Quick update.
Traced the engine harness to confirm everything connects back to right places on the ecu. It does, with a couple of not so important exceptions.
Traced the CAN H/L lines across to the obd plug. Found a short, thought eureka, fixed it, but no, thats not my problem.
I'm trying to connect to the ecu via k-line (pin 7 in your obd connector using nissan datascan), so it meant nothing and I still couldn't get it to talk. Infuriating!
Broke out the soldering iron, made a complete bench harness for the ecu. Plugged it into my pc with the ecu and obd cable, and it worked. Put my lap top on to check it that way and it didn't go.
wtf.
This was the 4th computer I tried, and 3 different cables, but finally a break through. The bloody laptops were pretending to talk to the cables but weren't. Couldn't believe it!
However when I took it back to the car with the pc, it didn't go.
wtf, again.
Researching the k-line network, its a star topology, typically every module is wired to a single point. If the voltage is off, chances are one of the modules connected has a short. The multimeter said it was a little low... but the FSM for it is a little vague on what it really should be.
Testing this I found that if I disconnected every module I could reach except the ecu, I could talk to the ecu with my pc. Getting somewhere...
With more testing I found that if either the body control module or the AT control module are attached, no dice. So either they are both shorted or there is just something wrong with the way they are set up out of the factory.
There is a shit nest of aftermarket japanese radio / highway card wiring in the way, its tapped into fuses and shite... thats coming out next to see if this is causing it. I found a blown fuse behind one of the taps, maybe it is.
But at least I've been able to confirm the ecu will take uprev as I could see the serial number in the ROM. I also know a lot more about the wiring in a V35 than I really care to.
Only took 10 months of stuffing around to get this far. Should be easy from here.
LOL.