julius Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 SO.. I have a 72 240z that i rebuilt over the summer l24 with e88 head, EVERYTHING STOCK. It has been running great for these last 6 months however this morning, starting up was harder than normal and when it finally started i immediately noticed what i felt and heard to me the engine not running on a cylinder or maybe more. (car shaking, unusual exhaust pattern, different smell from the exhaust) I drove it for a little trying to trouble shoot and feel but did not go over 2k rpm because engine felt real unbalanced. It being winter break i cannot reach my autoshop teacher and am now asking.. what do you think the problem might be? now you have to take in the fact that Ive fixed a blown head gasket on this car and have also pulled a l28 out of my other z so i do have a good understanding of how an engine works and know my way around this car, and today i have thought of a few things that might be the problem 1) water in gas tank 2) distributor points 3) air or fuel blockage of some sort Today has been very wet and cold so i have not had time to look at any issues, im simply asking for friendly input. Oh, last night i drove the car without letting it warm up at all. not sure if that matters wasn't going past 3 grand when driving Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Do you have a fuel filter on the car? Change/ Check that for water/trash. Did you park the car the day before after driving in the rain, or real wet streets? Maybe you went thru a puddle and caused steam to get in the distributor cap?. Take off and dry out. As a generalization, it sounds like a fuel issue, or electrical... You are going to have to start a trouble shoot elimination.... Just my $00.02 Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dexter72 Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 You mentioned rough run and the engine feels unbalanced. Check to see if you have a possible fouled spark plug, Cylinder with no spark, Or wire that doesn't have spark to the plugs. Thats what i would check first if you havent done so already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasper Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 (edited) Since you emphasized how wet it is outside..... My first thought would be wet/damp ignition wires, causing an ignition misfire. This may have also caused fouled plugs. Try drying the cap and wires with a hair dryer, and/or spraying WD40 on the ignition componets. I've seen it done/work. Good luck. Edited January 2, 2011 by jasper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supra510 Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 My guess is fouled plugs. Had a similar issue once and ran around trying all sorts of things. It was just the plugs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neotech84 Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 I usually would try to add some useful information to a post like this but it has been covered. Check the cap and plugs. Also because it is a new rebuild check the tension on the timing chain. I have had a motor run great (after timing chain and some gasket changed) for a few months then one day you go to start and nothing. Turned out to be the tensioner bolt backed out, it was a quick fix but it took a while to find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julius Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 Thank you all for your responses, however they were all incorrect. After noticing that my 2 and 4 cylinders were the ones not firing and that they were next to each other on the distributor cap i assumed that my cap had a hairline fracture and bought a new one (2 day wait + $10, yet when i went to install it i noticed my firing order was incorrect, 2 and 4 were switched. When placed in the correct spot my car started and the problem was gone! I left my hood slightly open new years night and im assuming that a drunk person switched them. nothing else was touched in the engine. over all $20 waste of time and money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasper Posted January 6, 2011 Share Posted January 6, 2011 Glad to hear you got it running. I was going to mention that, But the SABOTAGE section of my repair manual is missing........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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