Is my car rooted?

[AdamD]

Been having problem after problem lately. After some opinions and ideas.

Terrible on cold start ups, tonne of smoke under anything above a tap of throttle. Making a serious ticking noise (cam shafts I think.) And now doing <200km to a tank on 98. All things that have started in the last month.

I had it serviced and dyno'd tuned not so long ago. My main reason for this was it's seriously been burning fuel, about 250km to a tank basically just idling along. Was running extremely rich. Had an adjustable fuel pressure regulator put it, it's making a good mixture now apparently, and a decent amount of power. But, doing around 200km to a tank now. And every now and again it'll spew up some black sludge from the exhaust.

Mechanic can't really diagnose what's wrong, so I'm told. His equipment read that everything (sensors, etc) are working fine. I've seen two mechanics so far, and a performance tuning joint and they've all said the same thing. I've spent a serious amount of money and time on this car, so I really want to fix it and not just get rid of it. I'm thinking maybe getting a front cut is the way to go, or even just buy another VR4.

Mods are the fuel pressure reg and boost controller. Does all the same things at low boost too, by the way. The only other thing is that my car is facelift Jap, with a pre-facelift (dual-board) ECU in it.

Any ideas or suggestions on what I can do? Nearing the end of my line, might just get myself a Hayabusa.

 

[Entaran]

Did you swap the pins on the ECU when you put the pre-facelift ECU in?

Other things to check...

Pull the fuel tank out and have it professionally cleaned inside.
Replace -all- your fuel lines, pull them off and put on new ones, go braided if you have to. Especially including your return line
Replace your catayltic convertor, this can cause the sludge in your exhaust if it's fubar/collapsed
Have you had your injectors cleaned/tested? Are they flowing properly or are they just puking fuel in like a tap?
Serious ticking noise will be lifters as per usual. Put some Lifter noise treatment crap in it and see if they shutup
What's your TPS reading? Is it adjusted properly?
What weight oil in the motor?

 

[CLuTZ]

Come to the meet tonight and i'll check your car with my datalogger, for any possible things gone wrong.....

By the way, when did all this start?

Taking it to mechanics who don't have a clue about these cars is only going to cost you cash......

 

[kb24]

what about a boost leak they can be pretty harsh on fuel economy

 

[AdamD]

Didn't swap the pins out no... don't know about that. Just did straight out with the old in with the replacement.

Cheers for the suggestions Lawrence, few there that didn't even cross my mind. Had some fuel injection cleaner run through it, but they haven't been flowed/tested as far as I know.
Catayltic converter huh. Could this be the cause of a whistling/hissing noise I've noticed today from the exhaust area?
No idea about the TPS reading.
And the oil is Castrol 20W-50.



Dre, it all started not long after I got it back on the road. I had it running nicely, then it wouldn't run. Sent it out to the mech's; ECU and fuel pump were burnt out. Couldn't find the right ECU to replace it either. Ended up with an RS one, then had to get 510s so it wouldn't run lean - stuttered and stalled. Eventually found the dual-board one on here.
Looks like I've missed it, so I'll try and catch you next meet if you could let me know about it please!

Should mention too, it chocks up occasionally under any amount of throttle. It'll rev a little, stick and bog down, then eventually cough it through and return to normal. Usually has a bit of smoke happening then too.


Thanks guys.

How would I check a boost leak too?

 

[bazeng]

So what ECU do you have and what injectors / engine mods do you have?

There are a bunch of things to look at.

Are you planning to do the work yourself or get somebody to do it?

 

[omad]

Didn't swap the pins out no... don't know about that. Just did straight out with the old in with the replacement.

Swap over pins 6 and 14. Refer link below
http://www.vfaq.com/mods/ecu-harness-1G.html

How would I check a boost leak too?

Click the link below!
http://www.vfaq.com/mods/ICtester.html


Links shamelessly taken from http://www.vfaq.com - one of the webs greatest DSM references.

 

[Entaran]

The exhaust hissing is probably a hole or a flange gasket that has blown out somewhere. If it's pre-o2 sensor it's goign to cause all sorts of havoc with your car. I would take dre's offer up on datalogging and see if that shows up anything. Other than that, get those injectors tested and rip the fuel lines off and blast compressed air into them. Other way to test it is to pull off the supply line and put it into a small bucket, then prime the pump and watch it pump fuel through. You can do the same at the other end with the return line. that will easily show you blockages. Also, pull off the fuel filter and check it or just outright replace it.

 

[Muzz66]

I would check your fuel system.I used some injector cleaner and all it done was loosen up all the junk up an clog up the injectors.

