Hey everybody, im new to this place and you gotta forgive my groveling, but im almost out of ideas. I'm working on a project 300zx with my friend. The car had a jspec motor installed. It has new nismo 555cc injectors, Turbonetics t-28 turbo's,Ashspec Ecu, Safc II and a greddy profec boost controller. (theres more but thats whats nessisary here) Heres the problem were running into. The right side back (from the exhaust pipe) is smoking white thick smoke. The engine runs super rich untill you push on the throttle hard. The engine does fine untill you let off, and then it runs too lean and begins to stall. The guy we bought it from haddnt dinoed it and im thinking that its a problem with the engine running too rich and the computers just need to be tuned. But! its only bad out of the left side bank (if your looking at the back of the car) . The right smokes a little but only as it compensates fuel for the right. Im gonna run a diagnostic this weekend, but i was wondering if people have seen this before and what to look for. It might be an ignition timing problem because of unprogrammed upgrades. Any sugjestions would be so helpful cause if i dont get it running in 1 week, my parents are going to sell it so i can pay back the money i owe them (the car isnt the only thing stalling) i can give you any info you need, so pleeease help lol
Sincerely
Dustin

 

That sounds like the problem right there.

 

sounds like possable blown turbocharger? or leaking... or possable timing sensor out.. ?

 

lol thanks, ur very confidince inspiring, love the old model z!

 

dude...thats not cool...hide the car. lol. but besides that would it be programmin if its just one bank? this is a definate Zlover problem. my only advice is to hide the car lol...

 

Imleaning towards that its not a tuning thing. Its well hidden but it still needs to get back up and running. Ill check out the turbo. Meanwhile could it be a distributer problem? do the Z's have a physical distributer, or is it computer managed for more performance? Ill run the diagnostic this weekend and see and if that doesnt work ill pull off the turbos and see if i can find the leak. Short of the turbine being jammed/not spooling smoothly what else should i be looking for?
Dustin

 

yeah run your codes...that will tell you something immediatly if theres something wrong...they have the individual coils so im not sure how the code is distributed exactly..it is computer controlled....but that could still go wrong im sure. or they could be hooked up wrong some how....mabye...but hopefully Zlover comes along to help. i know he will, he is great, and im avoiding tryin to help to much, cuase i wont. but yeah dont let them sell it. hide the title...hide the car. pretend it doesnt exist. lol. i think the turbo on that side would make a more audible noise though if it was dying. plus...arent they replaced??? or did you buy them with it replaced??? where you from anyways? how much the parents gonna sell it for. i might take advantage lol. but you should get the ecu reprogrammed with new upgrades i know that much, but its should effect more than jus tone bank of the car. thats what i would assume though. dont hold me to it.

 

The Z32's don't have distributors. They use coil packs.

 

thats what i said lol...but you still have to have a system to send the signal to the right coil pack at the right time....

 

Yeah, but I just wanted to clarify, because he may not have understood what you meant just by saying it has "individual coils".

 

i would hope he does though workin on this beast of a machine... i would hope he does...

 

The car still isnt technically in my name. Im purchasing it from a friend. Imade the dp but i havent paid the car off yet. i told him i wanted the car to runnning shape before id pay for it. He knows where i live and hes trusts me plus he knows worst case, if i fix it, and i cant pay he can sell it for more. I didnt hear any problems coming from the turbos so im going to cross my fingers. Theyre supposed to be brand new. I didnt see him put them on, but there after market and theyve only seen like 100 miles so.... im really hoping its jsut a coil pack issue and it comes off on the diagnostic. The next step is to rehook and coodinate everything. the problem is i dont know how any of it has been previously tuned and i need a dyno to work on the SAFC 2 and im not going to tow it from my house if i dont have to. (im waiting for my neighbor, his truck, and his trailer to get back from texas in a few days)
Who is this Zlover? like the wizard of oz for Zs? lol Is there some road im suppose to skip down before he/she pops out and asks to grant me my wish. (im conflicted do i want a million dollars or a working car? seeing where this is headed the working car might be more expensive)
I live in naperville but the cars in hamshire or something liek that. farm land
Ive got a N/a 300zx that runs with 80k if ur intrested, and ill keep you in mind iof the project gets more expensive than i can handle

thanks for the help guys

Dustin
PS: Z:Originally Posted by Dmuzial unprogrammed upgrades:
"That sounds like the problem right there." (Z car barbie)
Thats what i thought at first, i was like, YEAH! this is gonna be an easy fix, but it doesnt make sense why one bank would smoke and the other wouldnt.

PPS i like how u guys correct eachother, barbie instead of moving to cali, u might wanna consider chi-town i hear lemont is nice when theres not snow on the ground

PPPS (this is getting annoying i know sorry.) my friend and i were talking and he sugjested the fuel regulator, are those segrated by bank or by cylinder?

 

if your thinking the coils arent making spark its easy to check that...unplug them from the spark plug (unbolt them pull out the stem and coilpack and all) and ground it to the intak plenum see if theres spark. if your suspecting something of that sort. how much are you getting this car for now? and how much did you DP?? and how much is left to pay???

 

Well, I wouldn't assume he does, since he didn't know whether it had a distributor.

He is probably most capable of helping you with your particular problem - one of our best Z32 guys. Yeah, we try to correct each other to help others from being misinformed, which not only makes the readers look bad if they repeat incorrect info., but also helps prevent members from replacing a bunch of parts that they don't need.

