I'm sure my question has been discussed here many times. I put my RX-7 in the barn for a year and half and I'm ready to tackle the problem that I can't figure it out.

I have 1993 and did a single turbo - cleaned up the rat nest and ready to fire the engine. I remember having a spark using the stock ECU but when I put my PowerFC ECU, I can't get any spark. I sent the ECU to Japan and came back negative (the tech said nothing is wrong with PowerFC). My wiring is stock. Is there anything that I need to modify to the stock harness to make it work using PowerFC ECU?
I thought this supposed to be plug and play?

thanks a million

 

http://www.clubrx.org/media/pfc/PowerFC_FAQ.pdf

Page 10 shows installation information, but I recommend reading the entire document. Good information...

 

thank you- i read the installation and the whole 9 yards. according to, there are 4 wires that must be deleted before starting the car -- but they are for egr ans warm up valve...none of them deals with spark.

 

On your Commander, go to monitor--> 1 channel. select engine speed. When you crank the engine over, observe whether you are getting a tach signal or not.

 

Nice idea - unfortunately I bought a commander, someone told me that it will not work in my 1993
The commander I got was for 1996-2000 RX-7 which was not sold in the states.
I'm thinking the reason why there was no spark, perhaps the PowerFC I bought from someone has no file or configuration.

I wonder if this commander will work just to see if the tach has signal at the input wire???

 

Is the PFC unit a 1996-2002 version?

The serial number can be checked, in the case that your not sure if it's for a 93 or not...


J.

 

Did you do the harness cleanup before the stock ecu made spark or after. It makes a difference.

They do come with a base map for the car they are made for.
Re-initialize the PFC, then try starting.
or
If you have the stock ecu, plug it in and see if the car will start.

 

Prodigy-the PFC ecu is for 1993 only the commander is for 1996. I heard this will not work.
Has to have 1993 commander.
I will clearly check the PFC ecu serial # today and I will report it back here.

Cewrx - I did not do any wiring clean up. The reason, someone said that the PFC supposed to be plug and play. The 4 wires that must be clipped is for EGR and some idling thing which should not affect the spark. That's the reason why I did not do some cleaning.

Thank you guys- really appreciate you helping me.

 

If there is no spark but it works on the stock ECU, that means there is no crank signal. I had the same problem recently with a car I was tuning, it ending up being the CAS wiring. After trying to repair the harness a bunch of times, I stripped an old harness to remove the entire CAS wiring with shielding intact and ran it separately and soldered it just before the ECU connector to fix it. It never made sense why the stock ECU worked but the PowerFC did not, I think the PowerFC is a lot more sensitive to wiring problems.

The car will run just fine without the 4 wires cut. However you will have idle issues after so they must eventually be cut but it is not the cause of your problem.

Did you try plugging in the commander anyway to see if it powers up?

thewird

 

Thank you Thewird --- I will try to plug the commander see if it will work.