Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums  

How high does it idle?  It should idle down once the engine is warmed up..is this the case? You should let the engine warm up when you move the car.  Starting and stopping a cold engine is hard on it.

my mustang had similar issues when i started useing it after it was put away for awhile, same motor and trans.
 revs high when you start it and never really comes down unless you put it in gear, it will pretty much drive itself to about 15-20 mph without useing the gas pedal:hick:
i replaced the isc but it came from a junkyard cougar and had to splice the wiring and got it to come down to about 1k rpms idle

the smoking i had from it came from a blown intake man. gasket.
ran slightly ruff, not like a miss but had lots of white smoke similar to a blown headgasket.

just stuff to consider, not meant for a diagnosis

Mice get to it?Sounds like something hangin up.

A few things that can cause a continued high idle...stuck IAC motor, faulty TPS, ECT, or even ACT in some cases.  Rap on the IAC with the handle of a screwdriver while it's idling...see if there is a perceivable idle change.  I highly doubt you have a drain on the battery...if you let a car sit for months at a time, the battery is going to die...the ECU requires a minimal amount of voltage for it's memory...if it's going to sit for months at a time, disconnect the ground cable fromt he battery.

Good luck,
Don

P.S.- I would lean more towards the IAC motor, if it's not that, then I would look to the TPS...probably the two most likely of your problem.

The smoke could be from dried-out valve seals.
If it's a project car, how often do you run the engine and/or move the car?