Mark Maras

Yes, I agree. At the very least, I'd set fire to a small piece & watch the results. There is enough combustible material in the interior as is. I found out once reaching under a burning, dripping fuse block trying to get to a hood latch. Adding more, probably not a good idea.

They were both silver on my 71.

Hotrodding has become sooooo much more difficult than it used to be. I remember the days when fit was the only problem. Getting them running was a piece of cake.

Saw this on CL too. I was shocked that someone had cut the quarter panel out of her. If it's complete & relatively rust free, go for it. If you need a quarter panel, there is a wrecking yard south of Portland that has a few Zs. PM me for Info.

You're right. Old school mechanics would use a vacuum gauge first. It still may be the best diagnostic tool for the money.

I should have mentioned in my previous post that I don't have 220v avail. at the Z & I borrowed a friends' welder for the sheet metal welding. Hardway is right, you can't go wrong with a 220v with argon. It will give you many more options (flux core & alum. wire, CO2 or mixed gas) than a little flux core welder. My favorite 220v was a Miller that I used years ago.

A Z engine will run on 5 cylinders. #4 not firing didn't cause the stall. At this point, not enough info to diagnose that. Compression ratio figures, I don't remember if this engine is new or old but either engine would run fine with these #s. If the engine is new, the #s should be very close if not the same. However, the valves MUST be adjusted to specs before ANY troubleshooting including a compression test. If a mechanic has been doing this in the past, IMO, YOU should pull the valve cover & check the clearances. It's the only way to be sure & it's not difficult. #4-compression is good, & it is fed by the same fuel supply as #5 & #6. The only reason the cylinder is not firing, IMO, is little to no spark at the plug. The coil supplies elec. to all the plugs through the distributer. The pathway to the plugs is very simple. As the dist. turns, the rotor distributes the elec. to the contacts inside the cap. From there it goes into the plug wires & into the plugs. Fact, there are 5 cylinders firing. The problem has to be located somewhere from the dist. cap to the plug. A quick check with an ohm meter will tell you if have a bad plug wire. Compare it to the others. Other options already mentioned, timing light on #4 plug wire or just trade #4 wire with another one to see if the problem moves with the wire. You've replaced the plug, if the wire is good the only thing left is the cap. Rare, but I recently had one go bad on one cyl. Ohm meter check, inside to outside & double check the connections at the cap & plug.

Yeah, that is cool. At $3500.00 it could pay for itself in very little time.

May or may not be related to Zs, When my Subaru brakes start getting noisy, I can quiet them with a thorough cleaning using compressed air. Lot's of dust buildup. I don't ever remember a brake squeal problem in my original Z. I agree with Chickenman, new compounds seem to be prone to squealing.

I've had a great deal of experience with both types of wire. Flux core wire is my choice for welding on unclean or coated steel. ( paint, rust, galvanizing etc. The cleaner the steel is, the better the weld will be but when you do weld the crud, you won't have the porosity of a hard wire setup. I've been using E71T .030 fluxcore in a little 100amp Lincoln for replacing the floors and battery area in my 260. The nature of the welding (nothing continuous just a bunch of one second bursts.) on these Zs doesn't max out the duty cycle of even this small Lincoln. I wouldn't want to use it for anything much heavier than sheet metal but a small welder and flux core wire is my choice for this project. I did trade in my old small window hood for an auto darkening one. I found that when welding delicate seams, my accuracy was a lot better when I didn't have to lower my hood with the usual head nod.

Good compression. I doubt that you have much, if any, spark to #4. Check the dist. cap, rotor, #4 wire & the connections. Try swapping #4 plug & wire with # 3 or #5 & see if the problem moves to another cylinder.

Gwri8 Thanks for your effort. I think you're right about the gas. Hopefully RB is going to be reliable now. Is the potentiometer add-on the best method of leaning it out a bit? Temporarily, will keeping the revs up keep it clean enough to not foul plugs? In your opinion.

No doubt about it. At least she's letting him keep the other one. The one that is offered has a clean title & is fairly complete. I wonder why he considers it a parts car. It doesn't look that bad on the outside.

