Never had to give it gas

[TRAVIS75]

I've got an 89 gl wagon, non turbo m/t d/r with 131,000 on it.

 

Just got it all put together about a month ago, we got it into our wrecking yard after previous owner had a rebuilt engine put into it that blew up after about 800 miles, long story short, I have it now.

 

I put a used engine that had 162k on it, compression was 180-185.

 

My previous subaru also an 89 but the dl, had nearly 300k on it, and I never, never had to step on the gass pedal to get it to start, never even had to crank on it. My current one, I can just sit there and crank and crank and crank, and it will never start, however if I give it a little gas, it will fire right up, need to keep the rpms up for about 10 to 15 seconds before it will Idle on its own. It does this (the having to give it gas part, not the hold rpms up)even after its warmed up.

 

I don't know if this other thing it does has any relation, but when I'm cruising around and pull up to a stop sign, if I just push the clutch in and start to step on the brake, rpm drop very fast and more often than not it will die, sometimes it just drops really fast, and hit nearly zero before rebounding to normal idle rpms.

 

Performance wise, not a single complaint, it runs just flat out awesome, immaculate interior etc etc. Would just like to get this little hiccup figured out, my wife won't drive it, I can't seem to teach her how to use her right foot for the gas and brake at the same time with out planting my face in the windshield LOL. And she doesn't quite grasp just letting the the clutch out and letting compression slow you down.

 

Prior to installing engine I did do all the basic things a person would do, plugs wires cap rotor etc.

[nipper]

Since my 89 Justy is the last Carbed car in the US, I am going to assume this is a throttle body/fuel injection.

 

Go right to the engine temp sensor. it can not tell how cold the engine is so it can't tell to richen up the mix. You do that with your foot using the throttle position.

[TRAVIS75]

Is that the same thing as what is sometimes referred to as the "coolant temperature sensor?"

 

And last night was the first time I've had to put gas in it, I have to retract my complete happiness statement about it, it got 16.8 mpg, I know thats not close to being right, even the one with nearly 300k on it got about 25 and that was using 4x4 alot.

 

And yes it is throttle body, not carbed.

[nipper]

Yes thats the reason your getting hard starts and probably poor gas mileage.

[MilesFox]

did your donor engine come with the manifold, or did you swap on your old manifold.

 

keep the sensors from the old manifold if they are working.

 

it sounds like the IAC is not functioning. The engine harness had a ground wire to one of the intake bolts.

 

how is the timing? both belts and disty? disty should be set at 20 deg btdc.

 

the green test clips should be plugged in to set the inital timing, but should remain unplugged for normal operation. if they remain plugged in, it holds the timing static and you get no advance curve.

[Rust]

Miles Fox is most likely right about the AIC. I had simmilar issues and just adjusted the accelerator cable a few turns to get it to idle ok. Idles fine now. May not be the best fix but it stopped having to do fancy footwork at every stop.