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I've loved Zs for a long time, and more than a year ago I had the opportunity to purchase one from a used car lot. It's a manual '93 2+2 with ~160k miles. For 4k it would have been a good deal if it was in good running condition, but unfortunately they did not inform me of what is believed to be oil or gas getting into the #1 cylinder. So, it is my intention with this post to list as many problems with this car I can think of, and get an honest opinion from you guys on whether I should
A. fix it up as much as possible
B. just fix the engine so that it will run fine for a week or two and sell it as is
C. cut my losses and get rid of it ASAP, even if it means selling it for as low as $500, but hopefully $1-1.5kFirst off, the lip of the hatch where the brake lights are, half of the plastic was already broken off and had obvious glue holding it on. The brake lights worked, but I even watched the salesmen rip it again so we were able to talk down the price of the car to what would have been reasonable if it had no other problems besides the sun damage on the hood. Less than 1/4 of the hood was damaged but it is pretty noticeable fading. There were small rips in the driver's seat but other than these problems, the car was relatively clean and looked good.
Now, on to the rest of the problems. First thing was an obvious lack of power; it felt like there was some liquid getting into one of the cylinders that was physically slowing the engine down. Because of this, the car was very loud just accelerating to the speed limit. The car would backfire rarely, and I took it to a kwik kar where my dad knew the owner, and got a simple tune up. The tune up made her run like new and I was very excited to realize how much power my car actually had. They told me there was oil in the cylinder but said it was because of a fuel injector, and also commented on how much power steering fluid it needed. If it really is oil in the cylinder, I doubt the fuel injector would be the problem but that is what they said. I drove it for a month or two after that, and while it wasn't running as well as it could have, there were never any other problems until I noticed the brakes were getting weak. I have since talked to someone and they mentioned the brakes could need bleeding and that was probably the issue, but unfortunately I did not know of that at the time and rear ended someone on the highway going ~30mph. Of course it was my fault, but to be fair the two middle lanes were at a dead stop while the far left lane was moving smoothly at 60.
Anyways, it was enough force to break the glass in front of one of the headlights, and the entire front of the bumper was pushed back enough to make the hood unable to open for awhile until I finally broke out a crowbar. I suspect some of the intake piping was damaged, and whenever I would take the car out of gear while on the highway it would stall the engine but was able to start right back up without a problem (I was practicing rev matching in nuetral so I could put it back into gear very smoothly at highway speeds).
I then noticed that after running for a bit, white smoke would come up from the passenger side of the engine bay, and appeared to be coming from lower down where the oil reservoir would be. I have not noticed any smoke coming from the actual exhaust, and a recent block test ensured me that it doesn't have a blown head gasket from before I bought it.
To cap off the problems, only one of the front speakers worked before, and now the one that works has static as if something is not grounded out properly. I used to shift too quickly and I broke something under the shift knob, it seems like something that just holds the shifter up because it still shifts fine but you have to pull up on it to shift without any grinding.
I also, in a complete moment of idiocy, left the gas cap sitting inside the hatch area and then closed the hatch, punching a nice hole in the plastic. The screen that covers the cargo area also has a broken clasp that was there when I got the car, and uses a zip tie to stay hooked on. There is also a plastic shield piece just behind the front lip that was loose before and would drag horribly, but I have since secured that with zip ties as well. There are slight cracks in the front lip and what may possibly be a bad battery that also gets drained by some interior lights (battery died twice when I didn't drive it daily but otherwise was fine). I should also mention the driver's side t-top leaks and the car currently runs, but has very little power and takes awhile to accelerate. I turn it on at least once a week and rev it just to make sure it doesn't develop any other problems. It sounds surprisingly nice for all the previously mentioned problems, and I believe the engine still has some life to it, potentially another 100k miles if the main issues were solved. As for resources, I have a friend that I haven't talked to in awhile that knows what he's doing under a hood, and I've had a guy stop by my house just to talk to me about my car and point me towards the Six Ps guide.
So, let me know what you guys think, and I want honest opinions. If you think I should get rid of it and hope that I come across a Z in better condition let me know. I do not have many tools other than the basics, and I only know as much as I can look up online. I'm not blaming him but my father hasn't taught me anything auto related so I wouldn't even know how to work on a Honda or a Ford, much less my 300zx. Thank you for your time and I look forward to seeing your responses!
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17:25:56 09/30/13
