Fstanggt96

Just finished putting my brothers engine back together, intake upper/lower, timing, water pump and all accessory drives, radiator, fan etc... Had the timing wrong at first and we think we fixed that, it runs now but has a surging idle, a lifter tick that is slowly waning away. Any ideas? Did a search but didnt find what I was looking for. Gunna run it for a while tomorrow and then drain the oil, check for water/coolant in the oil, then put new oil in cuz the car has been sitting for 6 or 7 years(says the seller) and ill put new gas in it, lol. Also check vacuum lines. Any other ideas????Thanks! - Nathan

djd2392

Honestly..it's a 5.0... I have an 88lx with a motor with 40,000 miles on it and when its cold or on first start up that car will idle down and sometime stall out after a little bit its fine.. my buddy has had 5 foxes and they all did the same thing.

Then again if its continuing to do it after its been running a bit that may be a different story

Tony71502

If it sometimes stall. Something is wrong. They don't produce engines that stall.

Before I rebuilt my engine it had 130k miles on it. NEVER stalled.

Vacuum leak or timing is way off.

Fstanggt96

It may be the timing, i agree, haven't messed with it too much, it surges like 800 to 1000 rpm though and after the choke disengages it dies... We seafoamed the gas tank and engine, ran it for about 15 minutes(because we found that after the radiator built up pressure it leaks because of a huge crack, lol) drained the oil(new yesterday, nasty when we drained but no coolant) new oil. Runs and drives, we drove it down the street and back. Good oil pressure... We are cleaning the throttle body and IAC tomorrow to see if that fixs/helps.

Tony71502

Choke and throttle body? They don't go on the same application. Choke is for a carb'd car.

dawson1112

If its a carb and its hunting a steady Idle ..........Here is the first clue you should look at...........The car has sat for 6 0r 7 years..........
Carbs dont like to sit for along time they get corroded and gummed up. carb thats hunting like that is causes from the float needles sticking or being clogged up .

BaltRavens

MAF? I had a bad one and my car rough idled and jumped from 800-1300rpms and it would sometimes die.

dawson1112

Lol so after rereading your origanal post I see you said upper/lower intake so that means your fuel injected. The thing that threw me off was you mentioned a choke.
You dont have a choke Idle is controlled by the computer as it gathers data from from a few sensors. The most relevent here is the ect or ( engine coolant temp sensor ) however it also relys on the mas air flow to give it information as to how much air is being pulled in. A surging idle is caused from the maf sensor most likely needing to be cleaned or possably a dirty air filter. If the computer sees a fluctuation in the amount of air being pulled into the throttle body it will try to compensate by slightly adjusting the idle air control causing your idle to fluctuate .

Fstanggt96

Lol, I figured it wasnt really called a choke, that was just the best way for me to describe it. We repaired the radiator and cleaned the IAC and entire TB, ran it for a while and now it is MUCH better, still has a lifter tick so were going to drive it 1000 miles and change the oil again and jump up a weight. Thanks for the help guys!

dawson1112

Have you narrowed down the exact lifter that is making the ticking sound?
I have heard some pretty noisy injectors in my day. It may just be the injectors , or one or two of them clicking open and closed. You may want to think about running some good injector cleaner through the fuel for 3 or 4 tanks especially that it sat for that long. Old fuel in the rail has probly tarnished them all .