Is My Car Hydrolocked?

[nizmo_freek]

Long story short, i have been returning my car back to stock so i can sell it.

Dont ask why but i had to remove 1 of the injectors while it was still in the fuel rail, the fuel rail still had a bit of fuel in it, i took out the number 1 injector and fuel poured into cyl number 1, i didnt think that much had gotten in there so i though "she'll be right" (could be the biggest mistake ive made??), and left it sitting there for about a week.

Went to start the car about 3days ago and it the motor wouldnt turn over at all, so took the spark plug out of cyl 1 and sure enough it had alot of fuel sitting in there, so got the air gun and blew it all out and poured in a little bit of oil, put spark back in and it wouldnt turn over again, so took all the spark plugs out and cranked it over, it turned over fine so i put everything back on and started it up and it started straight away.

I have been trying to fix a fueling problem (car runs way way too rich and surges/stalls and fouls up the plugs big time) which im pretty sure was due too me installing the injectors by only putting a slight coating of crc 2.26 on the o-rings, hence pinching the o-ring and causing my fuel problems.

So i removed the injectors and reinstalled them using vaseline, which felt 100 times better when pushing the injector in the rail, they just popped straight in.

I got up this morning and had plans to take my car out and test if it was still having the same problems, but now i have new ones.

The motor will not turn over at all with the spark plugs in it, i have the CAS and injectors disconnected and the car is hooked up to a car charger, the starte motor just sits there clicking trying to turn the motor, but as soon as i remove all the spark plugs and try to crank it over again it turns over perfectly, put the sparks back in and same problems again.

It just will not turn over unless it has no compression (no spark plugs) , im totally pissed that i cant get this going as i need to get my car up for sale, have been trying to get my car running for about 1month now and all i am getting is problems!

What is causing this? and how do i fix it, is it even fixable at all???

Any help would be very much appreciated

Thanks

Jason

Edited October 25, 2008 by nizmo_freek

[MBS206]

Is the motor turning over slightly slowly with the spark plugs out, or more so, is it turning over at about the same rate as when it normally does when spark plugs are in?

With no spark plugs in, the car should crank over very quickly (Alot quicker then when plugs are in) it sounds like you have a flat battery.

Try to jump start the car from another car that is running.

[nizmo_freek]

Is the motor turning over slightly slowly with the spark plugs out, or more so, is it turning over at about the same rate as when it normally does when spark plugs are in?

With no spark plugs in, the car should crank over very quickly (Alot quicker then when plugs are in) it sounds like you have a flat battery.

Try to jump start the car from another car that is running.

Yea it would turn over quickly without the plugs in, i have had it sitting on a car charger for about 4hours now.

I just went to start it up before and it started fine , but have just been driving for about 10mins and the car is an absolute peice of shit to drive, it surges like hell , you can have your foot on the accelator and keep it in one position and it will sit there stuttering, and then it stalled when i put the clutch in coming up to a corner, so pulled over to the side of the road and tried to start it up, tried abount 5 times and nothing, called my mate to come give me a tow, so tried it again and it decided to start up?

Im completly stummped as to what the problem is, i just check one of the spark plugs anf they seem to look pretty normall'ish now, still looks like its running a bit too rich though.

It sounds like a vaccum leak but i cant find i have checked all the hoses and clamps and cant seem to find any problems.

Might just take it to nissan and get them to sort it out

Edited October 25, 2008 by nizmo_freek

[MBS206]

Throw it on the charger all after noon, and all night, try start her up tomorrow around lunch time.

Sounds like a low battery issue...

Maybe the alternator is on it's way out?

And when you say it runs really rich, how badly do you mean? Constantly blowing black smoke etc? What's your fuel economy like?

[hojak]

Is the motor turning over slightly slowly with the spark plugs out, or more so, is it turning over at about the same rate as when it normally does when spark plugs are in?

With no spark plugs in, the car should crank over very quickly (Alot quicker then when plugs are in) it sounds like you have a flat battery.

Try to jump start the car from another car that is running.

What MBS206 said. Some battery chargers only have slow charging capabilities, could take all day just to get enough crank over slowly with your plugs in.

[KiwiRS4T]

What MBS206 said. Some battery chargers only have slow charging capabilities, could take all day just to get enough crank over slowly with your plugs in.

An auto electrician should be able to check while you wait:

Starter Motor (excessive current draw = on way out)

Alternator - measure output

Battery - with tester.

