problems after head gasket and timing belt

[gearhead37683]

hey guy's i just took the head off of my eclipse turbo, and replaced it and the gasket, i also installed new timing belt , and i have the car back together and running, but it runs real rough,and it wont idle and when you pat the gas to keep it running sometimes it will rev real high on its own then die. unless i unhook the mass air meter then it will idle but still runs rough, does anyone have any idea what i may have overlooked? also there is a lil gold box attached to my battery on the pos and neg side, but that is all the wires it has,i will try to attach a pic soon. thanks for the help

 

[RayBan GST]

have you set your base timing correctly? have you set it to read 5 degrees ???

 

[gearhead37683]

yes the base timing is set at 5 degrees, the engine will only idle when the mass air is unplugged, and the vacum gauge is really close to zero at idle and it is about 5 at 1500 rpms, does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong? please lmk thanks in advance for any help

 

[RayBan GST]

what exactly did you do before changing the head gasket ?? did you resurface the head? which gasket did you use and did you buy new bolts studs?? did you torque correctly? if you have a leaking gasket these symptoms are a classic signs.

 

[LTUSPE]

You have a massive vacuum leak or your timing is a tooth off. Do a boost leak test and recheck your timing marks.

 

[gearhead37683]

thanks for the help, i went with a fel pro head gasket,arp head studs torqued to 85 ft lbs,the head wasnt resurfaced but it was checked for warpage,it came off of a running engine.i will recheck my timing again to make sure im not a tooth off,but if the timing was a tooth off, would that make it only idle with the mass air unhooked? now i really think i may have a intake leak, im going to take the intake back off in a lil while and replace the gasket, should i use any rtv sealent on the intake gasket? thanks again for the help and i will be looking forward to more replys on this one,

 

[KevinRR]

Sounds like you have a major vaccum leak some where, do a leak down test.

 

[-red97rum-]

Sounds like you have a major vaccum leak some where, do a leak down test.

That's what it sounds like to me. Check all the vacuum ports on the intake manifold and throttle body, make sure you didn't forget to hook up a vacuum line. While it's idling spray some carb cleaner where the intake manifold meets the head, if your idle changes then the intake mani is leaking.

 

[gearhead37683]

thanks for all the help guys, i sprayed some carb cleaner around the intake manifold and sure enough the rpm's jumped. so i should have my new gasket sometime today, and if it quits raining i hope to get it put on. but would it be possible for the intake leak to be bad enough to cause it to not idle and not run right with the mass air hooked up??? because it will idle when it is unhooked but it surges and idles rough, or could i possibly have other problems??? also what kind of egt's should i be getting at idle and what kind of max EGT's should i expect? thanks for all the help,and i will keep you posted on what i find.

 

[#40Fan]

With a bad vacuum leak and the MAF hooked up the computer thinks that the engine is only getting the little bit of air that is being pulled through MAF, not the huge vacuum leak.

 

[gearhead37683]

hey guys, i replaced my intake gasket, and hooked up the mass air, and the car ran like it should, but now i am having a problem with it running real rich all the time, when i was having problems with it before, i turned the screw thats on the throttle body,and im not sure if that has something to do with it or not, does anyone know how i should set the screw? thanks again for all the help i couldnt have done it without everyones help.