I swapped a 96 SR20DE into a 92 SE-R and it had been running well for over a week with no check engine light and some ticking noises comming from the valve train. I pulled the car out of the garage and let it idle for a bit until it was warmed up, then I shut it off and washed it a few minutes later.

After washing I got back in the car to back it up into the garage but when I turned it on the motor sputtered up and then quickly died. I tried running it a few more times and the car died before the rpm's even went past 1k. Now when I hit the gas I can keep the motor running but it sounds like its sputtering, and the engine is shaking everywhere even though I just installed new mounts.

To try to fix the problem I pulled my valve cover and saw everything looked perfect. Then I changed spark plugs and changed the MAF, still nothing works.

Anyone else had this problem before? Should I try a different distrubutor, different plug wires, or does it have something to do with the enjectors, fuel filter, or fuel pump? Or is it more severe? Any ideas are appretiated!

Thanks,
-Mike

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One of the first things I say to a problem like this is the IACV.. on Nissanforums it seems to be the problem like 90% of the time. Plus the fact it did it after you warmed it up...

I searched around a bit and that sounds likely. I am still wondering why would it do it all of a sudden after I had been running the engine everyday for a week?

Also, I understand that the IACV is underneith the throttle body, but where exactly is it located. I have an extra engine so I could probably swap these parts if thats actually the problem. Thanks for your help!

Anyone else have any ideas?
Thanks,
-Mike

Also forgot to mention, the engine only starts (then sputters and sounds like its missing) after I advance the timing.

take your distributer cap off and blow the water out of it. also do the wires too

If all else fails just take it to the shop !

take your distributer cap off and blow the water out of it. also do the wires too

Checked under the cap, there was absolutely no water. I also changed distrubuter and plug wires, still no difference.

If all else fails just take it to the shop !

I would really like to, but I have already spent more then I was planning on spending on this car, and mechanics charge way to much.

Before I go changing the IACV, I would like to add a bit more info and see if you guys think thats still the problem.

First the engine will not idle on its own, I have to push the gas to actually keep it going. Also I tried keeping it going by pushing the gas and after words there was a strong smell of un-burnt gas, and I believe the smell was all comming out the muffler.

Any ideas are great, thanks for the help so far, but please keep it comming :)

Thanks

check the tube from the iac to the intake before the tb. Make sure there are no cracks or rips in it.

check the tube from the iac to the intake before the tb. Make sure there are no cracks or rips in it.

I didn't see any cracks or rips.

Now the car will not start unless I give it gas, so I assume that would be a fuel problem. So what would cause that problem, and what would I do to go about fixing it.

Also, is is the idle control valve on the opposite side of the intake, at the end of the throttle body, and it has the idle adjuster screw on top??? If so I'll be replacing this and see if that helps.

Hate to say it, but you should do a compression check.

Try regrounding your maf.... That could be the problem.

Hate to say it, but you should do a compression check.

I was thinking about doing that too, but I hope thats not the problem, but its a good idea to do that before I go buying anything else.

Try regrounding your maf.... That could be the problem.

I was thinking about that too, but I dunno why after a car wash my maf ground would go bad. Just odd how things happen all of a sudden.

I also forgot to mention that right before the car wash as I was letting the engine idle, i tried re-adjusting my timing by slightly moving the distributor, but there were no bad sounds or any pinging noises, so I would doubt that caused any problems.

I pulled the spark plugs again, and now everyone smells strongly of un-burnt gas. Before I try anything else I will do a compression check, but does anyone know why the plugs would be like that?

I have the exact same problem, IACV is all good. I narrowed it down to the ecu. Before i had a DE ecu now im running a U12 and it just wont run, not even if i floor it. If you have a spare ecu try it and see if it works for you.

I have the exact same problem, IACV is all good. I narrowed it down to the ecu. Before i had a DE ecu now im running a U12 and it just wont run, not even if i floor it. If you have a spare ecu try it and see if it works for you.

A buddy of mine actually has a spare ECU, and I was wondering if anyone was going to say that the ecu was the problem. If the ecu was the problem, then would it just stop working like in my case? If nothing else works by Monday, then the other ecu will be tried.

Thanks for your help, and I hope you get your problem solved too.

A buddy of mine actually has a spare ECU, and I was wondering if anyone was going to say that the ecu was the problem. If the ecu was the problem, then would it just stop working like in my case? If nothing else works by Monday, then the other ecu will be tried.

Thanks for your help, and I hope you get your problem solved too.


Sometimes they just spontainiously (sp?) go bad, i just cleaned the living crap out of my IACV, and even swapped another one from my old motor and still same problems. Im gonna swap in a different ecu tomorrow and see what happens. Ill report back on what happens.

Sometimes they just spontainiously (sp?) go bad, i just cleaned the living crap out of my IACV, and even swapped another one from my old motor and still same problems. Im gonna swap in a different ecu tomorrow and see what happens. Ill report back on what happens.

Sounds great, thanks alot for the help, I hope it works for you!

About changing the IACV, I am curious as to why these would go bad? Especially on my engine which is very clean and the previous owner of the engine was using synthetic oil with constant oil & filter changes. I bring this up because I don't think the spare one I have will change anything, being that it is off of an engine with high miles and bad sludge build-up, and I can actually see some of the sludge inside the IACV.

Well the IACV is easy to pull of and check so i would check it out.

I figured mine out, it was the ecu, runs perfect now.

Well the IACV is easy to pull of and check so i would check it out.

I figured mine out, it was the ecu, runs perfect now.

Sweet, thanks for the info and help, I'll be trying mine on Monday so I'll let you'll know.

Sweet, thanks for the info and help, I'll be trying mine on Monday so I'll let you'll know.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE... tell us that you DID NOT wash the engine?

Did you???

If you did.... remove all four pipes from the spark plug wells and take a good look inside them....