Long story short: I got a 1990 Integra that had a blown head gasket. The PO took the head off and had it checked at a shop and then stopped. Well from a bit of reading and a gasket set I started the reassembly. Everything went good I replaced the head, intake, valve cover, injector seals/gaskets. It was awesome, after a year plus sitting the car fired up.

However, there is a problem it only runs 2,900 - 4K (the idle goes up the longer it runs). I've read on here this is most likely a vacuum leak. So today I checked the intake nuts, they are all tight and the gasket area was cleaned well before being installed. I looked again and found that the PCV, in the breather box at the back of the engine, was loose and I took it out. It looks like the gasket around it that goes in the breather box is broke. So I think I've found the problem and pull the PCV off and just plug the line, with a bolt and hose clamp, so there is no leak yet the idle is still the same. I didn't cap the PCV hold in the breather box, it does have another vacuum line that goes into the box - could this cause a vacuum leak and high idle?

Please offer some advice. I've done a lot of work and am so close to getting this running well...

Thanks,

Adam
91Civic300K daily driver on the way to 300K miles
90Acura Integra - driver?

 

Anyone?

 

check the line that goes from intake mani to top off head and brake booster line

 

g2ic.com has a pretty good article for idle trouble shooting..which is somehthing i need to do to

 

anyone else?

 

Instead of plugging the lines, fix it right.

 

No vacumm leak will not be cause by breather box.


things i would check: Vaccumm lines,make sure throttle cable is not too tight and has some slack to it, try adjusting idle screw on the the throttle body


Good luck

 

Okay,

I got the gasket to fix the leak from the Honda dealer today. I will install it and check the idle again. Other things I've checked:

1)Throttle cable is not tight at all
2)Vac lines all looked to be hooked up and in good shape
3)Sprayed the intake gasket area while the engine was running and did not get a higher idle speed

91Civic300K

 

Installing a new Felpro gasket now. I'll post if this fixes the problem.

 

A combination of PCV valve, IACV leak and shot FITV caused the problem. Got it fixed and it is running great.

Thanks HT!!