Zed Head

The screen in the pump inlet can be hard to see since it is cone-shaped. I don't know why you think that pump might be clogged, but measuring the fuel pressure is almost always a good thing. It's one very important measurement that is good to know is right before getting too deep in to other stuff. As far as the 1000 RPM idle speed, that's what my tachometer shows also. But I have measured my actual RPM with a meter and my tach is off by 200 RPM, so my 1000 is actually 800. I wouldn't worry a lot about it. If you have a multimeter that will measure DC frequency you can calculate your RPM off of the coil pulses.

Getting a little meldramatic, aren't you. Let's assume, then, that "easiest" means the least amount of wrench work, with the lowest potential for complications. I think that Pertronix wins in that scenario. Take the "distributor" cap off, remove points, install Pertronix unit. Tach works, car runs. I think that all you need is a Phillips head screwdriver. Pertronix is the easiest.

Not really clear what you're saying there. Maybe you meant that distributor is a misnomer, or a misleading name. The "thing" called the "distributor" by most that work with it, contains the spark triggering device and the timing control mechanisms for doing that at the appropriate time based on engine conditions, along with the spark distributing hardware. It just comes down to how far in to it you want to get. You can go simple and "slap" any old combined spark distribution, triggering and timing control device (aka distributor) in there or go a little deeper and think about the other functions. That was my intended point. The 79 ZX probably has a decent timing curve. But the later ZX's have some radically different curves. There are ways to make things worse. No good reason not to consider it.

Distributors on the older engines (pre ECU-controlled timing) do more than just distribute spark. The vacuum and centrifugal advance mechanisms are built-in and curved for the engine. Something to consider. Race engine builders spend a lot of effort on their timing curves.

No problem, I've had the exhaust leak frustration, and the broken studs that had to be drilled out (thermostat housing) frustration, and paid a shop good money to remove a stud (one of the three for the flange to the pipe) and resurface the sealing surface (before I knew that undamaged manifolds are relatively easy to find). Did you check the manifold for straightness, across all of the ports, and good sealing surfaces on each one? Good to know that the Seafoam showed something, another trick for the tool box. Good luck.

I was the only one that suggested head gasket. Because you said "may have blown my gasket out", not "certainly blown the manifold gasket". Heads warp and head gaskets leak, it happens, more so with aluminum heads. It seemed worth checking while the engine was together, rather than after the manifolds are off. And you didn't mention the state of the water and oil in your first post. siteunseen just suggested a way to check it. Even so, that's just two people. Just being thorough in my response. I try not to waste people's time, although this post might contradict that. Did smoke come from the leak in front or are you still working from noise? A piece of heater hose to your ear works well to find noise from a small area. And, sometimes, you can actually feel the hot gas leaking with a hand or finger, if you can shield the air from the fan.

I've heard that blown head gaskets make that noise also, along with cracked exhaust manifolds. I've also read that Seafom is a good way to find an exhaust leak from all of the smoke it produces. A leakdown test should confirm the head gasket. You might also check your spark plugs, one could be loose and on its way out.

It could be considered insurance for that day you end up driving at high speed over a bumpy road for a very long time. Can't hurt. Just leave the old oil in if you're replacing stock with the HP's. Edit - the question of why or why not isn't answered but KYB says explicitly to leave the tube dry in their installation link - http://www.kyb.com/service/installationtips/installationtip08.php For what it's worth and further discussion, if anyone wants to go there. The KYB's and the Tokico's are essentially identical as far as form and installation go.

You don't need oil. The HP's have their oil inside. You can search around and find lots of threads about it and/or read the FA chapter in the FSM to see how the original inserts used the oil. If you have stock factory inserts in the tubes now, you'll understand when you take them apart.

Congratulations. Better keep an eye, or ear, on them though, if you pressed on one race to get the other race to seat, you might have damaged the races. It's called "brinneling" in reference to the Brinnel hardness test, where a metal probe is pressed in to a piece of metal and the size of the dimple measured to scale the material's hardness. http://www.dynaroll.com/excessive-force.asp Don't shoot the messenger, please...

Heat has a much bigger effect on hole size than many people imagine. Heat up the control arm ends and the old sleeves will probably press out (I pressed out both of the inner sleeves on my front control arms with a shop vise and a MAPP gas torch), heat up the strut housing and the bearings will probably press in easily. A propane or MAPP torch will do the job with about 5 minutes of applied flame. No serious chance of damaging the metal, it won't even get a glow going. Apply some preload with the press, start heating and things will move when they're ready. The inverse of using the torch to get things out is preheating a press fit ring or collar, like the ring gear on a flywheel, before installing. Heating it, then letting it cool, makes a super tight fit. So if you have a super tight fit, heating will make it looser.

If everything is clean and nothing is rubbing, and the problem goes away when air flow stops, then it seems like the only think left is a pressure imbalance between the two sides of the blade, the trailing edge and the leading edge. I had a similar problem and started thinking about this but then found that the problem was varnish/gunk/residue in the throttle body. I cleaned up with liberal amounts of carb cleaner and some Scothbrite so don't really know if there was crud in the ported vacuum holes or not. Here's one off-beat thought though - how about the AC idle-up mechanism, the thing with the vacuum pot and the hook that pulls the linkage when you turn the compressor on? Maybe it's activated through a shorted or leaky solenoid. You might not notice it if you're staring at the throttle body.

ksechler is probably looking at the FSM procedure, which describes leaving the transverse link (control arm) installed and removing the spindle pin to remove the upright and change the shock insert. If you remove the control arm, by disconnecting the inner mounts, along with the upright, you do not need to remove the spindle pin to get it done.

