I got my first Toyota this winter and the bearings in the transmission were pretty well shot. I drove it home though. It was running a little rough in the driveway and wouldn't idle down below about 1800 rpm. I rebuilt the transmission and was testing it out and realized that the motor really wasn't running very well at all. I did a compression test to find out that none of the cylinders had more than 80psi. I took the head off to check things out farther.The cylinder walls looked good with very minimal wear.

I thought that maybe the valves had warped a little or the head might not be totally straight. I bought a brand new aluminum head, valves, and camshaft. I put it all back together and it had about 160psi on all cylinders. I went to start it and would barely start. When it did it would sputter and spit around 500rpm. I adjusted the idle and the timing to the correct settings, but it still doesn't want to start very good. Just driving around the block it didn't have any power, like barely maintaining 25 mph in second on a flat road.

I took the valve cover off today to make sure everything was timed up right. The crankshaft pulley was at tdc and the dot on the cam gear was straight up, so that was all good. I then noticed that a lobe on my brand new camshaft had a deep groove in it from the rocker. I poured oil all over that stuff before I put it back together and there was oil pooled up in some of the holes on the head when I took the valve cover off.

Things that I know aren't working at the moment or have checked: The cold start injector isn't working(somewhere in the switch or the wiring - the injector works when hot wired) and when I jumped the two holes to set the timing the idle didn't do anything but the check engine light did come on. Tested the tps and it tested out good. Tested fuel pressure and it was 38psi.

The problem is that it seems like it almost worked better before I put the new head on it and at this point I am out of ideas. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

It sounds like you didn't used break in lube on the cam. And did you use the old rockers or new? Describe your break in procedure.

 

No I didn't use any break in lube and I did use the old rockers since they looked to be in good shape. To break it in I just poured oil on it before I put the valve cover on and ran it at varying rpm around 2000 for 10 minutes.

 

Every source I spoke with during my rebuild made it clear to always use a break-in oil with a new cam. Or at least use a break-in additive with regular oil. The only exception are engines that use roller-lifters, which ours are not.