I read this entire explaination. But there is nothing in it that specifically says what is wrong with JWT's programming. Just blah, blah. If you are going to bash a product, you at least should know WHY it's bad and state that. I haven't read anything but some random rants.

 

I don't need to buy a product to know what it can do first hand. Why don't you guys search some?

 

Why don't you stop avoiding questions and tell us what is so wrong with their programming, since you obviously know it off the top of your head.

 

No. You don't need to buy the product. But you need to UNDERSTAND the product. Which you clearly do not. And therefore shouldn't be commenting on things you don't understand.

 

Why do we need to search? You stated the info which leads us to believe that you have seen some info that we haven't. I've seen a lot more people praise the performance of the JWT ECU than diss it. Matter of fact, I haven't seen anyone diss it for their applications. Maybe you're talking about the Jet ECU.

 

Ok, back on topic boys....

UPDATE: Mechanic pulled codes, and got 4 besides the ones that are alwats gonna be there. The first is a misfire in multiple cylinders. Second is a bad MAP sensor. Third is something about the fuel pressure control module. Fourth is a bad temp sensor. I asked him to do a vaccum check and check the FP and take off my burnt intake filter, and then I'm hopefully going to pick it up, drive it around, and see if it gets any better. His guess is that an intake valve may have gotten stuck open or burnt from pieces of the filter getting stuck in there, and he said that if I drive around, it might burn those pieces out of there and free it up. He said the longer he let it sit and idle the better it got, so there is hope.

If/when I pick the car up, I will see how it drives without the Apexi filter. What precautions can I take to make sure no crap gets sucked into the intake while the filter is off? Not drive it basically?

BTW- I'm still totally lost as to what could have caused this backfire. Apparently it couldn't have been the dry nitrous setup....so what was it?

 

Nitrous sometimes ignites in the intake manifold intead of the engine

 

Ok, another update: I picked up the car. The FP was fine, but my vaccum was all over the place. Luckily, even though the backfire fried my Apexi filter, it didn't seem to hurt the MAF, which is lucky.
The car now idles by itself for as long as I want, but it's running real rich, the idle is rough, and obviously the exhaust note is all jarbled. It seemed to drive fine, although I noticed a lack of power. When running, the engine sounded normal and drove pretty normal. Even though the Apexi filter is off, it was actually pretty quiet, although I didn't really get on the throttle.

Now we play the waiting game I guess. What should be my next steps? My mechanic didn't think a compression check was necessary at this point, but the poor vaccum must point to something. He said if parts of the filter are in the valves, it might take a few hundred miles to totally get it out of there. Does that sound about right?

Brushedpewter: Could you explain how a dry nitrous shot would ignite in the intake manifold? Doesn't seem possible without gas. Any where is all this data about how poor a tuning job JWT does?

 

here you go...

http://www.gotstang.com/gs_files/KillsprayDynoDay.wmv

 

well it doesn't work anymore. If somebody can host it for me I'll send it to you.

 

http://v6power.net/multimedia/KillsprayDynoDay.wmv

 

yep that is the vid.

 

Its amazing how carmly they take the engine blowing up

 

I have to laugh at that line.

You had a major engine mishap while using Nitrous. It caused a serious backfire, bad enough to burn your intake filter. Now the car doesn't run correctly, has poor vacuum, a rough idle, the exhaust tone is not right and it's lacking power....

You should really find another mechanic, because the first thing he should look at in a case like this, to see if you have internal engine damage (burnt valves ect.) are the results of a compression test. On top of that he should have pulled the plugs to see what there saying as well. The color and condition of your spark plugs tells a story.

Any good mechanic or experianced engine builder would have taken these steps after a mishap like you've had.

 

Yeah, this is what I get for going to school in the middle of nowhere. At least labor rates are low....
I was thinking about buying my own compression tester, and pulling the plugs myself while I'm doing it. Save some money.

 

Buy a can of WD40, start the car and spray it where the upper/lower manifold meets. IMHO, if you want to run nitrous, you should have min skills to diagnosis problems. You seem to ignore some good advice here.

 

Your mechanic sounds like a bit of a tard. Compression check is the first thing that should be done. You need to find out what the problem is. After than you go about figuring out what caused it (i.e. backfire, etc).

I think it may be the gasket between your upper and lower intake manifold. Just do the compression check and if that comes back clean, I'd check the LIM gasket.

 

Interesting read.

As a number of people have mentioned, the first thing is to do a compression test, it will eliminate a number of possibilities plus you get to look at the plugs which in itself will tell you a lot.

Nitrous is famous for burning the electrodes off of plugs if the a/f is off, I have a few of them.

I won't bash JWT but, recommending Platinum plugs??? Also I have run up to a 150 shot on a 3.0 and a 200 shot on a 3.5 without retarding the timing so I don't feel the JWT is a necessary addition for nitrous.

Colder copper or Iridium plugs plus race gas and a/f tuning is enough to safeguard any shot a Maxima will hold.

Positioning of the jet is not that critical, I usually put it as close to the intake as possible but back 4 or 5 inches is not going to change anything and I have run that position too.

You can buy a compression tester cheap and if you have enough money for a JWT ecu and nitrous you can easily afford one.

What is really your problem?? Plugs, piston, head gasket, intake gasket???

Takes a wee bit of troubleshooting eliminating the obvious until you find it. Not really that hard. A compression test can be done in 20 mins.

 

Pieces of the filter media can't be sucked into the engine unless you've removed the MAF screen.

Like Jime was said, pull all your plugs and verify they look good.

