Help us help you. By posting the year, make, model and engine near the beginning of your help request, followed by the symptoms (no start, high idle, misfire etc.) Along with any prevalent Diagnostic Trouble Codes, aka DTCs, other forum members will be able to help you get to a solution more quickly and easily!
My son and I are learning as we go repairing his 1987 Nissan 300zx with NA 30VGE engine. We've rebuilt much of the upper engine after discovering no compression in some of the cylinders. Turned out to be bent valves.
After replacing valves, replacing timing belt, cleaning fuel injectors, fixing vacuum leak, replacing spark plugs and plug wires, checking continuity/grounds... we have come to a point that has us stumped.
I'm hoping someone might be able to offer some advice/assistance on who we might reach out to that could help us identify the problem and recommend a fix. We are enjoying working on the car together and are trying to do it on the cheap. I was thinking that perhaps a local automotive school might be worth checking into? Given the age of the car, I'm hesitant to take it into a normal shop where because I'm assuming there would be a number of hours spent learning about the car. Maybe not, but I think that may be the case.
FWIW here's some background on the problem: cylinders 2, 4 & 6 seem to be misfiring. Compression is within spec, injectors are working, there is spark, we've found and repaired a vacuum leak, we've verifed the timing belt is installed properly with the specified # of teeth between sprocket alignment indicators, checked grounds...we are stumped.
We've done so much on the car ourselves and would like to finish the job. We are really just looking for someone that might point us in the direction of the finish line. Thanks in advance for any advice or assistance you might be able to offer.
I recommend testing the secondary ignition for issues. Distributor caps were a weak point on those engines. I often used a long screwdriver with a gound wire attached between it and the engine along with a spray bottle of water to dampen the cap and wires, then carefully move the screwdriver tip along the cap and wires. If you get any arcing to the screwdriver you have a secondary leak at that point. Many times those caps would leak secondary voltage bad enough when sprayed with water that the engine would die. OE parts are the way to go here in my opinion (replace the rotor with the cap). Also, it was fairly common to see the distributor upper shaft bearing disintegrate and damage the optical pickup assembly, but those were most often no starts. Are there any codes?? Did your timing belt have marks for setting the timing? What were your compression test results?
"Common sense ain't so common is it?"
Last edit: 2 years 8 months ago by SHIMHEAD. Reason: Spelling/typo's
