Z32 New TT 2+2 owner teething problems.

Discussion in 'Technical' started by Harts, Jun 8, 2020.

  1. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    Hello all,

    Thanks for having me. I'm the new guy, having just purchased a 91 TT 2+2 AT. I have been going through the process of tidying it up (It's a bit of a project car for me, something to sink my teeth into) as she was in need of some love and attention (really f'ing filthy).

    The first thing I did when I got her home is give her a medium sized clean so that I could do a proper stocktake of the situation. Whilst I was cleaning up the engine bay I noticed a couple of Vac lines unhooked. I re-attached one that was obvious (passenger side rocker cover nipple), but am having an issue identifying the one you can see in the picture here.

    20200608_112018.jpg

    The line heads into the drivers quarter panel, I thought it may be part of the AIS because of the tank location (though all of the AIS lines seem accounted for), but I was hoping an expert may be able to chime in.

    The car has a misfire, as diagnosed in the pre purchase, the misfire is present at idle to mid rpm. On start up, engine revs walk immediately after turn over, only briefly, before settling down soon after to 800-900 steady (in case any of that matters to the vac line diagnosis).

    I am trying to attack this thing slowly and having fun, only commiting a few hours a day. So far have done a full external wash to check body condition, a couple of hours of engine bay degreasing with a hand brush to start the bay cleaning process, a "seats out" interior clean and a front and rear seats leather shampoo, with a day of Obenaufs Leather Conditioner soaking in. It's getting there but much, much more to go!

    20200607_151139.jpg
    20200608_231653.jpg
    Ordered parts so far include:

    Splitfire coilpacks
    New driver and passenger windscreen cowlings
    New targa top centre bar
    New sun visors
    2 fresh 300zx key blanks
    Original 3 spoke cruise control steering wheel to replace the shitty aftermarket one.
    Ordered new tyres
    Fresh Iridium plugs

    Much more to go. The car is bone stock and 120,000kms, it will be a cruiser/restomod weekender for me.

    By the way, does anyone know where I can buy a cat-back exhaust from? Once I source one, I would like to take it in for a service and Nistune.

    Cheers all, and thanks for having me!
     
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  2. rob260

    rob260 Administrator Staff Member

    That hose you are holding looks like it should run to the washer jets in the bonnet. Don’t hook that one up to a vacuum source...!
     
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  3. Woo05h

    Woo05h Member

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  4. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    That explains a lot, I was looking at the vacuum diagrams and swore everything was present and so I posted here... that is great news.

    There is one other that is plugged with a screw that I would love to ID, if I can't chase it back I will post it up.
     
  5. jellybeans

    jellybeans Active Member

    Welcome George,
    I'd just delete the washer bottle and take off the wipers. You'll save weight and you cant drive a TT in the wet anyway, it's too dangerous.
     
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  6. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    Bahahaha!

    Thanks for the tip @rob260 , that was it. I just received a call from the Splitfire Coilpack supplier informing me that they can't honour the price of the coils on their website (wanting $235 more now), so I have received a refund. I was on your website Rob, looking for the coils but it seems there are none in stock (standard Nissan), does anyone know a good source of coilpacks in the country?
     
  7. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    Ok, so update time. I had been travelling around yesterday trying to find a tyre shop that could put some tyres on the car here the end of the month... apparently 225/50/16 is an odd ball size.

    I ended up getting a booking for tomorrow to fit some Hankook RS4's, my first time running them so I am looking forward to seeing how they go.

    Across the road was a stereo shop, and so I bought an Alpine AV Receiver and small Focal active sub-in-box to bring the sound in connectivity into this century. Hopefully I will have bluetooth working in short order!

    On the way home I experienced a short loss of power, which rectified itself in around 3 seconds. I thought "that is weird" and carried on. As I pulled into my street the car died. I turned it over and it fired but had an erratic idle and died again. I did this twice and decided not to punish it anymore, called my brother and we pushed the car into a car park in front of my house.

    I read a lot last night, after having had advice from my mechanic to check ignition (he thought potentially alternator) and fuel (potentially fuel punp). I read also that a leaky power steering pump can kill vg30 alternators, and thought maybe my engine bay degreasing may have pushed that along. I woke up with a plan, and got one of my workmates to come past in the morning to lend a set of eyes and hands.

    I wanted to try the electrical side first, as I bought the car with a misfire. We hooked up the jumpers from my Volvo to the Z's battery, my mate looking at the engine bay and me cranking. It fired first time with the super rough idle, lasting a little longer with the Volvo attached. This was a good sign I thought, and low and behold my mate yelled "cut it".

    A small amount of electrical smelling smoke came from the top centre of the engine bay, I chased it and found this. 20200610_092055.jpg

    It looked like a shitty past repair, so I pulled the balance tube, unlocked it and found this.
    20200610_130601.jpg

    Whoever did that was drunk or in a hurry, or both. It was some sort of co-axial style cable (shielded or just 2c), and only a minute amount of the external sheath was terminated into the repair. I stripped it back until all cores was available for termination and it ended up like this.
    20200610_150740.jpg

    I put it all back together with some flex and tape, refitted the balance tube and turned the key, off she went. No hunting, no obvious miss at idle to low range and a steady 700(RPM) idle now, rock solid.

