Ok s I have a 83 sr5 long bed. All the emissions stuff is gone. I run 2 1/4 exhaust with try-y header, flowmaster muffler exited before the rear wheel. it has doubly row timing chain newer rings and pistons, new cap and rotor, msd ignition blaster 2 coil, accel 8mm wires, new plugs, 20r head, weber 32/36. I run a vacuum gauge and at idle it runs about 20lbs of vacuum steady, it has 31" treadwrights. And I am comparing my power to my friends 86 22r with worn down 31's and he can smoke me in a race and can do burnouts but my truck just falls on its ass. The truck sat for 4 years before I got it the only thing I haven't done is rebuild the carb but I have adjusted the float and it looked new in the bowl at least. The choke doesn't work I need a new coil so it will open. Any ideas on how to get more power? please I need help oh and I have a holley fuel regulator.

 

Where's your timing at? Have you confirmed the vacuum advance is working, stuff like that?
What's your gear ratio? Still stock 4.10? He could have 4.56's or something for the larger tire package that may have come from the factory, but your rig was originally equipped with 225/75/r15's.
Are your brakes dragging or anything that you know of?
Just some thoughts, someone else will probably think of more stuff, probably better ideas.

 

My timing is right at 5btdc with the vacuum line unplugged. The brakes don't drag at all. And yes I have the stock 4.10 gears. The vacuum advance does work because I just had to fix it the last one was bad. Do you think maybe the carb should be rebuilt, even if it does look clean or do something with jetting?

 

I have also heard a bad clutch can do this. I do have a small oil leak near the back of my motor but it feels like the clutch is grabbing good just no power.

 

my 82 with stock 22r,weber carb,stock exhaust,4:11 gears....cant spin my 33's.
just a rough bark on concrete.
my 82 is slow,it keeps up with traffic,tops out at around 80 mph.
from what i read....that average old toyota performance.

i drove a 86 22r yota,it had more pep than my 82.

 

i have 31s on my truck, just changed from stock to 4.56s, the difference was astounding !!!!!! i dare say shocking

 

Yeah but if I regear I would have gotten 33's. Mine feels slower than any of my other friends stock motors. I can barely bark my tires when I rev it up and pop the clutch. When my friend does that with his old stock 22r he can power brake and just keep spinning them.

Does anyone think tuning the carb by jetting and a rebuild would help? but i'm afraid of jetting because I already have horrible mileage and my truck has a hard time getting to 45 or 50 is really sad and thats almost flooring it.

 

my honest opinion here,if you have a difficult time getting to 50,and your engine runs pretty good....id look into checking compression.....overhaul....ect.
while your tearing into .....rebuild the carb.

 

it should have good compression it just got new pistons and rings not too long ago. and the vacuum gauge is running really high about 21-22 pounds at 1000 rpms. But I will do a compression test soon just to be sure.

 

air filter clogged? simple but plausible.

 

No the air cleaner is nice and clean not any dirt on it.

What are some good compression numbers?

 

Something is def wrong if you can't top 50mph, and that's not your clutch-you would smell it. If you don't already have one pick up a Clymer or Chilton book on your truck and go through the troubleshooting section.

What does your vacuum gauge do when you rev through the rpm's? that could tell you a lot-it should stay steady between 18-23Hg. Exhaust may be clogged, EGR clogged. And if your carb is old or has had modern gas sitting in it for any length of time w/o fresh gas then it's probably got clogged jets/passages in there. If it's the carb that was in there while it sat I'm betting your main is gunked up.

Don't have the specs on your truck but around 160psi is good. Anything below 120 is suspect and anything below 80 generally won't support combustion. If you get a low number or a number that is significantly dif. from the others-do a wet test. Put about a tablespoon of oil in your cylinder and test again-if it comes up then you need a ring job if not then you have a valve issue.

 

well I can get to 60 or more it just takes a LONG time. When I rev up the motor the gauge does go upto about 18-21 when i'm cruising in 3rd at 3000 rpms doing 45 I get about 13hg.

 

my 82 is slow past 2nd gear,3rd will bring me upto 45 mph,around 4k rpm.4th takes about 30 secs or longer to reach 80 mph at around 5k rpm.
if i hit an overpass in 4th.....i lose speed.....and my yota runs great.

but i have 33 super swampers and 4:11's...id need 4:88's to get her back to stock.
you have 31's and 4:11's,you should be faster than me.

takes me lil over a 1 min from a dead stop to reach 80 mph.

 

Yeah to hit 80 floored in my truck would take well over a minute.

 

But haven't tried that yet.

 

Do you know what jets are in the Weber? Original that it came with? Switching out the jets is really pretty easy, just gotta have the right assortment on hand and a day or so to drive a repeatable run to gauge differences.

 

My '88 with a 22RE would rocket up to 88mph and never slow down if I kept it to the floor. Even with 12 people in the truck (3 in cab and 9 in back) it would still climb a steep hill in 3rd gear no problem-the carbureted 2.4's have almost as much HP and just about the same torque so something ain't right. It's inevitable with carb engines today you either have to use gas modifiers or clean your carb at the very least every 2 years-the crap in gas today will gunk them up every time.

Yotaboy your vacuum really shouldn't fluctuate much at all. Either your timing is late, your valves need adjusting or your rings aren't holding proper compression any more. Start with the timing since it's the easiest to fix. Did you ever do a compression test?

Oh yea and really bad gas mileage won't come from going bigger on your jets, the change wouldn't be much. Proper tuning and gas mileage should be decent no matter what.

 

Yeah I plan on doing a compression test tomorrow and posting my results. I am pretty sure that its the rings or cylinder walls because when I rebuilt it last the walls had some scoring and needed to be bored but I just put all the pistons and original rings back in but the engine was rebuilt before I got it just had a bad crank that was destroying bearings. I was told the head was newly rebuilt so I don't believe that would be the problem. And I got this truck from a neighbor and friend so I believe him. The timing is correct its right at 5*btdc with the one vac line disconnected.

 

If the compression test comes back bad I plan on all new seals and bearings, getting the rods honed, new pistons, bored probably 30 over, and new cam I will probably do a port and polish job my self too because the intake on this thing was insanely rough and uneven. oh and have the block hot tanked. But I don't want to deck the block because I don't want to deal with adjustable cam gears and thicker head gaskets. Should I get the head hot tanked and just throw it back on with the new cam?