Lopin18

Well, time just flies by, ok so this was my first drifting event with this engine and ecu. Tuned the engine, got 360hp/310tq @ 18 psi in a Holset HE341, VTC inactive, low timing numbers (as far as i understand). So far everything has been great, lots of problems with the cable of the moates ostrich but i think its the length. In the end, it works, i think this is a low budget tuning option but it works, learned quite a bit, i think its worth it to get a power fc or something else, but i was bored and curious, it was fun hahaha, i think thats my final answer to this thread. Ill be rocking this ecu for a while.

Ohhh boy im so relieved. Sunny day. Started the car again. Checked everything, no signs of smoke or misfires or contamination. No bubbles nothing. Heated the engine to 80c running good. Tested again revving etc. No signs of anything wrong. Compression tested again and im getting 180 across the board.

Well, light random puff of white smoke from the exhaust, light graish color on the oil cap (its night and its rainy so i dont really know on both signs) but i think i blew a headgasket. Teardown is going to happen. Thanks guys. Time to pay for my carelessness Edit: Race mechanic going to check the car, says theres hope. Lets see what happens.

Comp tested. Cil 1,2,4,5,6 165-170 psi Cil 3 150 psi. Added oil, 175 on cil 3 Engine was cold. I think i dodged a bullet....

After repairs, i did drive it home, weird thing is that it felt exactly as before, no hesitation, no problems boosting, nothing, all the same, oil looked ok etc. Hopefully luck was on my side, but testers will say. Worst thing is the starter locking up signal.

RB25 on a 240sx, so i have no working temp gauge yet, i was using consult in the laptop to check it, which i left at home, today of all days. Wish i had seen the smoke clearly, seems all the water was out, there were no big smoke signals, only very light puffs of smoke from the starter area, and since the starter seemed to be "locking" i thought it was it going bad. In all the drama i didnt even feel the block heat. Too focused on the starter. Lost sight of all the little details :| Just ordered a comp tester and a borescope.... Lets see whats up by Thursday

Well today i kept testing my rb25 swap, left the laptop at home so i didnt have any Coolant Temp readings. Seems i left all my luck at home, i blew the coolant hose that comes from far back of the block, lost all coolant while driving home. At one point i saw smoke behind me and the engine died in the traffic light as i stopped. It would crank 1 turn and then stopped, like it was stuck. After some minutes it cranked and started. Kept going, idle was kind of rough, light smoke from the tail and died, did the 1 crank turn and lock thing again. Long story short, i traveled SEVERAL miles, until it turned off again a third time and i saw the smoke from the broken hose. Checked Oil, looks ok, engine was smoking from the head breathers. I was overheated as $!@%!@%. Fixed the hose, let it cool down, water in, and the engine was ok again, feels good, oil still good, coolant looks not contaminated. power feels ok. Havent tested compression but could i be seeing damage to the piston skirts or cylinder walls? I found that cranking lock really weird (imagining the pistons expanding and locking in the cylinders), first time i had seen that happen in engines ive tried. (not that i overheat them) Not gonna sleep today at all.

Just for the record, Fixed the consult. It was a cut track on the board damaged from the rom chip work. Every is working perfectly now.

Yea that was my poor ka24. Sleeves installed and died in the first 3 runs bah.... Dominican Republic. Ahh yes Consult isnt working tried everything switched pins rechecked. Nothing. Great

