280zwitha383

There are always so many questions about cars not starting or cars that won't stay running so I thought I would take a shot at covering it thoroughly even though I tend to think in a scatter-brained way. From the beginning: If you car doesn't do anything when you try to start it: You might have a bad solenoid, starter, or ignition switch. A Voltmeter should be used at the starter solenoid to make sure you have 12V going to the main power prong and the switched 12V (small wire) when your ignition is in the "start" poistion. If not I don't envy you and you will need a wiring diagram, voltmeter and a few hours to trace which wire does what. Start at the ignition switch and move forward. If your car clicks while you're trying to start it: You probably have a dead battery which could be caused by a bad battery, a bad alternator or faulty wiring. Jump the car off and if the car will stay running your alternator is working and your battery is probably bad. If your car dies soon after disconnecting it from the other car your alternator isn't working properly AND your battery is dead (but the battery is only dead because the alternator isn't charging it). If you can make it to a place that tests batteries and alternators you should. Taking just the battery to get tested is not a bad idea. In the process of testing the battery some places will charge it for you also. If your car loses all power as soon as you try to start it (lights go off and won't come back on, radio stays off etc.): You probably have a bad connection at the battery or solenoid. Clean the terminals and tighten. So the car will crank but not start, now what: Engines must have fuel, spark and air to run: Fuel: One of the easiest ways to figure out if you're NOT getting fuel is to spray gas, starting fluid or carburetor cleaner into the carb/throttle body. If you are able to get the car to fire or even run for a short period of time then you're not getting enough fuel to the engine. Many things could cause this with the most prominent probably being the fuel pump. You can of course hear an electric fuel pump running and it will probably be near the gas tank if not in it. If you have a mechanical fuel pump you probably can not hear it and will need to use a fuel pressure gauge or prime the engine as said earlier. If you have a carburetor with sight plugs you could pull them to see if there is fuel in the floats. With fuel injection, if you are getting fuel pressure you should move on to things like checking to see if your injectors are getting 12V from the computer while cranking (use a voltmeter). A clogged fuel filter will almost NEVER cause an engine to not start. This could be possible in a car that has sat for a long time and then run close to empty or if you were experiencing an EXTREME lack of power before. Spark: (If the above didn't work) The easiest way to insure that your are getting spark is to take a spark plug out and ground it to the engine or body (not a painted or plastic/aluminum part). You can also do this with a timing light. If you do not get any spark you should check to make sure that your coil (this could be part of the distributor such as an HEI) is getting power (with a voltmeter) and that your ignition module is hooked up properly. If you still do not get any spark you should think about replacing your coil. So you've got spark and fuel but your car still won't start. It is very likely that your timing (either ignition or valve) is wrong. Backfiring and popping through the intake is a good sign you have your ignition timing wrong. You should triple check your firing order. If you have moved the distributor or are working on a car that you do not know what the PO has done, you should set the car to top dead center. You can usually do this by setting the slit on the harmonic balancer to the "0" on the timing indicator. You must make sure you are on the compression stroke when you do this which can be done easily by holding your finger over the #1 spark plug hole while cranking or turning the engine (taking all of the spark plugs out will help because you won't be fighting the compression of the engine). When the pressure pushes your finger off of the hole and you are nearing "0" on the indicator you are on the compression stroke. Now you need to get it right on "0" (and you might have to try it a few times), remove the distributor cap and make sure the rotor is pointing to the #1 spark plug post. If it is on the complete other side ("180 degrees out"), you should unbolt the distributor and move the rotor to the #1 position. With an L28 this should be easy because it should only go in two ways and if you haven't messed with the oil pump rod rotating it 180 degrees around should be perfect. On a Chevy engine you might have to move the oil pump slot/rod with a long flat-head screwdriver and do your best to put the rotor around the #1 position. So you're getting fuel, spark, you're at top dead center and your rotor is pointing at the #1 post and still the thing won't start. It is very possible that your ignition module is bad especially with a Z. You can take these off the distributor and have a parts store test them. Take what the machine tells you with a tiny grain of salt because I've had good modules test bad (one time it was new off of their shelf and another time it was off of a car that I had been running for about a year) and I've also had bad modules test good. Sometimes modules will work some times and not other times. If your Z will start only sometimes and even die on the road sometimes and start right back up you probably have a bad ignition module. You should check to make sure your spark plugs aren't fouled. You could be flooded at this point also in which case you should try to crank the engine with the throttle wide open (gas floored) and if that doesn't work you might think about calling it a day and trying tomorrow. I'm not going to cover valve timing because if you think you can play with a cam you should be able to install it correctly . Air: It would be pretty rare for a car not to start because it either can't get air or can't let the air it gets out of the exhaust. If the car has sat outside for a long time you could have a rat or bird nest in the exhaust or intake. If you have some punk friends they may have tried to plug your exhaust with a potato or sock. If your car has been sitting long enough for it to be clogged you should go through every aspect of the car (including the brakes) before you decide to start/run/drive it. Weed eaters/whacker/trimmers, mowers and small engines are pretty notorious for having their little muffler or a screen that goes over it to be clogged to the point where they won't start. Maybe someone will get their weed eater running from me writing all of this Anyone have anything to add? - I am in no way responsible for the use or mis-use of these "opinions".

