RB20: Rough starts and crappy idle??

[Project240]

First of all, my intercooler is leaking fairly badly, so I have a boost leak and consequently a high idle. Intercooler is in the mail, so I'm not worried about that.

The problem is, the car is difficult to start. It usually takes a few tries to get it to start and stay running, and when it does start running, it burbles and bobbles between, like, 300RPM and 1000RPM (the tach is going crazy and it's sputtering horribly) for about 5-10 seconds. Then the idle stabilizes and shoots up to about 1700-1800RPM. When I tap the gas it kinda hesitates and doesn't respond very well.

Carl H said it sounds like I'm running without an MAF, but my MAF is plugged in. I didn't even extend the wires, I just cut the wrapping on the EFI harness and pulled the wires from it so it would reach behind the engine to the MAF. All my vacuum lines are connected.

Think I have a vacuum leak? What are the first things I should check?

Also, I don't have an air filter at the moment because the crap 3" cone filter adapter I got off Ebay won't fit. What sort of adapters are you guys using for your filters??

[Wulfgang]

You already checked the ECU codes, right? What did they say?

[Project240]

Actually I haven't, I don't know how I've searched for threads on it and haven't found much (my ECU doesn't have LEDs, so I'm not sure how to get the codes out).

[Yellow4g63]

I figured it out already. If the intercooler is leaking then air is getting into the motor that the MAF isn't reading. Thats why it takes for ever to start and idles like crap. Mine took some magic feet to get it to start after my Intercooler pipe blew off and I didn't know about it. It idled crappy and ran real rich. So rich that it burnt my eyes. If you really want to make sure it's not the intercooler bypass it and loop the charge from the turbo str8 into the Throttle body.

[Project240]

OK good then. Glad to see that it might only be one thing to fix instead of 2 or 3

[goofynick6]

Yeah, the MAF is reading X amount of air, but the engine is seeing Y, so it's confused. Fix that leak up and double check for any others and then try it.

Nick