95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

You can start by prioritizing the harnesses that have circuits which need alot of power, like the sunroof, rear defroster, Bose stereo etc. Because the cluster is just a few LED lights, they don't use alot of power at all.

Another thing to think about, when I worked on the digital climate control of my previous car, I got a everything wired up, but stuff just wasn't working right. It turned out that I had swapped 2 very very similar looking wires. One was blue and the other was blue with a white stripe. I swapped them back and everything worked perfectly.

Good luck.

ajcool2

iTrader: (43)

What was the problem?

Crusher103

iTrader: (10)

Found the short in the I30 harness and it fired up im guessing.

Im glad its working now though. Those little issues can be massive headaches, something very small can turn into something VERY big VERY fast. i have a lot of experience with those issues, dont overlook ANYTHING.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

To make things short, here's what the problems were:

1. The 97/96 Maxima harnesses. Maybe a 95 would have worked (like Crusher said), I don't know. All I know is that I needed my original harness for us to really start making progress. Sadly, my mechanic buddy Eric thought of doing just that the day he installed the motor, but didn't because my harness only has one throttle position sensor, while the TB from Darius' 97 had two plugs. He didn't know I would be fine with just one plugged in, or that he could swap the TPSs between the TBs (I have a PF TB). Neither did I of course, and I never thought to revisit this basic idea.

2. This was not one of the root causes as the part broke about a month ago, compounding my troubles. The little plastic spacer that goes under the terminal connector on the alternator was broken. I was blowing the main 140a battery fuse whenever I reconnected the battery, and the battery sparked much more than it normally should whenever I reconnected the negative terminal. Tony is my new mechanic (and new super best friend ), and reckoned for the battery to spark like that meant a large wire was grounding out. I figured the alternator has a large wire running to it, and I had fooled around with removing and reattaching the 0g additional power wire I had going to it a few weeks ago. I pulled off the wire and found this broken plastic piece attempting to separate the wire and the body of the alternator. It's supposed to have four legs to space it out. We had found our fuse blower!



3. The fuel lines leading to and from the motor were switched. We knew something was up when fuel pressure was like 70 psi with the key in the on position.



And just like that it was up and running. After finding and fixing a few vacuum leaks it idles much better too. I also pumped out most of the roughly 5 gallons of 6-7 month old gas from the tank for peace of mind. Fresh Toyota red coolant is in there, and it awaits an oil change. Unfortunately, it seems as if both my axle seals are leaking, so I need to put new ones in....it never ends.

I've noticed that with both the stock ECU and the JWT ECU there is a weird bit of almost hesitation between 3000 and 3800 when the cam "comes on." After that it seems to do just fine. Is this just the nature of the swap? Because I don't remember it being quite like this when it was in Darius' car. Maybe his TS ECU will make a difference.

My plans are to:
-Fix axle seals, new trans fluid
-Change oil and install oil temp/pressure sensors
-New PS and brake fluid
-Install my old PF TB along with previous intake setup and remove Darius' setup
-Hit the dyno
-Send ECU to JWT so they can throw their 3.5 4th gen tune on it to replace the 3.0 tune. I wonder if it will make a difference, but it's worth a try if it's only $100. Has anyone else done it?
-3.5" intake with VAFC tuning, more dyno

The current motor mods are UR lightweight pulley/ NWP spacer kit/ NWP BOP/ Cattman Headers/2.5" exhaust/JWT ECU. The leak prone valve covers have been replaced with brand new updated covers. Last time it dynoed it put down 237whp/242wtq. If I'm lucky I'll crack 240 with the PF TB, and eventually 250 with a 3.5" intake and tuning. I will not be going the SSIM route as I need as much low down torque as I can get for auto-x.

I think that's about it for now.

ajcool2

iTrader: (43)

That's the exact piece that caused my brothers fuse to blow. Glad you got it working. Also I would suggest an EU tune only because my brothers auto 3.5 made 240whp with 3.0 cams(didn't have cam adapters).

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

Glad you got it going, BUT, and please don't hate the messenger, those hesitation observations, especially when using the stock ECU, could be the symptom of a timing issue. Like it jumped a tooth or something.

I had a sentra GA16DE and it used to do the same exact thing. Weird rpm hiccup in the midrange. It took over a year, but the timing chain slowly started to rattle then eventually failed.

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

There shouldn't be any hesitation, but around 3,500-4k is when the 3.5 really seems to start going on the hybrid timing..or maybe it's the ECU.

