Maaaa, what's up Doc? - This Toyota uses a traditional distributor. I don't know why you're trying to pi$$ me off, but to date I have spent a total of $6. 03 on one part, a pipe I intend to put in place of the catalyst. Go invest in the parts stores, seems to me you'd go broke since I've spent SO MUCH MONEY on SO MANY PARTS. I don't know why you're taking cheap shots at me while the rest of these guys are doing a good job on providing me great & helpful information. Taking cheap shots must be something in your personality, or is it a grudge about something (maybe you don't like me since I don't take delight in trying to destroy someone elses truck and then bragging about it)? Either way, I'd prefer you to keep your smarta$$ coments tucked away. You know, like mature adults do. You may have heard this before but... . if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all.
Illflem - I check the oil at every fuel stop (I always put gas in it for my wife when she drove it), and if it ever uses any, it never gets below the low mark. That doesn't mean it can't be a broke cam though.
Dmurdock - You may be right. I may have damaged a wire. Even though I was being as careful as I could, those wires have some miles on 'em. Maybe its possible that a wire and a spark plug can arc outside the combustion chamber, but not on the inside with a compressed fuel load. Hmmmm.
CF - I was on about 1/2 tank. Had the oil and filter changed. Went home changed the air filter and spark plugs, and took it for a few drives. That's when it started going bad. Later that night when I thought it might be bad gas (which theoretically it still could be), I drove it to the gas station (2. 5 miles) and put gas treatment in it and topped it off. I also asked the station attendant if anybody had complained about fuel quality lately and she said no (not that she would necessarily tell the truth, but she might have too). That drive to the gas station is when it would barely run and it smoked a little when I got there, and more when I got home. That's when I discovered the cherry red catalyst.
Everybody - Just as an experiment, I put all the new spark plugs back in. The old ones now are black as ..... well, you know. Indicating a rich mixture. When I originally pulled the old ones out, they were a real light gray. When I put the new ones in, it went like this. Upon crank it would run on two, then I'd hit the throttle a couple of times, and when rpms would come down (BTW-fuel injected), it would fire on all 4 cylinders (with no throttle input). Anytime the throttle was mashed it would sputter, unless it was just an itsy bitsy bit of throttle. A minute after the engine was running, and as it got warm, it slowly started missing on one cylinder... then two... . then it wouldn't run for crap. I'm guessing it changed due to the ignition timing change of the engine warming.
That's my last bit of play with this thing. My best guess is - It's something that I did to it accidently, like pulling some hose loose. But I can't find any loose. Or its the timing belt.
But the thing needs a timing belt (due to all the miles) and I just don't have enough time to tear it apart (thanks Toyota Technical Center), plus I get frustrated when things don't go real smooth (and when people take cheap shots at me, or at anybody really). So I think I'll load it up, take it to a place I know, let them do a code scan, change the timing belt, and see if they can figure it out.
Hope it don't cost too much, but I bet's its something simple and won't cost too much. If it does, I'll tell them to not fix it and I'll just go buy another car and slowly tear this thing apart and fix it myself.
- JyRO
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