Diagnosis Rb: Wha'ts The %#^$Ing Problem?

[The Dan]

Now the fun starts.

JDMSpares wants a piece of my arse, but has made it abundantly clear they do not wish to use lube. $180+del for a CAS - tell him he's dreaming.

Anyone got a Neo CAS they want to sell to me? The going price looks to be more around $60-$90

Well, no actually. I have never seen them under $100, we usually pay around $150 plus delivery for them second hand

[Count Grantleyish]

Now the fun starts.

JDMSpares wants a piece of my arse, but has made it abundantly clear they do not wish to use lube. $180+del for a CAS - tell him he's dreaming.

Anyone got a Neo CAS they want to sell to me? The going price looks to be more around $60-$90

Have you tried Osaka Imports in Knox?

[wolverine]

Well, no actually. I have never seen them under $100, we usually pay around $150 plus delivery for them second hand

x2

[Cowboy1600]

I've been trawling the Classifieds here and they tend to go for between $50 and $100. There's one or two dreamers trying for $300-400, but most are below $100.

[rad100]

im prett sure JIS here in adel have one for $150?

i got mine from them for $95

[The Dan]

im prett sure JIS here in adel have one for $150?

i got mine from them for $95

for a Neo?

[shaund]

Don't pull your injectors out. It won't tell you anything useful.

The injectors are held into the inlet manifold by the fuel rail. If you undo it, you'll be up for a set of new O rings, and you'll end up with fuel pissing out everywhere, and a potential fire.

If you want to check the CAS, mark its alignment against the tming cover housing, undo the bolts holding it in, and pull it out. Put the key to the "ON" position, and spin the CAS shaft by hand. You should hear the injectors fire (ticking noise as you do it), and in theory the plugs should fire.

To test the plugs for spark, pull the coil packs off the plug, keep them connected to the wiring harness and shove a length of wire up into the coilpack where the sparkplug normally seats. With a friend helping you, get the other end of the wire near the block (but not touching) - within 0.5cm should be close enough, and spin the cas. See if you have spark.

Be aware, you may get a jolt from the coil pack doing this if you're not careful.

Good luck and be wary of keyboard mechanics giving you bad advice and telling you to do the wrong thing. Several people offering advice and suggestions who obviously have never done anything beyond an oil and filter change before! Bullshit filter to maximum!

[Cowboy1600]

Thanks mate.

i think the advice has been pretty good thus far.

haven't had a chance to pull it out yet. i'll try and get home with a bit of daylight tomorrow and have a go.

[PM-R33]

Non Neo cases (metal ones) go for under $100 - I got mine for $50. But the plastic neo ones nearly always go for around the $150 area give or take.

[Cowboy1600]

Back to the drawing board.

CAS appears fine. Turns perfect, can hear the injectors clicking away and it has a big fat tasty spark.

Fuel pressure is there (dunno how strong it should be). I pulled the fuel line off just before the rail and turn the ignition on and fuel came out a a pretty fearsome rate.

I've crimped the return line to try and test FPRs, nothing (as in no change).

One thing I did find was the plug on the CAS wasn't on properly which is probably why it was doing nothing. Now it tries to start, but can't quite get there. I'm beginning to move towards tune. The PFC is either malfunctioning (unlikely) or somehow the tune is way out. When it all started going wrong I was at Maverick in Diamond Creek and one of the mechanics there was having a look. i don't think he was changing anything, but I couldn't actually see what he was doing so I'm wondering if he changed something. It was while I was there when it started pumping fuel out the exhaust and started running terribly.

I'm going to pick up some fresh plugs tomorrow and see if that gets it going again.

I've got some platinums here but they are heat range 5 which I don't think will be ideal. Anyone able to give me an idea if 5s would be ok for a ~200rwkwish RB25? I thought 6s and maybe 7s were the direction to go.

Edited August 6, 2011 by Cowboy1600

[Rolls]

Unplug the Cas and pull coilpack number one out, put the coil near to earth eg 1cm away from the head.

Turn the ignition on and spin the CAS by hand, you should see cylinder 1 fire eventually. Be careful though as you can get big pops through the intake etc if the cylinders are full of fuel. Either way this will rule out spark and CAS in one hit.

I had identical symptoms to you, turned out I had snapped my exhaust cam shaft into 3 pieces, pretty bloody unlikely though. Takes about 30 minutes to pull the rocker cover off and have a look though.

Other option is get a stock ECU and crank with that, should at least splutter and try and start if it is the ECU causing the issue.

edit: I see you already tried the cas diag.

Edited August 6, 2011 by Rolls

[Cowboy1600]

That's what i did and the spark was big and strong.

I'm doubtful that I've snapped a cam.

[Rolls]

When you said it ran really badly describe it.

[Cowboy1600]

It started as hesitation under boost and load and was intermittent, as in I couldn't say it would always happen at a certain revs, throttle and boost. It would vary. To me it felt like what I expect R&R to feel like. The PFC showed big knock ie, up to 100 and the engine light would flash, but only occasionally as in I saw that maybe twice.

I was at a workshop in Diamond Creek and the car was idling fine. After 2 or 3 minutes I noticed a fair bit of fuel being pumped out the exhaust. I left the workshop and it wouldn't get above about 3,000rpm. It was fine below that, but pretty much as soon as it started boosting it would run like a bag of shit. Worse than the R&R feeling.

