General Help
 

Hey Guys, I bought my Z for 500$ a couple months ago from people that thought it was ugly and didnt want to put work into it. I rebuilt the motor already but now i have a few issues. The car seems to lag like its missing every now and then or not getting fuel and it lags when i accel. it takes off then lags then goes again and lags again. The lag when accel is for about a full second when at a steady speed it is barely noticeable just feels like it slows for half a sec. Any Ideas?

Just to let you know it has new dist cap, wires, plugs, oil and new radiator.

Also im need to get a temp sensor but i cannot seem to find out whether my Z is Canadian or American...how can i find out? Thank you.

This is my first hardcore restoration on any car...body and paint work next week will get pics up soon.

Welcome to ZDriver! :006:

What's the timing set to? Have you tried adjusting the AFM?

You can check the VIN to see if it's a Canada or US version, or just look at the dash... if the speedo is in KM and the temp gauge in Celsius, it's a Canada version. :D

Also im in need of a few orignal interior parts.

The driver side knob for the rear window.
The hook pieces for the visors.
oh and all the panels for the trunk someone cut them up to put speakers in
and they did a horrible job and the one by the hats is just sunbakes and warped.

Dont care what color...its all getting painted.

In case i didnt say this earlier, this is all for a 82 280zx 2+2 non-turbo t-top.

Might be a timing issue i suppose, we did time it but i just talked to the mechanic that is helping me and he said it may still be off and i get the feeling we may not be firing right just yet.
We tried to set it to 0 on the crank pulley and it should be close but we did the engine rebuild and put it in in 2 days...so everyone was abit irritated and tired...we are going to check it again tuesday.

Dumb question what is AFM?

thanks for the sarcasm(life would be boring without it lol)...u have a good point tho. its american apparently...but just for stupidities sake what part of the vin would tell me and how?

AFM = Air Flow Meter.

I wasn't being sarcastic, I was being serious... I owned a Canadian 280zx and was just telling you the easiest way to find out. :D

VIN check: http://www.xenons130.com/VINinfo.html

That one isn't very complete for the 81+ (JN1) VIN's, but you can also look it up in the Haynes manual.

gather some data like vacuum and fuel pressure. the two most common faults that make the l28 run funny. If you have a crappy battery and cables it will also cause a lot of gremlins. s130 does not like low voltage to the electronics. playing with the afm is probably the last thing you want to mess with. download the fsm from xenon of course you need to read it also. download the fi bible. not specific to the s130 but gives you a good insight into how nissan made the fi system work. you might want to get in touch with the z club folks in portland. lots of knowledge there and a good bunch of folks. don't confuse the coolant temp sensor with the chts. chts can cause problems.

Cool, alright so i will look that all that up. battery is new and so are the terminals. idle is low at 500 after it is warm but i will fix that tuesday and see what changes along with the timing.

Glad to see there is a car club somewhat near by, i will make sure to look them up.

Just curious, i know that the l28 stock new was suppose to get 20mpg...what are they like used? mine is at just over 140k miles, cause if my gas gauge is remotely close im looking at roughly 10mpg...tho doing the timing and getting it to run right might bring that up a bit.

Anyone got any ideas and the little original parts? or a place to maybe order them?

oh and thank you nismo for the welcoming...ive been getting info off the site since i got the car, its a great help.

well for the parts, there's a post around here somewhere showing all the good places to buy Z parts, and as for the trunk panels, your not going to find any ones in any kind of good condition because junkyard ones are soggy or just sun rotted if you can even find a Z, finding and buying a parts car is pretty easy, but finding a 2+2 is a little harder, I think the trunk panels are slightly different from a coupe.
what you could do though is make your own trunk panels I cant imagine it would be too difficult, find some card board or whatever the panels are made, soak it in water to make it bendable then bend it in the contours of the original panel and cover it in spray glue to harden it, although this is all theoretical lol I gotta try it one of these days.

I can fabricate them..i make custom knives for a living...its just if i fabricate them its going to be out of steel and to get the amount i need is roughlt 300$ but the car is well worth it to me if i must.

Its more the visor hooks im worried about...they would be a pain to fab and fit right.

well i dont think you'll have to fab the whole thing, I think the structure arm is metal, you just have to buy some sheets of foam and vinyl or whatever the cover material is made of and wrap it around it.

do you have a web page for your knives?

Not sure this is the place for advertising but if the forum allows then here is the info.

No we do not have a direct site but i do have some sites where you can get pics...these are dealer sites so the prices are higher than they would be if you called us direct.

arizonacustomknives.com look under the sold section and look up

Kyle Vallotton, Rainy Vallotton(my father), or Brandon Vallotton...

You can also find them at nicnac.net and scroll down the Vallotton Custom knives on the left hand bar.

low price range direct from us is 300.
Average for a fancy knife(pearl handles, damascus bolster...blued or etched)
run around 750 - 900.

These are full customs made from scratch so please dont freak about the price. We are in the top 10 of custom makers in the world it is well worth it and you can really get just about anything you want.

If you want our phone number then go to valknives.com and click on contact info...the site is crap but the contact info is good.

awesome!

Thank you.

Oh just for the record brandon is my older brother.

If anyone is interested give us a call or shoot me an email address. Just ask for one of the three names i gave u....we do payments just so u know...it just means no knife till its payed for which is our policy on all knives.

did anyone ever find the places to buy random interior parts for Z cars or the thread that they were on?

Alright one last stupid question...for now.

On the thermo houseing are the temp sensor, temp sender and one more sensor looking plug....what is that the last one.

It has a single wire coming from it and screws directly into the thermostat housing...but i cant seem to find out what it is.

There are 3 sensors...

#1: Water temp sensor for dash gauge
#2: Water temp switch for the aux fan
#3: Thermotime switch for the cold start valve.

From the FSM (you should download it here: www.xenons130.com/reference if you haven't done so yet). :D

Attachment 18959

Thank you.

Well..got that all figured out as far as timing and sensors and all.

Then of course things have to have problems....picked up a new strut and brake pads.

Should be easy to do...not..my left back caliper...frozen...grr. lol.

So Car stays on lift tonight and gets fixed tomorrow..which brings me to my next question.

My rear emergency brake cable...the one that goes from tire to tire...frozen on the left side also...anyone know were to get a complete cable that is not over
100$?

you might want to check out black dragon auto they have all kinds of parts and not to bad on price

So the e brake is fixed and so is the caliper. YAY. Almost to perfect running order.

Also thanks nismo..u were right between the timing being slight off(now fixed) and the caliper seized against the rotor(also fixed) it was causing the lag issue. Now that its all fixed no more lag.
Now with the timing fixed...i love the sound of this car and the accel..its not better than my 3.0 v6 3000gt but it is a beautiful thing none the less :)

New question tho..is it normal for the light to dim from loss of power when accelerating hard? if not...what might cause it..its after like 3500 - 4000 rpm...goes back to normal when i shift.

Also just in case its a problem the ac belt it not on..i think the bearing went out before i got the car and the guy just pulled the belt and left it...which is fine by me i dont use ac anyways...thats what i have a t top for lol.

Also if anyone has a BC auto parts near them and need the rear brake cable..go thru them...its 91$. I got it for 50 thanks to a friend but its still the cheapest i have found.