ecetiger
12-24-2002, 11:14 PM
Ok,
I am new to engines, so please do not get mad at me for saying something stupid. I am stranded and living in South Carolina where no body knows anything about Japanese engines. If I had dropped a small-block chevy into a 240sx, I'd be fine, but as far as CA18DETs go, I'm all alone. This is long and painfully detailed because I want to help you help me fix this problem.
Here is my situation. I bought a 92 240sx coupe from a guy in Florida with the CA18 swap already done. He had a mostly stock setup with only four variations including an HKS FconV mounted piggyback to the ECU, an HKS AFR, a 300zx tt mass air sensor, and a manual boost controller. He also has a FMIC, and various other stuff, but I'm only including the details that pertain to this problem.
I drove the car back from Miami, which is an 800 mi trip, with no issues other than loosing oil and power steering fluid. I narrowed the oil leaks to the head gasket and turbo oil feed line. I took it to a shop that has experience with Nissans and although it took them 4 days to work me in and 2 days to fix them, they fixed the oil leaks. (I was too busy with exams to worry about it myself.) After doing some research, I found that the FconV was not doing anything, and could not be tuned in the US. So, I pulled it and planned on selling it on e-bay. I then took it to the upolstry shop to get the interior redone while I still had two cars. I drove it after it got back from the upolstry shop for three days with absolutely no problems whatsoever.
That night was the coldest night the car had ever seen with temperatures dropping to the mid 20s. I went out to start the car after work and it sputtered, wouldn't idle, and was running really lean (according to my narrow-band AFM). I dialed in my AFR more and more rich until it would run at all. At this point, I was running it at 9 out of 12 (vice 5 where it had been previously). Things got progressively worse over the week until the car left me stranded yesterday.
Here are the symptoms:
-It doesn't idle worth crap (falls below 500 rpm and often stalls).
-When you engage the throttle, it hesitates, and then maxes out at 2000ish rpm like it's hitting a rev limiter (goes up and down, while sputtering, having lean fits, and backfiring).
-These symptoms are at any throttle position past idle
-It blows grey smoke and some kind of black liquid out of the tail pipe.
It didn't start out that bad. When it first started acting up, it would just hesitate under full throttle. Then, it got to where it would have several-second-long hesitations that consisted of surging and just slowing down (even under increasing throttle).
Here is what I have observed under the hood:
-There is only one vaccuum line going to the BOV.
-Vaccuum line comes from Intake Piping between turbo and fmic and goes to a 4-way splittler They go to the boost guage, the wastegate, and the top of the BOV (I removed the m.b.c. and I have a new Greddy Profec B e.b.c., but it is bypassed at the moment for simplicity's sake).
-Vaccuum line comes from intake manifold immediately after the throttle body and goes to a nickel-sized diaphram behind the engine that looks like a tiny little fuel regulator.
-Vaccuum line comes from rear of intake manifold to a half-dollar-sized diaphram that appears to be the fuel regulator.
-There is a liquid that has collected on the top of the block around the injector closest to the firewall. The liquid appears to be too dark to be fuel, but I'm not sure, I didn't smell anything. Nothing is literally squirting out up there.
-Cam Angle Sensor is dialed completely to one side. If you try to dial it back to center, the car stalls.
-Thottle position sensor was dialed completely out. I have since re-calibrated it to read 8.22kohm closed, 8.0kohm barely open, and 1.99kohm fully open.
-There were loose connections on the Mass Air Sensor, and the wires had melted (run too closely to the exhaust), but I have replaced them checking and re-checking that I have them connected correctly.
-ECU sometimes gives error code "3-4" which I don't know, and sometimes says "5-5", which is supposed to be "no error," but the car still won't start.
I have been told it could be a faulty Mass Air Sensor, but at $680 retail, I'm looking for other options. I found a used J30 Mass Air Sensor, and the salvage yard claimed they were identical. The housing is different (plastic vs metal), but it has 4 wires like the 300zx tt one, so I don't know. I hooked it up and the car wouldn't even start, and I did a little research and found out exactly which terminal gets which voltage.
I have also been told it could be a vaccuum line problem, but everything seems to be going to the right places.
I know this is long, but I want to give as much information as possible so that you can help me without having to ask a million questions.
Please reply ASAP... this is my only car and a daily driver!!!
