OK, After all the dicking around with my car for the last 6 months +, and after all the parts I replaced, and after finally squeaking past the smog check only to have my car run the worst it ever has since I have owned it... I can officially say "Problem Solved".

The crap idle while cold turned into a crap idle no matter what. It was really bad. I put some good injector cleaner through it the other day and it magnified the problem to where the car would not idle at all and just ran like CACA.

I started going over the symptoms again in my head.

Rough Idle
Low operating temp
smoke from tail pipe as if it were running rich
Poor gas mileage
High level of HydroCarbons on smog printout (Max allowable was 210 average was 47 mine was running 207)

I started thinking that maybe I had an injector that was leaking into the manifold, but it didn't make sense as they are new... but then after I ran the injector cleaner the problem got worse... so maybe that was it.

Everything was so new though...
Dizzy
Coil
Plugs
Wires
Cap
Rotor
Injectors
Cold Start Valve
EGR
BPT
T V V
Air Regulator
Fuel Pump
Fuel Pressure Regulator
Catalytic Converter and entire exhaust system
Battery
Alternator
and on and on and on.

So, I told my buddy I would come over to his place tonight to help him with his '79. While we were there, we followed JfairladyZ's instructions on rebuilding the AFM on his car. It was a lot easier than it sounded. When we were done, his car ran about the same... but it runs great right now anyway.

When I got to his house, my car would not stay running at all... it was horrible. He was shocked by how bad my car sounded. no matter how high I tried to adjust the idle... it just kept dying and sputtering.

I have put off doing this AFM rebuild on my car for some time now because it is the kind of thing that I would have the highest likelyhood of screwing up with my big hands working in a small and delicate environtment.

Since his was so easy to do, I thought "Might as well give it a shot" I pulled it out and followed the steps, cleaned the contacts then sealed it back up and put it back in the car.

OH MY GOD!!!! When I started it back up, the RPM's went ballistic! I had to back the idle way, way back down. Once I got it down to where it is supposed to be, I noticed something crazy... it was purring like a kitten. Running smooth as silk.
We drove it around for a while and it was just awesome. The power was back, the smoke was gone, the operating temp was back up where it belongs...

I can now close the book on this episode.

Thanks a bunch JfairladyZ!!!!

Rod.

 

congradulations on finally getting the problem solved!

and props to J as well

 

Jason is truly a Zedophile - and his info and knowledge is second-to-none. If I were keeping the AFM on my car, I'd do a complete rebuild of it as well, as per J's instructions.

Well done Rod, and Rock on J.

-Dave-O

 

Glad you got the Z back up to normal. I'll be there soon too. Just have to hit up the store tomorrow for a motorcycle battery and some brackets to fab up a tiedown and I'll be ready to test drive the Z with the 60mm tb on.

 

Good to here your Z is running, And Yes J should be president

 

nice work Rod AND J ....WHERE DID you find the AFM rebuild links ...or do you just have them on paper i would like to take a look at them.... maybe i will rebuild this extra AFM I have

 

Bleach, or L-Dub made it a "Sticky" in the Performance section. It was really easy to do, took all of about ten minutes, cost nothing and made all the difference in the world. I gave the car it's first cold start this morning since fixing it last night and it was totally awesome. It did everything it's supposed to do, and nothing that it wasn't supposed to do. You could hear the AR kick in and the CSV doing it's job. Idle went way up at first and then settled in just where it belongs. No coughing or sputtering at all. I let it run for about 5 minutes without ever once touching the gas pedal and it was just perfect. Actually, it's the smoothest it's been since I have owned it.

Rod.

 

Drove it about a hundred miles today and it was perfect all day. I am so stoked! I can't beleive a problem that has been haunting me for months only took ten minutes and ZERO dollars to fix. Did I mention that I was stoked?

Rod.

 

That's probably the best rebuild sticky I have seen yet. Like Rod said, $0 and just a few minutes work, and it could very well fix a mass majority of running problems. J deserves a lot of credit for bringing it to our attention!!!

 

You guys are making me blush

Now that I know how to post pics I'm gonna go through and touch it up with pics just to lower the intimidation factor even more. I figure if people can actually see how simple it is before they jump into it then more will give it a try.

I'm glad to know it's helping people this much. Hopefully with pics it'll help even more.

 

That's a great idea, J!! I'd like to see the pics, just as a comparison, kinda...

You 'da man!!

 

Well the pics are going to have to wait til tomorrow cause photobucket is still updating their network and I can't post any pics right now and I'm about ready for bed. Its after 3am here on the eastern sea board. But I'll definitely get around to them tomorrow.

 

Car still runs perfect. I can't beleive something so simple caused so many headaches. I love the fact that it's fixed though. Makes me feel a lot better about getting back into the rest of the restore/upgrade job on the car.

Rod.

 

Im going to try this tomorrow. During the weekend just started looking around to see If I could fix the idle problem. Turns out that the EGR valve was crapping out! So I took the hose that led to it and just capped it with a small screw. It idles better now but might need more work. Gonna replace the fuel filter and some other things tomorrow.

 

i replaced my pcv valve, idles better than ever now