Desert Fox

Car is having running issues in tuning and in running. Fresh rebuild with around 100 miles on it.

Little update with this: I've been gone, doing some stuff with the army the past couple months, better part of a year.

Anyway, Ive gone through a lot of stuff on the car and I'm still running into the same issues, but worse. This is the full history of the issue in order.

First-Motor was completely rebuilt, timing good, setup as I mentioned at the top. I then ran it to break it in, was running well for a couple days, then had some problems with the chipped ecu, and accidentaly fried it with some super glue (I mixed up super glue and another kind of glue to glue a foam support to the daughterboard), then I went and bought nistune from a local shop. The owner of the shop tuned it(after multiple issues with it connecting) and then told me I had some gremlins in the car. I know the wiring to the battery for my relocation was a bit loose, and after I got the car home I fixed that issue. The wiring harness to the motor was also a bit messy and some stuff was just tied and taped together, it was rather messy but inevitably worked all the same.

About three days after it was tuned, I was driving to get dinner with friends and the car started jerking, the headlights went out, and my check engine light went on. I saw that the chassis harness had fallen between the wheel and fender. Apparently lowering the car had caused it to hit a ziptie with the tire and drop the harness on the drivers side. I went and ate, then came back out and sat with my friends for a while delooming the harness, seperating all the wires from each other and then electrical taping them seperately from each other. Got it all done and drove the car back home. It seemed to drive ok, bucking at times but still not running well. I parked it and took the passenger side of the harness out to redo that the same as I did the drivers side.

After that it never seemed to run right, and I tried to get the car running and moved wiring around thinking it was the harness. About that time I left, having to leave the car at home. I had a buddy who opened up a new shop under the name of the old shop in my area. He took my car in for me while I was gone and changed the engine wiring harness, removed my msd, changed the plus and wires, cleaned up my intercooler piping and tucked my engine harness. They then tried tuning the nistune, which for some reason would not connect at all. Then they tried out a stock ecu with a greddy emanage I had. After a few tries they were able to connect to the emangae, but it was having issues running still. My friend also informed me that the car was not reading maf or tach signals to the ecu and that the car would barely rev up and run. There was another KAT setup in the shop awaiting a tune, they went and hooked up both my tuned nistune and the emanage. Both connected and were able to run well, and could read the signals on that car. It was basically the same general setup as mine im told and pretty fast off the nistune.

Now All of us are confused. My friends, along with three other techs have all looked at the car and cannot figure out why its not running right, not reading the maf or tach signals, and having issues connecting with the nistune. Im not home so I have to do everything over the phone, (im in hawaii and the car is in california). The obvious has been checked, coil changed, maf changed three times, and with the new engine harness. All I can think is that on the chassis harness that maybe somewhere else besides the fender area is melted through, and a ground and power are touching? I think the next step is to change the chassis harness but before I have them go find one and spend the time replacing it I figured Id ask what someone could think it would be? I know that the chassis harness has control of the fuel pump, but what else could it interfere with?

I might have nicked the body harness where the drivers seat area is as well when I was doing my roll cage with a grinder, but I dont think I actually cut through, thats just something I was thinking about today. Sorry about the novel, and thanks for helping! I ll try to get some pictures of the engine bay later when I get better internet so you guys can get a look as well.


Cliffnotes: Body harness rubbed through in front of car, car not running right, ecu not getting maf or tach signals, engine harness changed, still no difference.


90 Hatch Chassis
Running nistune or greddy emanage
ka24det Bored over .020
cp pistons/eagle rods
fully balanced
t3/t4 turbo
rc 440 injectors
msd coil
hks fuel rail
z32 maf
tial waste gate

imaking133

It has to be something your not seeing. If anything, run the wires from the maf seperate to the ecu. Maybe the maf fried with the ecu.