Thanks,
Sam
I am new to engines, so please do not get mad at me for saying something stupid. I am stranded and living in South Carolina where no body knows anything about Japanese engines. If I had dropped a small-block chevy into a 240sx, I'd be fine, but as far as CA18DETs go, I'm all alone. This is long and painfully detailed because I want to help you help me fix this problem.
Here is my situation. I bought a 92 240sx coupe from a guy in Florida with the CA18 swap already done. He had a mostly stock setup with only four variations including an HKS FconV mounted piggyback to the ECU, an HKS AFR, a 300zx tt mass air sensor, and a manual boost controller. He also has a FMIC, and various other stuff, but I'm only including the details that pertain to this problem.
I drove the car back from Miami, which is an 800 mi trip, with no issues other than loosing oil and power steering fluid. I narrowed the oil leaks to the head gasket and turbo oil feed line. I took it to a shop that has experience with Nissans and although it took them 4 days to work me in and 2 days to fix them, they fixed the oil leaks. (I was too busy with exams to worry about it myself.) After doing some research, I found that the FconV was not doing anything, and could not be tuned in the US. So, I pulled it and planned on selling it on e-bay. I then took it to the upolstry shop to get the interior redone while I still had two cars. I drove it after it got back from the upolstry shop for three days with absolutely no problems whatsoever.
That night was the coldest night the car had ever seen with temperatures dropping to the mid 20s. I went out to start the car after work and it sputtered, wouldn't idle, and was running really lean (according to my narrow-band AFM). I dialed in my AFR more and more rich until it would run at all. At this point, I was running it at 9 out of 12 (vice 5 where it had been previously). Things got progressively worse over the week until the car left me stranded yesterday.
Here are the symptoms:
-It doesn't idle worth crap (falls below 500 rpm and often stalls).
-When you engage the throttle, it hesitates, and then maxes out at 2000ish rpm like it's hitting a rev limiter (goes up and down, while sputtering, having lean fits, and backfiring).
-These symptoms are at any throttle position past idle
-It blows grey smoke and some kind of black liquid out of the tail pipe.
It didn't start out that bad. When it first started acting up, it would just hesitate under full throttle. Then, it got to where it would have several-second-long hesitations that consisted of surging and just slowing down (even under increasing throttle).
Here is what I have observed under the hood:
-There is only one vaccuum line going to the BOV.
-Vaccuum line comes from Intake Piping between turbo and fmic and goes to a 4-way splittler They go to the boost guage, the wastegate, and the top of the BOV (I removed the m.b.c. and I have a new Greddy Profec B e.b.c., but it is bypassed at the moment for simplicity's sake).
-Vaccuum line comes from intake manifold immediately after the throttle body and goes to a nickel-sized diaphram behind the engine that looks like a tiny little fuel regulator.
-Vaccuum line comes from rear of intake manifold to a half-dollar-sized diaphram that appears to be the fuel regulator.
-There is a liquid that has collected on the top of the block around the injector closest to the firewall. The liquid appears to be too dark to be fuel, but I'm not sure, I didn't smell anything. Nothing is literally squirting out up there.
-Cam Angle Sensor is dialed completely to one side. If you try to dial it back to center, the car stalls.
-Thottle position sensor was dialed completely out. I have since re-calibrated it to read 8.22kohm closed, 8.0kohm barely open, and 1.99kohm fully open.
-There were loose connections on the Mass Air Sensor, and the wires had melted (run too closely to the exhaust), but I have replaced them checking and re-checking that I have them connected correctly.
-ECU sometimes gives error code "3-4" which I don't know, and sometimes says "5-5", which is supposed to be "no error," but the car still won't start.
I have been told it could be a faulty Mass Air Sensor, but at $680 retail, I'm looking for other options. I found a used J30 Mass Air Sensor, and the salvage yard claimed they were identical. The housing is different (plastic vs metal), but it has 4 wires like the 300zx tt one, so I don't know. I hooked it up and the car wouldn't even start, and I did a little research and found out exactly which terminal gets which voltage.
I have also been told it could be a vaccuum line problem, but everything seems to be going to the right places.
I know this is long, but I want to give as much information as possible so that you can help me without having to ask a million questions.
Please reply ASAP... this is my only car and a daily driver!!!
Thanks,
Sam