Zed Head

Looks like it would clean up well. The bumper rubber looks in pretty good shape, probably protected from the sun by fir and pine needles. Looks like it's been painted, so could be hidden repairs. They say it needs a tuneup so they probably started it. After sitting twenty years who knows what got dragged through the engine when they did that. Still, not bad.

You don't have a timing light? Who rebuilt the engine? Are the fender wells cut under those flares or are the flares just attached on top of the stock body? Also, it says complete interior but there's no carpet. Do you have the bumpers? And what's going on with the key hole? Questions that come to mind...

The MSD and the ZX are probably about the same at higher RPM, like 3000 and above. The MSD's multiple sparks can help at idle and low RPM, especially with an engine designed for high RPM power.

Do the resistance and voltage testing at the ECU connector before you get too crazy with cleaning. After the cleaning, you'll get the satisfaction of knowing you made something better or the agony of knowing that you broke something that was fine. Both good reasons to have a beer.

I'm no web programming wiz but if I "inspect" the video it shows as an HTML thing, with lines of code that say "js context". Made an image of how the video just inserts itself in to the middle of a paragraph. If you're moving down the page the text will all shift downward as the video ad shoves its way in to your life. I might start sending nasty messages to the companies that use the ads. One small blow to save the world. By "adware package" do you mean what's commonly called malware? Are you in advertising? Are you part of this!!! Anyway, I haven't found a plug-in or program that will stop just the ads but allow other desirable things to work.

I wouldn't worry too much about where the distributor adjustments are, if the timing light shows you're right. All you care about is when the spark happens, not where the nuts and bolts are. Each mark is 5 degrees so the third should be 10. 10 degrees of advance will give you a faster stronger idle than zero. Get that set and see if you can get it to idle on its own. Then you can tweak and tune to make it work better.

10 degrees is a good starting point. Zero is not the best. Sounds like you have the right idea though. Get the ignition timing right, then focus on the carbs. But even there, if once carb doesn't have fuel, that's kind of a "needs to be fixed" thing right off the bat. I'd focus on getting the carb to function properly (gas in the bowl), and setting the timing to 10 degrees. That's a "should idle" point, then build off of that. As far as setting timing, even if you have to squirt starting fluid and rev the engine up and down, you should be able to see where the low point is. Set it to 10 and assume that it's right. Sometimes you have to make an assumption and work with it for a while.

No timing light? I don't see any measurements. The engineers put those degree marks on for an important reason. It's important. If you've confirmed where zero is, with your screwdriver method, then you can set ignition timing to its correct spot. If you set and measure spark at the correct spot then you don't have a timing issue anymore. When you have that locked down then you'll know that your problems are somewhere else. Best not to solve two problems at the same time. You're lucky in that you have an engine that runs. From here it's a matter of confirming what's right, and making the stuff that isn't, is.

I couldn't even log in to my email account, Hotmail (aka Outlook) without javascript enabled. It's just email. I'm so tied to Hotmail/Outlook it's pitiful. Outlook sucks and Microsoft knows it and they don't care. 'cause they got you. Millions of people interact with Microsoft through email, and their email program is a giant steaming turd. Seems weird that they don't shine it up a little bit.

Well, the fact that it runs well with the pump off and bad with it on suggests a problem either way. Knowing fuel pressure is important. If fuel pressure measures correct check the vacuum hose to the FPR for fuel. IT should be dry. You can have good pressure but too much fuel supply due to a leak through the FPR diaphragm. Not uncommon to blow a diaphragm and fight a "running rich" problem for weeks or months. It's sneaky. Dielectric grease seems like a good idea and wouldn't hurt. But it makes everything greasy. If you drive it fairly regularly any corrosion you cleaned of should stay away. It's the sitting out in the moisture that causes the problem. There's a diagram at the beginning of the Engine Fuel chapter that is pretty good. Gets you close. Most of your measurements will be at the ECU connector though. Use the 1980 EFI Guide, it's very good. Covers all years up to 1980.

There's a technique involving a long screwdriver on the valve spring retainer with the camshaft as a fulcrum that you could have used. To remove the rocker arm, then set the pad in place. For future reference. They seem to pop out on older, probably gummed up, engines when people rev them up after getting the going again. Not uncommon. Hopefully you're good to go for a while.

Compression ratio is almost a useless number without knowing the cam specs. Cylinder pressure is what causes detonation, so higher pressures will lead to a higher likelihood of detonation. But, due to the variation in gauges out there, the range of the numbers measured is huge. In an ideal world, we'd all use calibrated identical pressure gauges and we'd talk about designing for a certain static cylinder pressure. From that starting pressure you can get in to taking about dynamic changes. CR alone doesn't tell you a whole lot though. It tells you which way you're going but not where you ended up.

