I am supposed to be entering my car for SVA on Tuesday and I am having the devils own job in getting it to run.

I have noticed that plugs 1&4 are very sooty after running and 2&3 are clean.

I spent a long time sorting out the connections to the coil pack (Ecotec) so that all 4 plugs are sparking but this still seems to occur. Now the engine wont run at all and the MSnSE ECU is getting very warm when the ignition is on.

Not even sure what I am supposed to be asking here just that I know something is very wrong and I don't know what to do.

If anybody has info on the basic settings for a XE running 60-2 wheel with GSXR TBs I would be very grateful for some sensible and simple suggestions.

Steve

How clean is your soldering in the cable head?

Some of the injector wires sit directly behind the earth wires so if you have a little blob of something or a stray couple of strands of wire you may be earthing one set of injectors full time.

I had this, car was fine until bolted and tied everything done and dislodged something, I now have a slip of plastic pushed between both rows of pins just in case.

Regards Mark

NB/ I convinced myself it was a transitor breaking down so replaced all the output elements om the board ! Just wished I had had a good wiggle first now.

After having some injectors that appeared fine with a good spay and having had a similar situation to yours with the sooty plugs thats cured after swapping the injectors for another set i'd advise you to try:

Swapping the injectors of 1 sooty and 1 good cylinder

Checking the throttles are balanced

Swapping the plugs on effected cylinders

If you've got access to a high temperature thermometer checking the exhaust manifold temperatures over the cylinders.

Your injectors are TB mounted to so the incoming airflow and butterfly positions might have more of a influence on the mixture in yours, as ours at low rpm is port injection

[Edited on 20/5/08 by yamapinto]

Not sure about my soldering, could easily be the problem. However, I now have bigger problems as I can't get a spark at all now and the connectors to the coilpack are all showing a voltage so I suspect I have fried the coilpack, is that a possibility?

The coil pack is also of cause a common link between the plugs that are sooty and clean.


How have you wired the coil pack up?
I think the earlier wiring diagrams showed the coil pack connected to the ignition live, this leaves it charged and live should you forget to switch off the ignition or doing various tests and fault finding.

Its better to wire it to the fuel pump output (of the relay) so the coil pack is only charged when the engine is cranking or running.

Well it was wired to a switched live and I had the ignition on for a while to look at the settings so it could have cooked I suppose. I take it that this means a new coilpack then, poo.

We've had a coil pack pretty hot before by leaving the ignition on and I believe it still works (can't remember if we swapped it out anyway).

Unfortunately I think it does damage to the coil drivers instead Does it spark on any cylinder now?

Nope, no spark at all. Surely not new VB921's? Where do I get them from?

They pop up occasionally on ebay.

If there's no spark at all check there's:

+12v to the center coil pack switch when the ignitions on.

When cranking Megasquirt is pulsing a -ve down the two outer coil pack connections.

IF the above is there then its more likely to be the coil pack thats at fault.
I'm not sure what it would show but you could test the resistance from the centre pin of the coil pack connector to outer pins and see if the resistance is different as they should be the same.

They pop up occasionally on ebay.

If there's no spark at all check there's:

+12v to the center coil pack switch when the ignitions on.

When cranking Megasquirt is pulsing a -ve down the two outer coil pack connections.

IF the above is there then its more likely to be the coil pack thats at fault.
I'm not sure what it would show but you could test the resistance from the centre pin of the coil pack connector to outer pins and see if the resistance is different as they should be the same.