burninator

Hard to tell from the picture, but my car has a condenser hooked up to the coil. It looks like you have the condenser hooked up on your coil negative side. Mine is hooked up on the positive side. My understanding is that not much goes through condensers so it would probly run either way, but I think having it on the positive side is correct.

I searched for a solution, but haven't been able to find anything. I used an alternator from a '77 to replace the broken one in my '72. Now my car won't stop running when the ignition is switched off. I had to unplug the t-plug from the alternator. I'd be really appreciative if somebody could point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance.

I installed a different alternator and I'm getting plenty of voltage off of that now. Problem still exists. I verified that it does do it in neutral and won't rev past about 5000 rpm. Checked all the spark plugs and only one was slightly sooty.

No one yet? It's been less than a day so I'm probly not being patient enough. I didn't get a chance to do much to it last night, but if I need to order a part (sometimes takes a couple days for our NAPA to get parts from the warehouse) I would like to get a chance to find it before the next event this weekend. I was also wondering if an ignition coil going bad might cause a problem like this. I know I need to replace my alternator, but my battery was fully charged when this problem started. If I'm right, a fully charged battery will be at 12 - 12.5 Volts and the alternator running should up that to about 14.5 Volts. I don't know if having a slightly low voltage from a weak alternator could cause my problem. Just trying to provide as much info as possible hoping to get some advice from someone smarter than me. Thanks in advance.

I took the Z to it's first autocross yesterday (first real chance to drive it anywhere at all) and it seems to be missing and popping at high RPM (hard to say how high, I don't get much chance to look down at the tach). There is actually a video of it up on YouTube and you should be able to hear it: I know my performance wasn't great on that run, but I'm having some issues with the suspension that I'm working on (its very tail happy, but that's an issue for another thread). In case your wondering I have a 6 into 1 header and an MSA aluminized exhaust. The power goes all to crap, and there is some black smoke. The black smoke indicates that it's rich, but I'm assuming the it's rich because it's missing. It doesn't seem to do this in neutral just by revving it up. I have an L24 with stock everything, but the plugs, wires, contact breaker, cap, and rotor are new. When I changed out the contact I adjusted the gap, so I'm sure that's correct. I believe there is also a dwell adjustment and I should be able to get a gauge to measure that and see if it's in spec. Could that cause this issue? I'm going to pull the spark plugs tonight and have a look at them. Any suggestions?

I've heard of old school drag racers doing this. I've never tried it myself but I'm very interested in it. The theory is you can make more power by creating some vacuum in the crank case. It will reduce windage and parasitic drag on the crank. And you'll also get some benefit from not getting oily dirty air sucked into your engine. I can offer the following advice from what I've read: I don't think the angle of the cut is super important but I'd do about a 30 degree cut. 6" from your O2 sensor is probly good, if the fumes from the crank case get to the sensor it may ruin the sensor and will likely give you incorrect readings. Do you have a cat? The exhaust needs to flow pretty fast to create any kind of a venturi effect. The catch can would be good if you want to keep the oil from burning once it hits your exhaust but I don't think you'd want a breather on it or you won't get any vacuum. Whether or not you should let air into the valve cover is a little more tricky, you may need a way to control the flow of air into the crank case so it would be good if you could hook up a breather with some kind of a valve that would let you adjust it. Ideally you should shoot for about 13 inHg of vacuum. You should get a vacuum gauge so you know if your pulling vacuum and how much. I was a little hesitant to post anything because I haven't tried it myself, so keep researching. It has been done before, but I dunno if it's worth the trouble or not. Good luck if you decide to try it. Post back and let us know if it works well or not.

I meant to say through the valve stem seals, which I'm pretty sure can happen. Though maybe that wasn't obvious the way I phrased it.

You should probably do a leak down test to see if you loosing pressure through your valves. It seems like that's the only way positive pressure could get into your valve cover. Someone will probably chime in to let me know how wrong I am, but the PCV valve should just vent the crank case. On my car I don't think there is any way for air to get into the valve cover from the crank case.

Exactly.

I work for a company that makes dynos, so let me chime in my 2 cents. I'm not a spokesman for the company so I'm not even going to say which company I work for. Comparing dyno numbers to any car other than your own is pointless. The only purpose a dyno has is for tuning and comparing your car before and after a modification on the same dyno. As others have said, trying to compare bhp to the horsepower your car makes is impractical in any situation. I know of many ways a dyno operator can affect the results (intentionally or not). So pick a dyno operator/owner you can trust. I'm just saying there are many things that affect the numbers you get. Especially on load cell based dynos, inertia type dynos are better from a repeatability standpoint. My point is that you shouldn't worry so much what some guy on MySpace thinks of your power numbers and you shouldn't try to fudge the numbers by some % that you heard about. Just tell people that you make 180 whp or wheel horse power and explain to them that manufacturers rate their engines at the crank. I think up until pretty recently manufacturers were getting in trouble for rating their cars as more powerful than they really were. Its better to try and educate them about how dynos work than to try and fudge your numbers.

