PNYXPRESS

Well glad to hear, double check all connectors and make sure nothing is pinched. Also check you firing order. Having two plugs switched will give you issues.

Villiska

Currently stuck at a gas station because my car won't start when I was getting gas and going home. Waiting on my friend to come help. I have to sell this car man I can't take this anymore.

PNYXPRESS

Ever figure it out? It has to be a plug not plugged in if it was running before.

Villiska

Sorry for the slow response. This is pretty much what happened and where I stand now.

We spent about 7 hours replacing the upper and lower intake gaskets and took pictures of every step before and after to insure everything got plugged back in correctly or to the best of our knowledge and this is what it looked like prior to removing the gasket and cleaning it.

https://i.imgur.com/qZv3wja.jpg

Pretty damn disgusting. We noticed where the coolant had been leaking from that there was a rip in the gasket and a clear leaking point of where it was going. We also found the old oil leak I had towards the back. We removed it, cleaned the intake as best as we could and then put the new gasket on. This is what it looked like after.

https://i.imgur.com/1l1E35u.jpg

We put everything back on and performed an oil change to flush any coolant that was in the oil or any particles that got in the oil during the swap. We also did a coolant flush. We then started her up and she started up nicely. That's when we started burping the system. We burped it until the coolant was full but we weren't getting hot air. My friend turned off the car for a second to check something and then tried to restart it (the car was warmed up now) and it would start, push to 700-800 RPM's and then fall and die on us.

By this time it was 5AM and we needed sleep so we parked it, cleaned up the garage and went to sleep. Woke up the next morning and my friend noticed a tube going to the EGR wasn't put in so he did that and started her up cold. Started up great, ran better than it has in a long time (I'm assuming since we cleaned all of the stuff out that we removed) and drove her around for about 20 minutes. She has a ton of power again and I don't feel any lag whatsoever.

Anyway, when we got back we wanted to test if it would die on us again and sure enough it did. He checked over everything again and found nothing unplugged. This is where I'm at now. It'll start in the morning, get me to work and start in the evening when I'm off work and get me home, but if I stop and get gas, I'm stuck sitting for 30 minutes before she'll start up again.

She also has a wonky idle whenever I'm at a stop light. When I press the breaks and stop it'll drop to 500~ and then slowly rise back up to the 750 it's supposed to be at.

We disconnected the battery before starting so I don't think it's a fuse but at this point I just don't know. I'm waiting for my tax return to come in this week and then I'm going to look at 2008 Ford Rangers. I just can't devote any more money to this vehicle anymore.

The worst thing is, it's probably something minor like a dirty throttle body or...I don't know. I don't know what could be causing this anymore and I'm out of ideas. Literally everything in this car is brand new apart from the motor itself and I'm almost forced to sell her for like $1000 because of the starting issue and mileage. She's beautiful other than that.

/rant

Villiska

Also, just to add onto that, we did manage to get hot air the next morning once we burped the system again. I think it just needed some time to sit or something.

PNYXPRESS

check the maf sensor on the intake tube and the iac on ther throttle body.

When the car is cold it doesnt read sensors as much as when warm.

Villiska

I'll try and check that ASAP. Thank you.

Also, for some reason my battery meter thing on my gauge cluster shows it at just under 3/4's of the way to the red. I don't remember if I ever saw it in the middle, or if it's always been like that, but is that a bad sign?

Derf00

If the alternator output is low at idle it could cause idling issues... Have it bench tested or have the cars charging system checked out at Autozone or your local parts stores. Most can do a quick check for free. they wheel a cart out to your car, hook it up and have you start and run it for a couple minutes while their machines tests things out.

Villiska

It's high, not low though. It's also as soon as I start the vehicle until I turn the vehicle off after any sort of drive. It's a 24/7 thing, and doesn't vary.