So Last night I timed my car and it was running great except it didn't want to ilde overly well but reved cleanly. I put about 20 miles on it last night, and it just ran like a champ, except for a high idle of about 1700. I know I could have adjusted it down further, but it was leaning out at idle, and when I adjusted it at idle it was round 1100. So while it warmed up the idle slowley crept up I guess you could say. So today, I went and started the car, it idled like crap which I expected, but never improved, and acutally got worse. The car started bucking and poping like I had a miss or had disconnected a spark plug. So I drove it home and pulled the cap to find the rotor top covered with some white crap and some other black crap and inside the cap was the same thing. Hummm. What do I have here? Is the timing advanced/off stil? Bad distro?
Eric

What did you use for rotor lube? Did you set the dwell first? High idle indicates a vacuum leak.

(newbie question) Am I suppost to put some sort of lube in the rotor before I put it on? I did set the dwell first, it's about 50 degrees. The vacum leak makes sense, but I can't seam to find one. I'm more concerned with the leaning out/miss that i'm havving. Any idea's? The car has been running fairly warm also, somes times even like steam come's out of certaing areas.

don't you need water to have steam?? Just kidding, Don't suppose you messed with the "other" points did you? By that of course I mean the fuel contacts. I got pissed at my points, and just bought an electronic unit that bolts into the standard distributor. Don't suppose I helped any but the steam made me chuckle.

yeah, very true, I know it's not steam, but I just don't wana think about smoke. I did recently put in a new set of FI Trigger points. Is there a special way to put them in?
Eric

Yea, the right way! Get a Pertronix. Also make sure the dizzy is seated properly and the clamp is tight enough. 1700 idle is way too high, if you are talking warmed up idle. Cold idle 1700 is normal. Is your AAR closing all the way?

Pertronix won't help the FI trigger points at all.

Put one drop of oil down inside the distributor shaft before you put the rotor on it. Put a little dab of Bosch distributor grease on the rubbing block of the points, and also those for the trigger points.

Vacuum leaks can make your car run crappy and idle funky and lean out. They can be anywhere between the throttle body and the cylinder head. Ones at the head-to-intake-runner joint can be especially mean, as can ones at the injector seals.

--DD

Pull the injector wires off one at a time and find the cylinders that aren't firing well. Pull those injectors out of the intake runners and point them into a cup and have a helper fire the car so you can watch the spray pattern. BE CAREFUL! Replace the injectors that are spraying badly. Once you have the injectors sorted, get a few cans of brake cleaner. Spray the brake cleaner at the intake to head sealing area and the intake runners to intake plenum area. If the RPMs drop or thecar dies, you've found your vacuum leak.

Right, but it does help if your dwell is eratic. I found it was just one less thing to deal with when I put a Pertronix in.

I'm thinking your on to something with the intake runner to head seal. I recently pulled it and replaced the seal, and have never been able to get it to seal quite right. I know I have a leak somewhere because I can hear it hissing when the car is running, so It sounds like I need a can of brake cleaner, but I've heard it's very flamable, should I be worried? If it does turn out the be the seal between the head and runner, what should I do to seal it right? I put it in with a thin coating of oil initially, should I put in some locktight or something strong to seal it properlly?
Eric