ok so for about the past month i have been having major problems with my z. she is an 83 280zx 2+2 turbo.once again turbo. she will idle fine but when you give her throttle she says hell no i wont go. i have replaced the air flow meter with a very nice one from z specialties and it made a huge difference. but it is still doing the same thing. also every once in a while when it is acting up the tach will either bounce or just stop. has anyone on here ran into this problem befor? if so please help me out. and if it helps it has the 5 speed and cali emissions. bone stock vehichle

Sounds like either a boost leak or bad crank angle sensor... if the car even has one.

I don't believe it is a boost leak because in the past and right befor it happens the boost build up was just fine and it's still stock boost. And yes it does have a crank angle sensor it is built into the distributor and if it came in today I was thinking of going to get it and putting it in

ok so the distributor is now in and the acceleration is great but now she wont idle worth a damn. also i need to set the timing but i cant seem to find anything on it. for an 83 turbo what are the specs and how do you do the adjustment? and please do not send me a link, give me instructions thanks.

Basically you find your distributor and loosen the bolts up a bit so that it can rotate.
Hook your timing light to your battery, and throw the inductor lead around cylinder #1 spark plug wire. Point it at the crank pulley that should have your timing marks on it, and pull the trigger (with the engine running). Rotate the distributor until you get 24 degrees +/3 before top dead center. Tighten the distributor down and adjust the idle as necessary.

The process should be outlined here:
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/280z/1983/1 ... enance.pdf
and here:
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/280z/1983/1 ... anical.pdf

Here's the factory service manual for the 280zx:
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/280z/1983/1 ... 0zx%20FSM/

Thanks for that and because it's the turbo I don't think I can adjust the idle. But I did pay attention that with the reman distributor the tach would jump all over and no be accurate with the actual engine speed so I put my old one back in and the idle was fine but again she boys at and hove quarter throttle. I'm debate ingot but I'm thinking of getting just he cas itself and changing that out the Olympic thing is who knows what it could be

You can adjust your idle, there is a nut and screw on the TB that the throttle wheel stops on, might have to adjust your cable to get enough slack. The aftermarket distributor isn't causing your rpm to bounce it's the timing, set the timing and idle and things should settle down.

Alright ill look for thanks for letting me know but would that also affect the tach going everywhere and not being accurate on the engine speed? Also I did find out last night that the wire was corded a lot on the o2 and its been forever since it has been changed so I'm going to take care of that as well.

The timing is likely bouncing because the timing and idle have not been set, once you get the timing set and the idle dialed back the tach should smooth out. I guess it's possible you got a bad aftermarket distributor but the cas inside the distributor would be the problem not the body.

yeah ill see about checking everything but i got to get the o2 out out and changed. then get a timing light do dial it in. and i do think that new distributor had a bad cas and i do have annother one on the way so we shall see what happens. oh and with the idle that was with the new/reman distributor not the old one.

Ok so the problem has been solved most of the way. What it was is some corotion at the ECM. After cleaning up she ran great but due to he o2 being broken and the fuel pump not being correct she isn't perfect but that will be done in time

Thanks for the follow-up!

Alright so another follow up. I was still having an issue with the idle and it would stumble when I would hit the throttle. Finally went to the timing and found it 5° retarded from factory specs. Put it back at 24° and now it's good to go.