In my seemingly never-ending quest to fix my terrible idle, I pulled out the spark plugs to see what they looked like. I replaced them very recently but they have since burned about half a tank of terribly old gasoline, so I figured that they might be sooty and I was right. I soaked the electrodes in a little Seafoam to get rid of some of the soot and put the plugs back in, and now the truck will crank but will not run at all. Can't even get it close. What in the world is the problem????????? Also, another strange thing with this truck. Before I cleaned the plugs, and it was idling roughly, the only way I could get it to idle at all was to remove the air cleaner assembly. With the cleaner on and all vacuum lines attached, it would not idle. I'm beginning to tear my hair out.

 

coil wire attached?

 

Check the coil wire and make sure you put the wires back on in the correct order.

 

And it sounds like something must be plugged up if it would only idle before with the air cleaner assembly off. You could, once you find what you haven't reconnected yet after taking out the spark plugs, try disconnecting vacuum hoses from the air cleaner one by one to see which one is causing it not to run. And of course visual checks to see if anything doesn't look right.

But obviously, make sure the plugs aren't cross-threaded, that the wires are snugly snapped onto the plugs and distributer, all that stuff.

 

Thanks guys. I should have looked a little closer before posting. It was something obvious. The little circular plastic piece that the coil wire boot slides over broke so there was no connection. Thanks again.

 

I also replaced all of the vac lines, and the old girl idles very well. However, a larger problem surfaced. There has always been some smoke upon startup and during warmup, but it always went away. Until today. Clouds of thick white smoke billowed from my exhaust for several minutes until I shut her off. I waited a few minutes and started it back up, and now there is less smoke but always present. I've been around vehicles burning antifreeze but it doesn't smell like that. There is some milky stuff on the oil cap, so it appears that antifreeze is getting in somehow. I'm going to borrow my buddie's compression tester tomorrow and check the head gasket. If not that, I may become suspicious of the timing chain wearing into the coolant passage. What's the best way to check that?

 

If you take off the valve cover, you may be able to see down in with a flashlight. Driver's side, down along the chain. But that's not your problem. If coolant is dumping into your oil through a hole in the timing cover, you'd have chocolate milkshake oil. Way overfull. If you're burning coolant, then coolant is getting into the combustion chamber and burning. Not into the oil through the cover. Right everybody?

So I'd say head gasket, or maybe somehow into the intake, but probably head gasket (hopefully not cracked head).

 

Thanks for the input. What should a normal cylinder be at, compression wise? And how low would the compression have be to pinpoint the problem to be the head gasket and not just normal wear?

 

You should get a service manual. Factory Service Manual (FSM) if possible, but at least a haynes or chiltons, and search the internet. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head but they're out there all over the place.

 

I'm getting the FSM tomorrow from a buddy of mine who used to have a Yota. I've also heard that a bad intake gasket can cause smoke... But that wouldn't explain the coolant in the oil, would it?

 

Also, the engine's vacuum was at 15 with brand new vac lines. I think it's supposed to be at 22, if I remember correctly... A bad intake gasket would definitely cause a loss of vacuum, right?