Want to drive to the shootout but car barely runs

[donkeylips]

I just put a motor in my car after replacing the timing belt components, water pump, gaskets, seals, etc. It won't idle. And if you gently tap the gas pedal it will rev much higher than it should. And sometimes it revs pretty high when I don't even hit the gas at all. It backfires and smells strongly of gas. There is some smoke but some of that might be because the engine was just assembled and hasn't ran in a few years. I had the car running fine a couple of months ago with another engine, so I know that most of the electronics work. The car is mostly stock.

I haven't had time to do a boost leak test or a compression test yet. The car is 1-1/2 hours away so its tough.
The ECU is not throwing any diagnostic codes. I have not tried another ECU yet.
I have tried two CAS's and they are not 180 off.
Throttle cable is fine.
My spark plugs are properly gapped and the wires are good and installed in the correct order.
Base timing hasn't been set, but fiddling with the CAS doesn't seem to affect how it runs.
I would think that the obvious sensor/electrical issues would throw a CEL. Or I could have bad grounds?

Seems like an air metering or ignition problem. Any ideas?

 

[presterone]

could be just a vac leak but im sure you've been through all the possible air leaks?

 

[rdomeck]

I would check your timing marks first. Make sure your cams aren't out of time. Go back to what you have changed. Low compression would not cause this problem! Vacuum leaks will idle high , but eventually your opening the throttle plate will overcome that.

 

[donkeylips]

I was thinking that maybe one of more of the cylinders could have had no compression, but it turned out 145 155 145 160. I only checked the cam gear timing marks last night, I'll have to double check the crankshaft mark as well.

My brother cleaned the plugs for me and gave it a try. He thought it sounded better but I wasn't around to hear it. He said he only ran it for a second and it wouldn't idle, but I'm thinking if he gave it some throttle it would clear out whatever is in there and it may stabilize. Its possible that I fouled the plugs in my first attempts to start the car. Then I probably fixed a couple of things so its possible that there's really nothing wrong with it but fouled plugs now. I doubt it though.

 

If your idle is high, check your throttle cable (linkage) to make sure its properly adjusted.

Mine was pulled back a bit and playing around with the BISS screw only made it idle higher. As soon as i adjusted the cable linkage, all is well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[donkeylips]

Nope, the cable is fine. The throttle body opens and closes perfectly. The idle isn't high. It will not idle. But the RPMs will jump up when the car is started or when a little bit of throttle is applied.

I'm seriously stumped. Although I haven't done what may be the most important test (boost leak test), I can't see where it would be leaking to cause it to run this bad. I lost my boost leak tester so it looks like I'll be making another one.

I'm concerned that my timing belt ended up jumping a tooth or something.

 

when is the shoot out and where???

 

[LIV4PSI]

It already happened. It is the Buschur Annual DSM/EVO Shootout and it is always held at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk Ohio. There is a thread in the event forum with some pics. You should come next year, its always a real good time.

 

[donkeylips]

So I went to the shootout in my buddy's saturn because I didn't have time to work on my car. But I'm going to work on it tomorrow.

Timing marks are dead on. Compression is good. I've tried two different (they worked on my other car) ECUs and two different CAS's.
The plugs have been cleaned but I have new set to try. I have a spare set of injectors, a spare coil pack, and a bunch of other parts I can try swapping in desperation.

Tomorrow I will hook up the laptop and try to find my boost leak tester (or make a new one).

 

[donkeylips]

I have the laptop connected using the TMO Logger.

So far, without trying to start the engine, I have verified that the TPS and idle switch work. It looks like the air flow sensor signal is 0. I wish I had a running car here to compare data with. I'll check the air flow sensor wiring first.

 

[donkeylips]

I made a new boost leak tester. I have driven cars with boost leaks bad enough to easily feel with my hand and they have always ran 10x better than this.

I do not have a pressure gauge attached to my tester. The car does not have a boost gauge permanently installed, but I have been T-ing a loose auto meter boost gauge in to various places.

When I attempt to pressurize the intake using 90psi shop air I get 0psi at the gauge(T-ed between the FPR and intake manifold). This seems like good news(great, I've found the problem, a massive boost leak). But I can't hear or feel it escaping anywhere. So I took off the upper IC hose to feel the air coming out. I T-ed my gauge in between the waste gate actuator and the upper IC hose. I blocked the air coming out of the upper IC hose with my hand and was able to get the gauge to go to 5psi.

So it seems that it is leaking out of the throttle body or intake manifold. Isn't it strange that it is leaking so badly that it won't build past 0psi yet I can't hear or feel it?

 

[GSX_TC]

Thats one hell of a leak. I hope that gauge is functioning properly.

 

[donkeylips]

I believe that it is, just from the fact that I was able to get it to go to 5psi when I eliminated everything after the upper IC hose. I'm sure that it would have gone higher if I had had a way to properly cap off the hose.

 

[donkeylips]

After a full day of troubleshooting, I think I finally found the problem. I let a friend who will not be named put the intake manifold on for me while I was frantically trying to put the car together. The bolts are all tight, but they must not have been tightened in sequence. It's leaking around such a large area that it had no effect on the soapy water and made no hissing sound.

 

[donkeylips]

I can't believe what I found. The lock washers for the 2 outer studs for mounting the IM to the head where between the head and the IM. Or more specifically, they were between the head and the IM gasket.

I rectified the situation and did a boost leak test. This time it was like a normal boost leak test. The PCV valve wouldn't allow me to put more than 2.5 psi in it at first, but once I took that off and covered it with my thumb it was fine. A new PCV valve and a check valve are in order. It's leaking slightly out of the BISS and probably the TB shaft seals but it was holding pressure quite well. It's almost time to start it up.