R33 persistent issues. P/steering and lag/misfire

[MissMintyR33]

Looking to sort out a couple of issues on my skyline 

It recently was rebuilt, however rebuilder long story short did not give two flying effs about the work he did. So moving forward it's running but I have two persistent issues

1) it has a misfire / lag type of issue (was at higher RPMs but I had a dead piggy back ecu removed which improved it) now it's not as bad but still does it at random, I thought it may have been a boost issue I'm running an older turbosmart dual stage controller, turbosmart told me to try running off gate pressure however it still has a lag at random times. It has New MAF, maf plug, coil packs, sparks, CP harness.. injectors tested and cleaned. Factory ECU.

2) Power steering issue. It is tight as anything. Flushed power steering, rebuilt my pump because the bearing was shot. Flushed again still tight (mainly when parking and going slow into my driveway etc) 

No kinks in hard lines, replaced the lines I could see had cracks. Still tough to steer. 

I was told to shim a coin and place into the solenoid plug? Is there anything else. My steering angle sensor also has a issue. It's a used one I replaced, does it need to be calibrated? I feel like I've tried everything and this car is my voodoo doll. 

 

[GTSBoy]

Power steering is probably because someone has nuked the HICAS CU and you no longer have the variable power asist doing what it is supposed to.

How much boost are you running? You are aware that any more than 10 psi on the stock ECU is just asking for it to go to full R&R (that's Rich & Retard, which is effectively Retarded and Retarded!) which kills all the power. Depending on the exact conditions, it can just be runnign on the fat and stupid end of the maps, then the conditions change, you make a little more boost and the ECU goes into panic.

[Murray_Calavera]

1 hour ago, MissMintyR33 said:

I was told to shim a coin and place into the solenoid plug?

Yeah this is a thing. I've had mine setup like this for a few years now, works fine. If I dredge my memory bank, I think I had to do this after I removed my factory dash. 

1 hour ago, MissMintyR33 said:

turbosmart told me to try running off gate pressure however it still has a lag at random times

So you've tried it on gate pressure, I'm assuming this is the factory turbo? Did you still have misfire issues with that setup?

[MissMintyR33]

1 hour ago, GTSBoy said:

Power steering is probably because someone has nuked the HICAS CU and you no longer have the variable power asist doing what it is supposed to.

How much boost are you running? You are aware that any more than 10 psi on the stock ECU is just asking for it to go to full R&R (that's Rich & Retard, which is effectively Retarded and Retarded!) which kills all the power. Depending on the exact conditions, it can just be runnign on the fat and stupid end of the maps, then the conditions change, you make a little more boost and the ECU goes into panic.

I had someone check the CU, they said it was fine but it could be buggered 

I was only running around 7-10 PSI on the dual stage controller, but my boost gauge is shit house and needs replacing so I'm not getting a true reading.  Then I ran from wastegate pressure as per Turbosmart but still have the same sort of issue 

[MissMintyR33]

8 minutes ago, Murray_Calavera said:

Yeah this is a thing. I've had mine setup like this for a few years now, works fine. If I dredge my memory bank, I think I had to do this after I removed my factory dash. 

So you've tried it on gate pressure, I'm assuming this is the factory turbo? Did you still have misfire issues with that setup?

Thanks, I'll shim that plug and hopefully it fixes it. 

Yes still factory turbo for now, still have the misfire it's not as bad but still noticeable 

[Murray_Calavera]

2 hours ago, MissMintyR33 said:

It has New MAF, maf plug, coil packs

What MAF are you running? Where did you get it from? (What I'm getting at is, are you 100% certain it is a Nissan MAF and not a china copy?)

What coils are you running?

[MBS206]

What are the plugs gapped to?

Will it rev up top fine at light throttle?

[MissMintyR33]

Just now, Murray_Calavera said:

What MAF are you running? Where did you get it from? (What I'm getting at is, are you 100% certain it is a Nissan MAF and not a china copy?)

What coils are you running?

It's a direct aftermarket from NSW, my factory Nissan one shit the bed. Are aftermarket no good for them? 

Was splitfires removed to see if they were causing a seperate issue and had some savage performance from NZ  ones I put in

[MissMintyR33]

4 minutes ago, MBS206 said:

What are the plugs gapped to?

Will it rev up top fine at light throttle?

1.1 Denso Iridium 

It's random really, I can go to a high rpm okay one time and then it'll lag/hesitate .. it's hard to explain what it does. It's not a backfire, I think I'm gonna have to try and video it when I fix my steering issue. sometimes it'll do it taking off from lights at a lower RPM 

[MBS206]

10 minutes ago, MissMintyR33 said:

1.1 Denso Iridium 

It's random really, I can go to a high rpm okay one time and then it'll lag/hesitate .. it's hard to explain what it does. It's not a backfire, I think I'm gonna have to try and video it when I fix my steering issue. sometimes it'll do it taking off from lights at a lower RPM 

Gap your plugs down to 0.8mm

What coil packs are in it? I assume they weren't replaced when the engine was rebuilt.

[MissMintyR33]

Just now, MBS206 said:

Gap your plugs down to 0.8mm

What coil packs are in it? I assume they weren't replaced when the engine was rebuilt.

I had splitfires before the rebuild, however I was looking at an issue spark related and put another lot in (savage performance) but it ended up being my piggy back ecu + the coil module, so I still have the splitfires laying around

[MissMintyR33]

Hopefully this video loads, this was a month ago, it isn't as bad now (with the back fire) it's more of a hesitation at certain RPMs

[Murray_Calavera]

12 minutes ago, MissMintyR33 said:

Are aftermarket no good for them? 

Lots of bad aftermarket MAF's exist unfortunately. 

13 minutes ago, MissMintyR33 said:

Was splitfires removed to see if they were causing a seperate issue and had some savage performance from NZ  ones I put in

Lots of bad aftermarket coil packs exist as well. I'm not familiar with savage performance coil packs but I wouldn't bet on them being amazing. 

[MissMintyR33]

3 minutes ago, Murray_Calavera said:

Lots of bad aftermarket MAF's exist unfortunately. 

Lots of bad aftermarket coil packs exist as well. I'm not familiar with savage performance coil packs but I wouldn't bet on them being amazing. 

Any idea where I can get genuine MAF apart from used ones? I can't find any only for GTRs and unfortunately that price is not in my budget 🤣 I might gap my plugs down and put my splitfires in, they were only in for a year or so before I started the rebuild 

[Murray_Calavera]

22 minutes ago, MissMintyR33 said:

Any idea where I can get genuine MAF apart from used ones? I can't find any only for GTRs and unfortunately that price is not in my budget 🤣 I might gap my plugs down and put my splitfires in, they were only in for a year or so before I started the rebuild 

There is a really fun solution to this problem, buy a Haltech (or ECU of your choice) and put the MAF in the bin. 

I'm assuming your going to want more power in future, so you'll need to get the ECU at some stage. I'd put the new MAF money towards the new ECU. 

[MissMintyR33]

1 hour ago, Murray_Calavera said:

There is a really fun solution to this problem, buy a Haltech (or ECU of your choice) and put the MAF in the bin. 

I'm assuming your going to want more power in future, so you'll need to get the ECU at some stage. I'd put the new MAF money towards the new ECU. 

I thought that might be the case, thats what I'll start saving for. Thanks for the info