i believe the extra duty cycle was just added accross the rev range.

at the moment i'm not getting any codes on the ecu. i think the alternator has been my biggest probem though since it was running off of the battery. it wasn't producing any voltage at all. if this alternator that i get tomorrow is good, i think my car will be running. then i can take it to a dyno and get everything tuned.

 

so i called up the autozone that was supposed to have my alternator and someone didn't get the message so it wouldn't be there till saturday. there was no way i was going to wait two days, so i drove an hour to a different autozone that had one in stock. they tested mine to double check, wasn't producing any voltage so they grab the one they have, is ALSO isn't producing any voltage. So... the guy is like, well here is the paper that says what numbers it made when it was rebuilt and sent me on my way. I got in my car and was like **** THAT and went to a different autozone. They tested it and got zero votlage pulled theirs out and FINALLY it hit right around 14.x volts. I got it and brought it home. Hooked it up and still didn't have any luck. Today I tried to see if the alternator was bad when cranking but those starters pull so much juice i was only reading 10 volts at the battery while cranking. I decided to test the gxe the same way and it hit 10 volts also but what I noticed, and what is more important in this post, is that the gxe cranks soooo much easier and faster. I think i still have some sort of ignition or valve timing problem on my engine. I just can't figure out where because I KNOW i lined up the timing marks on the cam with the timing marks on the belt and I KNOW that I lined up the timing mark on the distributor to get it on the right tooth. I've checked those things so many times I'll go insane if I have to check them again... but I probably will have to.

Basically it sounds like the battery is almost dead when trying to start but I used the same battery on both the gxe and my se.

Finally to my question. Can the ecu adjust timing enough to make it very difficult to start, like if its in safe mode or something?

 

try cranking the engine with the ingnition disconnected. If it cranks easy the timming is off. How big are the battery cables???
If the battery is in the trunk, you should have at least 00 cables. Also make sure you have good grounds. Battery to body, body to subframe, subframe to engine, engine to body. With the battery in the trunk, it needs to be fully charged.

 

i have 4 gauge right now. if 0 is recommended i'll get some on monday. i'll also try cranking the engine with the ignition disconnected.

 

4 gauge may work. Bigger the wire, the less the amp loss.
Could also be the starter going bad.

 

to rule out the injectors you should reinstall the stock maxima injectos and see how the car idles with them. You know the injectors from your maxima motor are good so that will rule your injectors out. Also i know this sounds stupied but make sure that the injectors that are in the motor that you have (turbo motor) are high IMP injectors, cause my VG30et came with low IMP.


Miguel

 

yeah, i put the maxima injectors in once before and it ran pretty good. Then, my dad and I tested the turbo injectors (which are high impedence) and found out one of them wasn't working. He fixed it and I put the injectors back in and it ran the same as with the maxima injectors. I got a new alternator for it, put it in and moved it and it seemed like it wanted to move pretty well but the when i took it on the road it all of the sudden started running terrible and was running really rich. i took that alternator off and had it tested and it was bad, of course, and recently got a new one. it's still really rich though for some reason. so rich it is very hard to get it started.

 

I have been running mine on the stock VG N/A injectors and my max runs basicly the same as it did before (before the swap), just much faster. I am installing 256s in my car tomorrow with the stock ECU i will update you tomorrow and tell u if i have the same problem you do and see if that is the problem. Then at least you know its the injectors are too big for your ECU (even thought yours is reprogramed).

miguel

 

i don't think the injectors are my problem, unless some of them are stuck. i may take another look at it tomorrow and see what comes up.

 

I really think you need to put the stock stuff back on the car until you get it running right. You have to many variables and no way to know that any of them are working correctly. Put all the engine control related stuff back as close to stock as you can, get the engine purring like a kitten, and then start putting all the upgrades in one at a time. Theres no reason the car wont run great on the stock setup on low boost. Atleast it will give you a starting point and you can track down whats screwing everything up.

 

well alright changed to 256s and the car now won't idle under 1000RPMs and when i rev it takes a while to come back to its idle (1000rpms). It doesn't seem to be misfiring though or anything along those lines (listening to the motor from the engine compartment), but the exhuast note is no longer smooth it sounds very rough kinda like i have a big cam. I have to agree with stinkyZ i would say put all the stock stuff back and start from the begining. I haven't had a chance to drive the car but i will tell you if i have any new problems when i take it for a spin.


Miguel

 

i'll try putting everything back to stock. the only thing i can think of that i don't have anymore is the stock fuel pump. i can't seem to remember if i saved it or got rid of it.

 

I think as long as you get stock pressure on the line it wont matter. Fuel pressure is fuel pressure regardless of what pumps it.

 

yeah. Thanks for everyone's help so far! hopefully this thing will be running very soon.

 

sounds like injectors too big or computer isn't compensating for the fact that the they dump more fuel.
Have you changed your o2?

