R33 When Cold Shakes Badly And Has No Power

[R33_SII_97MSPEC]

Hi,

I have a R33 Series 2, fairly stock apart from full 3inch exhaust, cold air pod and running 9 pounds boost.

Car was running fine up until a week ago, i was driving home from work and all of a sudden it felt like I'd lost a cylinder. Car started to shake, sounded like a Subaru and lacked power. This happened after about 4 minutes of driving, the car had been off for about 9 hours previous (so it was a cold start). I was on a busy road at the time and couldn't immediately pull over so drove for a further 1 or so minutes and pulled over, whilst in the process of pulling over the car came good again as though nothing had happened. Continued home - a further 40 minutes or so with no problems.

Since, every time I drive the car from a cold start after about 3-7minutes I get the same issue - once warm no problems at all.

I've tried the following so far:

- change the spark plugs, no different

- Checked the coil packs (Yellow Jacket coils that have done about 20,000KM's since i put them in). No noticeable signs of any damage that I could see

- Removed and cleaned the AFM with contact cleaner. Idle is a lot better (used to jump / spike at times) which it hasn't done for the last day or two since I cleaned the AFM

Issue still remains. I'm handy and willing to tackle this but don't really have the knowledge of what I should be looking at next. I've done a lot of searching around and reading but can't really find anything quite the same. As the issue disappears again after a a couple of minutes it says to me that it isn't a spark problem? Sometimes it will happen, last for a minute or two, go away for a minute or two and then start happening again for a further minute or two.

Some sort of loose connection? But why only when it is cold?

I'd be really happy to hear any suggestions on what I should look at next? I'm also quite stuck as the car is my only mode of getting to work and I'm worried I'm going to do some damage if I can't repair this quickly.

I'm in the south east of Melbourne and will go to a mechanic if I really need to.

Sorry for the long post.....

Thanks,

Dean

[AngryRB]

vacumn leaks can be worse when cars cold because its leaning out at the time it needs to be rich, check clamps and hoses and around intake manifold

[R33_SII_97MSPEC]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check this out tonight a bit more closely and see what I can find - if anything.

Does anyone have a breakdown of the steps that the skyline goes through as it warms up, as this issue is only present when cold I'm guessing that there is a part that is only used at these low temps or the faulty part changes in use as the engine warms up. Does that make sense? I don't know whether such info exists or not, I'm grasping at straws maybe....!

Any other ideas I'd be keen to hear.

[Moodles2]

Faulty coolant temp sensor maybe, it could be reporting the engine being warmer than it actually is, so leaves cold start enrichment too early.

[meatball]

My car did similar things when i blew the head gasket.

[R33_SII_97MSPEC]

Faulty coolant temp sensor maybe, it could be reporting the engine being warmer than it actually is, so leaves cold start enrichment too early.

Last night i unplugged the coolant temp sensor and took it for a test drive this morning, I did not experience the issue for the first time in the last week or two. I'll go for another test drive tonight once the car has cooled down again and see how it goes.

I'm really hoping it isn't the head gasket, because that's a very expensive repair isn't?

[meatball]

Yeah it is. Unless the car is loosing water its probably not the head gasket

[AngryRB]

dirty fuel filter? injectors? some bad fuel or water/crap in tank? old fuel pump?

[KiwiRS4T]

Good chance its that coolant sensor. If you unplug it ecu uses a default map and works pretty much ok.

[naga]

I had this exact same problem. It was the yellow jackets. Hard to diagnose coz it only happens in a 2 minute window and then gets dissapears. I installed nissan data scan and did an active test switched off cylinders until i found the one which wasn't firing. Swapped out that coil pack with a stock one, problem gone.

[R33_SII_97MSPEC]

I had this exact same problem. It was the yellow jackets. Hard to diagnose coz it only happens in a 2 minute window and then gets dissapears. I installed nissan data scan and did an active test switched off cylinders until i found the one which wasn't firing. Swapped out that coil pack with a stock one, problem gone.

Thanks, I'll organise the purchase of datascan and check this out. For a 'standard' person is the software easy enough to use?

I'm also going to replace the coolant temp sensor, they are very cheap and seems an easy thing to do.

Can you purchase coil packs separately? If it is just one coil pack that is faulty.