New to Datsun
 

Hello zdriver forums,
First let me introduce my self on this site, my name is Nick and I been working on a 1968 ford for a long time. When I saw this 1977 280z that was sitting on its same spot for 2 years near my house, I wrote a note to the datsun owner. Few days after, he called me and wanted to sell it for dirt cheap, the orange datsun cost $300. He sold it to me this cheap because he want it out of his yard, he don't have the time to mess with it.

He drove the car from Oregon to Californa 4 years ago, and he said it drive great. The car is from oregon, and it won't pass smog here in californa. Do anyone know why?

Another problem I have on the 280z, When I first installed a new battery for this car, it started right up, which it shocken me that it achally ran, but it seems really weak and died on me about few minute after. It dose have a full tank of gas, I think it is four or two years old. Later, I looked around the messy wire system, and pulled out the coil checked it, it seemed fine and put it back, looked around the distubior, that was fine also. I try to start it again, it won't start up at all, it still crank, got gas, and no starting up. What could be wrong with it? There is no spark on the spark plug. It like I touched the wires and won't start, but I did noticed the black wire out of the coil is not connected. Where this wire should go?

I really wanted to ride this car bad, and the probs are making me crazy :retard:
Thanks, Nick.

Welcome to ZDriver!!! :038:

#1... Buy a Haynes manual. They are very useful & all the basic maintenance & repair info is found there.

CA has strict emissions laws. :D

ALWAYS DRAIN & REPLACE GAS THAT IS OVER A YEAR OLD. You prolly sucked up a ton of water, rust, dirt, and other things into the fuel system. :D


It ran then stopped? I'm sure it still has spark... the motor got choked out from some nasty old gas.

Thanks NismoPick,
But the gas seems to be clean, but I will do so anyway. If something did got suck in the car fuel lines, how do I actually get them out? I am new to fuel injection cars. I wanted the car to pass smog, how is this possible? Dose it need a cadillac converter or something?

Just because the gas "looks" like gas... doesn't mean it will still burn like it should. Gas can deteriorate over time making it much less efficient. Also, condensation from the gas tank can actually form pools of water & be sucked up into the fuel lines. WATER = NO BURN = NO START. (I bought a 4Runner last fall that sat for 4 years... I know what to expect) :D Here's some good reads on that:

http://autos.aol.com/article/general...03144909990001

http://www.film.queensu.ca/cj3b/Tech/Starting.html

There are procedures for starting a car that has been sitting for years... besides the gas, you also need to add some oil / penetrating lube to each cylinder because the cylinder walls / rings can rust over time. It's also important to change the oil, coolant, & plugs.

Thanks again,
The link you gave me was very helpful, I will drain out the old gas soonly. Here what I did, when it ran and died on me, and try to start it up, which failed. Then I looked at the eletrcal system, there seem a black ground wire hanging out that is from the negiave side of of the coil wire system. Do you have any idea where this wire go? I checked if there spark, I used my old ford sparkplug which it still works, plug the spark wire to it and turn over the motor to see if there spark. But no spark. Could it be the black ground wire has to be some where?

Thanks

Some photos
 

Some photos, I just want to see if the motor looked ok and the wire that I am holding was the the wire that was hanging out.

typing isnt one of your strong sides is it cause your gramer is VERY odd. but yes, i would get that fuel system cleaned out and fuel replaced before going anyfurther.

My bad, I am just tired, it affect my gramar skills. I will be draining out the old gas, and put new gas in, hoping it would start.

Again, any one know how to make the car to pass smog? Is there a kit or as such to pass smog. I want to know this before I really own the car.

Thanks

It's GRAMMAR. :D Firefox spell checks as you type... you should try it sometime.


We have quite a few CA guys here... hopefully they will chime in soon w/ some suggestions to make the smog nazis happy.

I am back to this thread, don't these 280z have power steering? I am ready to take this car off of this guy's place, and notice the different feel of the steering between my 1968 thunderbird and this datsun. The datsun is more stiff, and I saw fluid in the power steering tank. When I started the car, there no different on the steering as it was off.

Also don't these z cars don't smoke alot? Mine was smoking like hell when I rev it up. This car is still at the previous owner place and it smoking his house up like a cigar.

No... the Z car (just like any other car) should NOT smoke a lot.

What color smoke?

blue = burning oil
white = burning coolant
black = running too rich

yes what color smoke? and NO car should EVER smoke unless there is some bad news. also, no, the 1969-1979 i believe never had power steering. so idk what tank you were looking at but it sure as hell wasnt the power steering fluid tankd what ever that is. did you see a power steering pump? nooo.... so thats your first clue. the second is that there are no lines going to the steering rack, only a steering shaft from the column/steering wheel

The color smoke is light gray, now I have no idea how to tune a fuel injected car, any tips? I see it has a big round flat cylinder right next to the steering metal bar, that is a power steering pump right? I see it has fluid but no power?

< cough ... cough >

Or you can download the FSM from carfiche.com or xenons130.com.

\

Oh my bad NismoPick, just bored here trying to gather information. I did took a look at the site and saw the polishing value covers, and been wondering is it safe to remove a value cover from this car. I know it is safe to do it as long you don't run the motor, but it is it? My value cover is ugly as hell.

While you're bored... download the manual. :D And yes, it's "safe" to remove the valve cover, BUT the gasket will likely crack or break... make sure your local parts store has one in stock before removing it.

Yeah, I looked for one and they have it, YEAH! :icon_pidu: :icon_super: I am waiting for that site to have that manual ready

This is the power steering pump & reservoir.

Dang nice motor. My car dose not have that, but I never had a car without powersteering, will it be fine with out powersteering?

