The Bird flies again! sort of

Hello folks:
Well after 3 months of night work in the shop, and countless hours reading the posts here, I installed a rebuilt engine (I've attached 2 pics of the rebuilt, before and after I cleaned it up) and got it to fire up today. I'm a complete novice at this.

Now the engine runs very rough, especially at idle (ran well before in donor car).I've read several posts about rough idle syndrome but have some questions:
First; I would think its best to check the sealing of my S/C tubes. They are tight, but I used permatex blue gasket maker to form the seal between each junction of the tubes (upper and lower). Is this acceptable? I could find no gaskets, so should I open them up and reseal them with more permatex?

Next, a lot of the posts use terms like MAF, IAC, ECC which leave me a little in the dark. The check engine light stays lit all the time, and there is a fair amount of backfiring, or popping. Can I test these components above with a multimeter?

One last major concern. I took it around the block (without hood) only to find that I almost could not accelerate (very slow to respond) but the brakes are almost non-existant. I had to stand on the brake pedal with both feet to stop! This was not an issue for the previous owner. Not sure if this is related to what I imagine could be a major loss of vacum along the way.

Thanks for your patience and input as I'm sure this could be a bit of work to get running right. Oh well, getting there is half the fun!
Thanks, Art

Glad to hear the Bird has come to life.
I understand about spending hours reading post's.
When I did my head gaskets, I read till my eye balls had cord showing.

Sealing the IC tubes is a big deal for idle.
here is an e-bay store that has the teflon gaskets.

http://motors.search.ebay.com/thund...ZQQsargnZQ2d1QQsaslcZ2QQsbrftogZ1QQsofocusZbs

Vacumm hoses are the next culprit, make sure you have good hoses, and tie wraps are not a bad idea to make sure you keep them on.

In regards to the electronic sensors--get ready to read some more!

Good luck

One last major concern. I took it around the block (without hood) only to find that I almost could not accelerate (very slow to respond) but the brakes are almost non-existant. I had to stand on the brake pedal with both feet to stop! This was not an issue for the previous owner. Not sure if this is related to what I imagine could be a major loss of vacum along the way

Click to expand...

is the ABS and Parking brake light on when you have no brakes?

Gaskets on order/Brakes

Thanks for the tip, I just ordered the gaskets from ebay. I think I'll try the gasket maker reseal while I'm waiting for the gaskets. How do I check vacum lines properly? I mean, I have reused all the stock connectors (no wire ties!) hoses don't appear broken, but is there a better way to check them?

About the brakes, I get no lights on the dash other than the CEL. (Now that I know what that means!) Parking brake light works when I apply the parking brake, and the brake fluid level is topped off, but stopping is almost reminiscent of the flintstones at present!

Thanks, Art

have someone turn the key on while you put your head down by the mastercyl and see if you hear the pump turn on.

Don't drive your car until you get the brakes sorted out. Here is a good article to read on ABS diagnosis. Could just be a stuck relay.
http://www.albeedigital.com/supercoupe/articles/abs-system.html

You can check for trouble codes with a paper clip. There should be a how to somewhere in this tech section or you can search elsewhere on the web. That should help to narrow down what problems you are having.

Thanks for the responses

Thanks for the replies, I'll start checking the brakes very soon as it really quite scary to drive as it is.
While putting the cowl components back on, I connected another black plug that goes into the firewall. That made the CEL light go out even though the engine still runs very rough, not sure what this means. Also there is a little grey plug beside the black plugin on the cowl. I'm not certain what hooks up to this, looks like another vacum line; but does anyone know what goes into this unit?
Thanks, Art

fixmysc said:

Next, a lot of the posts use terms like MAF, IAC, ECC which leave me a little in the dark. The check engine light stays lit all the time, and there is a fair amount of backfiring, or popping. Can I test these components above with a multimeter?

Click to expand...

MAF-Mass Air Flow sensor
IAC-Idle Air Control valve
EEC-Electronic Engine Control
The Maf is the part at the air box that meters the incoming air. The IAC corrects for rapid decel and large cams...at idle. The EEC is your engine/car computer. It controls all of the other components. If it is popping, does it rev up clean or is there shudders and such? If it revs up fairly clean, the problem is PROBABLY in the tube sealing. If it feels like its missing, you could have something as simple as the plug order wrong.

Chris

seawalkersee said:

If it feels like its missing, you could have something as simple as the plug order wrong.

Chris

Click to expand...

Definitely thought about the firing order since it's not intuitive on our cars.

