klippies

Hi guys
First I’m new to the site. So I’m not really sure how it works here. Just in need of some serious miracle help with my “Z”
First a little background. I drive a 2004 350z fair lady 12000miles on the odo for my daily use and one day on my way home from work the car started to preform really bad and about 3miles down the road the engine stalled. I knew this was bad and I’m a bit of a mechanic myself so I took the engine out and stripped it down to found the big-end journal on piston number 5 seized almost beyond repair and the rest of the big-ends and mains where still good. Why and how this happened only in a 4mile drive I don’t know. But apart from that I decided to do an engine swop with an import engine from Japan witch would be the cheapest route to go other than an engine overhaul witch I can only source parts from the dealer because of no aftermarket parts availability here.
Okay to start of now. So I got the import engine and fitted it to the car. Did an oil and oil filter change just for the start up. Everything was connected up and switched the ignition to ACC and did a full check through everything again just to make sure of no smoke or something but all was good. I cranked the engine and started up instantly. But while it was idling it started to misfire and got worse and worse and in seconds the engine stalled. This was not in my agenda of a start up but yea... So I got thinking right away to what could cause this problem and came out to be. Because of the import engine having its trip all the way to South Africa there was rust building up in 5 of the cylinder sleeves from the salt water damp witch caused the engine to lose compression hence the starting misfire just after start up. So I took it out and replaced it with another engine also an import from Japan and this time I made sure that everything was good before fitting it to the car. Don’t want to take it out again Fitted the engine and was about to crank it but before starting it up I Again went through everything just to make sure all was good and noticed the the throttle body is not responding as it was with the first replacement engine But I left it to crank the engine and then… Nothing!!! The engine turns over (cranking) but not starting up. After the 3rd try it started boggin as it sounds like only one cylinder is firing up and not the rest. Then did a spark test and got nothing. Only one sparkplug is working on bank 2 the rest is dead. First I thought it could be an error (Code) but the ecu is giving no codes at all no cel nothing even tried a different code scanner and still no codes came up. Then I change the plugs and still nothing. If you crank it. Its only bogging “puff puff only hearing one cylinder trying to fire up” the rest is dead. Then I tested the coils and the crank sensor and both cam sensors and they where fine but replaced them in anyway with brand new once. Coils, crank and cam sensors where new now and still not firing up. I checked everything I can think of from ground wire to fuses and all seems fine… Then I thought it could be linked to the issue I’m having with the throttle body not responding to the pedal but if you switch the ignition off it opens and closes but only quarter of the way witch I don’t know if normal or not. Then I thought it could be the NATS bud I don’t really know much about it… only that if the key is not registered it would cause the problem of no spark in which I did do a reregister as well just to make sure but now I don’t think it’s the issue because the red Led light flashes normally when the ignition is on ACC and the key remote (Fob) alarm is unlocking and locking the door as it normally does and for having spark from one sparkplug made me think that this could not be the NATS. So I’m to a point now where I don’t know what to do anymore and what to check Taking it to the dealer is not really an option now only if it’s my last one.

oldschool350z

iTrader: (1)

Oh wow, my brain can't comprehend that long paragraph. Jesus.

klippies

Let me sum it up. Checked: flywheel , crank sensor , both cam sensors , all plugs , ground wire , fuses basically everything I can think of but I’m sure that I’m probably missing something.

e30cabrio

iTrader: (30)

I swapped my motor with a junk yard motor & it started right up.

I'd make certain all connectors are firmly seated and that they all are attached. Is it possible the import motor has a different harness & you are missing something crucial?

klippies

That’s the thing that’s eating my brain!!! Cos i did exactly the same with the 2nd engine as I did with the 1st engine. I connected the cars original harness to the engine with injectors and the wiring the whole lot to make sure there would be no confusion to my original ECU I even used my old intake with throttle body and the Co sensors. Why it worked with the 1st engine and not the 2nd one I don’t know. I made 100% sure that all plugs are plugged in and checked for loose connections. But I get the idea that maybe my ECU is not getting all the power it needs. Because with both code scanners that I used to check for codes it first struggle to connect to the ECU but after the second attempted the scanner connected and said “no engine code found” I tried to make one by unplugging the maf sensor and crank it and the scanner pick up the code for the maf sensor and cleared it. But I’m not sure on how to check if the ECU is getting all the volts it need to fire up all 6 of my ponies and make my a happy chap again.

Ro3shambo

Having same issue and ressurecting this thread from the dead! Did you ever figure it out?

Cux350z

iTrader: (162)

post more of your back story and what was recently done to the car

Ro3shambo

09 370z, complete tear down and rebuild full forged build. Everything went so smoothly, vvel was very nice and easy to calibrate. Scoped cam and crank sensors and they are reading. I've already taken off the transmission and made sure the flywheel was indexed correctly. Compression numbers are solid 200 across the board. (Should be a good verification good timing chain install.) This my fourth Vq build first VHR though.

Sometimes I get all spark on 2,4,6 then sometimes just 2 and 4. Battery voltage at all coil packs, zero resistance to ground. Ohmed signal wires from ecm all check out. Double checked harness plugs w wiring diagrams. The 370z harness is pretty hard to mix up. Begining to think ecm is toast. No reasons why though, battery was disconnected and never had issues. Even cracked open ecm and smelled for burns... not even a hint. If timing was off on flywheel would it stop spark completely or just hit on the wrong cyl?

I'm usually pretty good with eletrical but I must've looked over something and it's now driving me bonkers! Appricate any help! All threads ive found similar have had no resolutions.

specialist

iTrader: (1)

what flywheel are you using?