my_mad_z

If the tacho went dead and the car stopped, it's more than likely that you're problem is in the dizzy. The Z will not run without the tacho in place and more than likely you are losing spark in the dizzy. Pull of one of your leads while the engine is off, hold it 2-3mm away from the rocker cover and crank it over to see if you're getting spark. If not, try the coil lead by doing the same thing. Just be carefull, cauz I've heard the modules don't like it when you do this. If it shits itself, I've got 3-4 spare lying around, so don't panic. The best place to get parts for the electronic dizzy is pick-a-part. $50 will get you a complete dizzy! That's if they're available. They're the first thing to go when a Z or an early skyline get wrecked a pick-a-part! I'm almost certain that you're problem lies in the dizzy. Sorry if this has already been mentioned earlier in the forum, I didn't have much time to read everyone's response to your problem. Anyway, good luck and I hope it works out well. Marc.

Gav, when you rang me, you didn't tell me you heard a loud bang! I had a similar problem twice in one day, but it's not the same problem as yours; I snapped the cam shaft and it ran on 1 cylinder for a couple of seconds then bent the hell out of a few valves! I fixed it on the side of the road (at the front of Waz's place) and had it running after 4 hours. 10 min later, bang, cam snapped again! Turns out I had two threaded bolts that hold the cam to the head that caused it to snap. Another time I heard a bang was when I foolishly revved the L26 off the tacho....... never ever do this! I heard a big bang and then puffs of smoke spewed out of the exhaust. When I stripped the motor, all the piston rings were broken! Funny thing is, it still ran for two weeks. Now before you all think I was mistreading my Z, I was planning on fitting an L28 and I wanted to see how hard the L26 would rev. Stupid thing to do, I know. I came across a similar problem in another make of car and I diagnosed the problem to be the dizzy cap and rotor button. If they are excessively worn, the car will run like a pig. Try changing them and if you're questioning the leads, change them too. If you have good compression and you're not losing oil/water, then it's definately not the head gasket. The water coming out of the exhaust is would be condensation forming in the pipes. I'm not sure why it's only coming out of one exhaust though! As for the bang, not sure what that would have been, hope it's not the same thing as what I had with the L26. If you can get the Z to my place, you're welcome to try parts off my Z to see if you can sort out the problem. One other thing, have you checked to see if the distributor shaft is bent? Let me know if you want to bring it to my place. Marc.

I'm not sure if it's the same thing I had but what you have described sounds similar. When the fuel in Australia changed from leaded to 'LRP' (leaded replacement fuel) I noticed a build up of 'gunk' on the valves after changing the head. I'm not sure what kind of fuel you use, but I'm guessing it may be from the fuel. I also noticed that when I removed the spark plugs they were a totally different colour compared to normal. The colour didn't match with any of the pictures in the Haynes manual either. I could be totally off, but that's a problem I experienced from a change in fuel additives that sounded familiar to what you described.

I had no problems with the carbied L28 turbo setup that I had in my Z. I ran a Holley blue fuel pump with twin 1.75' CD stromburg carbs; had no fuel problems. Not being able to implement an intercooler with the carby setup, I used methanol/water injection to prevent early detonation. Only trouble I had with it was very poor mileage. You can see pics in the members gallery of the setup (It's on page 3 of my pictures if you're interested).