Hey guys, I have spent the last 3 weeks searching, troubleshooting to no avail. My newly swapped DEK Maxima will not turn over. It will crank all day but isnt getting any spark.

Background:
1996 Maxima, 5MT
Just swapped DEK
4th Gen LIM
4th Gen Injectors
5th Gen IACV
4th Gen TPS (have also triend with 5th), reads at 8% closed, 98% WOT

Grounds added:
4ga,
-Frame to Tranny next to crank POS

8ga:
-Engine Harness Grounds to Timing Cover
-Valve covers to Timing Cover
-Timing cover to body
-Battery (Neg) to body

12ga:
-Cam POS to body
-ECU body to body

Codes:
P0340 Cam POS
P0325 Knock
P0335 Crank POS
P0105 Map/Baro

Tried Remedies:

Codes:
Replaced Cam POS, added ground
Put in dummy Knock, grounded out
Crank POS, wires were crimped and touching eachother, sniped out bad wires, resoldered and shrink wrapped
Swapped between 4th and 5th Gen Map/ Baro, no change
-Cleared Codes, have not come back

No start:
New ignition relay, new fuel pump relay, new anti-theft relay, removed wiring loom of aftermarket security system / repaired stock wiring, checked every fuse, relay or fusible link.

Summary & Notes:
Somehow the ECU is not telling the coils/plugs to fire. What could be causing this? Security light is not coming on. Could this be caused by the ignition condenser near the knock plug? I tested the resistance and it didnt register anything.

I took a video of it, about 15 sec in, it does blip a little. Take a look.

Thanks for any help!!!

 

Not seeing anything about how you connected your fuel source.

I'm no dek swap pro, but isn't an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator needed?

Why aren't you running dek injectors?
Some things seem off on your swap IMO.

 

No, its all 4th gen fuel system. Its definitely spraying gas out each injector, I have tested and verified whole fuel system is working correctly.

 

How do you have codes when it hasn't started?

 

No idea, put a high end scanner on it and that's what I got. My cheap reader didn't register anything.

 

Was the 3.5 taken apart, specifically the timing chain?

 

dayum 250k on that

 

My electrician and I exchanged services (auto for home wiring) until he blew the HG on the maxima. He proceeded to give me the car, so I plopped a new engine in it.

The new engine is a VQ30DEK that was in a totalled 2000 maxima with 90k on it (rear end collision), everything was still sealed when I got it.

 

Did you perform a compression test on the new to you engine at least?

 

Change the cam sensor first, this being f'd up sends wrong codes to crank pos givig u that code... Mine did this before and i replaced all te sensors and still wouldnt start.... It was the wiring to the sensor check all the wiring as well

 

As said above, change the cam sensors and crank sensor. Pull a plug and make sure you have spark.

 

Yo Justin - Welcome to Maxima.org. I've got two 4th gens (99 I30 and Max SE 5 MT) in addition to the 91 G50 (VH45DE) with a previous 95 SE 5 MT that was an insurance total from a rear-end collision. Gotta love these 4th gen Nissans to keep buying them.

Have you had any luck getting it running?

It looks like you narrowed it down to a spark issue. I had a crazy issue after an engine swap with my 99 SE MT -- though it had fuel and fire and that made it harder to diagnose. When it did run it was missing on cyl 5 and sometimes on cyl 2.

Did you drive the Max before the engine swap to know it was at least running?

Recently, I had to pay a dealer $750 for a misdiagnosis (they couldn't find the problem) and to reset NATS (unique to 99 model) immobilizer. The dealer gave up on trying to get/keep it running so I had to pay another $65 wrecker bill just to get it towed home so I could find the problem in my driveway.


Anyways, once I got it home I removed the upstream O2 sensors to check for clogged up cats. It took less than 20 minutes to remove the O2 sensors and get it running. With the O2 sensors removed, the engine could breathe and I could start it without issue. The clogged up cats were keeping it from running.

Broken pintle caps on the injectors for cyls 5 and 2 were causing excessive flooding that must have cooked/clogged up the cats. So one problem contributed to the next.

The bottom line on that fiasco is the replacement engine with ~73,000 miles (also from a rear ended Max) inherited all the problems that were present with the old engine before the swap.

I know you are doing good job of checking out all the possible culprits. The only thing I can think of is the replacement engine may have inherited a problem that was present with the old engine if it was not running before the swap.