I must say it was nice to hear about this group, especially after what I discovered on my cruzer when I came back from work.
The cylinder head cover was leaking so I decided to take it off and replace the gasket, what I found inside was miserable...there was thick, muddy oil on the inside of the cover that looked and felt like tar..I hate to think what that stuff has been doing to the poor engine every time it ran...
looking forward to the weekend so I can have some time to clean that thing up and figure out why my sparks are not burning fuel too well. I replaced the sparks that came with the car (they were all covered with carbon deposits), but my new sparks were wet with gas when I took them out today to try to figure out why the engine is stalling.
There's lot's of work to be done, but i'm just trying to get her to run for a start.
Handala question-was it the head gasket or the valve cover gasket leaking??
From the sludge you describe it sounds as thought the previous owner forgot to change the oil, lots of times. We ran into this frequently at Lexus with customers thinking a Lexus could go 30,000 miles with out a oil change....go figure. I know it's troublesome but clean as much as you can & add some red transmission fluid to you next oil change & then change it a couple of times at 500 mile intervals & after the cleaning & oil changes you should be clear. Oh by the way if you think the valve area looks bad you may want to pull the oil pan & look at the oil pickup screen-it may look as bad....
actually, 2-4 were all wet...I checked the cables and made sure they fit right...again this was not the case before I changed cables and plugs. I tried to check my timing but the marks on the flywheel were nowhere to be found. After EXTENSIVE cleaning, i could make out some faint marks on the engine side but not the FW. Could it be that I need some hotter plugs?
What brand of plugs & wires are you using? I like to go with factory toyota stuff-one good source is cruiserdan-you can find links to him at American Toyota-good discount on parts.
How old are the plug wires??
The wires are x-act and I just got them from advanced auto, the plugs are NGK V-power 1233.
Cleaned up the valve cover and looks much better now, gotta find some of those rubber seals to replace the ones that are on it now since they're dry as a chip.
