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Help Please! I have 97 lx450, it was running rough and under powered so I changed the plugs, cap, rotor, pvc valve, air and fuel filters and adjusted the timing. When adjusting the timing I noticed the timing light would jump, it was good for a maybe ten lights then it would skip one then some good lights then skip another and so on. Figured it was my old timing gun.

A few thousand miles later I noticed it was misfiring, OBDII scanner said P0304. So I check the leads and #4 was about 8X max resistance, the rest were good. I changed the #4 lead and it started smooth in my driveway, I hopped in and went for a test drive. I started slow and everything seemed fine, about a mile down the road I decided to open it up, soon as I pressed the pedal the truck died and I couldn't get it started so I towed it home. BTW, it was raining hard when it died.

Here's the strange part, when I turn it over in my garage, it starts for a second and dies as if something is killing the engine, and it does so sounding like it's gasping for air. So I checked and double checked the obvious but could not find the problem. I actually got it started twice, the first time it idled OK but when I pressed on the gas it rumble badly so I shut it off. The second time I got it started it idled very rough and white smoke was coming out of the tail pipe so I shut it down right away.

Here's what I checked, the CEL comes on and I can smell gas, so I am thinking that the EFI is OK but I am not sure. I get a spark at the end of the lead grounded so it seems like the ignition is ok, but again not sure. I also checked compression, from 1-6, 154, 148, 132, 178, 154, 148. The two in the middle are kind of strange, could that be a bad head gasket? Would that cause the engine to shut down? Any other ideas? Could the coil, distribtor or ignitor work for a couple of seconds then die?
 
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Try again with another timing light. Mike

sorry I wasent clear inmy first post, it seemed to time correctly when it did light up, I also check the gun on another car and it worked perfectly on the other car
 
Then would it be logical to think you either had/have a bad connection or electrical problem or a worn [slipped] timing chain.belt??
 
It sounds to me like a MAF. It could be a hole in the hose causing the MAF to read wrong.

Which hose are you refering to? There is only one line going into the MAF and it's electrical. Would a hole cause the engine to die?
 
Who's ready for a good laugh at my expense?

So I kind of isolated the problem to the AFM, looked at the testing instructions in the manual and proceeded to remove the unit from the truck. Once I got the thing off I gave it a visual inspection, looking into the sensor in the middle of the unit something didn't look right, there was some white material stuck in there and seeing as the whole unit is black it didn't fit in. So I carefully pulled out the material using a thin bent wire. Low and behold it's a piece of latex from the gloves I use to work on cars. The latex covered part of the sensor which must of thrown off the readings causing the ECU to shut down the motor.

In retrospect it all makes sense, I probably broke off a piece of glove when I took off the air cover and AMF and air tubes to replace the ignition leads. It was probably floating around the air filter and got sucked into the AFM which is what shut down the motor during the test drive.

What are the odds of that the tiny piece of latex covering the sensor instead of getting sucked into the engine. Serves me right for using super cheap latex gloves I get for free from a friend who owns a beauty supply shop. I liked these gloves since there is no powder, but I guess I'll be careful where I use them in the future. Could have saved me the trouble of taking half the external engine components off and testing and retesting and testing them again.

Now does anybody have a reason why the timing light is still inconsistant?
 

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