Dead miss - Fuel Injector? 86' 22re

[hikinout]

Hey guys,

so have recently had some stumbling, a rough idle and hesitation on acceleration. I had a TPS code thrown, so I removed and cleaned the throttle body and replaced the TPS (old one was pretty mechanically dead). It helped, but didn't solve it completely.

Then I did what I should have done in the first place and pulled the spark plug wires one at a time while running the truck. The 2nd cylinder made absolutely no change to idle when removed. So, wasn't a misfire, but a dead miss. The spark plugs all look fine.

Ran a compression test and I get a pretty even ~185 across all cylinders. So I'm thinking I have a bad fuel injector. Think make sense to ya'll?

What should next step be? Would fuel injector treatment help, or should I prepare to get the injectors rebuilt.

Of note/additional questions:
- engine was rebuilt about 2000 miles ago.
- wet compression test was even but ~240. Does that change seem huge? Did I put too much oil in there? This was my first time doing a compression test.
- There's a lot of white smoke after the compression test. Is this just the oil burning off? Only ran the truck for a minute after hooking everything up. The neighbor gave me a dirty look so I shut it off.

Thanks everyone in advance.

 

[SV_Dude]

240 is EXTREMELY high for compression. It's possible that you have a fouled injector. I would run it for a minute or two and get all the oil and junk out of the cylinders. Run it till the smoke clears then for a few more minutes. If it still runs rough then look further into your injectors. Before you come to the conclusion that it's your injectors try swapping them around and see if the problematic cylinder follows the suspected injector.

 

[KidVermicious]

I agree with SV. First check for spark, that's a quick and dirty test that can save you a little time. If the spark appears strong, then frog the plug wires to make sure it's good, then frog the spark plugs, because those are easier than moving the injectors. If the trouble stays with the cylinder each time, then swap injectors - if you're right, the trouble will follow the injector. If it stays with the cylinder, you know the injector is good, and maybe the harness is bad?

If you do have bad injectors, I recommend Accurate Injector Service in Az. - great company to work with.

 

[hikinout]

Very helpful.

- Spark test shows good spark from all wires.
- Resistance test on wires was good.
- Plugs seem good and even.
- Frogging the wires and plugs still points to #2 being dead.
- Re-did compression and got 185 again across all cylinders. Didn't run it wet this time.
- I haven't swapped injectors around yet.

To do that I basically just need to remove the upper plenum, swap the injectors, reattach everything and give it a go, right?

I'm guessing I'll only need to redo the gaskets once I've replaced the injectors/harness and am putting it together once and for all.

Thanks

 

[KidVermicious]

To do that I basically just need to remove the upper plenum, swap the injectors, reattach everything and give it a go, right?

You got it.

 

[nevada]

Very helpful.

- Spark test shows good spark from all wires.
- Resistance test on wires was good.
- Plugs seem good and even.
- Frogging the wires and plugs still points to #2 being dead.
- Re-did compression and got 185 again across all cylinders. Didn't run it wet this time.
- I haven't swapped injectors around yet.

To do that I basically just need to remove the upper plenum, swap the injectors, reattach everything and give it a go, right?

I'm guessing I'll only need to redo the gaskets once I've replaced the injectors/harness and am putting it together once and for all.

Thanks

before you go through that trouble, get a NOID light and verify that the injector is even getting a signal.

 

[SV_Dude]

You will only need to replace the middle intake gasket if it looks bad. If it's still in good shape then don't bother replacing it.

Hopefully swapping injectors around will move the symptom around with the suspected injector. If it does then it's a simple fix. KidV suggested Accurate Injector Service, he has had good results with them. I have used new injectors from LCE with good results as well.

 

[SV_Dude]

before you go through that trouble, get a NOID light and verify that the injector is even getting a signal.

This is a good idea, even if swapping plugs around doesn't change anything. This is really the only 100% way to know for sure that the injectors are getting a good signal.

 

[hikinout]

before you go through that trouble, get a NOID light and verify that the injector is even getting a signal.

Okay. Getting there I hope.

- Ran the NOID light test and I get signal from all the connectors. The pulse and intensity are really faint. Barely looks like it's pulsing at all. Especially when compared to this video: How To Test Fuel Injectors with a Noid Light TUTORIAL - YouTube
- Did a screwdriver stethoscope test and I could hear pulse in every injector.
- No real change in idle when injector #2 was out.
- The wiring under there is a mess and could really use a little love. It's an electrical bird's nest shoved into a pile of electrical tape. Previous owner, I'm finding more and more, didn't care much for keeping things neat or organized.

Hopefully I'll have time to swap injectors around tomorrow.

Thanks guys.

 

[hikinout]

Dead Miss - Fuel Injector rebuild and intake clean up

Okay,

So pulled the upper intake off. This thread was pretty helpful for anyone else who might need to do this:

22RE Fuel Injector Rebuild - YotaTech Forums

When I pulled out the injectors, I decided I just needed to send them in rather than spend time swapping. You can see in the pic below how bad some of them are. Cracks and burns on all of them. When I pulled them out some of the O-rings just crumbled.

