What is the standard vacuum that I should be seeing when my car is at idle? Just did a temporary hookup for my boost gauge cuz my car keeps stalling out. it'll stay right around 18 for the vacuum side then drops down towards 10 when the car is about to stall out. Put the car in the shop and the guy didn't fix anything...

 

btw, it's only having problems starting up and stalling on a cold start....any clue?

 

18 is excellent w regard to idle vacuum.

you will need to provide more info than "stall out" to get help...

does it stall out in neutral? or when you start to move under power?

howard coleman

 

It won't start up hardly at all...keeps turning over but no start, then when it finally does start I have to rev it to 4-5 grand and even then it'll cut out with throttle.

 

16-20 inches is normal for a stock engine. If it is ported, it could be somewhat lower. Is the cold start mechanism (thermowax) disabled or broken? Do a search - there are lots of threads on this.

 

REVZEMPOE,

Actually, your last symptom sounds like a vacuum leak (disconnected hose or similar...)

 

Well i definitely haven't disabled the cold start. I'll look around more for disconnected hoses but I don't know.

 

most probable from your further info is vacuum leak... check the hoses and especially the hose to the MAP sensor near the oil filter on the firewall.

howard coleman

 

^What he said. Small black box maybe 2 in. square. Has a vac. hose coming in from the bottom, which I knocked off once while replacing the oil filter. When I did, I got symtoms similar to yours.

FWIW, I'm seeing 16 to 17 in/Hg @ idle on my stock engine (w/70k).

 

I know the map sensor that hose is in fine. Oh and I definitely can tell when that hose is off, black smoke comes out horrible idling. But with my current problem, it's only when the engine is cold. Once it's warmed up it idles and starts fine....everything runs well (other than the fact I only get 6 psi of boost from the turbos)