Oddmanout84

I hear ya. Thing is, the motors are so rare around here (alone) that just about the only way you can find one is in a car (which can also be a challenge). I have a guy looking for me around here now, but if he can't get just the motor (he thinks he knows a guy who'd sell me one), our only other option is buying a whole car that some dude wrecked. So in essence I'm not paying $1500 for the motor, but for a whole car worth of junk. But if the engine is the only thing I'm using, well...... I don't like the situation either. On the car not starting, I used to think it was the cold start, but I did test it several weeks ago and a spray of fuel came out. I've since cleaned all the connectors like a madman. After that though, I troubleshooted the ignition (which I had thought was good) and found a corroded distributor. No spark. I'm waiting on it now, once its here I'm thinking she may start

by the way, is that paint flexible? I'm wondering how it would hold on a polyurethane air dam....

That... is a thing of beauty. Excellent job, I'll be doing the same with my zed, just not anywhere near the same color. I just have to finish the rest of my little restoration first so..... give it a year or so. Good to see your DIY paint job came out looking awesome.

part number is SB130, if you wan to avoid them

More random updates... As if by some strange magic, the TPS tested good on the multimeter last night when I checked it at random... oook.... This weekend I was also able to remove both rear transverse links, which went much faster than it would have had I not had help this time. Took the shocks apart to do a trial fit of the tokico blues and BLECH! Those struts were just floating in there surrounded by what smelled of fish oil. Neither even retained the semblance of a shock, and I think I figured out why my car was bottoming out over small bumps... Stock bump stop. Consistancy: damp oatmeal. Or moist cake, whichever you prefer. The other side was almost non-existent. But oh boy! was I in for a lovely suprise when I test fit my dust boots! These are KYB dust boots. I was confused when I got them, as they were made of PLASTIC, and I was expecting the integrated bump stop, which was also a seperate piece. That wasn't the problem. The problem is this big honkin' gap at the bottom! Hardly seems like a good product. I guess it's not fastened at the bottom? Nothing was supplied, nor was it mentioned in the instructions. Screw that. I'm going to find some pieces of rubber to bridge the gap and clamp it with a CV boot strap. Then I'll seal it with general purpose grease. As I ordered these from KYB themselves (through sparkplugs.com, which I was directed to in the order process), I did indeed get the right boots, apparently. The part numbers match up. I guess I "shouldn't expect much" for $12 a pop, but at least give me something made of rubber that properly seals the gap! Hopefully NAPA has a hydraulic press, cause I'd like to get these old pins out of my transverse links when I pick up my distributor.

Living in a home where you're not paying the bills (i.e. shacking up with the parentals until you finish your project).

Very true. Which is why I'm trying to be semi-cautious when it comes to buying replacements. I've heard a lot of good things about megasquirt, but I'd hate to have to learn a whole new system of tuning at this stage while I'm struggling with the stock sys. But eventually, yes, I'd love to have one. Something just seems so appealing about getting rid of the distributor for the whole EDIS/ coil pack setup.

I actually got this car not too far from where you are, in Escondito almost 5 years ago

