Zed Head

Thanks oz c... Those might the only two I know though. I would still rather have a nice dial-back timing light and a few other extra tools. Necessity is a mother though...

I would get a second opinion from another shop. They don't seem very competent. A gasket plus silicone would be better than no gasket, just silicone. Their recommendation doesn't make sense. Plus they should have seen the deformation when they put the pan back on and suggested something then. They let you drive away with a deformed lip on the oil pan, that anyone with experience would know would probably leak. And, as a dealer, they should have easy access to any drawings showing the missing parts. They should fix it the right way, for free, but based on what you've said, that seems unlikely. Edit - I just saw your post over on Hybridz and the responses. Apparently Nissan has their own silicone gasket material that works well. Maybe that's what you dealer is suggesting, and maybe it will work. They still should have got it right the first time. Oil pan sealing is pretty basic stuff for a professional shop.

One way to measure your mechanical advance is to hook up your timing light, start the engine, disconnect your vacuum advance hose, retard the timing to zero (once you've confirmed the damper mark), then rev the engine up until the timing stops advancing. Your timing tab probably stops at 20 degrees, so you should get a direct reading of total mechanical advance. You will probably have to adjust your idle up to keep the engine running with the timing retarded. Then you can temporarily connect your vacuum advance hose to manifold vacuum,while you're set to zero timing, to see what your vac advance canister pulls. If your pulling over 14 inches of vacuum through the intake you should get the full vacuum advance at idle without increasing rpm. Since you're at zero, you'll get a direct reading off of your timing tab. Some simple tricks for seeing what works and how much, if you don't have the nice timing light or degree marks on your damper.

Have you checked the manufacturer's recommendations, or installation instructions? Delrin is a plastic known for "natural" lubricity, like nylon. In other words, it's already slippery.

Fuel injectors "tick" also. L engines are known for mechanical noise, from what I've read, with their non-hydraulic valve system and noisy fuel injectors. Some people like it. When you wrote .080 you meant .008 right? .080 would be noisy.

Another way to do it, in similar fashion is to bring the piston up to a known depth from the spark plug hold (like when something in the hole just starts to move), make a mark on the damper, then go over TDC and let the piston drop down to that same distance on the other side and make another mark. Split the difference between the marks and you'll have TDC. The piston doesn't move up or down much around TDC but the damper does so you can be quite a ways off in crankshaft rotation trying to estimate when the piston stopped moving up or down.

Sounds like you don't trust that "Zero" = TDC on the compression stroke. Why do anything else until you know? If you find that it's incorrect, but the damper is in good condition and you know why the mark is wrong, you could just make a new mark.

True. I was just suggesting what should happen with a good one. Plus he's tried three coils so something is awry. Patcon, are you sure that you're grounding the coil main wire to a good ground. Wouldn't hurt to confirm the path back to battery. Just guessing.

Spammer alert. Selling EBay stuff.

Where are you looking for spark? You should have the main wire from the center of the coil disconnected from the distributor with either the cover pulled back so that you can see the metal end, or a bolt or something stuck in there. The end should be about a spark plug gap away from a good ground so that you can see the spark jump when you tap the coil negative to ground. I might be stating the obvious but if you have power through the coil posts (the primary circuit) and you're seeing a spark when you tap the negative to ground, you should see a discharge from the main center wire of the coil if it has a gap it can jump to ground.

It sounds like your Auxiliary Air Regulator (AAR) is stuck closed (if it's still there,some people remove them). It is designed to let air past the throttle body to keep the idle up when cold. Your engine has an Air Flow Meter (AFM). Technically it might be called a mass air flow sensor but that is not how they are known in the Z world. I have not heard of anyone rebuilding one themselves, but am interested in how you do with it. Both of these items are covered in detail in the Factory Service Manual (FSM). It is worth reading at least the first few pages of the Engine Fuel section before diving in to engine problems.

Sounds like the piston in your master cylinder is bottoming out in the bore. If so, it might be starting at mid-stroke in the bore. This would not let the bore fill with fluid, so would not pump any through the lines. You might have the rod in to the master cylinder adjusted to be too long. Adjust it to as short as necessary to get play in the linkage. Make sure that master cylinder piston is coming all the way back. Just one possibility.

That connector might be your "brake warning lamp check relay". Looks like the relay on the lower right of the picture. Does the red "brake" light on your speedometer face light up with the key on but engine off? Injection seat sounds painful... Glad I don't have one.

That actually sounds like a good way to check it as long as you don't short something to ground with your screwdriver. That's how they work in use, opening and closing about 9,000 time per minute (150 times per second - can't believe it myself but that's the math) at 3,000 rpm engine speed. You should set dwell or point gap more precisely though once you know it works. The setting can affect your spark power, I believe.

