sidneyam

Okay so here's the situation on my 90 N/A 300zx. After a plenum pull, my engine turned over and started up GREAT. I leave the engine running for a bit and notice some white steam coming form the plenum, I shut the engine off, let it cool and start her up again and it starts just fine. This time the white smoke isn't there so I go ahead and drive my car over to a job interview. I'm driving for about 15 minutes and the check engine light comes on which I later checked the ECU and it's just ECU code 32 (EGR Function). The car was running just fine though, no loss of horse power no stalling, nothing. So I get to my job interview location and shut the car off and then go for my interview, once that's done, I try starting my car and the engine turns over and it won't start! I keep trying but all the engine does is turn over. After trying a few more times I hear CLUNK so I stopped trying. Then my buddy comes over to pick me up and he tries it and then it goes CLANK. When the engine was turning over I could smell fuel coming from the plenum. Later I tried starting the car and then more loud CLUNKS, and now it doesn't do anything when the key is turned in the ignition. Please don't tell me my engine is blown.......I also hope valves weren't hitting pistons cause those clunks were loud enough to scare me. I know my timing was on because I drove it there just fine and there were no misfires. I don't even see how it's possible for it to be the timing cause I drove the car to my jon interview place. Is it the starter? And what could the loud clanks have been?

ZLover4Life

http://specialtyz.com/

Time to take your car to an expert. And you're within a days drive of Specialty Z, so you have no excuse to use anyone other than them.

sidneyam

A days drive? I can't even get it start anymore

sidneyam

you have any idea what it could be though?

sidneyam

I think I know what it is. Since the car ran just fine before and the engine was turning over and over and over before the clunking started happening, I think I got hydro locked.

WildmaN

I know that Z32's and S130's are different in many ways. But it sounds like a similar problem I had on my 280zx. I would say you have too much fuel in the cylinders. So when you go to start it, the piston hits the fuel. Causing it to make that loud clunk or clank. So I would try and figure out why you are getting too much fuel. I would also suggest unplugging your fuel source, and pulling the spark plugs, and crank it till the fuel is all out. Good luck.

sidneyam

Now I'm just being paranoid, but there isnt really a way that sound was my pistons hitting valves when the car was turning over could it? Cause my timing is on, I did drive the car before all of this happened. I highly doubt the timing jumped teeth from the time i stopped the car and tried starting it again.

WildmaN

No I wasn't saying your pistons were hitting the valves. I said maybe you are hearing the sound because of too much fuel in the cylinders. Which when the pistons hit the unburnt fuel, it makes a pretty loud sound. It happened with my 280zx. Hope that helps.

ZLover4Life

I wish there was some kind of large vehicle, maybe a TRUCK, that could TOW disabled vehicles to a shop. hmmm...

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tow+truck

Seriously, I do not think you have the technical expertise to be able to handle this issue on your own. If you can't fix it, and Specialty Z can both diagnose it (properly) and fix it (properly), that's where you need to go.

And really, look at how many issues you've had with this car since you joined this forum... furthermore, the issue you're having now may be directly related to your own work on the car. Clearly you need to have someone who knows what they're doing go through the car and find everything that needs repair, and then fix what you can afford (and need) to fix.

P.S. It is probably hydrolocked. Did you replace injectors (as you should've) during the plenum pull? More importantly, did you replace the o-rings, and do you know how to properly ensure that the o-rings didn't get pinched when you installed the injector? Because if you didn't, fuel would leak past the injector into the cylinder...

sidneyam

I know about tow trucks, it's just that I don't have the money to tow it for an hour and a half out to that site you gave me. I did replace the injectors that needed to be replaced with the plenum pull and they both had o-rings and that new cap. I guess it could be a pinched O-ring tho I'm not sure if only one could make an engine fail to start. The engine was running fine before all of this happeend. Oh and when i looked under my car yesterday I figured out what the clunking was. Apparantly the bolt for the starter was stripped of it's thread and the starter came loose. I'm gonna have to re-tap a new thread in to hold a new bolt to secure the starter. I inspected the fly wheel and there was no significant damage.

hoov100

Then pull the plenum back off, go through your injectors and reinstall them and go through everything that you touched to make sure you did it correctly. As for the stripped threads, go get a metric helicoil kit and fix it.

sidneyam

Zlover was right the o ring was pinched. I bought a new oring and reinstalled the injector and made sure it sat right. That's really weird tho. Can one injector really cause the engine not to start?

hoov100

Yeah, because instead of the fuel rail building pressure behind the injector, all of that fuel is being pumped into the cylinder.

sidneyam

Alright so I got my engine running and it runs just fine but now there's a problem at idle that I never really had. The engine is struggling to idle below 1k rpm and sometimes will stall out. Some research I've done suggests that it could be the IACV. I figured it had to do somewithing with air going into the engine so I checked for vacuum leaks and found none. Does anyone know why it will struggle to idle and even stall out sometimes?

sidneyam

I fixed it but now I can hear a ticking noise that speeds up with the engine. I know I havent been running the engine on low oil because I constantly check the dipstick throughout the week. Anyone know what it could be? It's not a loud violent tick just a soft one. Anyone know what it could be? I've heard of nissan engines having lifter ticks

hoov100

Normal lifter tick. Will you promise to listen to us from now on, when you have a question?

sidneyam

haha yeah I promise, though I never took any information that was given to me and became completely defensive about it. I always took the advice given to me because I honestly don't know enough about these engines. I know you guys know much much more. So is a lifter tick engine threatening?

ZLover4Life

No.


SEARCH.

I've detailed a simple remedy that often works... it can be found by searching.

sidneyam

haha sorry Zlover I make it seem like I don't search but I do. I actually saw that you said to run the car in high gear on a freeway to bleed the lifters. I just wanted to make sure because I have class tomorrow and don't wanna damage the engine. I actually search alot before I ask questions. I usually just ask to clarify and make sure I don't miss anything.

ZLover4Life

If there is air in the lifters (the most common cause of a tick in hydraulic lifters is air), the only way to get it out without opening the heads is to increase oil pressure. Putting a heavy load on the engine, like running heavy throttle in a high gear, increases oil pressure.