rough idle 87 T4R

[kerry]

Hello all, I just bought an 87 4 runner with an excellent body. The engine ran a little rough(147,000mi.) so I did the basic wires, plugs, fuel filter, etc. This helped some, but I found that it had no air filter installed and I have no idea how long they drove it this way. My problem is that it idles really rough especially in gear and the fuel mileage is pitiful. I played with the timing(w/o a light) and have had no real luck. I'm running seafoam in her now but it has not helped yet. I have only put about 60 miles on it so maybe it will help after the whole tank has run thru. This is a 22RE fuel injected motor. I owned an 87 truck 22R for several years and other than a headgasket it was bullet proof. Any suggestions?
Also, the temp guage only works occasionally(rarely) and I changed the sending unit out and it didn't help. It usually stays at about 1/3 of the way up. If I pull the wire it goes down and returns to 1/3 when I replace it. One other minor issue is the a/c blower only works on 3&4 and not 1&2? The temp adjust nob will not stay all the way over to the coldest setting either. It wants to slip back toward warm.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to participating in this site.

Kerry
Somewhere Down in Texas

 

[kerry]

Maybe I posted in the wrong forum since I have no replies.
Here is an update. Yesterday I had the timing set properly and the idle set as well. Now it is difficult to start when cold starting but it idles better when it warms up than it did before. The negative is now it is very sluggish from a dead start. Seems to have lost power. Any ideas?

 

[CJ3Flyr]

Maybe I posted in the wrong forum since I have no replies.
Here is an update. Yesterday I had the timing set properly and the idle set as well. Now it is difficult to start when cold starting but it idles better when it warms up than it did before. The negative is now it is very sluggish from a dead start. Seems to have lost power. Any ideas?

I don't have much 22re experience but have worked on many 4cyl of that vintage. There are many sensors and many possible problems. The timing being 'correct' and a loss of power indicates to me that maybe the advance mechanism in the distributer isn't right. You say it's harder to start. Crank slower or just more? I would do what you have done.

I would also:

-Confirm the valve lash setting
-Run a compression check
-Check the basics in search of a vacuum leak (could explain distributor not advancing properly). I'd plug the line to the brake booster and take a spray bottle of water and spray around the intake and vraious hoses to see if I could affect a brief change indicating a vacuum leak. If it runs good re-connect the brake booster to see if that's a source for a leak.
-With the spray bottle I'd spray the distrubuter and wires to see if it ran worse indicating bad plug wires or cracked distributer cap.
-I'd put a new thermostat and get the thing running at the correct temp.

After those items were handled I'd start checking specific sensors, the air temp and mass airflow. The beauty of the first several is they are cheap and should be done no matter what.

Good luck. We love 1st gen T4R's but many of the hardcore tech types can be found at some of the Taco/truck forums as the 1st gen was so much more akin to the truck of that generation. Let us know what you find.

:cheers:

 

[kerry]

Thanks for the reply. I will try your suggestions when I have time. As far as the hard starting, it spins over and fires but dies right away and takes 3-5 attemps to get her running.