engine problems

[Rauland-S13]

hello to everyone. Have a bit of a problem need some help with (2 actually). First, on to the specs...

I have an 89 coupe with a 92 KA24DE engine. 5 speed conversion done as well. Not to long ago, I did some basic mantainence on the car. Replaced spark plugs, cap, roter, O2 sensor, knock sensor, and installed a short air intake. Immediately after I did all that, the engine started acting up. Its Hic-upping. thats the only way I can describe it. It's first noticable at 60 km/h (38 mph) in 4th gear. The engine seems to just cut out, and then back in.... happens in under a second. It does that at irregular intervals until 70 m/h (45 mph) 4th and 5th gear then it smooths out till 100 km/h (60 mph) and starts acting up till I hit about 115-120 km/h (70 - 75 mph) where it smooths out untill I hit 135 km/h (85 mph) and then it hic-ups until 150 km/h (95 mph) where it smooths out right up to 199 km/h (123 mph) where I hit the speed limiter and she runs smooth.

I haven't put any rpm's in here, because it doesnt seem to matter whether I'm in 4th or 5th gear (sometimes even 3rd when I'm shifting in around the 60 km/h mark). I'm thinking its a vaccuum line (as opposed to a timing issue) due to the fact that its intermittent and irregular.... but everything seems to be connected fine so not sure where to look.

the other issue (possibly/probably unrelated) is my car sounds like its sucking air. Big time. To me it sounds like a big diesel engine whine. the last time it sounded like this, my stock air intake had disconnected from the TB. I've checked that, and all the other hose connections, and they are all tight (though one hose has a mild kink in it from the after market intake...). I'm going to put the stock intake back on (if I can find it...just moved... lots of boxes still) and see if that helps, but in the mean time would love some input.

Much thanks in advance.

Craig

[gingerbredman]

Have you checked your timing with a timing light? A while back one night I had a similar problem. Maintaining a cruising speed, it would cut out and jerk and bog, but not under acceleration or deceleration. I came home and put the light on it and found it was out of time, had to turn the distributor a good bit. I remember I had to advance the timing as much as I could to simply get it home because it got worse within minutes. Checked the timing again the following week and hasn't "jumped" since..

Other than that it's been reasonable, but I still get a hiccup or 2 every now and then, annoying but nowhere near as bad as the first incident.