Au fairlane problems

[Lynchie]

Hey guys, so im kind of stumped at the moment, having a couple of minor issues with my lane, nothing that bad but kinda frustrating.
Its a 4.0 VCT aswell.

when she idles, it idles fine but the engine does shake a bit more than most Au's ive seen and worked on, sounds kind of like a vacuum leak somewhere (maybe) I've tightened all the inlet manifold bolts up, still does it, replaced plugs and leads to see if it will make a difference, as well as the fuel filter (not that it effects a vacuum)

if i blip the throttle the tiniest bit in park/neutral she coughs and splutters a bit, if i put it under-load it idles fine but if i gun it i can hear the timing chain rattle for a second then it goes away, its like the timing is a bit weird in it. almost pinging sorta. Im not to sure.

is there any vacuum sources up under the dash that go in these things that will cause it to play up like mine or is there something obvious ive missed?
any help would be sweet! cheers, jack.

[mik]

G`day lynchie, i have a series xr6 with vct, mine doesnt run well on ethanol the few times i tried it and pings its guts out , also runs rough in the morning, but not to your extent (hence it only sees 95 or better of the good stuff ),

i did have a couple of days last year when the xr ran really crappy, i ran some fuel system/injector cleaner through it and it came good, i put that one down to some crap in the fuel...... possibly some water ?
one other time it just suddenly started running poorly it turned out to be the coil pack , but unlike yours it seemed to just kill 2 cylinders, although i have heard other blokes mention other issues with coil packs one being caused bycorrosion on the terminals.
mine probably has different vacuum controls under the dash, but it does have them, from memory a bunch of them possibly even a big plug around the area of the firewall drivers side ? i did have a faulty vent control that used to hiss a bit on occasion before i repaired it, but even then it did not appear to be enough to have an effect on the running of the motor.
there's a couple of things for you too have a look at any way old mate, hope that is some help.

[GK]

Hi Jack,

Have you cleaned the throttle body? I've noticed a good clean in there with a rag with some Nulon (or other appropriate) TB cleaner helps.

At what speed is she idling? When it's a bit low it can shake and shudder a bit.

All the best with it.

GK

[Lynchie]

Thanks for the comments mik! I'll have a bit more of a look and listen to see if I can find anything like that! Or one weekend when I'm bored I might rip the dash out haha!

I've previously cleaned the throttle body an tightened my inlet manifold bolts as well! She idles as normal! I should probably put a link to a video to show you's what I mean, but as in first said if you just really slightly touch the throttle it splutters a bit, and if it's under load, still idles as normal, but if you gun it there's timing chain noise for a second as it revs up! It only does both of these things under 1000rpm!