Mine will act "normal" up to about that rpm and then the tires light up..especially in 1st obviously.
Love it. Lol

cardana24

iTrader: (81)

Look at this post in February

damn fuel lines I have done that before too


As far as your hesitation....where is your fuel pressure set? I know I had to jack my fuel pressure up so I would not lean out up top...this made my mid range very rich, and I had to then pull a bunch of fuel out via VAVCII in the mid range. Do you have a wideband sensor? I would make sure that you don't just need some tuning first before you start assuming there is something else going on. My advice...hit the dyno.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

Ha, I'm just glad I had another alternator with that piece still on it and intact. 240 from an auto is pretty impressive, I'm just concerned with driveability and reliability. It has definitely crossed my mind though.

That's never a good thing to hear. It happens with both the stock ECU and a JWT ECU. Will anything short of data logging show that cam timing is off? I guess the dyno reading would be low too.

By hybrid timing, do you mean 3.0 timing on a 3.5, or something else? Do you feel anything weird before the switchover?

Oh, I saw that post alright

Darius never had an AFPR, so FP is stock I assume. I never transferred my old one onto the 3.5 as Darius seemed to be fine without one. I do have my FP gauge on, but I'm too lazy to go check right now. Yes, I have a wideband but no data logging. Once the PFTB goes on and the axles seals get fixed I will hit the dyno

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

Well the 3.5 is up and running, but not exactly smoothly. After fixing some vacuum leaks, the idle was up around 1700 and I was leaking a good amount of trans fluid from the DS axle seal. I scanned for codes and got:
0325- Knock sensor
1401- EGR temp sensor
0120- Throttle/pedal position sensor
1400- EGRC solenoid valve

I started with the TPS, since I had to extend those wires when doing the swap. The wires didn't have much slack in them, so I redid them, but the idle was still around 1700, so I tried switching in the 2 plug TPS (instead of my one plug TPS) from the donor car (97 Maxima) but that didn't seem to help either.

Tony came over again yesterday and helped out with the DS axle seal, and I put in new Amsoil in the trans while we were at it. With the leak fixed, we moved back to the TPS. We tried back probing the plug as the Haynes manual recommends, but weren't getting any signal. Upon closer inspection, the throttle was being held open by this thing, and wasn't resting on the stop screw. With the part removed, the idle dropped to about 900!



You can see the rod we removed the spring from here:


While we were down there we serviced the Wilwoods with some grease as I would like these to last more than one year. (Scroll up to see what happened to them before.) I also replaced the radiator cap (Z32 16 pound) as my old one was starting to crack.





The next problem is the charging system. With the car running, battery voltage struggles to reach 14.0, and doesn't change when the motor is revved. After the car is turned off, you can watch the voltage drop from 12.2 down to 11.5 after a few hours. I can't tell if the alternator is bad or if I have a serious drain on the battery. I'm not sure if it's safe to drive the car about 5 miles to the parts store for them to test the electrical system.

Regarding the fuel pressure, it appears as if my old 3.0 AFPR isn't the right size for the 3.5, so I can't swap it over. Which one do people run on their cars?

Oh, and I'm pretty sure the rear main seal is leaking Don't ask me why I didn't replace it when the motor was out. It's because I'm an idiot.

Finally, some decent pics. Thanks for the cover aackshun! Please excuse the temporary intake setup, PFTB coming soon!

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

So Aacksun Jacksome took care of your cover, huh? Figures.

Congratulations on getting it going.

deloa84

iTrader: (5)

Nice... The EGR codes are fairly simple to tackle. Make sure they are plugged in and all and that the EGRC is getting vacuum.


EGR temp sensor should go away if you are running a 95 96 ecu...

ajcool2

iTrader: (43)

Get a AFPR. Also I have a PFTB if you need one.

Crusher103

iTrader: (10)

Any AFPR should take care of you, a lot of people run the cheap ebay ones and are perfectly fine. It should be the same as a stock VQ30, 32-33psi idle, 43psi at WOT.

Just go ahead and deal with the rear main. What clutch is on the car? Now would be a good time to move to a good clutch. 6 puck spring from ACT with just a normal pressure plate, feels close to stock on my car with a little more grab in it. They chatter a little but its barely noticeable.

