bench testing ka24e engine

[brock sampson]

Hey everyone

So, first off I want to thank NICO for the vast amount of help. I am very grateful for all the info available on here. This is my first post, as I have pretty much picked through all this for about a month and am still a little short. I am hoping this last little problem is obvious and im just missing something right under my nose. Ok, its probably not easy. so I will break it down as best I can:

GOAL
I am throwing this ka24e s13 engine into a kit car which will be built later to fit the engine best.

PROGRESS
I have gone through the whole engine and replaced all seals, gaskets, and cleaned the crap out of it. I have the wiring harness and all vacuum stuff on there. no smog stuff however, I did keep the SCV selenoid opperational. I have wired up the ecu and harness from the battery using switches, the fuse links, and wiring I laid down. I am not using any body harnesses because I am limiting the system to engine-only necessities and will ultimately not use any. I am currently able to crank it over and power up the relays and sometimes an ecu. This is where the problem lies.

MY WIRING
Going from the positive terminal I have a lead going straight to a switch and then the two fuse links, one brown 25A the other green 30A. From the brown fuse: red power connects to the two red lines going into the eccs relay, then all three are coupled into the red wire in the big grey plug on the harness (dont know its technical term). Same as for the other relay wires: B/W to B/W and R/B to R/B in grey plug.

The B/W and P/W wire on the fuel pump relay couple to the green fuse which is power. Except there is no P/W wire its actually LP/B. I think the diagram was labelled wrong. Then the B/P wire goes to the B/P in the brown plug off the harness next to the grey plug. finally the Y/B goes to fuel pump. The pump is grounded at the black in the grey plug. And thats it! all the wiring that I should need right? hehe

THE PROBLEM
The eccs relay and pump relay are buzzing. Iv checked this wiring soooo damn many times I just dont know what the hell to do. I have also disconnected every plug on the harness one at a time trying to locate a short there. It could be low voltage (do i need a resistor somewhere?), or I still have a short, or my ecu is toast. sure I can get another one out of a stanza easy, but I dont want to just fry another just to see if that was it. Oh, the little lights do barely flicker. they flicker with more light on a d21 ecu that was laying around! But hey, the fuel pump is actually pumping, so thats my only sliver of hope that the ecu isnt toast. so yeah, thats where im at, how do I properly power up the ecu and stop the buzzing any help would be extremely appreciated.
thanks

If I can get this to work I would be certainly willing to make a sweet a** writeup with pics and diagrams on how to (bench test) the engine outside of the vehicle. I couldnt seem to find anything like that on here with the search.

[brock sampson]

So, after some demotivated screwing around I got the ecu to power up, not the way it should be however. The R/B from the eccs relay apparently does not want to be plugged into R/B (coil) in the grey plug, like it should be, without buzzing. It however does like the R power going into the R/B, which lights up the ecu and fuel pump with no issues. I even have spark when cranking. I bridged the R power over to the R (injectors) in the grey plug and that seemed to work too. What is weird though is that if I bridge the R/B to the R, the R/B will go into R/B in the grey plug without buzzing. The engine is not firing up even though I seem to have spark, correct timing, and Im pretty sure I am getting fuel as well, its apparent in the exhaust.

Why the hell does the eccs power want to go to the coil lead instead of the injectors like the diagram shows!
and why will R/B only go into R/b without buzzing unless it is bridged to R at same time? why would R/B reject its like-lead yet still power up ecu? well, I just figured this out after I got home from 12 hr night shift. Im goin to bed.

[brock sampson]

kinda embarrassing, but I actually had my timing off 180 degrees. I guess I didnt make sure I was on the correct damn stroke when I put the pump in. oh well. The wiring however is still weird. Everything is according to diagram now, except I have bridged the R injector lead with the R/B coil lead. Its the only way it will work. but runnin is runnin in my book. seems to run pretty good too!

I have successfully wired up the engine with the very bare essentials and it works. Two fuses and two relays is all it took for a complete system. When I can I will make a post on how to start a ka24e on an engine stand with nothing but the engine harness, ecu, and fuel pump(in a jar of gas). If anyone has any suggestions on what they would like to see or add, feel free. I would like to make it as comprehensive as possible. also, what would you call a post for this, so it can be easiest found by search?

It would help anyone who wants to throw this engine in something without using any of the massive amounts of stock wiring.