 

[AdamD]

So what ECU do you have and what injectors / engine mods do you have?

There are a bunch of things to look at.

Are you planning to do the work yourself or get somebody to do it?

Engine mods are..... boost controller. Pre-facelift ECU at the moment.
Hoping to do most of it myself. Don't think I'll be doing the fuel lines and that myself though, I'm better of just getting someone who knows what they're doing to do that. And I had a look at my old burnt ECU, to see what swapping pins would involve. Anyone done this, how should I be going about it? Seems a bit out of my league. Don't want to fuck up my only working ECU. Wasn't easy to find!

I'll definitely take you up on that offer when you're available Dre!

Did a little research on the cat converter, apparently you can just remove it all together? Rather than replace, any ideas on that?

I'm in outer East Melb too, in Bayswater. Anyone know of any good places I could use?

Thanks again guys.

 

[mattrat]

you swap the pins in the plug man, pull out the little white tab then take the wire out the back, and swap then accordingly

 

[Entaran]

Removing your cat is a fucking dangerous thing to do if you are planning to drive on streets. Apart from the fact it's DEAD obvious because your car will backfire minutely everytime you lift off, it carries an on the spot $10k fine from the EPA. Yes, 10 grand.

That said, I've never personally known anyone who HAS been fined, but the option is there.

Fuel lines probably best done by a performance shop. if you're in bayswater you may as well goto techsport and see jeff. As for the pin swaps, there's a guide on vfaq but i cant' find it atm. If you search on here, wrcvr4 had a big writeup on it and there's a currently active thread in e1-3 tech that talks about it

 

[brisvr4]

Why would you need to replace all of the fuel lines????
If there is crap coming from the tank it will block up the fuel filter, remove that and check it out first before you stuff around replacing stuff that probably doesn't need it.
Mine pukes little bits of black crap every start.
Does it seem down on power? If you it could be a blocked cat.
Is it data loggable? Pre facelift dual boards usually aren't.

What colour is the smoke?

 

[AdamD]

Does it seem down on power? If you it could be a blocked cat.
Is it data loggable? Pre facelift dual boards usually aren't.

What colour is the smoke?

It was fucking monstrously quick when I first got it back from the tuner's, now it's definitely gone down yeah.

Not being data loggable could be possible, the tuner did say he couldn't get any of his equipment to talk to it. Guess I'll find out with Dre's.

Smoke is white/grey.

Pulled out the fuel filter, nothing obviously wrong on sight.

Think I'll head on over to Techsport this Friday then (my RDO,) and see what they can do for me.

Cheers again guys.


PS. Sorry I'm probably getting frustrating, but I really don't think I get this ECU thing. Been staring at mine for a little while now.



Do I desolder the pin from the board and what, run is somehow to the other point? vFAQ mentions wires and colours, and I don't see any. I'll keep checking for those other threads.
What little white tab matt? There's a big white tab that's got screws soldered to the board, and no wire in back? Even if I pull those pins out, they won't reach.

 

[brisvr4]

Can you pull the plugs and see what colour they are?
What colour is your oil?
Have you done a compression test yet?
Hmmmm, what colour smoke does coolant produce guys? White isn't it?

 

[mattrat]

the plug that plugs into the ecu adam lol, you change those over not the actual pins on the ecu board haha sorry

 

[milkandoj]

the plug that plugs into the ecu adam lol, you change those over not the actual pins on the ecu board haha sorry

I may aswell say this aswell as i had to ask a mate as it was differnt to other pins i'd pulled out of plugs....

To take the pins out easily, you look at the front of the female plug that plugs into the ecu, pull the small tabs in the middle of the two rows of pin holes (was black on my plugs), slide them out with a pin.
Then, lookin still at the front of the plug, and in the middle where that small tab you slid out was, you'll see a small tab sticking into the middle on the gold metal tab that holdes the wire, push that back and it will slide out EASILY no pulling required.
If you doing it right you wont need to yank it.

Also make sure also when you reading the pinout diagran if its lookin at the ecu or plugs and that you looking at it the right way. :thumbsup:

 

[rob323]

Or just do what I did. Find the two relevant wires, cut them and put quick connects on them and plug them back in with wire 6 going to pin 14 etc. That way you can easily and swap them over and change them back if needed. And it's very obvious as to which way around you have them (in case you forget).

 

[milkandoj]

Thats a good idea.
I just wanted to not make it abvious that id played with the ecu insae i got stickered or got sent for an emmissions test and they wanted to look at the ecu. Even pulled the mitsi sticker off the old chip and guled it onto the new chip. Its not chipped its stock!

 

[mattrat]

milkandoj DELETE SOME PMS AHHA