I bought a wagovan a few days ago. It has a d15b7 with a zc head. It smoked white so I replaced the headgasket yesterday... I'm having issues with a high idle, it ifles a little above 2000rpm and after a while ot may serge from 1000-2000?

Second problem: my temperature guage either goes from complete zero (C) to completely hot (above H). If I step on the gas it may move down a little? Even when I turn the car off it stays on H???? There is a plug for the radiator fan switch behind the motor but no where to plug it in?? Please please please help!


Also I made sure to blead the coolant system correctly, and I replaced the oil with 10w-30 fully synthetic oil

 

1. Adjust throttle cable, might fix it.
2. That plug, you'll have to adapt it somehow to plug into the newer fan switch on the thermostat housing. You can cut and splice, depin, make an adapter, etc. It's up to you but the fan switch isn't in the old location and uses a different connector.

 

Thanks! Also what about the temp guage?? Which wire goes to which side of the plug? Does it matter?

 

Oh, the temp gauge sensor is on the side of the head, single wire connector I believe under the distributor. Good chance it might just be loose or lost connection. It's independent of the fan switch.

 

It's pluged in snug

 

Unplug it, check gauge. Should be at one end of gauge. Then ground it and check it again, should be at the opposite end. I forget which goes to which (grounded = hot or cold?) but it's just reading resistance off of the sensor. Post back results.

Alternately, you can pull the sensor and measure it's resistance cold and hot maybe?

 

Fellow wagon. Great to see ya.

I had a surging problem too, it happened on sometimes on starting the car and when lightly accelerating from zero.
Then someone was helping me jumpstart and they jiggled the throttle a bit with their hand. Apparently was gummed up or something? Voila, at least the idle surging seemed to go away.

The idle surge problem appeared about the same time, or a bit earlier, as the
smoke and bad head gasket for me too. Wonder if any linkage.