I sent them into Accurate Injectors. After speaking to them on the phone, seemed like a real good place, so thanks for the recommendation.

In the meantime, I'd like to clean up the mess that I found when I pulled this all apart. Does anyone have any advice for cleaning, re-taping and sprucing up all these wires or any other advice on work I should do while I wait for the injectors to come back? Also, major points if anyone can tell me what that green wire I found hanging out loose might be.

 

[SV_Dude]

Cover up your lower intake plenum and loose hoses and pressure wash the snot out out of the engine bay. Make sure you disconnect the battery first. Usually I will clean the engine bay as good as possible before taking things apart.

As for the wiring harness, once you have everything clean you can put some new split loom on the harness and that will help protect an old fragile harness from the engine heat.

Green wire... hmmm... can you follow it back to anything or does it dissappear inside of the harness?

*edit: there is supposed to be a ground wire with a ring terminal on the end of it. It mounts on the upper intake plenum right where the upper and lower intake plenum join. Was that ground wire there?

Also, is your water temp guage working on your guage cluster? There is a water temp sensor that sits between the #2 and #3 fuel injector. Maybe that wire is for that sensor?

 

[hikinout]

Pressure wash, and new split loom - Will do, thanks.

The green wire just disappears into the harness. I haven't had any problems with the water temp gauge. I'll investigate further.

There's a ring terminal with a few wires that look like they could be ground wires. It was mounted on the bolt that attaches the fuel rail to the lower intake. Here it is in the picture:

 

[KidVermicious]

I don't have a 22RE to look at anymore, but the wire that comes to mind is the AC temp switch on top of the coolant neck between the throttle body and valve cover. That wire likes to break, and you don't notice it because all it does is send a signal to cut the AC when the water temp gets too high.

 

[nevada]

I don't have a 22RE to look at anymore, but the wire that comes to mind is the AC temp switch on top of the coolant neck between the throttle body and valve cover. That wire likes to break, and you don't notice it because all it does is send a signal to cut the AC when the water temp gets too high.

I don't have my 4runner here in front of me, but I think that's right.

mine has been repaired, its got a crimp connector on it.

 

[SV_Dude]

Pressure wash, and new split loom - Will do, thanks.

The green wire just disappears into the harness. I haven't had any problems with the water temp gauge. I'll investigate further.

There's a ring terminal with a few wires that look like they could be ground wires. It was mounted on the bolt that attaches the fuel rail to the lower intake. Here it is in the picture:

I would be very nervous having a ground wire on the fuel rail. I'm not saying anything bad could happen but using a fuel line to complete an electrical circuit doesn't seem like a very good idea. Put the ground wire on the mount bolt for the upper intake plenum.

I don't have a 22RE to look at anymore, but the wire that comes to mind is the AC temp switch on top of the coolant neck between the throttle body and valve cover. That wire likes to break, and you don't notice it because all it does is send a signal to cut the AC when the water temp gets too high.

Good call!

 

[hikinout]

I don't have a 22RE to look at anymore, but the wire that comes to mind is the AC temp switch on top of the coolant neck between the throttle body and valve cover. That wire likes to break, and you don't notice it because all it does is send a signal to cut the AC when the water temp gets too high.

That would make sense. This truck had AC, but it was removed by the previous owner. I have all the parts, but that's another project and another thread.

I would be very nervous having a ground wire on the fuel rail. I'm not saying anything bad could happen but using a fuel line to complete an electrical circuit doesn't seem like a very good idea. Put the ground wire on the mount bolt for the upper intake plenum.

Now that's a good call. I'll be sure to move it.

 

[hikinout]

Here's a final update. I finally had some time to finish this up.

To recap, here's everything I've done.
- I power-washed the engine bay.
- Rewrapped a few parts of the wiring harness.
- Cleaned out the EGR valve
- Reinstalled the rebuilt injectors.
- Put new gaskets on the manifold and EGR. (EGR to upper intake didn't even have one when I pulled it.)
- I removed the VSV. See here on 4Crawler's cheap tricks page: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/22RE_Engine_Pix/10.html
- Also pulled the A/C VSV. I don't have A/C and one of the wires had snapped. I left the wires and connectors, just in case.

Got it all back together, went to restart it and...nothing. Just a click. So, after looking around a bit and getting frustrated, I started to pull the upper plenum again, mainly to check the wiring harness and the bolt with the ground wire.

In doing so, one of the bolts slipped past my magnetic bolt dish. While I was looking for it in the wheel-well I saw that the black wire spade clip that connects to the starter solenoid was pretty much totally broken off. So, repaired that with a new spade clip and...

BINGO!!! Car started right up. All cylinders firing away beautifully, purring like an old cat. The guys at Accurate Injector told me my injectors were actually in pretty good shape, so I was worried I had another problem.

Anyway, thanks a ton everyone for helping me figure this out! Now I can start fixing everything else.