SOS emergency HELP! I think i pwned my Tercel really bad...

[General_Starr]

I acquired this 1987 Tercel (3 dr hatchback, FWD)for $150 (<<yeah no joke) and had it tuned up by a mechanic for $200 to fix oil leaks all over the place.
(3E 150 12-valve, on feedback carburetor)
It has a lot of problems, basically hard to start when cold, and when idle in Park or Neutral, it idles and revs fine; but almost stalling when you shift to drive gears, as if it lacks power. Surging too, and the occasional misfire. I looked over the vacuum hoses, and found that almost all of them were plugged in the wrong places or something.. and went on one whole day YESTERDAY of tracerouting those damn vacuum hoses, following the vacuum hose routing chart on the hood.
Now i regret the stupidity that is me for not making a backup reference to the hoses' previous connections, beacause now, it constantly misfires, the engine heats up so fast that i smell hot oil most of the time (coolant temp only reaches halfway..) and it sputters and the occasional loud bang of a misfire.
The connections i corrected were the BVSV v-hose connections at the back of the engine (toward the firewall), the hoses to the VSVs relayed to the A/C actuator as well as the two VSVs with electrical connector/s on it, and a 3-way VSV (ports X, Y Z?), vacuum modulator (ports p,q r) EGR valve, HAC, & carburetor v-hose ports, both large and small. And the two lines to the distributor, which i don't know which is correct.
Pain of it is, this is my first car and i can't really afford getting a mechanic to do it for $200 not to mention i'm a bit new to this. The Haynes manual i bought helped but... not as much as i'd like. I'M starting to think it's either a fuel line air leak, fuel pump problem, something i did wrong in the vacuum hose routing, esp. to the carb, or the carburetor itself. (BTW, removed the fuel filter beacause everytime engine was started, it would always be 3/4 air, 1/4 fuel, and still skipped as if losing fuel. That was before i redid the vacuum hose routing, and yet it's worse than before.
ANY help for a total newbie in this task will be appreciated.. Thank You very much for any assistance.
*Maybe a proper vacuum routing for automatic trans with A/C will help greatly, though i think that's not the only problem..*

[ARCHINSTL]

Go to http://www.autozone.com.
Enter your car and hit the Repair Guides. There is invaluable information there on all Tercels, particularly emissions diagrams and info in that specific section (also underhood stickers) for your car.
Your car has the 3E engine and venturi carb, whereas the Wagons through '88 still have the 3AC engine and a different carb.
Yours is much more fun to fix...
Tom M.

[General_Starr]

Been fixed up a bit by advancing the ignition timing and adjusting idle and fast idle, but now... it's as if it gets only intermittent bursts of fuel to the carb, but when i check the line to it, it's full of fuel. When i start it cold and run it on all gears, it's fine, but after a while, it starts to.. i dont know how to really describe it, but it's either misfiring or hiccuping, like the entire car is shuddering; i release the gas for a second then depress it again to correct it for a while, but it returns again. When fuel is lower than 1/4, it gets worse - it starts misfiring? or fires like a diesel engine/automatic rifle. (ratatatatatat) I'm thinking it's the float valve, but i'm not really sure.

Was also considering trying out some gas saving thing called a HyCO 2A canister mod, claiming to increase MPG by even double the original.
http://www.eagle-research.com/FAQ/FS/hycofaq.html
Not really sure if this is real or scam, but looking at the facts, seems to be the real thing.

[keith]

I vote scam.

As for the carburetor problem, sounds like a leaking needle and seat. Its not a lack of fuel but too much fuel. The needle and seat could be worn out or the float level is too high. There is a window in the side of the carburetor, check to see that the fuel level is in the center of this window.

[ESI-RStarion]

My first wagon had the problem you are describing but it was the primary occasionally getting plugged, I would just put in the cluth go WOT to clear it out and it was fine.

[takza]

Once you start moving hoses around...woe is you? Been there...done that. I would at least temporarily remove and plug the hose to the EGR to factor that out. Make sure your PCV is working. Test your vac at the dist?