IMO, you've got a vacuum leak and if it's bad enough it will cause the engine to run a bit rough, make the exhaust sound dull, or the car might not run at all. The vacuum should be a rock steady 19-21 Hg at idle with a warm engine. Like others have said, it's most likely the intake manifold gasket between the upper and lower manifolds. This gasket is a thick rubber and the manifold is only one with about 15 ft/lbs of torque. I think it would be quite easy to blow this gasket out seeing that many high mileage VQs already suffer from weeping gasket (residual oil slowly leaking out).

If it were me, I'd do three things:

1) Remove the intake manifold and replace the all the gaskets (manifold, throttle body, IACC)
2) Replace the plugs with NGK coppers
3) Compression and vacuum test.

 

Yes, I will be the first to admit that my technical skills are lacking. But that doesn't mean I don't want to learn. If the car can make it home today, then I will buy a compression tester, some tools, and get to work. However, I'm not sure I've got enough skills to remove the IM by myself yet. I guess I'll throw in some NGK coppers as well while I'm in there.
I mentioned a little earlier that my mechanic did a vaccum test, and he said it was all over the place.
As far as pieces of the filter getting sucked in, I can see many pieces still stuck in the MAF filter, but by the looks of the intake, there was a lot more that was lost. I don't see why smaller pieces wouldn't be able to get through the screen.

Jime- Remember, they retard timing because their NA program advances it. Do you think I should be fine running NGK coppers in the stock heat range?

Jeff- So when I spray it around the IM, what are the two things that could happen? Is this the same idea as spraying TB cleaner that was mentioned earlier? I'm not trying to ignore advice, quite the contrary. I just don't have many tools at my disposal at school. I really appreciate all the responses people have given. I just need some time/money/tools to get going.
Thanks for the advice everybody. This is certainly going to be a learning experience.

 

intake pieces smaller than holes in the MAF screen are too small to make a valve stick open.

 

Oh. Ok then. Thanks for the info.

 

I think if you check with them you will find that the JWT ECU retards the timing to a level lower than stock for nitrous.

 

That could very well be true. But if I want NA power, I need an ECU, and I don't feel like switching in and out ECUs if I want to spray. Depending on how conservatively JWT tunes (I was going to find out when I dyno), I don't see why throwing in a 75 jet is a bad idea if I see it's tuned fine on the dyno.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is that I don't believe you need a modified ECU for either N/A or spray.

No one has really proven they are a benefit for either to me.

 

I'm not trying to be rude, but you haven't seen any dynos showing ECUs giving up to 15 whp NA? That, and the fact they can raise the rev limiter, which is really beneficial for people with the MEVI.
There's no doubt I don't need an ECU just to spray, but I don't see a way around it if I want to run an ECU all the time.

 

Actually I haven't seen a dyno showing up to 15 HP. I do agree the rev limiter is beneficial (in some cases) but not the modified fuel and timing map. Also dyno results are over rated and there is too much variation between runs to give real accurate results.

An S-AFC or equivalent will give you a much better tune than a fixed fuel map, I gained .2 in the 1/4 just by that alone which is a heck of a lot more than 15 hp. I guess you can see I am not a believer, when someone beats my auto 1/4 time with spray or N/A with one, I may change my opinion.

Until then I think its only making Jim Wolf rich.

 

man all i have to say to u is good luck !!! if i was in any situation like u, id cry gallons by now. dont do serious and crazy mods like that when ur in middle of no where lol

 

is this the first time you sprayed nitrous on the car? dam sounds scary but i doubt the motor is shot if it keeps starting

 

Get the Haynes manual and start doing some tests this is going to be a very helpful learning expirience that you will never forget.

 

Oh yeah, this is a first for me. Yeah, I had a Haynes manual for a while, but I need to buy my own now. I'll buy it today.

 

There have been enough dynos of the JWT ECU NA program and track results to show the gains. There has been a faster NA auto with a JWT ECU than your 14.6.

If your adding fuel with an SAFC you are retarding the timing at the same time, so your not really running on the stock timing maps.

 

No doubt that my car is way faster with my TS ECU. The more I press that accelerator, the more it pulls.

 

absolutely. jwt was there for me when i started running nitrous and s/c. they were the only ones at the time who gave me both programs in one. without it im pretty sure i wouldnt be in the twelves. they do run too safe in my opinion
it could be better and there down time is ridiculous long but other than that

 

what a story this was one long tread

 

Tread huh?

If you're going to post *****, at least spell correctly.

 

That's why I stay away from the engine breaking bottle. Everyone I have ever talked to around here (SD) is like... "oh it's fine, they use it on dragsters" That's the point some people forget... dragster's engines are rebuilt often. And I sit back and laugh as their rings, head gasket, or their valves are fried into nothing.

I've seen an all motor H22A Honda tear up an 97 Eclipse on the bottle.

They only good use I could find for NX is a cooler for an intercooler. There's my .02 for the bottle.

 

Id go turbo, but I would NEVER put NOS in my motor...The fact its used in dragsters should be a deterrent. Its inevitably going to reduce engine life, these engineers designed and tested motors with specific power handling in mind.

 

The best I could muster with the MEVI, intake, and y-pipe was a 14.61@96.0mph with a 2.19 60'. In hotter weather and with just the addtion JWT ECU, the car consistently went 14.4s@98mph+ and my best was a 14.31@99.5mph with a 2.18 60'. Same track and basically the same DA. The JWT ECU does work, especially with the VI combos.

 

Adding fuel retards the timing????? Really? That is the first I have heard that. Never too old to learn I guess.

My best N/A auto time is 13.5 which I don't think has been beaten that I am aware of and its a lease so I can't really get too carried away with mods. I didn't spend too much time working on the old 95 N/A it was basically a spray car. Actually now its about a 16 sec car again since its back to pretty much stock.

By the time you buy a MEVI and a JWT you are a $1000+ poorer and have very little in return as far as 1/4 times go.