Starting in the morning
 

My 86 2+2 starts up great every time except for that first time in the morning. It's strange because once it gets taht first start out of the way it has no problems. Any comments?

very normal for a 20 year old car.

I've got your problem too, the first morning start sucks, and then the rest of them are fine. From what I've heard on some other websites it's supposed to be an ignition problem. Try replacing the coil, along with the distributor cap and rotor, and maybe your plug wires. You could also go to a performance ignition system from MSD or something.:D

Try fooling with the cold start valve. hard to place where it is in my head. but maybe someone elso knows where it is.

It deffinately sounds like there's a problem with your cold start. It's a cheap part, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

yes but where in the engine bay is it located? if its cheap Id like to replace mine too....

There's not a 'cold start valve' on 300zx's. the 280z and zx's had a 'cold start injector' which our car's don't have though. This could be what others are referring to as the 'cold start valve'.

You do have an air regulator though, which is supposed to help with cold starts. Your cylinder head temp sensor could also be a culprit. you can check the ohms on either of them, or try running the engine codes and see if it calls out either of these.

the air regulator is on the passenger side of the upper intake plenum, toward the rear between the egr solenoid and the pcv valve. it has a 2-wire connector going to it.

the chts is behind the timing belt cover backplate, below the distributor. it's a royal pain to get to, but you should easily be able to disconnect it's subharness from the main harness in order to check the ohms on it. the connection to the main harness should be near the #1 spark plug - it's a black squarish connector with 2 wires.

right, right , I may have been wrong (I only got my 300zx on thursday of last week). someone should look in a haynes book or something. it has a pretty good troubleshooting section.

The air regulator uses a heater and bimetallic strip. The heater is undersized, so it will typically outlast the bushing that the air vane rotates upon. If it electrically checks out ok, and the car still has cold start problems, its probaby the air vane bushing sticking or worn out. You can remove the air regulator when the car is cold, and check the position of the air vane to be sure rather than just ordering a new one.


I have tried to clean them, but with little success in a long term fix. As they are around $180 from Nissan, I'm trying to find an alternative replacement. Supposedly some BMW models will work, and they are about $40, but I don't know which one.

Thanks
Ron