(Truck's a 1994 xtra cab, 22RE, 4wd, manual)

Long story short, the HG on my engine is leaking (thread over here https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...mation-308068/), and so when I had finally finished gathering all replacement parts and was gonna start tearing it apart, the engine stopped starting.

This happened at the time I did the compression test. Before initializing the test, I unplugged the ignition coil high tension cord from the ignition coil but forgot to unplug the cold start injector connector. I cranked it to check it would not start (which it didn't) and was about to proceed to remove the spark plugs, when I realized it would be best to warm the engine for a better compression reading. I plugged everything back as was before, turned to key to start the engine, only to hear it cranking but starting no more.


What the hell? It did start flawlessly a few days before this. Could having cranked the engine with only the ignition coil unplugged, but not the cold start injector, somehow altered the starting system?


I started troubleshooting as per the FSM.

1.- Spark does occur
2.- Primary coil resistance reading is 01.5 ohms (should be 0.36 - 0.55)
3.- Secondary coil resistance reading is 13.5 ohms (should be between 9.0 - 15.4 k ohms)
4.- Removed distributor housing, everything looks ok.
5.- ¿Could someone please indicate to me where exactly is the pickup coil located?


Will continue troubleshooting tomorrow. Oh how I hope the fuel pump hasn't decided to go out just now.


I definitely want to solve this no-start issue BEFORE tackling the head gasket replacement, in order to be able to clearly discern if something does go amiss in the upcoming engine rebuild process, ruling out beforehand any issue from before.


ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED!

 

Is the intake connected? Air must run through the afm for engine start.

 

If those are "cold" readings on the igntion coil, the coil is out of spec & should be replaced. Your Primary Resistance is 3 times what it should be, and you Secondary reading is well past average but even with this, the coil will still produce spark when cold (not subjected to engine compartment heat, which will only make the readings higher).

If you are getting spark your Ignition Control Module (Ignitor) is probably working & so is the Pickup Coil. The Pickup Coil is located in the distributor.

 

The proper procedure for a 22RE(RTE) is to disconnect the EFI fuse (cuts power to ECU, VAFM.. No fuel pump, no injectors firing), and to disconnect the distributor mounted pickup (NE signal, which disables spark).

What you have been doing is firing the ignition coil with nothing for it to drain the high power into, this means it's only output path is to arc across its internal connection and cause damage. As well as firing the primary fuel injectors..

You shouldn't be worried about if you can make it run at this point, you're risking damaging engine internal parts. Depending how bad your head gasket leak is you could hydrolock the cylinder, water is not compressible. This can do very bad things like bend/stress connecting rods, and then you're not just replacing a head gasket but worst case buying a new engine block because the rod broke and poked a hole in it.

 

Co_94_PU brings up a good point about the ignition coil. Just what did you unplug?

Many people look at the primary resistance specification of the ignition coil and compare to their multimeter reading and see what you saw. In my opinion, that primary coil resistance reading is just fine. Why? Many multimeters are not super accurate at that low of resistance and also do not take into account the resistance of the test leads. Once you combine the resistance of the test leads to the coil resistance and then add to that the accuracy error at that low of resistance level, you typically get a primary resistance reading that you got.

That is the long way of saying that I am not concerned about your primary resistance reading.

If you are getting a good, healthy spark, and it is happening at the right time, I would look at a fuel problem...... BUT, I agree with Co_94_PU that I would fix your engine / head gasket first, or at least make sure there is no coolant or excessive fuel going into the cylinders before proceeding.

 

Never mind!

 

I followed the FSM manual, which states to only disconnect the distributor connector and the cold start injector connector (which I forgot to do).








It does sound logical to remove the EFI fuse, though. I'll keep in mind that for future situations!








This:

 

Well hell, I just can't find it. I have looked repeated times inside the distributor, removing the cap, and I nowhere do I see anything which remotely resembles THIS:

 

The connector should be outside the distributor. http://web.archive.org/web/201101242.../5distribu.pdf

 

I'm not worried about damaging the engine, as the HG leak is minor, oil still looks right, there is only minor condensation on the oil cap, and very minor white smoke out the tail pipe.


The thing is, I want to FIRST solve this no-start issue BEFORE getting to work on the head job, in order to be able to get the truck to start immediately after the HG job is done and in so doing confirm I did it correctly.

.
So:
- I do have spark
- Primary and secondary coil resistance are ok
- Fuel pump IS working (jumped Fp and B+ terminals)
- Fuel pump IS activating at key at ON.
- There are no stored check engine codes (check engine light flashes rapidly)
- Actually, not even spraying fuel directly into the throttle body (with the throttle open) does the engine start


Suspecting that timing may have gotten out of spec somehow when cranking with ignition coil disconnected but cold start injector connected, today I checked if # 1 cylinder was actually at TDC on compression stroke.


So I manually turned the engine to timing mark on "0", removed the distributor cap to check the rotor position, and rotor was correctly pointing to # 1 spark plug. However, to double check, I removed the valve cover and checked the rocker arms over cylinder # 1, and they were tight (cam putting pressure on them), indicating the engine was a TDC on the EXHAUST STROKE.


What the hell? How could it have gotten out of TDC? Could it actually be because of cranking it without spark?



So I removed the distributor, turned over the engine one revolution, put on the distributor, pointing again to # 1 spark plug, and now the rocker arms over cylinder # 1 were loose, indicating TDC at COMPRESSION STROKE.


Hoping this would solve my no-start issue, I tried then to fire the engine, but to no avail.



So I'm currently at a loss on what could be the problem. Hope you guys can give me some advice on how to proceed.



Thanks!

 

have you followed the fsm for setting ignition timing? The rotor is not supposed to be facing any spark plugs. The distributor should be installed with rotor up with the crank pulley at 5 degrees. The rotor will rotate counter clockwise when pushed in. The rotor will now be at 11:00. More importany the signal rotor should be sitting in the middle of the pickup coil. You can turn the distributor to get it there exactly. This procedure is very clear in the fsm. When done properly there is no questioning timing, it’s obvious if it’s done properly or not. This must be done with the #1 cylinder at tdc as stated.

you can also verify physical timing by shining a light into the #1 spark plug hole and verifying that the piston starts moving downwards when the dot on the cam gear passes the mark on the rocker Assembly. This is a good way to verify tdc And engine timing. If these two are not in synch the engine is not timed. Of course the wires must also be In the correct orientation.

Setting the crank pulley to 0 is not tdc. It’s off for ignition advance purposes. I’ve found the cam gear dot to actually be accurate.

if it still won’t start and you have spark try some starter fluid to eliminate a fuel issue. It will start on fluid if you have spark timing and compression.