Hey guys!

I'm in dire need of help regarding the cold start and idle of my CA18DET.
I've searched and tried every adjustment and fix that I have found on various forums over the last 12 months.

Problem started of with a really rough cold start. I've since got it nearly dialed in. The cause of the rough cold starts were a bad TPS, bad coolant temp sensor and because the AAC and FICD plugs were mixed up.

Here is a video of the cold starts im having now: https://youtu.be/8ffl5VfhhJQ
This happens when I don't touch the gas pedal right after start up. If I rev the engine immediately to over 1500 RPM and hold it there for a second or two the car will idle fine and RPM:s will gradually drop to 850 RPM and stay there. Car will also surge sometimes below 3000 RPM until engine is at operating temp.
The idle won't rise when loads like high beams or turning the steering wheel to full lock. The idle will rise after a few seconds when the electric fans kick in.

Things i've tried and checked so far:
Added grounding points, cleaned all grounding connections to bare metal and added dielectric grease.
Made sure the ignitor body grounds to body of car.
Adjusted throttle valve butterfly stopping screw so that the butterfly barely moved.
Adjusted TPS to read 0.48 V in Nistune.
Adjusted idle to 800 RPM with AAC disconnected.
Adjusted timing to 15deg before TDC with timing light clamped around a wire between spark plug no.1 and coil.
Cleaned AAC and FICD assembly, cleanded and checked that cold start valve works properly.
AAC works fine and value changes constantly in Nistune.
FICD clicks when applying battery voltage to terminals of the solenoid.

Im starting to think that this might be an issue in the cold start map of Nistune (Nistune bin file: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AmDrjZdUTZydiCyitRP80Dt1kcyG)

Specs of car:
Nistune type 1 board
S14 T28 turbo
Z32 MAF
Stock injectors
Walbro 255 fuel pump and Aeromotive FPR set to stock fuel pressure
Engine rebuilt 10k km:s ago.
Whole aircon system has been removed and the electrical connections just hang around unplugged in the engine bay. Is there something that has to be done to these when removing the aircon system?

I will check the compression of the cylinders first thing next week in case of any burnt valves...
Thanks!
-Wolter

Here is a pic of the engine bay. Here you can see where my CAS is at and how i've routed the breather hoses (PCV valve is new).
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmDrjZdUTZydiC51_BH-g25EjKlN

I mean seems like you pretty much covered everything I would have said only thing you didn't list is maybe a potential vacuum leak or bad Maf

Noticed yesterday at cold start that vacuum reads around -0.5 to -0.6 bar as the engine stumbles in the beginning. Vacuum goes down to -0.8 bar when the idle pics up

Where is your MAFS placed? Can you post a pic/vid of where you have it? That being said, this may be a tune issue. The fact that the engine is revving to 1500 and then coming down tells me your cold start valve is working properly, which is the most common cause of cold start issues on this engine. Could you try to temporarily put the stock MAFS back in and put a stock tune on NISTUNE and see what happens?

Also, do you have the power valves working properly?

Thanks for the answers!

Here is a pic of where the MAFS is at and how the hose for the power valve is routed + various other stuff around that area
https://kjqdaw.dm.files.1drv.com/y4mOsX ... pmode=none

https://ktqdaw.dm.files.1drv.com/y4mL02 ... pmode=none

I don't have a stock MAFS or stock tune for NISTUNE since both mods were done by the previous owner. Iv'e redone the MAFS wiring as the previous owner had done a s*** job at this just as everything else he touced
I know who has tuned this car and have been in contact with him about all sorts of things (he pointed out that the plugs were mixed up etc...)

I only have the trial version of NISTUNE atm and don't know enough about it to start messing with it. Would like to try my best at fixing this issue my self before I start paying an hourly fee to the tuner to fix this...

Just sent the bin file to the tuner. Lets hope he's kind enough to take a look at the maps for free

Where in the world are you? Like, was this car originally fitted with a CA18, or was it swapped in? I'm asking because your profile says EDM S13, but then you said you have the power valves routed to the turbo piping somewhere. The EDM CA18's don't have power valves. How about a pic of the intake side? Also, how about your cold side piping? How are the idle control valves getting air?

The car has been imported from Germany to Finland and came originally with the CA18.
I mistakenly thought that you meant the wastegate actuator since that's the only thing that came up on a quick Google search. This engine doesn't have the butterfly valve assembly in the intake plenum.

I sold the car last week but we did get most of the erradic behaviour fixed with the tuner.
It was a matter of adjusting the TP Max and TP Min values in Nistune (i.e. maximum and minimum opening times of the injectors).
The tuner also told me that the cold start maps are almost always kept stock since there's little to nothing that can be achieved by adjusting them...