Ryshe
09-28-2002, 05:44 PM
Before I go any further in typing anything else, I just want to start off stating that I am not trying to flame BoostFactor in anyway, but I have to list the facts so that I can get appropiate answers. This is going to be a long post just to warn you ahead of time. I've run out of options and ideas and BoostFactor doesnt seem to have a solution other than for me to chisel out more cash, so to the forums I have come.
I recently got a s13 sr20det blacktop swapped into my 1995 240sx by BoostFactor. I will *** go in order of events by sections and the current issues we resolved one by one to try and get my car running normally.
To start off, I thought I had paid for a complete swap but this is what my car came out as :
-Swapped in Engine/Tranny + Wiring + Hosing , etc.
-Jim Wolf ECU
(Yep, if you're looking for more items....that's it, no sidemount intercooler, no proper plug wires, no downpipe, the list goes on)
1st Time I got car back from BF
Story : My car had a pretty noticeable exhaust leak when I first turned it on. I drove it around easy while doing test runs, and it seemed to be ok other than the loud exhaust noise so I took it back home. On the drive home, I noticed it felt really weak and the temperature levels were unstable, so I pulled in to the local pep boys around my area and just as I did that, my radiator hose came loose along with the plastic inlet and out went all my coolant. Luckily the Pep Boys mechanic was cool and helped me find a new better fitting hose and some new clamps and we got it back on as tight as we could but he warned me that it could come off again since the lip was gone. Later that night we took the car out for some more test driving and found that at full throttle, sometimes even half, once the rpms hit 3000, it would basically hover there or crawl up slowly and the engine would *** sputter during this. I didnt push the car like this until that night because I was trying to drive it nice when I first took it back home. So we went back and did a full checkup on the car, took pictures, and made a video, but I won't release any of it for now because BoostFactor did fix, as promised, a lot of the things that were wrong that I had documented. If you want the details then you can talk to me through e-mail or private messages.
Issues:
- Radiator hose came off because the plastic inlet on my stock radiator was cracked due to the clamp being clamped down too hard on improperly sized hosing.
- Intake Piping + Turbo piping to Throttle body kept blowing loose at high boost ( BoostFactor later found that this was due to a bad BOV that I had bought on Ebay ).
- Excessive engine noise due to exhaust leak.
- Oil Pan was dented real bad.
- Plugs did not fit snugly.
- Car is running very very rich.
- Had trouble making it past 3k rpms.
After some Fixes
Story: Seeing that my car could not even considered to be working properly, my friends and I went about trying to fix such things as plugging up leaks in the intake system, tightening hose clamps, adding a boost gauge, and adding a Pop Charge Cone Filter....yes you guessed it, I didn't have a filter either. So we took it out for another test run after these minor modifications and found it worked much nicer and was able to make it past 3k rpms. However now it would start the stuttering and sputtering at around 5500 rpms at full throttle. And so, finding no real solutions, I made a list of all the problems and brought the car back to BoostFactor.
New Observed Issues:
- Engine was overheating very easily.
- Windshield wiper blades went off randomnly even though they were turned off
- Reverse lights did not work
- Car can now make it to 5k rpms
- Feels very very weak in general as far as HP.
2nd time I got car back from BF
Story: I was much happier this time upon receiving my car as now you could say my car was functioning fairly normally. It felt a lot stronger but was obviously still not up to par. The BOV was replaced, welded piping was made for the intake piping, a downpipe was added, new properly fit plug wires except for one, new spark plugs/distributor/cap and the other issues were all attended to. I drove it home again nicely, not pushing it too hard and we commenced trying to figure out why the car was still running weak and surging. The car actually goes through the entire rpm band now, but still runs in my opinion, quite poorly. The idle at this point would keep jumping after you rev up from 1000 and sit at an avg of 1500 rpms consistently. A lot of the old issues have been resolved up to this point, so here's the new list of the new known issues at this point.
New Issues List:
- Car Idle is inconsistent
- 4500-6000 rpm band surges and is unstable. Feels like no power at all
- Engine still overheating
- Transmission makes weird noises whenever the car is moving in any gear. Noise goes away when clutch is pushed in or if in neutral.
