Improving Ignition And Idle On R32 Skyline Gtst

[r32gtstJ]

hello all!

just wanted to ask since hcr32's and other 32 skylines are known for their non smooth idle and start up (since the car is 20yrs old after all)..

i was wondering if this electrics set up would help the car fire up smoothly and keep idle smoothly as well...

my current ride is hcr32, pod filter, hks style muffler, cat taken out and 3"tube instead, non branded coilpacks and spark plugs.

currently, my gtst upon start up, it starts abit rough, then rpm suddenly rises then comes back down again to maintain about 900-1000rpm (i guess this is pretty normal?) and when driving after engine is warmer, and come to an idle there's abit of a soft pop/thumping noise you can hear at the exhaust, and can feel inside the car slightly as well... i dunno what this is but any ideas to what this would be much appreciated

now to get rid of these rough start problems and improve my idle i plan to:

1. install splitfire super direct ignition system (everyone says these are pretty good? am i wrong?)

2. installsplitfire d-spark earth system (good call? or not?)

3. and maybe a dspark max electric flow system (if you guys think these are necessary any input would be helpful)

will this setup improve my overall ignition and put an end to the problems??

any input would be helpful and thank you in advance.

__________________

[Spurdo]

you say you currently have "non-branded" coils, does this mean stock? or do you mean aftermarket no-name coils. generally all the aftermarket coils perform very well and seem to all perform just as good as any other, brand seems to be irrelevant.

its hard to define running "rough" through a forum. generally it should fire up and idle around 900-1000rpm from cold. the idle will come down as the engine warms up, if stock then warm idle should be about 600-700rpm, when cold it will run a little rich and i wouldnt be suprised if a 20yr old engine runs a little rough with a rich mixture. this soft pop/thumping noise you speak of could be a slight misfire.. if your still running factory coils then theres a good chance one or more of them is not working as well as it should. coils seem to be the cause of about 99% of misfires in rb engines. there are temporary cheap fixes for them, but sooner or later they do need to be thrown out and replaced.

when was the last time you checked the plugs? i think thats the next leading cause of misfire. if engine is stock, gap 1.1mm or if running more boost gap them down to 0.8 or so.

1. splitfires.. yes they are good, but evidently no better than Yellow Jackets, JJR, or OEM nissan coils.

2. debatable.. i've read up on these in the past and while they sound good in theory, every example i've seen of these installed has made no difference to anything whatsoever.

3. same as 2.

basically if somethings wrong with the car, treat the root cause of the problem. it's not like nissan had to use d-spark earth systems and max-electric flow wank wank systems to get the car to drive nicely out of the factory. just solve the problem and all will be well, no point in spending money on these ad-ons, i can almost guarantee you they won't solve your problems.

Edited August 19, 2010 by jonboy

[StealthX]

Dude, your ignition system has almost nothing to do with idle quality. Don't spend all that money on all that gear, cos aside from quality heat ranged plugs and factory or better coilpacks, you don't need any of the other shit.

If you have misses and farts under boost, then you have an ignition problem, but rough idle isn't caused by a poor spark.

the little bit of lump that you have at idle, could be cam overlap and is normal. do you have a video of it?

The idle air control valve is what controls the idle speed, it can get gunky after a while, clean that out,

Clean your AFM, if the AFM is dirty, it wont be able to read the proper amount of air entering the engine,

O2 sensor has an input to idle quality, that could be rooted.

Dunno about the starting problem, it can be caused by low compression in the motor, or a dieing fuel pump/clogged injectors.

Can't really help ya there.

[r32gtstJ]

thanks for your reply,

the engine and the is the car is currently completely stock except what i've described above and the coilpacks and plugs are aftermarket ones that i installed brand new, apparently some replica of splitfire ones that cost about 200 bucks

i thought i shouldnt be having any sort of miss cos the sparks and the coilpacks are brand new but

if you describe my pop, thumping noise as a slight miss i guess i can assume that the ones i installed arnt that good..

i was hoping option 1 2 and 3 would solve the problem maybe i should change the sparks and coilpacks to better ones first?

and the earth kits doesnt help much?

did anyone have a similar issue? or did a similar setup and saw an improvement?

[r32gtstJ]

cheers for the input bro, i'll save the bucks on the other two options but i think i'll still change the coilpack and the plugs in to some better ones just in case that make a difference.

i'll check out the o2 sensor since i just got my cat taken out

and one other thing, after taking the cat out the car seems to smoke abit more than before, is this normal? (whitish not thick)

it's not when i'm on the gas but when i'm at idle or slowing down to idle it is winter where i am now and hoping that it'll be

just condensation??

