Hey everyone,

new to the forum, and i think some of you might be able to help me out.

after replacing a blown head gasket on my 1994 3.0 3VZE, everything went back together fine and now she starts up but will not stay running.

check out the video! opinions anyone? anything helps!

4runner.MOV - YouTube

Welcome to the board. I didn't see the part where the truck starts, did you leave something out?

It looks to me like it wants to catch but isn't quite getting there. You need air, fuel, spark, compression, and timing, and if you're missing any of those things it could behave just like that.

Pull each plug, leave it in the plug wire, and hold it near the block while somebody turns the ignition, you should see an arc. That's a basic test, but it's enough for now. While you're doing that, take a big whiff of each open cylinder immediately after cranking, and make sure you smell gas. If you've got spark and gas, borrow a compression tester from autozone and make sure your cylinders are good. That's the easy stuff, if that all checks out then refer to the FSM (link in the sticky up top of this forum) troubleshooting section for anything else I might have missed.

well starts up then INSTANTLY dies haha it catches for a second.

so far i have test for spark, have spark on all 6. tested compression, over 140 on all. you can smell fuel when you crank it with the plugs out and you can also smell a hint of fuel on the plugs themselves. i only got it so "start" this much when i advanced the timing quite a bit.

anything else im missing?

i am having the SAME exact problem... except i only replaced the knock sensor. put it all back toegther, and this is what i got. did you do anything to fix this issue?

Check for large dangling ground wires.
I had similar issues when I had intake manifold off. I finally tracked it down to a ground wire I had not bolted back to the manifold. The fuel injectors needed that ground to fire but the cold start injector did not. So it would fire and run for a few seconds then die. Although mine was 22re v6 might have something similar.

I had the same problem after removing my plenum. My maf had lost a ground somewhere. Your fuel pump gets power from ignition to start than the maf takes over the power supply to the fuel pump to keep it running with the circuit opening relay. Just my two cents. You can set a jumper in the diagnostic box to run the fuel pump. If it stays running while jumped something is not communicating. Worth a shot and maybe give you some direction.

I could be mistaken but I believe if I remember it was te1 and f1 to run the fuel pump. but I would verify before trying

Correction. It's +b and fp

I see this is a really old thread, but I have the same issue. I replaced the tank, pump, FSU and fuel filter. (Old tank had rust in it from sitting for awhile after previous owner let it sit when it didn't start one day.)

I also used compressed air to blow the fuel lines out up to the rail.

1994 3.0 4x4

I jumped fuel pump to keep it running...and same behavior.
It will run as long as I spray starter/carb cleaner in it, so I assume I have spark.

Anyone else find anything else? This really has me stumped with 3 days of troubleshooting and $$ spent on new fuel system components.

Again...I know this is old, but it won't let me start a new thread because of low posting count.

Thanks!

A head gasket job is very involved and it'd be hard to keep track of everything. Obviously something went wrong, probably when you put things back together. Check the vacuum hoses for cracks and make sure they are connected. A vacuum leak will give the engine too much air, but if you keep your foot on the gas pedal it might stay running since the computer would send a lot of fuel to compensate for the extra air. Check the fuel lines, since you said you smell fuel I'd assume they are good, so move on to the ignition components. Assuming your plugs are good, see if the wires are good. I'm saying this because my 98 had the same symptom after a valve cover job and the culprit ended up being the electrical connection on the ignition coils. I'm not sure about the ignition layout on your truck but it could be something as simple as that. Apparently the engine needs all 6 cylinders firing to stay running.