Well I took her out yesterday for a spin and she was running a bit strangely....... didn't feel like she had any power when she had warmed up to running temp.....

I bound a nice straight bit of quiet road and floored her....... felt like an NA with no kick from the turbo's at all.....

I then noticed no heat from the vents.... well slightly warm but not hot like she usually is.......

Temp gauge was at middle on stock gauge...... So carefully drove her home.....

I left it till this morning and checked the radiator....... not much water in there and the same brown sludgy muck popped out when I filled her up as earlier in the year......

It looks like oil and water mix....... So need to get a tester to see if the head gaskets are done......

I feel sick now as I don't have any funds to sort this at all......

I will be flushing out the radiator and cooling system tomorrow or friday and hoping the alloy rad isn't blocked with the muck.....

Then it is compression testing time and finally leak testing kit on the radiator to see if the head gasket has gone.....

 

What is the best head gasket to get and anyone got an idea of how much they are????

Edited December 17, 201410 yr by veilside01702

Well, errm..... today was back to stalling and same power as before....... ???

Weird.... must be one of the connectors that I used contact cleaner on...... sorry thinking out loud.....

First thing is swap out the temp sensor for the ECU..... and then...

Going to go back to platinum plugs and see if that stops the stalling when warmed up issue...... as I still have the old ones I took out.... just to see what happens....

I am then going to check connectors and see if cleaning them again makes any difference..... start with CAS, test drive, then MAF, test drive, etc...... see if any cause the same power increase....

It must be something silly I have done......

 

Any idea's anyone???

I still maintain you need to do a boost leak test. The amount of vac leaks and mistakes you've found already screams you need to start at the bottom and work up. Did you ever do a compression or sniff test? You can keep chasing connectors etc but you won't get far unless you just strike it lucky. You've got to make a plan and work from top to bottom.

as stephen says man its a pretty basic thing to do to fault find especially with what youve been doing with vac hoses and all.

Hi Stephen, I Got a friend to use a combustion leak tester on the radiator and came back with No head gasket leak strangely.....

I will grab my boost leak tester tomorrow and do that first...... see if there are any more leaks.....

I did compression test and they were all pretty good......Posted up somewhere..... so I was guessing it was cylinder to coolant system leak..... but apparently not....

 

Sorry for posting up what I have done and what I intend doing..... I keep double guessing myself and have lost all confidence in doing anything right..... after making some really stupid mistakes lately that a few years ago I would never have made....

I did the NA to TT conversion with nothing to go by and boxes of pipes and parts......I have cocked up quite a few bits when I did it rushing to get her finished.... not double checking vacuum pipes, etc...

I have ended up posting rather than just getting on with finding the problems....... From now on I shall just get on with it.......

 

Thanks to everyone for all the help and advice you have offered..............

Hey Russ,

Please do keep posting, as I myself find your posts informative.

I understand where you are coming from, but this forum would be a poorer place without your regular posts.

No need to guess with any sensors, Consult will tell you everything you need to know. £15 for a cable, free diagnostic software. Even buying a laptop for £80 it will pay for itself the first time you hook it up if you value your free time and sanity :D

Agreed, you need to keep posting. That way we can follow what your doing to help. Think of it this way though, if you have one red marble and you throw 100 in the air it's going to take a lot of time to find it again looking at one at a time. Not only that it's disheartening. So the way to do things is form a plan and work through it.

 

Start right from the beginning.

It's an engine so we need a squirt a squeeze and a bang. Once we know that's happening we need to check it's happening at the right time and that the information is being given correctly.

So let's just work through logically that way you won't be pulling your hair out.

Have you got compression? Yes

Have you got an engine running on all six cylinders?

Do you have the correct timing?

Does your TPS read correctly?

Do you have any error codes from the ECU test?

Do you have any boost leaks and is the vaccum induction system assembled together correctly?

Do you have correct fuel pressure?

Get it hooked up to conzult and see what all the sensors are doing.

 

I'd give you a hand but A I'm very busy ATM and I'm currently about 7 hours away and will be for a little while.

Boost leak test and can't get any reading as it is literally zero.....

Going to jack car up tomorrow and try again to see if I can find a pipe off or where the air is escaping from.....

Can hear hissing from air going in where the bung is, but not from anywhere it is coming out of.....

May try the smoke test to see if that gives me any clues..... if it isn't an obvious pipe completely off somewhere......

Hey, not sure how you are finding the leaks... I found the best way was to get a section of hose (i.e. about 1 meter), put one end to your ear and use the other to find any noise.

 

this is not a totally accurate way but it sure gives you a better change of narrowing the location down.

 

good luck.

Hey, not sure how you are finding the leaks... I found the best way was to get a section of hose (i.e. about 1 meter), put one end to your ear and use the other to find any noise.

