hi all i just recently rebuilt my 22re after 303k miles on it and it had the dreaded idle demon before and still does but not quite as bad. now i have a different problem. when the engine was cold it started fine but after it warmed up and you went to re start it it would start and then if i did not get on the gas real quick it would die. after i got on the gas and going down the road it would run fine. so i took off my throttle body and cleaned the heck out of it removing the 1/8th inches of crud that had formed in there. now when i go to start it, it runs ruff until i give it some gas to get the rpm above 3500 and it smooths out. it is still running at a high idle around 900. if i try to get it down to the 750 spec it will not stay running. one thing i noticed is that when it is running ruff and i start pulling plug lead one by one when i pull #1 plug lead there is no change in engine operation but when i pull the others i drops rpm and almost dies. so i am thinking that #1 fuel injector my have a problem. going down the road it runs fine and has plenty of power.

 

did you ever figure out what caused this i have the same problem

 

pulling a plug on a 4cyl engine without changing the way it runs? i'm guessing something's wrong with that cylinder! lol. check the injector (including wiring), do a compression check, check for good spark (check the spark plug, wire, and distributor cap for that cylinder, make sure nothing obvious is wrong, like a spark plug electrode with no gap or a wire that has been cut/grounded out). i suppose it's possible that something is FUBAR'd with the computer but unlikely.

as for starting cold easily but not warm, i'm guessing cuz when it's cold it dumps more fuel into the engine to warm it up quicker, which is why once it was warm you had to give it some gas to keep it running.

 

oh! and make sure BOTH ends of the spark plug wire is firmly planted where it's supposed to be. for some reason mine are fussy and sometimes start to wiggle themselves loose from the distributor cap. they don't actually fall off and hang loose because the rubber holds it on, but the metal part could come out of contact. i just got in the habit of pushing them as far on as possible every time i lift the hood.