My 1995 22re has been starting rough lately.
It starts up fine but runs very rough for a few seconds then smooths out and runs great from them on. its not every time either.
Its been doing this for a couple weeks now.
This morning, it got worse. it started and run rough. it did not stop after a few seconds this time. when i started driving clouds of white smoke poured out the tailpipe. I know this to bee coolant burning.
so I parked it and looked around. all looks ok. coolant was low. so I topped it up. Started the truck and it was fine. smooth, not burning coolant.
What could this temporary situation be?
I could be mistaken but it seems to be more prevalent in the cold.

 

Blown head gasket would be my guess. Coolant leaks into the cylinder(s) while it sits, causing the rough start up, and then burns out after a couple minutes so it starts running better.

White smoke + low coolant seems like a ringer to me. Good luck!

 

Hehehe. Yuuuup that's the head gasket. Reminds me of the little 2WD '94 22RE pickup I had a few years ago. Head gasket blew (Toyotas love blowing head gaskets) and I kept drivin it for almost a month. Eventually the coolant burning got so bad that I had to carry around gallons of distilled water and stop about every fifteen miles to let the engine cool down and to add coolant.
Learned a reeeeal good lesson when I got the bill for resurfacing all four cylinders.
Get that taken care of stat! And if you got the know-how or the willingness to spend a weekend on it, do it yourself. A head gasket is about 80 bucks. A head gasket job at a shop can run up to about 1k.
Which was the other lesson I learned. And why I then went to auto tech school and started doing all my own wrench work.
Good luck!

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...nt-pics-88722/

 

yeah I figured as much.
that would be a great link if the pictures were still there. do you have them? can you forward them?
I actually have a gasket set I bought for an older truck. its an aftermarket set. I read that we should stick with the stock Toyota head gasket. is this the consensus?

 

I'd prefer a toyota head gasket. people say fel-pro's suck, but i'm running one and it hasn't blown (yet).

if you're going to replace the head gasket, you might as well do everything else while you're there. it sure does suck replacing just a head gasket and a few months later wanting to replace the fuel filter only to recall its in probably the worst possible spot imaginable.

 

I did mine with a full gasket kit I did from Engnbldr, I'm happy with it. It did leak a smidge till I re-torqued the head bolts to 60 ft lbs.

If you do it yourself, make sure you get new head bolts and also have a shop check the head out...if it's warped you'll need to have it planed or you'll be right back where you started in no time.

Several good links in this thread: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...cement-206434/

Oh, and it's a good time to do valve stem seals while the heads off (they come with the full gasket kit I mentioned) and your timing chain (if needed) while you're at it. Plus maybe throw a cam in there...

 

EDIT: Over 40k on my engnbldr head gasket kit, and I'm quite happy with it so far. YMMV.

 

i have another question. it does not seem to be a head gasket. but only checking it will tell. The plugs look good. all 4 the same. none are white. no water in oil.
could it be possible that coolant is getting into the intake from the throttle body or IAC valve? it seems like coolant is disappearing but no bubbles appear ever. the bottle never overflows.
just thinking out loud.

 

ok i pulled the head off. the gasket looked ok.
I tested the head bolts as I pulled it. they were all tight.
I got the new gasket on today. I should have it all together and running tomorrow.

 

I got the gasket changed over the long weekend. all seems well for now.
the proof will be when I get a cold morning to start her up and see how it goes.