First time tune up, truck runs like crap! :) (1 Viewer)

[trk204]

I ended up having to wait around a week for a replacement bolt from the local toyota dealership, so I figured I would do the tune up and reseal job I had meant to do in the summer. Why I waited until it got below freezing, who knows. But I was leaking oil at a pretty steady rate and the work needed to get done eventually.

I had ordered a bunch of parts from cdan this summer.

pcv valve/hose, the other hose of the valve cover to tbody
new set of wires
new plug seals
oem plugs gapped to .031
valve cover seal
oil pump seal
crank seal
throttle body gasket
dizzy oring, cap and rotor

Everything came apart relatively smooth for a first timer. Broke the crank bolt using the starter bump, oil pump cover came off without much hassle. Some of the old plug wires were a real sonofabitch to get to come off the plug, but I was probably doing it wrong. Embarrassingly enough, I had never even removed my old plugs When I removed the distributor, I marked the rotor position before and after it got clocked from pulling it out. And the original timing mark. I didn't set the crank to TDC, not sure if that matters or not.

Everything seemed to go back together well. Up onto the point where I broke the valve on the intake next to the PCV hose. I'm not sure what its for (the other end feels like vacuum when running), I meant to look in my FSM but was too mad to be honest lol. I ended up with some kind of serious bush fix by using an old spark plug cap and jamming the hose into it and it onto the fitting. So it probably/definitely isn't helping anything. Pic attached for hilarity and identification purposes. and FYI, that little valve will not support a 280lb man! LOL

The other minor issue I think I may have is I didn't mark the little hoses coming off the EGR to the throttle body. Looks like on the EGR they're labeled P and E and and the throttle body P and R. (I could have that backwards or wrong, running from memory here). So I just connected P to P and let er rip. Truck ran poorly so I tried swapping them around, and it didn't seem to have any effect.

Other then that, I'm not too sure whats up. I've never really messed with an engine and tuning/timing and whatnot. I do have a timing light, but forgot it at home, and the old man only had the old style. So I tried loosening the dizzy bolt and tried advancing and retarding the timing and it didn't seem to help with the rough idle much. But checking the timing is definitely on the list for tomorrow/whenever.

My dad says it sounds/feels like it's missing. I made damn sure I pressed down on those spark plug caps to make sure they were seated,. So I'm not too sure where to begin trouble shooting now. I did have the battery d/c'd for the job, but it's never run like this after the ECU looses power.

Is it safe to pop the plug wires off the distributor to try and figure out if a cylinder is missing? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here? Also, my truck always cranked for a bit before firing up, which I've read should be helped by the new cap and rotor. But it still takes 7-8 cranks before it goes.

Thanks!

 

[NLXTACY]

The vacuum diagram is on the underside of the hood. That should help making things feel right again.

 

[elhombre]

The timing needs to be corrected before you move on. It takes a paper clip shorted across two points in the engine compartment ECM port to tell the computer not to add any advance into the timing. Only then can the timing be set. "Search" for the process. It's probably is in the FAQ section.

You can pull off a spark plug wire to find out if the miss is in one spot, but be ready for a possible shock. Try not to be touching or leaning on any part of the car when you pull each wire.

 

[trk204]

Yeah going to tackle that first for sure. What is that valve called to the right of the PCV hose on the intake manifold? I can't seem to find it in the fsm. Every reference I've seen for the intake, only list the PCV hose. It's always illustrated, but I can't seem to locate it's name/ part number. Just called the local toyota dealership and got "less knowledgeable then me" person. And they were no help.

 

[george_tlc]

Yeah going to tackle that first for sure. What is that valve called to the right of the PCV hose on the intake manifold? I can't seem to find it in the fsm. Every reference I've seen for the intake, only list the PCV hose. It's always illustrated, but I can't seem to locate it's name/ part number. Just called the local toyota dealership and got "less knowledgeable then me" person. And they were no help.

I've always called it the "breather hose on the valve cover" versus the PCV hose. That's what they call it in the TRD S/C installation manual.

The Breather Hose is the one on the Passenger side. The PCV hose is the one on the Driver side.

cheers,
george.

 

[trk204]

Does this look like the correct part? It's labeled as FILTER, GAS, NO.1 according to toyodiy...

pn 23265 on the diagram

 

[trk204]

Well things went from bad to worse this weekend. I had the truck running rough when I first started on Sunday. It would start up, but idled pretty rough. I'm an idiot when it comes to motors, but my old man said it sounded like it was missing.

