I just picked up my dad's old 81 Toyota 4x4 with only 148K miles on it(He bought a brand new Taco). Anyhow, I can't exactly afford to get it all set up for off roading at the moment but was looking for quick easy ways to improve performance on the road. I just drove it 650 miles to get it back to my house and it did great in mountains and in flat areas.

He did an okay job with routine maintenance and at the moment it has fresh belts, new brake shoes, new fuel filter, and it got a whole new tranny at 50K(my mom destroyed the stock one learning to drive a manual.)

Certain things I notice are, it stutters kind of rough when I turn it off. During idle when I first turn it on, the engine seems to kind of stumble and sounds kind of like a lawn mower which goes away once the engine warms up. The sound from the muffler also does not sound normal. I also was wondering what type of seats or bench seat was there available to swap out the stock seat.

I am somewhat handy with vehicle maintenance and would like to use this opportunity to learn a little more so any advice would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance

 

the lawn mower sound is probably a cracked exhaust manifold or leaky manifold gasket, they leak when they are cold, but when they warm up, they expand and seal themselves up, when you turn it off, does it seem to keep running? or does it just shake right before the engine stops turning, its good to see more northwest people join here , oh , and Welcome to this great forum

 

i have an 85

with the carbed 22r engine as well...

the engines are notorious for having loose exhuast manifolds... tighten them up first to see.....

sr5 bucket seats will directly swap... im not 100 sure, but i have heard that any seats from the up to 95 era will work... slight modification might be needed....

 

Now that you mention it, my 91 Celica when I had it made the exact same sound when I cracked my exhaust manifold on it running over something on the freeway. I had it replaced then. I will check it on the truck with my Haynes manual to help me out. Now, from experience is this something that can be done somewhat easily on my own or should I trust a mechanic instead? I guess I was wondering also in case I opted to swap my muffler as well.

Now, to answer your question, when I turn the truck off, it does not keep running, it shuts down right away but it immediately does a quick shake as it shuts down.

Thanks!

 

that sputter probably has something to do with the idle cut solenoid. might need a new one in the carb, or something with the matchbox sized "emissions computer" on the kick panel.

as for seats, any '79-83 are a direct bolt in. after that, they're pretty close but you need to drill some new holes for them. i have '85 seats in my '79 4x4

 

Well....I took a look and it seems like the lawnmower sounding noise is coming from the muffler itself and not the exhaust manifold. Does this mean my muffler is shot? Also, what I also failed to mention is that at start up the pulleys that guide the belts make a squeking sound like they need to be lubed or something but then it stops once the car warms up. Is there a quick fix to that?

Thanks!

 

might want to check if the belts are loose then...pretty easy to do

 

hey congrats on the thruck man ive build a few engines for die harders with that same truck.. anyway.. that exhaust manifold problem, pull the manifold and check the gasket for any type of black shots where it looks like exhaust gases have been coming out of. next i would recommend replacing the studs and bolds holding the exhaust manifold on.. you can get em from dealer for about 1.50 each... trust me its a good thing.. and for your seats.. 80-95 yoda seats will work.. a majority are the 60/40 slipt bench.. but the 85-95 SR5 buckets will work with a few minor modifications. good luck with the truck man..

rock on,
matt

 

Man, I forgot how bad those seats were...I can remember stuffing carpet underlay into the back of my '81's seats between the cushion and springs. This did help a bit.

 

I used to have a 79 2wd and I swaped my bench for some SR5 buckets out of an 81. Bolt on w/ no modifications needed. 79-83 are the same body style. 79-81 had round headlights while the 82 & 83 had squares.

 

Okay, so I checked the belts and they do seem slightly loose. According to the Haynes Manual, it should not be too hard to tighten them up. As I look a little more into the sputter the engine has when it is cold in the Haynes manual, it looks like there could be a possibility that the engine is misfiring and I need new plugs and wires or something with the fuel system or carb not getting fuel to the engine fast enough when it is cold.

I swapped out the fuel filter which looked like the original from 81 and looked nasty. I am going to try throwing one of those fuel cleaners in the gas tank. So basically the million dollar question for me is, what are the possible types of problems that can occur to cause these issues ONLY when the truck is cold started(not necessarily cold temperatures outside). The engine sputters, first gear sounds nasty when I accelerate, and the drive pulleys squeak like a rat in a mouse trap. After the truck warms up, it sounds and runs great except for the exhaust which is another issue but it is identified.

I am tempted just to go ahead and swap out the plugs and wires for the heck of it and see what that does, can't hurt. But is there another underlying issue here potentially?

Thanks for all your help.

Steve

 

you may want to take a look at the choke. that can cause a lot of cold starting woes(trust me, i know...i live with a manual choked weber :pat: )

 

Well, I replaced the plugs and wires and dist cap, etc and started her up and the squeal was out with a vengeance. My neighbor walked up and said he had not heard anything like that in a while and was curious to see what it was.

Well, anyhow, he had worked on yotas in the past and grabbed a long metal screwdriver and did the stethoscope method on the engine and we pinpointed the problem to be a shot bearing in the water pump pulley. With the engine off, the pulley and fan easily moved about a quarter inch or so in all directions. He explained to me what probably went wrong and how to fix it. I checked the Haynes manual and he knew his stuff.

Anyhow, now I want to see if I have the nerve to do this myself. The directions step by step seem straightforward.

Has anyone replaced their water pump? And what were your experiences and suggestions and tips.

Thanks

 

i just bought a 84 4runner w/ the 22r engine and i want to get more power. it's an sr5 that i'm going to build into an off-road vehicle. any info will help since i don't have much experiebce with these engines. thanks alot.

 

does it have the square or round style valve cover, i think July was the month that they switched over, my 84 has the round cover, i wish it has the square because it would be much easier to do a EFI swap, Toyota changed the 22r quite a bit between the round and square cover, doing an EFI swap would be the best for offroading, get rid of the carb

 

actually, you can swap efi onto that engine no problem. either the bosses are there or the holes are already tapped for the lower plenum. easiest way to go would be to grab the guts out of an '83-84 celica gt, as they had an early 22RE and analog fuel injection

there's a few years that aren't adequate(i believe), but i know '84 is far past that time. if you want a solid answer, go ask on marlin's board. he knows his stuff with these engines

 

if it's your h2o pump might as well install those steel timeing guides. I know there a weak point actully the 22re is good relaible motor as long as u don't beat on it. I would check the exhaust manifold like those guys told u beacuse i just got done tearing apart a 85 engine outta a 4 runner and they were loose. I think it's just the threads since it's a alumiunim head (forgive my spelling). A cheap mod would be to add a cherry bomb muffler since there cheap and have a low profile. I don't know if a 81 has a cat. convertor but in nebraska u don't need one so u could get rid of it if it has one. The early ones r known for being HP robbers. Oh btw way i have a headman header for that engine if your interested? I don't need it since i'm going efi. I'd like to get around $30.00 bucks for it.

 

technically you are required to have a cat on anything that came with one from the factory. i think all toyotas(except diesels obviously) had them since around '79 or so. mine's just a straight pipe though, no inspection here.

R engines can take quite a bit of abuse. it's just a good idea to eliminate the weak points, like plastic timing guides on the 22R series. my 20R is about as stout as they come, comes with a dual row timing chain and steel guides from the factory you can redline it at every shift no problem, though at 320,000 miles it does blow quite a bit of smoke

 

they must of made the 22re alittle weaker so they wouldn't last forever

 

probably just to save money is my guess. sure, a plastic timing set and single chain won't be a huge difference if you're building one engine, but if youre making millions of them it saves a good deal of money