Hmmm, I thought that was a bad area.

Let's see what ZLover has to say about that.

 

6000 with a 1500 dp. So the computer acts like a distributur, it's just an electronic switch that goes,and chooses which piston will fire, taking the charge from the coil and timing it properly. Wouldnt the coil packs show up on the diagnoistic? ill try the coil pack thing cause its easy and thats an option. Could it be that the ECU is over compensating for the pressure of the turbo? or Sending too big of a signal to the injectors (sorry if im making a fool of myself with bad terminology or stupid questions but im still getting used to the TT engine before this, ive serviced a sebring and little bits of matinece on my z. not alot more.) well see waht zlover says about the fuel regulators.

Thanks barbie, i like to pretend that i know what im doing even though i dont. dont judge, im just new to this

 

I LIVE IN LEMONT....I TOLD YOU BARBIE I TOLD YOU move up here...lemont is BEAUTIFUL....i should take some pics of it some time the scenery is amazing crossing the bridge...its expensive to live in the town though. somewhat... and its georgous even in winter.

 

and its a horrible area for driving like 5 months a year (snow, that is if u cant handle it), but we dont get warm salty air 365 like you get in florida

 

I found your problem...
... and no, I'm not joking.

JSpec motors are generally horrible ideas. There is no Japanese carfax, so you will never know how many miles these engines really have.

The bottom line is that you have no idea what kind of condition that JSpec engine is in. That being said, I think you have MAJOR fluid leak problems.

The white smoke is most likely burning coolant. This could be most likely a head gasket or turbo (both would be specific to one side of the engine as well).

Your fuel system is not in question at all. The Fuel Pressure Regulator controls fuel for the entire engine, so if it were bad, it wouldn't be limited to just one bank of cylinders.

Someone had mentioned that it could be something to do with mods that weren't tuned for... that depends on the mods. The only modifications relevant to the ECU are single or dual intake and injector size. If you have an ECU that is tuned for your intake setup and your injector size, there is nothing else it needs to know. So unless you have the wrong ECU (which would cause problems with the engine engine, not just one side, again), the program is fine.

Also, the fuel and ignition timing is done by the ECU, but it gets its input and help from the PTU (Power Transistor Unit) and CAS (Crank Angle Sensor). You, like most other new members, failed to mention any valuable details about the 300ZX... most relevantly right now, the year. If you tell me the year, I can advise whether you need to even worry about your PTU or not (you probably don't, though, considering the bad ones were recalled).

I'd say do a compression test, first and foremost. And a leakdown test if you have the means. For a TT, your compression numbers should be all above 128psi. Your leakdown tests is likely going to tell the tale if the compression test comes back fine... if the cylinders don't hold pressure, it's likely a blown head gasket (which I really think it is).

If you want to test your fuel system, though I don't think it's necessary, do a search on here. On at least 3 occasions I've outline how to do that test.

Do all that and come back with answers... I'll see if I can help you from there.

But really, I think the heads are going to have to come off to replace some head gaskets. You'd be smart to just buy a full gasket kit and rebuild the whole thing just to be safe, with that JDM POS.

 

man..i shoulda thought of that somewhat..i always tell people not to get JDM cause of that reason...we argue and bring up this crap all the time and yell about JDM on this site....see, this is why zlover rocks.....well thats actually bad news...but still...

 

OMG...i jsut spent an hour looking for lemont pics...swear i posted them in here since we were talkin about my town....and they are gone.....i saw them too i actually saw them on the screen cuase 2 didnt work....WTF where are they? its not in my recent posts either.... so they cant be in another thread....I SAW THEM!!!!!

 

Guy claims that he put in all new gaskets and seals but ill double check.
meanwhile the car has a dual pop intake and is running the 555cc injectors. The Compression test is no big deal i got that. Ill see if i got the compressor and stuff for the leakdown test. sorry i didnt give u all the exact info, ill shoot you a post tomorow with the info on both the engine, stock body, modifications everything. meanwhile i know the head gaskets arent too exprensive, but how hard are they to fix? if the leakdown and the compression test come back fine, what should i look for around the turbo?

 

lol, thats y jdm motors are soooo cheap. He has the original block so i could rebuild it on the side untill its up to spec and then reswap it would be a pain if i had already tunred it but i t would be an amazing learning experience
Thanks again Zlover, ill keep you posted

 

Do the compression leak down check first. That will confirm whether it's a head gasket or burnt piston, as opposed to a dead turbo.

 

If the leakdown test comes back fine, I'll get you a link called "the 6 P's" to test everything else. If the engine itself is healthy, it's probably going to be the turbo. You're probably going to have to take the turbo off and have a turbo shop test it... it could just be a seal inside the turbo that needs to be replaced.

With replacing the headgasket... that depends on how mechanically inclined you are. Some people find it easier to just pull the engine out to do it... others are comfortable pulling off the plenums and heads with the engine in the car. If you're going to do it in the car, work slowly and be thorough... the hidden bolts can be a bitch to locate.

 

whats the chances its a fried piston? Im pretty decently mechanically inclined as long as i have at least a vauge map. Could you send me the 6 Ps now? that way i can check them after i get done with the compression and leak tests if i still need to. The turbos are brand new, would the seal have really gone that fast?