i have a 95 ls in a 94 hatch. my engine is idling high even after it gets to operating temp. it never used to do this until after i replaced the headgasket. i didnt touch the idle screw. it is also spitting out a funny smelling white smoke out of the exhaust. i just replaced the headgasket, timing belt, water pump, and thermostat
anyone know why it would be doing this?
i hope to god its not a cracked sleeve

 

i have a similar problem, bump for an anwser

 

i just checked my compression and its ok
i need some ideas of what it could be..
anyone?

 

the white smoke could just be your car warming up. does it go away after the engine warms up?

 

u may have gotten some coolant in the cylinders when changing the headgasket. but if it persists, u may have put the headgasket on wrong or was given the wrong one. did u get the head re-surfaced before u installed the new headgasket?

and white smoke usually = coolant

 

i just took my car out for a test drive and the white smoke went away after driving for a few min
also after runing the engine for a little while the idle started to surge up and down instead of just staying high so im pretty sure i need to clean my IACV.. correct?
thanks for the imput everyone
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You may want to try bleeding your coolant system along with cleaning the IAC valve. It could also be a vacuum leak. Thoroughly spray your intake manifold, throttle body, and all vacuum lines from top to bottom and if your idle raises you have a vacuum leak. Just be careful not to spray the alternator.

 

ok thanks

 

Go clean your IACV with carb cleaner, come back and let us know how it went.

 

i cleaned the IACV and that took care of the surging idle. but my engine is still idling high.
could this be my FITV?

 

Did you try sprying the intake manifold and things with some brake clean or carb cleaner?

 

vaccum leak can cause high idle?
so once i hit the right spot my idle will settle back down?
the idle is steady, its just to high.

 

I have a similar problem. My car idles high but goes back to normal after being on for a while.

 

Yes a vacuum leak can cause a high idle depending on the location of the leak. Once you hit the right spot the idle will raise not lower.

 

yeah, spray the intake mani. etc and if there is a leak it will suck teh carb cleaner in and the idle will surge in which case you will have found the leak. Try oiling the accelerator cable as well and make sure that is traveling freely and goes to the bottom of travel.

 

if it goes back to normal after a few min of runing depending on how cold it is outside. most likely thats just your car warming up. mine doesnt go away at all. its stays high no matter how long i drive my car. just my opinion though

 

ok thanks. i'll give that a try tonight when i have time

 

Alright, thanks.

 

If your idle doesn't calm back down after warming up you might want to take a look at the FITV. I recenlty had that problem and it was because some mechanic (it was before I married the wife and worked on her car) broke a head off of a bolt on the FITV cover thus getting the mechanism clogged with trash. It would no longer move with the coolant temperature. it was probably leaking coolant too. Not sure.

But yeah, vacuum leak is always a good culprit for this kind of thing. Just blow some kind of volatile substance over the entire vacuum system slowly and if the idle increases at a certain point you have found a leak. Personally I just open up a bernzomatic propane torch a little and run it slowly across all of the lines and gaskets.

 

yeah, the fitv could cause it, it wouldnt hurt to check it out

 

good info
thanks for the help

 

is there any easy quick way to remove the FITV on a ls?
looks like its going to be a pain in the *** to remove and clean without removing the I/M first, and i dont want to have to do that.

 

get a haynes manual, its always good to have around

 

It has 3 bolts. Two are not so bad but the third in back can take a while to get off. Just take you time and don't get too pissed off. It's not as bad as a lot of jobs are.

 

ok thanks
i'm going to pick up a haynes manual tomorrow
hopefully i can get it fixed soon