Over the past few weeks I have been installing a Vortech on my 2004 Z. I bought a brand new tuner kit and went with a Utec, Walbro, and RC 650CC's, again all new. It took me a few days to get everything installed and get the car up and running, and I got a working map for my Utec from a very generous member here who also has been a ton of help in general with the whole project.

Everything was working pretty well on the car, so I decided to put a few miles on it to test everything out. I drove about 30 miles on the highway, then about another 15 minutes in stop and go traffic. After coming to a stop at a red light, the car died, and when I started it up again it was running rougher than hell and I couldn't even get it moving. I pushed it into a parking lot and the engine smoothed out shortly thereafter, and then I let it cool off for about and hour before driving it home, and it was still running incredibly rough.

After letting the car sit in my garage for a few days I pulled the plenum and checked all the injector clips to make sure they were all plugged in, which they were. I also pulled a plug, which looked fine outside of being a little dark as the car is running on the rich side right now. I put the car back together and unfortunately it still runs rough. It feels like its running on 5 cylinders. There's no smoke from the exhaust other than a small amount from running rich. Fluids all check out, everything seems to be connected and in good condition. I also double checked the ground on the Utec.

Right now I think its a faulty injector. I've heard of a few people having problems with RC's, but I have no way of knowing. Is there a way to check if the injectors are good without sending them back to RC?

The car DOES throw a code and I'm going to try to get it read as soon as I can. Right now I'm trying to eliminate all the easy stuff and I'm hoping that someone here might have had a similar experience and some advice.

 

there was another member here that had the same problem trouble shooting. If you have your stock injectors put them back in and see if it idles ok. At least you will know if it is your injectors or not.

 

Get hhe code read and go from there . The code may point you right where you need to look .

 

its a faulty RC, i have taken out about 80% of the ones i have installed due to problems...

 

Hey Brad - sorry to hear about the troubles. I'll get you the Cipher tool/program this week so that you can pull the codes (and raise the idle at the same time).

If the codes don't tell you much, the next thing would probably be to pull all of the plugs and see what they look like - either fouled out, or soaked in gas?

Hopefully it's just something stupid.

 

Yikes - that's reassuring about their quality, haha. No doubt I would have gone with something other than RC if I did it over again, although I haven't had any problems with my 650's.

 

Yeah, RC's seem to be really hit or miss. I have not had any issues with my RC650's, but they've only been in a few months.

If you are pretty sure its an injector issue, you could have them tested locally, without having to ship back to RC.

 

Yikes. I kind of figured it might be the injectors, but then again you'd think for $500 they'd be a little more reliable. If it turns out that it actually was the RC's I think I'm just going to send them back and get something else, that's ********.

As far as getting them tested, who does that sort of thing?

I think I'm going to wait until I can use JohnnyC's cypher to pull the code before I do anything more with it. At this point all the signs seem to be pointing to an injector failure, but I can't believe they would just up and die like that while I'm driving!

 

Is there any way you could just pull the code with a code reader at a autozone etc.. ??

 

Good choice ...no sense in doing work you dont have to . Like JayZ said...go to AutoZone and they can read the code

 

I just got done playing around with the car... I have JonnyC's Cypher and the engine code it threw was "Random misfire." Well, no ****.

I put the stock injectors back on the car and set my utec to mode 0 so that the factory ecu would drive it, but its still behaving the same way, running like its down a cylinder. I'm really not sure what it could be anymore. I guess I can try pulling ALL of the plugs, but I just got done putting it back together and now I'm to tired to do any more work today.

Any ideas?

 

I would replace the spark plugs. See if that helps. Also a compression test would be a good idea.

 

I would check whats left that you changed out . Check your fuel preasure . The Walbro pump maybe bad , filter plugged up , or not installed right . Take out the Utec all together .

 

+1 ^

Did you drill out the regulator on your walbro?

 

Yep. drilled the regulator and the little nozzle.

I don't think its something with the fuel pump, since the engine stutters every single revolution. Its seriously like one of the cylinders is shut off.

I guess I'll try pulling the utec next chance I get.

 

I started pulling the plugs this afternoon. 2, 4, and 6 were fine, but when I got to cylendar #1 and as soon as I pulled the plug I smelled gas... after getting the plug out, sure enough it's wet. Mind you at this point the car had been sitting a day and a half with the engine off.

So... I'm guessing I have a bad coil?

Is there a way to test the coil, or do I have to take it to nissan? I won't be able to drive the car there, and I'm not even sure what they'd say if I just handed them a bare coil.

Also I dropped one of the coil holding bolts and it didn't fall through. I have no idea where it went. I heard it bounce off the exhaust but I can't see it anywhere. Argh!

 

Well, after a ton of diagnosing yesterday, I've figured out the problem.

Its the Utec.

The car works perfectly, outside of running ultra rich, with just the factory ecu in. As soon as the Utec is hooked up, no spark to #1 cyl.

At this point I'm not sure what I want to do about it. Part of me wants to give TurboXS the finger for giving me such a hard time (and taking weeks of Z enjoyment away from me) and get a better EMS like the Haltech, but then my wallet quickly puts a stop to those kind of thoughts. I guess I'm going to have to do some looking around to see what else is out there.

 

I don't know your setup or what type of numbers you're after but is there any reason you just didn't get the stock ECU flashed for your setup and then use the Split Second piggy that comes with the kit to fine tune the AF and timing?

I am ready to buy a vortech but most of my local shops are trying to "fear monger" me into buying a UTEC, harness, injectors and other stuff that I'm told by Vortech, Split Second, and Technosquare are all unnecessary and can actually cause problems (more variables). The stock Vortech is designed and gauranteed to bolt on, fine tune, and run.

It all makes my decision to go FI more difficult and then I read stories about guys having problems like yours, although most of the problems seem to be attributed to customizing the off the shelf Vortech package.

 

Netacoma2003:

I went with the Vortech tuner kit that doesn't come with the fuel management system.

Why did I do this? First of all I wanted to be safe. If you think running that much power with the stock injectors is safe, thats fine for you. There's probably more people running that way than not, and I'm sure you'll never have an issue with it. But aside from the fact that this car is the most expensive thing I own and I don't want to kill it with cheap parts, I have a habit of going all or nothing with these things. I firmly believe that you get what you pay for and that if something is worth doing, its worth doing right the first time.

The second reason for configuring my car this way is so that further down the road I'll have more options and room to upgrade than if I had went with all Vortech parts. I absolutely LOVE my car and plan on keeping it for many, many years; and I don't ever wish to stop toying around with it. I'm sure that not too long from now I'll be doing something completely different, so I like to keep my options open.

The last reason is that I want to be able to do all of this myself. Getting a flash is quick, painless, and easy, but to me personally its not as satisfying. Also, if I change something down the road I'm not going to need it re-flashed.

So there you have it. A big, wordy list of reasons that just about completely come down to personal preference. There's a lot of good options out there to take your own ride into many different directions, and this is the way I'm going. Would I do it the same way if I started over? Probably not, but that's all part of the experiece.


Now, does anyone have any suggestions for a management system? I'm open to anything you guys can say, including telling me I'm an idiot for thinking about ditching the utec. It's just the internet, you can't hurt my feelings.

 

Thanks. I was basically wondering if you got pushed into buying the extra stuff or made the choice yourself.