After weeks of having issues with getting my car to start and idle properly giving Jestr and I headaches on a remote tune, a member recommended checking the IAC valve. I remember having issues about 6 years ago with stalling and needing throttle input to start the car and to keep it idling. Replaced it with another used one and all was perfect again.

So last night, I pulled the used one out and found some damage and that it was coated in black soot. Knowing it was damaged yet have another in mail, I cleaned this one and re-installed it. Car fired up and idled without the use of throttle for the 1st time. It was a total PITA to try to get any cruising logs done with the car wanting to stall and then not start up for hours with the possibility of being stranded. After a little time with the car shut off, the car would need tons of cranking to start back up but at least I know the main issue will be solved when the new IAC valve gets here.

Here's a pic of the damaged one, what caused this?

 

Methanol injection fire in the intake manifold, nitrous backfire, or fuel pooling in the intake manifold and backfiring

 

Fuel pooling would make sense if it damages it in a short period of time. When I first started the new build with the stock injectors and tune, it started and idled perfect. After I got the new injectors installed and started the tune with Jestr, I was using Tephra v7 with an old version of EcuFlash as I couldn't flash the maps with the Tactrix I was using with the new version. So I was flashing maps with weird, screwed up values as Tephra v7 needed the newest version of EcuFlash and took a while to figure that out. So the car not starting and most likely sending tons of fuel to the engine from random values in the mapping, as I had wet plugs, could have had fuel sitting for who knows how long and did have some loud backfires sometimes when cranking. The damage was on 1 side so it makes sense.