It sounds like the pistons are rubbing against the cylinder walls without any oil, although the oil is there and it’s the synthetic blend.

Also it sounds like it’s only running on 3 cylinders and idles at 400 rpm, but when I checked it by pulling spark plug wires one by one, the engine seemed to get worse, which means that all cylinders are working.

What else can I check.

 

What have you done lately as far as driving abnormaly? Any 5-2 shifts that kicked the RPMs through the roof?
Do a compression check. You may have blown rings/ringlands, bent valves, etc. Any smoke coming out the tail pipe? If you get blueish smoke you're burning oil. If so I'd say your rings/ringlands are shot.

 

how do you know what a piston rubbing the wall sounds like? i don't know what it sounds like either, so i can't help ya, be more descriptive

 

I haven't driven my car in months. I just did a head swap a few days ago.
When I tried running it, this is what I got:
Stalling, misfiring, EVAP cells, not revving up, erratic idling.

I suppose I don't know what it sounds like, but the sound coming from my engine is like rubbing to metal plates together. It's not a loud noise, but it's high pitched. The intake is probably amplify the noise.

 

since you jsut swapped the head, then it is probably something in the head, not the block...

i dont know what though, maybe the valves or something.....

 

I did the valve job before putting the valve cover on and I’m confident I did it right.

My car has been sitting for a few months, and I didn’t put any fuel stabilizer in.
Although my gas tank was empty (according to gauges), there was probably still some fuel left and it might have separated, ‘cause it seems to be spitting water out of my exhaust.

Right now my gas tank is filled with 92 octane gas + 104 octane buster.

I’ll retard my timing a couple degrees and make sure the fuel PSI regulator is set right, but is there anything else I should do?

 

Too much blue under the hood.
Sorry, I had to. You SN just reminded me of your engine bay.

 

I like it, though.
And if no one else does , then , it's less likely my car will get stolen.

Back to my problem though, how can I fix it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by d16rice &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Back to my problem though, how can I fix it.</TD></TR></TABLE>
You can't fix something if you don't know what the hell's wrong. Do what I suggested above. You're not going to find a magic suggestion from somebody that'll let you diagnose your car while surfing H-T. Go out and get a compression checker.

 

I did the compression check and it’s within the limits specified in the repair manual.
Also, there is no “smoke” coming out of my exhaust or any where else, but the muffler sounds like a machine gun.


The following are the things that are happening.
- Initially it idled at 400rpm. Now it’s around 500-600rpm.
- Initially the engine stalled after 15 seconds of running. Now it runs non stop, but as soon as I put it in gear it stalls.
- The engine barely revs up. Sometimes I can get it up to 5K, but usually barely up to 2500 rpm.
- When in gear, the car barely pulls
- When reving it, sometimes it misfires.
- After reving, the car usually stalls

These are the codes I got with my OBDII Scanner:
- P0325 - knock sensor 1 circuit malfunction bank 1 or 1 sensor (I haven’t installed it yet, so ignore it)
- P0453 - EVAP emission control system press sensor high
- P0450 - EVAP emission control system press sensor fault

 

Looks to me like you have your list of sensors to check/replace.

 

Well, I did replace the EVAP sensor with the one from my old engine, which I know for a fact to be fine, but the cell still keeps popping up.

As for the knock sensor, I read that people can drive just fine without it, it’s just that the check engine light will be on.

 

Has any one else encountered this?
I'm running out of ideas.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by d16rice &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
As for the knock sensor, I read that people can drive just fine without it, it’s just that the check engine light will be on.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

this is true

 

Bump for help

 

I would check the throttle body cable and make a slight adjustment to your throttle...(could be the problem), or you may need a new distributor, cap-n-rotor, plug wires, plugs...... Or even a fuel delivery problem. I am just making suggestions from what you are saying is going on....Check your fuel pressure again....may need a new fuel pump.....

 

I do appreciate any and all input

Throttle seems fine, the cable is new and installed properly, and the butterfly opens and closes properly.
The spark plugs are new NGK IX iridium spark plugs
Wires are also new (I went back to the old ones too, just to make sure, but no change)
Distributor rotor has less than 2K miles on it and ran fine before.

I’m pretty sure I need a new distributor cap, but I don’t think the cap alone would cause so many problems and evoke EVAP sensor codes.

I tried running my fuel psi regulator at different ranges between 25-50 psi, seems to shake more at higher psi, but when running at lower psi it runs smoother but stalls faster.