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2G Car can’t hit an idle, crackles and dies.

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I did, they had asked if the throttle cable could effect their idle, which it can. It can cause a high idle if it is too tight. Too loose then it has no impact on your idle since your throttle plate should be sitting in its proper position.

That should tell people that if it can cause a high idle and you have a low idle then its most likely not the throttle cable. I havent seen anywhere on this site stating that their throttle cable is making their idle too low. Vacuum leaks can make your idle low, BISS being out of adjustment, timing being off. There are quite a lot that can create an idle issue.
 
So BISS is fine. I THINK vacuum is fine. Which leaves timing. Reading about when people have timing skip a tooth or two, their idle is still fine but they have issues when they try and drive the car. This leads me to believe that it’s not timing related but then I have no freaking idea what it could be.
 
You can use some spray to see if there are any vacuum leaks. Starter fluid, carb or throttle body cleaner should be ok, but brake cleaner is corrosive and makes metal parts look like absolute crap. My dad has a vacuum leak on his hemi and when you spray it it raises in idle. Gotta check it all out.
 
Also verify that the vacuum lines are hooked up to the proper places
That's why I sent a pic of where my vacuum lines where going. With a different intake manifold I can't really be sure but it seems correct.

Edit: My vacuum lines are set up pretty much the same as this diagram.
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AC shouldn't have anything to do with idle. It's an independent system aside from the belt. The intake manifold could not be seated properly and not making a good contact all the way around it. That's what happened with my JM Fab intake manifold.
 
So I think I found the issue. Looking at this I think my timing is off by a tooth. Fyi this engine got replaced in the early 2000s, I thought the timing marks were supposed to line up side-side but I guess this is how it is. Would that cause this issues?
 

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Rotate the engine so the cam gears timing marks face eachother in the middle.
The cam gears both rotate counter-clockwise, there is no way they can meet in the middle man.
 
What do the bottom end timing marks look like?
Not sure, I didn’t want to take the cover off. Can it skip timing down there? Would my symptoms line up with something like that?

Edit: Do I need a retune with the new intake manifold? I suppose it makes sense that air might be entering my engine at a higher speed or something similar and my stock ecu doesn’t really understand that.
 
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Not sure, I didn’t want to take the cover off. Can it skip timing down there? Would my symptoms line up with something like that?

Edit: Do I need a retune with the new intake manifold? I suppose it makes sense that air might be entering my engine at a higher speed or something similar and my stock ecu doesn’t really understand that.
Yes it can skip on the crank.
At the very least look at the mark on the harmonic balancer. This whole thread started because you installed a manifold? If the car ran fine before you're poking in the wrong area.
 
Have you ever done a timing job before? Or swapped a water pump?
Nope, neither.
Yes it can skip on the crank.
At the very least look at the mark on the harmonic balancer. This whole thread started because you installed a manifold? If the car ran fine before you're poking in the wrong area.
Yeah man, just the manifold and TB really. I’m pretty sure I ran out of things to check though! I had a buddy come over last night for a part and he wanted to hear the car. I fired her up and when I revved it, this time it made a weird backfiring noise when I revved it up, almost like it was hitting a rev limiter.
 
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Update: I tried changing the plugs because I thought they aligned with my issue. It didn't fix the issue. Atleast I have some new plugs in there because the old ones looked pretty toast.
I hooked up ECMlink v3, loaded up a base tune, set all my stuff (first time tuning), and I tried to capture data. Well when I cranked the car the capture stopped and the car kinda sputtered. I tried it one more time and the same thing happened, the capture stopped. Is this as simple as a battery problem? I have 0 data from the logs, they didn't read anything before they stopped.
 
Is this as simple as a battery problem?
Hmmmm... How is your battery? Is it old? Test it please. I know that a low or dying or defective battery can make it really hard to start and also mess with the idle.

I dont believe entirely it would cause your problem, but it is a great think to check!
 
Hey Kai, I had a similar issue to you when I got back from Alaska the last time. I checked everything I could possibly think of, I even considered the possibility of water latent fuel being the culprit and siphoned my gas out.

Finally, being a noob, I gave up and took it into a shop where they found my Ignition Control Module (ICM) was sending too much power to 2 of my spark plugs causing me to have misfires in 2 of my pistons and thus an insanely low idle (like 200-300rpm). I also blew a leak in my turbo oil and coolant return line trying to "fix" the problem myself.

So I would check the ICM with a multimeter and if you still cannot find the issue, it is okay to take it to a reputable shop. Mine was nice enough to correct other engine bay noob stuff I did wrong for 30 minutes of labor cost.
 
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