MAF bad? Or vacuum leak? WTH?

[Ravewolf]

Ok, been looking on here for hours, can't find anything related to whats going on with my car.
So here's the skinny. I just got my car going tonight(91 Eagle Talon TSI, all stock except for a homebuilt exhaust which came with the car, and the modded MAF sensor). I got it idling ok, and took it out for a spin. After going around my friend's apartment complex twice, I decided to come back in as it was idling funny (it started to shudder a little from takeoff). As soon as I got into the complex, the car died. So I pushed it back to my friends spot, and we commenced to tinkinering (as in checking vacuum hoses, etc). Found nothing wrong, so I decided to crank her up. Barely idled at all. And what's more strange is that when my friend blocked off the MAF with his hand, it ran better for a second, then died again.

All I can think of is the EGR valve opened. It's on the car but not hooked up. Also, could it be the ISC? I'm going to recheck everything tomorrow when I get time, but I thought it was strange it would run better with the maf sensor blocked.
Oh, the BOV is vented to the atmosphere(again, bought it like that, trying to find the proper hose to recirc it), so that would explain the idling/surging, but not stalling out and running like crap again, would it? Thanks for the help. If this is a repost i apologized, I did try to research this as much as I could.

 

[viprez586]

It's probably do to a boost leak/vacuum leak. You need to pressurize the system to find the leak.
A non-recirc'd BOV acts like a boost leak, that's why you should recirc it.

+1 on the EGR valve, I'd just block it off and eliminate the lines.

MAF hacked as in how? Lower honeycomb taken out?

 

[Ravewolf]

Both honycombs out, lower screw backed out; the usual hack, I haven't done a boost leak, completely forgot about doing one! Will do one tonight and let everyone know how it goes. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[stefanOst]

Taking the lower honeycomb out tends to lead to problems for many people, I can't imagine what taking both of the sensors out would do. The honeycombs are in their to help the sensor get the proper reading, so taking them out probably isn't such a bright idea. I would think that if you can find someone with a used MAF, it would help a ton with your issues

 

[Ravewolf]

yea after doing more research I just found this out....so off to the jy tomorrow to see if I can get a new aircan .