And what year is this puppy?

Firing order

Thanks for the input. I appreciate knowing what the letters stand for.
The car seems to idle up okay, but when I try to hold it at a steady idle, either high or low, it constantly revs up and down. So I would say it revs up fairly clean, but can't hold any idle speed. Then at idle it gets very rough and generally stalls after a few minutes.

As far as wiring is concerned I'm pretty certain that its correct as there are many posts and pics here concerning that. I've rerun the new spark plug wires at least twice to be sure, and I'm using Autolite XP5144 plugs gapped at .053

The car is a 95, the engine is from a 94. Both were running fine prior to the 95blowing the engine, and the 94 being totaled.

What about that little connector on the firewall I previously mentioned, any thoughts on what connects there?

Thanks for all your help,
Art

Well that makes a big difference especially on the brakes.

There isn't a bunch of items on these engines. Mine was definitely bad when I had the firing order wrong on the coil pack. 5 and 6, in my opinion are swapped from what they should be.
http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showpost.php?p=636056&postcount=2


Check your PM

Firing order

rbrown said:

Well that makes a big difference especially on the brakes.

There isn't a bunch of items on these engines. Mine was definitely bad when I had the firing order wrong on the coil pack. 5 and 6, in my opinion are swapped from what they should be.
http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showpost.php?p=636056&postcount=2


Check your PM

Click to expand...

I'm not certain what you mean when you say in your opinion they are "swapped from what they should be" I used the diagram that you included the link for to wire my plugs. Infact, my coil pack has white dots on it in the same sequence as the diagram. Are you saying this is, in your opinion, swapped? Should I use a different order?
Thanks, Art

Art,

Can you post a pic of this plug you keep referrring to?

firing order

Flex;
Sure; here is the same link just posted above in the post by rbrown
http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showpost.php?p=636056&postcount=2
I'm not sure if this will appear as a hot link. Let me know what you think of this firing order.
Thanks, Art

Actually here's the pic file from that link

Art,
I will check it against my car in the morning.

I was referring to this grey "connector" on the firewall you mentioned.

replaced O2 sensors

Well I thought I'd attach a few pics of this ($400) project bird. The first pic shows the rebuilt engine in the car after having just taken it around the block a few times. Still idles very rough, and I just replaced both O2 sensors to see if it would make a difference. Not really much difference. Next is a better shot of the engine, I think you can see I have everything connected again except that little grey connector on the passenger side cowl thats in the 3rd pic.
Anyone recognize this? While I'm waiting on my S/C tube gaskets, what should I test to see if I can get a better idle?
Thanks for all the input, its very inspiring! ( I know I can, I know I can!)
Art

Thats a BAP sensor, and your fine by the looks of it. Our cars don't hook a vacuum line to it like others do, and that grey part is the plug.

Sorry we keep missing one another.

Looks like you've found out what the grey port is.
When you popped the new motor in, how apart did you take it? You mentioned it ran fine before.

As listed abobe...there is no connection to that. So...is it running rough, or is it missing?

Chris

Still runing rough

rbrown said:

Sorry we keep missing one another.

Looks like you've found out what the grey port is.
When you popped the new motor in, how apart did you take it? You mentioned it ran fine before.

Click to expand...

No problem, I'll keep trying

I don't know what BAP means, but I guess I don't need to worry about it. The new motor (pic) I put in is in the first post I started of this thread. I got it with apparently only 12,000 km on a rebuild. But as you can see from the pic it was filthy and I was uncertain about its condition. So I took it down to the bare block but left the heads on. From there I checked the cylinder walls, by pulling pistons through the bottom. Checked cam, crank, etc, and everything look quite good. The previous owner said he bought the car after it had been written off, and it was still running well when he bought it. So, I cleaned, painted, retourqued, and reassembled (with all new gaskets) the block as you see it in the second pic.

As for the 95 I'm putting it into, I bought it for 400 bucks from an older gentleman in my church who owned the car almost from new. He took very good care of the car, and I don't have a good picture of it up yet, but it is very good shape, I just couldn't pass it up for that price, and that's how I got here. Everything on the '95 (except the cruise) was in good working order before he blew the engine on the highway (alway ran regular gas!) So I'm not very mechanical or experienced, but I can follow directions, and so far this website has helped me get this old bird almost back on the road. I'm doing this for fun and as a hobby, and just enjoy any advice I can get.

Thats the story of what I have, I think I'm close, just need to sort out the rough idle and brake conditions.
Thanks, Art