Most S30's did not have the power steering option, but they do have a quicker ratio steering rack to make up for it. Don't worry about not having PS... most people remove it & go w/ the manual rack to "upgrade" their car.

Alright, I did not know that. Thanks.

was there ever an S30 with power steering? i never heard of one. yet you say most....

I said most DID NOT. :D

yeah. exactly, implying thats some DID. duesch. now splain yourself

Meh... I thought I've seen a 280z w/ power steering. According to Snw... no S30 has ever had power steering. There ya have it.

there's a few that people put power steering on, as i so plan to do muhahaha

Power steering is for gays.

Not that theres anything wrong with gays.

Quite a naive comment. :D

no really, power steering in an S30 is gay. it is completly uneccessary. its a manual rack so it feels like any power steering car just with MUCH better positive feedback and only becomes slightly difficult to use at a dead stop. even then, the cars weigh well under 3000lbs so totally unecessary. ive gone into steep drifts with the 260 (sorry ray only 2 times promise) and didnt even think about the manual rack cause it feels fine. all your doing by going PS is adding weight, less feedback as to what your driving on, more power train hp loss, and a worse ratio for steering. more turns.

Probably why the door won't close 100% ****** lol

lol... no no, thats either cause the frame at the top is goofy or you need to adjust it. look at the latch the door latches to its mounted to the car istelf on the sill. it should be held in place by two large philip screws loosen them up and it moves around, just loosen them a little bit, tap them back slowly and then re-tighten and close the door again and see where its at. it takes some playing around with to get it right.

You guys are right about that powersteering, they are really useless.

Anyway, I gave the car a really good tune up. But there is something not right, everytime the car is running it seems to be jumping the engine speed to 500rpm to 1000rpm like every several minutes. When I twist around the spark wires it seem to stay about 800r rpm, sometimes 1000rpm. When I let a day pass by I tried to start the car again, the engine speed is changing again, I have to open the hood again and wobble the wires again to make it maintian its engine speed. ANY THOUGHT?

you could start with a tune up. change the cap rotor spark plugs and the wires

Good advice right after he says this:

shut up. lol. maybe if you havent already clean the electrical connections in the engine bay and on the ecu. also check the timing. need a timing light for that though. and its got all new gas in it right? also a vacume leak could cause similare problems

Well Guys, she running great. She stays on 900rpm. I gave her new gas, and she runs smooth. Now, She is still smoking, but not alot. there is a new law here in America, if there any visible smoke out the vehicle it can't pass smog. I don't know what to do now, the car is not a California car, so it don't have smog equipments. I want to deal with the car before the end of may.

what you can do is get a po box in a city that has no smog laws like(like where hoov100 lives) and register it there.
hoov100 lives in thousand palms just to let you know

Really? That might just work, but I am about 517 miles away from Thousand palms, but to po box it there just might work... Looks like I am going to have a road trip with my 68 Thunderbird towing the Datsun there.

not necessarily to there find the closest city without smog laws, you might even find one next to your city. just search

ive been thinking about that stupid plan you guys all thought up, its still registered under you, so who is to say they wont base the smog off where your ddriver's license is from or your mailing address cause you have the title created under a PO box?

i don't know but why not give it a shot

Smoking info
 

:038: It is nice to see that you are getting it back together. For the smoking, I would recommend putting a can of sea foam into the fuel tank to clean out any water, to clean out the fuel lines and such. You can get here in almost any parts store. You should be be able to find it there. Keep driving it around, the ring may need to be replaced. It also may clean it self up after a few miles. Wish you the best, Rich.:023:

For the smoking my guess would be the good ol' 280Z water temp sensor. These things have pretty much failed on every 280z that has the original sensor by now. So they'll start to make the car run alot more rich than it's supposed to be. Causing it to smoke. I noticed you said the smoke was light grey. I'm not sure what that is. It may also be alot of backed up crap in the exhaust that has sat and is making it's way out. Whenever my car sits for months at a time in a garage, when I start it up for the first time I get a bunch of smoke. Just like excess dust, moisture, etc that's accumulated in the tailpipe is making it's way out.

Thanks guys, I got it a different brand fuel cleaner and rev the shit out of the car. Still smoking, I tried to adjust the idler speed, but still smokin. The guy at autozone said, "the car might not pass smog, you should scrapped it to get the $$$ you want for it". Do you guys think that scraping my car is a good idea, just to for get it? I mean if it can't pass smog, do I just get rid of it?

I been reving the shit out of the old gas that I drained out and full it up with fresh gas, with fuel cleaner. Still no luck?

Thanks, Nick

just keep at it don't kill another z just cause it won't pass smog. sell it if worse comes to worse.

Let's recap:

Why is everyone telling him to do fuel treatment??? The spark plug tips will tell if fuel cleaner is needed. As for the light gray (blue??? white???) smoke... that's usually a sign of burning oil or burning coolant. You can rev it with all the fuel treatments in the world... that won't stop it from burning oil or coolant. Does it consume a lot of oil? Does the motor get hot (above middle of temp gauge)???

The temp gauge haven't go up that far, I don't want to take the chance of over heating it. I don't see if the coolant is draining in the radiator. But the car is about 1/4 of oil

Why do you think it would overheat?

Huh? You mean there's no coolant in the radiator?

1/4 full of oil? It's 3/4 empty?

You need to narrow down the cause of the smoke. Is it blue-ish? Is it white? What does it smell like? What do your spark plug tips look like? Is the oil foamy?

There is coolant, I mean I don't see if it is draining when the car ran. I've know most people who had a datsun like mine that over heats and have to replace almost everything in the engine. The engine has 1/4 of its old black oil.