You said that the car drained the battery while running?That would be a bad alternator,And if its idling weird, you probabally have some bad gas that the pump pulled up from the tank, seeing that you said that it ran fine for 20 minutes. Also, a vacuum line might have cracked or come off somewhere.Is the EGR stuck open? or does it move freely? Thats what i would check.

 

You may want to check the one way valve going to the brake booster. Its in the Vacuum hose from the manifold to the brake booster. There may be a crack or hole in the brake booster vacuum hose. I second the Alternator problem. You should check the Alternator belt and make sure its not loose. If the belt is tight you can take the alternator to an auto parts store and they will test it for you. And you need to check the fuel filter it could be clogged. There is also a strainer screen on the inlet to the fuel pump that gets clogged pretty easily. Just clamp off the hose and remove. You can remove the strainer with a screw driver. Clean it and replace. Also check your fuel pressure at the fuel rail. And I don't know if you have the Fi bible or the Factory Service Manual but if you do a search for them you will find a link to download them for free. Those two manuals are probably the best place to start. You should drain the fuel tank and replace with fresh fuel. Old fuel does some horrible things to injectors. Also clean all the electrical connectors there are some probably corroded green ones in the engine compartment somewhere. Good luck and post back if you have any progress.

 

Well the car has been sitting for years and I just got it started back up... The gas tank has been flushed and filled with fresh fuel and treatment, new filter and the fuel rail reads 37 psi. As for it dying... the starter motor gradually got slower and slower, now doesnt even click, got a full battery, but it does push start and is fine as long as i dont let it stall, so the alternator should be good, just when I shut it off, it wont turn over anymore. I bought a brand new starter that's been sitting in the car for two years... would that or the silenoid go bad just from not being used for that long?? And is there a starter relay or something?... It just seems coincidence that it idled fine for the twenty minutes it was running, then the idle problem began at the same time as the starter problem..

 

also.. when the starter quit on me, it was very hot.. could something else be causing this besides the starter, I would hate to replace it for another starter to burn out... thanks for any help

 

sorry for posting so many in a row.. but I left out that I think I mistook the battery running dead for the starter burning out, because the starter was turning over slower and slower as I tried to restart it then nothing... when I charged the battery.. still nothing from the starter...

 

The car should start at first turn over. If you keep turning it over the starter
will get hot.
Did you do this? http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/electricalconnections/index.html
Or read this. http://www.4moores.com/280z/files/280zfuelinjectionbook.pdf
Do you have this? http://www.spooledupracing.com/download/Manuals/FSM/Nissan/
Maybe look here. http://home.swipnet.se/e-solutions/Vacuumleak.html

 

Okay.. I found the problem... The TPS has a sliding type adjustment like the distributor and it was screwed down in the wrong position... now it runs like a top and will not stall if I try to make it. Also, now with the brakes pressed, it idles up now instead of down like it was doing... but I guess that's an improvement, I'm going to check out the master vac and vacuum lines.... but other than that everything is in great operating condition, thank you everybody for your input.