FubarI33t

Like I said before, My motor tryes to start. It catches and tryed to, but dies and just contunue to crank from starter. I pulled plugs today, 1,3,5 show normal operation, 2,4,6 are driping with gas. Anyone with this problem before?

NismoPick

Looks like 1,3,5 injectors aren't spraying (to state the obvious). Could be the drop resistor, or clogged injectors. What you can do, is find a fuel injector diode light (maybe from a parts store) and hook it on to each fuel injector wiring connector & crank... see if it lights. If not... then you know it's electrical. If they all light, then it would prolly be clogged injector. Also make sure each cylinder is firing, by pulling one plug wire at a time & cranking to see if there is spark.

FubarI33t

I took the ECU from the part's car, (5 speed) even though mine is an auto, i was told that it should still be able to start and run the motor, just not drive. that ECU came from a running car, so i know it work's. and it does the smae thing as when my orig ECU is in it. Just to say, If the 1st injector was cloged, why would 3 and 5 not spray? All 6 plug's are fireing, i checked that as i checked the condition of them, to try to get a pic of what's going on inside the motor. The back fier's are small now, and seam to be going away as they keep geting smaller, werid.

jfairladyz

Sounds like a no spark situation to me. I mean even though the car isn't starting it should still be burning the gas if theres spark. No spark = no boom = wet spark plugs. Now if you look at the firing order of the spark plugs it goes: 1, 5, 3 (the ones that are fine), then 6, 2, 4 (the ones that arent firing, wet plugs). So it sounds to me like the first set of cyliners is firing (thats the engine trying to catch) and the the second set of cylinders is doing nothing. Now if the missing cylinders were a little more dispersed then theres a good chance that the engine would still start. I've started mine on 3 cylinders before and have even driven it that way. But since you're missing 3 cylinders all in a row there's not enough momentum for the engine to actually start.Now the fuel injectors all inject at the same time, half of the fuel every rotation. So spark timing is really the only system that follows that particular cylinder order. Aside from the obvious, you should check the air gap in the distributor. If it's biased to one side (1,5,3) then theres a chance that the rest of the plugs arent getting their firing signals. Test all your distributor components and see what you come up with. If you dont have a multimeter then find someone that does. You can get a cheapo one at a parts store for a few bucks. And since the stator/reluctor setup and distributor cap are really the only things that direct spark that could be where your problem is. Now another thing: check you plug wires AGAIN. Remeber, they go on the cap in the order they fire, not in numerical order. So if you put them on 1,2,3,4,5,6 then that could definitely cause a problem. If you've got them switched between the non firing cylinders then they'll be firing off time and not burning any fuel. Check all that crap out and let us know what you come up with.

EDIT: Check the distributor shaft as well. If the shaft is wobbling in then the spark may not be reaching that half of the distributor cap.

nismo619

my g.f. 1983 280zx non turbo was having hte same problems it was 5 faulty spark plugs no joke i changed them out with my split fire spark plugs and it runs fine now, p.s. 23456 were all flooded and when the car did start she would have to hold down the gas all the way...

NismoPick

Sorry to burst your bubble, but SplitFire sparkplugs are a joke. The are no greater than single point sparkplugs... as the laws of physics prove that the spark can only jump from 1 electrode at any given time.

Here's a good ol' lawsuit against them:

http://www.miata.net/garage/splitftc.html

EDIT... Use NGK plugs for Z cars... Thas what Nissan recommends, and it's what works best.

jfairladyz

You know something else I thought about and I'd almost be willing to put money on this: I'll bet your distributor is 180 degrees out of whack. So do this: Set the engine to 0 degrees TDC. Just make sure both #1 cam lobes are pointing UP. You should be able to see this through the oil filler cap. Now with your distributor cap off, and the rotor still on check which way it's pointing. If it's pointing in any direction other than 10 O'Clock then pull the distributor up and rotate it until it is. This would explain your backfires and your lack of start and why it doesn't want to fire on all cylinders. Give a check and see what you get.