As I understand it, "points" are actually short for contact breaker points. Current flows when the points are closed, when they open, breaking the circuit, the magnetic field collapses causing the secondary circuit to discharge. But I am not an expert in the field (pun intended!) and just writing those words made me uncomfortable. The FSMs all have procedures for testing the coils. It involves just measuring resistance across the primary circuit and from the primary to secondary contact points. Resistance values are given. You might check your points to be sure that when they're open no current will flow and vice versa. I don't think coils go completely bad that often, they are pretty tough unless overheated.

Year of car and type of ignition system (points or electronic) would help. Otherwise, you might get many random guesses. I think that coil actually sparks when the ground is removed, breaking the primary circuit. The coil charges when the negative side has a circuit to ground, through the points or the ignition module, then the secondary circuit sparks when the primary circuit is broken. I have had it backwards myself in the past, I can't speak to what Fastwoman has said. The end result is the same, assuming there was no path to ground to begin with. Either way, touching the coil negative to ground should charge the primary circuit (with 12 volts coming in through the coil + passing through the primary windings and to ground), then removing the wire from ground should break it, causing a spark at the main terminal. So you probably won't get a visible spark unless you break the coil negative path to ground.

I agree with ER on the idle speed change indicating the booster leaking vacuum. Is there a hissing noise also? The pedal going to the floor could indicate air still in the lines or a leaking cylinder, most likely the master if you don't have fluid leaking from the wheel cylinders or calipers. Or as bgm suggested, your rear brakes are out of adjustment and you're just pushing the wheel cylinders way out of their bores. The calipers are self-adjusting but the back drums are not. Does the parking brake handle come way up or does it set tight and low? If it comes way up, you can try setting and releasing it several times. Otherwise, a screwdriver through that little hole on the drums, or remove the drums and turn the wheel. It sounds like you have the same problems you started with. Bummer.

Still not clear what "weak" means, or "light" or "very little resistance." If the pedal has very little resistance it must be going to the floor. Right? Just trying to help you describe the issue.

I'm not sure why you think that wire is on the same circuit as the coil. The diagram shows it as its own switched ignition circuit, designed to run the fuel pump. Also, I believe that if the pump is wired in parallel with the coil, which it would have to be unless you spliced in to the power wire to the coil and wired the pump in series (doubtful, you would have the pump - running to coil +, or coil - supplying power to pump + [your coil would see power all the time and would probably get hot, and your pump would not work well]), there should not be excess current draw to stop the coil from charging fully. It's not really clear what your "cutting out" problem is about. If you have a wire from coil + to the pump, that is a parallel circuit and shouldn't be a problem. Is that where your wire is currently (no pun intended), from coil +? Here's a link to the FSM. Page 4 and 5 in Body Electrical show the wiring you're concerned with - http://www.xenons30.com/reference.html

The wiring diagram in the FSM shows that switched wiring should exist back by the gas tank for an electric fuel pump. Have you looked to see if it's still there? It shows a wire running to a 20 amp in-line fuse, located by the fuse box.

My wiper motor needs the full 14.8 volts from a running engine and turning alternator to work correctly. The blades will stick like yours on just battery power. You might try starting the engine and revving it up a little to at least get the wipers back to their resting spot. In the long run, you'll probably need to do more but it might get you by for while.

If it eventually works after several tries then you probably have the wires connected correctly. It sounds like a bad battery or starter connection. Or, if the car was down for a while during the swap you might have a weak battery.

TIG, MIG, 6011, high-strength stainless-based rod, and/or splatter-guard? An opportunity to learn something new. Congratulations on fixing a major show-stopper.

A fuel pressure check would be cheap assurance that your fuel pressure is good and constant, before you start replacing parts. I have heard that you can borrow them from the local auto parts stores for free. You said it dies at idle so you should be able to watch the gauge as it dies. It's always good to know what you have before you start guessing at what you don't have. You can spend a lot of money replacing perfectly good parts, not to mention the time. An overheating fuel pump or fuel pump relay fits the symptoms, for example. Doesn't care what the engine is doing, just keeps pumping fuel, so would fit the 5 minute factor.

That's what my 76 did when I got it and the AFM was bad. Replacing it fixed it. But there is quite a bit of thought around about how to tell if your AFM is bad or not. If you give it full throttle will it go smoothly? At full throttle the ECU gives full enrichment and the AFM has less effect. Is your timing set correctly? You could also check the breaker plate in your distributor to make sure it's not bound up. Is the Z a manual transmission?