car intake smokes, 250rpm idle, runs rough, backfires, help!

[Tastyratz]

ok guys heres whats goin on, i just dropped in a new ka into my car since the one in it was messed, and this ka needed a headgasket changed. i put a new hg on it then threw it in. the car seems all wired up from what i can see, and i timed the distributor according to tdc rotor pointing to the front cyl1, etc. i put the chain and the cams on exactly the same way they seemed setup on my friends ka while he was over. the car starts and idles around 900 rpm, it seems to run somewhat decently but when i put the pedal in a little rpm drops instead of gains. if i give it alot the car will actually backfire a little bit. if im careful with it i can slowly give it just a tiny bit of pedal and work my way up to like 1500rpm at which that point i can rev it freely with light gas and its only lightly hesitant. it still backfires if i give it more than about 30% pedal and starts dropping but its less prone and will rev. if i rev it about say 3500 rpm all the lights in the car get muuuuuuuuuuuuch brighter. at that point if i let off the pedal at all it drops down and idles around 250 rpm barely chugging along. even if i carefully gas it up just a little bit it still drops back down to nothing. car warms up a little over the halfway mark but with no fan its not that bad to do that. it will stay on for a bit too. when i shut it off smoke starts coming out the intake. do you guys think im off a tooth with my timing chain install? any ideas?

[Altiman94]

check the timing on the cams and chain and make srue that your timing is not 180* off on the distributor as well.

[Tastyratz]

ill check that next more than likely, and ill check to see if im off 180* although i dont think i am. wouldnt the car not even run if it was off 180* ?

[Altiman94]

it woudl still run, just very very badly.

[Tastyratz]

im working on the car right now. it threw a code 11 and a code 34 which is camshaft position sensor, and knock sensor. im going to try the 180* and come back with the results.

[Tastyratz]

alright that wasnt it the distributor was fine. The car ran great the other day after i charged the battery and put stuff back together.... till i got stranded like 1 1/4 mile away from the house. i tried pushing the car but 1/4 mile later the road started going uphill so i walked the rest of the way akwardly carrying the battery. battery died and then car died so my alternator must be the culprit of everything. that would explain alot if the car runs great at first and then stops running so well then dies with no lights. im going to try swapping it out today and see how she goes.

[Tastyratz]

k i swapped out the alternator and it isnt exactly running any different. i did notice one thing however. i also changed my fuel filter today and it looked like it was full of watered down milk!!!! what can cause that??? the car had been sitting for a good 6 months or so in my back yard, could that have made it milky? so i drove the car down the street to get some gas and filled it up with 12 gallons of 93 octane hoping to dilute and fix the gas in there. the car was at about halfway point for heat on the way up. i havent hooked up my clutch fan yet but over the course of about a half mile or so and a 1-2 minute drive my temp gauge shot all the way up to completely overheated top of the gauge! i know of people who drive with no clutch fan at all and dont really have a problem, with it so why did my car overheat so fast!?!?!? this thing is driving me nuts!!

[Tastyratz]

ok i put in some gas line antifreeze thinking it could be water or something somehow and ran the car for about an hour. the car would barely run as usual so i put a screwdriver in the throttle body to keep it at about 2 grand. that should have cleared out any residue in the lines and some in the tank. i did notice however that there was alot of smoke coming out of behind the cylinder head area. my transmission tunnel seemed as if it was lined with greese so i assumed it could be just burning the crap off, could it be anything else? any other ideas? im going to run a compression check tomorrow, maybe i should get a leakdown tester...

[Tastyratz]

ok i ran the compression check and got the following results front to back : 172 178 165 174, cylinders 1 and 3 had a bit of oil on the brand new plugs i just put in andd cylinder 4s plug was dripping with gas. any ideas on this guys? i wouldnt get compression numbers that high if i was off a link with the timing chain right??? with the oil on the plugs 1&3 do you think i have bad rings??? is anyone reading this now can someone help i need to be able to drive myself to work! please guys...

[NISTECH]

check your airflow meter for your accel condition and #4 plug saturated with fuel. the oil problem could be one of 2 things. rings or valve guides.

