Hello, my name is Ethan and about a month ago i got my first car: a Nissan 300zx 2+0 TT. It was clear form the start, before even buying the car that i was in way over my head, but i got an insane deal on it because of some of the problems and i was prepared to sink a lot of money into this car. I'm 17, and i know about as much about cars as a 17 year old needs to know to think he knows everything about cars (not a lot). as far as i can tell, there are three major problems with the car, and two of them are causing the main bad noise, so ill split this into sections describing all the issues i've seen and my initial diagnoses (i am very prepared to be told i am completely wrong on these, don't feel like you need to be nice).

The first issue ill talk about is the noise: from all the research that i've done, it sounds like hydraulic lifter tick. Its a tapping or ticking noise coming from the head of the engine, and its correlated to RPM, but it doesn't sound loud enough to be rod knock. the volume of the noise is directly related to the oil pressure, another one of the problems. on cold start, the oil pressure is low and the ticking is loud enough to be heard from the drivers seat very easily. once the oil is distributed, the noise previously would go away entirely, but now it quiets down enough that it can only be heard by opening the hood. it sounds like any video of lifter tick i could find on the internet, so i'm fairly sure thats what it is.

the second issue is the oil pressure. This is not a big mystery, the engine is just puking oil. the mechanic i took it to for a pre-purchase inspection let me know about it, there's just a lot of leaks. on cold start, it runs fantastic, no sounds, 120 on the gauge, perfect. after driving for a while though, it starts dropping and eventually it will be sitting at 5 at stoplights and barely making it to 40 while driving. my main question with this issue is pricing of repairs. I took it to a dealership to get an inspection and a quote (i'm aware that dealerships charge far more than regular shops, but they said they had two people that knew z32's very well so i figured i'd see what they had to say) and they quoted over 3.5 grand to fix every leak they saw, but recommended i let them charge upwards of 9 grand to let them completely drop the engine and look to see if there were any more. i got an itemized bill for the 3 grand quote and it was about a grand in parts, but i'm wondering if i should take that list to a shop and have them do it or ask them to do the full inspection where they drop the engine. any suggestions welcome.

finally, the issue that's troubling me most recently: the car doesn't like to start when its warm. i have done little to no research on this as it just started happening, but my first though is that its a clogged oil filter, but that diagnosis doesn't explain everything. The symptoms are this: on cold start in cold weather, its starts just like normal, no throttle needed, it runs fine and idles high.but after an hour or less of driving and turning the car off, when you try to turn it back on the starter spins, but there's little to no combustion at all. i've figured out that to turn it on and get it running well, i need to hold down the starter and give it gas while its spinning. it putters hard, maybe like 200 rpm at most, the kicks in and revs like normal up to 3k. if i don't start driving immediately or stay on the gas a little its liable to die on itself, and it takes about five minutes of driving before it gets back up to idling normally (~1k). in addition to this rough idle, the car had very jerky throttle response until the five or so minutes have elapsed and it goes back to running normally. i have a suspicion as to why this started and its the basis of the clogged fuel filter thing. i let the car run out of gas twice. now before you start yelling at me, remember that its my first car, and i have only been driving for about a year, so i'm not completely used to checking the fuel gauge and getting my own gas. that said, i know i'm a dumbass for letting it get there and ill be sure to check more carefully after this, trust me. anyways, i have it from not very reliable sources that letting that happen can push all the junk floating at the top of your tank into the filter, meaning there would be no fuel, yada yada, you get it. in my mind, this doesn't explain why the car goes back to idling and driving normally after some time, wouldn't a clogged filter limit fuel flow always, not just when the car has just started? Like i said, i have done very little research on this so far so i would love to hear anyone's opinion on this

tldr, my car runs rough, idles poorly, doesn't like to start, and makes bad noises.