[MBS206]

An auto electrician should be able to check while you wait:

Starter Motor (excessive current draw = on way out)

Alternator - measure output

Battery - with tester.

A starter motor is designed to draw high current, it'll draw huge current if it can't turn the motor, as the starter initially acts as a short circuit, and if it doesn't start turning, then it doesn't build it's own resistance, hence, you've got a short circuit and huge current draw, but the starter is a-okay...

[some_cs_student]

I just went to start it up before and it started fine , but have just been driving for about 10mins and the car is an absolute peice of shit to drive, it surges like hell , you can have your foot on the accelator and keep it in one position and it will sit there stuttering, and then it stalled when i put the clutch in coming up to a corner, so pulled over to the side of the road and tried to start it up, tried abount 5 times and nothing, called my mate to come give me a tow, so tried it again and it decided to start up?

I had a similar issue in a *different* car, an R31, the car would run fine for a while, then it would surge and stutter and stop running.

I found that the dash voltage gauge was very low, but when rev'ed over about 3K RPM it would go back to normal, the alternator was actually self-exciting at that RPM.

The problem in the end was a globe in the dash which controls the alternator, if the globe doesn't turn off (globe was blown) the alternator doesn't turn on (unfortunately I bought a new alternator and returned it before finding out).

BUT if it was your alternator I wouldn't expect your car to start by itself later as the battery would have been pretty drained....

[MBS206]

Just thought I'd add too...

Even if it's full of fuel, it's not hydrolocked...

Hydro, means water...

[nizmo_freek]

Just thought I'd add too...

Even if it's full of fuel, it's not hydrolocked...

Hydro, means water...

Yup i know, just wasnt sure what it was called when it is full of fuel and wont turn over lol.

Anyway, it started up fine a couple of hours ago after it had been on the charger for a while, but was still having the major stuttering/surging and stalling problems.

I have it on the charger now and will leave it on over night, will start it up tommorow morning just to check if it starts up fine again.

Im thinking that either somthing electrical is causing my problems or there is a vaccum leak somewhere that i cant find, could possibly be a faulty afm or 02 sensor aswell.

All i have done is remove my hks turbo,power fc and boost control kit,injectors,z32 afm , and returned everything back to stock.

Have checked that the boost solenoid was hooked up correctly, have made sure the injector o-rings are seating properly and not leaking fuel when there is pressure in the rail, made sure i wired the standard afm back up correcty but will check again in the morning, have installed standard turbo and intake pipe/bov return setup which was working fine when my car was running the standard ecu ages ago, am also using all the same hoses and clamps on my intercooler piping that i was using when my car was runnign 270rwkw.

So im pretty stumped as to what could be causing it, maybe the 02sensor has decided to die right now just to be a pain the ass but highly unlikely, will unplugg tomorow and see if it makes a diffrence.

Anyway i will keep working on it to see if i can source the problem, if i cant then i will get nissan to take a look at it (More money down the drain, not good when im trying to save for a gtr lol).

Any more ideas would be great

Cheers

Edited October 25, 2008 by nizmo_freek

[The Dan]

Get a new battery and re-wire your AFM....

oh and don't do stupid stuff like pour fuel into cylinders...or oil for that matter. Can anyone say 'bent rod'

And a pinched o ring on an injector will not cause it to deliver more fuel - think about it

[The Dan]

Just thought I'd add too...

Even if it's full of fuel, it's not hydrolocked...

Hydro, means water...

Should I drain all of the oil out of the hydraulic ram and motor in my hoist at work? Are they supposed to run water?

[FineLine]

Should I drain all of the oil out of the hydraulic ram and motor in my hoist at work? Are they supposed to run water?

I'll back my arteisan boar against your hydraulic ram.

[nizmo_freek]

Get a new battery and re-wire your AFM....

oh and don't do stupid stuff like pour fuel into cylinders...or oil for that matter. Can anyone say 'bent rod'

And a pinched o ring on an injector will not cause it to deliver more fuel - think about it

If you actually read the my original post you would see that when i took one of the injectors out that is how the fuel got into the cylinder, who the hell would pour fuel into a cylinder anyway , and the only reason i put a bit of oil in the cylinder that had the fuel in it was because the fuel had been sitting in there for a weak, surely that would affect or even eat some of the oil around the piston, hence putting in a little bit of oil to try and lubricate it.