You can also pick and choose the bearings you want to replace from CourtesyParts. I would use carpartsmanual to compare the A and B style parts, then Courtesy or drivetrain.com to get what you want. Note that drivetrain.com has the A, B and C designations wrong, by model and year of car, on their web site, as EuroDat notes for the C kit. I've sent them messages and copies of the FSM, and received replies back, but they don't seem to care or couldn't comprehend. Here's a trail to the countershaft bearing, for example - http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsunS30/DatsunZIndex/PowerTrain/TransmissionGears/4Speed/ToAug71/tabid/1710/Default.aspx http://www.courtesyparts.com/bearing-p-341410.html

This won't help the resolution of the discussion, but it has the word "engineer" in it - “An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be.”

Imported maybe? I recall a post from Hybridz, ozconnection (from Australia) had an N42 head with no notches. Post #59 - http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/62691-l6-heads-pics-and-descriptions/page-3

It's easy to remove the inner control arm mounts and take the whole two sides of the triangle off, the strut and the arm, as an assembly. You can dink around with trying not to break the brake line open but that's also much easier than you would think. I've wasted lots of time trying not to remove the brake line and to keep the arm bolted up but in the end I realized I had just wasted more time and taken more chances on damaging something, like the fender well lip or the brake hose. If you're planning to do the brakes, including flushing with new fluid and bleeding, just take the whole thing out, but remember to break the main strut/shock nut loose first. If you don't have a spring compressor, try Harbor Freight for a cheap one, you'll need one. You might find that the inner bushings are in good shape and decide not to replace them. The KYB shocks should work great, especially if you're not lowering.

The N-42 heads have the threaded holes for mounting carburetors AND the notch in the intake for the injector tip. The injectors are mounted in the intake manifold and stick through in to the top of the head's intake port. So you can use EFI or carbs on the N-42 for sure, maybe on the N-47 also, not sure there. Apparently, in other non-domestic markets carburetors were used for quite a while after EFI was introduced in the states. I think that the big driver for EFI was the emissions regulations in the US market.

It is fun to turn that knob and get an immediate effect. Too bad you're short a few fingers for a while, might make it difficult. I wish we had more tuning tools that were so simple.

Car and year would help. I have a 76 and all I see is a body-colored panel that flows with the body lines, with nothing on it. I think that there's a notch in it for the exhaust pipe. Your description of what you're thinking about is not very good.

No problem. Get some bullet connectors and about 8 ft of wire also and you can just unplug the wires to the coolant temp sensor (bullet type) then plug in the potentiometer wires, with no wire cutting, and mount the pot inside the cabin. Tune while driving. If it doesn't work, just unplug it and go back to where your were, no damage. Good luck.

I don't think that you ever really said what you're trying to do, but it looks like you're trying to make things richer. I agree with FastWoman, that adjusting the spring in the AFM will affect low RPM and high RPM (low and high air flow) differently so is not an ideal way to do things. Adding a resistor will make things richer at all air flow levels. I used a 5k-ohm audio taper potentiometer (volume knob) from Radio Shack, part #271-1720 to adjust the resistance. I installed it originally just to be able to add lots of fuel to try and fix the hot start problem, but then found it was very useful when I ended up with a lean AFM, that had a lean flat spot at low RPM. Basically right after taking off from a dead stop, the engine ran through a flat spot then jumped ahead when it hit the good spot. The pot allowed me to tune out the flat spot, but it also turned out the whole curve was lean so it ended up as a really nice tuning tool, for my specific lean-running AFM. For the record, previously I had had a rich-running AFM on the engine but had no way to adjust besides an adjustable FPR. Which leaked down as described. Anyway, get the audio-taper model, the linear model is much harder to control. And 5k is really too much range, I only use the first 1/4 turn of the knob, so a smaller range would probably work even better.

You can only make the mixture richer by adding an inline resistor. But, as grantf suggested, it looks like you still have basic problems to get right before any tweaking should be considered. Your fuel pressure, for instance, should not be jumping to 40 psi. Maybe you're just seeing the needle bounce. You can test it by removing the vacuum line from the FPR while the engine is running, or removing the wire from the solenoid and turning the key to Start. It should be about 36 - 38 psi. If you can't get the engine to die or almost die by turning the idle screw in then you have a vacuum leak somewhere. If you have a vacuum leak and it's still running rich, then you have a fuel enrichment problem, either through too high fuel pressure or something like the TPS or coolant temperature sensor circuit. Lots of basics to get right before tweaking the AFM or installing a resistor. There's really no way around it. I've not read any posts where someone reported that they tested and measured the circuits described in the Engine Fuel chapter, and wished that they hadn't because t was a big waste of time. It's worth doing. The fuel pressure dropping to zero is more of an irritation than a problem to worry about. It's pretty common and there are fixes for it, but that's not your main problem. Get a meter and start probing. Good luck.

It is a magnetic pickup coil, probably off of a 260Z or a 280Z. Somewhere on this forum there is a spreadsheet of all of the Z(X) distributors from points-style to ZX style, with part numbers for each. The part numbers are in the FSMs also, if you wanted to take guess and open up the Electrical chapter. Before you get too carried away, take the breaker plate off and see if the ball bearings are still there and free to move.

I'm sure that you realize this already, but your knowledge of automobiles is not much. You have a jury-rigged fuel pump, a jury-rigged "sensor" to stop the high idle speed and smoke coming from a part that should only get power when the key is turned to Start. You're changing parts and getting ready to change more but don't have a good reason why. It looks like you're testing things by looking and touching, I don't see any meter readings. I don't see any signs that you're really making any progress, I wouldn't be surprised if your next post said "problem solved , the car burned to the ground". You have a serious dilemma, I would spend your free time trying to find a good mechanic or getting a meter and learning how to use it. Sorry, but you really are in danger of destroying the car.