Mason Edmison

Hi,

I just finished doing the timing chain, timing cover, water pump head gasket, intake and exhaust gaskets on my 22re.

used a rockauto timing kit and OEM gaskets. After finishing the job I timed it at 5 degrees BTDC with a light with the TE1 and e 1 shorted at the diag port. I also replaced the fuel filter during the job.

Before letting the engine run after doing the job: adjusted the valves 008 intake 012 exhaust, I turned it over without the coil wire and efi fuse to build oil pressure. After this, I compression tested it and got appx. 173-179 psi on all cylinders. used the block test to check for exhaust in the radiator( fluid stayed blue).

Anyways. The truck had been running quite well but today, when I took it on its first long drive, about 10-15 minutes in it started backfiring and missing like mad. In general running like total crap. Sounded like its running on 2 cylinders.

I'm trying to get a game plan on parts to diagnose.

A concern I have is that I had to replace the EGR Cooler gasket after the head was installed (a huge pain my A!@), and I got quite a bit of coolant in the ports, i.e. when I started the truck after that I had TONS of white smoke for a few minutes. Could this have possibly killed the O2 sensor or messed up something in the EGR system?

Anyways, I see a lot of people have mentioned to check the O2, EGR, and also the fuel injector wiring so that's where I was planning to start.

I was prettttty careful during this job. Had the head machined and pressure tested. bought a fancy torque wrench and torqued everything to spec following the factory manual so it kind of sucks that its running worse than ever now.

This happened right before work today so I didn't have much time to follow up. I did remove the coil to turn the engine over and it sounded smooth and even, did not sound anything like a dead cylinder. Trying to get all my ducks and tests in a row to hopefully figure this out.

Also, the truck was running fine before. The reason I did all of this was because the timing chain ate through the cover.

Plugs, cap, wires rotor all replaced within the last 1k miles using all denso parts.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I would love to test and diagnose, not trying to throw re-manned crap parts at it based off a hunch.I know there are quite a few 'rough running posts' I have combed but none with quite the same situation.

Co_94_PU

iTrader: (-1)

Not a lot to go wrong in the EGR system.

Oxygen sensor could be fouled but it's not active on start up.

I'd probably start with checking spark plugs. Or stethoscope the injectors for activation.

Do the power balance test (pull plug wires, one at a time, if nothing changes you've found a dead cylinder).

Mason Edmison

Good deal - thanks. Im really curious to see if it runs like crap or not when I start it up when I get home in a couple of hours. I'll pull the plugs and see if they smell like fuel or are white. Part of me hopes its just a dead 02, but I have a feeling it wont be that easy

Mason Edmison

So just fired it up after it has completely cooled and sounds like my belovedregular 22re- noisy valve train and all- but no misfires or backfiring. So just to make sure I'm on the right track. I was going to get it warmed up so it starts acting up and test:

1) o2
2) ECT
3) pull the egr vaccum hose and see if the issue gets any better
4) check the strength of the spark as maybe its getting hot and tweaking?

am I correct in assuming that I can probably rule out the tps and vane airflow meter (VAF) since it runs fine when its cold?

Any thing else that I should check out that would only affect things while the engine is warmed up?

snippits

Bad O2 sensor on my 92 22RE with check engine light on was not causing engine to misfire. It was running rich though. Sensor was fouled due to slow head gasket leak. Replaced it with Denso O2.

Definitely pull the plug wires one at a time until you find the dead cylinder. I always keep a couple old spark plugs that are known good to install to rule out a bad spark plug. If the cylinder is not firing, the spark plug is probably wet with fuel if it is indeed getting fuel.

Mason Edmison

following your guy's advice.

Started pulling the ignition wires. Pulled cyl 1- no change. Pulled cyl 2 - engine died (good strong spark on both by the way). So I looked at number one fuel injector. Wiggled the connector and it cleared up.

Turns out all of that and it was just an intermittent connection on fuel injector # 1. When I put the harness on it was kind of putting stress on the wires causing a less than ideal connection. Pulled the efi fuse for 30 sec - took it for a drive and did pretty well. Some slight power hesitation but I am thinking that may be a tattered vacuum line or an out of adjustment tps. No big deal compared it running on 3 cylinders.

Thanks everyone!