Guest bastaad525 Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 WHY is it... that every friggin time... I have some reason to actually be happy with this car, and am actually starting to enjoy it... or whenever some big problem is figured out and solved... the car just retaliates by throwing something else at me??? And always with no longer than a day or two to enjoy it??? Today I went down to try to figure out, once and for all, just what was wrong with my ignition, why the #1 keeps firing erratically. Long story short, I found out that one of the ends of my coil wire was broken, the metal part that snaps into the cap... I pulled the wire off, but the little metal part was still in there. So I brought one of my other coil wires and put it on and it seems to have worked... #1 firing as steady as should be. How a broken coil wire would effect only one plug is beyond me... I'm still a little hesitant to call that problem 'fixed' just yet... because I coulda swore that it was still doing this even when I tried the other two plug wire sets... but it was a good sign, and I was happy. Then I decided that I wanted to try my little trick again, to disconnect the TPS and to put a jumper/bridge wire in the connector that goes to it... Last time I tried this, I THOUGHT that I heard the motor ping when I got on it, so I put it back the way it was. I wasn't 100% sure I heard ping, but didn't want to risk it... all I know is that the car DEFINATELY ran much better when I put the jumper in there. So I did that again today, and went around the block... and not one sign of ping. And of course, the car ran much better as well, no misfire, ran much smoother... I dare say perfectly, and pulled stronger... More reason to be happy.... and then I see the temp gauge... hovering about 1/4 of an inch away from 250... the red. Then I notice that I'm leaving a nice trail of coolant behind me as I drive... so I ease it back home, open the hood, and coolant is flying all over the place. My upper and lower radiator hoses are new... and still look it... I can't imagine it's them... but it's definately coming from the front... so I'm thinking... radiator??? It was pretty new too... so I go get a gallon of water and pour it in there... and finally track it down. Front timing chain cover... I guess it's coming from the water pump? I mean it is POURING out... no small leak. I am so fuggin pissed.... I feel like an idiot for not thinking to replace it when we had the motor APART... the pump was OFF.... we ended up switching front covers because the other one's gaskets just weren't gonna come off.... so we swapped my pump to the other one... we checked it out and it seemed fine before we put it on. Now I just overheated the sh*t out of my rebuilt engine... and knowing my luck, at the least I just warped the head... hoping I didn't f**k the head gasket. I can't believe this... this car is just never gonna stop f'ing up... and always when I get to a point where I'm just starting to like it again. f**k this car..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 You and ON3GO should be in soap operas or something. So much drama! Replacing the water pump was a 20 minute job the first time I ever did it with no Z experience whatsoever. I doubt you warped your head with minimal driving on the engine. Just get a good pump with a cast iron blade (Paraut sp? makes a good one) not a sheet metal blade and you'll be good to go in 1/2 hour. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 thank you jmortensen... I had no idea how hard of a job it would be... I was kinda freaking out but I'm back to normal now okay I'll get down there and start taking it off... called autozone they have one in stock.... thanks again dude I needed a voice of reason right there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BigWhyteDude Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 i hope it turns out ok for your car and you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest szlash280z Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 water pump changing is pretty easy as long as the pump doesn't chew up your front engine cover! thats what mine did when it went south. I was going to re use the "reletively new" one that was installed when my pump went out before, but decided to get a New one anyways, just to make sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ZmeFly Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 i had bought a new one from AA, well the pump was bad the shaft came out of the wp and flew into the radiator, i was talking to corporate at AA and they asked me well how do you know it was the pumps fault, im like, uh well im holding it in my hand right now and its in 3 pieces you tell me. anyway the wp is not a hard replacement at all, the hardest part is remove that damn fan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awd92gsx Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 I've never removed a Z fan, but, if it's like any other fan, I find that a set of ratcheting wrenches (such as those found at Sears/Craftsmen) work wonders and make it alot easier... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 already done... but it doesn't matter... either it blew the head gasket from overheating... or I just blew my new rings from what I think may have been some ping.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody 82 ZXT Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 So basically your telling us that you didn't follow the go easy on it for 500 miles and watch all the gauges real close procuders and now your having proublems again. Not trying to flame you here and I know it sounds like it but, it seems as though you've gotten into workoing on this with more emotion than thinking. Slow down and take it easy on the car until it's all working perfectly then dog the crap out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 well yes and no... I have been taking it easy... I haven't let it get over 4000rpm... really I haven't even let it get over 3000 more than a couple times... and I have only floored it a couple times since the rebuild and never for more than a second. It's not like I'm just hot rodding around doing everything I can to destroy the engine. I have been watching the gauges... I always watch the gauges but I can't just keep my eyes on them the whole time I'm driving... the temp went up FAST, I was only going for a drive around the block. The leak was bad enough to drain a gallon of water in 30 seconds... there was no coolant in there at all by the time I got home. As for driving it hard, I got on it briefly up to 4000rpm to see if running the TPS the way I was, was going to be okay or cause any problems. And anyways... if it ends up being the head gasket that's not my fault... that water pump could have went at any time, and wether the motor was fully broken in or not, that's always a risk of blowing the head gasket... if I made a mistake there it may have only been that I risked driving it the block and a half back to my house, but I didn't have a whole lot of option there. As far as doing the quick run up to 4000, one of the posts I read here regarding engine break in said some quick acceleration sprints were GOOD for breaking the engine in... and even if it did ping I was off it so fast... I guess I'm being short sighted here I can't see how that would have done any serious damage but if it did then okay I admit I f'ed up and you guys can hand me the dunce hat... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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