Yeah i know, but ive always liked trying things out and since i had some months free until the engine's swap work would be completed i took this option. Also many RBs here in my country are using Z32 (many of them dying for some reason unknown, probably our horrible gas or something being wrong with their z32 setup) since this is a third world country i knew that if i made it work i could help others here. Soooo this is pretty preliminary, ill attach what i used to understand and do the wiring, dont take it as a 100% guide since after i printed these pages i did the wiring, they are all marked and dirty etc but ill be busy for some time now that the engine is on and i have to test and check everything, someday ill make a nice guide confirming everything if needed (i know the pinout references are ok, but the power lines and ground lines you have to think about them): - These two pages are the resume of what i did on the pinouts, one says which pins came from the stagea plug and where they went in the R33 plug, the other page then says from the R33 to the Z32: Edit: I think there were some pins i didnt write.... confirm all pins with the Pinouts below. http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa189/Lopin18/20140315_105611.jpg http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa189/Lopin18/20140315_105621.jpg And these ones are that i used to make the pages back there, ugly as hell but oh well, the original diagrams are around found in google very easily. There are many pins i didnt use, this is a drifting car so i ignored a lot of stuff from Air conditioner etc This pinout shows on pencil where each pin goes to in the R33 plug, affirmative marks just mean its the same pin in the r33 http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa189/Lopin18/20140315_105638.jpg R33 pinout, shows on pencil what pin from the Stagea plug goes into each pin http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa189/Lopin18/20140315_105731.jpg Z32 pinout, says on pencil which pin from R33 goes into each pin http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa189/Lopin18/20140315_105749.jpg And finally the Stagea wiring diagram, i marked in yellow the wiring to be done outside of the plug, which are all the 12v positive wires and grounds, so i could make sure i had power everywhere and ground just as the diagram says for any future troubleshooting. http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa189/Lopin18/20140315_105807.jpg Original size of the images available here: http://s200.photobucket.com/user/Lopin18/library/ And for consolation, i didnt study wiring etc, i once checked my KA24 wiring with the FSM and decided to shorten it and check all wiring, then i took this stagea thing into my hands, so not a wizard here, i learned by logic and by reading the diagrams and seeing the wiring loom in person along with a tester to see which plug, line, pin etc went to and came from.

After many months reading diagrams, confirming ecu pinouts, cutting and soldering wires, i finally completed all mechanical work today got to test my Z32 adapted wiring, after changing the fuel pump relay it was an instant start. I had a Stagea RB25 Neo, with its wiring loom and i used that one. I cut the stagea plug and rewired the ecu plug to the R33 plug & pinout, almost all important wires have the same name in the R33 just different positions. Then i changed the R33 pinout to Z32 pinout, which had minimal changes in positions, switched the CAS wires to the new layout that the Z32 uses and followed Nistune's guide to prepare a Z32 ecu to work with the R33 rb25. Worked the usual ign 12v+ wires, battery 12v+, grounds, etc and that was it. Currently running the Z32 ecu with a Moates Ostrich 2 with the file mentioned by GuiltyToy "Z32_FOR_RB25_41P03_MT_v3". Now to put everything in its permanent position and tune it. Its a cheap way to do it, but it was interesting and i learned a lot. Its an option for those who cant go the full mile.

Supposedly the Z32 can manage the VTC of the Neo, Its a 8 Bit ecu so you can chip it and run a rom tune.... or so goes the idea. Also people usually get that one to run Nistune. Ill just test using the Z32 with the local tuner, if things get complicated ill just delay the project and get Nistune for the Z32 ecu and RB25, but i have to inquiry now if i should use the Type 4 board on the stagea ECU, or the Type 2 board on the Z32 ecu. But ill go to the nistune boards for that one.

Hmmm indeed, but this is a 6 month engine project as the drifting season is off right now here so its covered. Im just trying to find an alternative for the tuning part which is the one not defined on the plan. If its doable ill try it, if not ill have to delay and get nistune in the end, but if possible id like to try out the z32 option. Sadly as you guys noted, Nistune is the way to go, and seems like very few people have tried the other way.

Will do if i ever can. But my budget is very small. I got the engine through a friend financing it to me. But so far all the budget will go into mounting it on my car. Im just trying to find alternatives. And yeah im not kidding. 500us right now isnt available to me any time soon.

Ive searched all day but i always find nistune boards being used. Im from a caribbean island and getting my hands on nistune is hard. Im changing from a ka24e turboed and chip tuned on a stanza ecu using eprom emulators. So i know my share of rom tuning Now the question is apart from nistune. Is the z32 ecu capable of being rom tuned using a rom emulator after being wired correctly? I have access to the nistune application but not the boards. So my only option is using nistune's app and a eprom emulator to change the values and burn a chip etc.. Links to wiring info or related info would be appreciated but ive found a good amount on info but all related to z32+nistune boards