Hi all - have a 1990 22re 4spd, 196K on it. I bought it about a year ago, and all was well until a few months ago. At that time, it started missing intermittently on long trips (10-15mi). Feathering the throttle let me "stay out" of the miss zone. I replaced the plugs, cap, and rotor just in case. The miss has gotten worse, to the point that it will run 100% perfectly for about a block, then run on two or three cylinders. As it is now, the miss is pretty much constant, though every once in a while it will clear up for a moment or two. Since I only use it for short runs (2mi) I've been living with it... removing the plugs to clean them (has worked in the past as a fix) I found the front two fuel fouled, though only half the plug tip was black. I reset the TPS, checked the EGR, checked the O2 sensor, swapped in a different coil/igniter. Plug wires are 6/9/9/12K, which checks out. Disconnecting temp sensors, egr valve, and O2 sensor make no difference in how it runs. Pulling plug wires one at a time shows all to be firing and contributing more-or-less equally. Because it runs perfectly on startup, I figure the mechanical part of the engine is okay. Compression is 150/120/140/110. Similarly, I figure the injectors and wiring should be okay, since it runs fine some of the time. Any ideas? I'm trying to figure the issue out rather than just throwing parts at it.
Thanks for the help. I was wondering about HG too, but the cooling system doesn't pressurize until warmed up, no oil in coolant or vice versa. I think I traced it to the plug wires - swapped in some wires from another car and it got a lot better. Cleaned and reinstalled, keeping them well apart from each other and metal engine parts, the Toyota wires, and it stayed better. Ordered a cap/rotor/plugs/wires. Hope that fixes it for good.
Ideal compression is 170, minimum is 142, allowable variance is 14. You have a blown headgasket or bad rings. Did you rerun the compression test with some oil down the holes? If so did the pressure bump up?
Did not recheck compression, might do that once warmed up when putting the tuneup parts on. It's got 197K on it. Guy I bought it from blew the HG and replaced it. Don't know anything more. It's tired, I'll give you that. It's just a beater I use to get my kids and bikes to the park.
Compression check is done cold. No way to get the plugs out of the head when it's warm. The oiled test would give you an idea if it's likely to be a gasket issue or if the rings are shot. Impossible to tell what the PO did, if it was done right, or if he used a crappy Rock gasket or something. If you're not interested in the engine at all then it's fine to run it into the ground, but if you want to keep the bottom end then it's worth the price of a gasket to not wipe the bearings with antifreeze.
Hey Aaron - why can't you pull the plugs hot? It's not getting water into the coolant, that'd be pretty obvious.
