UPDATE ON LEAN CONDITION=no help?

[Guest jjohart]

Uh, I guess the ultimate slug or ultimate badge of pride is going to the Nissan dealer to have a seemingly unsolvable, but at this point very obvious driveability issue with my I/C'd 280ZX and being told the mechanic is too scared to work on it with the add ons on it!

That said, I will try not to be impatient or argumentative with this group forum (I do wait around the computer like a telephone for replies). To make it short, I am willing to pay ANYONE willing to fly/travel in to Boston area who thinks they can solve what appears to be a classic Jekyll and Hyde problem, when my car is started, a few seconds later it goes into a almost stalling lean condition, knocking, sputtering, very little throttle response, which can last from 2 mins to 10 and then suddenly, the power band smooths out, and its as good as ever, under boost or not.

I had posted a while back on this as a knock under high boost, but that isn't the case...I can see the boost gauge start inflexively bouncing like a heart palpitation when I simply try to lay on the gas. Putting more gas on is a hit or miss thing in traffic, where the car pulses and bucks, or eventually "locks in" to the full throttle and revs up, at which point I have to back off so I don't hit someone in front of me!

The mechanics around me in Natick, MA don't seem to have a clue what to do. I took a can or two of electronic parts cleaning spray last weekend, but at this point, its not having much of an effect/improvement. The first time I did that, a few weeks ago, it seemed to cure this condition (which was only apparent in positive boost-but then, I might not have been so aware of its presence leaning out as low/stall idle etc). I may have also compounded things just before Xmas by mistaking what someone told me to use "die electric grease" with what I bought and applied-carbon "conductivity enhancer" grease (with totally no driveability for a week thereafter=hence the many cleaning spray applications of late).

So, I either keep going to garages around here at $75 to $100 an hour with mechanics who've probably no experience with regular ZX's, much less modified ones, or make the case that someone who is knowledgeable and wouldn't mind a day off from work in the South or West, would make a case to set up a day to come out, all expenses paid, and fix this problem. I know, impulsive and expecting immediate result/fixes isn't the best mind set, and knowing that I am unlikely to fix this myself-except by buying a used AFM and JWT fuel curve modified ECU and hoping one of em's the fix-what else can I ask without expletives on how frustrating this is!

Of course, if anyone knows anyone in New England/NY already equipped to handle this, that would be a nice lead, but so far the only "Z expert" mechanic associated with Avalon Motorsport suggested I leave my car with them for a couple of weeks, labor billed by the hour regardless of efficacy. Yeah, with that I might just hand them my wallet and have them dump it out for their own perusal in advance!

Please help any way you care to!

Thanks

John-83 280ZXT, I/C, Greddy Profec B, 3 inch exhaust, CAI.

[savageskaterkid]

I have no idea if you would hafta do this, but u have a new turbo, not a stock one-am i correct in thinking this.

 

Did u tune the system for a bigger turbo-if its bigger than stock then it mite b putting in WAY too much air for the injectors to keep up. The only way i can think to fix your problem w/o havin to actually pinpoint the problem is to put in bigger injectors, that will most likely fix a lean mix-but it could also make it run rich if u go too big. Has it just been doin this with ur setup, or did it always do it-since u bought the car?

 

IDK if ne of this would make a diffrence

[EZ-E]

What have you eliminated yourself as possible problems? Have you gone through the simple checks first, ie, vacumn leaks, leaks in the boot from the afm to the turbo, pcv bad, tested injectors, looked for bad grounds and or connections, cleaned those grounds, checked fuel pressure.

 

Have you done any component checks to the afm, o2 sensor.

 

What have you eliminated?

 

I went through a hell of a problem and did a lot of testing from the FSM, maybe you could go through your system yourself, most tests can be done with a multimeter.