2wd 4 speed manual with a 22RE. It's been sitting for a few years, and I've been slowly dusting it off and fixing it up to use it again. Sofar we've replaced the fuel pump/filter, inline filter, new plugs, injector cleaner, it idles fantastic.

But the problems come when you try to rev it up. It has absolutely no power over 1/4 throttle. I've replaced the TPS and MAF with known working units to no avail. It constantly has steam pouring out of the exhaust and water slowly disappears out of the radiator. Did a compression check last night and got:

#1: 180 psi
#2: 160 psi
#3: 185 psi
#4: 165 psi

When I pulled the plug on #1, steam came rolling out. 2 and 3 had a bit of steam inside and #4 had no steam inside. The engine has 175k miles on it, was rebuilt at 100k miles (truck has over 275k miles). Timing is at 5*. I talked to a tech at Toyota (seeing as how I work there) and he seems to think it's either a MAF or the timing is off. Also a plugged cat, but the cat is clear I can see through the catalyst, plus it ran the same with the exhaust off. But like I said I replaced the MAF with a known working unit.

Ideas? Could a blown head gasket give such high compression numbers?

 

What is your:
cold idle speed
warm idle speed
ignition timing
?

 

Timing is 5*, cold or hot idle not sure, there is no RPM gauge and I have no other means to tell.

Tore it all down today though, took about 2 hours. I'm absolutely certain that after 175k miles the head needs attention and the head gasket absolutely needed replacing. Can see where coolant was seeping through the cooling ports into cylinder 1, and 2-3 had a bit of it too. Guess that can be why it wouldn't rev up (too much water inside- forced in when water pressure built up from revving). Nontheless the head is getting new valves, pressure testing, etc. Cylinder walls look fine though, so we're not going to touch them.

Timing chain and components needs replacing as well.

 

Given your compression readings, I'd be hard pressed to believe a leaking head gasket was at fault. That's not to say it's not a problem though, just that it doesn't make sense. Compression from the piston moving up the bore is much higher than the pressure the cooling system generates. You should see steam out the exhaust and excessive pressure in the radiator causing coolant to be blown out to the recovery tank.

 

Not really certain what the exact problem is, that's why I was giving an educated guess. Steam definitely was pouring out of the exhaust constantly, moreso when it revved up.

Time to rebuild the head anyways though, 175k is a lot on it especially when one of the PO's never did an oil change and ran it hard. Water was in the oil as well.

 

Bump. We had the head rebuilt and it needed to be resurfaced as well. Valves were leaking.

Engine is all back together and I get this feeling that the injectors aren't firing in the correct order. Engine runs rough, timing is perfect at 5*. No vacuum leaks... Must have plugged a couple of injectors in backwards perhaps? Black soot is coming out of the exhaust.

 

just an idea but do you have the valves adjusted properly? i remember an incident where they were for me and the truck ran terrible.