After installing the T56, but not yet getting to the SGI-5 box, I tried to start it up to see if everything was good to go. It started up easily after holding the clutch in, but the idle was horrible. I had to keep my foot on the gas while in neutral otherwise it would die. I only moved it a few feet up my driveway after that. I did notice an old vacuum hose that I replaced. After that, it was still idling horribly. I also noticed some white smoke coming up from behind the engine. No idea what this was from.

After a few times of starting...for a few seconds it would idle perfectly, and then die. Then the last time, I started it up, left it in neutral and took my foot off the clutch. Before it died I gave it a little gas to keep it going, and I got a nice fireball out of the TBI...scared the crap out of me and decided not to mess with it anymore until I got a little more info.

So, what would cause the white smoke, the weird idle, and the fireball? Would hooking up the SGI box fix all this? Any ideas?

Oh and I have not messed with any of the wiring that hooked up to the automatic shifter...the wiring for the clutch switch was already up under the dash. Nor have I changed the ecm chip.

I did remove the AIR system if that matters. And I removed the switch on the steering column that would lock the column when the key was out.

 

the sig box i believe just controls the speedometer. thats it... hmmm... you've got something else wrong.

 

Are you sure its white smoke? Does it continue once the car warms up? Or only when its cold?

White smoke indicates coolant in the exhaust. It could either come from coolant in the combustion chamber, or from condensation in the exhaust. If it is from the combustion chamber it will either stay the same, or get worse as the engine heats up.

If its just condensation it will eventually fade as the engine heats up and burns the moisture away.

 

its definetely white smoke. I did have a huge leak from the rear intake fitting (plug that up with a brass fitting) so maybe there was still some coolant back there that was being burnt away....but that was last night...figured it would have been gone by today. And I havent had the car running long enough for it to really get up to operating temperatures.

So what could be wrong? Timing? I havent messed with the timing but then again its been months since it has even been running.