- Reverse lights now continuously on. They never turn off.
- Windshield wipers went on and could not get them to turn off
except finally I pulled the fuse to make them stop. =\
- Boostleak where we T'd off the vacuum tube for Boost Gauge hookup. (this *** my own fault but I fixed the problem)
- Car ran pretty much as fast as my stock KA24 motor did at this point. sad....yes....very sad.....
After some more Moddage
Story: I drove the car for the next few days, performing checkups every night and eventually refilling my radiator with a better mixture. We also added a switch to keep the fan constantly running. This seemed to stop the overheating problem but the very next day as I was driving home from school, the dreaded hose came off again and once again....no more fluids and a very overheated car. We glided back to my place since it *** really close and dismantled the radiator, and did some more checkups on the car such as wiring, spark plugs, etc. We had not checked the spark plugs ourselves ever up to this point so we were surprised to find them sitting loose, and improperly gapped at .04 instead of .03. We fixed that and the next day, which would be yesterday now..., I called around looking for replacment radiators and ended up buying a used stock s13 jspec radiator from BoostFactor. I also learned from BoostFactor that the sputtering that was still occurring between 4500 rpms and 6000 rpms could be because my stock fuel pump was still being used.... ... no comment... Yah, but anyhow I figured it made sense that the engine would start sputtering like due to lack of fuel when the throttle was at 100%, so I went to the Nissan Dealership that same day and picked up a 300zx TT Fuel Pump. I went back and installed the new Fuel Pump accordingly, using the stock filter pickup and making sure it fit snug. Had to do some adapting but it installed nicely. The jdm radiator was put on as well, with a couple trips to auto stores to get new hosing, clamps, plugs, etc. We had to custom mount it since the mounting brackets and screw holes didnt match up correctly, but we eventually got it on nice and tight with the fan attached to it. So we put everything back together, double checked everything, added the coolant, crossed our fingers, and started her up. The car sounded like it was about to die at first as it was adapting to the new fuel pump, but it smoothed out quickly and idled nicely at 1000 rpms. It wasn't long before we noticed the radiator...go figure.....was leaking all over the place, but it was leaking it out slow enough that we could take the car out for a test run without risk of over heating. So I drove the car out on the streets, praying to God that it would haul some ass like it was supposed to.....put the pedal to the ground......and.....nothing... It went smoothly up the rpm band all the way to 7k with slight surges, but it felt like the car was even weaker than before, which we later confirmed. And that should bring us up to date to my current nightmare of trying to get my car to run properly. And so here's a new list of problems and current fixes applied.
Concluding Issues and Observations:
- Overheating problem was addressed and fixed, but a new aftermarket radiator will be needed and I have that ordered and on the way. I'll *** have to deal with refilling my radiator with water every few miles until it comes. =\
- Car is running weaker than before we applied the mods/fixes in the above story.
- RPM band is now fairly smooth, but still surges sometimes.
- Idle is fairly normal at steady 1k rpms now.
- Still running extremely rich with enormous amounts of backfiring.
- There are no known boost leaks in the intake piping, etc. Dunno if there may be a leak in the wastegate or *** not.
- Still haven't resolved the issue on "continuously on" reverse lights and windshield wipers.
- Transmission still makes continuous noise when in gear.
- Wiring and plugs SHOULD be all done correctly....but...who knows. Everything that's needed seems to be plugged in.
Current List of Mods
*if anything isn't listed, then assume it's stock.*
- Pop Charger Cone Filter
- 300zx TT Fuel Pump
- Blitz Super Sound BOV (atmospheric)
- 3" Downpipe
- 3" Cat-Back Piping
- 3 Jim Wolf fitted Plug Wires, 1 Stock Plug Wire (fits in, *** stick out *** it's too long)
- New Spark Plugs (.03 gap)
- New Distributor/Cap
- Welded Intake Piping that doesnt blow off or leak
- JDM Stock Leaky Radiator
- Manual Switch on/off for Fan
- Accurate Boost Gauge readout (6.5 psi @ max)
*keep in mind I still don't have a intercooler of any kind at this point, but I highly doubt that is the cause of these problems*
I recently got a s13 sr20det blacktop swapped into my 1995 240sx by BoostFactor. I will *** go in order of events by sections and the current issues we resolved one by one to try and get my car running normally.
