Hello everybody, so I got a few questions.
A bit of a background, I own a 2003 touring with PowerLab kit housing a GT35R with all the supporting mods. The kit itself came with TurboXS UTEC and that’s how the tune was done a few years back by Sound Performance up in Chicago. Unfortunatelly recently my car began running like crap, I have been running lean at idle, and now I have began having what I think is a misfire. I am getting code P0300 practically every time I even enter boost. Its kinda hard to keep the car under boost since I start building pressure at 2.5k rpm … somehow while under boost I seem to be running fine but at idle and low rpms I am getting noticeable “pulsations” throughout the car …. My exhaust at while at idle sounds like it has a rhythmic flutter …basically not good…

What I am looking at now is a tune, hopefully it is a root of all evil and will solve my issues. Unfortunatelly since I still have UTEC I am considering switching to a different tuning software/method. What I have been considering is UpRev, from my research it shows that it is a respectable tuning solution. What do you guys think?

I have contacted a number of shops and so far I am considering going with ET Tuning location in Union, Missouri. They state they can do the work and I have known a few individuals who have gotten work done by them and I have not heard quite a few good things about them, has anyone else had to deal with them? If so please share your experience.
I plan to get 3 fuel maps at minimum, low boost, high boost…and maybe no boost at all/gas saver? Ideas? Do you think that should fix my random misfire under boost or do u think I hava more serious issue? (god forbid) … When I have spoken to John at ET Tuning he has stated they have diagnostics for Nissans which they would be able to diagnose my vehicle if there is a problem and ofcourse I would be able to use them to do any type of repairs that I would need or atleast be educated about what is going on with my vehicle.

All BS and side thoughts aside the main questions are:
1) is UpRev a smart solution for my application?
2) Looking for opinions about ET Tuning
3) Anyone have any other recomendations?


ATM im getting my appointment booked for Monday the 11th...ill post results once its done and over with.
P.S Before the flames begin let me apology to anyone that i may offend by my ignorance and not making all of my decisions solely based on assumptions gathered from Search Results.

 

How long has it been since you have replaced your spark plugs? its highly unlikely that your UTEC tuned just changed.

I would start with mechanical stuff 1st. coil packs, spark plugs, loose grounds

But in terms of uprev,

you would only get 1 map. Since Uprev isnt based on MAP, it has no idea about boost. it could be 1, 10, 20psi and its just a matter of airflow and you would have your 1 map scaled to accommodate all that.

Thusly you will need to buy a standalone boost controller. Good ones start around 450$.

The Uprev can probably be tuned to be smoother than your UTEC, but it wont fix anything if there other mechanical problems.

 

thank you srt8 ...i was thinking about spark plugs and wires but since its a pain i nthe *** getting to the back row of the spark plugs i have not pulled the trigger yet...perhaps i should check into it prior to the trip to the dyno ..

as far as RevUp tuning goes according to the tuner i get upto 5 maps preloaded which are swichable via crouse controll .... ill ask him about the boost controll since i do not have an independant boost controller as of yet

 

Yes, you do get five maps, but you are still limited by the scaling of the tune since the uprev uses a MAF still unless you add a boost controller to control your wastegate.

Like Rich said, I too highly doubt your tune just changed. If your playing with boost, man up and pull those plugs out. If SP tuned your car I highly doubt something has gone terribly wrong if you have had no other issues until now.

Leaning out idle would also mean that you are not getting enough fueling, which would lead me to start looking at fuel pressure and injectors. How many miles on the boosted setup?

The misfire code you speak of P0300 is a common code on the Utec. I had it many times with mine, and that is because the stock ecu is seeing the timing outside of it's normal threshold. I would look at your plugs, see if they are fowled or not. If you have any misfires on a specific cylinder, swap coil packs with another cylinder and see if it moves. That particular code though is common with a number of Utec owners including myself when I ran a utec.

 

I had problem with leaning out at idle and it drove me crazy. I checked for vacuum leak, replaced spark plugs, switched coil pack..etc finally I went and upgraded my injector and misfire and lean condition went away.

