JHW

I got everything back together and fired her up last night. Sounds good. I fixed the tranny, installed 4-hole injectors and put a 261C cam in it. It seems to be a little peppier, but I won't know for sure until I hook my boat up to her tail. Plus, I don't have insurance on it to really take it for a spin(tomorrow for insurance). I have a timing question: I followed the directions for timing the truck by the paper-clip jumper on the diagnostic terminal, but I get no difference in timing whether it's jumped or not. The mark stays right on 5 degrees and never budges. What is going on? JohnW

scope103

The engine speed doesn't always shift; mine never does. Others (e.g, MudHippy) report the same. It most likely has something to do with temperature, but I don't know for sure.

You do want to be sure you got the jumper seated correctly, and that's easy to check. Your CEL should be flashing steadily.

Gamefreakgc

Mine doesn't move either. Don't sweat it. If you want a little extra power, try advancing the timing a bit.

JHW

I might advance it a hair, but first thing tomorrow I'm going to adjust my valves before I do anything. I'm a little puzzled at the moment because of the way it's idling. When I first started it up after I got it all back together it seemed to idle and run pretty smooth. Smooth enough to put a smile on my face, but now it's idling rough and seems to have a little less zip. I hope it's not one of the new "flamethrower" injectors that I put in? If it's still running rough after the valve adjust I'm going to take a compression check again. I have a new head gasket, but didn't install it, because I put the cam in without pulling the head. I'll know more tomorrow. JohnW

Gamefreakgc

My truck took a good 3-4 days of driving before it adjusted to the new injectors. Running rough at first is expected. You should have seen mine... it wouldn't accelerate past 2700 RPM's at first like it had a rev limiter on it!

Pull the EFI fuse from the engine bay fuse box for a couple minutes and it'll adjust quicker.

JHW

Did you put in the 4-hole injectors? I disconnected the battery for an hour while I was doing some other things. I'll drive it a couple of day and we'll see what happens I guess. JohnW

Gamefreakgc

Yeah, those are the ones. Disconnecting the battery does the same thing but resets your clock and radio. Drives me nuts! Honestly, I only d/c the battery when I'm working on either the battery or ignition, I'd have to do something really dumb to pull a charge when doing engine work.

JHW

Well, I went the battery disconnect route, because I was doing some welding on a new, not so nice fit, exhaust system and thought I'd kill two birds with one stone.
Now I've ran into another little setback. When I removed and re-installed the last head bolt on the drivers side I had to squeeze it by the "goose neck" heater hose on the fire wall. Very tight fit and now I know I should have just removed the hose, but thought (there I go thinking again) I could get the bolt in and out without doing that. Well, neadless to say I had a coolant leak and finally traced it up to that goose neck. Thinking (there I go again) that it was just the rubber hose I reached up and gave it a little twist to see if I had cut it. Now the fun starts! I had the engine running and it was just getting warmed up when I twisted the hose. It was like Niagra Falls only green. Yup, the line blew off and shot me full face and soaked the whole engine well to boot. Theengine ran for about 5 more seconds and shut down. When I looked at the neck of the heater core fitting it was caved in from me forcing the head bolt by it. I took some needle nose pliers and reshaped it pretty darn good, later went to the store and bought a new/better hose clamp. Since the engine was warm I decided to adjust the rocker arms so I did just that. Then I had a dinner date and went to that. I came back about 4 hours later and tried to start the truck, but it would not turn over. I didn't know what it was, but started checking everything I thought it could possibly be. I then turned the key on and switched the lights on only to see very dim headlights. I pulled the battery out of my car and stuck it in my truck and she fired right up, but the brake and battery light came on when I revved it up a little. Let it go to idle it would go out. I then cleaned all the cables and it went out. then I revved it again and they came back on and stayed on. Looks like the anti-freeze cooked the alternator big time. I didn't have anymore time to play so I'll figure it out tomorrow. I hope! JohnW

Oh, it now is starting to purrrrr like a kitten.

JHW

Well, my son had another alternator off a v6 that he said worked fine when he pulled the motor. Mounting was a pain and I had to make a new adjuster bracket, but I got her in. Same thing, battery and brake lights on. Pulled that alternator and took that one and my old one to NAPA and had them tested. Yup, both failed! So, now I have a truck that is running like a top, but can't go anywhere. This sucks! I pulled the brushes on the first one I flooded with antifreeze and they were soaked in antifreeze. I just might try and clean them up and see if that coating of antifreeze caused the problem. Worth a shot and doesn't cost me anything, but a little time and I got more of that than money at the moment. JohnW

abecedarian

@JHW-
The timing and idle speed should change with the jumper installed. The ECU adjusts timing in a rudimentary way in order to control idle speed. If it's not doing so, the TPS may need adjusted or could be bad.

If you have a right-angle Phillips screw driver- available for a few bucks at the auto parts store, you can loosen the screws on the TPS just enough so you can 'tap' it and cause it to move. Start the engine, insert the jumper / paper clip and, assuming 22re since you didn't mention it, tap the top of the TPS towards the radiator. There should be a point where the engine speed changes. Tap the TPS backwards and forwards a few times in order to get that point just after when the throttle would start to open from idle position.

Also, adjust the idle speed as necessary.

JHW

Yes, I'm sorry, it's a California 22RE. Yesterday I pulled the throttle assembly off to clean the throttle plate. The front of the throttle plate was pretty grimed up and was sticking. When I got it off I could not believe how much carbon had built up on the back. It was almost 1/8th inch thick in two spots. I sprayed it down and brushed it about four or five times before it came clean. I also took the TPS off and checked in there, but that was fairly clean. The TPS was also marked with a dab of yellow paint so I placed it in the same position as close as I could. I then cleaned the MAF on the air cleaner, but it didn't look like it needed any cleaning. I used a two pack of spray that had one labeled throttle valve assembly spray and AFM assembly spray. When I was done I let it run until warm and then drove it up and down the street. It ran a little odd and I could here the AFM making a pulsing noise, but after it ran for a while it evened out and ran good. Then I took it for another spin and noticed a vast improvement in pulling/lugging power. I think this is going to tow my boat much, much better. I hope! I also stuck the timing light back on it and there was now a 4 degree difference in timing with and without the jumper. I must have done something, right or wrong. I hope right? Now all I have to do is get this alternator/charge problem straighten out and I'll be a happy camper. JohnW

JHW

Well, it was the alternator and I now have it fixed and the truck is running fine. I pulled the seats and cleaned her up on the inside and will do the outside tomorrow. The only other repair I need to do is to get two replacement wiper arms and some new blades.

Gamefreakgc

Glad to hear it all worked out.