To start off, I thought I had paid for a complete swap but this is what my car came out as :
-Swapped in Engine/Tranny + Wiring + Hosing , etc.
-Jim Wolf ECU
(Yep, if you're looking for more items....that's it, no sidemount intercooler, no proper plug wires, no downpipe, the list goes on)
1st Time I got car back from BF
Story : My car had a pretty noticeable exhaust leak when I first turned it on. I drove it around easy while doing test runs, and it seemed to be ok other than the loud exhaust noise so I took it back home. On the drive home, I noticed it felt really weak and the temperature levels were unstable, so I pulled in to the local pep boys around my area and just as I did that, my radiator hose came loose along with the plastic inlet and out went all my coolant. Luckily the Pep Boys mechanic was cool and helped me find a new better fitting hose and some new clamps and we got it back on as tight as we could but he warned me that it could come off again since the lip was gone. Later that night we took the car out for some more test driving and found that at full throttle, sometimes even half, once the rpms hit 3000, it would basically hover there or crawl up slowly and the engine would *** sputter during this. I didnt push the car like this until that night because I was trying to drive it nice when I first took it back home. So we went back and did a full checkup on the car, took pictures, and made a video, but I won't release any of it for now because BoostFactor did fix, as promised, a lot of the things that were wrong that I had documented. If you want the details then you can talk to me through e-mail or private messages.
Issues:
- Radiator hose came off because the plastic inlet on my stock radiator was cracked due to the clamp being clamped down too hard on improperly sized hosing.
- Intake Piping + Turbo piping to Throttle body kept blowing loose at high boost ( BoostFactor later found that this was due to a bad BOV that I had bought on Ebay ).
- Excessive engine noise due to exhaust leak.
- Oil Pan was dented real bad.
- Plugs did not fit snugly.
- Car is running very very rich.
- Had trouble making it past 3k rpms.
After some Fixes
Story: Seeing that my car could not even considered to be working properly, my friends and I went about trying to fix such things as plugging up leaks in the intake system, tightening hose clamps, adding a boost gauge, and adding a Pop Charge Cone Filter....yes you guessed it, I didn't have a filter either. So we took it out for another test run after these minor modifications and found it worked much nicer and was able to make it past 3k rpms. However now it would start the stuttering and sputtering at around 5500 rpms at full throttle. And so, finding no real solutions, I made a list of all the problems and brought the car back to BoostFactor.
New Observed Issues:
- Engine was overheating very easily.
- Windshield wiper blades went off randomnly even though they were turned off
- Reverse lights did not work
- Car can now make it to 5k rpms
- Feels very very weak in general as far as HP.
2nd time I got car back from BF
Story: I was much happier this time upon receiving my car as now you could say my car was functioning fairly normally. It felt a lot stronger but was obviously still not up to par. The BOV was replaced, welded piping was made for the intake piping, a downpipe was added, new properly fit plug wires except for one, new spark plugs/distributor/cap and the other issues were all attended to. I drove it home again nicely, not pushing it too hard and we commenced trying to figure out why the car was still running weak and surging. The car actually goes through the entire rpm band now, but still runs in my opinion, quite poorly. The idle at this point would keep jumping after you rev up from 1000 and sit at an avg of 1500 rpms consistently. A lot of the old issues have been resolved up to this point, so here's the new list of the new known issues at this point.
New Issues List:
- Car Idle is inconsistent
- 4500-6000 rpm band surges and is unstable. Feels like no power at all
- Engine still overheating
- Transmission makes weird noises whenever the car is moving in any gear. Noise goes away when clutch is pushed in or if in neutral.
- Reverse lights now continuously on. They never turn off.