[StealthX]

cheers for the input bro, i'll save the bucks on the other two options but i think i'll still change the coilpack and the plugs in to some better ones just in case that make a difference.

i'll check out the o2 sensor since i just got my cat taken out

and one other thing, after taking the cat out the car seems to smoke abit more than before, is this normal? (whitish not thick)

it's not when i'm on the gas but when i'm at idle or slowing down to idle it is winter where i am now and hoping that it'll be

just condensation??

hmm white smoke is never good... If it smells 'sweet' it could be coolant (headgasket troubles) or it could be oil smoke (turbo bearings, headgasket again), or if it's cold, it's just condensation. I had the same problem, that turned out to be turbo bearings were dead, oil was seeping into the exhaust. It only smoked on idle, just after i started it up after being on for a while (still warm), or coming off the throttle and cruising, never smoked under boost or accelleration. If you take your dump pipe off, have a look at the turbine housing, if its covered in oil like this: then its probably the bearings.

If the engine's cold when you see white smoke, and the smoke seems to evaporate after a few feet from your exhaust, then its just condensation.

If it really worries you, do a compression and leakdown test to determine the health of the motor. <- This will tell you if it's headgasket or not.

Can you upload a video of the car idling? We'll be able to tell if it's a missfire, headgasket etc...

[r32gtstJ]

hmm white smoke is never good... If it smells 'sweet' it could be coolant (headgasket troubles) or it could be oil smoke (turbo bearings, headgasket again), or if it's cold, it's just condensation. I had the same problem, that turned out to be turbo bearings were dead, oil was seeping into the exhaust. It only smoked on idle, just after i started it up after being on for a while (still warm), or coming off the throttle and cruising, never smoked under boost or accelleration. If you take your dump pipe off, have a look at the turbine housing, if its covered in oil like this: then its probably the bearings.

If the engine's cold when you see white smoke, and the smoke seems to evaporate after a few feet from your exhaust, then its just condensation.

If it really worries you, do a compression and leakdown test to determine the health of the motor. <- This will tell you if it's headgasket or not.

Can you upload a video of the car idling? We'll be able to tell if it's a missfire, headgasket etc...

sweet as hope its nothin major but i'll try to video the car and upload soon will keep you posted

[Spurdo]

if it was oil the smoke would be blue-ish and the smell is very noticeable. if ur not familiar, it would smell like u were running very very rich and the back of the car sometimes gets dirty very quickly as the oil will form a greasy buildup on the surface.. the type you can write stuff on with ur finger lol

[StealthX]

if it was oil the smoke would be blue-ish and the smell is very noticeable. if ur not familiar, it would smell like u were running very very rich and the back of the car sometimes gets dirty very quickly as the oil will form a greasy buildup on the surface.. the type you can write stuff on with ur finger lol

Hmm not to sure about that, from personal experience the smoking from the worn bearings is definitely white. I think it's blue when its a headgasket, but from an old turbo, it's white.

[ClutchBurndout-:(]

i hav an issue were on idle at any temp it has a ever so slight missing that constantly occurs very frequently but randomly, i changed coils to splits to fix a different issue but this had no effect on the idle, i am awaiting my earthing kit from the u.k and i fairly confident that this will fix the issue i have and possibly urs since bad earthing causes rough idling alot of the time

[r32gtstJ]

i hav an issue were on idle at any temp it has a ever so slight missing that constantly occurs very frequently but randomly, i changed coils to splits to fix a different issue but this had no effect on the idle, i am awaiting my earthing kit from the u.k and i fairly confident that this will fix the issue i have and possibly urs since bad earthing causes rough idling alot of the time

sweet man i think i'll get some earthing kit and some good coilpack and plugs hope that'll sort things out

and about smoking issue i went to work today and it wasnt too bad, when it does happen though it's not a blueish smoke or thick its very light and disperses pretty quickly in my opinion,

but after work when i turned the car on it started rough and rpm was really low....... and rough idle ... then died...

it fored up second time buut was abit annoying... hence me wanting to fix this damn ignition problem...

i recently had an engine and gearbox conversion, engine did 80k and gbox 20k mint but dunno why it starts so crap...

do all 32's have a similar problem?

