Hi all,
I'll start at the beginning. I had a 2.1 built, fitted last year until a few symptoms occured. The turbo was smoking from overheating and a rattle noise was coming through from the air filter cone. I bought a cheap spare WRX engine locally and pulled out the 2.1 and fitted the spare engine. I couldn't see much wrong with the forged engine, I thought compression was low but it turned out the gauge was just cheap and nasty as I was getting 50psi from each cylinder.
The only thing I could think was that the catalytic converter had broken up in the down-pipe. So I fitted a decat downipe in with the spare engine and everything was fine. I then used the car for 6 months without a problem.

This week I removed the spare engine and refitted the 2.1 using the inlet manifold as a whole from the spare engine.
After turning it over without the cam sensor fitted for 20 seconds to get the new oil around the engine it started up straight away. But immediately it goes to 3000 revs and holds it there. Obviously from cold start and with the engine sitting there for a year covered over and turned over by hand every so often, this is not ideal.

I've asked on a FB chat group and had a few helpful suggestions. Firstly the Idle control Valve. I've taken this off, cleaned it with carb cleaner, refitted with the same results. I then took the ICV from a spare inlet manifold, cleaned it up and still got the same results. I've gone around the FMIC pipework to check for leaks and cannot find anything. I've checked the earth of the inlet manifold and moved it to the gearbox in case it wasn't earthing but still no joy.

Car is a 98 Type R Version 4, ESL Daughter board fitted and mapped by JGM in April 14. Engine did 1000 miles running in before the map, then 200 miles after.

My next step is to pull all the FMIC pipework and inlet manifold off and refit to see if theres any air leaks.

Any other suggestions are welcome and much appreciated. Car will be going back into my garage, I plan to not have it on the road until at least April so no major rush but I want to get the engine up to heat regularly.

 

Throttle position sensor?

 

Give up on your aspirations of being a mechanic and take it to someone that knows what they are doing before it goes pop. It'll cost you a couple of hundred quid, but that's cheaper than another engine.

Not being rude, but you seem to just go from one problem to the next, over and over again, time to call in the professionals.

 

That's a fair shout. Thanks for being constructive.

 

Have you touched the TPS at all?

I have a similar issue but mine is idling at around 1600rpm but was at 2.5k.

Is there any CEL lights when you run a check?

 

Can you djust the idle vlve on these? I know on my starlet I have a little grub screw to set the idle...

 

The throttle remained all plugged in. The inlet manifold was simply unbolted from the spare engine and onto the 2.1. There aren't any CEL lights either, but as I'm not running it for more than a few seconds at a time perhaps it hasn't read any yet.
Obviously I've checked the throttle cable isn't tight and that it returns to the closed position.

 

Also have you split any of the vacuum pipes on the manifold while refitting etc? Misconnected one etc?

 

All looks good, but another thing to check. Thanks a lot.