another 'ca18et bad running' topic.

Car: 910 bluebird
Engine: ca18et
Problem(s): Doesn't start easy. Cranks ok, fires up pretty quick, idles at 1000rpm for a couple of seconds, then dies.
Starting again, same thing happens. Starting again and trying to keep it alive with the throttle and that work with a lot of sputtering, backfiring and shuddering. When I leave the throttle at idle, it idles ok for a couple of seconds, then it want to die out again. When it's idling at 1000 rpm and I want to give it a bit more gas, it backfires and sputters untill I get it up to 2000 rpm and then it's rough, but ok. As soon as it hits 1600 rpm, it goes in 'dying out' mode again. When it's on temperature, it idles between 700 and 1000 rpm with some shuddering. Accelerating and boosting goes without any complains, it pulls very strong. Cruising at low revs causes alot of shaking of the car and in slow traffic I have to use the clutch very often to prevent the car from breaking its driveline. Well, that's what it feels like.

Things I've checked: Timing is at 15 BTDC, spark plugs are new, so are the cables, faulty o2 sensor replaced by another one (it used to runs even worse!), injectors are cleaned.

Things I find a bit strange, but shouldn't cause the problems: It's a twin spark engine with the single spark loom. It barely ran with a single spark distributor and it runs far better with the twin spark dizzy. I only connected the intake Sparks and the outlet sparks are dummies. There's a big voltage leak on the car. After a night, the battery is completely dead. So every time I park the car, I take off the ground cable from the battery.

So what am I missing here?? I have a good pulling and boosting car, that don't want to idle properly and don't want to cruise properly.  :no:

Have you checked the icu for codes?

the dizzy, maf, harness, and ecu all need to match. I'm guessing the mafs are the same all around the world but there are many differences in ecus and harness from all the different markets and model years around the world. the dizzy is the same for all years of ca18et but obviously they are different between twin spark and single spark. make sure the dizzy matches the ecu. Disregard how you think it runs better with other parts. just make sure the dizzy, ecu, and harness all match year/model/market. heres a ecu part number thread. http://club-s12.org/retro4/index.php?topic=36737.0

Remove the pop-off valve and replace it with a 1 inch pipe plug. then check for vacuum leaks. your motor looks pretty much stock so it has a lot of emissions and vacuum bullshit still attached. Idk how laws are there but it'll benefit the motor to remove 99% of that stuff. I have a ca20e+t and the only vac lines I have are fuel pressure regulator, boost gauge, blow off valve, and wastegate actuator. You can even delete the air regulator and active air idle controls if you want and just use the throttle stop screw to control the idle. it will want to die sometimes when you let off the gas coming to a stop. I used to just tap the thottle lightly as I came to a stop and it would keep the motor from dying. Now I have the air reg and idle control hooked up like stock and its fine. it doesnt idle at a consistant speed but thats normal for these old nissans. good luck

Great, I found the engine at the scrapyard and the loom with ECU somewhere else. The seller told me that the loom and ECU came of the same car.
The single spark dizzy (which came of a spare engine) let the engine run very bad, like it was firing on 3 cilinders, so I put the twin spark back and it ran much better. Could that single spark dizzy just be faulty?

I'll have a look for the ECU part number later today.

The MAF is from a ca18det 200sx s13.

Tried to check the ECU for any codes, but I can't get the 2 lights to do anything else then simultanious blinking. I'm doing what the FSM tell me to do.

I have checked the vaccuum lines, and couldnt find any leaks in it.
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