Superlight S13 - No 56K!

You should look at my last post that says to test your ignition chip and CAS. Its really easy to test the CAS. Pull it, the coil packs, and spark plugs. Plug the spark plugs into your coil packs and the coil packs back into your harness. Turn car on and ground each plug. Now plug your CAS back into the harness and spin the gear. Watch each plug to see if any fire. Also listen for clicks from the injectors. If there is no spark, and no clicks then its a good chance your CAS is bad, or your not getting a signal to it or from it. If your injectors click but no spark. Then its a good chance your ignition chip isnt sending a signal, or the CAS isnt processing it correctly.

Also, the wires to the CAS are shielded. The shielding is grounded, and if it has been cut and or touching a bare spot in a signal wire. Then youll be hunting for a long time for a break. I know this from experience because it happened to me with my ka-t and my now sr20.

I checked the ignition system over last week which was partly how I came to the conclusion of a bad ECU.

I followed this post on zilvia and ran a battery of tests. http://zilvia.net/f/tech-talk/390737-another-sr20det-no-spark-help-please.html#post4109383

I have good +12V and ground at both the coil packs and the CAS. Even with the ECU getting +12v switched and hot I didn't have any signs of life. No fuel pump trigger output, no switched ground for the coil packs, injectors not firing with the fuel pump running, relay bypassed.

I will work on the ignition system some more when the new ECU arrives. For now I am tearing into the chassis harness and removing all unused wires.

Did you pull codes from the ecu you have? Having 12V and ground at the CAS doesnt mean its working properly. You need to test if its sending a signal. If theres no signal then nothing will fire. If you somehow grounded it to the shielding then it wont send either. Pull the codes real fast to see what its saying. It may throw a bad ecu code. But if not it then youll at least have a better direction to go towards. Instead of squirrel hunting in the arctic.

The ECU's LED wasn't working at all, no matter what I tried. I checked every pin that needed power and they all had a good connection. The ECU had no signs of life at all, so I sent it back for a replacement. No light, no codes.

12V at the coils doesn't mean much. The ECU opens a closes a ground via the ignitor chip because you get a faster response with power being present all of the time versus trying to very rapidly shoot a full 12V through the coil. So even though there is power present at the coil you could still have a bad CAS or IGN. because they control the opening and closing of the ground. Since you were able to get a replacement ECU at no cost it certainly does not hurt to wait until that show up and give it a whirl. Good Luck.

Small update.

God I love my new prime lens on this T2i.



Pulled a ton of wiring out today. Most of this was accessory related, not much else I can pull.



Also got my new tires mounted and received my techflex in the mail.





Following unused wires from the engine bay into the cabin.

Only 225s in the rear?? I couldn't go anywhere but sideways on 225s with the RB, let alone the LS.

Ha. Wish I had that problem.

I'm running 255 Kuhmo XS's with a stockish SR...225's may not be enough man.

The RS3's are great though, we run them on the roommates 302i. I love the level of grip and the fact that they dont get greasy even after dual driving them in 90 degree weather with no break in between heats.

I have 7.5 width Z32 NA wheels all around and going wider than a 225 isn't going to offer much benefit on such a skinny wheel.

If I need more traction later I will have an R compound wrapped around a 17x9 or wider wheel.

where did you order your techflex from?

The seller "furry letters" on ebay.

While tugging on a wire I found that the car is easy enough for me to roll around on flat ground with one single finger, and this is with the engine and trans installed.

Just for fun I grabbed a single 22ga. speaker wire coming out of the driver's side door and rolled the car back and forth in the garage. This is in almost ready to run curb weight, with the drivetrain and seats in, exhaust yet to be installed.

Did you remove the sound deading material as well. The old Dry Ice trick? there is a little more wieght there if you haven't.

I took care of most of the sound deadening a few years ago. Dry ice for the big stuff, gasoline for the smaller pieces. Works great.

The deeper I tear into the car the more I realize how lucky I am. The shell is 95% rust free and hasn't been modified at all. It makes this so much easier!

