I went ahead and cleaned everything on the intake today, and I swapped in a spare shutter valve because the old one may have been acting acting up (actually I don't think it was working at all)

The car ran very strange when I got it back together. Smooth for a few seconds, then very rough; like it was "cycling".

So i took off the airbox and noticed that, as I gave it gas, at the same time that it would "cycle on" to rough, I would hear a hiss from one of the vacuum lines. It was the big hose for the shutter valve. If I put my finger over it the idle would go smooth again, and it would rev freely.

Is the valve I put on sticking? The one I removed (the bad one) wouldn't function at all when I blew into it; the arm was dead. I put this one on because I could blow into it and operate the arm. It just seems like a strange thing.

I have a wheel lug plugging the hose right now and it seems to be running great.

 

The shutter valve should suck air on decelleration, if it does it any other time it is bad. THe lopey idle sounds likea vaccum leak. Track it down by spraying stuff with B12 or carb cleaner, the engine will surge when the cleaner hits a leak.