[kismetcapitan]

it hasn't even been 24 hours and...

first, the A/C heat exchanger fan up front is dead, probably a relay. No problem, A/C still blows freezing cold and as long as I'm on a highway the A/C heat exchange probably gets enough cool air. Mag, you said your R32 was like a shark - only got cold when it was running fast - maybe your fan's also conked out. At least R12 gas is still freely available in these parts

then with the new Apexi PFC boost control kit, I'm finding that I'm not getting more than 0.6bar boost, no matter what I set max boost at on the FC commander. Increasing the duty cycle only seems to increase the chance to knock, and nothing I did got the boost over 0.6, although I only tried a few pulls as I've been taking it very easy on the car. At WOT I got about 45% injector duty cycle. In any event the car's nowhere as fast as it was before, and boost comes in later, say around 3500rpm on ceramic turbos.

then the misfire. starting from early afternoon, the #3 cylinder (if #1 is the one closest to the radiator), started going in and out. Took it to a shop that was convinced it was the injector, but if it's a bad injector, why is it still injecting fuel? The engine btw, when dead cold, fires all six cylinders, then #3 drops out when it warms up a bit, and if it gets really warm, another cylinder drops out and there's so much unburnt fuel in the exhaust that all kinds of pops are coming out the tailpipe. They checked the plugs and found thing wrong. They isolated the misfiring cylinder by pulling injectors one at a time until they found it.

So I'm guessing that it's either the ignition amplifier (that grey thing with heat sink fins at the back of the spark plug cover) or a coilpack (although the shop tested them and thought they were ok, but then they were also trying to talk to my car with an OBD-II, while I was trying to explain that my car was not OBD-II. I figured that with them doing the turbos on a Porsche 959, and rewiring a pristine restored 300SL gullwing, they'd know what they were doing? I guess not.

I'd like to replace that ignition amplifier, and the six coilpacks and loom. Anyone know where I can get OEM stuff - for the loom and coilpacks there's the splitfire but if OEM is good enough for stage 1 then why not? Also the wire loom for the injectors seems a little dodgy, any source for that as well? Someone on the gtr.co.uk board got lucky with only regrounding the ground wire connected to the ignition amp - I don't think I'm as lucky a guy but can't hurt to try.

Anyways, I now have two Skylines parked side by side, with exactly the same problem (each running like **** with a misfiring cylinder), and I just want to put my head through a wall

But the coilovers are still in primo shape, the Nismo shifter is heaven, and the Coppermix twin clutch is absolutely splendid. The Z32 oil sender reports rock steady 4bar oil pressure, and oil temps sit around 80-90 and water temp at 70 degrees. I have a Bee*R ignition cut limiter, but with the involuntary ignition cuts I've been getting lately, I feel highly unmotivated to install that piece....

Just need to sort out the ignition problem on the two cars (R32s, RB20 GTS-T and GTR), figure out why I can't get more boost, and I should be hunky-dory. The new Korean premium gas is good - no more knocking, now if I can just have a running car!!!! argh!!! With the money I've spent, I think I deserve the bare minimums...a car that starts, runs smooth, has great A/C and heat, and yeah, that's about all I want at the moment

What about resetting the PFC to a default map? Worth a shot?

 

[kismetcapitan]

Persistence!

strangely, the misfiring problem on the GTS-T is not due to the ignition amplifier. An hour of swapping units back and forth found that the GTS-T one is good, and the GTR one is dodgy - when cold - I cooled it in my fridge, then put it in - it ran smoothly for a bit, then started to stutter again at idle and lose power as it got hot, running on five cylinders. So I left the good one in the GTR and I'll get around to fixing the other car, well, when I'm done having fun with my GTR!!!!

Still having the boost problem (restrictor is gone, as the lines are completely replaced by new ones included in the kit), but I think the PFC might be in "self learning" mode - each rolling pull felt stronger and I'm hitting .7 now (boost is set at .95 bar with 42 duty cycle on my PFC)...so maybe the car will just map itself up. Anyways, would LOVE to hear from people who've used the PFC Boost kit and how they went about getting their desired boost settings.

No det either - had the FC commander set to display only knock, and the warning light only for knock - nothing The knock bar hit maybe a peak of 1/4th of the total bar. Hopefully, this boost thing will sort itself out; otherwise, will have to dig around with the plumbing and check the wastegate actuators and whatnot.

Handling - I drove it pretty hard in my test session with the swapped ignition amplifier (4am empty roads, some good twists and turns)...by setting the rear dampers stiff (about 3/4 up) and the fronts at half, the car oversteers decently, maybe a bit too much actually. 4WD is doing it's job on launch - I only did one clutch drop as I'd like to preserve my car...just wanted to make sure the ATTESA was working, and it is.

One issue of design - apparently, the ignition amp doesn't like heat, or at least my very old one doesn't. On the RB26 it sits directly screwed more or less onto the head, whereas I noticed that it sits on little pedestals on the RB20.

I still want a brand new ignition amp, as I don't know how long this one will last - any good sources?