S13 K24E Problems

[strykr]

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a 1990 240SX S13 with a K24E SOHC motor,
The car when i purchased it ran fine and had 143,xxx miles on the motor and transmission.

I am now at 148,xxx miles and the car is messing up on me and it seems bad but i cannot figure what on earth the problem is...

The car feels like its misfiring, i can't seem to figure out what cylinder is doing it but it feels like im running on 3 cylinders, here's the trippy part, the car will run fine and in the middle of driving just start running on 3 cylinders, sometimes it will run on 3 cylinders and then randomly start running fine and idling fine.

ive attached a picture of something that i wiggled the other day trying to figure out what was wrong and when i wiggled this little gizmo i noticed my idle started moving up and down. is this thing the knock sensor ?

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y15/stryker05/20130930_190343.jpg (http://s2.photobucket.com/user/stryker05/media/20130930_190343.jpg.html)


I'm not sure whats the problem with the car, even though it feels like its running on 3 cylinders, it's not throwing any codes... -.-

any ideas ? what should i do ? its not my plugs, i recently replaced them all.

my stepdad whose also on this forum and has been a 240 enthusiast for quite some time also cant seem to figure it out ? could it be a timing thing ? he says probably not because the car works and then doesnt fire properly, i also have installed new spark plug wires as well.

any ideas ? please help this is my daily driver and i just want to get it back up and running the way it was when i got it ... thanks guys.

[e1_griego]

That's the coolant temp sensor. The sohc ka doesn't have a knock sensor.

KA injectors frequently die -- if you are sure you have spark, I'd just check the injectors.

[strykr]

So, can an injector randomly die while driving and then come back to life ?

is that possible ? also, by driving on 3 cylinders, even if i drive streets and go slow am i damaging the motor even more ? cause i drove to my girlfriends today with the car running fine but now it feels like its firing only 3 cylinders.. so am i safe to drive it home slowly ?

also if the injector died would it not throw a ECU code ?

[Wannabe180sx]

That red plug 'gizmo' is the coolant temperature sensor.

Edit: I also had a miss similar to this. As said above ^ could be the injector. It doesn't necessarily mean that the injector is 'dead' but possibly wiring issues to the injector. Mine was the injector on cylinder #3 and when I would wiggle the plug it would cut in and out. ended up re-pinning the plug and all has been well since.

Hope that helps -

Also I drove mine for like a month in that condition, certainly wouldn't recommend it though.

[strykr]

Hmmm.. damn.

i dont know what to do, i think ill try testing the injectors, can i use an meter to test the injectors or the wiring to them ?

[dan240]

I've owned my KA24E for 12 years. I've had both injector wires (pigtails) go bad and fuel injectors go bad.

If its intermittent I'd lean more towards a bad connection.

You might also try cleaning grounds.