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Well now I can say I have complete faith. Thanks, I can relax now!

I have spoken with 3 mechanics whom I have complete faith in their knowledge of Imports. All of them told me that cutting the EGR valve mount off the rear of my N47 intake would be fine. Turning my N47 into something closer to the coveted N42 intake but still keeping the newer technology on the N47. I have a ceramic coated header from MSA for my '77 car with a N47 head that has no fitting for any kind of heat tube. Today I carried the intake to a Foreign car machine shop to have it vatted hopefully to de-carbon it. He said that my intake had to have a way of heat circulating or it would frost up and not run well. That's totally backwards from everything I've read on all the Z forums (this is my favorite and most helpfull, thanks to you all) I wasn't going to stand in his shop and argue with him the fact that people run the non EGR N42 on '77 & '78's and seem to be satisfied with their performance. So I left feeling like I had ruined my intake. I'm a Z diver (this is my 3rd Z & also had a '83 ZX) not a Z mechanic but I really enjoy working on this car, it scrathes my brain. I would love to someday help other people with their problems but that's about 10 years away! Does heat have to be circulated through my intake through the EGR passage like he says?

So maybe if I had this welded over it might be ok? Last night I put a mini-mag lite inside of the hole in completely dark garage. I couldn't see any light leaking through, I have removed all the stuff off the top side for a vat bath for all the carbon inside, but I know that air leaks are harder to find than simply using a flashlight. And what I thought was a Dirt Dobbers nest was actually a bunch of sand. Would they use sand for casting? Why has that sand not gotten into the intake other than the EGR passage?

I had taken my manifolds off and found this hole under my intake, N47, and was told it was in the Heat Riser. I have taken a sawz-all and "deleted" my EGR from the intake for header install. My Dad says it's nothing to worry about but he's never and will never own a "Furrin Car", he retired from Good Year tire company so he's all about buy American. So I'm asking the Z crowd if he's right or should I buy another intake?

Push button primer? That's for weed whackers! Just teasing. That's a great idea but I have been reading about a Fuel Lab FPR that claims it will keep between 20 & 25psi for hot engine start up. I may end up getting one of those from Santa Claus, they're expensive, but I may try that prime button for now. No stereo but I could come off the cig lighter fuse. And I will be leaving my vacuum test gauge in the drawer of my tool box with all the other test lights and such I've acquired. That drawers getting full. Thanks again for your help FastWoman and Dave C. from Putnam New York. That header is soooo fine I don't want to put it under the hood. Kind of like that Kohler commercial where they bring a faucet to their builder and say "I want to build a house around this". Well I want to build my car around this header.

I have good news and bad. The new FPR came today and that was one of the most difficult parts I've had to replace. But the pressure is bouncing between 36 & 40psi. That's the good news. It will not hold the pressure after I turn off the ignition/ fuel pump. So it doesn't want to restart as it did before which is the bad news. I think I'm headed in the right direction just may have missed some turns or some turns have missed me. Boy oh boy was that a tough part replacement. My ceramic header also came in today so I'm about to be elbow deep in this engine and it probably won't be running for awhile but I'll keep reading this forum. It's the highlight of my day. I live a pretty boring life! "Work, work , work" Mell Brooks from Blazing Saddles.

Well after actually reading, the vacuum test are mostly done at idle. So maybe it doesn't need to be in the cockpit with me.

Also, fixing the leak lowered my already poor fuel pressure. The adjustable FPR with bypass port is somewhere in the postal system. Can't wait to get it put on.

I was going to try and get the hose through the firewall and let it come up where the stereo hole is. May have to buy a longer piece of vacuum hose though. I found a tech page from AtlanticZ for trouble shooting with a vacuum gauge. http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/vacuum/ when I get the car running right I would put it under the hood somehow and put in a cd player. I never knew vacuum was so important. I did your "yogurt cup test" with the long piece of fuel line from the FP gauge on the wiper blade idea from Z Train. When I blew, the air leak parted my hair. In my haste to adjust the valves while hot I had put the valve cover gasket on upside down and had a leak above #1 spark plug. Flipped it over and kicked myself. I'm glad I haven't driven it other than test runs around the neighborhood.

I found this on walmart.com for $20 bucks. I'm going to get one. I don't care about radios just want some gauges to look at.

Finally! found adjustable one that says will work on '77. went ahead and bought it.

FastWoman could you please read my thread "Fuel Pressure Compatibility". I would really appreciate your opinion of that adjustable MSD 2222 regulator. If that would work on my car, and if that's my problem, it may make up for that ECU drift you spoke of. I can get one off ebay for $20 more dollars than a non adjusting BWD from Advance, they're $57.99 and the adjustable one is $79 w/free shipping.

It looks like some kind of breathalyzer attached to wiper blade and kind of works like one. The more beer I drank the worse the car ran.

Spoken like a true Philosopher. I've had that problem my whole life, I get something in my head and start obsessing on that one thing. Thank you Mr. Putnam for reminding me to think of all the small things that make up the big picture. I've been couped up this past week from all the rain we've had and gone crazy thinking about that FPR. I apologize to all for being kind of lazy and hoping for a quick answer for my low psi. I've downloaded FSM and will try to figure it out.

