AnotherOldJeepGuy

Well OK, wishful thinking colored my diagnosis. It is true that it is cycling a less, but the "smoothness" is about the same. I dug into my phone and found a .mov version of my original video, and also for one I just took. When I play them back on my PC I do at least get to hear the sound, but I don't see any actual image movement. I'll post both here in hope that these versions will be playable to the group and more knowledgeable ears might be able to comment as to if I really gained anything here or not. ... I can only update the one from today because the original is 40m and there is a 30m limit. I don't have any way to shorten the original, so I'll just go with the current video and see if anyone has anything new to say about the sound I have now. This is with the brake booster out of the vacuum system. NoBrakeBooster.MOV

OK, I didn't hit a home run here, but it is idling a lot better with the brake booster out of the vacuum system. It isn't doing the RPM up/down thing anymore but it is still a bit rough. I am leaving it run out there a bit just in case the ECU is retraining. Then the next step will be to disconnect the battery again and attempt an ECU reset. But there is at least hope that the issue isn't terminal.

Congrats! And yes!!

Great, I guess you can teach an old dog a new trick or two afterall. I'll give it a try

Awesome. Congrats!

To eliminate the brake booster as the source of the problem, I think I will disconnect the hose to the booster and plug it and see if the engine runs better. Anyone see an issue with doing this?

Beats me, but someone else might know if that is a possibility.

Yeah I've learned that can be an issue. I got a wrench on all the ones you can get to from the top and a couple were a little loose. I got to 2 bottom ones that I could snug a little and 2 were tight. But there are still 2-3 that I can't get to with any tool that I have. I'll need to find a 9/16 box end that is at least 2 feet long and I might get to the others.

Well the IAC was a good thought, but it is still clean from the cleaning last Feb, as it the TB. So that's no it I also noticed as I limped it into the garage, brakes are not working well. I know @89 MJ already mentioned looking at the hose to the brake booster, but it looks completely fine. But what ever failed is something that is causing very bad idle and at the same time power brakes don't seem to be working either. I currently have the battery disconnected in an attempt to reset the ECU. It's a hail Mary but it's something to try. If that doesn't work I'll probably have to trust it to one of the local shops since I'm thinking this is quickly getting beyond what my ASTM degree can handle.

I don't know that I hit WOT, but for sure went that direction. And you are correct this is extremely rare. I just tightened the top manifold bolts, they were just a bit loose. I was surprised they had worked loose so quickly. Just put up on stands to try and snug the lowers just in case. Tightening the tops ones didn't fix anything, but who knows. I did clean the IAC back in Feb, 2025 but I'd much rather check into cleaning that again before taking on major gaskets. For what it's worth, when I cleaned it back in 2025 it did improve my stalling at that time.

I have not witnessed the tiny bit of smoke again since I originally saw it in the parking lot.

Yes it will start and still cycles from very rough to less rough but for the moment it can manage to stay running. I watched what I think is the EGR valve and I see the little shaft moving with the RPMs and the hose looks the same as they normally do as best I can tell (I have not removed them). I tried spraying [edit: with water]where the manifold connects, months back I did have to tighten them, but since the engine is already cycling I can't tell if the water is doing anything, but I don't think it is. I'm going to try checking them for tightness again after the engine cools off. The elephant in the room, or the elephants, are the head and manifold gaskets. So I am hoping it's not an elephant.

Literally....

The MAF line got me when I did my new VC gasket a few months back, I have loosened it from one end to get it out of the way and forgot to put it back, and the engine was way rough, but that lesson learned was applied today as the first thing I checked and it is connected

I have looked, and I will look again, but how would an acceleration break a hose???

I don't have a youtube account or any cloud storage, I believe this is the file. Whether or not anyone can play it is another hurdle.. IMG_2771.HEIC

On my way back to the house today I made a quick/hard acceleration followed by a quick decel into a parking lot. This immediately messed up something, rough running through parking lot. At parked it idled very rough then after trying to maintain for a minute or so it just stalled. Restart and rpms slowly cycle from a bit higher than normal to very low/rough. It managed to not stall but the cycling continued. I managed to make it home by keeping the RPMs up manually at a stop. While driving at city street speeds of 30-40 it seems to be running without issue although I didn't try any accel, just took it easy to get home. Looking around I don't see any hose that came loose. There's nothing dripping anywhere. While I as in the parking lot I thought I could see a very tiny amount of smoke in the vicinity of the yellow area in the pic below, very faint. And now at home I don't see this at all. I took a short video so the sound could be heard, I'll add it if I can figure out how to do that, so far I have not had any luck getting a video file off my phone so odds are I won't get that today either. What could have happened directly related to a quick accel/decel to result in killing my idle???

I thought I might try to tap in down if/when I pull the oil pan, I'd have better access at that point.

Did you put any details of this mod here somewhere? The plastic hoses below going to the left were new 6 months ago when I replaced valve cover gasket and also the hard plastic line at the back of the VC, and I have no idea where this crud is coming from. Maybe I need your mod!

I am currently battling oil leaks, but I snapped this pic today what I was under there. I can't remember having the transmission worked on, and I don't have any transmission issue that I know of. Also this has been here a while. Nothing is gushing out! I hunted it down in the parts list files, #24 "Spacer" Since I can't tell this is causing any trouble, is there any reason to try and fix this other than "just because it's bent"? I assume a spacer pretty much has to be between two things, and that seems to suggest you have to take those two things apart to get the spacer out to try and flatten it, and I don't know that those two thing would be things I want to pull apart for a cosmetic repair!

Oh BTW @pizzaman09 I didn't intend to hijack your post! But the topic seems to still apply, or at least it is closely related

It also looks like my drain plug might be leaking. Perhaps a new washer is needed.

I got under there today to look around. It definitely looks like I have a leak at the front of the oil pan. I don't know if one can tell at this point, I certainly can't, if the leak is pan gasket, RMS or both. I also looked around at what else might be in the way, and I see hard lines actually anchored to some bolts that otherwise appear to hold the pan in place. Didn't trace them good enough to be sure what they are yet, but they will for sure be in the way.

Please post how the job goes, difficulties, lessons learned, etc and even pics, cause I need to install one too....

Makes sense!