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Latest update, about two days ago, I went to adjust the ignition timing on my car and prior to adjusting the timing, I'd noticed that the three indicator marks were advanced well past the mark on the timing cover. Whenever I had advanced the timing back to where I'd initially found it, the idle went down.
In my efforts, I was able to line up the red indicator mark perfectly to the indicator mark on the timing cover; but since then I'm noticing that the car back fires every now & again, in addition to the idle hovering round 900 rpm.
It's also been suggested to me by Eric The Car Guy, to first check the timing belt alignment, as that has a direct effect on ignition timing since the distributor is splined to the cam shaft. So far, I can't find an example as of how to do that.
Finally, I had recently taken the O2 sensor out of the old EX manifold that the former owner had rigged onto my car. When it came out, the sensor was black & sooty. Correct me if I'm wrong; but doesn't that mean that my car was running too rich?
I'm also starting to think that in addition to checking the alignment on the timing belt, I may also want to consider why the stock catalytic converter might have gone bad. With said, I would be open to suggestions as to what I should consider in terms of diagnostics.
Interestingly enough, at no time was I ever getting a check engine light while all of this was happening.
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