I'm going to make a topic on it now. Thanks for the replies. You guys are great, and I hope to see you in my fuel prime thread.

Do the tune up parts first. These cars are known to be problematic since the 80s. 3 ASE mechanics have had my 83 turbo for a month trying to figure out why its backfiring and stumbles at 2-3k RPM.

Im trying to figure out why I no longer get a fuel prime on my 1980 ZX. I wanted to see if anyone else had that problem. Im trying very hard to fix it but making no progress at all. I guess I will try making a new topic for it in this forum. Im going to need your help so please give it a read and let me know what you think. Thanks guys.

Anyone?

I have removed the S30 260/280 type lens from the housing before, and I have a spare set of grade b early s130 tail lights. Tomorrow I will see if I can find a removal trick or process.

Great, keep them coming! Lets see some 79 and 80 cars too.

I would be willing to donate some tail/turn lenses but every one I look at has spiderweb cracks.

keep up the good work. Im interested in them.