Hey Guys,

I just picked up a 79 280ZX.

It hadn't been run in a while so I siphoned the gas out and added some high-test.

It fired up fine the first few times.
Then I ran it up one night slowly, Idle til warm then a couple minutes at 1250 then a couple at 1500 then a couple at 2K.

She didn't complain at all.
I shut her down but when I went to fire it up the next day I was getting a vicous knock from mid engine (L28) and she didn't want to stay running.

I thought I had thrown a rod.
I pulled the plugs and rolled it over.
It was smooth with no unusual noise.

I cleaned and gapped the plugs and swapped the wires and cleaned the rotor and cap.
Still no better.

I thought I might have a plugged injector but I didn't want to pull it all off til I had the opinion of some guys who know.

What do you think?

ThankZ,

ThomaZ

 

Have You Changed Out The Fuel Filter? When I Got My 79 It Did That At First As Well. If You Can Put Some "sea Foam" In It To Help Clean Out The Engine And The Gas Lines. You Just Pour It Into The Gas Tank And The Valve Cover And Let It Run For About 20 Mins. You Might See Blue Smoke Comming Out Of The Exhaust But Thats Normal.

 

Hey Guys,

The noise turned out to be a displaced lash pad.

I pulled the valve cover and found it right away.
I pulled the rocker, put the lash pad back in place, replaced the rocker.

It has run solid since.

So now on to Stage 2, the Rust removal.

I pulled the entire interior and found rust in the floor pans I will need to cut out and replace.

Thanks for the help.

Techerz

 

Congratulations on an easy fix! Welcome aboard and good luck!

 

Glad to hear another ZX has joined the group! Welcome aboard.

So how well does Seafoam work for cleaning up your fuel system?

 

Well unless we could see inside the fuel system before and after it would be hard to say. After I did mine I noticed a slightly better idle and ever so slight change in the pedal feel for the better...so it does something. I put mine in through a vacuum line on the intake...but you can put it in the gas tank and it would help clean the injectors.

 

I might throw some in my gas tank then. I love how much white smoke comes out, then I drive it down my street and put the entire street in a white cloud. It's hilarious. I'm surprised police or fire department weren't called on me.

 

You Can Also Put It Into Your Valve Cover. Helps Clean Anything That Can Be Sticking And Carbonated.

 

Heh, I was just going to suggest that. I had that happened to my 280ZX. It happened to me once, and then it happened again another three times, so I ended up parking my park and waiting until I get my newly rebuild engine from the machine shop.
It's interesting because it was lash pad #11 and it always jumped out of place at low RPMs; anyways, three more weeks and I get my newly rebuilt engine head and block

Make sure you run for a good 15-20 minutes around your neighborhood to make sure that it doesn't happen again. As I said before, it's happened to me three times to the point where I just don't drive it no more.

 

Where do you buy Seafoam? Any Advance, O"Reilly's, NAPA or whatever? I have heard folks talk about it, but never seen it on the shelf.

 

I have seen it at Pep Boys around here. Not sure where else you can get it though.

 

Advance should carry it. I've bought it at Murray's and I think they're part of PartsAmerica which also owns Advance and a few other places.

 

so you parked your park......thats talent right there. haha...sorry it just stuck out to me so akwardly.

 

I picked up my Seafoam at Napa.
It sure cleans it out nicely.

I was even using it for washing parts.

The Nissassin is running great but I pulled out the interior to get a look for rust.

Initially it looked like it was just the framerails and a bit of the floor pans but with a better look it looks like the pans should be cut out too.

TecherZ