Well guys, for starters, I hope I can keep up with you guys and your builds! I know there are going to be a few big money parts that I'm going to have to save up for, so maybe I can find some filler to keep you guys entertained during those moments! Lol. Anyways, on with the car!
We will start with a few of your basic photos of the car. These were from the seller's Craigslist ad.
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Just picked it up off of Craigslist a week ago. Guy wasn't sure what was wrong with it. It idled like crap, but at least it ran. Engine was supposedly dropped in right before he purchased it 4 years ago, so it SHOULD have around 80k on it. At least that's what he said. He thought it was a camshaft sensor or a crankshaft sensor. When we went to check it out I had my dad take a look and he noticed right away a loud hissing coming from the intake side of the car, so we crossed our fingers and hoped that all it was was a vacuum leak and I'd have the car running in tip-top shape with some cheap hose that would keep a dent from forming in my pocket. Ended up getting the car for $2,100 with a trade of my Ruger AR15/AR556, so I wasn't hurting too bad if anything did end up being terribly wrong with the engine.
Short story short, we attempted to get it home and it broke down on us about 15 minutes into the trip. It would start idling worse than it had been, if you didn't keep your foot on the throttle in the exact same spot it would start jerking you around, and then after it had warmed up it would die. The guy said it would start to lean out, and then it just wouldn't want to drive anymore until after it had cooled down. It had worried me that he had driven it for 3 months like this, and then it sat for another 3 months after he decided to purchase a 350z. I was just hoping that there wasn't something terribly wrong with it and that the hackjob of the wiring harness wasn't causing this.
Okay! So we get it home. It's cold out, it's late, I'm hungry, so I get Mexican! Saturday morning I wake up at 7am and try to find some vacuum leaks! I found 2. One was in the intake manifold where it meets the head and the other was on the nut that runs from the exhaust manifold to the EGR I believe. I've read a lot of people blocking off the EGR since it was there just for emissions, so that was something I've pondered of doing, but I wanted to get this thing on the road as soon as possible! I find the gasket for the intake for $6.99 I think at my local AutoZone, pick it up and start to work. I did NOT realize that even though not terribly hard, but a little time consuming it would be the gasket would be.
This is how the car would run at idle and after taking off the MAF sensor and it's hacked up wiring.
*VIDEO* *VIDEO* http://vid113.photobucket.com/albums/n211/warningx10x24x/240sx/IMG_1760.mp4 *VIDEO* *VIDEO*
And here's a close up of the wiring the previous owner had done to attempt to fix the wiring harness that was "dry rotting"
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For the time being, I went ahead and tried to wire the MAF as best as I could and got it to stay in place with electrical tape.
Fast forward. So I replaced the gasket! Tried to tighten the nut on the EGR, but it wouldn't move. For the time being I said F-it, but! She idles a lot better now! This is last Sunday. I also thought that something was wrong with my MAF and unplugging the sensor would make the car run a lot better, but would kick it into limp mode and wouldn't let me rev it passed 2,500 RPM. With this going on, I figured it was probably wired correctly, because even though it idled really rough, when it was plugged in it wouldn't be in limp mode. So I drove it around the block a few times and it felt fine, so I decided I was going to attempt to make it to work with it on Monday.
Some progress photos *LOL*
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Anyways, I made it to work, but barely! About 2 minutes away it started shaking again and acting like it was going to die out. I researched this a little bit, some people at work were saying it was probably still a vacuum leak, could be an 02 sensor, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, or rotor button. I thought that it was the MAF losing connecting with the janky wires, then it reconnecting over and over again. Something was getting warm and shutting down after getting to operating temps and I didn't know what. So I tried the "throw money at it until it fixes it" method after doing a lot of research, and for me, it actually worked!
So I started with routine maintenance first. Plugs/wires/cap/rotor button. I decided to pull the O2 sensor off since I was in there and see what it looked like. This is it.
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Showed it to a few friends and my dad and they thought that it looked fine. Okay, lets pull the spark plugs.
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Hmm....one of these things is not like the other. Then I check the distributor cap and the rotor button. Didn't get any pics of the cap, but here's the button. A little worn, but still good. Some sand paper did her up just right.
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So I go to the parts store and pick up some new spark plugs. We get them in and start the car. Sounds and runs the same. Well that didn't fix it, I thought. So my dad is listening to it and has me shut the car off and he pulls the wire for cylinder 4. I start it again, nothing changes. It runs exactly the same. So cylinder 4 isn't firing. We grab a different plug out of the garage, put it in my wire, ground it, and when I start the car it's getting spark. Must be fuel. I pull the plug from cylinder 3 and cylinder 4 to inspect them and smell for fuel. This is what I see.
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The one from cylinder 4 looks brand new. Still shiny and everything. Give it a whiff, no fuel smell. *crosses fingers* Hopefully it's just an injector. But could that really be what's causing the car to shut off after driving it for 15 minutes?
Get the injector ordered on Wednesday and get it home. By this time I'm a pro at getting the fuel rail off of the car, get the new injector in, and cross my fingers. I start it and this is what I get.
*VIDEO* *VIDEO* http://vid113.photobucket.com/albums/n211/warningx10x24x/240sx/IMG_1811.mp4 *VIDEO* *VIDEO*
I swear, when I started it I didn't even know it was running it was so smooth. I let it run for aboout 10 minutes and letting it warm up a little bit before attempting to drive it around town and hopefully not getting broke down anywhere. It didn't. After a week of work and $80, SHE LIVES!!! :eeksurprise::big_grin:
We will start with a few of your basic photos of the car. These were from the seller's Craigslist ad.
