My truck is a pain to start after it's been sitting for a few hours. It will crank
over, putter, then die, it does this around 5 times before it actually starts. My
timing is perfect, TPS checked out fine. Also, sometimes it won't even crank
over until I stop cranking the engine and do it again, then it will do the putter
die thing. I'm thinking about replacing the idle air control valve but it's
expensive. I can't think of anything else it could be. Any ideas? Maybe replace
the fuel filter? After it finally starts, it runs great and idles smooth.

 

check the cold start injector if it is efi

 

Or the cold start injector time switch. If it will start once it's been running and/or warm, that's the problem...or atleast part of it. You can try pulling it out and cleaning with some fine sandpaper, if it's funky. And if that doesn't work, you can bypass it with a ground wire from the switch connector (not the switch itself) to a toggle and from the toggle to the battery ground. Just turn it off once you've gotten it started. All this provided you don't have an issue with the wire harness, of course.

 

I've cleaned the cold start injector and tested to see if it was working and it
does. Which of the wires is ground on the CSI time switch? Green or black? I
tried the black and my truck wouldn't start so I guess it's the green wire? Just
want to be sure before I cut and solder more wires.

I'm also splicing into the wires going to the CSI, is that right?

 

Oh dear, you're cutting and soldering? No need for that! I meant just stick the wire into the connector using a flat male terminal on the end of the wire. Do you know where the CSI time switch is?

Where are you at with it so far? What have you done? I'll have to go out and look and which wire is the ground for sure, but it doesn't matter much. If you put the male terminal into the wrong side of the connector for the CSI time switch, you'll still have problems starting. You see, all you need is ground connection for the computer to energize the cold start injector via the time switch circuit. The toggle switch just makes or breaks the connection. Follow?

 

Yes, I know where the CSI is and the time switch. Do you plug into the
time switch connector or the CSI connector? I'm assuming time switch
because the CSI needs the 12 volts from the starter unless you're setting it
up a special way. So far I've just spliced into the black wire going to the CSI
but after I did that, the truck wouldn't even crank over. Have you bypassed
yours? Can you get some pics.?

It almost seems like it's the cold start and idle air control that are not working
properly. When it does finally start, it idles super low, even when it's started
cold.

 

If the idle is super low, then it's the air valve or related parts. This happened to me on my 84 EFI and I found that the passages in the throttle body that the air valve gets its air from were plugged. A note of caution, remove the hose that leads from the throttle body to the air valve before cleaning the passages!!! I didn't and ended up shorting out the air valve with carb cleaner. Lets just say it was a an expensive lesson.

If that doesn?t fix your problem, then the air valve my indeed be bad. I can't remember the specs exactly, but it should ohm out at somewhere between 20-40 ohms.

 

Alright, well I don't have any pics at the moment and won't any time soon. Sorry. Plug one end of one wire into the CSI time switch wire harness connector, run that to a toggle. Then, run another wire from the toggle to the battery ground. Flip the toggle to "on" and try to start the truck. If it won't start right up, try the other side of the wire harness connector. If the truck STILL won't start right up, you have something else going on other than the CSI time switch. This little bypass/test effectively rules the switch in or out as part of your problem.

So, you're saying once the motor is finally running and after it warms a bit, then it runs fine? But, until it gets warm it runs like poo?

 

Where is the CSI time switch??

 

On the 22re, it's on the front/left side of the block. Two sensors there. The left is the CSI time switch, the right is the coolant temp sensor.

 

Thank you....I wonder what the second sensor was.
Do you know where it on the 3.0's?

 

After it starts, it runs great, even cold but still idles really low. I haven't
messed with the IACV yet. I think I might do that today and see if I can't clear
it out some.

Thanks for your help. I'll keep you posted.

 

Behind the manifold just left of the heater hose going into the cluster.
There's a couple of threads (search "identify sensor") with a good pic. One of them identifies all the sensors back there, if that would be of interest to you.

Okay, ToyYoda.....keep updating. Good luck.

 

 

Hey, that pic looks rather familiar....