Thanks for everyone's replies. Hopefully I'll get it done soon. Taking a little off at a time with a cutoff wheel. I just spent all weekend painting and sanding and painting and sanding. I still have more to do, but I'll try to post pics when I get it done.

If I remember right that would mean the gauge is good but the sending unit is bad. I was told if you just ground out the wire from the gauge it should peg all the way hot. So this indicates you gauge is good. I'd get a new sender from the parts store. I had to buy a new one and they're cheap.

The suspension in the car is stock right now and the shocks seem to be in great shape. Its riding just about stock height right now, maybe even a hair higher because of the weight removal (though it's probly not as significant as I like to think). The tires are Nitto NT01 205/55ZR14 on 6.5" wide rims.

I don't know if it's really looked down on but new springs didn't fit into the budget this year. I have a '72 240Z that I am only using for autocross. I've stripped out basically everything from the car that's not needed for racing. I want to lower it a bit and give it a stiffer ride. New springs will be coming, but maybee not till over next winter along with new struts/inserts. How much can/should I cut off the stock springs?

Got it running right. The carbs just needed adjustment. For some reason the mixture was good before I fixed the timing, but wouldn't run without. Had to turn each adjuster an additional turn out.

Thanks for the tip, but I already had both adjustments maxed out. I did check the balancer and it seemed to be dead on TDC. I reset the pump shaft and now it's in worse shape than before. The spindle looked like it is in the right place according to the Haynes manual I have. At about 11:25 or 5 degrees clockwise from the bolt holes. I put the distributor back on and the plugs had to be shifted further than I though they would. Now it will hardly run at all. While it was chugging along for a few seconds before dieing I checked timing and the timing looks right. I don't know what to do now. Guess I'll mess with it some more when I get home from work today.

Let me start by saying that I only bought the car a year ago and I'm still trying to get it to run right. I don't know what was done before I bought it, but it didn't run when I got it. It runs now, but poorly. It's a '72 240 with the L24 still in it. I am trying to get my ignition timing dialed in but running into some trouble. At full advance (distributor dialed in fully clockwise) I'm only at the first mark on the crankshaft pully (0 degrees). I also tried shifting all my plugs over 1, but then even at full retard it's way too far advanced. Am I missing something? I've done some searching and the only thing I can come up with is that I may need to pull the oil pump and adjust a gear that drives the distributer there. Thanks in advance.

I realized my last post was kinda hard to read. Here's a second shot at posting the same thing. So is there a difference in the block between the L28 with the N42 and N47? I think I have an E88 head in my '72 right? I get the impression that it flows better than the N42. I've been reading this thread http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=129066 but I don't see the information I'm looking for. Do you know where can I find more info on the swap? Anything else I should be aware of if attempting this. Does the L82 block have the place to put my mechanical fuel pump and everything? I really did look. Mostly when I search I see a lot of "That has already been answered. Use the search". I appreciate any help you can give me. Or just point me in the right direction so I can find what I need in other posts.

So is there a difference in the block between the L28 with the N42 and N47? I've been reading this thread http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=129066 but I don't see the information I'm looking for. Do you know where can I find more info on the swap? I think I have an E88 head in my '72 right? I get the impression that it flows better than the N42. Anything else I should be aware of if attempting this. Does the L82 block have the place to put my mechanical fuel pump and everything? I really did look. Mostly when I search I see a lot of "That has already been answered. Use the search". I appreciate any help you can give me. Or just point me in the right direction so I can find what I need in other posts.

I don't mean to steal the thread, but I have a similar question and I've been searching and haven't found the answer. I have a '72 240Z and a friend will sell me his spare l28. I don't know if I want to get involved swapping to fuel injection and I have a 240Z exhaust manifold that won't bolt onto the L28 head (if I'm correct on that). Is it possible/worth it to just swap the block from the l28 to my l24 just for the added displacement? Or is it going to be more work than it's worth?

Thanks.

I have a 240z that I'm trying to fix up for autocross. The body's not in perfect shape, but I have almost all the peices I need except the lower front valance. Since it will only be used for autocross, I'm going to run it without bumpers. As per the title, my question is: Will the aftermarket airdamns (such as the type 1 from MSA) attach without the stock front valance?

Forgive me if this is obvious I'm new to the forum but have been reading it for a few months without posting, but there are adjustments on the slave cylinder. I forget what I did exactly, but when I bled my clutch a few weeks ago I had no feeling until I made that adjustment and re-bled. Keeping in mind, my car hadn't been running/driving for something like 10 years.