We just swapped in a 97 ka24de into a 93 hatch. the 93 had a bad head and was basically pouring water out the exhaust. Looked like a high power fog machine out the tail pipe. So we swap the engine out and start it up. Its reluctant to start. Not sure what the issue with that is. The real issue is that once it starts running, it idles high, like 2,200 rpms. It misses every now and then, and smokes like there is no tomorrow. Our first thought was that it was still buring off the left over water in the exhaust pipes. But the smoke is the wrong color and smell. You can smell a little bit of antifreeze, which we expected for a little bit. It is a rather greyish color and smells like it is running rich. We expected it to run a little on the rich side because the emissions have been removed. Would the different cams be pissing the ecu off that bad? I don't know that the cams would cause this problem at all. Maybe its causing the starting issue.
Any assistance would be appreciated.

thanks

 

oh, and the gas smelled and looked good 2 weeks ago. you can hear the injectors. not sure that they are working properly, but you can hear the noids. The plugs are new...well pretty new. They were out of another 240, they only have like 30 miles on them. and the wires are new (from that same 240)
The best part is that there is no check engine light. I've got no idea where to start.
thanks for the help.

 

first things first, run a compression test on the motor. If that looks ok there may be shit in the exhaust from the old motor still burning out. when my motor blew a turbo there was shit ganked up in the exhaust and intercooler piping for a week till it finally burned out. get your idle speed turned down and double check the timing on the engine before you go out in the car or let it run too long.

 

check for vacuum leaks.

 

vacuum leak + fuel leak = 2200rpm idle.

Find your inevitable vacuum leaks, including hoses, blocked off emissions stuff, injector donuts, and the intake pipe. Make sure the vacuum reference is hooked up for the fuel pressure regulator. Make sure you don't have injector leaks by unbolting the rail from the manifold and keying the ignition to on. Don't forget to check the codes on the ECU for bad sensors.

 

we found the vacum leak. it was the holes in the intake, just before the throttle body that used to be for emissions.
we took the fuel rail off to see what was up with that and the injectors were all kinds of fucked up. so we replaced those with ones that we knew worked.
started the car up again, and it still smoked, and idled just as high. we drove it around the parking lot and back to its space. by the time it was parked again, it was smoking like a mother. we let it idle while we looked at some other things. the smoke went away. so it was just the left over water and crap in the exhaust pipes.
we also found that the oil pressure switch was unplugged, not that it had anything to do with our situation, but it was good to find.
through happen chance, we discovered that the throttle cable was sticking open. for some dumb reason, the pedal would get stuck just a little bit down and you would have to pull it up to get it to idle right. we tweaked that and now it idles were it should.
now we have a different problem.
the idle is pretty crappy. it misses every so often and when you take the oil cap off, it all but dies. i didn't think that was supposed to happen. you rev it up some and just let go and it drops below idle, struggles for a few moments and then goes back to normal.
whats causing this?

thanks

 

Does it ever have a problem starting up? I had this problem with mine and it turned out to be an ignitor chip in the distributor.

 

checked the spark plugs? the only thing that causes a miss is the ignition not firing when its supposed to. Could be an Ignitor Chip. Did you adjust the idle down yet?

 

It does take a little convencing to get it started. there is a problem somewhere, either a bad relay or a bad fuse or something, that makes it so you can't start the car with the key. we are bypassing all of that and just powering the starter straight off of the battery. Sometimes it starts right up, other times, you can sit there for a few minutes before it goes.
what all did it take to fix this? (cost?)
thanks

 

its got new spark plugs. I explained that they have only been driven for about 30 miles. new wires. new cap and rotor. its getting the spark it needs. last i knew, bad spark wasn't the only thing that could cause a miss..... and yes, we fixed the idle. i explained that it was the pedal sticking....


looking into the ignitor chip, anyone know of a way to check it? I don't want to get a new one for nothing, ya know.