Flooding/Starting problems, etc

[dicion]

Alright, Here's my story:

Yesterday: Just bought this '91 Talon TSi, the previous owner said that it had a problem with the Throttle position sensor, so he bought it, but never installed it. The car is beautiful, the engine looks great, only 70k miles, the only problem was it wouldnt tach over 4k due to the TPS sensor supposedly, and it ran rich as hell. Bought it for 1800, with the new sensor from the dealer in a plastic bag.

Today: Changed the oil, and replaced the TPS (that thing's a bi*** to get to btw.. fuel rail right in the way, damn) Anyways, It started, Still running quite rich, check engine light at idle. However, when i gave it some juice, the CE light went out, and i tached it to 6 easily.. so I figured that the sensor just needed a little rotational adjustment to get it right. adjusted the sensor from the limit CCW, to the limit CW, to see if it changed anything.
It wouldn't start, smelled heavily of gas, flooded... *sigh*

As my buddy was trying to adjust it back to where it was, i tried to start it again, and he noticed a buzzing as soon as the igniition was in the 'run' position.. we traced it down to this little beige part with a 6-pin connector, which i later learned was the idle speed control motor. Anyways, I removed this, and manually turned the shaft to adjust for a 1k idle once i got it started after letting it sit half an hour. I let it sit, idling at 1k, and as far as i could tell, it was running great (well, otherwise then the CE light due to the ECU not having an ICPM connected.. at least thats my guess

Okay, now comes my questions/etc.
1) is there anything else that could be causing this problem that I'm not investigating? "apparently" when the previous owner took it to the garage, they tested the ECU and it was fine.... I have yet to pull it out and check it myself (I'm an electronics technician by trade, so I plan on replacing the caps regardless, as i read that they can frequently cause problems.)

2) Where/who/etc would be a good place to get this part? I called the dealer, and nearly shit my pants when they told me the price. Also, Is there anyone who can give me base specs to test this one against to see if it's good? (coil resistances, etc etc)

3) Anything else i'm missing? I'm quite new to DSM motors, and really to cars in general, but I'm more then willing to learn

If you need more information, please feel free to contact me via any of the Online messaging services, i've got all 4, and I'm online almost 24/7

Thank you for any help you can provide, I just cant want to get this beautiful vehicle out on the road

 

[mazdamx6pwr.com]

You can buy an ISC on ebay for about $50.00 tested working.

 

[dicion]

Update:
Found a local guy (actually, he came up to me.. he drove by, saw me with my hood up working on the car, stopped, and told me he had a 91 laser with a blown engine..... the previous owner didnt change the timing belt before 60k Good for me, bad for him i guess) He asked me if I wanted to buy the whole car for $500.... now other then everything in the head being shit, the rest of the car has 50k on it, and is beautiful.. exact same year as my car... except it's FWD and Automatic. I was thinking if I should buy it for parts.... anyways, End result, I got my ISC for $50 from it, and wired it up.

now.. once the car is running, it idles great (after a little idle screw adjustment) revs great, etc. However, the new problem is, it wont start unless i press down on the pedal about 1/2 an inch. Otherwise, it starts to start, idle drops, and it dies. But once i start it with the pedal, hold it at 1k for 10 seconds, and let it go, it goes to 750 and stays right around there. The fuel mixture still doesnt smell right to me, however, and the CE light is still on.. but it's intermittent now... it'll idle for 5 minutes with no CE, then it'll pop on... i'll rev it to 2k, it goes out immediately, i hold it at 2k for 10-15 seconds, let it drop back to idle, and the CE light wont come on for another 30 seconds to 3 minutes...

Anyways, I plan on taking the car to a garage to have the codes read tomorrow, as I don't know where to go from here. Any suggestions would be more then helpful.

Oh, also, after i adjusted the TPS to spec, and installed the ISC, I did as someone on these forums recommended, and turned the throttle screw All the way in, then backed it out 2 full turns. The idle was still too low (after a ECU reset to defaults via removing the battery) so we adjusted it out until we got 750.. about 4 or 5 more complete turns if I remember correctly. Is this a problem?

 

[dicion]

Update, re-did the idle set screw adjustment to spec (grounded the pins etc), and the idle was still hopping around at 750. re-started it (still a little diffucult,see below) and drove it around (just got plates/tags yay!). The Check engine light is still on at idle, but goes out once above 1k. Also, the throttle Cuts out at approximately 4k, not letting me drive it past that. I am planning on taking it to the dealer tomorrow, but It wouldnt suprise me if it said 'bad tps' again, because I tested the old one after i replaced it, and it seemed to work fine.

Also, After driving it, or running it for any period of time, and turning it off, when i turn it back to the 'run' position, the Turbo needle wont hop to 0, and it wont start. Im not sure if it was either Time, or pulling the positive battery terminal for 5 minutes that resets that, but after i did it, it hops up back to 0, and will re-start (albeit diffucultly, actually have to push the accelerator down about an inch to get it start, and once it does start, hold it at about 1k for 30 seconds, because it wants to drop to sub-500 unless i do...)

Could it be the ECU? Are they any bench checks I can do to the ECU to verify it's working properly? I'm probably gonna remove it in about 30 minutes here and check it out. Please, if you can help me, send me a message via any IM service, or reply here. Thanks!

 

[dicion]

Update:

Just pulled the ECU, bad news. The 2nd largest cap leaked all over the place. One of the vertical boards soldiered on, well the board mounts are black. This ECU is garbage.

So begins the search for an ECU I'l keep this thread updated once i get one to let ya know if it was the problem 100%!