ericp501

I have a 76 280z, the trans is actually a 5spd out of a non-turbo 280zx. I've come across an 82 280zx turbo with an auto trans. I'd like to swap the turbo engine into my car and keep my 5spd trans. Is this swap doable and will wiring be a nightmare going from an engine with an auto ecu to a car with a manual trans? I'm also not at all against doing an all new ECU to make it work, I believe a lot of guys use Megasquirt? I'm sure things like this have been discussed, I just want to be sure before I start committing to anything or if I'm better off waiting to see if a turbo 280zx comes along that is already manual.

I found a vacuum line under the throttle body that was unplugged. I adjusted the idle screw (All the way in then 6 turns out). I pulled all the electrical components having to do with idle and throttle and game them a cleaning with electronic cleaner. I pulled the cold start valve and sprayed the snot out of it with carb cleaner. I sprayed the snot out of the throttle body internals with throttle body cleaner too. Just started it and it has amazing throttle response and is actually idling! The idle is a little rough, but great that its actually running. When you give it gas it revs up fast and clean with no popping or anything. The AFM is currently unplugged which I imagine has something to do with the idle not being perfect. I'll go plug it back in a bit later to see if it helps with the idle at all.. but for now couldn't be happier. Once I get the master clutch cylinder it I might actually be able to take this thing for a ride around the property! Thanks for all the help guys. I'll keep this thread alive as I improve things.

Update: looks to be starting and has pretty good throttle response, way better then before, so I guess the injectors are getting cleaned out. Main problem now is it wont stay running, no idle at all. I'll feather the gas to keep in running but if I take my foot off the gas it just dies. I unplugged the AFM which seemed to help so I imagine I'll be needing a new one of those. But is there anything I can do for the time being to help keep the car running at idle?

So it was running. Got some throttle response too but its not consistent and hard to get started and there's no idle at all. Now the stupid Injection relay is making a whining noise and I'm getting nothing.. I'm sure I'm no longer getting pulse, so I just called it a day but at least I'm on the right track. I think I've got about a $250 budget on this engine to get it running right otherwise I'm giving up on making it moveable for now and just focusing my energy on interior/exterior, brakes, ball joints, etc. and just replacing the motor with an LT1 or something.

At the moment I'm actually running wires direct from the battery to the fuel pump with a manual switch. Can you be a bit more specific about the contorl rod in the air flow meter? I'm not 100% sure which one that is and I don't want to mess anything up.

Went out and turned the key one last time today.. sputtered as I feathered the gas, did that weak idle motors do for 10 seconds just as they stall out. I guess its a step in the right direction.. I had put some chemtool into the fuel rail earlier in the day. I'm guessing that helped clean out the injectors a little which makes me think that much more I just have 6 badly gunked injectors.

I pulled all the plugs and put a little gas in each cylinder hoping that would get it started then she'd run from there, even if it was rough, but once the gas in the cylinder burnt up that was it and it died. For the record, this is someone else's project I got for cheap, it has the Ferrari GTO body swap and was pretty much gutted, so I put the replica dash back in and started rerunning the whole wire harness. Even the ignition was locked up so I pulled that and have been just turning the switch itself. I'm sure I'm close and its just something stupid. My ultimate goal is an engine swap anyway, but I'd like to at least get this engine running to I can easily move it around my property till I'm ready for the swap down the line. I really don't want to put much more money into this motor, so hopefully the new injectors do it otherwise the engine swap is going to happen sooner rather than later.

Just noticed my injectors are 3 different colors, tan, green, and I think there was a blue one. Some of the screws came off easy, others feel like they're welded on so they're just gonna have to soak for a while before I try popping the line off. I've heard the 280zx fuel line is an improvement, might just try to score one with some clean injectors on it.

I agree, I'm going to pull the line and see if the injectors are spraying at all. If not I'll try running some chemtool through them for the time being, but its likely I'll need all new injectors.

Don't really have a way to measure that at the moment, but I am getting fuel through the return line so its enough to open the FPR

No I take it back.. I think its bad gas. Gonna pump everything out of the tank and try again in a bit.

followed and got power to pin 1 by connecting the blue wire to the white wire. I'm pumping fuel, I have spark, and the little noid light is lighting up showing a pulse... but she still wont run. So now I'm really at a loss! I got it to run a few seconds by putting a little fuel directly into each cylinder. Only thing I can figure is the injectors are completely clogged.

Ok, I found my blue wire.. the car is a project car and was a bit ripped apart. The blue wire is not actually connected to anything. It has its clips, but the other wire is broken off.. I see a little white wire about 8" up off the ECU maybe it goes to that?

Just check Pin 1 and I have no voltage. Just started doing research as to what to do now.. any input would be greatly appreciated.

Picked up a noid light set and as I suspected I'm getting no light. Now I don't have any fuel in the tank, is there a switch or something where the injectors wont pulse if the tank is empty? So where do I start from here? Pictures are super helpful!

So I pulled pretty much everything from fuel tank to engine. The fuel pump was completely clogged with a rusty mud. I flushed the lines using chemtool and an air compressor. Everything should be going in tomorrow and I'll hopefully get the injectors figured out Sunday as I'm 95% sure they're not pulsing.. I'm thinking about putting a small inline filter between the gas tank and the fuel pump just till I'm sure that rusty mud stuff isn't going to gunk up my new pump.

Yea, but if people didn't ask questions this wouldn't be much of a forum would it? I've searched quite a bit, lots of threads about these types of issues, little talk about fixes, and what people come across. Seems like every forum is about how to figure out that you're not getting power or a pulse, not much about what is causing the issue or how to fix it.

The car was a bit of a barn find that sat so fuel pump, filter and cleaning gas tank is never a bad idea. I'm gonna swing by autozone and snag their noid light set to see if I can confirm I'm not getting a pulse. As of right now I'm pretty sure I have 2 things going against me. 1) I'm not getting a pulse. 2) My fuel system is all gunked and I'm getting no fuel pressure to the injectors anyway. If I'm not getting a pulse with any luck a quick relay swap and that'll be fixed, then once all my new fuel components arrive the motor will run. Now I just need to figure out why the clutch feels like a wet noodle, and replace all the brakes and steering components for safety reasons. I'm pretty good about coming back to forums with updates and answers so that the next time someone is searching on google with a similar issue they can find out not only what the problem was, but what was done to fix it.

I ordered a new pump, filter and relay. I ran direct power to the fuel pump and it would run, but was very weak, putting out hardly anything. So I'm going to replace all those parts as its clearly gunked in there and wasn't getting power directly. I'm also going to pull the tank to clean it and blow out all the lines. Hopefully that will get the fuel running up to the rail properly. Now on another forum I found this: "Also, the tachometer and its resistor have to be in place for the ECU to work correctly, If your tachometer is not connected or if the resistor has fallen out, the ECU will not fire the injectors." I do not currently have the stock tachometer for the car, I have an aftermarket one sitting on a shelf, but I'm guessing I should hit the junkyard to see if I can get my hands on a tach?

I figured as much, but will that just completely prevent the motor from turning at all?

I picked up a 76' 280z thats a major project. I got the wire harness back in and have made some real progress, I'm getting spark and if I spray a little gas into each cylinder and put the plugs back in, the car runs well for a few seconds before stalling out. I don't think the fuel pump is working so I attached a cheap little pump I had lying around, it only pushes about 2psi tho, could that stop the injectors from opening? Or is it more than likely that I'm not getting a pulse from the injectors? I read something about the pulse not working if you don't have the tachometer hooked up? Any help would be greatly appreciated.