my engine in my nova just wont idle!

ive taken the idle speed control valve off and cleaned that up. it seams to be working fine!

the TPS is giving the right voltage reading on full throttle. but nothing anywhere else in the rev range.

i have been told that on my engine its more of a tp switch rather than a sensor. but i thought there should be a small voltage reading when the throttle is close. (like about 0.5v)

when i unplug the tps it dosnt make a difference to how the car runs at all.
to me that would indicate that its not doing what it should be as it dosnt mater if its there or not.


when u start the car it starts every time. but the revs just drop and it dies.
it runs ok when you rev it. but does back fire a bit and generally pops and bangs a bit.

if i run it up for a while and get it warm then it does try to idle. but not very well. its drops very low and the pickes its self up to just over 1k. then drops and picks it self back up. etc etc.


i unplugged the air flow sensor and this caused it to sit at about 3k. it didnt climb and fall, and dosnt die. just sits there.



any thoughts would be great as i just dont know what to do any more.
i dont have mates with the same engine to swop bits about with to eliminate things from the problem, so im hoping to find it before replaceing bits that are not broken.

its a 2ltr 16v red top engine. (c20xe)


cheers guys