Rinker

I've noticed that my truck when warmed up to operating temp doesn't like to fire up with ease as it does when cold. If cold it fires in under one second, but if warm it can take up to 5 seconds and just recently, wouldn't fire at all until it sat for a bit.

I just recently purchased it, (1994 Toyota 4x4 22re /manual with roughly 300,000 on the speedo) but the motor is a fresh rebuilt 95 22re with 10,000 on it. It is bored 20 over and has a towing cam in it from what I was told. It runs strong and the oil is super clean! I spoke with the mechanic that rebuilt it and it sounds like it was a very thorough job. The mechanic however wasn't involved with the instalation of the engine. I can tell whoever installed it just reused all the exterior engine components like the alternator, radiator, distributor, rotor, cap etc. etc.

The freaking air filter element was even the previous dirty one, so you get the picture. The seller bought the truck for his son and he spent a lot of money in an effort to make it reliable etc. but when he found out his son couldn't operate a clutch, he got fed up with trying to teach him and haulted the restore on the truck and sold it like it sat. I guess he didn't want to drop another penny into it. He ended up buying his son an automatic Chevy S10.

Anyway, my truck tends to be dfficult to start once warm sometimes. I replaced the air filter, pcv valve, and am running Seafoam through it and it still does it. I bought Autozone's Cardone distributor, ($135. with core trade) rotor, and cap, but haven't installed them yet. The reason for the distributor purchase is because there is a loud sound coming from it around 1,200 rpm's. The sound is loud when first cranked and is consistent at idle for the moment, but subsides as it warms a bit and is only obvious once warm at a hair above idle.

It sounds like a warn out bearing or maybe a bad gear meshing. I listened to the front of the valve cover and the distributor itself with a screwdriver touching each position and the oposite side at my ear. It seems to be the problem judging by what I hear. I really wanted to buy a rebuild kit for the distributor, but couldn't find one. Toyota wants a small fortune for their distributor at $875... Ouch! Anyway, I kept my OEM distributor instead of using it as a core trade in just in case it is needed. I can always trade it in for the core charge and I wanted to run this by everyone here first.

I have always dreaded changing out OEM for aftermarket stuff, but I did read that the Cardones are OEM models reworked. Not sure about this myself. So, I guess I'm after distributor advice since I'm crossing that bridge and whatever else you think needs attention to get OL' Bessee starting with ease when warm. Thanks in advance!

scope103

Have you checked the timing? Timing off far enough can cause those symptoms. Also, a bad distributor can show up as timing jumping around. Another reason to poke a timing light in there.

Rinker

Quick update. I spent the day toolin on the beast. I changed out the distributor and thus far I haven't had a chance to get it to operating temp, so I don't know if this helped the starting issue any or not. I did notice that the timing is off a bit since the swap... rough idle, and doesn't seem quite as responsive. I'll adjust it a bit tomorrow.

The thing that saddens me is that the noise coming from around the distributor /front of valve cover is still there, but has calmed just a tad. I might have to pull the valve cover and see if anything is obvious. If that doesn't do it, maybe dig in around the timing chain. I wish someone who really knew the 22re could have a peak at it and give me there 2 cents... doubtful though. It just has this spun bearing sound just a hair above idle once warm and when cold, it is more obvious and even a bit noisy at idle.

Like I said, the sound is at or very close to the distributor /front of valve cover. Anybody have a guess? One thing to note is that the cam isn't stock. I was told that it had a cam that was a little more suited for towing and the timing chain is supposedly heavy duty. All the plastic guides etc. for the chain were changed out for some sort of metal guides or something. I will have a chance to talk to the mechanic about this engine build in better detail this weekend. Hopefully this will shed some light on the subject.

I've got to figure this out. Thanks for the help scope103. I'll get a timing light on it when I can.

Stu Pidasso

I went throught this very same issue I changed dang near everything that could be changed. Sensors, parts, pieces, batteries, cables, relays.......I ended up needing to replace the igniter with a factory Denso brand igniter. The Auto Zone one does not work. None of the aftermarket ones do. You may want to check and see what kind of juice it is throwing out when it is warm. Some of these trucks will not start if you have been working on them in the sun and the sun has gotten the igniter hot. So you can see these are a sensetive item. Anyway, I changed the Cold Start Injector temp sensor (the brown one on the front of the manifold) and the coolant temp sensor. I tried it all but in the end it was the igniter. It was a horribly frustrating problem because it would start fine cold or after it had sat for a while. Made going to the store impossible. I would use starter spray sometimes that seemed to do the trick. Anyway best of luck.

Rinker

Thanks for the comments Stu Pidasso! I do believe you're onto something there with my issue. I'll definetely change that out.

Stu Pidasso

Not a problem at all. I hate to see anybody going in circles. This is a common problem and there are a few different issues that can cause it. Most if those problems give you a light.Grounds being bad and igniter are the only two that do not throw a code on the dash. With our trucks the igniter must be working for the injectors to pulse. I would reccomend checking all of the ground wires too. Never hurts to freshen them up.

Rinker

Are you talkig about the main grounds off the battery and to the starter and frame etc, or some smaller grounds somewhere? Sounds like a good idea to check all those too since they don't display a code. Thanks for your time.