Second picture shows another one. Seller sounds motivated. Hmmm.

Zed Head I like that idea. Maybe start with a pre-fab roll bar and add on as needed. My old one bolted to the shock towers & the front of the rear wheel well. A good piece to start with.

BIG BROTHER. Orwell saw it coming.

Have you tried welding any of the sheet metal that you've removed yet? If not, take a couple of the best pieces and butt weld them together. Not too bad? Now try a vertical & an overhead. Now imagine doing these welds in locations that are difficult to reach & see. The reality is, you'll be cutting away a lot of sheet metal before you find decent metal that you can weld to. I'm going to suggest using E71T welding wire. I'm using .030. No gas. This wire is very forgiving when welding crappy, painted, dirty, rusty, or galvanized steel. No pin holes. You'll be cleaning as much of the crust off of the sheet metal before welding but you can't get to all of it. Let us know how you do. Honestly, I'm hoping you can do it.

Nice, upper left is what my 260 DID look like, at one time.

Zed Head, I agree with all of the possibilities except the f. pump. Can't figure out why a bad pump would cause black plugs. Jai, Possible success? We won't know until you try again several times. It may be just a normal glitch in the EFI cold to warm-up process. Do you remember it happening in the past? I really don't know squat about EFI, I remember RossiZ mentioning a similar symptom with his EFI. When he switched to SUs, the temporary rough running, when cold, went away. How long has the tach been bad? Was it dead before the problems started & does it ever show any life?

Jai As I understand it, the car now starts & runs OK. If it were me, I would start her up, let her warm & start making trips to the mailbox & back keeping the RPMs up around 3000rpm. If it does start to crap out, push in the clutch & give it full throttle. I've had a moderate amount of success forcing small amounts of water to pass through the engine and managed to keep the engine running til it passed. You'll know if & when it has passed. The engine will start running normal again. If it doesn't crap out, you'll gain some confidence in her ability to be reliable. BTW the gas drier is still a good idea.

rcb280Z I've been wondering about the frequency of the smoke too. I don't have an answer yet. But as far as the "smoke" lingering, if the car was under an open canopy, there must have been no breeze & if the relative humidity was high & if there was a lot of condensation in the exhaust (a lot of ifs) a cloud of "smoke" could & would hang around. I've seen this happen when the conditions are just right. Jai On the Tues. morning of the "smoke" , you started the car. How long did it idle before driving it? You saw a cloud of smoke, drove the car 1/2 mile & turned it off. Did it run OK, & was it still smoking when you got back from the mailbox? I'm beginning to wonder if the smoke & the engine crapping out are unrelated. The smoke being condensation & the engine being water in the gas. A bit of a stretch but possible if the engine ran OK when smoking.

Not loony at all. Water does settle at the bottom of the tank. The underground 100% gas tank could have a lot of condensation in it. Probably is not a big seller. Also pure gas, no alcohol. Not a chance of mixing the water with the gas. There are a number of alcohol based products avail. to rid your tank of water. Alcohol is one of the few solvents that will mix with water and petroleum. Most are less than $10.00. Or you could drain the tank either by siphoning or pulling the plug on the bottom. If it has a full tank, I'd siphon it. You won't waste the gas, you'll be able to see the water in the bottom & avoid it.

Jai Do you remember the smell or the feel of the smoke? Coolant being somewhat sweet and humid, oil being, well, oily & greasy smelling & feeling. Generally, a coolant cloud dissipates a lot faster than oil depending on the relative humidity & if the car is in a closed space. I was leaning toward water in the fuel but anytime I've experienced it, It only took a mile or two before it crapped out. Was the soot that came out of the tailpipe oily? Judging from the pics, it wasn't. On Wed. when the car was towed, was it parked uphill, downhill, level when it wouldn't start?

Was it always the same one? Might have been owned by someone in the cast or crew.

Jai, Did this latest gremlin arise shortly after refueling? If so. how far did you drive until RB started acting up?