joshuadreed

NOTSURE - That's exactlty what I was thinking... The bumper stuff is meant to be slightly flexible so when the dash "expands" or just gets flexed for one reason or another the bumper stuff doesn't break. I'm deffinetely doing this!

Also I wanted to add that nearly every vacuum hose is brand new and I just put a new pvc valve in too. I will however double check all these hoses.

Ok guys... Sorry for the double post and I would have given an update sooner but I was having some problems with hybridz. Last night I finally got fresh oil in it, which I would have done sooner but I couldn't get to the store and didn't want to put the bad oil back in. With the fresh oil the pressure sender is working perfectly. I think without oil to lubricate it the sender was not returning properly and showing I had much higher oil pressure than I did. My dad thinks I may have been using to thin of an oil and it was just washing past the rings. He's told me to watch my oil consumption closer and start fresh and I'm doing just that. I am still going to do a fuel pressure and compression test some time in the near future. Thanks everyone for your continued help and I will let you all know how this batch of oil turns out.

That's definitely going to be my next test, thanks for the advice. It seems so obvious to test that but for some reason the gears in my brain have started to just mash into each other lately.

Haven't tested compression yet but after talking to my dad again we've come up with a new theory... It's a little long winded so bear with me. The oil pressure sender has two pins on it, one for the oil pressure gauge and one for fuel cut in the case of a wreck and fire. Since I have high oil pressure(still don't know the cause) the fuel pump doesn't shut off when the engine does. If the ignition is on and the sender still sees engine oil pressure it will keep pumping gas thru the system. This still isn't a problem. The next "if" in this theory is that I may have one or more leaky injectors. So basically whenever I leave my ignition on to test something or just to see what the gauges are reading with the engine off I may be pumping gas into one or more of my cylinders. I have experienced a lot of smoke on start up before so maybe this is it or at least the reason for gas in my oil. I'm going to test this tommorow by leaving the ignition on for a while and seeing if that causes a ton of smoke on start up.

Looks like I have an electric fuel pump so I will be doing a compression test soon.

I just found some info searching Zcar.com and it looks like it may be my valve seals so I'm going to go check my compression and then I'll let you all know the results. Also I just got off the phone with my dad who was a mechanic for many years but he's not familiar with imports; he says it may be the fuel pump leaking at the diaphram if it's mechanical. So another question I have is whether or not the fuel pump is electric or not on my 78. I will research for this as well as more info on the fuel system but if I could get a quick answer it would be very helpful.

Some history of the car that may be helpful... I bought the car from the 2nd owner who said he was not sure whether it was at 40,000 or 140,000 miles because he was selling it for his dad. People who have seen it in person say it's probably 40,000 because it's in good condition and things like the seats are nearly perfect. Since I bought it I have switched to a 240sx throttle body, mainly so I could use a throttle cable. I replaced the radiator because it had been seeping for who knows how long. My heater core or valve is leaking so its just not hooked up right now. I had a pretty bad exhaust leak so I've replaced the intake/exhaust gaskets. While I was in there I put new electrical connections on almost the entire efi harness, put new seals on the injectors and new fuel hoses, vacuum hoses and hose clamps thru out. I'm sure there is more but that is all I can think of right now. Hope that helps

About 1200 miles. I did an oil and filter change less around a month ago. I've only had the car for about two months and I'm actually very new to mechanics. I like to think I'm doing pretty good so far.

So... I changed my pressure sender and the pressure is still high, it's as if once the pressure increases it just stays there. So I decided to drain my oil and replace the filter in case it was broken and or plugged. It wasn't the filter. When I did this I found a new part of the problem. My oil is now water thin, smells of gas and is brown(which is wierd considering it was purple). So, what is causing my oil to fill with gas? I've done some searching but can't find much. : ( Once again Thanks for all your help.

So what I'm guessing is that I can use any $10 dollar liquid pressure gauge with a btp to npt adapter to check my sender. Does this sound right?

78 280z 4spd man. While driving I noticed I had very high oil pressure, it was nearly constant at 80psi. Once I arrived at my destination I checked my oil level and it read at the minimum level. Ignoring the Oil pressure I just put more oil in and drove it home. The car runs fine but I'm actually loosing oil and the pressure is still way to high. It idles at about 60-70psi and as soon as I bring the rpms up it shoots to 90 and stays. I'm sorry if this goes on and on but I want to make sure and give you all of the details. As far as oil consumption is concerned I did an oil change about a month ago and had it filled to the max level. It took me about 2 quarts to get it back to the max level. I'm using Royal Purple 5w-30 oil. Another little detail is that it seems to be spitting black stuff out of the tail pipe at high rpms(oil?). I noticed this when I was sitting in my garage and around 4500 rpms it begins doing this. So my first thought was that I needed a new oil pressure sender but now I'm not so sure; is there any way to test my sender without buying a new one? Does anyone have any ideas what the problem may be? Thanks- Joshua

Awesome! It looks like the general consensus is that the polarity doesn't matter. I kind of figured as much because if it did matter the factory would have likely used coded wires. Thanks for your replies.

So I was installing a new manifold gasket and decided to install new seals and electrical connectors also. When I was taking it apart I was kinda dumb and cut the injector connectors thinking "oh well I'm just gonna put new connectors on anyways". Now I'm looking at the wires and they're both black. Does it matter which way the two wires are installed into the connectors??? If so how do I figure out which is which... Thanks for your help. Josh