    Still needs coils and plugs, but what a difference and a good little victory after yesterday's disappointment.

    The story continues!

    Still after a source for a cat-back exhaust if anyone has any suggestions?

    Also, out of interest, what is that loom for?
     
  8. beaver

    beaver southern zeds

    The loom looks like it been hacked at harts, find the on line manual here and go to EL-123, you'll find the engine loom diagram there. Ebay sold catbacks, not sure what there like if even if they still do sell them, Z1 or CZP, sell them, there in the usa though. You could try rob260 he has a shop, selling z parts and the like, he may know of someone local.
     
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  9. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    Thanks for the tips mate @beaver , I have been talking to rob and will need some gear when the coils come in. Car is running really quite well now, fuel smell in cabin when stationary so need to check lines etc.

    Just fitted the Alpine Halo and the other gear, everything works well and I finally have bluetooth!

    Cheers, I'm sure there will be more soon.
     
  10. beaver

    beaver southern zeds

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  11. geron

    geron National Petroleum Equipm

    To me that exposed wire looks like the detonation sensor harness.
    I've seen some shocking back yard DIY hack jobs on these cars, it's ridiculous. :eek:
     
  12. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    Yes, not pretty at all. I'm sure more of that will come up, where there is smoke, there is fire haha!

    Alpine Halo in action! 20200612_160824.jpg
     
  13. ryzan

    ryzan Moderator Staff Member

    Congratulations on the purchase, looks very clean from the photos you've posted. Admittedly I have a bit of a soft spot for yellow Z32's but you should keep in mind that they are the most succeptible to uneven paint fade, so best to keep well maintained. That and the fact they're a two stage pearl (base metallic, then pearl coat, then clear) makes it nearly impossible to get a good paint match with any body work. If it's even and original after 30 years then congratulations on finding a unicorn.

    Personally wouldn't bother with getting new coils if you're not planning to make huge power. Unlike other Nissan's of the era the Z32 coilpacks seem to be very reliable. I'd be looking at doing a plenum pull (replace those leaking fuel hoses, along with the under plenum coolant hoses etc.) and a 100k service as soon as possible if not already completed and documented. May also want to look at fitting a later model PTU/igniter also.

    Also don't hate the Halo install, though it likely won't be to taste for a lot of people. Although I have to ask, how useless does this make the vents behind it?
     
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  14. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    Hi @ryzan and cheers for the tips. There is definitely some small breakup under load so I will go ahead and replace the ignition bits for my own peace of mind. I will have a look into the later PTU unit, is there some sort of reliability/output improvement from this mod?

    Plenum remove will most certainly happen in time, I just need to find it.

    The paint is not perfect, but good enough to look great in the photos. The yellow is a really great colour, but I can see it will be hard work.

    The screen slides up and down/in and out/tilts, I just have it adjusted so that my knuckles don't foul on it in park. I'll reassess in summer, but for now I have the windscreen vents running warm full time, so it's fine. To be honest, I haven't had a 30 year old car before and didn't want to let go of the mod cons (Bluetooth, Android auto, maps etc etc) so it was a compromise. It makes the car infinitely more drivable 95% of the time for work and play.

    It seems the major was done 24k ago. I'll have it all checked once it is ready for the service and tune.
     
  15. ryzan

    ryzan Moderator Staff Member

    Fair enough but be aware that most (if not all) aftermarket coilpacks perform worse than the factory coils. Early PTU's had a high failure rate and were known to leave people stranded on the side of the road semi-regularly. That said most remaining units are probably the most reliable however it's cheap insurance to replace.

    Major service is not just distance but also time based, if it was more than 7 years ago I'd be making it a top priority to do.

    Hope you get many years of enjoyment out of your new toy. Also, nice song playing on the stereo. :)
     
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  16. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    I've got a set of oem coils coming from Rob, amongst other things. I have successfully used splitfire in the past, but the factory coils were recommended so I ended up going with them. I'll see if I can chase up a series 2 PTU, thanks for the tip.

    Should have a bunch of new oem parts getting put on in the next week or two and then a baseline service and inspection by my mechanic to see what is in need of attention. Once everything is safe and nothing is outstanding maintenance wise, I will get an exhaust, boost controller and nistune onto it and be happy for a while. I won't worry about winding it up until she is ship shape, I'm not interested in big, surprising bills hahaha.

    Song is a classic, always my benchmark for setting up my sound :D
     
  17. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    Got a scrub in before the rain
     

    Attached Files:

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  18. MickW

    MickW Carntry member...

    rob260 how sad and how often were the times that some poor bugger hooked up that hose from the windscreen washer system then sucked all the water out of the washer bottle into a freshly rebuilt engine and bent some conrods. I almost did...
     
  19. Harts

    Harts Active Member

    Yeesh, I can see how the thing might happen in a rush... would be heartbreaking.
     
  20. MickW

    MickW Carntry member...

    Where's your sense of fun mate? Sure, pushing it on a wet road can leave you facing backwards but hey, it's a cheaper heart rush than a double shot of espresso :D
     

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