- Windshield wipers went on and could not get them to turn off
except finally I pulled the fuse to make them stop. =\
- Boostleak where we T'd off the vacuum tube for Boost Gauge hookup. (this *** my own fault but I fixed the problem)
- Car ran pretty much as fast as my stock KA24 motor did at this point. sad....yes....very sad.....
After some more Moddage
Story: I drove the car for the next few days, performing checkups every night and eventually refilling my radiator with a better mixture. We also added a switch to keep the fan constantly running. This seemed to stop the overheating problem but the very next day as I was driving home from school, the dreaded hose came off again and once again....no more fluids and a very overheated car. We glided back to my place since it *** really close and dismantled the radiator, and did some more checkups on the car such as wiring, spark plugs, etc. We had not checked the spark plugs ourselves ever up to this point so we were surprised to find them sitting loose, and improperly gapped at .04 instead of .03. We fixed that and the next day, which would be yesterday now..., I called around looking for replacment radiators and ended up buying a used stock s13 jspec radiator from BoostFactor. I also learned from BoostFactor that the sputtering that was still occurring between 4500 rpms and 6000 rpms could be because my stock fuel pump was still being used.... ... no comment... Yah, but anyhow I figured it made sense that the engine would start sputtering like due to lack of fuel when the throttle was at 100%, so I went to the Nissan Dealership that same day and picked up a 300zx TT Fuel Pump. I went back and installed the new Fuel Pump accordingly, using the stock filter pickup and making sure it fit snug. Had to do some adapting but it installed nicely. The jdm radiator was put on as well, with a couple trips to auto stores to get new hosing, clamps, plugs, etc. We had to custom mount it since the mounting brackets and screw holes didnt match up correctly, but we eventually got it on nice and tight with the fan attached to it. So we put everything back together, double checked everything, added the coolant, crossed our fingers, and started her up. The car sounded like it was about to die at first as it was adapting to the new fuel pump, but it smoothed out quickly and idled nicely at 1000 rpms. It wasn't long before we noticed the radiator...go figure.....was leaking all over the place, but it was leaking it out slow enough that we could take the car out for a test run without risk of over heating. So I drove the car out on the streets, praying to God that it would haul some ass like it was supposed to.....put the pedal to the ground......and.....nothing... It went smoothly up the rpm band all the way to 7k with slight surges, but it felt like the car was even weaker than before, which we later confirmed. And that should bring us up to date to my current nightmare of trying to get my car to run properly. And so here's a new list of problems and current fixes applied.
Concluding Issues and Observations:
- Overheating problem was addressed and fixed, but a new aftermarket radiator will be needed and I have that ordered and on the way. I'll *** have to deal with refilling my radiator with water every few miles until it comes. =\
- Car is running weaker than before we applied the mods/fixes in the above story.
- RPM band is now fairly smooth, but still surges sometimes.
- Idle is fairly normal at steady 1k rpms now.
- Still running extremely rich with enormous amounts of backfiring.
- There are no known boost leaks in the intake piping, etc. Dunno if there may be a leak in the wastegate or *** not.
- Still haven't resolved the issue on "continuously on" reverse lights and windshield wipers.
- Transmission still makes continuous noise when in gear.
- Wiring and plugs SHOULD be all done correctly....but...who knows. Everything that's needed seems to be plugged in.
Current List of Mods
*if anything isn't listed, then assume it's stock.*
- Pop Charger Cone Filter
- 300zx TT Fuel Pump
- Blitz Super Sound BOV (atmospheric)
- 3" Downpipe
- 3" Cat-Back Piping
- 3 Jim Wolf fitted Plug Wires, 1 Stock Plug Wire (fits in, *** stick out *** it's too long)
- New Spark Plugs (.03 gap)
- New Distributor/Cap
- Welded Intake Piping that doesnt blow off or leak
- JDM Stock Leaky Radiator
- Manual Switch on/off for Fan
- Accurate Boost Gauge readout (6.5 psi @ max)
*keep in mind I still don't have a intercooler of any kind at this point, but I highly doubt that is the cause of these problems*