Ok, in an effort to try and diagnose/repair my wandering idle, I decided to replace the intake manifold gaskets. Prior to this, I had a slight miss at low rpm with heavy throttle input, and the idle would just kinda go up and down from like 850 to around 1100 rpm. Sometimes it idled perfect. Whatever. Anyway, new intake manifold gaskets and injector seals. Now it gets interesting. BAD BAD BAD miss. Like, one cyl is not firing at all. All cylinders have spark. All injectors are squirting like a mean kid with a super soaker ??

I unplugged each cylinder's plug wire to determine which one is causing the problem, unplugging cyl #4 resulted in NO CHANGE.
When I did the gaskets, I replaced the plugs also, one is like, black, a mean ugly black (after less than a few minutes of attempted running).
So, I said, oh %($#, let's do a compresson test. Well, the black one was cyl. 4

Results of test:
Test 1/ 2
Cyl 1: 152/150
Cyl 2: 145/145
Cyl 3: 138/140 (added oil and it went to about 142)
Cyl 4: 154/152

WTF?
Car starts on the first try, idles really screwey, and has a bad miss at the hint of throttle application. I have spark, compression, gas. What am I missing here? Other stuff I've tried: plugs, wires, cap/rotor are great (yea I looked ), searched high and low for a vacuum leak, didn't find anything.

 

Check the spark plug wire to that cylinder.

Also unplug the injector and not the plug wire.

I would pull the dist and take a hard look at it and the rotor. Did the screw come out of the rotor?

 

Brad...

When you replaced those intake gaskets.... you did put the new ones in the right orientation?

The only reason I ask is I have done that before on one hole and it sounds like a horrible miss. It is easy to have them flipped around. Pull the fuel rail and look down the injector holes and make sure you don't see any gasket material.

The only other thing is that the manifold may not be seating properly and you have a major intake leak.... This tends to be a bigger issue on Turbo guys with larger turbos (clearance issues)

...and look for bad intake leaks. The hose under the intake is the first on my list.

Good luck.

 

Replaced it too.
Will do.
I did, and no.
Yes. I double, then triple checked.
Did, unless there is one hidden deep in the who knows what, the hose there is fine and attached tightly.

 

can you check fuel pressure? Your problem sounds like too much fuel, not too little. Pull the vacuum hoses from the damper and fuelpressure reg. see if there is any liquid fuel in the hose, if there is then you will need to replace the unit that is leaking. Put a screwdricer to #4 injector with the eng. running, do you hear it ticking, does it sound like all the others? Thet's all I can think of at the moment. Good luck

 

Bad Idle and the bell housing will not match up? How many cars are you working on?

 

Billy - 2
This one is mine, the bellhousing puzzle is my friend's.

 

Put a screwdricer to #4 injector???

Would the ticking be from his BLING BLING fake rolex?