Its been a while since I updated, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. My latest adventures include the findings of more wonderful suprises which may or may not be pointing me in a clearer direction toward fixing my problems. Lets start with the TPS. This little guy was giving me bad checks according to my multimeter, so after trying to clean the contacts and rechecking with poor results I removed it. And this is what suprised me... Its clean! Look at all the contacts in this picture and the next one. Both are practically immaculate and didn't even need me to break out the dremel to shine them. I still scraped off the surrounding rust for good measure, but I can't understand for the life of me why the component would be giving a bad reading. Even the function is smooth. I can't believe this is a $70 item, either. What a joke. After checking all this I was pretty much done with the EFI system. Besides the TPS and thermotime, there really isn't much I can see wrong with it. Chalk it up to another case of snap diagnosis. Luckily I didn't go crazy with buying parts for the system (which I was previously convinced that it was functioning well), as new problems started popping up as I inspected. Working my way back from the spark plugs (finally tested for spark this time. Negative) I found myself at the distributor. These images hardly show the full extent of the corrosion. I removed it and attempted to repair it, but it was too far along. I couldn't even remove the vaccum valve as the screw was entirely consumed by rust. spraying the inside with electrical cleaner and then shaking produced chunks of matter that fell out like coarse sand. I took the unit to NAPA and I'm awaiting a refurbished replacement. Working my way back I came to the coil and found I wasn't even getting a hot spark out of the HT wire. Testing the resistance of my coil found that it was just barely below tolerance. So I ordered a new coil (I wanted to get a performance model anyway), and at this point I decided that I was done with testing the system backwards. Testing my fuse block showed that while most of the fuses were good, the connectors were not. I'll be cleaning them shortly. But first, I decided to do things the right way, if I'm to be following electrical wires. I completely removed the dash and started on the heater. Finally, I've found the location of the primary mouse hive, in the front portion of my heater core. I named him Happy. I didn't mention this before, but when I first uncovered th car last month and got ready to start it, I found a baby mouse deposited on my driver side floorpan. Thinking this was strange, I went back to work and looked in the window to find that somehow the mouse had replicated itself, as there were now two baby mice. I picked them up and... delt with them. On returning I found a third in the same spot. His fate was the same. And by fate I mean I took them all to the vet so they could be dewormed and cared for. For the next several weeks I nursed them back to health with a syringe filled with milk and they all found a nice new home. Yup, that's what I did.... Honest... It looks like Happy didn't make it. A few weeks of abandonment with no nourishment seems to have given him a bad case of dry skin. After saying a few words in respect he was balled up in the lint bedding his mother so carefully made for him and ceremoniously tossed across the garage into trash can cemetery. 5 points! Hopefully that little bastard was the last one I'll find... So in regards to making the electrical system better, so far I've gone over all the schematics and found every single ground and cleaned them. Maybe that'll silve something. All the wiring I uncovered was wonderfully intact (at least if outside appearances hold up). I don't know how wiring itself fares in a car, but I do know that I worked on helicopters that have some of the same wiring they've had since vietnam, and I still works. So until I exhaust all other possibilities, I'll stick to checking connectors and weak points before I start replacing the miles of wiring within. Until next update, I leave you with an image of the only thing nice looking in my car at the moment... what can I say, I was bored... When I get around to it, that will be the paint scheme for the rest of the car.

That's because you're bridging those two circuits together... And I wouldn't really recommend that. If someone else is going to make a post here, I guarantee it'll be something to the effect of finding a small button near the top of the page that reads "search". My advice however is instead search for the FSM (Factory Service Manual, Full Shop Manual, whatever). You can either buy it from an online store, or you can download it here... somewhere... Some guy named xenon or something has links to where you can get them. And there's always other sources like google and torrents... In most cases, you'll find the solution to your problem hidden within the pages, and it will give you a better understanding of your car's systems than anyone else. 95% of the time, it works every time (even better than sexpanther). I'd suggest printing the sections of the manual out as I did, as that makes it much more portable, and in my case, easier to read. Find your circuit that you're troubleshooting on the schematics and read it until your eyes bleed. Or, until it starts to make sense... Whichever comes first. Next, get a multimeter from walmart or something, just get a decent one (I got the one with the digital display and all the bells and whistles). This will help you trace your problems. Just read the directions, or get a manual on how to deal with electronic systems in automobiles. Your problem sounds like you have a short somewhere, most likely due to corrosion somewhere in the circuit, a dirty corroded connector, or a bare wire somewhere touching something conductive that it shouldn't. Try getting some electrical contact cleaner and a brass wirebrush, then do glorious battle vs the infernal wretch that is your fusebox. And while you're at it, go after the grounds too and whatever else may need a good cleaning.

The reading.... it hurts... the eyes... Anyway, Midnight-Z, I can see why your car is being so frustrating. I'm going through some of the same electrical problems myself on my 280 (which happens to have those same crap, half-assed "sunroofs" as yours. And yours WILL leak, eventually). My advice: get your hands on the FSM for your car. You can either buy it, or get it for free by downloading it (hint: someone on this website knows where!). After that, unless you have a laptop computer or like running from your house to the car every few minutes, PRINT out the sections you need. I printed the whole damn thing, and its a lot of pages. I don't know if it works as well for you, but I enjoy reading schematics and theory on paper rather than scrolling up and down on adobe acrobat. That and it makes the whole thing very portable. After looking at the wiring diagrams for 25 minutes, I knew where all my grounds were, and I could easily trace each connection. And I'm NOT an electrician, not even close. The wiring diagrams are abstract, but they will point you in the right direction.... Most of the time. Going on one of the Z websites might give you some info, but ultimately the manual should be your first source. All I can say is keep at it, as with anything else, there is no instant success. ESPECIALLY working on a 30+ year old car. I'd even recommend ripping out your entire dash as it will help you trace each wire immensely. I did. Hopefully my speedo cable won't suck to put back on. But maybe I'm just going over the top as usual... Good luck

