Green93

Ok guys I need your help again. My 3VZE rebuild is soooo close to being finished but she just doesn't want to start. I'm looking for some things to check for tomorrow when I get back to it again. I wont tell you what we think is wrong, just give you the facts so I don't influence your ideas.

The truck has been sitting for about 2 years. I have drained the old gas and replaced with high octane gas. I have done a complete rebuild and replaced numerous parts. New parts list includes: rebuild kit(.20 over), water pump, timing belt, upper and lower idler pulleys, oil pump, spark plugs, plug wires, over sized valves, headers, rad, t-stat, performance cams, o2 sensor, knock sensor/wire, ect..

So when I went to start it, it cranked good. The oil idiot light goes out so I know I have oil pressure. It tries to catch but needs alot of pedal to barely stay running and eventually dies (sometimes with a backfire through the intake). When trying to run it sounds very slow and labored. Spark plugs have a little soot color to them now. I can smell gas after trying to start it. Engine light flashes a code 21 which is the o2 sensor. It is connected fine. We turned the distributer 180* and nothing so I put it back the other way. With the crank pulley at 0* and the #1 piston at TDC the rotor faces just as it is shown in the FSM. I have pictures in my other thread showing the timing belt and am 99.9% sure it is correct.

If you were in my shoes...what would you check next??????



Thanks for any help,
Jason

Bigblock

Cam timing and fuel pressure.

Bigblock

Every time I build a 3.0 I accidentally put the dist in backass ward.

Green93

That's what we thought at first too. So we removed the dizzy, turned the engine until the piston was at TDC on the other stroke and reinstalled the dizzy. No luck.

About the fuel pressure, I'm not sure. We smell gas from the exhaust and it is trying to fire. My only adjustment for fuel pressure would be the FPR on the back of the passenger side fuel rail right? I didn't move it from when the engine was installed before.

Jason

Guardian_Saint

Check the vacuum line, on the dialog that is on the hood, carefully look over through it and see if you missplace any. That is all I can tought of now, so good luck.

Cyberman

This may not be it, but I had this problem when I did a head swap on my 4 cylinder with cams. Check compression. It seems you rebuilt the engine out of the truck, So, I'll assume that it was put together correctly, but it wouldn't hurt. I checked everything else beforehand (fuel, spark, crank position, etc.), only to have to spend even more time tearing it all down again.

P.S. I'd love to have a high res pic of your engine that's in your avatar.

Elvota

How is your timing? Probably impossible to tell because it won't run long enough to check.

Have a friend slowly turn the dizzy while you are trying to start. Or, just turn the dizzy as far as it will go in the other direction and see if it runs any better.

I know when I did mine it barely ran at first, but a 1/4 turn of the dizzy and I was in business. Hopefully it will be something as simple for you.

Usually, if it's 180 off you get the backfire through the intake and it will never go.

Green93

I had another 1993 truck here when I connected the majority of the vacuum hoses. I followed them one by one on the other truck and connected them on mine.

Jason

Green93

There was 3 of us working on it. We tried to turn the dizzy. At one spot it seemed to want to start easier but was able to run better at a different spot. At the position it is in now we sometimes get a backfire through the intake, but it is only at the very end when I.m trying to keep it running as long as I can. When we turned it 180* we didn't get anything. It didn't catch at all....just cranked and cranked.

Thanks for the replies.....I'll look into them all....anyone got any others?

Jason

jason191918

http://picasaweb.google.com/Green93Toy/MyToy

snelson

Mine ran crappy after a top-end rebuild because as I was installing the dist the teeth would hop a notch. I had to install the dist a few times to get it right.
I'm sure you're lining up the two notches on the dist with the one notch on head when sliding it in right?

Cyberman

Sweet. Whole site bookmarked </hijack>

Green93

I am pretty sure that they line up. I will double check that as well. But wouldn't it still run on its own if it was one tooth off on the dizzy? It would be rough and the dizzy would be turned quite far but am I correct in assuming that it should still run on its own?

Common causes of backfires are:

* Timing – If car is distributor-less
* Timing – If a two stroke engine is backfiring every other stroke.
* Fuel pressure, fuel filter and pump – leaks and corrosion could cause lack of fuel during the fuel injection event.
* Bad wiring in ignition – ..if car won't run for more than a few moments.

