So tonight was the first drive! drove about 10 miles to my friend's house where i re timed the engine, and adjusted some small stuff, then drove it up the Virginia city highway to my house! oh my god- for being very underpowered (i have a feeling something needs to be tuned) it was an amazing drive... I was going about 45 the whole way- i usually ditch cars in my 4runner at 45 and it feels fast, this felt slow and didnt even make the car lean! now i know why i got this car 3 months ago and chose to fix it up!!!! cant wait to fix the little things and get it going strong!!! anyone know why my idle jumps from 800 to 1800 rpm continuously? i'm guessing a vacuum leak, but where? and man do i need to repair the shifter bushing- i have two speeds- "stick forward" and "stick backwards" which can be any of 5 gears at random....

thanks again for all the help guys!

Not sure about the idle, however have you checked the set screws on the shift rod tube? There is one near the firewall under the boot and another near the end. If these are loose then shifting can be as you described.

Check everywhere for vac. leaks they can be small and hidden and willl cause you lots of greif.

get a can of carb. cleaner and start spraying. It's a painstaking process.

I chased one for a long time, ended up being the intake runner gasket at the head.

if you have a camera, take off your air cleaner and post some pics. something may be missing as with your temp sensor.

okay i retarded the timing slightly and it seems to run better. i also took off the oil bath filter and put a cold air intake from my girlfriends civic on it (i got it for 30 bucks, and we liked it, but she thought it was rattling so i took it off- what else would i do with it?) it runs much better now, although it has an occasional miss and sometimes backfires when it misses- under load every couple minutes or so it will do it... i figure i'll put my new plugs i bought a while back on and see if it gets better. WOW this car is fun to drive!!! took some pics tonight, will add them soon.

this is FI? like toon said, you probably got vaccuum leaks. investing in some vacuum hose and just replacing everything would be prudent and might clear up your hunting idle. set the timing to spec, don't play around with it too much.

and then tear up the road!