Problems after first drive, possible intake leak

[bigap15]

Had the car up and running, it would idle somewhat decent for not much of a tune. Drove it up the road, had power through all the rpms. Was running somewhat decent. On the way back to the house, it started making a sound like an exhaust leak, but its not a ticking noise, more like a whoosh whoosh noise. Sounds somewhat like a helicopter. Now it doesn't run right. I can rev it up slowly and it will go up to about 3k then it wont rev up no more, like it wont take fuel. If i put it to the floor it wont rev at all. Fuel pressure doesn't drop when doing this so I dont think it is fuel related. Fuel pump is somewhat new. I have checked headers and all bolts are tight so I know its not an exhaust leak. It sounds like it is coming from the backside of the intake. I have checked all vacuum lines and cant find a leak. I thought timing could be the issue but it is set to 12 and it was running fine before the noise so I dont think it has anything to do with it. Could it be the intake gasket leaking? Im not losing coolant and oil is fine so I dont think it is the head gaskets but I plan on doing a compression test to rule that out. The intake gasket is a felpro 1250, with rtv for the front and back where it meets the block. Any suggestions??


Mods are 306, with patriot heads, trick flow stage 1 cam, trick flow track heat intake, and normal bolt ons. Tuning with quarterhorse, with BE&EA

 

[final5-0]

Did you run through all intake bolts multiple times

You gotta do that to get uniform tightness :Word:

Grady

 

[95steeda]

In a pinch you can spray some type of cleaner (MAF or Carb) around the intake, and it if there is a leak, it should change the idle some.

 

[393strokervert]

have you hooked a Vacuum gauge up to it? I have the TF stg1 cam also & mine pulls a steady 15hg @ 800rpm idle. your's should pull close to the same. before I started tuning my car with the tweecer it ran really lean @ idle which made it idle rough & too low, like 600rpm's. with it idleing lean/rough it would only pull 10-11hg's vac. when I got the mixture adjusted properly it steadied out @ 15hg. just a thought. I wanted to mention the lean idle/low vac part so you would have that to consider if you don't get a good idle vac reading.
definently sounds like you have a vac leak though. do you have a mechanics stethescope? if not, you might want to pick one up as it is very inexspensive & a great tool to have for such a time as this. good luck with it.

 

[bigap15]

I did go through the intake bolts multiple times until they wouldn't tighten any more at 22 ft/lbs. I will try the carb cleaner when I get home. What I dont understand is it was running fine until I drove it and got some load on it, then it started making that noise and wouldn't run. I redone all the vacuum lines when I was putting it all together, so I wouldn't have to worry about leaks. So if it is leaking it has to be either the upper to lower or the lower to block leaking. Does anyone have problems using a 3/8 spacer on the track heat intake? Im starting to think its the upper to lower leaking because it would take a big vacuum leak to make it not rev up I would think. If its the upper to lower, then it getting unmetered air and that would cause the problems I am seeing.


My tune so far just consist of the Maf transfer for my maf, injectors, and smog and egr turned off.

 

[bigap15]

Well, I took the upper intake off. Ive had it off once since this started but I didn't take the spacer off. The bottom gasket under the spacer, the rear port is wet all around it. One of the middle ports is also wet. By the smell, its either fuel or carb cleaner that I sprayed to try to find the leak. I'm hoping this was my problem. The reason I needed the spacer was because the egr block plate and what the plate bolts to on the intake would barely hit the valve covers. So I got my grinder out and ground it down some so it will clear. So now I will only have one gasket to worry about. I will put the new gasket on tomorrow and see how it does. I sure hope this is it.