Just picked it up off of Craigslist a week ago. Guy wasn't sure what was wrong with it. It idled like crap, but at least it ran. Engine was supposedly dropped in right before he purchased it 4 years ago, so it SHOULD have around 80k on it. At least that's what he said. He thought it was a camshaft sensor or a crankshaft sensor. When we went to check it out I had my dad take a look and he noticed right away a loud hissing coming from the intake side of the car, so we crossed our fingers and hoped that all it was was a vacuum leak and I'd have the car running in tip-top shape with some cheap hose that would keep a dent from forming in my pocket. Ended up getting the car for $2,100 with a trade of my Ruger AR15/AR556, so I wasn't hurting too bad if anything did end up being terribly wrong with the engine.
Short story short, we attempted to get it home and it broke down on us about 15 minutes into the trip. It would start idling worse than it had been, if you didn't keep your foot on the throttle in the exact same spot it would start jerking you around, and then after it had warmed up it would die. The guy said it would start to lean out, and then it just wouldn't want to drive anymore until after it had cooled down. It had worried me that he had driven it for 3 months like this, and then it sat for another 3 months after he decided to purchase a 350z. I was just hoping that there wasn't something terribly wrong with it and that the hackjob of the wiring harness wasn't causing this.
Okay! So we get it home. It's cold out, it's late, I'm hungry, so I get Mexican! Saturday morning I wake up at 7am and try to find some vacuum leaks! I found 2. One was in the intake manifold where it meets the head and the other was on the nut that runs from the exhaust manifold to the EGR I believe. I've read a lot of people blocking off the EGR since it was there just for emissions, so that was something I've pondered of doing, but I wanted to get this thing on the road as soon as possible! I find the gasket for the intake for $6.99 I think at my local AutoZone, pick it up and start to work. I did NOT realize that even though not terribly hard, but a little time consuming it would be the gasket would be.
This is how the car would run at idle and after taking off the MAF sensor and it's hacked up wiring.
*VIDEO* *VIDEO* http://vid113.photobucket.com/albums/n211/warningx10x24x/240sx/IMG_1760.mp4 *VIDEO* *VIDEO*
And here's a close up of the wiring the previous owner had done to attempt to fix the wiring harness that was "dry rotting"
For the time being, I went ahead and tried to wire the MAF as best as I could and got it to stay in place with electrical tape.
Fast forward. So I replaced the gasket! Tried to tighten the nut on the EGR, but it wouldn't move. For the time being I said F-it, but! She idles a lot better now! This is last Sunday. I also thought that something was wrong with my MAF and unplugging the sensor would make the car run a lot better, but would kick it into limp mode and wouldn't let me rev it passed 2,500 RPM. With this going on, I figured it was probably wired correctly, because even though it idled really rough, when it was plugged in it wouldn't be in limp mode. So I drove it around the block a few times and it felt fine, so I decided I was going to attempt to make it to work with it on Monday.
Some progress photos *LOL*
Anyways, I made it to work, but barely! About 2 minutes away it started shaking again and acting like it was going to die out. I researched this a little bit, some people at work were saying it was probably still a vacuum leak, could be an 02 sensor, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, or rotor button. I thought that it was the MAF losing connecting with the janky wires, then it reconnecting over and over again. Something was getting warm and shutting down after getting to operating temps and I didn't know what. So I tried the "throw money at it until it fixes it" method after doing a lot of research, and for me, it actually worked!
So I started with routine maintenance first. Plugs/wires/cap/rotor button. I decided to pull the O2 sensor off since I was in there and see what it looked like. This is it.
Showed it to a few friends and my dad and they thought that it looked fine. Okay, lets pull the spark plugs.
Hmm....one of these things is not like the other. Then I check the distributor cap and the rotor button. Didn't get any pics of the cap, but here's the button. A little worn, but still good. Some sand paper did her up just right.
So I go to the parts store and pick up some new spark plugs. We get them in and start the car. Sounds and runs the same. Well that didn't fix it, I thought. So my dad is listening to it and has me shut the car off and he pulls the wire for cylinder 4. I start it again, nothing changes. It runs exactly the same. So cylinder 4 isn't firing. We grab a different plug out of the garage, put it in my wire, ground it, and when I start the car it's getting spark. Must be fuel. I pull the plug from cylinder 3 and cylinder 4 to inspect them and smell for fuel. This is what I see.
The one from cylinder 4 looks brand new. Still shiny and everything. Give it a whiff, no fuel smell. *crosses fingers* Hopefully it's just an injector. But could that really be what's causing the car to shut off after driving it for 15 minutes?
Get the injector ordered on Wednesday and get it home. By this time I'm a pro at getting the fuel rail off of the car, get the new injector in, and cross my fingers. I start it and this is what I get.
*VIDEO* *VIDEO* http://vid113.photobucket.com/albums/n211/warningx10x24x/240sx/IMG_1811.mp4 *VIDEO* *VIDEO*
I swear, when I started it I didn't even know it was running it was so smooth. I let it run for aboout 10 minutes and letting it warm up a little bit before attempting to drive it around town and hopefully not getting broke down anywhere. It didn't. After a week of work and $80, SHE LIVES!!! :eeksurprise::big_grin:
