badair

Just a follow up. We got the timing set CORRECTLY now. Thanks for helping me see that there was still a problem there. I'm so glad for it being a non interfering engine. Soobie is purring normal now . We'll tackle the sensor/sender issue next. I have leaded resistors to do the testing. Will update once we figure out what's going on with it. Thank you all for the guidance. Awesome board members here

@DaveT Yeah I didn't think there was a prob w/oil pressure because the engine sounded "ok" even though it isn't purring. I'll test the connections again. Coolant sensor - Removed the sensor and removed the teflon tape. reinstalled sensor. GND path - BAT to block is good [wire brushed both ends]. ~16AWG wire from mount under ALT to small fuse block [wire brushed engine end]. ~10AWG wire from Chassis connected to BAT GND terminal [wire brushed both ends]. So I think my GND paths are good. IACV - swapped this with the one from the other engine. It is now idling better, but the backfire at the intake still exists. Sh!t, just realized this has not been mentioned in either of our posts. @markjw Idle screw - no telling if this has ever been adjusted. I have to start with the assumption that it hasn't Timing - We took the covers back off and set the finger on the bell housing at the center of the 3 hash marks and both cams marks teeth were pointed right at the marks on the top of the covers. I also looked at where the rotor is pointing and it looks to be ~120°off from cylinder 1 TDC fire point. I haven't found a post stating where it should be when setting crank to cams. I did give the rotor a shake to see if it might be worn. It all is pretty tight. I did look at the gears when we did the valve cover gasket and it looked good from what I could tell. My guess is the backfire at the intake is now the primary issue. Any suggestions on how to move forward?

Qbert's dad here. The donor car had a busted timing belt so there is no way of knowing if there was any other issues when I bought the car. We kept the donor car's drive train, radiator and exhaust, both are MT. Planning on running with only the elect fan. Donor radiator did not have temp sensor so we used sensor from old radiator. We put teflon tape on the threads. We didn't swap the ECUs. His description of the problem is fairly accurate. Rough idle and throughout RPMs, but "sounds" better above 1500rpm. I was checking things out while it was running, probably for 45minutes. About this time I realized that we had No temp readings or oil pressure readings in dashboard. Certainly my biggest concern is the lack of oil pressure reading, so either we have no oil pressure or there is a problem with the sensor connection. If its an oil pressure problem, I gotta fix that 1st. We put in new seals/orings on oil pump. There are 2 terminals on the oil pump, I've hooked the connector to both of them and there is NO change in reading. Is there something else needed for reading?

I'm partial to Hankook Ipike tires. We had an ice storm here in Colorado last fall everyone here didn't drive or if they did they slid all over. I had a set of worn down Hankooks and I didn't have any problems. I have since put on a new set and I got them studded. I'm kinda looking forward to some bad weather to test them out. Bret