ngalaviz

Just got a 1986 Nissa PU in real great condition.The only thing that I noticed is that when on the highway especially going up a hill from 4th to 5th gear, the car seem like it doesnt have enough power to stay at the speed I want it too.The person that sold it to me,just did a tune up on it..New cap and plugs(8plugs on a 4 cylinder) and wires,new carb, oil change etc.. Not sure if maybe its because of the carb,maybe not tuned right?? Besides that it drives really good and is a nice little truck. Any one with any info, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Nathan

veesix

A good way to think of 5th gear is this "overdrive".

Subtle things can make the difference when it come to maintaining highway speed up a long grade. New tires (passenger car) can help. Another thing to consider is extra weight and wind drag.

My truck had large racks bolted to the top of the cap (great for skis and 2x4's but bad for the highway). I removed the racks and I also unbolted a set of rusted out fog lamps, and now the truck rolls down the highway much better.

You might consider taking a look at the airfilter yourself (mine was black and covered with bugs). Also the inside of the distributor cap; there can be a ton of wear in that thing.

veesix

ngalaviz

Well actually I dont think its really because of weight on the truck. Even when on a flat highway and try to pick up speed it wants to do the same thing. like something is tapping the breaks while Im trying to gain speed.

OBYWAN

I owned an '87 Nissan regular cab pickup a bunch of years ago. It was the most reliable vehicles I've ever owned. Mine was an automatic with overdrive and for sure it wasn't the most powerful ride around. You might want to check your timing (easy to do). Kick it up a notch or two. I had to do it with mine, and it seemed to help. Other than that, you just live with it and enjoy your truck.

By the way, I sold my '87 to my kid with 87,000 miles on it and when he finally sold it he had 135,000 miles. The only problem we had was the starter motor had to be replaced and the rotor and cap replaced.

veesix

When it gets down to brass tacks, the weight of the truck is a real factor.

Driving up a hill, or accelerating on a flat stretch; the deal is the same.

Cutting weight and decreasing wind drag, can make the difference between holding speed up a hill or bogging down. On the flats, the same is true for small improvements in acceleration.

The modest increase in performance you are looking for, sure won't require a turbo charger.

Little improvements go a long way (lets face it we are not talking about a race car here) toward making these trucks better on the highway.

veesix

jerryp58

Does it have larger than stock tires?

Many people who put larger tires on speak of reduced accelleration and inability to maintain speed under load.

__________________

Jerry
2004 Frontier, King Cab, XE, 4x1, 4-cyl, 5-spd

ngalaviz

Ok... Drove it to work today on the same stretch of highway that has some hills and it drove fine. Power and everything was there. I think maybe the new carb needed to adjusted or broken in. But going up a hill I can maintian a speed at 55 or 60 and go faster with no problem.

Thanks
Nathan

Will

You telling us that it's an 86 and then saying it has a carb tells me that this not the Z24 engine and the engine you have is a bit under powered to begin with. The 86.5 Hardbody with the Z24 was/is quite a bit different as far as better power goes.

ahardb0dy

obywan, you had a 87 with a auto tranny with over drive? must have been a special model cause over drive didn't come out till 88, at least my 87 SE-V6 didn't have it , sorry if I'm wrong. as to a "carb" it's probably a TBI and he just thinks it's a carb cause it looks like one,

79kz400

While i realize the origional problem seems to have gone away i've one more suggestion.
Because I haven't seen anyone on this forum explain this...
A good friend of mine who has spent WAY to much time working on cars takes me to the store and buys a can of carb cleaner and seafoam. We drive a friends '97 grand cherokee 6 cylinder with an idle problem for 20 minutes and stop at my garage. He opens the hood, disasembles the air cleaner and, with the motor still running begins spraying carb cleaner in the TBI. As the smoke rolls out of the exhaust he turns to me and says "Intakes are junk and this ones all fouled out." He then slowly, while reving the motor, pours 3/4 of the seafoam right in the Throttle Body. It hisses and makes noise and he revs the motor to 5 grand and dumps the remainder in and chokes out the engine. "steam clean" he says. He then tapes up an index finger with duck tape and procedes to open and clean the TB with a toothbrush and carb cleaner. ?tape for touching the hot valve? 5 minutes later he starts it up and this nasty cloud of smoke rolls out. He then empties the can of carb cleaner into the TB and puts it back together. claiming all the while that it is cleaning the seafoam out of the head. I drive the jeep for 5 minutes and the idle is SO much smoother and it dosn't lurch or attempt to stall. WOW!

6 cans later i will personally recommend Seafoam. $5.00 at autozone with a $1 can of carb cleaner.
Our '92 grand prix was stalling at stop signs. So i pulled the brake booster line off the brake cylinder and let it suck the seafoam in straight to the intake manifold. feed it slowly over 5 minute and then stalled the motor with the last 1/3 of the can. Cleaned the intake valve with a toothbrush and restarted. It was nasty but 198,261 miles of regular grade gas in that 3.1L cleaned out in 20 minutes. No more stalling.
My truck doesn't even show carbon on the throttle body valve. I have concluded after using 4 cans on domestics and 2 on "imports" that import heads are of superior desigined and after 104,000 my truck emitted almost nothing but steam.
For $6 and tax you can't go wrong. This fixed the dieseling carbon creep problem in the '83 AMC (carburated) and gave me back the gas pedal in a leaky honda civic with 172,xxx miles.
The grand prix was getting 21mpg mixed driving. Now at 23mpg. at $2.34/gal you do the math. 2 mpg for $6 and a smooothe idle.