I have a 89 22re I just took off the valve cover, intake mani, and all the vaccum lines w/ the throttle cable and iac an all that and now put them all back together which I belive I have done correctly but apparently not.. So now what is happening is it will start but immediately does after its cranked over.. Every 3rd time I start it it will give me a loud pop like a backfire from the engine compartment and agian immediately die.. When I parked it a couple months ago it was running just fine so I'm not quite sure whats going on.. I've messed with the intake tube to be sure it has a good seal on the filter box and iac mouth becuase I've heard a leak there could cause similar symptoms but why would it be "backfiring" or "poping from the engine" .. I have verified fuel I belive by cracking open the fuel line on the intake manifold and fuel comes out.. Any tips help!

 

Also which I belive is unrelated but I could be wrong I replaced the PCV valve, oils pan gasket, oil pump line gasket, oil, oil filter, CV axle, both rotors.. Nothing was touched true spark related at this time

 

If you did not touch anything ignition related, but removed the intake and all the vacuum lines and after reassembly it is now backfiring, the likely cause would be a vacuum leak or leak from the intake. There is a vacuum routing diagram on the underside of your hood to assist in making sure all the hoses are routed correctly.

 

I've seen this problem on a 93 pickup 3.0 it did the exact same thing my problem with it was a guy rebuilt the engine and sold it to me he completely painted the truck then rebuilt the engine and when he fired it up he had this problem couldn't figure it out.... After I bought it I tinkered with it here and there after work untill finally I said the hell with it I'm just gonna strip it and use the block as I needed it for one my friend blew up.... Well that didn't get far I took the intake off and there layed the problem... The guy before me left what was left of the original intake gasket on it and put a new one on it! Lol let's just say he mainly did body work idk if 22re is the same but sounds the same tbh that pickup backfired like hell no power when you could get it to run and overall just a mess but if its not that check the ground for the fuel pump it could be shorting out js hope this helps

 

I think that might be it.. I didn't replace the intake mani gasket.. I looked at it an thought it looked fine an I would try to reuse.. Guess not.. Ill probably replace the iac gasket as well then.. Thanks for the suggestion!! I hope it works out for me damn things killin me

 

Thank you! I'm going to replace some gaskets an hope that might be causing the leak an from there ill probably check out my vaccum lines agian then