As I am a newbie here I hope this ends up in the right place!!!

Let me begin by saying I don't know much about imports as I have always been an american muscle car girl.....however; my hubby recently bought a 1998 Eclipse RS. Wednesday coming home from work his water pump took a crap on him. He spent all day yesterday replacing the water pump, timing belt, and both drive belts........only to crank it up to drive it home last night with 2 "new" issues. He did not acquire these 2 issues until after working on it. He was a mechanic for 15 yrs so I know he knew what he was doing. So anywho-- his 2 new issues are 1) the brakes didnt feel like they were catching until about half way home and then when he pulled in the driveway it seemed as if the master went out again.......and 2) when in gear and accelating everything seems okay but when idling you have to keep feeding it gas to keep it from dying. I have tried reading up on this issue today and everything says check all the sensors, valves, and compression in the cylinders......

While I do not know anything about the 420a motor I am trying to learn so we can share this journey together........we are wanting to do some preformance changes to it so we can build it up as a "show car"........so if anyone can tell me where to start I would appreciate it. We have already spend 240$ fixing the inital problem.....So that being said-- I dont mind putting money into it if it will be effective, but I do not want to sink money into something that is trash-- so if the motor is okay and we can fix this problem let the spending/time and effort begin, if not someone please speak up before we blow what little savings we have. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and help if possible. Til next time-- Import_chik!!!