NewZed

You're describing three things that might not be related. Oil burning, cylinder pressure and throttle response. Quarts per mile is a common indicator of wear. How much are you burning? In general, these engines seem to run well while burning lots of oil though, so your lack of throttle response is probably due to something besides worn rings. Oil-burning would come from bad bottom (oil scraper) rings, poor compression and blowby would come from bad top rings. The wet test will affect the top rings, not the bottom. Cylinder pressure numbers vary a lot due to all of the different gauges out there. One person's 125 is another's 160.

A few of us - http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/113836-warnings/?do=findComment&comment=1066123 SuperDan initially commented that Google was screwing things up but removed his comment. Maybe he found something. Seems to come and go, I got two notices, but no more since.

I wrote a whole funny thing about your excellent use of grammar to convey your lack of knowledge about your car and its engine but chose not to post it. Seriously, you write unusually well. Therefore: Find and open the FSM for your car from the link below and read the Engine Fuel chapter to understand the engine, and the Emissions chapter to understand the thing under the throttle body. Good luck. http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/

Batteries take time to recharge. It's not instantaneous. Measure voltage while revving without the headlights on. Should be mid-13 to mid-14 volts. Or just watch the dash voltmeter before you start the engine and after. If it goes higher than it was at start, when revving, your alternator is working. If it just sits there, or slowly drops, you have a problem.

EF-7 has a diagram. You might find that relay and check it for power.

You only have 5 posts and none of them describe the engine or car that you're working with. "280 with a fuel pump hooked up to a switch" isn't enough information.

Combine the best, part out the rest. Many parts will swap between the two.

There are two circuits to the ignition system from from the key. One bypasses the ballast resistor to balance the current draw from the starter, the other uses the resistor once the engine starts. You might only have one circuit. Look at EE-26 here and check the wires around your ballast resistor - http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/240z/1973/

You could just try both, with a timing light. Don't forget the HEI module also, as a cheap alternative. Just use the wires from the magnetic pickup and take the E12 off completely.

Here's a picture of a typical factory stock 280Z head pipe. I have several and they all look like this.

If you've removed any heat shields around the engine you should put them back. Also, winter blend gasoline seems to make the problem worse, for me anyway. So if you're still on a tank of winter gas, go get a fill of new gasoline. My engine had terrible hot start issues in the winter.

There's a problem with the L6 and EFI commonly called the "hot start" problem. Nissan installed a cooling fan for the fuel rail and injectors on the S130's to try and avoid it. Search "hot start" or "vapor lock" to get some ideas. Did the engine not start at all or did it start but run so bad that you shut it off and waited?

So the car is still sitting where it wouldn't start or you had it towed somewhere? It has not started since then? It's probably cooled down so a plugged radiator wouldn't be a factor.

Drawings of the brake system are in the FSM - http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/ Could be rust in the actuating mechanism or rust in the drums. You can see the parking brake lever and end of the brake cable if you stick your head under the car. Have someone move the brake lever and see what moves. If you have to take a wheel off and beat on things, be careful with the brake drum. They break. There's also an adjusting wheel inside that you can turn to loosen up the shoes. Might help if the drums are rusty. It shouldn't hurt anything if you use the engine to try and break the shoes free if you don't get crazy with the clutch.

Shows up here and here. Part #18. Who knows about real availability. On the Z and ZX R200's it installs in the internal groove in the diff. before you insert the axles. Later axles (the VLSD's for example) had it installed on the axle itself (may be why there is none in yours). Check groove sizes, chamfers, etc. to make sure you don't get an axle stuck. Someone who knows Quaife's could advise better for your situation. http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsunS30/DatsunZIndex/PowerTrain/DifferentialGear/R200/tabid/1727/Default.aspx http://www.courtesyparts.com/clip-side-p-351272.html

Here's another, even more recent. 73 seems to be the year of change. Early hubs have a "scalloped" shape to them, apparently. Later are just round. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/getting-help-your-z/49855-new-centric-rotors-dont-fit-%5Bshorter-hat%5D.html

Just a guess, but the FSM shows all four wires to the distributor coming from the control unit, in the factory set-up. Power out from the control unit is usually in the 5 volt range, I believe. You have 12 volts in to the optical sensor in the CAS when it probably only needs 5 or less. You could add some resistance to the power supply wire to the distributor to drop it down to 5 volts. Or power it from MS, which has some 5 volt out circuits, I think.

It's probably an R200 with 3.54 gears, in a 2+2 or turbo 1982 S130. I got one of those with the CV's from a guy who swapped in a CLSD. Pretty sure that the turbos and the 2+2's got CV's, and the coupe NA's with manual trans got u-joint halfshafts with 3.9 gears. R200's have a rectangular chunk of metal projecting from underneath the fill plug, and the bottom of the cover is rounded. R180's are square looking and don't have the projection. If there are other Z's in the yard, you could take a look and compare. Most, maybe all, 75-78 280Z's have R200's.

What year ZX and is it a coupe or 2+2? None of the factory 280ZX's had LSD's. And the R180's have a ring of 5 bolts around the the side shaft holes. The RR200's don't. If it is an R200, you'll still need a mustache bar to swap it in to your 240Z. The ZX's don't use one. The 280ZX R200 might be a 3.9 gear though, which you might want if you're also using an 80-83 280ZX 5 speed. But it could also be 3.54 or 3.7.

Anyone who reads these last few posts will, in the future, if they see the word rubber, wonder "what kind of rubber? - there are many different rubber materials". So the objective of forums like this one are accomplished. Now let's talk about fiberglass...

Just fighting degradation of the nomenclature. "Rubber" is so generic and describes so many different materials that the word alone is not really useful beyond giving the mental impression of a pencil eraser or a tire. Without a descriptor in front, like "silicone" it's just confusing, as in this thread. The word vulcanization in RTV is even worse, since the original process used sulfur and heat. It's like saying it's a sulfur and heat cured material but without the sulfur and without the heat.

On the overpressurization of the crankcase - instead of a vacuum pump maybe you just need bigger, freer flowing outlets. In other words, the gases in the crankcase only cause pressure because they can't fit through whatever orifices you have available for them to travel through to get out. The vacuum pump just pulls more gas (vapors) through a small, otherwise inadequately sized, hole. Actually, it just removes gas from one side of the hole, giving whatever squeezes through more room to move once it gets through. More/bigger crankcase ports, plumbed with bigger hoses might solve the problem.

Is that plain old polyester resin you're using for the plenum? It's probably not fuel resistant and if it catches on fire, it will burn hot and be difficult to extinguish. Maybe you're just using it for mock-up, but with all of that fuel spraying around there could be a better choice of material. Test burn a scrap and see what happens.

Check out the site linked below. Looks like there are several "194" heads, with different size combustion chambers. 194 means 1.94 inch intake valve. It used to be the "standard " performance head for SBC's, with the 2.02 heads as the next, highest, stock level. 194 used to mean something back in the 70s but now it just means "old stock chevy head". To me anyway, but I haven't played with small blocks since the 70s. They used to call them double hump heads, but apparently that can mean the 202 head also (nostalgic trivia). http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/techinfo/heads1.html

The reality is probably - MSA's brand of wheel bearing is ...on a national back-order and, according to a gent at MSA, it'll be 4 weeks+ before MSA see them restocked. It's an MSA problem, not a common problem. Rock Auto has a selection also.