Ok, I'm new to the Nissan family, as I just inherited an 87 w/ 81,xxx miles on it. Automatic tranny. Typical mom-in-law car and was not driven much/far. It has been great for the month that I have owned it, until now.

I have a no-start condition that is killing me after it sat in the cold outside one night. I can't seem to track it down. It ran fine Friday morning, then it was kinda hard to start friday night after it sat at work in the cold, then Sat. it wouldn't start at all, just turns over and over. Here's what I've done so far:

Changed fuel filter under hood
Replaced rotor ( found out it has the Mitsu ignition)
Checked for oil leaking from the plate that hides the cam sensor and timing disk. No oil present.
Cleaned cap
Pulled all 8 plugs, cleaned off all the gas that I built up on them, gapped and re-installed.
Cleaned wires
Used EEC to perform dianostics. All 5 levels check out fine- no codes stored
Fuel pump runs for 10-15 sec when key is on, like it should
Checked for spark- it's there
Tried starting in Neutral, no change
Check fuseable links- all good
Relays good
No blown fuses
Full charge/output on battery
timing is good

I did notice one strange thing, I followed the fuel lines back to the tank, and it seems Nissan put a very small secondary inline fuel filter right next to the tank. Since the underhood one was the original, this one is also. The clamps have never been moved, as they are in no position to be gotten to w/o dropping the gas tank. I do not have a fuel pressure guage to check the actual pressure, but is it possible for this little bitty filter to clog so bad that it wouldn't get enough gas to fire? Even though after enough cranking it fouls the plugs? I'm not used to working on Nissan engines, so any help is appreciated. I have a factory service manual for it, and it doesn't even show this other filter. It uses the word "filters" once, indicating that there is 2, but that's it. No parts store is showing more than the underhood one. Thanks in advance.

Jay

Have you verified that the CAM timing is correct? It's possible that the timing belt has
deteriorated to the point where the timing has slipped one or more cogs out of time. This
would make starting very difficult, even if the ignition and fuel systems are both working
perfectly.
At the mileage you've stated, the belt should have been changed at least one time by
now, if it HASN'T been changed, that is a very high probability of being the problem.

This is an INTERFERENCE engine, so if at all possible, it's best to verify the cam timing
before doing any more cranking. You may be lucky so far in that no piston to valve
contact has been made, but if the cam gets far enough out of sync, bent valves are likely.

If you have the Factory service manual, it will walk you through checking the cam to crank
timing in the section where it describes changing the timing belt.

We have an A/T '88 Stanza Wagon with 194K, that we got at 164K. One of the things that
I did was change the timing belt when the water pump failed within a couple of months of
getting the vehicle. Other things you would probably want to do once this problem is dealt
with are, change the antifreeze, replacing the upper and lower radiator hoses, accessory
belts, and CHECK THE MOTOR MOUNTS. Ours had 3 broken ones, all being very expensive
if gotten from the dealer. Overall this has been a very good vehicle, and gets mid 20's
mileage on a lot of hilly road, non Interstate driving.

I should have also changed the tensioner plus both the cam and crank seals while I was
doing the belt, as it is now 3 years later and the tensioner went slowly bad, causing the
belt to fail. The belt, tensioner, cam seal and crank seal are available for about $80 from
mainline auto parts stores. I was lucky with no valve damage to ours. Profit from my
experience and change all the parts mentioned in the timing cover if you have to do the
belt. if you intend to keep the car long, you might want to do the water pump at the same time,
as it's right there too, and most all of the same stuff has to come off to access it.

I'm a Ford guy too, but this is a really good engine. Don't abuse it and it will last practically
forever. We have a nearly identical '87 parts car here with 300K on the same, still running
engine, and which has never had a valve job.

In checking for bent valves, I did compression and leak down tests. At 194K, the engine is
still within less than 5% of the top end for new engine compression, and has a cylinder
pressure efficiency of 99%,97%,95%, and 98%. This without any evidence of the head
having ever been off.