Apexi Power FC help

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2000twincamturbo

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Jun 5, 2020
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So i brought the car home today out of winter strorage, Ran great and felt good to get her back in my hands after 4 months hidden away. I also was able to buy a brand new power fc this winter still in box never used. waws anxious to try it out just to see how it ran at idle but it doesnt seem to want to idle. i turn it on, sarts fine but shuts off after about 2 seconds, wont idle and and wont responds if i blip the throttle, just does nothing.

Its a 88 165 with a proper 3rd gen swap
wiring was done by tweak around 2010-2011(no gremlins)
205 engine running on a sw20 ecu
fuel pump is ran seperatly via a manual switch/relay(stock 165 pump)
obviously car runs perfect with the stock ecu, no codes

now if ive read correctly these come with a base map so it should idle fine, wasnt planning on driving it like this just wanted to see if it would at least run. since it wont respond to giving it any throttle it feels like it might be fueling issue, like the FC might be looking for something it cant find, then again i have zero experience with these. Im pretty sure its the AP Engineering version, theres asticker on the side that says it it is and ive read that these are a little different than the non AP versions.

Somehow i feel like the fact that im running the pump seperatly from the FC is causing this, like its looking for a relay signal maybe and it cant find it, like i said i have no experience with these.

Any help would be awesome
 
Fuel doesn't sound like a bad place to start. Can you stick a multimeter on the fuel pump leads and see if it's getting 12 volts while the issue appears ?
 
Fuel doesn't sound like a bad place to start. Can you stick a multimeter on the fuel pump leads and see if it's getting 12 volts while the issue appears ?
yea that's the best place. If that turns up wrong check lines, injectors, rail etc. Could be a blockage too from sitting. Another thing that happens with me is there's a vaccum line from the intake that undoes its self (old 90's rubber) that gives these exact problems. Shut off after 2 seconds, super rough, and throttle does nothing.
 
yeah no worries i fiured it out. like i said it runs perfect with the stock ecu, i was thinking the the fc might have been causing fuel issues. fuel lines are brand new from last year, and filter is brand new as of today. while it is a fueling issue its not due to any mechanical problems. when i bought the fc it didnt come with the hand commander, the seller was offering it for and extra 600, but i had already paid 1160 for the fc and my tuner uses the datalogit so i saw no need to buy it, besides 600+1160 seemed a bit much for a power fc. anyway, i did a lot of reading up last night and the commander IS needed for the initial setup, apparently you need to input what injectors you have and then go through the idle learning procedure and a few other things to get it to work but because the fc i bought was new in box theres no programming in it so the board the basically "empty". had i bought a used one,even without the commander, theres a good chance it would have started up using the previous owners map.
 
ok so ive been reading up some more and what ive said above might not quite be the issue.

heres what ive learned
I do have the newer AP engineering/pro version of the power fc
it seems that (for some vehicles at least) you need to disable the apexi boost control if you dont have it for the FC to work
for some reason the car now lets me give it some throttle)maybe i wasnt trying hard enough) but for onlly about 2 seconds before it shuts off
the check engine light is on so there is a problem somewhere
you cannot check for error codes the old fashioned way with the FC, at least mine wont let me

Now because my wiring harness is custom made for the 3rd gen swap its possible that some things have been removed from it because they werent needed to make the car run. case in point i have no wire going to the +B1 pin. now it runs fine with the stock ecu wich leads me to believe that the stock ecu doesnt it to run but im starting to think that maybe the Power FC needs that power source to run right, what confuses me is that 1, i dont know if there was a wire there originaly.2, if there was why remove it? and 3, if there is a pinout for it but the car runs fine without it, why have that pinout there in the first place?

So i dont have the hand commander wich means i cant go into the fc to turn off the boost control so trying that is not an option.
both the jdm and edm/adm markets have a pinout for +b1 so it has to be used for something.
im gonna open up both casings and have a look at just where those pins lead to.

ill add anything i find and once i do figure it out ill probly make a quick writeup about it for anybody who might need it in the future.
 
ok so scratch everything, and i mean everything. the listing was wrong and so is the paperwork inside the box. This unit is for the second gen engine. the internal board numbers just confirmed it. i am legit pissed.

So yeah now i have a power fc for sale i guess

Damn it
 
Isn't the 3e en 2e gen engine much the same?
From memory they share the same signals for piston reference.
Fuel cannot be a problem, the FC is programmable, yes?
Only thing that differs between them is that the gen2 is having an AFM and the gen3 an map sensor and two intake temp sensors.
Puzzle a little with wiring et voila :)
 
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