Today i was out driving my 1990 Nissan 300zx N/A Auto, all was fine, until i turned the engine off, when i came to turn it back on again some 10 mins later, it would not start, after cranking it over for a good 5 mins, she splutterd into life, i drove down the road and she stalled, i looked at fuel gage, it was reading as empty, so i put some fuel in, and she started, i went to fuel station, turned off, put more fuel in, would not start again, i called for recovery, they came out, couldnt find why it was not starting, then after a good 20 mins of on off cranking, she fired up, not running 100% but started, and ticked over, but whilst ticking over, she sounded like she was trying to adjust her self, i then drove home, having to keep throttle pressed all the time even under breaking to stop her stalling, so, question, any ideas as to what is going on please, thank you for any help i may receive.

sounds like ptu failing to me. it heats up then causes cylinders not to fire. once cooled down the contact is made again and it will start.

 

run her again , if she wont start poor cold water over just the fins of the ptu and see if she starts then

 

ptu is bolted to the left hand cam cover , a series 1 ptu (common failure unit) is aluminium with a connector at both ends.

^^^^As Hellraiser says^^^^, ptu for sure. Get youself a series II ptu, best upgrade and no need to worry in the future.

 

Al.

Thank you for your quick replies, where can i source one from, and any idea on cost, and is it an easy job to do, cheers :)

Mine did this but it was just a bad connection on the coolent temp sensor causing engine too flood

Try this 1st

 

http://www.ttzd.com/tech/diagnostictech.html

Hi Again, thank you for the new theories to try, i will start trying them all tomorrow, but out of frustration, and to see if she was ok, i have just been outside to her, and put key in, and she started instantly, and ticked over perfectly, so if it does come to the worse case senario, and it turns out to be the ptu, you say its on the left hand cam cover, where abouts, is it easy to spot, thank you all, your all Stars :)

its here :)

easy to see its on the left cam cover between water pipes & air intake pipe !

its here :)

 

the one in pic is a series 2 so dont expect your to look like this but it will be in the same location!

it will look like this

You are all soo kind, thanks again for your help, hope tomorrow brings a better day for me, and the old girl :D