Emissions nightmare!! - Page 2

JZ82 · Feb 1st, 2006, 09:13 AM

Do you have a CAT installed? If so, how old is it?

Mikey280zx · Feb 1st, 2006, 11:35 PM

Yes, there is a cat installed. It was on there when I bought it.

JZ82 · Feb 3rd, 2006, 01:32 AM

Since the CAT has not been replaced, I would do some testing on it. The best way to do this is with a gas analyzer. Test the emissions out the tail pipe when the car is cold and then again warm. Monitor it's progress as the car warms up. If the HC's and CO and NoX don't significantly drop as the car gets warmer, good bed the CAT is bad. That's where I would start looking next.

pogo2501 · Feb 24th, 2006, 03:51 AM

are all of the engine vaccums working? that can be a huge prob on the z and if it dosent run right changes are that it may fail but i live in ky and dont have the checks. that is a very common prob though

JZ82 · Mar 3rd, 2006, 09:46 PM

Do you know if you have the hydraulic head? If you are one of the lucky owners of a '83 with mechanical lifters (some '83s had them), when was the last time you adjusted the valves? I just did mine and it runs like a totally different car. I also changed out the cap and rotor as they were burned. Just another suggestion.

sunnysentra · Mar 31st, 2006, 12:49 PM

I jumped forums to see this post. I don't know much about 280Z's, my late uncle knew them well as a nissan mechanic for 30 years. I ran into rich conditions with the Coil being too weak. The Cap and rotor were fine, but the plugs were black. We ran the consult and the ECU had no codes, so the coil was crapped, tested that and it was bad. The CAT is old and if any time the car did not have a tune up, if too much fuel was dumped into the CAT, it will get hot and go bad. Then carbon will build up inside. my 92 CAT looks like black going in a little, but rusty,red/brown coming out and its clean, so its working. if the CAT inside is black at both ends, its probably gone. Take it out and look at the exit end of the CAT and see what color the honeycomb is. black is bad, a rusty/brown is OK. Just a trick from my uncle for preliminary test. do the gas analyzer if you have one handy.

Chris 92 sentra