 

this is not a totally accurate way but it sure gives you a better change of narrowing the location down.

 

good luck.

 

Top tip: a ZtethoZcope!

 

How much pressure are you putting into the system when you do these leak tests Russ? Are you using a compressor?

Is the compressor large enough? if it's too small it will escape before you have chance to create any pressure you don't need much just 5psi. Small leaks some soapy water is incredible as it bubbles up pinpointing things exactly but it sounds like you have a big leak.

Funny bugger........ lol

Compressor is good enough for air tools, so should have given me some kind of reading.... lol

I tried for about 5 minutes to get at least some reading using 7psi to start with.... then upped it to 10psi...... still nowt.... it was like trying to pressurise a colander..... lol

So tomorrow I am jacking her up so I can see all pipes and trying smoke pellets to see what happens......

Edited December 17, 201410 yr by veilside01702

Right, was fun trying to get her on some blocks to get jack underneath as repeatedly stalled when in drive or reverse....

Got her up in the air and there appears to be NO pipes off and all jubilee clips are tight.....????

Going to go and get smoke matches or pellets after my little ones nativity play later and try smoke test tomorrow.....

 

I did however start her up with MAF connected and then same disconnected and made no difference to stalling when throttle blipped, revs drop and stall....

I then had a play spraying contact and switch cleaner in connector plugs one by one..... checking idle and stalling is still there.....

I got to the TPS upper connector and found it was a bit green in the connector side.... Cleaned it and slide back on...... Stalling seems to have temporarily stopped happening.....

Might be the cleaner helping make connection, so am going to route through my connector box of old connectors and see if I have one in better condition anywhere....

I am guessing this is a standard 3 pin bosch type connector as I found this number from on a website???

Bosch 1 237 000 039...... I Might go breaker yard hunting for one..... and take spare TPS with me to check fitment..... It would be handy to have a list of cars that have donor connectors we could use to replace our ageing ones??

Edited December 17, 201410 yr by veilside01702

Just in case you are not already aware of this guide to diagnose boot leaks:

 

http://www.thumper300zx.com/z32/boostleaks/boost_leak_guide.htm

 

The guide includes a companion list of devices or hoses attached to the intake manifold:

 

http://www.thumper300zx.com/z32/boostleaks/vacuum_hose_guide.htm

Hi Andrew, I spent ages reading up on that guide for the past few days and other posts..... Found one Jeff did about the metal pipe for the rocker cover coming out as mine also did that and was fixed back in a while ago.

I checked it again today and it is still where it should be..... lol

I am going to get a pair of PCV's and new associated pipes as mine are a bit hard and old now..... Might as well while doing all this work.....

Thanks for the help.....

I'd guess you have two or three intermittent problems. So you probably have and airlock in the cooling system, an air leak somewhere and an intermittent electrical fault, probably on the ignition side and/or on the idle control circuit. One step at a time ....

On the idle side don‘t overlook the fuel pump ecu. Dodgy board had mine causing issues.

I'd guess you have two or three intermittent problems. So you probably have and airlock in the cooling system, an air leak somewhere and an intermittent electrical fault, probably on the ignition side and/or on the idle control circuit. One step at a time ....

 

Well found the air leak..... I had done the carbon canister delete and blocked off the vacuum pipe above the N/S intercooler coming from the hard pipe.... The blanking plug was missing when I did smoke the test....

Was like native american smoke signals........ in orange.... lol

Suddenly I have pressure on leak test..... found a Jubilee clip had gone bad on throttle to hard pipe connector, so I swapped with 2 mikalor clamps from the set I need to fit in a minute....

Now have no leaks that I can find anywhere..... YAAAAAY!!!

Started her up and she sounded better, still idles okay when cold..... but is now showing she doesn't like the throttle blipped when she warms up as stalling still......

I have ordered a new CAS plug, ECU temp sensor plug and TPS plug...... so will solder them in when they arrive, one at a time and check to see if they make any difference......

I am also going to go back to the Platinum spark plugs as they are £2.16 each at the moment.....

 

Just waiting for the RS232 to USB adapter so I can do consult check...... was due to arrive yesterday but christmas post may be delaying it......

 

Thanks Andy and Santa....... On a side note..... Can I have a new GT-R for Christmas please Santa????

I have been a good boy!!!

LOL

well that`s good news! as for being a good boy....really?..REALLY Russ. My list says otherwise..tut tut. Poor sheep.

you`ve been a BAAAA`D boy.

Santa`s stand up..can`t elf myself.

Do check that ecu though. It has different maps for different stages i.e warm up , warm etc. and all ties in with the idle circuit.

Mine is still running an NA fuel ECU.....

well that`s good news! as for being a good boy....really?..REALLY Russ. My list says otherwise..tut tut. Poor sheep.

Leave flossy out of this...... she looked great in those pink wellies and pink lipstick......