Help thread for my CA18DET project

[livelyjay]

Car: 1987 Nissan Pulsar
Engine: CA18DET fully rebuilt, 100 miles on it
Turbo: Slightly larger than T25, but not as big as a T28.


I swapped the engine into the car myself. The factory wiring harness is nearly identical to the JDM engine, but the ECUs are different with different plugs. Hindsight is 20/20, I should have run with the factory ECU at first. Instead I followed an online guide and swapped wires between ECU plugs one wire at a time. The car ran, but it won't idle. I opened the throttle plate a bit so I could at least drive the thing. I put about 100 miles on it before I took it off the road to do things the right way. I'm new to pretty much all of this. I have a general knowledge of cars and how the engine works, but not so much the inner workings of timing, fuel injection, timing advance, etc. I purchased "Performance Fuel Injection Systems HP1557" and I'll start reading it when it arrives on Wednesday. My JimStimX should be here by mid-week so I can test out the MS3X expansion card and make sure my fuel injector drivers are working correctly. Tonight I'm going to setup the MS3 to use the regular injector output and see if it's working with my regular JimStim. I troubleshot the entire fuel driver circuit and it appears to be working correctly but some of the instructions are vague.

My MS3 is built and from what I can tell configured for my engine and the Nissan CAS. I haven't done the wiring on the actual CAS yet because I'm not that far along yet.



QUESTION #1
The assembly instructions said to install a capacitor on H1-BOOT, which is right next to the 40 pin header. I wasn't sure, but I installed it any ways. Is this correct?


QUESTION #2
The troubleshooting instructions for the injector driver aren't perfectly clear on Q1 and Q5, nor on Pin 5 of U4.
Pins 21 and 22 hooked to Ground
Injector LEDs light up on the JimStim
Pin 4 not grounded
Pin 5 = 2.5 volts

Pins 21 and 22 hooked to Ground
Injector LEDs light up on the JimStim
Pin 4 grounded
Pin 5 = 2.5 volts

Pins 21 and 22 hooked to Ground
Injector LEDs light up on the JimStim
Q1/Q5 Pin 1 = 11 volts
Q1/Q5 Pin 2 = 0 volts

Pins 21 and 22 hooked to Nothing
Injector LEDs off on the JimStim
Q1/Q5 Pin 1 = 0 volts
Q1/Q5 Pin 2 = 3.6 volts

Is this correct?

[livelyjay]

*** bump ***

Back to my original thread as I started hi-jacking someone else's. I'm once again starting to dig back into this project. A lot has changed with the FW since I started this thread too.

Plan: Use the factory Nissan crank angle sensor, coil on plug, low impedance injectors with resistor pack.
Current Status: Added jumpers for CAN and Steppers, put MS3 back together, loaded FW 1.4, began going through start up guide. I'd like to get this thing in the car and at least powered and possibly starting the car by the end of the month.

Current Wiring Diagram


Question 1: Where can I find a base fuel and timing map (CA18DET or SR20DET)? There are some here but it's for MS2 PNP http://www.megasquirtpnp.com/mspnp2_maps.php. Does it matter?
Question 2: Idle Valve - My valve is a 2 wire and is supposed to see 12v on startup and between 7 and 11 volts after warm. What settings should I use in Tuner Studio?
Question 3: Cold Start Valve - There is a secondary idle valve called the air regulator for cold starts. It see no voltage for 5 seconds after start, then it sees 12v all the time. How do I set this up to work correctly?
Question 4: I also have the need to drive a vacuum pump to engage secondary intake runners. What would I use to drive that? I was thinking PWM for idle valve, IDLE for my cold start valve, and VVT for the vacuum pump. Not sure that can work.
Question 5: Since the Nissan CAS is hooked up to TACH-IN and PT4, do I need to connect anything to CAM-IN (MS3X pin 27), CRANK (MS3 pin 2), CRANK Ground (MS3 pin 1), or CRANK (MS3 pin 25)?

[Matt Cramer]

The assembly instructions said to install a capacitor on H1-BOOT, which is right next to the 40 pin header. I wasn't sure, but I installed it any ways. Is this correct?

Yes.

The troubleshooting instructions for the injector driver aren't perfectly clear on Q1 and Q5...

If you get the injector lights on when pins 21 and 22 are grounded, and off when they're not, you're good to go.

Question 1: Where can I find a base fuel and timing map?

Base maps are overrated - follow the steps in the MS3 setting up manual, and they should get you an OK starting point.

Question 2: Idle Valve - My valve is a 2 wire and is supposed to see 12v on startup and between 7 and 11 volts after warm. What settings should I use in Tuner Studio?

PWM.

Question 3: Cold Start Valve - There is a secondary idle valve called the air regulator for cold starts. It see no voltage for 5 seconds after start, then it sees 12v all the time. How do I set this up to work correctly?

You can probably get away with running it full time on 12 volts.

Question 4: I also have the need to drive a vacuum pump to engage secondary intake runners. What would I use to drive that? I was thinking PWM for idle valve, IDLE for my cold start valve, and VVT for the vacuum pump. Not sure that can work.

Any unused mid-current or injector output.

Question 5: Since the Nissan CAS is hooked up to TACH-IN and PT4, do I need to connect anything to CAM-IN (MS3X pin 27), CRANK (MS3 pin 2), CRANK Ground (MS3 pin 1), or CRANK (MS3 pin 25)?

I'd use the crank ground as the CAS sensor ground.

[livelyjay]

Thanks for answering my questions. I updated my wiring diagram. Please review and let me know if I'm on the right track (note the changes to MS3 crank wires, MS3X VVT, MS3X IDLE, and air regulator valve).

[pcaudell]

Did your set up work for you? I'm working on a vg30dett. Ignition settings and wiring should be similar. I've about given up on setting it up with the jimstim, couldn't get it to sync. I think I'll go straight to the car.

[livelyjay]

Life got in the way again. I'll try and get some work done this winter but no promises. You are correct that JimStim doesn't help much for the early Nissan configurations. I really only used mine just as a proof of concept that the board was functioning.