+14V is very healthy, if it cannot maintain a 13.2Vs while running i would be worried. check your voltage at idle. It should be hovering around 13.2. If its in the 12s then yea either rebuild(why?) or replace(better option). I bench tested my OE alternator and it came back good on those stupid machines just for it to kill my battery 2 months later. Usually batteries maintain a surface charge for a couple of mins so when the car is first turned off it will show over way 12V then after it sits for a while the cars alarm system etc picks away at the surface charge then you are dealing with the actual charge of the battery. Your in no real problem until the charge dips below 11Vs thats when starting the car becomes quite difficult.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

I have my old AFPR from my 3.0, but it looks like it's too small to work on the 3.5. Are my eyes deceiving me? I also have my old PFTB that I'm waiting to put on, but thanks for the offer!

Crusher- Are you saying the 3.5 can use the same AFPR as the 3.0, or that the fuel pressure itself should be the same? I can't for the life of me figure out how Darius made so much power (242/239) and was so fast without an AFPR

If the rear main seal is indeed leaking, I will likely reuse the OEM 5th gen clutch I bought two years ago as I paid good money for it, and it will probably hold 250 whp. It's currently working with a new (ok, two year old) OEM flywheel, but I'm considering getting a lightweight Fidanza. What do people think of the Fidanzas these days?

I have Darius's old ACT clutch available to use, but I would like to stay with the mildest clutch that will hold 250 whp, as he blew 3rd gear with that clutch, and I've read of plenty of other people doing the same. The 5th gen clutch holds 10% more than the 4th gen clutch, and I did a very proper break in procedure, so chances are it will hold this power.

The battery stays at 14.0v at idle, but doesn't raise with revs. From what I remember before, it used to be at 14.4v all day. Also, the battery drains down to 11.4 and won't start the car without a jump. From what I've been reading, bad diodes inside the alternator can cause it to drain the battery, so I'm guessing all those times the power wire for the alternator was shorting out on the case probably blew the diodes inside.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

Well that didn't take long.

I had Darius come over (the previous owner of the 3.5) to test drive it and see if he noticed the lag in power between 3000-4000 rpm. We were just cruising around warming the car up, and while he was making a u-turn, something happened and the car seemed like it was missing very badly. So badly in fact, that it sounded exactly like an STI. Power was down significantly, and it just felt awful. I was worried that it wasn't going to make it back home, but it didn't stall out.

I scanned it for codes, and aside from the usual Maxima ECU in an Infiniti codes, I got a P1320 Ignition signal code, which can be the harness, coil packs, or crank sensor. Surprisingly, there wasn't a misfire code, which I assume a loss of compression would trigger. Now, one week later, I go out to find my battery down to 8.4v, which means I still have a major power drain to deal with. My thought is to start with the crank sensors, since they're so easy to get to.

Oh, and I assume that I have to do a compression test on a 3.5 with the IM removed?

Crusher103

iTrader: (10)

Oh this sounds like it is getting fun. Make sure your grounds are good, take out the crank sensor clean it so no debris is blocking the signal. Do the same with the cam sensor. You should through no codes unless you have a +96 ECU in the car, get a 95 SE ECU and it should solve that issue. Or if you can spare $600 send your old I30 ecu to nistune.

IIRC thats your original alternator in the car? If so its likely the issue. Most of my electrical issues were either grounds or the alternator going bad. Luckily we have a fairly stout electrical system in these cars. Also concerning the clutch there is a good chance you will be breaking 250whp especially once tuned. But I know the thought of $4-500 on a clutch is painful.

95maxrider

iTrader: (32)

Ok, the car is up and running again, and thankfully the motor is just fine. Turns out my problem was a dead cell in the battery. Now I'm back to tracking down why the car has a dead spot from 3000-4000 rpm.

This 3.5 swap how-to recommends 52 psi fuel pressure at idle. You say 32. Mine is currently at 40. What do other people run for fuel pressure? My gauge is in the engine bay, so I can't check it at WOT.

My friend with an Evo swears that to check fuel pressure properly, you need to remove the vacuum line from the regulator. I've never heard of this idea, and nobody else has either, but I just wanted to check here to be sure. This doesn't apply to our cars, right?

cardana24

iTrader: (81)

Yeah, you normally set the fuel psi with the line un hooked. when you hook the line back up it will pull the pressure down. I don't remember what mine is but I want to say it is in the low 40's at idle with the vac line hooked up. If you hit the dyno you can get your fuel pressure ironed out there too...that's how I figured out what pressure to run. My car runs rich at low rpms, because I had too add a bunch of fuel pressure so I would not go lean up top.