johndoe13

recently purchased a 91 ext cab pickup, 3.0 5 speed manual 4x4 345k on the clock, recently rebuilt transmission, new timing chain no issues at all. owned it for about a month, and now its starting to have serious issues. starts fine, idles fine runs fine, no hard idle never acts like its going to cut off nothing like that. at first it would start to sputter as i was going up an incline, up shift down shift, same issue. its as if im in the gas and also mashing the brake 20 times a second at the same time, sounds like the fuel is getting turned of and on but a weird popping sound from under the hood and backfiring. here comes the best part, it will run fine cold but once its warmed up it will start. sometimes in 5 minutes sometimes in 30. read alot on here but nobody seems to have one answer. ive already checked spark plugs, wires, replaced alllooottt of vaccum lines, ran seafoam through it. its such and on and off problem its hard to pinpoint. bring a mechanic around and itll run like a top. put me in traffic and i cant break 30 miles an hour. any help is greatly appreciated. also no check engine light, or other lights. my thermostat gauge likes to dance though

johndoe13

also if your going to speak in acronyms please put a glossary after the reply lol

TNRabbit

1. PULL CEL CODES.

2. Can you isolate the "weird popping noise" under the hood?

johndoe13

how do i pull the codes? and its like a backfire in the intake kind of weird sound, nothing ive ever heard before. and will there be codes if i have no check engine light?

MudHippy

Check for codes: http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...85diagnosi.pdf

The rest of the FSM if you need it: http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-buchanan/93fsm/

Sounds like the ECT(Engine Coolant Temperature) sensor(or ECT sendor) might be faulty. Which may or may not give you a code. If it's the sensor, you should get a code 22. If it's the sendor you won't get any codes, but the temp gauge won't work right. That's the theory anyway. Though when my ECT sensor wasn't working right, the temp gauge didn't work right either. The needle on the temp gauge "danced" around like yours is, and it made the engine run like crap. Which is why I mention it...

86YotaSlug

Is timing correct?

johndoe13

as far as i know timing is correct, the belt was replaced recently by the previous owner. and im trying to pull codes now all im getting is the CEL flashes really fast and doesnt stop when i jump the terminals. also ive been reading alot and i had put tap water and anti freeze in the truck about 2 weeks ago does that make a difference?

johndoe13

to be more clear, when the problem occurs the truck is at normal operating temperature, and either going up a hill or im in the gas. it sounds like popcorn under the hood and the ehaust sounds like im on and off the gas 4 times a second. the whole truck shakes and i cant gain or maintain speed. in any gear. i can shift into any gear and it will continue to shudder/sputter/skip. some days you can barely notice it and others i cant break 20 mph. i cant get it to show any codes jumping the wire, cel just stays solid or blinks really fast.

johndoe13

and as far as the needle, it will peg all the way hot at a stoplight and as soon as i start moving itll go back to the middle and so on and so forth

MudHippy

Not usually, unless your tap water is really hard. In fact I've never used anything but tap water for anybody's cooling systems(mine or others). And it's never caused any issues for me(or for the owners of any other cars with cooling systems I've worked on). But then again, I've never used really hard tap water in any of them. So I don't know for sure if it makes a significant difference or not. As in, how hard is too hard? Or when do you really need to use distilled water(or atleast someone elses tap water)? Anyway, I wouldn't worry about it too much...if I were you. And it certainly isn't related to your engine problems at present...if that's what you mean.
Like I said...call it a hunch...it's the ECTS. It's cheap, so you might want to just replace it, and that just might solve your problem. And/or make sure it isn't a wiring issue in the ECTS circuit. Or do whatever you like. All I'm trying to say is I'd atleast take a look at the thing...if I were you.

Good luck!

Gamefreakgc

I had all of those symptoms just a couple of months ago. I have the same exact truck you do. I had taken it in to the shop to get a new distributor (cost me $600!) since mine died on me. They installed a new distributor, but it was the wrong kind. I had the same exact problems: "pinging" (the popcorn sound you describe), jerking all over, RPM wagging like a dog's tail. Thought I was going to die. They took it back and put in another new one, the right kind this time.

All this to say, there's a sensor in your distributor that can get out of whack that causes it to go crazy when it warms up. Once you get up to 3000 RPM's or so it levels out. I can't remember the name of it though. DON'T buy a new distributor unless you know for sure that's the issue, it's expensive. A mechanic would know what it's called and whether or not it's bad.

TNRabbit

Geez! I only paid $550 for an OEM TOYOTA distributor!

johndoe13

once i get paid ill try this stuff and let yall know how it turns out

johndoe13

trying to rule some stuff out, if i unplug my mass air flow sensor or whatever you wanna call it the truck cuts off but if i unplug the throttle position sensor nothing happens, does that mean that its bad? also replaced the fuel filter to no result

Pat8942

How did the fuel filter look, was it extremely dirty?

johndoe13

gas out of the tank was clean, but what came out of the fuel filter itself was brown and smelled bad

johndoe13

hey guys, i finnaly figured out the problem, the other day the truck overheated and a hose busted. its a hoze that runs from the throttle body on top of the intake to the back of the intake. im unsure why a coolant line runs into the throttle body but the hose was basically petrified before it finally busted. it had been leaking and burning off the colant on the block witch is why i couldnt figure out where i was leaking water. and i guess the lack of pressure is what made the truck act funny. either way 11 dollars and a LOT of elbow grease later my issue is resolved. i hope this helps everyone out.

johndoe13

hello all! very sorry about no more pictures, this project has been kicking my butt. i have had alot going on and i have just today got it all back together. id like to thank everyones posts for being so much help to me. she starts and runs but will nock off if i dont keep my foot in the gas pedal. no check engine light. any ideas?????/

bone collector

read this: http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-buchanan/93fsm/ and buy a voltmeter to do a lot of testing. run some fuel injector cleaner.

is the check engine light working?? does it stay on while you are trying to start the truck?

johndoe13

it was on when it first kicked over, but i had realized i had my 02 sensor unplugged but when i plugged it in it went off.