lhtoyota88

Thanks for taking the time to read this...I have a 88' pickup, 22re. I bought this a few years ago and did some tune-up maintenance to get it to pass smog. (thanks california) I put in new iridium plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Fixed the timing and had the valves adjusted, one of them was sticking. It passed with flying colors, but has always ran a little rich. There's a lot of carbon on the outside of the exhaust. It also liked to surge, usually in warm weather with city driving. At stops the engine would rev up to about 1300-1500 then drop down to about 400-500 and climb back up. Even in idle you could hold open the idle and it would surge up and down really quick.

A few months ago, i came to a stop sign and my truck died. Almost like the idle had just fell out. I had just started my truck to go to work so i thought maybe it was because the weather was a little cooler in the morning. It continued to do this. It's become more frequent. I suspected a vacuum leak and drove with the vacuum intake plugged. It almost seemed like it fixed it, but after a few hours it came back. I replaced my master booster with a 93 booster, and upgraded my master cylinder to a 1" bore. Started it up, and now it runs like crap, almost like it's miss-firing. I played with the idle and the timing advance, but now every time you try to stop it dies. This thing has me stumped for the moment. Maybe an EGR valve would fix it, or the TPS? Need your advice. Thanks

Gamefreakgc

I would recommend not buying anymore parts until you know what it is. You might get lucky, but chances are you won't and be out of a bit of money.

1. First things first is to check for vacuum leaks. Great tutorial here:
2. If that's not it, I would check to make sure your vacuum lines are connected properly (none are mixed up): http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...14layoutan.pdf (also might have diagram under your hood).

3. Next, check to make sure your TPS is working and adjusted correctly. To adjust, loosen the screw and rotate slightly. You will need a feeler gauge and a multimeter to do this right ($15 total). See #2 here: http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...34throttle.pdf. Use the multimeter to read the resistance values in ohms. That could explain the variation in idleing, but not that it dies.

4. Check the VAFM. Use your multimeter on ohms again and measure using the terminals on the connector. If the Intake Air Temperature sensor located inside of you VAFM is going bad (reading wrong temperature and causing too much or too little fuel) it might stall the engine. http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...33volumeai.pdf.

5. Last but not least, check your Engine Coolant Temperature sensor on the back of the engine. Multimeter does the trick again. Best to do this on a cold engine since it's hard to guess the temperature of the coolant: http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...40engineco.pdf.

Items 2, 4, and 5 shouldn't take you more than 5 min each. 1 will take you about 15 min, and 3 will take you from 30 min to an hour, depending on how steady your hands are and if you have someone to hold the meter while you adjust (makes it 10x easier).