I recently became the new owner of a 90 toyota pickup, well the first thing i went to work at was cleaning it, including the engine. Well after cleaning the engine it seems like the engine is missing at lower rpms but then smooths out once rpms climb. Could this be the distributor? or what else could have happened?

Also in a related engine topic. Every time I start it, it will surge, not fast, just will go up to the high initial idle then drop, then come back up and drop again. It maybe does this 4 or 5 times, but when its warm it doesn't do it again. Does anyone have an idea for this too? Thanks

 

could be moisture in the distributor, damage to or moisture in the throttle position sensor, moisture on any one of the electrical connections around the engine, moisture on the igniter or coil.

the high idle / low idle surging may be the throttle position sensor or an issue with the cooling system like an air bubble near the coolant temp sensor / thermostat, possibly vacuum leaks

 

alrighty, Thank you for the quick response! Ill have to go over all that and check it out

 

I had this exact same problem a week ago {tho it was majorly falling on its a$$} It ended up being my plug wires somehow 2 of them grounded out very badly and literally burnt in two at the plug itself. I left it running while washing though.....

 

Hello
I had my 94 since 1996 I bring it to the wishy washy and wash the top of engine every other week. I never had any problems with it running poorly or backfiring..

Good luck

 

the idles surging if it happens when cold could be a bad 02 sensor, I had this same problem on my 90 until I fixed the exhaust leak and replace the 02 sensor

 

probably just got one of your ignition components wet.
you could try the old WD-40 on the cap/rotor to displace the water, or pull your plug wires from the cap to make sure they're dry.

I once had this happen due to dried out injector seals, though.

I'd go simplest and least invasive first.

 

At about 9 or 10 years old, my '94 2x4 XtraCab 22RE would miss or flat die and be very hard to restart after splashing through a decent puddle.

Upon inspection, I found that the O-ring seal for the distributor cap was dried out, shrunken and cracked. Replaced that sucker and now I hunt for puddles to hit and it never fails

 

ok thanks a bunch everyone! Im going to have to wait to check it out seeing as Im at school till thanksgiving... So my new yota just sitting in the driveway

 

Alright, finally took a little look today and decided to check for codes. I showed code 21, which is the O2 sensor. Could this be the culprit causing all this? I wouldnt think so, but I could be wrong

 

My 90 used to surge intermittently and I replaced the 02 sensor and fixed my exhaust and it never did it again. I was getting a code 25 by the way. It's just something to look into. Sparkplugs.com has good OEM 02 sensors for our trucks.