Hello, I am new to the forums, my teenage son recently purchased a 1993 4runner V6 AT 4X4, with the understanding it had been sitting a while, so it was going to need some work. The previous owner had replaced the fuel pump and had it running (albeit not well) The engine had a weird noise but we attributed it to the large hole in the exhaust. We drove about 3 miles home, it ran rough and had no power and stalled once or twice. The engine had a LOT of leaks, and had, had some mice friends visit for a little while. My son immediately got to work and replaced the following:

Spark plugs,
Spark Plug Wires,
PCV Valve,
Valve cover gaskets,
Intake Plenum gasket,
Battery,
Ignition Coil,
CSI hose (the original hose broke upon removal the 1st time we found out when trying to start it...)
EGR delete kit

Before we did anything it would start and run, just rough. Now we can't get it to start, it will crank, but won't start. It will sometimes sound like it is going to start, almost like it is running with the starter engaged, but it is obviously not running. It has spark, it has fuel as best I know it has air. We checked the timing marks, they are all lined up, we checked compression, it was ok, except #5 was lower than the rest, but I don't think this would cause a no start condition. I checked resistance on all the injectors they were all fine. We tried pulling the engine codes it showed the ignition coil, we replaced it, still nothing, Now the engine codes are just no fault found. During the process of testing we tried starter fluid, but that did absolutely nothing. We even got an additional wiring harness with a computer, we tried plugging that in still nothing. I am stumped any ideas to help get this thing started would be welcome.

Thank you!

 

squirting starter fluid into the intake plenum? it should have fired for a second off of that.

since it didn't, should probably verify that there is spark, which you probably already did, but perhaps something has changed... pull a plug wire and see if it's sparking near a grounded area.

 

Ignition timing?

 

I will check again, we pulled the plugs yesterday they definitely had a strong fuel smell. All of the timing marks were lined up, we did note that the timing looks like it is advanced about 10 degrees though. Everything makes me think it is something electrical, but I am not 100% sure where to start. All the grounds seem fine and are connected, this why I am kind of lost.

 

I am just posting so I can keep track of this thread.

 

I double checked the spark plugs by removing the plugs and reattaching the plugs to the wires they all had strong spark. I know for sure now we have fuel and spark, so it my only thoughts are there is a circuit not being completed or grounded, or since my son had removed the intake plenum maybe there is an issue with the intake air somewhere, he also did do an EGR delete, so could it be something there?

 

We had a mechanic friend come over we found the EFI fuse is not activating there is no fuel making it to the rails, so we are going to look at the fuel pump and filter, and the wiring associated with it, to see what is going on and why the fuel system isn't activating, we will see.

 

im actually having the same issue crank no start. I went and bought a new efi relay at AutoZone part number #20133 it saying cornering light relay so I don’t know if it’s still the relay yet…

 

Update we checked the wiring going to the fuel pump and it was getting power, so we pulled the fuel pump. We found that the "replaced" fuel pump was not so "replaced", so we got the new fuel pump and filter installed. Afterwards we were getting fuel, but still couldn't get it to start. Fast forward a few days our mechanic friend came by and had us retrace the steps of what was done in the engine. We pulled the intake plenum and upon further inspection my son had left the paper towels in the intake.

After removing them, and getting everything back together we still had to let it sit as we had flooded the engine. Yesterday though after a few attempts it finally fired up!

It starts but there is a bit of noise in the engine so upon checking the timing we are finding that it was jumping between 0 to 10 degrees. So my thoughts are three possible things.

1. Timing belt is stretched or the tensioner is shot
2. Harmonic balancer is bad
3. Gear on the distributor is worn

What are the best ways to test these, aside from the obvious for #3?

 

If the timing belt tensioner were "shot," (as in: really loose), the cam timing would get out of time and just keep going. I doubt you'd get "jumping."

A harmonic balancer can fail because it has an annular rubber ring between the part splined to the crankshaft and the outer part with the timing marks. When that ring fails, the outer ring can shift. A problem with the harmonic balancer would just cause the indication of ignition timing to be off. I can't rule it out, but I'd be really surprised if it was jumping back and forth. If the rubber ring is that far gone, it should just come completely apart.

A badly worn distributor gear could do it. Even more likely is a bad distributor bearing. You test each the same way; take off the cap and push on the rotor.