Well, there's always option C... If I can't talk this guy down or find a motor elsewhere I could just turbo this motor. Since it has a N42/N47 block and head respectively, that should mean it has dished pistons. I don't think anyone ever touched this engine in respects performance upgrades, let alone rebuilding it. That should mean I have a compression ratio of just under 8.3-1. If I'm right, that should still allow me to run on pump gas. Even then if I wanted to put a few more atmospheres into it I could just go and grind out the areas around the valves to lower compression. Its a thought....

lmao

Looks like I finally found an engine. Unfortunately he wants $1500 for the L28ET, tranny, AFM, harness and ECU. I guess the reason he wants so much for it is the fact that he'd be removing it from the current car its in, but... I don't know, seems a bit much, especially when I can get a whole front clip RB20DET from Canada for a hair less. And that's with shipping included. I'm still considering it, but if anyone has any advice on pricing, I'd appreciate it.

Thermotime connectors needed a LOT of cleaning. Spent several hours going over just about every connector in the EFI system with connection cleaner, a paper clip and a q-tip to bust the corrosion. Then on a whim I looked back on my notes and discovered that I never checked the Throttle Position Sensor. I checked it, its bad, even with cleaned connections. Bleh... Thinking back to when this thing last ran (dec '07), I remembered the black smoke that was eminating from my exhaust. Maybe the bad sensor was causing it to run too rich as it died? Maybe it was the thermotime... I'm lost. Also smelled the oil that I drained a few weeks ago. It reeks of fuel. However when I try to start the engine, I don't have a fuel smell coming from the manifold (entire exhaust system is removed) or on the spark plugs. Also removed the injectors and inspected each one. Even the ones that checked bad with voltage are suprisingly clean and seemed to check out right when I jumped each one with a 9 volt battery. I need one of those noid lights to check to see if they're getting power during ignition. Back to the drawing board. Its the weekend, so I'm taking a break from all this to collect my thoughts.

Update: After much cross referencing and Using the FSM, I discovered that the pins it told me to check in the '78 Engine Fuel manual that my harness has a correct layout according to the FSM. It is not the same as the pin layout presented in the EFI bible. So, I ran my tests. I still have to check the proper resistances/voltages, but the only one that really stuck out like a sore thumb was the thermotime switch (no voltage). Two of my injectors showed below average voltage. The fuel pump IS running... I can hear it. However, I will still have to figure out what numbers I wrote down are correct, and what are not. I still have to run tests on the rest of the system beyond the ECU harness, so I will update again later.

Ah yes, and in addition, yes, the relay should be working, at least for the pump. I decided to check the fuel filter (after attempting to start the car)to see if it was clogged and possibly replace it. When I removed the lines, residual pressure exploded into my face. car> Unless that stuff has been there for over a year, then the pump is good, along with the relay. I'll check again to make sure.

Well, after a few days off to spend time with people I've been neglecting, I decided to try out the AFM I "remanufactured" and see if the car would start. Nope, no such luck. So then I connected the home made minature light bulb tester (connected to one of the injector connections) to test the signal going to my fuel injectors. Hopefully I just don't have the right setup, because the bulb did not flash when I cranked the car (bulb was wired to the #1 injector plug, as per the FSM). Oh well... I guess tomorrow I'll check the injectors themselves, I don't want to think I have to replace a bad ECU... yet...

Most of the older links are broken... *Sigh*.. I guess I'll go watch that pathfinder commercial again....

That's interesting about the whole vapor lock thing... I always guessed that fan was there to blow off all the random nuts and junk mice like to deposit on top of my intake manifold.

Here's something interesting that I almost forgot about. My Z has been this way since the day I got it, and I just remembered it a few minutes ago while looking at my engine: That's... my flywheel... Is that kosher?! I doubt it is, seeing those bolt holes on the xmsn housing. Oddly enough, I've never had problems with the drivetrain or the clutch. I'm going to look into that part number...

True story... I'm still searching

Hahaha! I remember those! Those are push pull rods from our flight control systems... So that's where they go when we throw them out...

But at least I fixed my air flow meter!

Meh... No luck... Looks like I'm stuck between the cheaper engine I can't find and the RB I've always wanted (which will drain most of my funds, and then I'll still be down an intercooler and driveshaft). I can find a way to fab the mounts with my uncle's help, hopefully. I'm going to think this one over while I go kill some more rust...