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HybridZ

I failed, still doesnt run


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I spent the last week or so trying to get my Z to run again before I have to go back to school. I failed at it...brand new starter, altenator, water pump, intake with 4-barrell Holley, and now a brand new ignition coil. The only thing left to replace is the distributor but I don't have time for that right now. Im at the point where I have 2 kinds of thoughts. The first one being "I put so much money into this thing, might as well just finish it" and the other being "I put so much money into this thing, I should just sell the engine and trailer it to start working on an engine swap" I feel horrible about it.

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So why doesn't it start? Is the problem fuel or ignition? What year vehicle are we talking about? Did you start easter egging to fix an initial problem? If so, what was that problem? We can probably help with a little insight.

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drop back to basics,

do you have compression in all cylinders?(how much??)

did you CORRECTLY set the valves?

are you sure the cams degreed in correctly?

are you getting spark at the plugs?(did you set the timing?)

do you have fuel pressure"?

if the carb full?

Are the float levels set correctly?

have you verified the voltage at the coil?

checked for vacume leaks?

is there fuel at the carb boosters, does it squirt fuel when the accellerator pumps worked by hand?

does the engine spin over?

are you getting a minimum of 10 psi of oil pressure?

do you have coolant in the radiator,block, etc, are all the dash gauges reading?

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I haven't tested the compression but it ran for a total of 5 hours when I bought it (horrible I know).

The plugs and wires were brand new and I didn't touch their order on the distributor because it ran the way it was before.

Battery kept dying on me while I was driving it and found the altenator to be bad so I replaced that (water pump broke after hour 3 I think it was).

I couldn't get it to start back up, my parents had it towed to the only shop that said they could work on a car like this (is it really that special? lol)

The people at the shop adjusted the valves, put on a new starter, and told me the carburetors were bad

Bought a Holley 2-barrell set-up that turned out to be junk after it was delivered so with lack of funds we just had the car towed to my aunt's house where it sat until I got the 4-barrell set-up.

We put that all that on, fuel did squirt from accellerator pumps and did fill up the reservoirs I guess you can call them (not to good for terminology)

Electric choke hooked to power source and worked

Idle mixture screws screwed in all the way then backed out 1.5 turns as Holley recommends

Floats weren't adjusted perfectly because car is sitting on a weird angle because of the hill but high enough to keep fuel in the reservoirs. I was hoping it to start so I could drive it to a level surface to set them

Not sure was PSI of fuel pressure because I have it going from the mechanical fuel pump on the block and I don't have a guage or anything...it seems to stay fuel of fuel and not overloading it and having fuel come out the vents, then again it only turns like 500 RPMs while cranking (oh and it does crank fine)

Checked for spark at the plug wires. I like to use a real spark tester but didn't have one so I went by the manual's way of "holding it 3/8" from the head and crank engine" and no spark (looked at plugs themselves and they still looked brand spanking new)

Checked for spark out of the coil the same way and still no spark

The book said to use a test light and have one end on ground and the other at the low...something or other (sorry dont have book on me right now) marked by a "+" and should have power going there, which it did. So according to what I understood from the manual is that the coil was bad.

Got new coil, put hooked it up the same way as the old one and still no start. I didn't mess around with it, I just left showered, and grabbed the Mustang and headed back to PA.

While I'm up here this time I'm gonna buy a DVOM so I can test all the circuits properly, I really don't like the wires in the car. They're really stiff and if you try to bend them the insulation breaks right off so I'm sure a lot of that will have to be replaced before it will run again.

In conclusion, I need proper tools. Its at the point where I cant go by without them no more.

 

Anybody around the Mountain Home and Clarkridge area of Northern Arkansas willing to take a look at it for me while I'm here at school?

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Again, what year car are we talking about??? Does it have points or an electronic (such as Petronix) pickup in the dizzy? It could be as simple as closed points (f you have 12v at the coil) Using a long wire lead with alligator clips connect the + on the coil to + on the battery. Turn the engine over and see if it starts. I'm betting on bad/closed points. Don't assume the PO knew the proper firing order or did it correctly either. Check the firing order of 153624. I'd also bet your original carbs were good enough but the mechanics were clueless about SU's and how to adjust them.

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By the way, its a 260Z with a L28 that had the SUs and stuff from the L26 put on it. I believe it was a air conditioned model that had an AC delete if that matters, would that explain all the loose wires I see everywhere that dont seem to have a spot?

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From the manual it seems to be the "transistor type" distributor because it has the little starwheel thing. I've never really messed with distributors so its pretty much all new to me. After the car didn't start up with the Holley I got the same impression that the "mechanics" didn't know anything about SUs either

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hmmm, 260, no fire. On my first 260 (about 15 years ago) I had a phantom stalling problem. Every now and then, out of no where the car would die. All and everything checked out, except spark. Turned out the factory "ignition box" was faulty. As I've heard over the years from others these boxes were common for gremlins. Seems I wasn't alone. Now, today I have a 260 again which I am nearing the end of my resto on however somewhere along the way of it's life someone cut it out, which I have no complaints about. I personally have not dealt with the bypassing of this box nor have I removed it however it's (as memory serves) installed under the dash on the passenger side above the fuse box. I wouldn't be surprised is searching this site will reveal much detail about this however I would start with the manual otherwise.

 

Best of luck, I hope this clue leads you somewhere positive.

 

T

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Another thing is when the car did run for those 5 hours, when you had it in neutral the revs just kept building and building until you put it in gear and drive it again. I figured that was because the electric fuel pump was always on and over-fueling it but if that was the case it would just run a lot richer right? Not make it rev higher? Could this be a sign of the faulty ignition box?

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