Got a 91 gsx and trying to put it on the road..Please help!!

[little-razcal]

Hello people..As you can see Im new to the forum, and new to DSM's as well.

Finally after years of WANT, I finally GOT. Its a 91 gsx . I guess I wanted to ask a few questions about my situation. I tried to research on some but I feel like I have a bit of a unique situation with multiple problems.

Body has 140xxx, and motor has 70-80xxx(What I was told)

I dont know what to believe but it looks as though the motor looks pretty clean and the body is well taken care of. When I bought the car the guy said it was a new motor him and his buddies had dropped in and it had about 70-80xx on it. He said he had only driven it about 500 mi. and that it needed to be tuned. He stated the knock sensor was soldered wrong and it needed to be fixed, explaining the CEL. He told me that the following had been done to the engine before install. All new:

-Timing belt, gaskets, water pump, ignition coil, Crank pos. sensor
Rod bearings,Balance shaft delete kit, exhaust@ intake valvesw/guides, apr headstuds

Now I am not to fimiliar with these motor's like I said but I obviously know that I cant check for half of this stuff being it is internal. My main problem is when I bought the car I noticed a couple issues. I noticed a very faint tap coming from the motor when I was testing it out, and the idle was really high. I said screw it and bought it anyway. The next morning I started the car up and it was tapping like crazy!!! Real loud!!! Not a knock but a tap!! It shot up at around 3000 rpms steady!!! Im thinking the tap is in the head and maybe be the Hydraulic Lash Adjusters but I dont know..I had to shut it down!!!!The motor wasnt anywhere near as loud when He showed it to me and drove it too my house. The idle was high at the time, but figured it was just from not being tuned completely. Now Im scared to start it up because it taps so bad and idles so high. I know this cant be good for the motor to rev so high first thing!! (no oil in journals)

Im thinking either the work this dude did is causing the problem, or It was like this when the dude bought the motor . The thing is , is that the motor was quiter when I bought it . Is it my heads? HLA? oil pump? Could it be my Bad knock sensor doing this? Please help...
As for the idle, I noticed that near the intake, he has like 5 vacuum lines blocked off. Could this have something to do with the high idle. Should I have all my lines hooked to something? The A/C is gone so maybe some where for that? Where do I start? I cant even start it up and run it to check the rest of the car..It idles way too high!!

Sorry for the long post guys but I had to explain it a little. Im at a lost and dont know where to start to look.. If I can get the idle down , then I can work on diagnosing the tap a little better.. What is a Balance shaft delete kit? Is this a good thing? How can I tell if it is done? Im starting to wonder about this car:
If any of you have a spare minute to throw me your thoughts, I would really appreciate it..Where do I start? I cant even drive it to get it looked at...Thanks

 

[gsx7707]

you may can get it to idle down by turning in the biss screw it on the throttlebody just before the intake try screwing it all the way in then if it idles you can adjust it make sure the throttle is completely closed.
the vacuum lines are ok as long as there capped. thats a place to start

 

[Julioluko]

Woah that was a lot, Lets start with the basics, you could have a bad idle switch go to http://members.shaw.ca/dsm.1000q/Engineprimer/1G/idleswitch.htm to learn more about that. Also this is a great site that identifies everything in the engine bay for you: Virtual Tour of the DSM Engine Bay - Quadrant map . But Anyway here is the check list to get your idle down:

1. Check the throttle cable this has happened to me twice that the cable runs off the guide at the idle stays high at about 3k rpms.

2. Check your idle ajustment switch for operation as noted in the link above

3. Check the idle adjustment screw on the top of the manifold by all those little ports that are plugged off. It could be screwed all the way out to make it idle higher.

As for the tick, sounds a lot like a lifter, but as you can imagine a lot of things can tick in an engine.

1: Check the solenoids on the fire wall, all you do is grab them while the engine is running and you'll feel them "ticking"

2: Sounds weird but it works, grab a wood dowel and press it against different parts of the engine and you can narrow down where the sound is coming from fast, you can hear everything that going on inside the engine.

hope this helped out a bit good luck

 

[little-razcal]

Thanks, I allready was going to do that first..I plan on tackling this thing this weekend..Any thoughts on the tapping? Knock sensor? Balance shaft delete kit?

