Intro and a little engine help for 98

[gcfish]

Quick intro... Been around off road vehicles for quite a while. I've had 10 jeeps, from stock to long-armed, nissans, and land rovers. I have moved from trail riding to rock crawling and now into vehicle camping/overlanding with the growing family.

I recently picked up my first toyota after a long search. Its a 1998 4runner limited with diff lock and all. 122k one owner with an extensive maintainance history. Over the two months i have owned it, its run flawlessly. Really starting to enjoy toyota. Every light, switch, button, etc. works. Everything. Quite remarkable for a 15 yo truck...especially after owning land rovers.

Over the last week it's been inconsistently running poorly. Rough idle and it stumbles under acceleration. Check engine light finally came on and indicates a misfire in 5, and occasionally 5 and 2. replaced the plugs with ngk doubles, the wires with ngk, and swapped the coil packs around. The problem didnt follow the coil but i replaced the it anyway, along with the air filter and gave the MAF a good cleaning. Head gasket, injectors came back good. Timing chain done at 90k.

Now its consistently running awful after it gets warmed up.

Shop says bad head. Crap.

Anything else i should check before spending the big bucks? Beginning to regret selling my 2004 Disco for this...almost

Thanks

And any mechanic recs in Tampa would be great...

 

[BrianSD_42]

Did they do a compression test?

 

[Ol'Blue]

^^^^ What he said also. At 122k I find it hard to believe that the head would go unless it at some point over heated and you didn't know about it. If it was at 222 or more then ok, or a head gasket.

The good news is that you can find one ready to drop in for around 300-500 if you shop around. I know we found on for one of the guys hear for half what a shop wanted for a used on that was ready to bolt in.

I'm sure one of the guys would be happy to send you one off a parts truck listed hear. Granted it would still need worked but it would be cheap.

Welcome to the Yota family.

 

[gcfish]

No havent done the compression test yet. I, too, have a hard time believing i need a new engine in such a low mileage well maintained toyota.

Anything else that could cause these symptoms? Tps, cps, o2, cat???

Thanks for the help

 

[Singtoe]

No havent done the compression test yet. I, too, have a hard time believing i need a new engine in such a low mileage well maintained toyota.

Anything else that could cause these symptoms? Tps, cps, o2, cat???

Thanks for the help

Bad gas

Injectors might be fouled up.

 

[gcfish]

About to run the second bottle of chevron injector cleaner through since it started. And have been running premium as well...

Also it runs fine when cold only starts running like crap when it gets warmed up. Wouldnt a bad or clogged injector cause the problem at start up too

 

[kball]

After reading your responses to the above posts I'm really wondering what you meant by "head gasket, injectors came back good". Came back good from where? Normally if a head is beginning to go it will run bad when cold and then get better once warmed up and expanded, closing all the cracks and leaks. Yours is doing the opposite. You haven't thrown a code for the coolant temp sensor have you?

 

[PitbullRescuer]

Start simple.
Compression Test.
Leak Down Test.
Fuel filter.
Try swapping injectors, see if the code follows.

I'm putting money on injector.

 

[Willhickey]

No one mentioned run 87 low compression engines will run the same if not worse on. 93 due to the only difference is its meant for a longer burn which to dont have or need due to the low compression goodluck compression. Test and if you have some sticking valve try some gm top engine cleaner before ripping off the head because it does work wonders and is a helluva lot cheaper !

 

[gcfish]

Thanks for the replies. A friend of a friend owns a midas shop. They looked at all the could in the short time i had. They stated they tested head gasket. Not sure how. Some leak test i think. They checked the injector for function not performance. Only codes are misfire 5 and misfire 5/2