2010 Jeep Wrangler no start with P2172

3.8 liter 2010 wrangler no start with a p2172 high airflow/vacuum leak detected (instantaneous accumulation). It has 83,000 miles on it, the owner does his own mechanical work on this so I have no records of previous repairs and he says he parked it over night, went to start it the next morning and it would t start. When I got it I cranked it and it did start for a few seconds, sounded horrible, driver side valve cover has a ton of chatter under it, won’t stay running. Obviously it’s getting spark and fuel either way I still checked it for both and both were good. The cord is for the throttle body but the Engine cadence to me doesn’t sound good at all and as I mentioned before, neither does the engine. Anyone ever deal with this before? Just looking for direction at this point? Thanks for any help

Have oil in it? Do you have the capability to to a relative compression test on it so you can sync a cylinder and see what is up with the cadence?

When someone says cadence I generally go towards compression, relative compression test that way you red to know if you need to go further in the engine

Could be something simple or complicated but the relative test will give you a fork in the road to go which direction it points you.

Which model of wrangler is it as there's about 12 types according up ProDemand repair information.

This (photo) is one method if engine cadence was fine that I'd consider testing as they can cause these codes.

This was from prodemand aka shopkey... both are the same company.

So it has oil, I checked that first, sorry I didn’t mention it and yes I also did a relative compression test however I wasn’t satisfied with my set up so the readings I was getting were to me hard to read or completely unreadable not sure which, maybe both. I need to mess with the settings a bit more.

It’s the sport unlimited

What scan tool or scope are you using by chance?

IF you do a relative compression test and have a funky waveform you can always search Google for a known good compress waveform to compare to. I believe Scannerdanner Forums, L1Training.com, Autonerdz.com & other websites may have one available.

Pico may have a waveform library as haven't used them in awhile.