So I have a 2004 Coupe 6MT, we swapped a JDM DE from JDM New York . The car drove about 10 miles before the swap and I drove it over to my buddy's house. So we did the swap, used old harness, swapped over Alternator, new Starter, and a few sensors (I cannot remember but so you'll see soon why). We tried to crank it and no spark, we smelled gas and heard the pump turning on so instead of shotgunning parts at the car, I took it to Nissan in December. They said the ECM was ****ed and needed a rebuild since they no longer make one, so it got stuck up there for close to a month due to the snow storm in New York around that time. So it finally came back and then they said the IDPM had a little of corrosion and they got a used one off Ebay and said that they are using their fancy scanner and they finally can get signal to the ECM....but still no spark. So they gave up on it and said that its troubling a tech that has 15 years with them. So they gave me my car back for FREE with the new ECM and IDPM and I have no idea what to do especially since the pros had no idea, so here I am. Please I've been without the car since June and I don't know what else to do. Could it possibly be in the wiring harness? Assuming that it is, would it be easier for me to buy a used engine harness or just try to find the short? I'm not the best when it comes to electrical issues. Thanks lads

 

Ok so first things first, when you swapped in the new engine I'm guessing you reused the existing flywheel. Are you 100% sure that you got the flywheel bolted on in the correct orientation, there is an alignment hole in the flywheel and the back of the crankshaft and it ABSOLUTELY MUST be in the correct position or the ECM will be getting the wrong signal from the crank position sensor (the pickup is located on the flywheel ring gear).

It's completely possible to install the flywheel in the wrong orientation, you have to visually check the alignment hole/dowel.

Did YOU ever check for spark? Fuel/spark are both triggered by the same set of parameters, if you're getting fuel into the cylinder (you smelled gas) then you were almost definitely getting spark, but it was probably off sequence if the flywheel was installed incorrectly.

Next off, if the car ran fine before the install but failed to start afterwards then the problem was NOT the ECM. Do you still have the original ECM? Since the dealership was apparently unable to program the new ECM to the BCM and NATS/IVIS then the car WILL NOT deliver fuel/spark and you will have a solid red NATS indicator light on the left side of the dash while you are trying to crank the engine.

What happens when you plug in an OBD2 scanner to the car right now? Will it connect to the ECM?

First thing to do is check for spark, remove a spark plug, put it back in the coil pack, hold the ground strap of the spark plug (hook part at the end) about 1/4" away from the intake manifold, make sure you have gloves on so you don't accidentally get zapped, have someone else crank the engine while you watch for spark. Look down in the cylinder with a flashlight and see if you can see/hear/smell it spraying fuel. If it has fuel but no spark you can ring out the electrical circuit back to the ECM to verify the wiring is intact. If you need help with wire colors when you get to that point just bump this thread again.

 

Nevermind your ECM might not be the issue, just read that they were finally able to initialize the ECM.

Do you have the original cam and crank sensors, they were working on the old engine apparently. If you don't have them do you see the tach move when you are cranking the engine over?

 

We very well could've installed the flywheel in the wrong orientation I'm not 100% sure yet, I'm going to tow it back over to my buddy's house and drop the trans and check it then. We do NOT have spark, we check every plug and grounded them on the plenum. We are getting 12V to the passenger side of the motor but there is no pulse.
When I plug in a OBD2 scanner there are NO codes. I've check it like you said and yes injectors are spraying fuel. It very well could be the flywheel issue like you said, would it even align even though that pin isn't in the right position?

 

The dowel in the crankshaft can fall out on some engines, others it's pretty tight in it's hole. If your alignment dowel fell out when removing the existing flywheel then YES you would be able to install the flywheel in any orientation. With the alignment dowel it shouldn't be possible but I have heard of situations where folks had a dowel that barely protruded or had sunk too far into the crank and would have let them set the flywheel in any orientation.

When I removed my OEM dual mass flywheel I didn't even have the alignment dowel on my rev-up engine, the hole was machined in the crank but there was no dowel, I'm almost certain it was the original OEM flywheel.

 

Also would it even spark if it was miss aligned?

 

I know it CAN because some folks have had a very rough running engine if they were only off by one bolt hole.

First thing you should do before tearing the tranny off is verify the coil pack wires are actually connected to what they're supposed to be connected to.

Each coil pack has a black wire, it should have continuity to ground. To test this take a digital multimeter and turn it to OHMS (horseshoe shape) on something like the 200 range. Now touch the two leads together and watch the meter, it will display 0 or 1, this means it's a continuous circuit, that's what you want to see when you put one lead on each harness black wire and the other lead onto the negative battery cable.

If you DO NOT have ground then something isn't plugged in somewhere, start with the two primary coil pack harnesses at the front of the engine and work your way back.

Next each coil pack has a white/blue stripe wire that goes back to the IPDM pin 17, same process to check continuity. You can also just turn the ignition to ON and just verify the white/blue stripe wire at the coil pack has 12v rather than unplugging the IPDM and ringing the wire out.



Lastly you will check continuity between each coil pack back to the ECM,

Coil 1 yellow/red stripe to ECM 62
Coil 3 blue/red stripe to ECM 61
Coil 5 purple/white stripe to ECM 60

Coil 2 green/red stripe to ECM 81
Coil 4 grey wire no stripe to ECM 80
Coil 6 grey/red stripe to ECM 79

It's easier to have a second person to help with this one, get a length of wire that will reach from the ECM up into the engine bay and have your helper probe the harness on the ECM with the wire while you use the meter in the engine bay. You will want to make sure the battery is disconnected because you need to unplug the ECM harness for this one.



So to recap, unplug one coil pack, turn the ignition to ON, check for ground continuity on the black wire, check for 12v on the white/blue stripe wire. If you don't have those two then something is definitely unplugged. If you DO have ground and 12v then disconnect the battery and check continuity on each coil pack back to the ECM.

If you have ground but you don't have 12v then it's probably just the fuse 77 (15amp) in the IPDM or your ECM relay isn't functioning properly.

 

^^^

Hmm

No reply yet!
Wonder if he got it fixed yet?
They come here with a problem and sometimes never return.

 

No, I was in the process of moving and it’s still at my parents house. I’ll keep you lads updated. I really do appreciate the advice and help a ton 😇

 

ok good
Enjoy the move
I had two dealers try to figure out why my almost new 1958 Ford back in 1960 would not start in rainy or damp weather. They couldn't!
I replaced points, plugs, distributor cap,rotor, ignition wires,
After 6 months of aggravation and being late many times in my senior year of HS, I finally got rid of it and never bought another Ford product

Good luck

 

Telco if I had to make a random guess about that old Ford issue I would say battery, atmospheric pressure drop messing with the specific gravity of the battery water causing a drop in system voltage. It was probably right on the tipping point of being bad but only when atmospheric pressure dropped.

 

My first vehicle, that 1958 Ford pisses me off to this day as that experience was over 60 years ago while I was still a senior in HS. I saved for five years delivering newspapers in Queens NY.
The problem was not the battery because the vehicle would crank rapidly but not start in damp or rainy weather. No spark but would smell gas after a short cranking time. I neglected to mention that the coil was also replaced. I suspect that the original coil as well as the replacement had a defective seal against moisture in the secondary of the high voltage winding?
If I still had the vehicle I would send it to you.
My next vehicle after I got rid of that Ford was a 1940 Pontiac which is another long story.
It has been a very long road to my first Infiniti