[Tastyratz]

the car isnt throwing any codes right now at all. the oil is actually a fair amount of oil. not enough to drip but its on the plugs and probabbly washed all over the cylinder walls so id imagine its enough to cause a problem with igniting... the plugwire for cylinder 4 is a fairly new magnacore set and the plug is brand new. i also tried swapping out the distributor and it has a new cap/rotor on there. with the oil problem how can i check the valve guides? i know i can leakdown test for the rings so if the leakdown goes well should i just assume its the guides?

[NISTECH]

make sure your PCV valve is working right as too much pressure in the crank case can case the oil to by pass moving components. Usually you will also see external oil leaks when that happens. Just because the car isnt throwing any codes does not mean the Airflow meter isnt toast. If it still has an operating voltage range the ecm wont pick up its failing. you never mentioned the year or model of your car but if its pre 96 The ecm will only recognize an open or shorted circuit on the MAF.

[Tastyratz]

ok im going to check on the pcv when i get home. i have noticed that oil is leaking but i didnt get a chance to inspect where its coming from yet but i assumed it might be a bad oil pan gasket. ive tried 2 afms but its possible that they might both be junk so i think i might try my friends afm on my car later on if i get the chance...

[Tastyratz]

sorry my car has a ka24de and is a 93. i didnt get a chance to check the pcv yesterday but i did get a chance to check the afm. the car seems to run a little bit better with my afm hooked up, and for some reason was actually staying at the 1k rpm idle or so it had going. i had a friend with a definitely working 240 come over and i swapped afms with him but it didnt make the slightest difference. the car still ran the way it did, which was crap...

[Tastyratz]

k just for the hell of it i checked the tps and swapped it out with another throttle body from another 240 i had. The problem is not the tps and its doing the same thing. the car backfires out the intake and not the exhaust. and i checked with a timing light and im spot on at 20 degrees. i watched the car while i revved it with the timing light. the car ran perfect when the timing followed approximately the 20 degree mark but the times the car seemed to run crappy it jumped all the way down to 2-3 degrees timing! what can cause the car to pull back that much??? during its kinda little "hesitation" the car would drop down but when it seemed to rev nice and free it stayed around 20 deg. that is the STRANGEST thing, i dont hear any knock or anything around the 20 deg mark it sounds nice and smooth.

[Thee 240sx Owner]

a bad knock sensor will pull timing as well as cam angle sensor.. also... is your ignition timing fine... ?

[Tastyratz]

yea thats what i was saying i checked, the timing. i used an inductive light to check out whats going on. i threw a cam angle sensor code originally but i never received that warning again... hmm.. is that those sensors in the back of the head right behind the cams with a ton of odd vacuum lines going to them?

[Thee 240sx Owner]

shouldn't be if i remember correctyl.. its more of magnets on the cam with a senor (reed switch) that picks up how many times the magnet flys by the sensor and compares it with the rest of the sensors to make sure timing is fine

[Tastyratz]

do you know where it is so i can check it out?

[Thee 240sx Owner]

I honestly don't know since i deal with E's mainly... i'll find out for you though.. give me a few mins

[s13sr20chris]

inside dist. they go bad on the altimas a lot. not terribly common on 240s though.

[Tech12]

Well, I just swapped my 91 ka for a 93 ka and its doing the same damn thing. Rough idle, revs fall on accel, the whole thing. Did you ever figure out what the problem was?

[edpogi]

i got the same thing as well. i have a 89 coupe. swaped with a 97 motor and 92 intake manifold. still has the 97 distributor. no i am thinking if its my distributor is wrong. cuz my ecu and wireharness and intake is from a 92. i hope somebody can come up with the problem. i'm about to give up on it already. i put soo much money into it.

[Tech12]

I think my problem was the timing. It was pretty off according to my timing light (before, I was setting timing by removing the distributor) Go to harbor frieght and pick one up, they have 'em for around 12 bucks. My idle is still a little rough, but I put about 200 miles on the car this past weekend, and it drives just fine.