i investagated further today and found out that the inlet manifold was craked and broken on the inside bolt hols, when i undone the manifold to have a look the bits just fell off, is this a comman problem? the timing seems to be right, if i set the timing to 0 it doesn't seem to run very good but if i advance it past 10 degrees it run a little better bu stil wont idle that well. i think ther is somthing wrong with the engine it self, theres some strange noises from the engine somwhere, that only started today when i was working on it! just my luck!

Has it got a standard cam? because it sounds like the cam timing is wrong and it is common for people to put different cams in and not dial them in correctlty

apparetnly it had a turbo cam in it but i can't be sure, to be honest i'm not exactly sure. I think the problem is terminal though, it has what sounds like a high pitched squeele comung from the motor somwhere. i've tried the valve clerences and done the timing about 10 times checked everthing i could possibly think of i think it runs alot deeper than those things, there has to be somthing wrong internaly it must be? i've checked everythig else. I'm stumped!

thats a bummer! thats the problem with buying second hand performance parts you don't know exactly what you're getting, that sucks!!

sounds like there is something more than meets the eye, usually it a relitivly easy to set the timing and do a basic tune up, but it could be a number of things.

Good luck with it!

Another possibility is lean mixture as this can be a cause of the symptoms that you describe.

You have not mentioned what induction you are using & it is not clear if it still has the turbo fitted or not.
If a stock carb is now fitted then it has a window in the float bowl & you can check the float level just by looking at it.

If all else fails then ensure that the float level is correct, the needle & seat or fuel lines are not partially blocked [including the filter] & that the jets are adequate for the engines needs.