Rough Idle Hesitation When Cold

[danny164l]

Well Guys I couple of things for you. Its "92" L, I replaced the Timing Belt and water pump which went very well. But now car will start right up idle a little and then begin to skip and hesitate for minute or two and then it will run fine sometimes it will hesitate to the point where it just dies. I changed the Spark plugs this past weekend and no change I checked temp connector under top thermo hose and its in there alright. I noticed that I must of not tightened Spark plugs enough because number 4 and 2 kept popping out while engine ran while cold. So I tightened a little more all front three and haven't been able to get to the back three yet. I stuffed some tissue in between intake and the #2 spark plug rubber cap to keep it from popping out and disconnecting from plug itself temporarily until I can get to it this weekend or tomorrow afternoon. Other than that when car is warm It idles fine I recently had a BIIIGG delay on throttle response while cruising or revving car but I found the culprit to be the ground strap broken behind plenum So I regrounded it and solved that problem that was haunting me for a month strait. Now All the connections seem to be in place but Ive been hearing a snapping sound from my fuel tank as if my fuel pump itself was snapping at something I can clearly hear it seeeeeeeee spank!! seeeeee spank seee spank spank seeeeeee that only happens when car is warm. Is my fuel pump dieing?? could there be a clogged pipe somewhere? I changed my fuel filter back in September 07. And I also added an extra plastic filter off of main feed in front for more insurance. All ran fine with both before symptoms. Im planning of dropping my tank this summer giving the fact that my fuel pump doesn't die. As for the Idling problem..Any Ideas?? Snapping sound in fuel tank?? Tomorrow Im going to double check connections and tighten the back three sparkplugs. The reason I dont like to tighten sparkplugs very much is because I guess my engine for some reason has very little clearance from top of piston to spark plug head and if I tighten a little bit I get piston slap. I always wondered of PO had head resurfaced but anyways after warm up car Pulls great. BTW the Bosch platinum +2 spark plugs are Awesome. Thanks in Advance guys.

[Richard2]

Something is wrong if you can't tighten the spark plugs. This is not normal. Are you sure you are using the right plugs?

As for the rough idle, some things to check:
pull the distributor cap. look at the rotor and the points in the cap.
Check the coil wire at the coil end.
Check for air leaks, is the drain hose of the oil separator connected, check the rubber connection between the air box and the idle actuator. Check the big black air hose for cracks and leaks.

[danny164l]

Thanks Richard I'm going check Dizzy Cap and Coil wires. As for the spark plug issue I can tighten them no problem. The thing is I remember That when I did it the engine block was still warm not hot but warm enough so when I thought it was tight enough it really wasn't because as the block cooled down it shrunk giving that extra slack. So I'm going to tighten all rear three, BTW the front I tightened Thursday morning and #2 hasn't popped out anymore. For some reason Rich I think thats the culprit because as engine warms compression doesn't leak out to pop it off and car runs fine. But I'm going to double check the connections intake pipe hoses and that little hose for the oil drain The Idle stabilizer into plenum.Thanks Bro.