And no and pinched injector will not cause the injector to deliver more fuel, but it will cause the injector to seal incorrectly against the fuel rail and cause a massive fuel leak when the fuel system/rail is pressurised, fuel gets past the bottom o-ring and leaks/sprays (depending on how bad the leak is) into the cylinder, trust me, i have done it once before when i installed my nismo injectors for the 1st time, was a $400 mistake as my turner had it fix it before the car was tuned!

Anyway, the injectors obviously arent the problem anymore, so im still looking for helpfull answers.

Cheers

Edited October 25, 2008 by nizmo_freek

[MBS206]

Should I drain all of the oil out of the hydraulic ram and motor in my hoist at work? Are they supposed to run water?

Hydro VS Hydraulic... I see mechanics can be pretty thick some times hey?

Back OT: HOW did you do the joins on the AFM? Did you just do some nice "twist and tape" or did you properly solder them and heat shrink them?

I'd also be pulling all of the inlet piping off that you've touched, and put it all back on. THEN, check it's all tight.

[nizmo_freek]

Hydro VS Hydraulic... I see mechanics can be pretty thick some times hey?

Back OT: HOW did you do the joins on the AFM? Did you just do some nice "twist and tape" or did you properly solder them and heat shrink them?

I'd also be pulling all of the inlet piping off that you've touched, and put it all back on. THEN, check it's all tight.

I solderd all the connections on the afm and put a peice of heatshrink on each join, then taped them all up so there is no way they could be touching eachother or come loose, unless one of the joins and broken and is only making contact sometimes, one thing i did notice when i wired up my z32 afm ages ago was that one of the afm loom wires had a sheilded wire on it, i cant completly remember how it was hooked up, so at the moment i just have the wire that is sheilded joined to the wire from the afm, the sheilded part is just wrapped arounded the outside of the wiring and isnt actually "wired" to any of the connections i have made, lol sorry that probly makes no sense at all, hard to explain.

Anyway i disconnected the 02sensor before and it made the car feel worse, so have plugged that back in, also tried swapping my standard coils with my splitfire coils that i was previously using and that made no difference at all

Im 99% sure all the clamps are tight as i usually tripple check everything i have done, but might just check everything over again just to be sure.

Its a very weird problem, your driving then all of a sudden the car starts stuttering (feels like it hits a brick wall) then it will usually feel like it has no throttle at all, like you put your foot down at nothing happens at all, then the revs will drop right down and the car will stall, it wont start up for atleast 3-5times then it will decided to start, i havent touched any tps wiring so dont think it will be anything to do with that.

Might go out into the garage later and check the afm wiring again, but i really cant be stuffed, sick of trying things over and over , if i cant fix it by tuesday then it will be going into nissan for them to look at it.

Edited October 25, 2008 by nizmo_freek

[jeffworld2]

if you still have power fc, set injectors back to 100 and see if it runs at all. Can also do a sensor check with the fc

[nizmo_freek]

if you still have power fc, set injectors back to 100 and see if it runs at all. Can also do a sensor check with the fc

Na , sold the power fc a couple of weeks ago, nice timing aye lol

[blind_elk]

Just thought I'd add too...

Even if it's full of fuel, it's not hydrolocked...

Hydro, means water...

Actually, the term is "hydraulicked".

Anyway, if the battery needs to be on a charger, then it's rooted. That would also explain the crap running.

Skylines are notoriously sensitive to voltages and charge rates. Give it the PC equivalent of the 3-fingered salute (Alt-Ctrl-Del) - put a new battery in it.

[The Dan]

Hydro VS Hydraulic... I see mechanics can be pretty thick some times hey?

Back OT: HOW did you do the joins on the AFM? Did you just do some nice "twist and tape" or did you properly solder them and heat shrink them?

I'd also be pulling all of the inlet piping off that you've touched, and put it all back on. THEN, check it's all tight.

I don't even know what you are but I can see you must be equally as thick. Anyone who knows what they are doing knows not to solder ECU wires. You are supposed to use proper terminal crimps because soldering the wire makes it brittle and it can break.

And BTW, Both Hydraulic and Hydro are based from the same Greek and Latin words which mean water but because we don't speak either of these languages, the base root of the word has evolved to mean 'liquid'

So Hydraulic Lock is the correct term for use in that situation