Car won't idle after new HG. Halp!

[hexapus]

Ok, so my mechanic buddy put the new head gasket on, put everything back together, hooked up all of the appropriate vacuum lines, etc..etc... and the car wouldn't start. So he checked one of the plugs, and had it wrong...whoops! After that, VRoom! Cranked right up. Neat! Second try ain't bad for an old school American muscle guy!

So, we jumped through all the hoops and got the cooling system bled and the ignition timing set (dialed in 10 degrees, and about 14 after removing the jumper). It was running great...a little smoke coming off the header from crap that was spilled on it, but no big deal.

I'm headed back to his place tomorrow anyway, but I couldn't wait so I drove her home...about 10-15 min into the trip, I notice all my status lights are on (brake, CEL, whatever else...), and after the slightest moment of panic, I realized my engine had stopped...I was coasting at the time with the clutch in, so I started her back up and finished driving home...of course, dying at every stop light, and boy was the patch of stop-n-go traffic I hit fun! All gauges seem normal...oil pressure is good, temp is good, battery good. But I had to stay on the gas to keep her running (kind of a pain, when juggling a clutch and brake too) Also still noticed a bit of smoke coming off the header (I think) when I got home...but don't know if a 30mi drive was enough to burn everything off.

So yeah...I've got a car that keeps dying at idle, and a pissed wife who says I'm impatient, and should have had my mechanic test drive it with me before bringing it home (he didn't have time, and was on his way out the door).

Any ideas? I'm fully prepared to email a genuine High Five© to anyone who can help me get my baby running properly!

[hexapus]

Update:

After a bit of fiddling w/ the idle control screw, it runs a weeeee bit better, but still dies. And after reading some other threads on here (and identifying a small hissing noise), I'm tempted to say it's a vacuum leak somewhere...but still absolutely open to suggestions. Also have an oil leak, it seems, so I'm going to attribute the smoking to that...for now.

[Papo J]

The most common sources of vacuum leaks after a HG replacement are the large hoses between the AFM and throttle body, the brake booster and PCV hoses and the AC idle up hoses, make sure there are no leaks on any of those.

[muffinman]

is the oil leaking on the exhaust manifold? if so it could be the distributor o-ring if it wasn't replaced

[Teado]

Double check all the clamps on the vac lines. especially the ones that are hard to get to near the intake of the TVIS. Sounds JUST like a vac leak.

[Stork]

Use some carb cleaner while the car is running to check for vac. leaks if you can get it to idle long enough.

[hexapus]

Thanks for the replies! Here's what my mechanic found out...when you start and run the car at idle...(or 2000 rpm), it doesn't leak oil, but when you drive it, it leaks terribly. He's not sure what is causing it yet...but there is oil all over inside the engine bay. Maybe there is a common problem? He questions if something from the head gasket is causing this...or if it is from the valve cover gasket or if there is something else that could cause it. (maybe the afore-mentioned distributor o-ring?...which I do believe was replaced).

[Papo J]

Did he replace the cam seals and sealed the corners of the cam covers with RTV as per the Toyota manual?

[hexapus]

Ooh, good idea. I don't know if he did, but it would explain the oil he's finding on both the front and the back of the engine. He told me this last night...so yeah, oil on both sides...and that would make sense. I'll pass this along. Someone on some other board suggested he put the HG on backwards. Yikes!

[hexapus]

The cam seals/caps theory sounds plausible, as he says he didn't use any silicon on it. Would this be something that might cause a leak that only appears under load (i.e. can't replicate it while sitting in the garage idling, or even revving the enginge)? He says it's seems really big for that to be the source, but we're definitely open to being wrong :-/ Just trying to find answers at this point.

Thanks for your help again, guys.

[Teado]

HG will only go on one way.

[85silverna]

Under load there IS a lot of oil spinning around under the valve covers, its not bad at idle though. Notice the cam scrapers on the intake side?

[hexapus]

OK, so yeah...It's drivable now, after putting RTV on the cam seals...still losing oil under load. I can rev it by hand while I'm back there, and if I take it up to 5-6k RPM, I'll start smoking pretty bad, as I'm assuming it's leaking right onto the header. Could the distributor leak under load like that, or is the seal just bad around the valve covers on that side?

