snwbrderphat540

yeah, sept those fog lights, lol. man, how do you just let a car rust.... so neglagent. i wish i could give a nice shanking to people that ALLOW there Z's to rust.

Thomo

Why do you think once I get my Z, I am going to take every precaution to remove every piece bit of rust in sight, and then coat everything to prevent more?

Pre-rust undercoat $200-500
Completely repairing any rust damage, replacing underbody parts, fixing bumpers, Repainting because the original or previous owner was too stupid to undercoat it himself...$2000-You don't wanna know

Slapping the **** that failed to take care of his z...Pricless..


There are some things money can't buy, for everything else there is a nice hard slap in the face to teach a lesson...

In other words, I'm with you snow.

thxone

Ok, is it me or is something messed up here??? Is the position of the #1 spark plug connection different on the turbo Dizzy Cap??? I thought the firing order was in fact the same as the N/A's...SAME ENGINE!!! Ok, remember I said the car backfires through the AFM...timing is suspect correct? Check out these pics...I just put the new Dizzy Cap on the car...I know that #1 is closest to the radiator..correct? Well I noticed the cap did not fully seat, after examining the old cap I see the reference mark and the #1 stamp is facing to the rear of the car away from the radiator...hmmmm could the Dizzy be 180* backwards???

Here is a pic of the reference mark on the Dizzy Cap.



Here is a pic of the #1 stamp on the new cap.



Notice there is no reference mark on this side?!



So...what is the deal here??? Am I to remove the Dizzy and rotate it? I know alot of work has been done to this car as I have thousands of $$ in receipts...something tells me this guy screwed with this thing so much that it is really fubared!!! So which way should it be????

snwbrderphat540

AAAAAHAHAHAHAHA your dizzy is freakin on backwards LMAO..... the cap only goes on one way!

yes the firing order is the same and everything. i think you might have found your stumbling problem, did you ever check the timing?!?!?

thxone

No, no timing light yet....DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

z-hag

death rattle ......chan ge oil pump if there is any doubt of age.....they seem to last 200k miles......puuuurrrrrttty car, nice project......

thxone

Well it is confirmed, my Dizzy is backwards...page EM-20 in the 1982 Datsun 280ZX Service Manual states that the distributor is inserted into the front cover so that the crank angle sensor harness connector is on engine front side...as it sits now...it is not. F@#K!!!!!! Other pages dealing with the crank angle sensor confirms that it is backwards.

Ok, so now I have to put the #1 cyl at TDC on the compression stroke and pull the dizzy - rotate it 180* - re-install it and now set the timing to 20*???

lww, NismoPick, Bleach?? What do you guys think? I ask cause you guys are knowledgeable and have experience.

duowing

I wonder...if the Dizzy is backwards, I wonder if that means the oil pump was installed with the dizzy being backwards. So would that mean you might have to re-install your oil pump as well?

As for what you said, that sounds right. Generally you want to do everything at TDC. Although I'd think even if you didn't put the engine at TDC and left the Dizzy where it is, just made a mark to mark the location then reinstalled it, I'd think the rotor would just be pointing in the opposite direction.

thxone

Yeah, I don't know...they guy tried saying the car ran great...I don't see how. It makes since now why he told me the ECU might be messing up and why he was messing with the AFM....he must not have known the Dizzy is backwards so just started messing with different things that other people told him to mess with. Crap...just more work for me to do.

NismoPick

I actually had my distrib backwards for a short time... it still ran fine. I just noticed the pigtail was on the oposite side as my parts car & flipped it back. I didn't notice any difference... and it really shouldn't make a diff w/ the stock 280zxt CAS as the chopper wheel has the same markings all 360 degrees. There would be a prob if the car had the Z31 ecu upgrade because the VG30 chopper wheel does have a mark for TDC.... the 280zxt one doesn't.

I believe the turbo distrib / oil pump shaft is notched in the middle, so you can have it either 180 degree way.

snwbrderphat540

it should make a difference, unless it can be set to the right time, because the plug holes on teh dizzy cap are a little bit different, well like, its no symmetrical basically. who puts the dizzy on backwards lol. and get a timing light, turned out to be teh best choice i made my dad make. noe my car actually idles!!!

thxone

Well my take on it is that if the Dizzy is 180* off, which it is, then wouldn't it be firing the plugs or at least 2 of them on the intake stroke or something which could explain the backfiring through the AFM....I mean they put the Dizzy on a certain way for a reason right? On top of that it could still be timed if it were 180* out back oh I don't know how many degrees you can manually adjust the timing but you may be able to get it close enough to make it "seem" like it is running right but would it not then be firing "after top dead center?" I think top end performance would suffer...well all around would suffer. What do you all think?

NismoPick

I think you should yank the distrib, turn it 180, and see if that makes a diff. Should take about 30 seconds to do so.

thxone

duh ...........j/k, I actually have to wait on duowing to do his thing so I have a whole car first. But I will get a timing light before hand so I have it handy when I do this task.

NismoPick

So here's the final word on the distrib... it does not matter if it's on the factory set way, or 180 degrees of that. Why? Because the chopper wheel doesn't have a TDC marking like the Z31 has.

Exibit A-280zx: (notice the 6 even slices)



Exibit B-Z31: (notice 5 even slices and one square - pardon the crudeness of the pic)



Thus we can see that the 280zxt cas doesn't recognize TDC, only that it's over A cylinder. Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

thxone

That is interesting. I am going to copy this from the Service Manual...not trying to step on toes or anything but I think this contradicts what you said...sort of.

NismoPick

So how does that contradict what I said?

thxone

I don't know ...I just want my Turbo to run correctly. I think it is saying that those 6 slits actually read the position (at TDC) of each piston.

NismoPick

Yep... is that not when the spark fires too? At or just below TDC. All it's saying to the ecu is a cylinder is at TDC when that slit passes through the CAS LED. It's obvious that it doesn't matter WHICH as all the slits are the same. Which brings me back to my pic demonstration... the Z31 ecu does need to know that cyl# 1 is at TDC... the 280zxt ecu doesn't.

thxone

Yes but if the Dizzy is rotated 180* and the spark plug wires are as they should be then wouldn't the #6 cyl fire as the #1??

NismoPick

Only if the actual rotor was turned 180 degrees as well... I thought we were just talking about the distrib body being turned 180 degrees & the rotor still facing the same way... the car won't run (or if it does start, will BARELY run) if the actual rotor is 180 degrees off...

Have you not checked to see if the rotor is under the #1 sparkplug at TDC?

duowing

That would make sense, so if the car is capable of running whether the dizzy is 180* off or not, then why would they suddenly make it so it needed to be exactly correct for the 300ZX? Maybe because things start to get a little more precise? Such as with the ECU and the MAF?

snwbrderphat540

but really, if you look at teh PLUG placement on teh actual cap you'll notice it isnt semetrical, so having it 180'ed should through the timing some, mmight be adjustable though who knows.

duowing

You'd think you'd notice it was off when you go to install the plug wires and they're all crossing over each other, I mean they sort of do with it installed the normal way, but I'd imagine not as much as with it installed 180* off.

thxone

See, when I checked the wires they were in the right order...I think....I know they weren't crossed and stuff...either way I WILL be turning the dizzy around the right way and re-doing the plug wires the correct way myself, so I know they will be right. I just picked up a new timing light, nothing special...$39 Actron from AutoZone. It should do what I need it to do.....time the engine 4 days and counting till I fire it up, thanks to Duowing....he is the man...thanks man.