So I pulled the distributer, set the crank to 0, re-installed with the rotor pointing to the #1 position on the cap. Bolted er all back together, and the truck wouldn't fire at all when cranking. From what I've read there's a 50/50 chance to be 180 off with the dist, so I rotated the crank until the timing mark was at 0 and the rotor was _not_ pointing at #1. Pulled and reinstalled dizzy with rotor pointing again at number one. Now when cranking, I can hear it trying to fire, but just won't start. I had someone adjust the timing on the dizzy each direction and just couldn't get it to start.

I can't recall which post I got this from, but this is the procedure I tried to follow

Crank pulley to "0" mark, remove and reinstall distributor. Make sure rotor points to #1 position after install.

If the engine doesn't run smooth or start, remove the distributor cap, crank the pulley to "0" mark by watching the rotor position, you want to stop at the "0" mark where the rotor is not pointing at #1 position. Remove and reinstall distributor. Make sure rotor points to #1 position after install.

After reading some posts about timing, I think I'm currently a tooth off. When I lined up the rotor, it seemed like #1 on the cap was alot more like 12 oclock then 11. I'm going to try and pull the dizzy tonight and reinstall one tooth counter clockwise (retarded?).

Hopefully I can at least get it started at that point.

 

[trk204]

It took a few attempts, but I finally got the distributer back on the truck running again. But it was still missing on a cylinder and running rough. Started pulling wires off the distributer, every wire effected idle when removed, except for 6. Tried it again to be sure, and yup pulling the wire off of 6 did nothing to the idle. BUT. putting the wire back it's hole in the cap, I can see an arc jumping the two. So appears to be spark.

Pulled #6 plug and sure enough the electrode was brand spanking new! Checked #1 and it was somewhat oily. but was definitely fired. Swapped #1 and #6 plugs, slapped it back together and same miss on 6 verified by pulling dist wires.

Tried replacing the #6 wire with the old #6 wire, same behavior.

Pulled all 6 plug wires of the plugs, pulled #6 plug and stuck it in #6 boot sitting the electrode on a shiny surface on the valve cover, killed the lights and had someone crank the motor and sure enough getting spark through #6 wire and plug.

Well now I'm stumped. Assuming I haven't had a catastrophic compression issue in #6 from doing the crank seal (haha), I guess I must have a fuel issue in #6? The truck ran like a top when I started it all, just leaked oil.

Is it possible I bumped something around the #6 injector (which I don't know where is) while r+r'ing the throttle body? I did have a sonofabitch time getting one of the cables back in before I figured it out. But the one coolant line on the throttle body heading towards the back of the engine wasn't too difficult.

How likely is it the injector would have clogged during the tuneup?

I'm assuming I should have checked the new looking plug I pulled out of #6 to see if there was any gas on it?

Getting there!

 

[ralphy1997]

I would triple check that your distributor is installed correctly--that seems to be the one variable here that's changed the most. It seems you're getting spark to #6 but not detonation. I think there's a greater chance that your timing is off as a result of the distributor being reinstalled incorrectly than it is that you're not getting fuel to one cylinder.

If you're 100% sure that your distributor is installed correctly, you would have to remove the intake manifold again to get the the #6 injector. My #6 injector plug broke on me when I redid my head last year when I was removing it because it was so brittle from time and heat. I would say that an injector problem is possible, but not as likely considering the work you said you've done.

 

[blkprj80]

Sounds like you may have bumped the injector connector for #6.

The fuel rail runs front to back and there are 6 injectors within an inch of the cylinder head, firing into each intake plenum. Find the front one, it's easy. The rest are in a line to the back. #6 is way back there (don't lay on the radiator!). Another thing to check is if the wire harness got pushed over onto the EGR hot pipe, back there by #6 injector.

Hopefully you just knocked the injector connector off the injector. Good Luck!

 

[trk204]

Ralph, I'm not at all sure it's on correct I didn't check the timing, but will to make sure. But #6 plug definitely looked like it had never fired. and I did have it running for I would say around 5 minutes in total.

Going to do some forum searches on intake removal and fuel injector location.

Will I need any new gaskets if I crack the top half? They aren't so easy to come by out here.