jsully97

Hey Everybody, I'm new to yotatech and I am really hoping that I can get some new info on my no start issue by explaining the problem fully. I have been searching through forum after forum and cannot find any scenario that is quite like mine. I bought the 91 4runner about a month ago, rebuilt the engine, cleaned everything up, hoping to do an IFS long travel up front and deaver leaf springs on the rear but that is way out in the future..
Anyway, got everything put together and the first issue I ran into was bad AFM, which I fixed, no problem. Then, just a few days ago, I was driving the car at highway speeds for the first time (first time engine had gotten up to op. temp for extended period of time) on the new rebuild and everything felt great. Engine was running strong and there was no issues. I turned the car off to run into QT and then the car would not start again. It just cranked but no fire. I got a ride home and came back an hour later when the engine was cool and still nothing. Since then I have checked a ton of things. I have spark on all 6 plugs, I have fuel pressure (cracked banjo and gas sprayed), the AFM is good, the timing is good, the list goes on. I went through the whole FSM troubleshoot for crank no start and I couldn't find a thing wrong. Until... I read on another forum that the only ground to the igniter is the bolts that hold it to the fenderwell and I saw that one of mine was loose. I tightened it as I disconnected the Igniter to run a compression test. Compression was fine but the plugs from the driveside (2 4 6) where all wet with gas. (I think from all the times I cranked with no start). I wiped the plugs clean, reconnected igniter and cold start injector harnesses and the car magically started. Of course I thought, wow bad ground to the igniter, thats was it?? So I drove it today and the same thing happened. Fired right up, drove 20 minutes, turned it off, went to start it an hour and a half later and just crank. My first instinct was to check spark and for wet injectors, but to no avail. I had spark in all 6 cylinders and no gas on plugs. Oh and after the first time it wouldnt start, I saw fluid on the bellhousing and it was a little slimy like oil but definitely smelled like gas. There is a smell of gas around engine both times it wont start but its not flooded. Honestly I just don't even know what to check next.

Has anyone had a situation like this before?? I am thinking it has to be something electrical since the car seems to run completely normal once the car has started. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

rube

It sounds like a wiring issue. first i would go through and check every ground. if it persist get a noid light and see if the injectors are firing when it wont start. that will narrow things down quite a bit. when i rebuilt my truck i had a similar problem. it had spark and fuel pressure but wouldnt start. after much time and frustration it turned out to be the old injector wires were rotted and grounding out on each other from when i moved things around during the rebuild.

jsully97

Thank you for the reply Rube, you didn't quite hit the issue on the head, but close enough for me to find the culprit.
So I checked through the grounds with a multimeter and everything was good so I moved on to the injectors. I rented a noid light from Oreillys and only ended up testing one injector because I found the problem pretty quickly. To get to the injector wires I had to remove the TB and when I crack the first bolt I could already smell gas. Once I had the TB off, gas poured out of the plenum. I let the plenum breath for a few minutes, put everything back together, disconnected the cold start injector and, viola, runs like a champ. I guess the Cold Start Injector harness is getting the wrong signal from the coolant temp sensor maybe? I replaced the coolant temp sensor with aftermarket part a few weeks back and I'm guessing maybe that is what is giving bad signal. Anyway, the problem is fixed!! Thanks rube!