 

Thats what i was thinking, I am going to have to get somthing to control them. Before i do though i want to take the car for a spin and see what happens(see if ECU starts to compensate), because i still haven't driven the car i have only free reved it too like 3000. The O2 sensor is brand new i installed it when i started driving the car after i converted.

Miguel

 

I agree with spankyZ on the whole fuel pressure issue. But if u want a stock fuel pump i will give u mine if u want it.


Miguel

 

I'll put everything back to stock tomorrow and if I'm still having problems I'll probably take your offer.

Hey Miguel, do you have any pictures of you setup?

edit:

now that i think about it, the only things on there that aren't stock is fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, ecu, and injectors. i've had the stock ecu and fuel injectors on before and noticed no change (except for when one of the turbo injectors wasn't working but it is working now).

what about the egr valve? that isn't on there along with the solenoid that controls it. would that affect anything, like throw it into safe mode? the check engine light hasn't turned on at all though.

 

Well i also took my egr out and with the stock injectors i didn't seem to have a problem at all. ran and idles like stock 750(when i was running stock injectors.

I will try to get some pics for u tomorrow. looks a little weird though cause i am running the top-feed Z injectors now(after i converted to 256)

miguel

 

alright... here's what i'm thinking. i think the ecu is going into safe mode for some unknown reason. that can be the only reason why it is so rich when trying to start it and why it won't even start. what i have planned is send the reprogrammed chip back to the guy who programmed it and have him get rid of the stupid safe mode. if it works like i think it will when i get it back it will RUN!! from there i can FINALLY diagnose the problem without it always dying or not even starting. hopefully, this will prove to work like i think it will.

 

Why are you making this so hard on yourself? Get the car running good with the stock ecu and injectors BEFORE you do anything with the upgraded stuff. Thats the only way you can narrow down the problem and get it fixed. You have no way to know that the upgrade ecu will run right even with safe mode disabled. Theres a million different things to check and even if you do find the problem you will never know it because the upgraded ecu may still make it run like crap. There is NO reason the stock ecu and injectors wont run perfectly on the turbo block if everything else is working properly. If you cant get the stock stuff to work what makes you think you can get the upgraded stuff to work?

 

the car ran the same with both setups on there. they both wouldn't idle, which i believe is vacuum related, and the both wouldn't fully rev to redline which i still have yet to find out why. i'm going to send the chip off so i never have to deal with the stupid safe mode since it causes more problems than its worth to have. i'll go put the stock injectors and ecu back on and see what i can find. hopefully something. what sucks is i can't drive it with the stock stuff. i'm too afraid of running it lean with the crappy maxima injectors.

 

Well i know first hand that u can run your motor on the stock maxima injectors and pump. I ran my car that way till a few days ago and it ran fine. All i did was disconnect the knock sensor so i wouldn't ping and it seemed to work fine. Of course i was running lean but the engine seems fine. Also did you swap all sensors and install the maxima ones?? i ask cause i know a lot of the sensors look the same and have the same plugs. I tried using the knock sensor from my turbo motor and it didn't work even though it looked the same and had the same connecter but the ECU gave me a code for the knock.


workin on getting u guys some pics of my setup just need to find my cam.


Miguel

 

yeah, i'm pretty sure I swapped all of the sensors. Most of the wires were cut on the turbo engine so I couldn't use them anyways. I've not been getting any codes either so...

 

ok, so i swapped the injectors tonight and felt like cranking the engine while the intake was off to see if there was air coming out of the intake like i thought there was. i unhooked the fuel pump fuse and had my dad turn the key. sure enough tons of air came out of each cylinder in the front so i'm in the process of getting to the timing belt to see if the cam is one tooth off or something. i sure as hell hope it is!!

 

checked the timing... of course just like i thought it was lined up correctly.


this sucks.

 

I remember when I installed my cams I had trouble getting the engine to idle right. It turned out that the distributor gear was 1 tooth off. If you are positive that the crank/cams are properly lined up on the intake stroke, then the only thing left is the distributor. The FSM says the T-belt has 133 teeth and there should be 40 teeth between the LH and RH alingment marks, then 43 teeth between LH sprocket and crankshaft sprocket.

 

the only thing is, the distributor wouldn't cause air to come out of the intake... unless it was firing while the intake valve was open but i had the coil unplugged when i tested it so that can't be the case.

 

well i hooked up the air compressor to one of the front cylinders and there seems to be a constant leak somewhere. when i put a lot of pressure in there (100 psi +) something happens and air gushes out of the intake valve. i'm not sure if the piston dropped down or what because i didn't get to see it in time but the small leak bothers me as well.

 

I think it might be a bad valve seat man maybe combined with a funky spring...or a bad valve keeper.

sounds like an internal problem that sucks man

 

yeah, i'm thinking a bad valve seat as well.