I knew I would get flamed for it but the fact still remains!

This is Mallory. I swore I'd never pay for a dog and I never liked small dogs. Then she came along.

When you say pull out 8 degrees before jumping into "that game", are you talking about a 300 shot or just starting out with nitrous? And, "unless you're running NOS pistons they typically are designed for a 250 shot", are you saying nitrous pistons are designed for a 250 shot or are you talking about forged pistons in general? (please don't ban me)

Ok, A WOMAN TALK BOARD HAS BETTER SMILIES THAN WE DO. http://talk.wwwomen.com/misc.php?do=showsmilies and no I wasn't reading anything on their site

More details? Heads, cam, compression?

If you want to make 360hp with a 283 you're going to need a single plane intake. Also, I don't run nitrous but I think I remember reading that nitrous on a dual plane intake (like the air gap) is a nono.

That was cool .....deathtrap house

A lot depends on what your state laws are. In Texas I believe you are required to swap a newer engine with all of the smog equipment still intact. So say if I wanted to say I got it out of an 80's pu, I would need smog pump, egr, hot air riser, and cats. Actually if I were to put them in a '76 I wouldn't need cats because before 84 they don't require them here but you get the idea.

Is it a constant vibration or an intermittent one?

Ok, on the particular link you gave it simply has a chart showing the Optima battery lasting twice as long as a conventional battery. I didn't look any further at the time because it looked like that was all the information they gave (very brief and non-specific): So later I figured you must have meant somewhere else in the website (and not in the specific link) and I went to "product info" and they have this chart: Now I don't really see the benefit of cranking a starter 100 amps more than the traditional 1100+ amps (according to the chart). Who cranks their car for 10 seconds? Regardless, the increase is less than 10% and probably not noticeable. Their warranty is 36 months which is the same as any other decent battery I would think. I'm not saying they're not better, I was just wanting some specifics on the battery that you guys recommended and yes I looked at the very non-informative link.

That's funny because that's exactly what I thought of doing with my '82 280ZX and then I found some body parts for it. I have to show the burnout one to this guy at work who made a point to show me a boosted Mustang doing a burnout about the same but it was IN WATER.

It might just be a typo but just FYI they probably shaved .080" or 80 thousandths of an inch off of your head. .8" is 8 tenths of an inch and that's a lot.

I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe these heads flow that much. I would think if they did people would be all over the internet with times and dyno #'s. With that said, I didn't read that much about them but for the price they don't look bad.

I've never had one leak either (but I haven't been driving for 30 years...haha) and the battery from Walmart has a 3 year warranty and I run two, one for about 4 years and the other for two. Never had a problem with them. I don't mean to necessarily be defensive but no one has said how much or how long they last. Aren't those the selling points of these batteries? Surely it's not just because they don't leak and you can put them upside down blah blah...

I need to find a cheaper hobby like smoking crack....

Well I've been getting screwed then....

How much do they cost and how long do they usually last?

It's a turbo hood.

The welds LOOK like they will "work". It's just the weight of the bottom part of the fender that it has to support right? The biggest thing is did he penetrate both pieces of metal at one time, how long of a strip and how often. It looks like for a few inches he got into it pretty good on the vertical part by the lip. It kind of looks like in the middle of the welding he got a pretty good strip maybe 2 inches long. Some of the tacks look like they penetrated both pieces. He didn't do the greatest job of tacking it in but the reason he tacked it like he did was to keep it from warping (atleast that's what he should have done) It's all hard to tell by the picture. I'm guessing that you don't have a suitable welder otherwise you would grind it down and redo it. However, if you just don't want to mess with it and don't care about how it looks then it should work and I would think it would hold up some flares with no problem. Are you planning on grinding it down?

look closer

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1982-Nissan-280ZX-5-Speed-FACTORY-NEW-COLLECTORS-GEM-4k_W0QQitemZ130116660556QQihZ003QQcategoryZ6397QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That's somewhat concerning that the fusible link didn't blow, maybe someone has bypassed it. I guess just be sure that you don't have a chance at shorting anything else around there because you really don't want a fire.

I understand completely.