All it really takes is one vacuum leak causing a low idle speed to allow the AFM vane to get too low and voila, a switch is installed. I would start by running the tests in the EFI Guide and/or the FSM. There's a test for the combined EFI/pump relay. It runs now, which is way ahead of many people's projects. If he removes stuff and it stops running then he's in a whole 'nother world.

Anybody out there noticed a new type of ad that pops up in the middle of a column of text while you're reading and plays a little video? Not on CZCC but other web sites, like the newspaper sites. Over the last few months I've spent more time clicking the little X in the upper right corner than actually reading. They seem to be everywhere. Can't think of a more annoying way to advertise a product. I blocked Flash in Chrome and they're gone. It even stopped autoplay videos on ESPN, a massive bonus. Edit - I knew this would happen. They came back. Never mind. It's probably javascript. The internet is messing with me. ESPN autoplay is still fixed. Edit 2 - Disabled javascript and the ads stopped but so did a bunch of other stuff. Some sites won't even load up. It's like they're all saying **** you, you'll watch our ads or you'll get nothing. I'm going to run lean, no ads, and some sites not accessible and see how internet life changes. I'm betting it will be better. Those video ads were killing me.

Changing the thermostat is super easy. Get your thermostat at this place and get a new gasket too. https://zcardepot.com/engine/cooling-heating/thermostat-160-degree.html https://zcardepot.com/engine/cooling-heating/thermostat-gasket.html MSA has them also. Kind of hard to find on their site but they're there.

How long will it idle with the pump turned off? Could just be residual pressure from flexible fuel lines. I'd let it idle until it dies to be sure. The fact that it runs rich when the pump is on indicates that you have one or more of the common Z EFI problems. Do not adjust the AFM, unless it's already been messed with. If you find that, adjust it back to where it started. Your best path to getting it running well is to go through the tests in the EFI Guide. Clean and check all of your electrical connections. Read through the Engine Fuel chapter of the FSM and you'll see how the fuel pump circuit works and why the PO added that switch. If the engine runs right you shouldn't need it. It's a band-aid.

How far off was the lash on the valve that lost its pad? Curious if the PO adjusted it to run without the pad, or if the pad just fell off and he/she kept running it with no adjustment.

That's a lot of K&N bashing above, but those nice-looking foam pieces that people use on their ITB's or carburetors are probably worse. Just know the tradeoffs is the message. K&N's are dirty filters.

And, just ignore test results if you mean well. It's a top priority, whether it's achieved or not. K&N is a marketing company. Of course, efficiency is undefined so it could mean flow. Plausible deniability.

Check out the filter for the filter. FLOW is important. Until they have something else to sell you. Then, not so much. http://www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?id=5690

K&N made their name in the dirty filter area. They can get soaked in water, like when you dump your dirtbike in the creek, and will clear up after you clear the cylinders of water. The competition was oil-soaked foam though, not paper. There used to be ads out there showing how the dirt would build up on the oil soaked outer surface creating more and better filtration. Supposedly the dirt would drop off as it the buildup got too heavy, like some sort of self-sustaining media. I remember being fascinated by the concept of more dirt resulting in a cleaner air supply. Looking back, it was all marketing BS. I copied a segment from K&N's web site that should immediately trigger anybody's BS sensor. Setting the stage, mentally, for flow is more important than clean if you want to "win the race". http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/kn-vs-oem-filter.html http://www.knfilters.com/filter_facts.htm

Run the pump without the engine running and see if you can hear the hiss. Squirt some carb cleaner at the leak area and see if the sound changes. Grab the injector by hand and press it down and see if the sound changes. Pull the injector up and see if the sound changes. Lots of ways to learn more. Not uncommon for the seals to harden over time, then some bumping and moving can create a leak. Would have been super easy to replace the seals while the manifold was off. Still not that difficult. And they're cheap. I have a vague memory of writing this before.

The vacuum cawk, if you have one, also closes the coolant supply off completely at certain settings. Weird how complicated Nissan made their system.

The FPR can make a hissing noise. Did you use new seals and insulators on the injectors, small and large (the round rubber pieces)? Are you using the two-screw clamps? They actually put some pressure on the lower seal by tightening on the top, big, insulator. Does it run like there's a vacuum leak?

No offense intended on the "simpify" misspelling. I left it because it seemed funny. Oversimpify should be an actual word, I think.