92 crown vic runnin really rough

[cold dark shadow]

Ok heres what happens, unsteady idle in gear and in park, it does that chog and stutter thing, Hit the gas to rev it up and when i do it idles good for a few seconds but then its right back to it stuttering and whatnot again, theres a hissing sound coming from the rear top side of the drivers side engine and ive found no vac leaks, Also the temp gauge hardly moves and the Volt gauge bounces around spiecaly while it chogging around. It a 92 Vic LX 4.6l. There is also a few other things but i think this will start it off for now, Thanks

[cold dark shadow]

i went back out there after electrical taping the hell out of the tee fitting for the PCV after finding a couple leaks on it, not permanitly just to see if it would help and it did a little) i had to pull the black tube right on the air box above where it says CAM infront of the TB on the black box so i could reconnect a line and i fired the car up forgettin that the line was undone and i was like well i still hear a vac leak but its idling a thound times better, then i noticed the hose i forgot to reconnect on the air box and was like shit so as soon as i reconnected it, BAM right back idling like shit again so i pulled the tube back out and BAM reved right up and idled like a thound times better. stuck my thumb over the tune and there was plenty of vacuum so what is in the box that could cause it to idle down and run like crap?

[ModMech]

The single most common cause of poor idle quality on the early 90's Vics is broken vacuum lines/fittings. The second most common cause is a bad plug wire (or two).

In both cases, they tend to idle poorly, but *seem* ok as you accelerate.

You should not hear any vacuum leaks with the engine running, none.

[cold dark shadow]

OK i know about the vacuum leak and its gettin fixed, now my question is

whats in that black air box that is restricting the vacuum to make it idle rough cuz when i pull that tube out it idles a thoudand times better

[ModMech]

Nothing, it should be hollow.

Is your air filter plugged?

You might need to clean (or replace) the MAF sensor if it's not working properly.

Lots of greattech info on these cars at www.crownvic.net