Doug Jones

So I tried to start my 1987 toyota pickup (22R) this morning and it started for a second, enough for me to back out of the carport then it died. It wouldnt start up so I let it roll down my driveway to roll-start it. It started for a second, sounded funny, maybe like not all cylinders were firing then died after about 20 feet. I checked the spark plugs which had a lot of carbon build up on them, and replaced them. Still wouldnt start. I opened the air filter cover and there was a layer of black sludge on the top of the carburetor. I sprayed it down with carb cleaner, it tried to start, but wouldnt stay running and sounded louder than normal. Also had grayish smoke coming out of tail pipe. I then took off the carb to clean it well, it was dirty but there wasnt that black sludge over everything which may be because I had sprayed carb cleaner in there, but over all didnt seem too bad. I just went to clean out the intake manifold, or just what I could reach easily. (sorry this is where I am going to start to sound like I don't know what I'm talking about). There are three openings from where the carb bolts on to the manifold. One going backwards to the cab (green arrow in picture), one to the front of the truck (green arrow in picture) and one towards the motor (orange arrow in picture). The two going front and back seem clean (green arrows), but the opening towards the motor (orange arrow) seems dirty and I stuck my finger in there and there is black oily sludge in there (I will try to attach a picture). I wanted to just throw the carb back on but I think I should figure out what the underlying problem is. My questions: Where does the opening with the sludge go to? Why would there be sludge on the top of my carb? What would cause sludge to be in the intake? What do I do?!?

EDIT: After more sleuthing i figured out that that opening comes from the EGR valve. Would a faulty EGR valve cause the truck not to start?

Thanks so much in advance. This is my daily driver so I am really hoping to get this fixed soon

superex87

The port you are pointing to will get a little dirty. soot from the exhaust can work its way through into the intake manifold. Working on the stock carb requires a factory service manual. It will brake down a series of test to check each component. If the egr was stuck open it would run poorly but it would still run. Check to verify the fuel pump is working and that there is gas in the tank.