Car: ef sedan
Engine: d15b

Having a small problem here I just had a small coolant leak on my headgasket so I went and replaced with a felpro 3 layer headgasket, milled the head 15 thousands and, put head back on with new sealts and what not. To set my timing i Put the pulley tdc mark matched with the timing belt cover notch, and put my stock cam gear matched with the top of the head, put back the timing belt, feels a little looser now. I then started the car and noticed it runs ok* idles at 900* and the idle will go down after 2 minutes of running and it will just die.
There is like 4 little brown bubbles that i can see through the radiater fill hole but i think thats leftover coolant from when i took off the head and coolant spilled on the block.

Summary:::::
Could a headgasket cause the idle to die like that?
Could bad timing cause it to die like that?
Should i get off my *** and buy a cam gear?
Ecu throws no codes at alllll.
If i rev the car it will rev like normal.
no unusual noise sounds the same.
IT smells more like gas now. strong exhaust smelll

 

how are your spark plugs? any water in there? it couldnt be timing because if timing is off, it wouldnt be good for 2 minutes and bad the next...it'll be bad the minute you start the car.

 

my spark plugs indicate im running ok, they are not too white but not too black, like light brown.

I only have one dowel pin in the exhaust side of the block. Could this have anything to do ? How could i have installed it wrong? I dont think my block is warped because itnever overheated before and never had oil bubbles in coolant before, i just need little guidance here.

 

block warped? that's a possibility...or something went awry when you installed the gasket..off center or it got pinched...how bad did it overheat?

 

it never overheated, it just had little white smoke throught the tail pipe and a bouncy idle, never went over 1/4 of temp gauge. i tightened the throttle cable a little today and it stayed steady at 1.5rpms without any fluctuating. but i dont know what to point my finger at rightn ow. i guess a leakdown test is due3.

 

how long has it been since you replace the gasket? Maybe you just need to run it a few hundred miles and burn off the excess water/coolant that supposedly got into your block..

 

It's been 3 days since the headgasket change. i look at the water right now and i see the little oily rainbow, U know what i mean? Im gona leave it running for a half hour and see what happens. Thanks alot for your help