Need help
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Need help
Hey there, I saw you had a technical section, but I chose to post here so I could maybe get some more input. I just bought a 1982 280ZX Turbo from a local guy for 1500 dollars. It had been sitting for 5 years before he decided to sale it. I cleaned out the gas tank, put in a new fuel pump, fuel presure regulator, and filter. After making sure there wasn't going to be a problem with bad gas I tried to crank her. Fired up after a 2 tries. Ran good but seemed to be struggling a bit. I found the driverside rear e brake had locked up and the caliper was stuck to the rotor. I fixed this and after a few days tried to driver her again. Now there is a odd missfire problem. I cleaned the distributer points and it helped "alittle" so I bought a new cap. I put new plugs and wires on, still it's acting odd. At first startup she wants to die when you give her gas, once she warms a little she'll rev but not past 2k, after a little persuastion she'll rev but still missfires pretty bad. You can hear a backfire "like" sound poping in the intake area. I am not sure what's going on. I have a good bit of exp. with MKIII Supra turbo's but this Z is totally diffrent. Any help would greatly be app. I think I may have the firing order off on the cap too, but I am not sure. If you can what points on the cap go to what cylinders, and if I have those right what do you guys think could be going on?
More Than Meets The Eye
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 5,120
From: Mesa, Az
I can tell you the firing order. 1-5-3-6-2-4. Going counter-clockwise. Starting at the F inside the cap. Hope this helps. Yeah and it is possible your timing is retarded a little. Try moving it one way, and see if it changes any. If not go the other way. I am pretty good at stabbing the distributor. Just by ear. Anyway congratulations on your new Z. 
Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy our Z's! 
Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy our Z's!
Registered User
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 1,046
From: squwamton
timeing is a good thing to check like they said, but i would check your rev control box its at the front of the intake little black box right on the driver side you mite have to change that out ./..also i would check all of your injector clips if one is not on just right it can make a wierd miss take a screw driver and put it to each injector put your ear to it and see if you hear each injector clicking .if you do then you golden but if you dont ,,change the bad ones out ..it could also be you air fuel mix turn the ajustment srcew on the front driver side right behind the rev control box ...hope this helps
Registered User
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 5,485
From: Temecula, CA
I was going to mention something about the distributor, but theres not a stator/reluctor setup on the turbo engine and the ECU controls the timing I believe,so you can't adjust timing with distributor. But I'd check it to make sure it's right. I'd go with the injector wiring mentioned above, and make sure your firing order is correct.
I had a similar problem on my NA, I had to drive it 10 miles on the freeway at about 1800RPM. And that's in SoCal, I've never seen so many birds . It ended up being my ignition module. Sometimes it would kill the car completely, but on this particular occasion it only made the car stutter like it hadn't completely broken contact but was on the verge. I replaced the coil, plugs, cap, rotor, wires to no avail. So I replaced the IM and haven't had a problem in almost two years.
It did not however have that revving problem but that one time, so...
I had a similar problem on my NA, I had to drive it 10 miles on the freeway at about 1800RPM. And that's in SoCal, I've never seen so many birds
. It ended up being my ignition module. Sometimes it would kill the car completely, but on this particular occasion it only made the car stutter like it hadn't completely broken contact but was on the verge. I replaced the coil, plugs, cap, rotor, wires to no avail. So I replaced the IM and haven't had a problem in almost two years.It did not however have that revving problem but that one time, so...
