74 replies to this topic

[Nic_A31]

If the fuel gauge is all over the shop it definately isn't going to be accurate just because it's come back to life. I had same problem with Ceffy...it's a short between the needle and local ground on the cradle, sends false signal to the gauge..pretty easy to fix but until it IS fixed fuel level will go up and down and be very inaccurate (either telling you you've got alot LESS or alot MORE fuel than actual level).

[Mally]

I hate cannons full stop. Pitty its not carby. I can just pour in some fuel to see if it starts

[Char]

sounds like this thing has cost more than its worth, srsly i dont know why u havent just compression tested it.
compression test tells all

[NA_Goodness]

That's what was thinking today at work. It's quite possibly out of fuel, which would be te best case scenario! Guess we'll find out soon.

Agreed on both counts, Mally. I want to put "shotgun tips" on the 33, basically 2 straight 2in pipes out the back Not that's not important.
Carbies can be so much easier sometimes... Haha.

Char, it's still cost me less than a grand so far, which isn't too bad. The engine runs sweet as well, so a compression test might not show anything, although I will do one when I get it to work. It's on my large list of shit to do at work! Lol.
Also, cars are my passion and career, so fixing and restoring like this is something I've wanted to do for some time! The other Skyline is in good condition anyway, so not too many cheap little things I can do.

Ah well, time to get into it! Wish me luck...

[GreyWolf]

http://perth.gumtree...QAdIdZ254510263

will this help

[Char]

interesting how he says its rwd, if anything its no wheel drive or fwd

[Socrates]

Rhys if you get that car, can i get all the engine loom ecu and components from it?

[94GTRR32]

Hey Rhys, R31 clusters are known to be faulty, my S3 silo had the same problem, fuel gauge odo etc stopped and started. Give the dash a thump if its not working and it will prob start going again... or when you have some time, rip it out, pull it apart and check the soldered connections on the back, and maybe spray some contact cleaner in there. It might fix your problem...

[V8EATER]

I would be doing the old "Smash the dash" trick first. My Calais was the same. I didn't work until you smacked the dash. Its a common fault.

[NA_Goodness]

I smacked the dash today, and yeah the fuel gauge slowly went up. Found out it had 1/2 a tank of fuel as well, so thats a bonus!!

Ok, today was pretty hard at work! All I could think about all day was this damn car and the no start issue! Haha.
Well first thing I did today, was remove the fuel line, stick it into a bottle and let it prime:



Plenty of fuel came out So that didnt seem to be an issue.

I decided to give up for a while and wait for Nic to come around and give us a hand. I'm hopeless at diagnosis, especially when its electrical While I waited, I decided to fix up my driver door. It never clipped in properly, so the the door open light was always on. A quick adjustment of the latch, and all is well! Back to the motor.

We checked the fuel, all good. Checked the spark, nope. So narrowed that down to the dizzy. Then there was current running through the chassis. Cleaning up with a few grounds on the alternator and the engine mount seemed to fix that. The throttle position sensor and AFM were both checked, with no issues. At this stage we had spark, but it broke down when revved.
Moving down to the fuel pump, we took it out to have a look:





Does this fuel look right? The red is a bit worrying... Looks like octain booster



Couldnt find any issues there.

At the end of the night, the car ran... Kinda. Wouldnt rev over 1500 At least we had enough to get it out of the garage and back onto the grass so the 33 can be put back into the garage (It doesnt like being kicked outside! Lol).

So thats where I am atm, not too sure where to go from here. HUGE thanks to Nic for all the help, I'm shocking with diagnostics And before anyone says anything, I'm getting this thing fixed! I dont want to give up and part it out...