Woah that was a lot, Lets start with the basics, you could have a bad idle switch go to http://members.shaw.ca/dsm.1000q/Engineprimer/1G/idleswitch.htm to learn more about that. Also this is a great site that identifies everything in the engine bay for you: Virtual Tour of the DSM Engine Bay - Quadrant map . But Anyway here is the check list to get your idle down:

1. Check the throttle cable this has happened to me twice that the cable runs off the guide at the idle stays high at about 3k rpms.

2. Check your idle ajustment switch for operation as noted in the link above

3. Check the idle adjustment screw on the top of the manifold by all those little ports that are plugged off. It could be screwed all the way out to make it idle higher.

As for the tick, sounds a lot like a lifter, but as you can imagine a lot of things can tick in an engine.

1: Check the solenoids on the fire wall, all you do is grab them while the engine is running and you'll feel them "ticking"

2: Sounds weird but it works, grab a wood dowel and press it against different parts of the engine and you can narrow down where the sound is coming from fast, you can hear everything that going on inside the engine.

hope this helped out a bit good luck

I know that was a lot..Sorry......Anyway, thanks for the input...this is exactly what Im looking for. Obviously the dude let her run for a while before he showed me the car because it didnt tap like this at all. I know that lifters will quite over time/ warmup so maybe it is a lifter.Could a bad oil pump be doing this, or would it stay tapping at all times from lack of oil up top? Thanks for the links also...

 

[inthemidst]

For your high idle first check and make sure you dont have any vacuum leaks.If you dont have any vacuum leaks,check to see if your throttle is adjusted properly,by loosening the throttle switch nut,and turning the switch counterclockwise,or remove it temporarely.For the knock sensor,the worst is it will retard your timing,which will slow your car down.As for the balance shaft elimination,I consider it a must do.So yes it is a very good thing.More oil to your engine.The only way to know if it has been done to your engine,is to remove the oil pan and check if there are two cast iron bars in your engine.One on the left and one on the right.If they are not there than congratulations,your engine has a balance shaft elimination kit included.

 

[ADrewzki]

Vacuum lines should not cause any sort of tapping that I can think of. It's a mechanical issue obviously but you don't state where it's coming from. Can you tell if it's coming from the head? If so, it might be a lifter problem. If it's coming from lower, then you may have bigger issues.

Balance shaft being removed is not going to create a tapping noise at idle. If they are still installed in the car but timed wrong, you will get excessive vibration. Again, no tapping per se. You can tell if they are removed because you will have super high oil pressure. At idle, my stock gauge reads in the middle.

Like previously stated, check the cable. Check the BISS screw (you may have to ground a plug to adjust. do a search).

Keep us updated on further issues or if you fix your problem.

 

[little-razcal]

Thank you all for the input...I am looking forward to being a continued part of this forum. I am going to start looking at this thing this weekend and will post pic's also. I think this thing at least looks good. Besides the problems, it has the following:

New ported Big 16G turbo, Brembo cross drilled rotors, Bendix ceramic pads, Greedy turbo timer, 18" TSW Nagaro wheels, Nitto 555 tires, Thermal 3" full exhaust. KYB coilovers

So I think this is a pretty good base. I know I dont have much in the way of mod's, but with some research Im sure I will find the best mod's for my plan. The body is in great shape and the paint looks really good for a 91. Its kinda like a bluish/green on the bottom half, and black on the top. I will post pic's soon .Looking forward to talking with you all during this project..Peace..

 

[jbl_5star]

wow ... ok, my biss screw is set high the guy i bought it from said something along the lines of its the type of clutchn becuz of the larger injectors (needs tuned but i need a dsm link and o2 wideband) so its set high roughly 1500rpms and if i turn down the idle it will bog out ??why?

n if i tuned it, could i set back down the idle?