Replaced vcgs and now my car will start but won't stay on?

[jamestakay]

Well, I just replaced my valve cover gaskets and my car will start but won't stay running. I give it some gas and it will stay on for a second longer and than it will just shut off. All the hoses are connected correctly, the fuel is good, spark is good, could it be a leak in my new intake manifold gaskets? I don't want to torque them anymore than I have to and I did the recommended torque specs. This also happened to my brother's mx6, but his car will stay running when the maf is not hooked with the maf wire harness(weird right)? I'm going to throw on a different maf to try to see if that fixes the problem. If this doesn't work, I'm going to try to clean the egr, I don't think that's the problem either but maybe since I cleaned the intake manifold there's too much air flow so the egr is acting up now? I haven't seen anyone with similar problems yet so I'm stumped on where to start since I already have spark, fuel, and air. I guess I need to also check to see where something could be leaking air? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Car is a 1992 mazda mx3 gs 5 speed(engine all stock, even the filter).

[SuperK]

spray some brake cleaner around the intake manifold and see if it bubbles around the edges of hte manifold, that'll tell you whether you got a leak on them or not.

[jamestakay]

spray some brake cleaner around the intake manifold and see if it bubbles around the edges of hte manifold, that'll tell you whether you got a leak on them or not.

I was talking to one of my mechanic buddies at work today, he also said to do the same thing. Thanks for the tip, will try it before I try anything else. But he told me to use carb cleaner, does it make a difference? He said, "if I have a leak, the engine will just rev high with carb cleaner(I will need an extra person for this to rev it to keep it at idle).

[Sleeper6]

I'ld put money on a disconnected vacuum line behind the manifold or at your intake, mainly if you can keep it running with throttle you have unmetered air causing it to die.

[SuperK]

brake cleaner... carb cleaner... whatever's flammable >: D

[jamestakay]

I'ld put money on a disconnected vacuum line behind the manifold or at your intake, mainly if you can keep it running with throttle you have unmetered air causing it to die.

The thing is it won't run longer than a second or less, even with throttle on it will puke out on me. All the hoses are hooked up to the vris and they are hooked up to all the intake hoses, only one for the intake hose anyways so idk where else on the stock intake I would need another connection?

[jamestakay]

brake cleaner... carb cleaner... whatever's flammable >: D

K, sounds good, will probably have to do this tomorrow since I had no one around to help me test it.

[whitete]

any possible way that the distributor harness got unplugged, there are two.

or that the rear vacuume line at the back of the VC got unplugged ? ( the one with the T-splitter )

another possiblity that the grounds arnt reconnected at the back of the intake manifold .. -- but i dont think that would choke the car out --

how about the THERMOSTAT sersor near the timing belt


Terry

[jamestakay]

Well, I had some help from my brother-in-law to help me check my leak. For some odd reason, the rubber spacers from the fuel injectors fell off some of the fuel injectors. I am going to pull the fuel rail off and throw some from my other mani to my mx3. This should end the vacuum leak I hope! lol. Will update this later once I get back home and work on it.

[jamestakay]

Great news! So it was my rubber spacers on the injectors to the manifold that had fallen off somehow. Everything works and she's up and running again! She just needs to run til I can save enough dough for a ze!

[Sleeper6]

Why did you pull your injectors off the manifold btw? Im pretty sure I swapped mainfolds without removing those before

[jamestakay]

Why did you pull your injectors off the manifold btw? Im pretty sure I swapped mainfolds without removing those before

I took them off because I was cleaning off my intake manifold, didn't want to wash my electrical plugs for the fuel rails. It's easier to pop it off when it's on the motor vs off of the motor, easier to break loose with the allen wrench. This is just a good heads up for anyone who should run into my same problems in the future.