Leaking Throttle Bodies

Nissan 300ZX technical discussion forum: Maintenance, performance, installations, modifications, how-to's and troubleshooting.
Veeridian
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 3:14 pm
Car: 1990 300zx NA 2+0
2004 JEEP Liberty Renegade
Location: Boise, ID

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Car: 1990 300zx NA Manual transmission

I bought the car in 2001 with 155k miles on it. Put another 105k miles on it after changing a bunch of stuff. Engine dies. Was going to school at the time, so I didn't have the money to have the engine rebuilt or swapped and I don't have the tools or technical know-how to do it myself. Car sits for 5+ years in my garage. I finally got tired of staring at it every time I went into the garage and had a mechanic put in a JDM engine. Wasn't too happy with them for reasons I won't mention. Found another mechanic to go through the engine to make sure was put in correctly.
Smoke test done and showed vacuum leak in my PVC hose (replaced now) and in both throttle bodies. My mechanic and I have done research on replacing bearings and other things that I don't know the name of to fix the leaks. But I read that they are not serviceable, but need to be replaced.
Anyone know if there is a way to service them? Or was that statement true that they are not serviceable and just need to be replaced?
OEM stock throttle bodies new cost a lot and I believe they are stock size of 52mm.
Buying an OEM used from the net is iffy as they might leak also, and I'd hate the spend the money, time to put them in and then they leak also.
Aftermarket throttle bodies don't come less than 60mm so I've noticed. Not sure if this is the way to go as they need to be worked to make them work on the stock upper plenum.

Here are a couple pics of each side (left and right) with a red arrow and circle of where it's leaking from:
Image
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When I figure out how to post a pic I will fix this


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DCaff300ZX
Posts: 4202
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:18 am
Car: .
1993 CRP TT- Modified
Location: Tacoma, Washington

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Welcome, and sorry that no one has posted here yet.
I can't help much technically here, but will say that due to the issues you mention and other Z32 difficulties that often just bucking up and buying new OEM is the best overall way to go, for several reasons such as reliability and no further problems/issues to deal with.
The Z32 suffers from being just the right combination of age to a great car but which is not actively supported often well by the aftermarket, requiring a LOT of care when purchasing replacement parts. OEM is always best unless YOU know otherwise.
Unless you can find a really good and knowledgeable Z32 guy, again I suggest in this case to just buy the OEM and replace and go forward happily, or face a tedious, frustrating hunt and hassle that may well result in things not working as well as OEM and eventually possibly/probably more cost and hassle. You really want things to work right and to enjoy the car, not other options such as not working right, more hassles and more cost/time away from the car.
Good Luck, hope this helps!


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