Help!!! Need some opinions

[damesta]

Well, I had some bad luck today and ended up sideways in the ditch, rear tire blew out and I lost control. I'm fine and the car seems fine except for some body damage. What I'm worried about is the engine. The car rolled totally onto the driver side, as soon as this happened I turned off the engine so it was running for a total of maybe 2 seconds on its side.

The only visible problem was some oil leaking out of the intake pipe (through the valve cover breather hose and out the intake). But now its running like crap, idles around 4-500 rpm, sputters, will die somtimes. It smoked for a little bit when I first turned it back on but I'm sure that was just burning the oil out of it that got in through the intake. Ive been messing with it for a few hours and I can't figure out whats wrong. Heres what Ive done:

-Checked ecu, no codes-Checked all grounds-Checked all ic piping, vaccum lines, pressure tested everything, its good-checked injectors, fuel pump, fuel pressure, its all good-checked ignitor, coils, plugs they are all good, its running on all 4 cylinders-checked compression, its perfect all the way accross-I added some oil to make up for what leaked out, oil pressure and oil level are both perfect

It stumbles and bogs when I rev it but after it gets up to 3000 rpm or so it will run perfect, no knocking, pinging, no unusual noises or anything like that, internals seem fine. Does anyone have any ideas on hat the problem could be? It kinda seems like a bad boost leak but thats already been checked and there isn't one

[float_6969]

I hate to say it, but this REALLY sounds like some sort of leak. Did you check the intake manifold? Maybe you cracked something, or screwed up a gasket?

Try turning off the car, uplugging the MAFS and starting the car. If it starts, and idles fine, but runs like crap and won't go past 3K, you've got a leak somewhere. Make sure that your suction pipe doesn't have a leak in it.

[damesta]

I'll try to unplug the maf and see if it gets better, as far as a leak goes though, I can't find one, I pressure tested the ic and piping and I'm still pulling 20-21 hg of vaccum at idle, a vaccum leak was the first thing that I thought as well but that doesn't seem to be the case. I did this today:

-switched out maf and cas-made sure timing belt didn't skip a tooth-cleaned plugs-checked tps, idle switch and engine temp sensor

It seems like the more it runs, the better it gets, right now it will idle up and down form 600-900 rpm or so. Its still running rich and the idle is unstable but its alot smoother than yesterday. Right now I'm thinking it has to be that some oil got sludged up in the iacv or some vaccum ports or somthing. It runs good above 2000rpm now, but under that its bad.

[float_6969]

Go get some stuff called Seafoam. It's awesome. Feed it into the intake somewhere. I'd try to do it before the TB. Maybeinto that tube that feeds the cold start and idle control valves. It should clean all of that oil right up, plus de-gum your idle valves if they are having problems. Did you pull the codes on the ECU?

[damesta]

Its not throwing any codes. I unplugged the maf and started it, it idles fine for maybe 10 seconds then dies, I plugged it back in and it did the same jumpy idle again but stayed running. Its not possible to have a leak somewhere and still pull the same vaccum at idle is it? I remember one time I left the fpr vaccum tube unplugged and I was only pulling 15 hg's. I'm about to go get some more carb cleaner and maybe some sea foam and see if that works. Thanks for the help.

[damesta]

OK, well I seafoamed it, no luck, still the same thing.

[float_6969]

Yes, you can have a leak and still get the same vacuum. It won't be in the manifold though, it will be in the piping between the manifold and the MAFS SOMEWHERE. Also, if you have that kind of impact, it's possible that the hotwire on the MAFS could have been damaged, giving false output to the ECU. There is a procedure listed out in the FSM for checking it .

[damesta]

I already swapped the maf, same thing. When I pressure tested the ic and the piping I capped the hose going to the throttle body and the one going to the turbo, so the pressure test actually isolated everything between the turbo and the throttle body(all the pipng and the intercooler). There were no leaks at all, it held 20 psi with no problem. I'm running out of ideas here, just double checked the timing, its dead on 15 degrees but I'm running rich as hell according to my multichecker. I'm running around 9.5:1 A/F ratio instead of my normal 12-14:1 at idle. Any more ideas?

[float_6969]

Hmmmm, rich hunh? What about a leaky injector?That would ruin your idle, but still run fine in the upper RPMS/Boost levels.

[damesta]

Possibly, Ive been messing with the maf some more and it will usually idle fine with the maf unplugged, rich as hell, but smooth. I don't know why it was dying with it unplugged before. It wouldn't idle smooth with the maf unplugged if I had a leaky injector or clogged iacv, etc would it? Now its doing exactly what you said earlier, it will idle good but won't rev over 2300 or so. So, I pressure tested all the piping and ic again and its perfect. I'm pulling around 21hg at idle with the maf unplugged so I don't think its a leak anywhere on the manifold or vaccum lines, I pulled off the intake pipe and checked it out, no leaks there. What do you think?

[damesta]

I just pressure tested the intake tube and turbo, I thought maybe there was a crack in the compressor housing or somthing but its good, holds pressure fine.

[damesta]

Allright, I have checked everything and cleaned all the piping, turbo, intake tube, hoses, pressure checked everything, swaped mafs, cleaned the maf,etc, etc, etc. I cleaned the other maf and swapped it back in, that semed to help a little. The only other thing that seems to make it better is spraying carb cleaner in the iacv hose. After about half a can its idling much better around 900-1000 rpm and not bogging or jumping around half as much as it use to, according to the multichecker its not running as rich anymore either, at first it was about 9:1, now its back up to about 12:1, my normal idle A/F is around 13.5:1. So I'm going to pull off the air regulator and iacv assembly and clean them out. Hopefully that will solve the problem, everything else I can think of that it could possibly be has already been checked.

[damesta]

Well, no luck cleaned out the iacv and air regulator, made sure everything was working and it still does the same thing. All the piping and ic have been cleaned and pressure checked, all vaccum hoses have been checked etc and its still pulling 21hg at idle. It will still idle perfect with the maf unplugged, Ive tried two mafs and tested the one thats on now and its good. According to my o2 sensor signal I'm running lean with the maf plugged in and rich with it unplugged. BTW, tried uinplugging the o2 as well, made no difference.

Heres somthing odd that happened though, I decided I would go drive it to see if it would hold boost, it had been idling for about 20 min, I went and closed the hood, got in the car and it died, tried to start it and it wouldn't start, went and opened the hood again and it starts right up. So, I did this about 10 times to make sure it wasn't a coincidence but sure enough, every time I close the hood, the car will die. Its not touching anything when its closed, not touching any piping or vacuum lines, not grounding anything out, Ive checked everything I could think of. There is no filter on the maf right now (it got oil on it so I took it out) and the only thing I can come up with is closing the hood cuts off enough of the air supply to make it die. But if thats the case it should be running rich, not lean, right?

Any other ideas, this is getting rediculous.

[damesta]

I'm pretty sure I found the problem. Has anybody ever ran their CA18DET with an sohc maf and the air filter off before? I put the air filter back on mine and it idles perfect, if I take it off it will stumble and die somtimes. Seems to be running fine now, for some reason my CA just doesn't like running without an air filter(and yes, I mean the filter, not the maf, the maf was on the whole time). My theory is that this is caused by using the sohc KA maf instead of the CA maf. The only thing I can think of is that the slightly larger diameter of the sohc maf will allow too much air in and cause the engine to lean out if there is no filter on. If thats the case then the filter must restrict the air flow just enough to keep the engine from leaning out. Thats the only idea that makes sense to me anyway.

I still have no idea why it would die when I closed the hood, it will still do that with filter off but when I put the filter on I can close it and it runs fine.