Well guys my I just ran into a expensive snag on my '82 280zx today. I found out my distributor is no good. I had no vaccum advance or, centrifugal. I am bummed out. And then I thought I could take one out of my '81. Scratch that, that distributor is worse than the other one! It has broken plastic pieces in the inside. D*mn it, that sucks! So now I have to wait until I can come up with some decent cash to buy another one. Oh well, I guess the Z will be down another month or so.

Anyway can somebody get me or have an extra non-turbo distributor lying around? Please let me know, and how much. I can't take him out, or run him without another one. Any feedback would be appreciated Thanks!

 

Cant you just save up and get one from auto zone there like 200.

 

Is it just your advance that's out? My mechanical advance doesn't work either. I tried removing the mechanical advance to replace it with scrap yard pieces and the screws just stripped out(damnit). And I have my vacuum advance disabled(the diaphram was leaking). My Z runs fine(81), though it would be better with the mechanical advance back in service. The vacuum is just for economy anyways. How bad is your Z running. I
Oh, and sorry, I don't have an extra distributor, as I need one myself.

 

My Z still runs rough, because of my distributor, is just basically sitting there. No vaccum, or centrifugal advance. And my dad said it had a lot to do with the way the car is running. And he said when he drove it to my house after I bought it almost 2 years ago. It had plenty of power, so I do not know why it does not run right. I didn't really do anything to it. So that is what I think it is, the distributor is no good. Considering my dad looked at both of them, and checked the vaccum. It also sucks that I can't get the vaccum advance by itself. I am just hoping I can find a decent cheap one somewhere. Because a new one is about $200. And that right now is a lot of money to me. It will set me back for over a month. It sucks!

 

I think the vaccume is for better idle and more torque. When I swapped my distributor from my 84 Maxima just to see what it would do, all of a sudden my Z idled so much smoother. I had faster startup and the car ran better when cold. I instantly had more power in the low range. I'm still running the Maxima distributor now.

oh, and it also saved me a bunch of money on my car insurance.

 

How is that possible? Is the Maxima a ohc 6? Or are you pulling my chain? LOL I bet it wasn't because you switched to GEICO. they suck!!

 

Didn't the maxima use the L too?

 

I believe it did.

 

Yes, the Maxima used the L6 up until '84 or '85 I think.

 

I heard the Maxima had a head you could instal on the Z(duh) and bump up your compression, any truth to this?

 

Yup. If I recall, the Maxima heads have a 37cc chamber compared to the 44cc chamber in the pre 81 Z's and a 53cc chamber in the 81-83 Z's.

This will significantly increase your compression. The good news is the Maxima heads have a very efficient chamber design in the 81 and up model years so you can still run them on a Z with good tuning and premium gas.

 

Everything was cool, but you lost me on this part. When you say 81 and up, are you refering to the Z(this is what I assumed), if so I'm lost on the last part where you said them. Them as is in the Mazima head or the Z head?

 

Edited in original post for clarity...

 

Thanks lww, that makes sense to me now.