m20 only starts and idles with afm unplugged

[e30edm]

so recently ive been experiencing bogging and misfires in my motor. so i proceeded to change out my wires and spark plugs. after switching these my car felt as if it was running a lot better until i find out my car wont even idle after i crank it over, it just dies immediately. unplugged my afm, car will crank over and idle fine, but experiences struggle in acceleration when i hit the throttle. any idea of what i should address to fix this before taking it to a shop. recently replaced tb, waterpump, cap/rotor, wires, plugs, fuel filter, icv, o2, refurbished afm, etc

any help/input greatly appreciated

[ky0u]

This was happening to my friend a while back casued by a vacuum leak. He fixed it by replacing the gaskets in the intake manifold. Try doing a smoke test?

[e30edm]

so the vacuum leak wouldny affect the idle, with the afm unplugged?

[dnguyen1963]

Yes, with the AFM unplugged the DME uses default air:fuel ratio.

[offsetmotorwerks]

Smoke test is solid. My new method of finding them (as weird as it sounds) is a piece of tubing, one end stuck in your ear, and the other used as a stethoscope around the suspected leaking areas.