A friend sent me this. So I am to assume it's fuel or ignition related. I did test my ignition coil and it didn't pass the tests in the FSM but I still get spark to all plugs when we test with the timing light. Maybe weak spark from the coil???

I haven't changed the fuel filter yet either...but it worked fine when parked so I don't see how it would get clogged just sitting there.

I'm heading out for a bit but will check some stuff when I get back. In the meantime, any suggestions are welcome.

Jason

slater442w30

my runner sat for two years, the old gas ruined the pump in the tank and plugged the filter with gummy stuff, try some carb cleaner in the brake booster vacumn hose to bottle feed the engine (while cranking) to determine if its fuel. if alternative fuel doesnt fix it, then go with the weak spark theory, although I have never seen a toyota with weak spark, its either there or it isnt on a toyota (just my experience) and tripe check the cam/crank timing with the factory service manual if the fuel doesnt fix the problem.

SEAIRESCUE

OK, ran into similar problem after rebuild. Finally figured engine was flooding. Problem ended up being I connected the return line from the fuel pressure regulator to a vacuum port on the intake. So, it sucked a quart or two of fuel into the engine and down the intake and flooded the air filter box. What a mess. Once figured that out, it ran fine. Run a piece of weed wacker plastic line down the tubes that run under the intake to find which one on the other end is the fuel return line and same for all the other vacuum lines that disappear under the intake.

Are your ignition wires placed on the distributor cap in the correct rotation and firing order?

With crank timing mark set at 0, are cam timing marks correct?

Fuel filter?

ALL electrical connections made?

Out of ideas for the moment....

Green93

Well I managed to make it home but were getting so much snow our car is stranded on the road. God I wish this thing would have fired up yesterday. I picked up a shop heater though so looking at all this will be a little more comfortable.

My plan was to run a couple of tanks through the old fuel filter and then replace it. I have one sitting on my bench so I might have to try that as well.

My hoses were connected looking at another running truck but I'll check the air filter for fuel.

Is there a way to get power right to the coil....almost bypassing it? On my 74 celica I remember there was something wrong so I had to run a wire from B+ to the coil to be able to start the car. When I pulled the wire off the car would die. Could I take the coil out of the equation by doing this?? I need to start eliminating suspects.

Off to the garage.

Jason

Guardian_Saint

When you said that you have a back fire in your intake [ do you mean the air intake or tail pipe? ] then its your timing problem, readjust the timing again. You said you have stage 1 cam? it may either be that, do you think so? if you need more info I can re-write it, I delete it because it might confuse you, I'll re-write it if you want me to.

3vzeDOLT

I've had a similar problem. I decided last night to replace my plugs and plug wires. I took out one sparkplug, then decided to put it back in and do the whole job the next day as it'd started to rain. Since I have big hands, to get the plug back in (plug#2) I decided to take out the dist. and the baffle to the airfilter to make it a lot easier to get the old plug back in. After doing so, I put the plug back in, put the baffle back in place, and put the dist. back in with all the marks lined up. The old plug was very dirty when I pulled it. When I tried to start it up, it wouldn't fire.

This morning I put in the new plugs and new wires. I've got all the plugs gapped correctly, I've got the new wires all plugged in nice and snug, all the firing order is correct, but it won't fire! I was able to get it to barely run...sounded horrible. When I took out the new plugs to gap them, they were filthy, even after I'd just put them in and nothing had actually fired. Sounds similar to Green93's problem.

So, to recap:

New plugs,
New Wires,
everything in snug
gapped correctly
had removed dist. and baffel
put these two back in place. No wires disconnected from anything but the spark plugs.

Any help?

CoedNaked

This is a new engine. Everything, except the Ignition Coil & dist/cap/rotor is new but since the truck was running fine before the head gasket blew, I don't see how this stuff would be a problem right now. New Spark plug wires, spark plugs, they are gapped properly (they are NGK's).

Jay351

did you guys check out the cap/rotor? Sure you got the plugs going on the right firing order?
Try swapping out the coil+igniter from another truck, only takes about 5 mins to unhook and install.