hey guys!
how's it going? just came across the forums and finally got registered. so this is my first post. I recently acquired a deal i could not refuse. a friend calls says he's got a friend that needs the car gone. so after a bit of haggling i'm able to get this beast for $200. the fuel pump was assumed bad by the previous owner so going through the troubleshooting i put some gas in the tank and after a few turns she roared right to life. so here's the info. she's a 1980 with the L28 n/a and 5 speed tranny. her interior was raped pretty bad by the previous owner. the tach doesn't work so i installed an aftermarket temporarily and the speedo needle is broken as well. so lookin for some gauges if you guys know a good source. needs some body work. dents here and there and portions are blue and the rest silver. needs a small window on the driver side rear. so lots of work ahead of me. she runs alright, drives pretty good. there's an issue i've been concerned about though. when i start the engine, it runs and idles fine. when i give it some gas, there's some hesitation and sometimes a loud popping sound. i'm not sure of what it could be. one friend said it could be sticky injectors but another said that these heads like to drain oil and it might be the lifters popping like that. any ideas let me know. otherwise i think it was a pretty good deal for one of these beautiful machines. what you guys think?

~drtask

Great deal, have fun...........

I agree, sounds like a great deal. Glad to see another Z is being saved....

Welcome to ZDriver! and good score on the ride. A hesitation like that could be a worn / mis-tuned AFM or TPS, or timing, or O2 sensor... check all the basics & do a tune up.

and if you haven't done so yet, buy a Haynes manual ASAP.

thanks for the replies guys. yeah a haynes is definitely in the game plan. heh and tonight i learned there's an issue with the pot for turning on the heater. time to bust out that ohm meter. thanks for the ideas btw. i'll check things out and do the routine tune up and get back at you guys.

well i was doing some intake work and thought to myself "gee that valve cover is gnarly." so i pulled it off to clean it up and take some pics of whats goin on in there. so here's the pics. notice the rust-ish color on the cam lobe. is this something i should be worried about? or is this just where the oil has permanently embedded itself in the metal? just curious because its on just a few of the cam lobes not on all of them. otherwise everything looks good. here's the pics:

The rust on the cam lobes is pretty normal if the car has been sitting for a while. I would verify the rust isn't too deep (scratch a fingernail across the lobe), as it appears to be surface rust only.

Yep... it's not rust. Check your valve clearance.