Ok, I'm pretty sure I've fixed all my vacuum hoses since now my car actually idles about as well as it did before I took the engine out (badly), minus the fact that it's running very rich because of the broken intake air temperature sensor..

And while most of the popping has gone away, I still get a nasty clanking sound from the engine (it sounds like it's coming from inside the engine itself) whenever I rev it somewhat (more than just a tiny bit).

I figure maybe it's pinging...although definately not from running lean, according to my spark plugs (which were black). At the very least my engine hasn't blown up yet :p

Maybe it's a mechanical noise of some kind, and not detonation?

Any ideas of how to get rid of this, or how to go about finding any vacuum leaks?

I've already set my CAS to near full retard, even after restabbing it, so at the very least it shouldn't be detonating due to timing...

Well, anyway, HELP :p

I'm sure you guys are as tired of reading my threads as I am writing them

I think I've heard of people who have had this problem due to running rich... but only one thread about it.

One more thing, after I adjusted my TPS, I fired it up and it idled ROCK SOLID at 2000 RPMs...but I touched the throttle and then it went back to pulsing at 1000-1500. I wonder why...

 

For some strange reason it started idling half-decent... It's smooth as glass if I set it to 1500 and it's so-so if I set it under 1000 (steady but still sounds rough)... what's more amazing is that it stopped pulsing and now I can actually adjust the idle under 1000 (hell, even down to about 500).

I took it for a short drive down the street (hurray! It was fun, considering my brakes barely work and I couldn't drive at a decent speed), and the popping sound came back whenever I used a reasonable amount of throttle... which caused a lot of hesitations.

I ordered a new intake air temp sensor (as well as a new purge valve...although I don't think that's causing any vacuum leaks persay) so I hope I can at least make it stop running rich and make the ECU code go away (It's throwing code 11 and code 30, although I doubt code 30 is hurting it much...).

If not solve the popping/clanking problem all together that is...

Oh well, at least it was fun to drive even at 1/4th power

(and more importantly, I finally got to drive it DDDDD)