Just got through looping the neighborhood (cops probably soon to come) about 4 times. with the gauge on drivers windshield blade. start up 24psi, cold. patted throttle went down to 22psi. started my 1st loop medium warmth 24psi, up a hill climbed to 28psi, back down other side dropped to 24psi. middle gauge heat range (hot) 24psi, rev up drops to 20 to 22psi. hot idle 24psi @800rpm. ran terrible. unplugged TPS, ran worse, got a little smoother after 3k rpm. plugged back up TPS. unhooked vacuum line from bottom of FPR and clamped it from intake side. 34psi and ran way better until I got caught at redlight. maintained 34psi but sputtered and fluttered until excess gas burnt off then ran like a jacked leg rabbit which was very strong and quick. when running so well psi was between 32 & 34. I'm no mechanic, more a maniac but I am pretty sure it runs better with the higher psi when vacuum to FPR is clamped off. $64k question, what is the problem? thanks for any input, I'll try anything.

Just got through looping the neighborhood (cops probably soon to come) about 4 times. with the gauge on drivers windshield blade. start up 24psi, cold. patted throttle went down to 22psi. started my 1st loop medium warmth 24psi, up a hill climbed to 28psi, back down other side dropped to 24psi. middle gauge heat range (hot) 24psi, rev up drops to 20 to 22psi. hot idle 24psi @800rpm. ran terrible. unplugged TPS, ran worse, got a little smoother after 3k rpm. plugged back up TPS. unhooked vacuum line from bottom of FPR and clamped it from intake side. 34psi and ran way better until I got caught at redlight. maintained 34psi but sputtered and fluttered until excess gas burnt off then ran like a jacked leg rabbit which was very strong and quick. when running so well psi was between 32 & 34. I'm no mechanic, more a maniac but I am pretty sure it runs better with the higher psi when vacuum to FPR is clamped off. $64k question, what is the problem? thanks for any input, I'll try anything.

So does this mean the same thing "The B.E.G.I. regulators are designed specifically to add fuel to EFI engines modified with turbos, superchargers, and normally aspirated. This is accomplished by using the manifold vac/pressure to drive the fuel pressure up as the boost rises, or with the N/A engines, as the vacuum goes toward atmospheric"?

Will this work on my '77 if I need one? "These MSD boost adjustable regulators are designed for turbo or supercharged engines. As boost pressure increases, more fuel is required by the engine. These regulators feature a boost reference circuit that adds more fuel in relation to boost pressure." Seems like boost would be the opposite of vacuum. I have a stock motor. What do you all think?

Well with high pressure fuel line @$6.49 a foot I've decided to cram a "little person" politicly correct? under the hood and let one of his little fickle fingers point out the culprit. That was mean but damn that hose is high! A friend of mine rear-ended a car driven by a little person the other day. He asked him if he was ok and he said "well I'm not Happy".

Rocks throw from Attalla; Gadsden. And yes we do have Autozones. Isn't there a big time drag strip in Gainsville? No it's Commerce and we drive through Gainsville. I think?

Nope. I'm in a fairly small, 30k people I think, town and the only place that had one was Ed's Foreign Car Parts for $59.99 but it was much larger with heavier wire 12ft I think. Anyway let me have this one, it's $0 dollars.

With the plugs out and in high gear I could roll the car, which moves the cam, with one arm. Read that on here and it works great. Remote starter was $60 so I was going to buy 27mm socket, remove fan, borrow 1/2 pull bar and turn balancer bolt. I'm learning.

That's a very simple solution for reading Fp. And your exactly right, I am chasing my tail because I don't know my tail from my elbow with all these variances on a 34 year old EFI system.

Ok I just drove around the neighborhood for awhile. It has rained all weekend so I didn't put it "under load on the open road" just quick throttle advances in my garage. It ran really well at 1st, cold, but then went to crap when heated up. So I hooked the vacuum back to the FPR and it went back to low 20's psi. Barely made it up a hill near my house but after the hill it ran really strong. Maybe I should take off the AFM and clean it and the connector maybe even figure out how to adjust it? Or maybe the FPR really could be bad. I'm stumped but so happy this is my biggest worry. Thanks again.

I clamped off fuel line right after the gauge before the metal fuel line at the front of the valve cover. It went to 48psi. Then when clamp was released and the fuel entered the fuel injection system it dropped to 25psi. Then I plugged the vacuum coming off the intake to the FPR and also plugged the bottom of the FPR it stays at a constant 32psi. I adjusted the valves cold & hot, set the timing at about 11 or 12 degrees BTDC and the car seems to run better than ever. Now that there is no vacuum associated with the FPR would that be considered a "non-rising regulator"? And will that be a negative move on my part? Maybe cause some kind of damage? I've been checking the plugs and they are a nice off-white color. Side note: this will all be re-adjusted when I do internal engine rebuild this winter. Thanks for your help.