Running rough and dieing issues!

[Trev]

Just picked up an '03 Protege 5 auto with 145k miles and a rod knock. Swapped with a 123k mile junkyard motor and replaced a bunch of gaskets. It's running rough at idle and sometimes it dies. It runs smooth at higher rpm. I swapped egr's and tried cleaning them. I swapped throttle bodies, swapped coils with my brothers '02 Protege 5, and swapped Cam and Crank sensors and I got no change in idle quality and still dies.

Anyone have a clue what's going on?

I also got p0300 which is a misfire.

Thanks!

 

[The_big_dill]

Make sure the crank sensor clearance to the timing gear on the crank pulley is within specification (its a pretty tight tolerance) and that all of the teeth are intact. Should be a 36-1 pattern on these cars.

Since you already replaced with known working coils, I am going to leave that out of the picture, but did you replace the EGR with a new one?

 

[Trev]

I will have to look into the teeth on the crank pulley since the junkyard cut and broke a lot of things on it. I swapped the egr with the one that was originally on the car. No idea if it actually works but it does not stick.

What is the spec for the crank sensor. Looks to me like it's not adjustable.

Thanks!

 

[jonathan62019]

Do a cigar smoke vacuum leak test

 

[Trev]

I tried using propane to detect a possible possible vacuum leak but no luck. I think I need to do a compression test.

 

[jonathan62019]

yeah propane is tricky cus you have to keep it running lol mine wont stay running and i have no one around to help. so i had to use the cigar test. which was nasty now my car smells like a black and mild haha

 

[nailman]

no offense intended in asking these:
Have you changed the spark plugs?
Have you changed the ignition wires?
Have you run a cleaning agent through the fuel system (this may make it run worse for a short time)?
misfire code comes from improper ignition most of the time.