260z Starting

[Hypertek]

Got a question for you guys, been trying to get my 260 started that i just picked up. I determined the engine isn't seized.. which is good. Had put some atf in the cylinders, left that in for a day and was able to turn the engine over via crankshaft. Took off the valve cover and pour some motor oil over everything. So i got that all buttoned back up. Bought a new starter since they are cheap. Cleaned up the terminals, did the maxifuse upgrade (chassis now gets power).  Cleaned fuse box, installed all new fuses.

 

Now I don't have a battery yet, but i was under the impression that i should still be able to crank and fire up the car with just jumper cables to another vehicle.. am I wrong to assume that? Car would hardly crank (but won't crank over) with jumpers from a running car. I guess jumping with no battery won't provide enough cranking amps? Might be another week or so til I can afford a battery, but in the mean time I been trying to take care of cheaper things with the car. Was looking forward to firing up the engine, so than id be able to move onto taking care of the cooling system (flushing, get a new thermostat, replace hoses etc)

 

[seattlejester]

By "don't have a battery" do you mean at all, or you don't have a new battery?

 

As long as you are feeding the starter motor directly with the jumping battery you should be able to get it to crank, you would essentially be using the jumping battery as the donor battery. Although you may cause problems if you are jumping from a running car, as trying to crank the starter will put the full amp usage of the starter on top of whatever the jumping vehicle is using. If it is a FWD and the electric fans are on and the headlights running etc, you can not be generating enough to run the starter at full steam. Although most modern cars should output excess of 100 amps.

 

Attaching the jumpers to a dead battery and trying to start the car from the dead battery may not work. When I put a volt meter on a dead battery that I had jumped and charged, the volt dropped visibly at maybe 0.1 volt a second. In a minute it went from 14 volts down to 8 volts. Starter would just stutter a bit and then do nothing. I would wait until you can afford a battery. If you are anxious, head over to the nearest junkyard and grab one of their tested batteries and take it to be charged at your local auto parts store. I want to say with a core, they were like 10$ or something of that nature.

 

If you have a bad battery even if the car cranked over, your alternator may have a bit of trouble if it is trying to dump all the power it's generating into a depleted battery.

 

Having the alternator tested, the water pump replaced, and flushing the engine oil would be a pretty good idea in the meantime. If the engine had been sitting for a while that it needed atf to be unstuck, I am a little concerned about the condition under the head.