Matt80539

hey i posted up a couple months ago about picking up an older turbo pickup. Well i did and i have been having nothing but problems. I have the turbo'd 22re with 186XXX miles on it. I am having problems with the pickup missing. every 2 or 3 weeks the plugs need cleaned/replaced. i keep getting a tan/yellow/white build up on the plugs. Temp gauge fluxuates from normal to near red, then back down again at odd intervals. Also has problems maintaining idle whether cold or warm - but will idle fine after i drive it a couple miles - whether warm or cold.

Also - this has happened only once - the truck will start missing really bad at all rpms, temp will shoot all the way up, brake light will come on, turbo led will come on (only lights up when turbo is spooled), battery light will come on, and alternator gauge will shoot all the way up. This kept occuring until i unhooked the battery for 5 mins to reset the computer. truck hasn't done it since.

so basically.....HELP!!!!!

Matt80539

bump...

BUNYKLR

Do you have any kind of insulating wrap on the turbo? If not, it may be overheating your wiring which can cause all sorts of problems. I'm not real familiar with the Toyota turbo and how it's mounted so I can't say for sure.

Try wrapping your turbo with a bunch of layers of aluminum foil and use stainless steel wire to hold the foil on. If that fixes your problem, then you need to get a more permanent heat wrap for the turbo. Should help with mileage too.

NOTE: If you wrap your turbo, make sure to let your vehicle idle for a 3-5 minutes before you shut off the engine. The turbo needs to cool a bit before you shut it down.

AH64ID

As far as the plus go is sounds like you are getting a bunch of blowby in the turbo, causing plugs to foul. I know a guy who put a turbo in his probe, dont laugh it hauls ass, and he gets no life out of his plugs do to blowby...As far as the rest you have an electrical ghost to chase....G/L

Matt80539

Thanks for the replies. I dont have any insulating wrap on the turbo, but there are heat shields all around it. The turbo is only visable from under the truck.

Ok I am going to sound like a moron, but what do you mean by blowby in the turbo.

The last set of plugs lasted 5 days....

AH64ID

Exhaust is blowing by the seal and getting into the intake side.

SporkTek

Definately sounds like an elec. issue. It's possible that the voltage regulator is out of whack. Do you have a DVM? If you can, wire it up to a cigarette lighter plug and keep it on until the next episode of this and note for us the voltage coming out of there. If you are getting more than about 14 or 15 volts (I think the gauge goes up to 18 or something, not sure) then you've got a bad voltage regulator and it'll really be hard on your electronics. MOST automotive electronics devices, like the truck's ECU and your radio, etc, are designed to withstand voltages up to around 40 VDC for short periods to help them survive regulator failures, but this doesn't mean you can just let this go. It'll screw up your battery, your ECU, your radio, anything you have plugged into the truck's elec. system, etc.

Also, I'd check all your ground points and battery connections. If the battery comes loose while the engine is running, your voltage can spike.

SporkTek

Also: I'd say the additional heat from the turbo introduced near the alternator (I think the voltage regulator is on or near the alternator in Toyotas, not sure tho) is causing the problem. Even if there are heat shields all over the place, there may be one missing or detached. I know on my non-turbo 4Runner, my manafold heat shield came off a long time ago and I took my time putting it back on. During that time the wiring going to the alternator got pretty crispy (it'll fail someday, but not yet, and I know at least where to look for the prob when it happens).

Might be worthwhile to look into an intercooler kit. It'll re-route your charge air supply through a big radiator-looking thing and bring it around the front of the engine bay. It also might give you a little more power since you'll be making the intake air colder than it would normally be (don't read much into power increase claims on this kind of thing tho).

AH64ID

intercoolers are huge in the performance realm. There is a reason all Diesel trucks have them today. And Banks still puts a bigger one in!! In addition to cooling the air they also smooth the flow out, reducing psi spikes.

SporkTek

I don't want to be perceived as pushing ricer mods - most mods equal little or no performance gains. In this case, however, I think it might help alleviate some of the under-the-hood heat build-up which I think is causing his electrical problems.

I don't doubt intercoolers do increase power tho, anything you can do to chill your incoming air, especially if it's gone through the inherently hot turbocharging process, is a benefit to power.