If you're bad at telling time then just pull the distributor up and rotate the shaft 180 degrees and then put it back in and tighten it up and try to start the car. You owe me a cookie if it does

FubarI33t

Well I thought of that, checked it, Dizzy is right on where it's supposed to be, just about to strike #1 Plug Lead. She did a werid noise today, funny one. After that noise I pulled the #1 plug, Thin white smoke came out, checked 2-6, all of them had thin white smoke. I unscrewd the oil cap, thin white smoke came out of it. The backfire's are almost compleatly gone now, they just seamed to fade away. werid.

RodMoyes

Uhhhhhhhhhhh, Hey J... These are indexed/notched dizzy's... you CAN'T put them in any way other than the right way... ... ... Rod.

jfairladyz

Thats not true. You can put it in 180 degrees off. But thats it. You're right in that you cant put it in just a little off or anything like that. But you can put it in completely turned around from where its supposed to be. And the symptoms of doing as such are EXACTLY what he's been describing. Backfiring, engine trying to catch but never actually starts, and obviously since its off, all the cylinders arent firing correctly. But you can definitely put it in backwards. It's notched so you can ONLY put it in two ways. Right or wrong.

81 Black L28E

this is true ...however if your oil pump shaft is in wrong then your f#$@&^...i put mine in wrong ,it was really gay ...i had a shity dissy so i cracked opened the bottom just to make it fit ...it would run fine ...but when reved it ,it wouldnt sound right ..i swaped everything back to right ....after i figured out what bleach and i had done..

jfairladyz

Yeah putting the oil pump shaft in wrong will screw ya too cause then the dizzy will never line up right.

Fubar, I think you should go back to square one. Take note of exactly what has been dismanteled on the engine and then start going through everything all over again. Either you did something really wrong or you overlooked something while troubleshooting. Theres always a reason why a car wont start. Take it one step at a time. What ever the problem it really sounds like a timing issue (either valve or spark). So if you think you've checked something, then check it again. The problem is there, you just have to find it. Engines are really basic in theory. Sure sensors and wires complicate things but all in all it's the basics you have to worry about. Air, Fuel, and Spark. Thats it. First figure out which you're not getting and then figure out why. Troubleshooting does you no good if you dont even know whats wrong.

Bleach

Black's dizzy went in 180 deg off because the thing was so worn out that the shaft was sloppy enough to move over the offcenter notch at the top of the oil pump spindle thing... ya, anyway. They aren't supposed to be able to be put in 180 off if everything is tight and new.

The distributor on my Z will not go in 180 deg off.

RodMoyes

Yeah Beechez!!!! What Bleach said Sucka don't tell me my bidness!!!!!

jfairladyz

I guess the notch must be busted off of my engine then cause I've installed my distributor (rotor and shaft actually) at both 0degrees and 180 degrees from that. Here I though this was just all the motors. I guess I've got something else broken on my car Oh well this motor's hitting the trash bin here soon anyways. Almost turbo time. I had similar symptoms to what Fubar is experiencing so I pulled the distributor up and rotated the shaft and just pushed the distributor back down and tightened it up. Didn't fix the problem, it was something else. But I did try it and I could rotate the dizzy 180degrees.

WildmaN

Well I have to say, it happened to me with my '82. I forgot which way the rotor was pointing. And guessed putting it back in. Well it barely start and ran, so I turned the dizzy 180 degrees the other way. And of course the car ran better, doh. Anyway just so J isn't left out in the cold. LOL

FubarI33t

I think it might just be the internal timeing between the cam and crank. The Crank Pully bolt is NOT tourqed, and was loose at one time. When i did manage to get my car cranked up, the bolt was tight to spec, but one day i asked my freind to put ,my larg socket wrench on the crank and turn it to set TDC, he turned the wrong way, and the bolt became loose, I got under the car with the large socket wrench and tighted as tight as i could. but i did not tourq it back on, Think this might of caused a timeing jump?

jmw.81

The pulley has nothing to do with timing. The timing sprocet is seperate from the pulley. Completely unrelated. Dont sweat it.

s/cL3.0

But you do need to find where TDC is at... prolly be easiest to take off the head and start over..