[r32gtstJ]

hi there again, i just came back from a drive due to my car behaving weird, now i think this is a new problem

it was good in the beginning but i after about 1hr of driving i stopped and was enjoying the scenary when suddenly i heard the cars exhaust note changed (turned to a lower pitch) at this point i thought huh? and surprisingly i couldnt hear my thump/soft pop noise that i was hearing usually at idle soi was surprised and kinda glad... but.... when i started driving the car felt really weird, wind down the windows and when accelerating i could hear the exhaust sound has definately changed... sounded like a helicopter propeller... and sadly

felt like i lost alot of pull from my turbo when i was accelerating although i could hear the turbo spool like usual. and alot more vibration (especially in the rear by exhaust) was felt as well when going 2nd, 3rd,4th...what could this be?

[StealthX]

Hmm no good man sorry to hear of your bad news...

Does the turbo still make boost? Of your exhaust note changed significantly then my first guess would be the turbo has shat itself, but you say it still spools as normal...

There's a myriad of things it could be, do a compression test, that'll tell ya of anythings wrong, if you get low compression in A certain cylinder, try adding a few mls of oil, if the compression increases with the oil, then the problem is your rings/pistons, if it stays the same, it's your valve train/head.

Does the engine bay make any funny noises or is it just the exhaust that makes strange noises?

[r32gtstJ]

Hmm no good man sorry to hear of your bad news...

Does the turbo still make boost? Of your exhaust note changed significantly then my first guess would be the turbo has shat itself, but you say it still spools as normal...

There's a myriad of things it could be, do a compression test, that'll tell ya of anythings wrong, if you get low compression in A certain cylinder, try adding a few mls of oil, if the compression increases with the oil, then the problem is your rings/pistons, if it stays the same, it's your valve train/head.

Does the engine bay make any funny noises or is it just the exhaust that makes strange noises?

hey bro, not the best of news i wanted ti hear but i'll answer some qs.

well the turbo itself, i can still hear it spooling like normal but boost wise i feel a significant loss in the pull it self.

and the actual runnin of the engine is more like a splutter,.. a very mild version of when you are in high gear and low speed. like when you try to take off from 2nd from stop.

noise.. i cant hear anything wrong from engine thats out of ordinary but i can hear the exhaust above all and alot more vibration coming from the exhaust as well..

i'll take it to a garage tomorrow.. .. again... 2nd time in 2 weeks...

[StealthX]

If you've got time, take the dump pipe off the back of the turbo and have a look at the state of your turbine wheel, see if it's ok, Then you can rule out the turbo from there, but I doubt it's blown, cos the exhaust note wouldn't have changed that much as you're describing... Have a look at your coolant and oil, if there's oil in your coolant or vice versa, it's prob a head gasket, but you'd rarely have a blown head gasket without shiploads of white smoke. Like I said before, either take it to a mechanic and get them to do a compression test or do it yourself, that's the most logical thing to do.

Hope it's alright dude! Good luck.

[r32gtstJ]

If you've got time, take the dump pipe off the back of the turbo and have a look at the state of your turbine wheel, see if it's ok, Then you can rule out the turbo from there, but I doubt it's blown, cos the exhaust note wouldn't have changed that much as you're describing... Have a look at your coolant and oil, if there's oil in your coolant or vice versa, it's prob a head gasket, but you'd rarely have a blown head gasket without shiploads of white smoke. Like I said before, either take it to a mechanic and get them to do a compression test or do it yourself, that's the most logical thing to do.

Hope it's alright dude! Good luck.

hey man i parked the car for over 4hrs and just went 4 another drive.... and to my surprise... it was running mint when the engine was cold but when the engine gradually became fully warm and i gave it some light boost out of nowhere the shaking started happening during accel and the same sympthoms as above, loss of boost, running like wrx... so i guess it only happens after the engine is warm... i'm takin it to a mechanic but what do you guys think it is?

the car still spools but the pull isnt great and it doesnt feel like a clean acceleration if that helps..

[r32gtstJ]

hey guys, found out what the problem was...

the car has dropped coils.....

just ordered splitfires and will replace asap

cant believe my coils lasted only about 3weeks when i paid half decent money for them..

word of advice if you're changing coils or sparks dont get any aftermarket ones? it'll cost you more like in my case~ will keep post after new ones installed

[ksx]

Hope that it will solve your problem! Looking forward to read about your update.

[ClutchBurndout-:(]

hey guys, found out what the problem was...

the car has dropped coils.....

just ordered splitfires and will replace asap

cant believe my coils lasted only about 3weeks when i paid half decent money for them..

word of advice if you're changing coils or sparks dont get any aftermarket ones? it'll cost you more like in my case~ will keep post after new ones installed

splitfires are aftermarket ones...