Went to the shops and more fuel smoke. Got home and the car had used about an eight of a tank of fuel, for about 15ks. I spent a bit of time out the front over the next few days trying things, checking things, nothing worked however I went out the a week or so ago and i couldn't get the thing to start.

Now all it will do is cough. It sounds like it wants to go, but nothing. I wonder if this could now be because the plugs are fouled to shit. I reckon it'll start with new plugs but I doubt it'll be fixed.

So that's where I'm at.

[Rolls]

New plugs are a start, even cleaning the old ones if they are fouled would fix them if that was the issue. However something is making it run rich as hell, I would be looking to try another ECU to diagnose if that is the issue.

[The Dan]

It started as hesitation under boost and load and was intermittent, as in I couldn't say it would always happen at a certain revs, throttle and boost. It would vary. To me it felt like what I expect R&R to feel like. The PFC showed big knock ie, up to 100 and the engine light would flash, but only occasionally as in I saw that maybe twice.

I was at a workshop in Diamond Creek and the car was idling fine. After 2 or 3 minutes I noticed a fair bit of fuel being pumped out the exhaust. I left the workshop and it wouldn't get above about 3,000rpm. It was fine below that, but pretty much as soon as it started boosting it would run like a bag of shit. Worse than the R&R feeling.

Went to the shops and more fuel smoke. Got home and the car had used about an eight of a tank of fuel, for about 15ks. I spent a bit of time out the front over the next few days trying things, checking things, nothing worked however I went out the a week or so ago and i couldn't get the thing to start.

Now all it will do is cough. It sounds like it wants to go, but nothing. I wonder if this could now be because the plugs are fouled to shit. I reckon it'll start with new plugs but I doubt it'll be fixed.

So that's where I'm at.

Then why the hell are you stuffing around trying to find the problem when, from your description here, the fault is CLEARLY from the mechanic playing with your ECU.

Could he possibly have initialised it? That completely resets the tune. Stop wasting time and money on it and go back to them with it and tell them to fix it.

EDIT** Just read your first post again

You are checking the fuel pressure incorrectly

You can have flow without pressure

[Cowboy1600]

Then why the hell are you stuffing around trying to find the problem when, from your description here, the fault is CLEARLY from the mechanic playing with your ECU.

Could he possibly have initialised it? That completely resets the tune. Stop wasting time and money on it and go back to them with it and tell them to fix it.

EDIT** Just read your first post again

You are checking the fuel pressure incorrectly

You can have flow without pressure

I don't think he changed anything. I only dropped in there to ask them if they had any experience with PFCs and he said he didn't but would be interested in taking a squizz. He had the hand controller and was poking about, but I saw sort of looking over his shoulder and I don't think he would have changed anything.

I know I can have flow without pressure. As I said, I dunno how strong it should be. It's hard to know.

What's the best way to check FPRs?

I'm wondering if the timing is so far advanced that it a) won't start and b) pings like a barstardo? To retard ignition you turn the CAS clockwise or anti-clockwise?

[The Dan]

With a gauge or if you have absolutely no idea what you are doing or don't have any equipment you can pull the line off AFTER the reg. If you get an ok amount coming out of there when the ign is turned on then you should have enough pressure to start the engine

[The Dan]

You need to have checked ALL of the following properly:

Spark on ALL cylinders

Injection pulse on ALL cylinders

Compression

Fuel pressure

Check engine bay fuses and under dash fuses. With a 12v test light - don't just eyeball them from 1ft away

IF you have missing spark on any cylinders, check power to coils. If you have 12v then check earths. If you have good earths as well then swap coils to see if the spark moves to a different cylinder (only if you have spark on at least one cylinder to begin with)...otherwise swap them all out and check spark again. If you have no spark, but have 12v, check CAS signal (see below) and then check continuity back to the ECU

IF you have no pulse, check 12v at injectors - ALL OF THEM. If you have 12v but no pulse then check CAS trigger signal back to ECU with a scope or check RPM signal in ECU. If you don't have a scope you can swap CAS out but that's a dodgey way to check it. There is such a thing as two broken CAS's in the world. If you still have no pulse and a good signal from the CAS, then check continuity back to the ECU on both wires to make sure there is no breaks. If continuous back to the ECU on both wires - replace ECU

IF you have no compression - rebuild

IF you have no fuel pressure, remove the fuel filter and check it with a gauge (no exceptions - gauge or take it to a mechanic), If you have no pressure still with filter off, check 12v to fuel pump while priming. If no 12v is present then run a dummy wire to the boot and see if it fires up. If you have 12v but no pressure, then replace the fuel pump

If you have spark and injector pulse ON ALL CYLINDERS, fuel pressure, compression, no blown fuses and it still won't start, put some new spark plugs in it because you have probably fouled the shit outta them. Any plug will do. 4's will work. 9's will work. As long as they are new and they are a spark plug that fits

When you can put a tick next to EVERY item, then we can continue but I can assure you, if you perform all those test you will find your problem. If you don't do even ONE of those things, don't come back here asking for more help. Those are all the things you need to find your problem. If you don't have the equipment, borrow it or take it to someone who knows what they are doing. There are plenty of good import mechs in Victoria

EDIT** - One more thing, physically check ALL hoses for splits or if they have come off. If you are not sure, remove them and reattach them to be sure. You will cancel out the possibility of a major air leak AND you will learn a lot about your car at the same time

[DVS JEZ]

So he was playing with the hand controller.

Definately check that ur correct afm is selected. It is VERY easy to accidentally select another afm when fiddling eith the controller.

Check this ASAP