 

Sounds mechanical/electrical to me. Check coil packs for infamous melty 'bubbles' near the connectors which UTEC is known to cause.

 

I use John's dyno to do tuning on my car. He recently just tuned whosdaddy's car on here (my friend scott) while i was there. John didn't do the tuning that day though.

Uprev is a great tuning solution but a PITA to tune compared to other units and it will require a boost controller be purchased separately.

That being said like others mentioned there is something that went wrong that needs to be fixed. Just changing tuning solutions and getting a re-tune won't fix the problem. So the shop will have to try to fix the issue before they could even re-tune the car.

I don't know the utec otherwise i would offer to help. I'm in chesterfield. I would start tearing the car apart looking for the issue and get it fixed before jumping into getting a new tune. More than likely that is what the shop will do (look for problem before trying a tune).

 

heh thank you guys for all the suggestions and input

i will be tearing my setup apart tomorrow, gonna replace the sparkplugs already ... check my coil packs, piping for a leak etc......hope something turns up that way all the problem is when i take it to john at ET is the lean condition...
Otherwise if i dont figure anything out i hope that john will figure a solution out quick ...
If the issue is a little bit deeper then above specified then i am afraid the 350 is gonna be sitting in my garage for a while because ill need toe get another "reliable" DD (Need to do that anyway) instead of fixing and building up the 350.

anwyays enough for my rant ..wish me luck guys....
the misfire is a result but not a cause of a lean condition tho so i do need to get a tune ....After talking to John over at ET we have decided that i will go with a mechanical boost controller ..what do you guys think about that ? According to him in order to switch between different maps i would have to simply pop my hood and turn the boost controller to the specific setting..


but yeh i would like to thank everybody for their input.... ill update this post with details on what happened/happens so that others may learn from my experience.

 

i had similar issues, it was a bad pcv valve

 

i don't see how any of that can be attributed to a pcv valve. Mechanically it doesn't correlate. You can cap off the pcv valve from the intake and run the car with no problems that way.

 

Sooo thought that i would post on here...let me just say that FI is an expensive mistress B****

Just got back from the shop, basically my car is staying a night there for a leak-down test to see if my block is shot...if my block is shot - fml - if the leakdown test is good then it is fuel injectors...

Cyliders 2 and 4 i am getting no fuel therefore a constant missfire....interesting thing is that it started doing that really really bloody bad after i tore everythign up and changed the sparkplugs (easy thing...right?) ....
Shop has flipped coil packs - nothing ...and a few other things ...etc...basically already racked up a 150$ bill even before the leakdown test ...
I am hoping it is the injectors cos then id also be looking for a new tune ..if thats the case id tune the crap down to 5- 6 PSI and call it a day ...
As i tell my friends i juts need this thing to get me back and froth to and from work only till next spring .... so then shell get planted back into my garage and probably gonna get the full forged treatment with time ...

 

Seems like you wired up #2 and #4 backwards.

 

how could one wire them backwards when the connectors for the coil packs only reach that far ? :S ....ionno ...guys im not looking forward to it ...

well ill get a call from the shop tomorrow once they will do a leak down test
what bothers me is the condition drastically changed once we have put everything back togeather after changing out the spark plugs ...and if the shop sais its the injectors..how the **** could the injectors go bad when we messed only with the spark side and the intake ?


I can only hope in the shop "Adrenaline Motorsports" and have my faith in them that they do a righteous job .... i am tired of those places that make a problem seem so much more complicated for the customer when in reality its something simple...just so they can charge for **** ...anwyays im done with the rant ...
wish me luck tomorrow guys ..... i got a feeling that it is the injectors and not a blown block ...hopefully..anyways knock on wood/pray for me.whataver it takes ..... ill keep updates running in this thread..

 

It's possible and it happens all the time.

Since this problem didn't start until you messed with the wiring and the two misfiring cylinders are adjacent..do the math haha

 

^^ this.

All of it.