Now time to get some more wiring done.

More wire chopping. My cluster, headlights, tail lights, and hazards all work properly. For some reason the only thing I can't comprehend out of all of the wiring in the car is the turn signals.

The signals work fine with the hazards, but not with the switch. I ended up following the green/black and green/yellow wires from the switch itself through several junctions out to the signals and I am baffled.

Anyway, people like pictures.

This is the minimum you need to run the car and have basic exterior lights. Nothing more.



Sleeved the coil pack harness.

Very nice! you are far more patient than I would be with all of that.

s13.240sx wrote:

Very nice! you are far more patient than I would be with all of that.

I'm impressed by how quickly he is going through all of it, very well done!

^^ i know. i almost want to pay him to finish my car. haha.

Completely agree!

You make insane progress man.

I have midterms coming up here and work full time so I have my excuses, but even if I didn't, I can surely say there is no way I would be trucking along with your speed and determination.

I also really like the fact that you do everything right the first time, makes for an enjoyable build thread.

Can't wait to see her done.

Thanks for the good words guys.

I have a mountain of homework to do along side this, but you know... I'll get to that later. I'm in my last semester here at TC in GB. When I'm done here I'm looking for a four year to major in Mech. E. That's when the really cool parts get made.

Also, I am not doing the tuck because I intend to slam the car. I am doing this to simplify the harness and reduce weight, two very important fundamentals on this car.

Funny you say that, mechanical engineering is my major here at UW. I still have about 2 years left but you are right, get to do solid works, cad, create your own billet cnc creations, program the water jet cutters and mess with 3d imaging straight to product. So you get to take a picture of something, then the machine turns it into a part...so sick. That is just the tip of the iceberg, your materials science class teaches you all about composites and plastics that makes carbon fiber look like a joke. You will love ME, you have the right mindset for it.

Good to know. I'm looking forward to it.

I threw the coil pack harness on and it fits like a glove. I surprise myself sometimes.





Did some more digging and found that this relay, which used to sit in the driver's side S13 relay box is only needed for the heater blower motor. So I chopped it out. The relay bank is now entirely eliminated.



Driver's side fender wiring. This is getting thinner, and I am getting closer to driving this little monster. The plan is to eliminate the wiring crossover by the radiator.

If the ECU was here the car should be almost ready to run right now. Still need to wire up the ECU +12v switched power relay and the fuel pump relay.



Depinned the ECU connector of the pins I am not using. This was really just to do the work properly and keep it clean. Most of these pins were either for the consult or AC related.





I am still debating whether I should keep the stock fuse box or not. It mounts up like factory, and it's a nice unit. I could make it more simple if I went my own way with a different unit though.

Also still thinking about what style I will do my fiberglass hood in. Should I go super light with a large mesh opening in the middle, or keep it stock style and just work with that....

And of course there is the fuel tank and the spare tire well. There is an easy 15-20 pounds to be lost there (Huge steel tank!), I just have to decide what I am going to do with it.

ur def. in a class of ur own man love the dedication ur putting in man. great look and good function

You eliminated the entire driver side relay box? Id go back and check your diagrams, cause im pretty sure your headlight relay is located over there. But if your running your own switch for the lights then you should be fine.

And its cool that your going for ME, good luck finding a job after tho. Hopefully the economy will be better at that point. Ive been a mech eng. the past 2 years and its fun, but in an office theres a lot more to it than just making models and drawings to send out. A little word of advice for you, get a summer internship to help you out with finding a job after school.

Looks good man.

theboy wrote:

You eliminated the entire driver side relay box? Id go back and check your diagrams, cause im pretty sure your headlight relay is located over there. But if your running your own switch for the lights then you should be fine.

And its cool that your going for ME, good luck finding a job after tho. Hopefully the economy will be better at that point. Ive been a mech eng. the past 2 years and its fun, but in an office theres a lot more to it than just making models and drawings to send out. A little word of advice for you, get a summer internship to help you out with finding a job after school.

You're harshin my buzz man.