Ok, for the past year or so the idle on my car has been intermittenly crappy. mostly when I first start it for the day. Usually it'll fire and rev up to about 1000 rpms. then it'll back down to about 600. When it wants to **** me off it will stumble and bog down to about 350, eventually dying. Sometimes it won't even run unless I have just a little bit of gas into it. It had also been throwing a code. I believe 44, could be wrong, but it definately meant o2 reading lean. If I remember right my spark plugs were a variety of everything but "normal" when I pulled them last time.

So far I've replaced the MAT, o2 sensor, wires, cap & rotor (another long story), and about 20 ft of vacuum hoses. tomarrow I'm going to change out the fuel filter and check all my plugs again and this time write down which ones look like what.

I also hooked up a fuel pressure gauge and it read around 35 psi, but I didn't disconnect the vacuum hose. It also steadily dropped pressure after shutting then engine off.

Oh yeah, I cleaned out the throttle body today as well as replaced the tb gasket and the other 2 gaskets on the plenum.

And oh yeah, my valve train is very noisy.. sounds like a clicking noise coming from my engine. Any insight as to what else I can do before I give up and take it and my paychecks to a mechanic?

 

btt

 

You say the Valvetrain is "very" noisey ?

Perhaps your rockers need to be adjusted.. one or two Rockers too Tight will play hell with your idle. And overall driveability.

I didnt see any mention In your post of the IAC, whats the story on it ?

Hunting idle makes me lean that way...

 

Check into your fuel injectors. The pressure shouldnt drop very fast at all. Could be a sign of a leaky injector(s).

 

Sorry if this is stupid, but how do I adjust the rockers? can I pull the valve covers without removing all the crap I just put back on (mainly the plenum)? And are there any special tools needed? thanks!

 

First service the AIC. Remove the IAC, clean the pintel and its bore under the TB with carb cleaner and reset min idle speed. My method is on my site.

To adjust rockers warm remove the valve covers and place a cardboard box over each valve train with openings to get to the adjuster/set screws. Then start the engine and in turn back off each adjuster till you just hear the "tic", tighten till the "tic" just disapears, go 1/2 turn more and lock her down.

 

Well, I just replaced the fuel filter, and DAMN what a difference. the idle still hunts a little bit, but it's much smoother. And there was one other little thing I noticed, THROTTLE RESPONSE! I didn't know my car could move like this