I have a 1994 toyota pickup 2wd 4cyl 5 speed that i changed the head gasket, cause of a warped head. i had it machined down, i have it all back together and it does NOT want to start and when it does it sounds like crap and will not idle. i put a new water pump and fuel filter in when i had it apart. i believe its a timing issue. i have it at top dead center and the distributer at #1. but still cant figure it out. i know you are suppose to adjust your timing at idle with the jumper wire in the diagnosis. but it will not idle. it sounds like its missing but when i pull off my spark plug wires it changes for each cylinder. i think maybe it needs a new distributer but am broke so hopefully not. but if it gets her purring then ill do it. any suggestions

 

you positive the dizzy isn't a tooth off?

what if you move the timing a bit, just to get it running. then check the timing with a light.

 

I had the distributer pointed towards #1 and have tried to move it up a tooth and down a tooth both with no success. if i pump the gas a ton as i crank it for about 30sec to a min it starts, but runs horrible. and i have to keep my foot on the gas to keep it running.

 

this may be a stupid question but you Do have the firing order correctly wired right?

 

i am sure they are in the right order. I am willing to bet it will be something simple like that, it will just take forever to figure it out

 

well....... start at the basics and go over your work..... retrace your steps and double check everything. once you do that and all looks good.... do it again. you will find whats ailing the motor.

 

if you didnt take the timing cover off id check that the crank and cam are still in sync.

timing mark @ 0, cam dowel pin @ 12:00

 

Did you re-do the valve lash?

Perhaps you forget to plug the AFM back?

Just throwing these outthere....

 

thank you so much it was my valves. but it still doesn't idle properly cause the timing is jumping around. i didn't have the right feeler gauge so maybe after some fine tuning of the valves it will work. and suggestions?

 

ok........ so adjusting the valves properly helped but still has a bad idle. what is it doing now? once you set the valves, they should be fine.

some people run them at the suggested clearance but i run em on the tight side and adjust them at 0.08 intake and 0.11 exhaust. also depends if you have a cam in it or not.

you mentioned the timing is "jumping around". is this with a slightly steady idle or is it really speradic? as shonuff said, did you make dead sure the teeth on the bottom sprocket didnt jump a tooth and now out of sync with the top end?

when you fire it off can you rev it slightly and "cleans up" or does it just sputter? pop? backfire? give us as much details as possible. if it was runninng fine prior to the repairs, something has changed balance in the motor.....

 

we never pulled the top sprocket off the bottom sprocket and double checked that they were as they should be.

and when you adjust the valve clearance don't you have to have the cam in? (referring to previous post)

when it is warmed up, and we adjust the distributor to were the timing is right then it idles so low that it tries to die. but when we set it back a little then it idles fine. and the idle isn't sporadic, even when the timing is right it is still smooth, just really low to the point where it dies. just the timing mark jumps around. it doesn't back fire, but does have an exhaust leak. the valves almost have a rattle to them when its running? but when you rev it a little then it sounds better.