New to Nissan, have problems, help please

[Sincidius]

Hi all, I'm Paul. I just joined this forum because I just bought a 1992 Nissan 240SX. I have some mechanical knowledge but I figuered some advice would be great since this is my first Nissan car. I bought the car for $500 bucks with plans to build it up to a KA-T daily driver but first I would like to just make it a daily driver. The issues I am having are...

1. Smoke - Lots of smoke. It seems to be coming from the exaust manifold but there is a LOT coming out of the tailpipe. The car is pretty loud, but most of the sound is coming from the P.O.S. exhaust the previous owner put on it. Most comes out while I am stopped.

2. Engine Shakes - The engine does shake pretty bad. I don't hear any knocking, but it feels like its mifiring. The plugs and wires seem to be in good shape. The idle does hop around and get to the point of almost dying out.

Well, thats about it for now. There are a few more issues, but nothing too bad. I'd like to get these problems fixed first before moving on. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks all.

[xckid]

for the first one are there any exhaust leaks, hows your gasket on the exhaust manifold, check for any holes any where in the exhaust. For the loudness just try changing the muffler, if its a bigfart can your gonna get loud noise

2 for the idle problem check mafs, ithink tps sensor,mmm and check your timing.also just search around im pretty sure you'll find alot of information.

[Sincidius]

The big loud bang with flash came and all was revealed......

Ok, I found the problem. Exhaust. This is what happened.....

I checked my distributor, cap, wires, plugs, timing chain, and all was good. I decided to try to adjust the timing when all of a sudden, there was a big bang and a flash! Then something hit me, exhaust! I had the exact same problem with my 2003 Tiburon! Having no check engine light threw me off until I ran a computer check and found that my convertor was clogged. So anyhow, new exhaust, all is good! Glad to get that coffee can off the damn car! Anyhow, I hope this helps anyone else who has this problem in the future! Thanks!