[NA_Goodness]

Trev, Socs is convincing me to get it! Lol. Got no where to keep it thoough

Gav, I tried that and yeah it started working. That was good! I'll pull it out sometime soon and see whats going on back there, but at least I know there is 1/2 tank of fuel in there so the priority is to actually get it started.
But god damn I want an import/S3 front end... Haha

[Char]

did u drive this car before u bought it?

red? sure its not just reflection of something? scoop some out into a jar and have a look, then have a smell -its a cheap way to get high.
wtf would someone put octance booster in it, tho it seems like u bought this off a clown judging by the tred in the wheel guard.
could also be some kind of injector cleaner etc
id drain that shit out and put new fuel in. if its not driving past 1500rpm reset ecu, check afm again, even try put ur rb25 afm in

if u take that R31 i'll grab the spare engine off u and make another rb30det

[GreyWolf]

'NA_Goodness', on 17 Jan 2011 - 3:29 PM, said:

Trev, Socs is convincing me to get it! Lol. Got no where to keep it thoough

keep it in soc's hair

[NA_Goodness]

Fuck off, if we get that spare R31, I'M getting the block! Hahaha

I think I will drain the tank, just gotta work out how. Need to get my barrel off Nic as well, he used it to drain fuel into... I'll put some fuel into clean bottle and see what colour it really is, but it definately isnt clear. Although it runs fine when its cold, even revs so that might not be an issue...

Speaking to my foreman today, he seems to think it could be the dizzy. Thankfully, Socs has managed to grab one off his mate's RB20E, so if that bolts up we'll be good. If not, gotta go searching for one and hope thats the issue

I might try those things as well Char, although the 33 is running a Z32 AFM, so it wont work unfortunately

[lunjiaow]

Does the fuel smell funky? Might be stale fuel from sitting there too long. What is fuel pressure like? Weak fuel pump? Too much octane booster may possibly make the engine run lean and wont like to rev.
Test that the spark is strong from the distributor? Maybe a resistance check on the coil? not sure how much resistance you should have. you should try and find a workshop manual.
Checked spark plugs fouled?

Hope you sort it out and dont waste too much money on it. Should get some nice 18s or 19s onto the it after you do a five stud conversion if its four stud.

[Hanaldo]

'lunjiaow', on 18 Jan 2011 - 11:53 AM, said:

Too much octane booster may possibly make the engine run lean and wont like to rev.

Doesn't work like that. Octane booster just increases the RON rating of the petrol so that it burns longer during ignition. Won't make the engine run lean.

[lunjiaow]

You're right. I meant rich. But anyway injector cleaner does that, when its cold.

Whats the news on the car? Should test the parts and not just replace parts that don't need to. Im sure you do that at work already, replace parts that dont need to and some how claim it under warranty.

[Socrates]

 Image0933_edited.jpg   380.08KB   10 downloads

[Nic_A31]

This forum now has a new "dude with a complete POS car" ... and it's no longer me...

[NA_Goodness]

Socs was always here? Joking Socs.

Ok, so Socs managed to hook me up with a free Dizzy off an RB20E which we threw in, and it didnt start at all... Fuckstick (By which I mean myself) forgot to line it up with TDC before taking it out so the timing was out. My bad Removing the spark plug and chucking a screw driver into whole quickly had us finding TDC, then wound the dizzy over and it slid straight in. It started, but ran like crap!! Quickly looked around for the reason, then Socs pointed out we hadnt put the AFM back in properly. I laughed and told him that it was fine, just hadnt been tightened... He was right... Refitted that and she ran perfectly!! 2 laps around the block, no issues at all. Took it for a drive, didnt skip a beat!!
A few issues did arise though, but nothing major, just something to look into:

The diff clunks like crazy! Apparently its normal, but I'll chuck some new oil into it tomorrow (thanks work ) and see if that helps

The front rotors are warped to buggery!! Horrific brake shudder. I'll check the thickness tomorrow on the hoist, and if they can be machined I'll take them off on Thursday and get them done. That and a quick re-bleed should get the brakes working better.

The fuel gauge is definately fauly in the dash, and so is the right hand flicker light. Unfortunately it doesnt self-cancel, so I'll be driving around with my flicker on a lot until I can fix that. Shouldnt be too hard to remove though.

I did a quick lil crappy photo shoot on it though, to prove it can leave the street!!







Take not of the aerial in this photo... Its a file I found in the shed, just been shoved in the hole. Its actually quite effective! Lol



Socs and by best mate Phil decided it'd be funny to push the car up onto the curb. What makes it worse is the handbrake was on the whole time... Might need to look into that!