I am in the process of driving my fresh engine rebuild the 2000 miles required for break in. Its running great. The car is an 86 gxl. I've driven from Chicago to Denver, and am on my way back now.

So Far Ive only noticed two oddities.

1. With the idle screw backed all the way off, I'm idling at 2000rpm at startup.

2. The car gets "squirrely" seemingly out of the blue. The handling goes from rock solid, to what seems to feel like balancing on the head of a pin.

 

if the idle only goes up when u start up, its fine, the engine does that to warm up

handling problem after the rebuild ? did u messed up the motor / tranny / diff mounts somehow ?

 

clutch in/in gear, its idling at 2000. It wont get lower.

 

did you keep the fast idle system on the throttlebody but remove its coolant hose?

 

Does the idle return to normal once the car warms up? 2000rpm for a few minutes at startup is normal. If it never drops down to below 1k then you have either a vac leak, the fast warmup cam is off or your throttle cable is too tight.

As for the squirrely handling, what are you doing when it happens? Are you driving in a straight line, curves? Check your suspension bushings and your tie rod ends for play. See if there is any slop in your front wheel bearings (try grabbing the top of the tire and rocking it back and forth - there should be no play).

-b