Also, the original issue persists, though it's a bit better. It misses at idle (gonna try replacing the plugs to see if that helps), and I have to adjust the idle kinda high (currently, about 1k RPM) just to keep it running. It usually dies if I'm coming off the freeway...like, off of high revs, and letting it drop...it'll drop all the way. I can sort of feather the throttle a bit to keep it alive/stabilize the idle. Meh...while I was replacing the vacuum hoses, I managed to break one of the little nibs on one of the plastic connectors, so now I have a semi-permanent vacuum leak, until I can replace it with God-knows-what part #. Agh.

At least it's back on the road...and consuming oil and gas like crazy :-/ But it is fun to drive. Anyone know somewhere I can get a cheap/smog legal swap in SoCal?

[after_the_last]

Originally Posted by hexapus

OK, so yeah...It's drivable now, after putting RTV on the cam seals...still losing oil under load. I can rev it by hand while I'm back there, and if I take it up to 5-6k RPM, I'll start smoking pretty bad, as I'm assuming it's leaking right onto the header. Could the distributor leak under load like that, or is the seal just bad around the valve covers on that side?

I wanna say it's your valve cover gasket.

[85silverna]

Um he admitted he has a vacuum leak. Fix it. That's likely your idle issue.

[hexapus]

Originally Posted by 85silverna

Um he admitted he has a vacuum leak. Fix it. That's likely your idle issue.

Erm, I think he was referring to the oil leak mentioned in my post above that. Vaccum leak is fixed, so as far as the idling problem, now I'm suspecting a bad ignition coil due to some other behavior that perhaps I'll post about later.

[hexapus]

Originally Posted by hexapus

Erm, I think he was referring to the oil leak mentioned in my post above that. Vaccum leak is fixed, so as far as the idling problem, now I'm suspecting a bad ignition coil due to some other behavior that perhaps I'll post about later.

Wooo...quoting myself! Ok, so here's what I've done...

Replace plugs
Replace ignition coil
Replace Air Filter
Replace vacuum hoses almost everywhere (could have missed some, I guess)

So, after all that, the car runs better (no more missing at idle), and dies less than before, and now that I've replaced the coil, it will actually start again when it dies (before, it seemed the coil would get warm, and if I was so unfortunate as to let the engine die, I would be stranded for about an hour, presumably while the coil cooled off...at least, that was the working theory) but still, if I'm on the freeway cruising along, and I let off the gas, push in the clutch, it'll drop down to about 1k, and start working it's way lower (sometimes quicker than others, but within a few seconds), and die on me. Or if I'm coming up on a light or stop sign, and have to let off the gas, it may die. This is intermittent...doesn't happen consistently, and I can "save" it usually by tapping the throttle (maybe a couple tries) a bit to keep it from dropping, and it will sort of "catch" and idle just fine.

Finally, sometimes, it will be idling happily for an extended period (like if I'm parked), and will inexplicably start to creep toward 0 RPM until it just dies....other times (like today, in the car wash), it will idle indefinitely without issue.

So, what do you guys think? If I keep replacing parts like this, I'll have a new engine soon, but for right now, I think I'd rather find the problem so I can drive this thing to work! One thing to note, which shouldn't affect this (but what do I know?), but might be relevant...I broke, and have bypassed a BVSV ( http://http://www.gtfours.co.uk/pics/sensors/bvsv.jpg) for the time being, as I have one sitting on my desk, but haven't been able to install it yet.

Oh, and one last thing (sorry for the longish post)...I'm leaking oil, only at high RPMs, and it *seems* to be coming from under the header...seems to be smoking from underneath. I can rev it by hand, and watch smoke come up through the front of the engine...thought it was the oil filter today, since it seemed to have a bit of oil collected around the bottom (none on top of the filter), but even after tightening it down pretty good, it still did it. I proposed that it smelled more like exhaust than burning oil (maybe the infamous cracked header?), but none of my mechanical-type buddies agreed, saying we'd hear a hissing or something if that were the case. While I do notice some strange whistling on the freeway, I definitely don't hear a hiss when it's just sitting there.

So, that's it guys...I'm interested in your thoughts. If you have any questions about the problem, let me know, and I'll give you as many details as I can! As always, thanks for your brain-minutes!