Well I've made good progress on the vac job thanks to dgeesaman. Now I'm putting everything back together, and aside from random screws/bolts that I need to pick up, I have a pipe for a coolant line, and I have the coolant line, but I can't figure out what it connects to. The pipe sits between the intake manifold and the alternator, and the hose is kind of an "S" shape. Here's a pic



Any ideas?

 

circle the line for a better understanding, coolant line is to the T. Body, cold start

 

Just under the bracket that holds the crossover pipe is the nipple that hose connects to. You can see the base of it just to the right of the white one-wire connector - the nipple points straight towards the firewall after it comes up out of the water pump housing.

Dale

 

Yeah I had the bracket started so I would remember how it was oriented. I got mad when I tried getting the alt in and took the bracket off and lo and behold, the pipe was right under it. The last thing I need to find now is where that blue connector (laying on the bracket) connects to. Once I get that in, since the alternator and coolant lines are good now, I should be REALLY close to turning the key.

 

Could that electrical connector possibly be for something that's not essential? I really want to get the car buttoned up and see what happens when I turn the key. Any takers on where it connects to? It's bundled with the connectors for the two solenoids that slip in under the manifold bend.

 

I've got my engine semi- pulled apart and I went to look for you. Seems I have the same connector that was tucked away there. Looks like it's been dissconnected for some time because it has some grime on it like it's been exposed to the typical engine bay enviroment. Anyway I will say that my car ran perfectly fine without it being plugged into whatever it plugs into
I would like to know what it is however. I don't remember unplugging that when I was doing the dissassembly.

 

I'm going to call it a plug for Autos only so I feel better about myself

All I need to do now is connect the battery and turn the key. Wish me luck!

 

It is for California cars with EGR, is my understanding. Mine was just laying there, never connected to anything also....caused me a bit of head scratching at one point...lol!

 

I got it together, cranked it, and threw the alt. belt. I redid both belts and made sure they were 'locked in' and tensioned, then I cranked it again. It's a little low on coolant, and the idle is horribly lumpy and bouncing right around 1000 rpm (between 10-11 in Hg).

I'm going to go throw some coolant in, make sure it's topped off, and then crank it and see what I can find under the hood.

 

I got it cranked again, and the good news is, it's running. The bad news is, it's running INCREDIBLY rich. It didn't stop smoking in the 5 minutes I had it running. I also have an intake leak, but I expected that since I haven't commited to tightening down all of the fitting just yet. Hopefully it's metering more air than it's getting to the engine, and once I tighten the intake, it'll idle smooth (I know, fat chance). If not, I'm starting back at square negative one and can't drive the car until I find out what's up.

 

make sure your map sensor is hooked up to the back side of the uim (most common problem when running rich)

 

which connector is that? I'm sure I got them all, but I might just unplug/replug to see. It's got a ticking sound also. I'm thinking it's a bolt/nut that fell during the ripping apart, so it doesn't concern me too much just yet. Hopefully that MAP sensor will be the one.

 

Check for CEL codes.

 

The map sensor connects at the back of the UIM very close to the throttle body. It's kinda hard to get in sometimes.

The lumpy idle could be related to the leaks. Snug down the bolts and hopefully it'll clear up. If not, check for codes, reset the ECU (disconnect battery neg, hold brake pedal for 30s), and try again.

 

I've given up on the car for today. I spent about 3 hrs putting it back together, then 1 hr trying to double-check and tighten everything.

I'm still hoping it's the MAP sensor, and I know it should only take 5 minutes to check that, clear codes and try again, but I figure if that doesn't change anything, I'd end up out there for another 2-3 hours. Hopefully I can get in there after work tomorrow and see what happens.

 

Alright, I couldnt' stand to see my baby suffer, so I went out and checked again. The MAP was plugged in, but the vac line wasn't connected. I was thinking you meant an elec connector, and I wasn't sure how I would've missed that, but I saw that I had the vac line out of the way for the removal, and forgot to re-run it for connecting.

I disconnected the - terminal, held brake for 30 seconds, then reconnected and started. It's idling better now, but it still isn't right, and it's got horrible vaccum. I didn't want to get into boost, but it feels like I might be putting down about 2 hp to the wheels, so I doubt I'd have any/much boost. I assume that some hose got crossed somewhere, and it's going to be hell pulling everything apart to recheck that, but I suppose it has to be done.

I don't know how to verify that my ECU was reset other than to try to pull codes now. I'll have to look that procedure up at a later date, because I've gotta run out for dinner tonight. Thanks for the help on the MAP sensor, becuase I doubt I would've ever caught that. You know once you look at the same thing for so long, it's REALLY hard to figure out if anything's out of place.

 

Not sure if anyone is checking up on this anymore, but I figured I'd let folks know anyways...

I went out for dinner and the car was eating at me instead of me eating at my ribs. I knew there had to be something stupid wrong with it becuase I knew that me and dgeesaman had checked and double-checked things earlier.

I came home from dinner and disconnected the negative cable. Left it go for about 30 minutes to make sure everything was shot. After that, I connected it again and started the car. It idled alot better, damn near normal idle. I got a phone call, so I came in and talked for about 15 minutes before I went back to check on the car. When I went back, it smelled like stuff burning under the hood, but I expected that since fluid had spilled on it. The vac was sitting around 16 in Hg, so I wasn't too compelled to think that I had everything right. I gave it a little gas and it revved up nice, then came and sat at about an 800 rpm idle with 20 in Hg idle. I shut the car down cause I was happy at that point.

I started it today to take it to work and prove that I (and my aforementioned helper) could get the car back and running, and it started just like it did months ago when I last drove it. Everything seems to be ok now, but I haven't gotten a chance to test out the real issue of going full throttle one gear, then switching to the next. Before, it would only make about 2 psi in the higher gear, but I haven't had any openings to check it with Maryland drivers because they all suck up the passing lane and then pace the car next to them so they block off traffic (that could be turned into a WHOLE new thread iteself).

If anyone cares, it seems that the trick was that I forgot the MAP sensor, which caused it to 'learn' to run like ***. Once I reconnected the MAP sensor, it still ran as such, so I had to reset the ECU not by holding the brake, but just disconnect the negative cable for about 10-15 minutes and then restart. Holding the brake did nothing to reset it and it ran the same before and after trying that. It seemed like taking all power away and letting all the capacitance leave that the ECU would reset and 'learn' to start the car again.

Thanks for all the help everyone, especially dgeesaman for swinging down and pretty much doing alot of the "plumbing" while I cleaned solenoids and smoked cigarettes!

 

Sweet. Congrats on surviving a tough job.

I'll be curious to hear how your boost pattern looks.

Dave

 

Boost pattern is a little touchy right now. I've only gotten a few full boost runs, but it looks like I hit 9-8-9 and 10-8-10. I'm pretty happy with it either way. Also, I gave it a nice 2-3 shift and it shot straight back up to 10psi in third. I assume it was the broken solenoid that I replaced with the new one from Mazda that did the trick for me. Everything seems to be good now!