it has 198,000 miles on the chassis but the engine was completely rebuild 70,000 ago, and its tuned to about 320 whp (dynoed in Colorado Springs)
The car is modified, but not by me, so i don't know everything done to it but ill try my best with the list.
as far as i know the only major performance mods are an aftermarket front mount intercooler and new piping, and a turbo-back magnaflow exhaust with cats welded on to pass emissions. other than that, the rest of the mods are things that seem unrelated to any of these issues but ill list them anyways in case someone needs the info.
-short throw shifter with new bushings
-new wheels (edit: Avid1 AV6) 18x9.5 +38 in the front and 18x10.5 +38 in the rear with spacers on both
-some other small cosmetic stuff like a new steering wheel and new taillights, nothing of any importance

anyways, i figured i would try to get some feedback and some more personalized help on here, rather than looking up what i think is wrong with my car and learning how to fix that. i appreciate any feedback at all, and i will try to be as active as possible in answering further questions anyone might have about the car's performance or other issues. Thanks in advance,
Ethan

1. I hope you're ready
2. Find a good independent shop that knows these cars. A dealer should be the very last option, few dealers actually have the requisite knowledge of these cars (even if they say they do).
3. The quotes you got are a little high but not out of the realm of reality. Prepare yourself, you bought a used and abused high mileage HIGH END sports car. In 1990 The TT 300ZX was on par with some Ferraris and Porsches, and it needed and still needs the same level of care. If you want to bring your car back to tip top shape you are going to have to pay for all of the neglected maintenance that was NOT done throughout it's life.
4. Apart from shooting in the dark, no one is going to be able to tell you what's wrong with your car because there are so many ailing systems that tracking down one specific issue will be impossible in its current state. So get all the maintenance done at minimum new oil/fuel filter, check and likely replace plugs, check compression, leak test the intake piping system.
5. I guess this should have been first: If you cant afford to potentially pay out TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars for someone else to do the work and you are unwilling to read the Factory Service Manual (FSM) cover to cover a couple times and then go get your hands dirty for days on end then you need to get rid of the car immediately because it will bring you nothing but grief and poverty.
6. If you don't have any actual proof (other than someone's word) that the engine was rebuilt and what tuning was done then best case it didn't happen. Worst case, some yayhoo that has no business building engines or tuning did the work and screwed up. With that, my suggestion would be, if you don't know what chip is in the car, confirm that you're still on stock injectors and get an OEM ECU. Bad tunes KILL cars.
7. Your best friend (to go with #5) will be the FSM. It is hosted on NICO, available via the link in my signature.
8. Proper grammar and concise posting will help people help you. I glanced over your post because reading it was giving me a headache. With forums, less is more.
9. Welcome aboard
9.1. Welcome to the Thunderdome of owning a 300zx.

I bought a beautiful all original one-owner, 86k mile N/A.

Fuel, leaks, suspension, tranny, brakes, and tires services cost me $12,000.

It'll last another 25 years, and drives as a new car.

Welcome aboard, Ethan!

I'll let the Z32 experts continue to chime in, but kudos on a great first post, and I hope you're not frightened away by the amounts of info you'll receive.

It's taken most of us YEARS to get to any semblance of automotive knowledge, but you're off to a good start (I still consult the forum for help with stubborn diagnostic issues).

First off, thank you for all the well wishes and welcomes, the z community is one of the biggest reasons I was so excited to get this car
Second, huge thanks for all the advice on the car and on forum etiquette, I'll be especially sure to keep that in mind for my future posts. Ill keep anyone that cares up to date on the maintenance progress, and (hopefully) once that's done, the process of turning it into what I'm imagining. I should be getting a new fuel filter in the next couple of days and we'll see if that solves the starting issues, but other than that i just wanted to thank you guys, especially NolimitZ32. Best wishes everyone!

I'm jealous. My first car was a Chevrolet Vega...

The worst part of these cars are the electrical connectors, they get filled with corrosion and cause a magnitude of issues. That is the first thing I would look into.
A warm/ hot starting issues may also be caused by a bad coolant temp sensor or connection; The one for the ecu with two wires.