S13 Blacktop: Ignition Cutting Out

[KrazyKyle]

Hello,

I have been in and out of this forum for a long time now and I have never really posted much. Just a whole lot of trolling. The biggest reason for not posting is because of proper usage of the search system you really don't have too.

However I have ran into a problem with my swap that I have searched and searched for, and have not found a remedy yet. Here is the details on my swap.

90 S13 Hatch SE
S13 Blacktop
ISIS FMIC and Intake
Genuine HKS SSQV vented atmospherically
Stock harness (for now)
Tomei turbo elbow
ISIS 3 in downpipe
Apexi 3in N1

Everything else is stock.

I completed the swap the third week of July. Once I got the car running, I really didn't have any problems engine wise. I had some starter issues, and some boost leaks but nothing that kept me from starting and driving the car.

Well three weeks ago I was on my way home to work and I felt a stumble, a real violent one, then the car ran fine for another five miles. Then as I was coming to a stop at a stop sign the car died. Almost like a vaccuum leak issue. I pushed the car off the road and tried to start it, it fired up and then it immediately died and would not crank again. I fiddled under the hood with the MAF, CAS, TPS, and ignition harness connectors. Nothing helped, so I hit the circuit breaker, to kill power, waited a few minutes, then the car fired right up. It stayed running for another five miles and as I was going down the road I lost power, but the engine was still firing. Hitting the gas wouldn't do anything however. I pulled into a neighborhood and did the same thing again. Cut power, started back up. Finally made it home, while the engine was cutting out and bogging down. The car died when I pulled into the driveway. It would not start back at all. Cutting power would not help this time.

So I left it alone for a couple days till the weekend rolled around. Got in the car, started right up. I drove around the neighborhood with no problems. So I pulled back into my driveway and started to wiggle some wires to see if something would cut out. Nothing happened. I decided to fix my boost leaks and clean up some wiring while I had the time. I ended the day with no boost leaks, vacuum leaks, and all my grounds were checked and cleaned. My last job of the day was to adjust my new headlights. I left the car running so I wouldn't drain my battery. About ten minutes into running the car died. It started back up once, died soon after then would not start again.

[KrazyKyle]

So I pushed it into the garage and left it again for a few days, while I did an exhaustive search of this forum, and NICO, and 240sxforums, and Google to find a remedy. I couldn't find anything with the exact problem, but a lot of the symptoms matched several other issues.

I rechecked my wiring which seemed good. Spark plugs were inspected, which were wet with fuel from trying to start the car. I then checked the ECT sensor which tested bad. Bought a new one, put it in, and also moved the ground for the ignition harness from the back of the head to the firewall.

The car started up fine on the first try. Drove the car around the neighborhood for a while and it felt great. With the boost leaks fixed, it again felt like a new car. Well me and the wife hopped in the car to visit my parents. We made it to 5 min down the road and the car started cutting out again, really violently. I did a u-turn and headed back to the house. We made it to about a mile from the house, and made the last turn and started running like it was on 2 cylinders. The car would barely move under its own power. It backfired like it had a anti-lag system on the car. Pulled in the drive way then it died again.

So my next round of tests was the CAS, TPS, and replacing my EGI, and EGI pump relay.

While spinning the CAS the fuel injectors would fire, but when the spark plugs were grounded they would not fire. TPS checked good and known good relays were installed.

I pulled the ignition harness and went through all the wires. No obvious bad wires. I didn't put a tester on any of them however. I put everything back together and the car, once again fired right up. I put about 30 miles on the car with no more issues. So I started driving it back to work again. 70 miles later, no more problems.

Then while I was on my lunch break, I was idling in the parking lot the car died. Started back up though. So I cut it off, and prayed that I would make it home in the morning. The car started and got me about 5 miles from the house again then while I was going around a curve the engine started cutting out again. I go to pull into a driveway, and the engine died as soon as I engaged the clutch. Twenty minutes later I was still sitting there. Trying everything that I had done earlier to get it to start and nothing was working.

[KrazyKyle]

I finally tried to start the car one last time before I started walking, and it started. I hopped in and had no more problems the rest of the way home. I left it running in the driveway for awhile to see if it would die again but it never did. That was a couple days ago, this morning I started the car to see if it would die again. While I was waiting I did some cleaning in my garage and rearranged some things. About thirty five minutes later the car died. Started once and idled for a couple seconds then died. Now it will not start again.

Also checked the ignitor during the last round of tests and it was good.

I am leaning towards a wiring issue, that is causing my ignition to cut out. I ordered a Chasebays harness, but I have had a few issues with the harness I was sent. Right now they have it, and this is the second time I have sent it back to them. I don't want to start anything though, they have been pretty good for the most part with their customer service. I have had my factory harness in and out several times now trying my new harness. So I am assuming that this is more than likely the issue.

However, in the event I don't get my harness back any time soon I would like to drive my car.

So to recap my novel:

Ignition cuts out randomly
TPS, CAS, Ignitor, MAF, Coils, all test good.
Grounds have been cleaned several times
Gap is good on spark plugs
No boost or vacuum leaks
Getting good fuel

I am hoping some one can help. I am all out of ideas, until I get my new harness.

Thanks for reading this longass post if you made it this far.

[KrazyKyle]

Another thing to add. I have yet to hook up my CEL. That will actually be my last resort. I am going to need it anyway. So no way to run codes yet when the issue happens.