Help. Cyl 2 not firing

Alright this is a long story but I need some help because I have run out of ideas. Three months ago my 1995 2.7l Tacoma blew a head gasket. I have been slowly but surely getting it back together, I pulled the motor and replaced all of the gaskets throughout the engine. The truck ran good but smoked terribly and cylinder number 4 had coolant on top of the piston, so I knew it was head gasket. Fast forward to this weekend, I got the motor in and I believe I have everything hooked up. It starts and runs awful, it is idling high and later I find out cylinder two is not firing. I know this because I could remover cylinder 2’s plug wire and there would be no difference in rpm or idle. I don’t know what to do now. I can’t find a vacuum leaked and I want to know what steps I should take. Should I test the injectors and replace them if they aren’t in spec? Thanks for reading would greatly appreciate some help.

 

Also, I replaced the spark plugs and wires before starting the truck. I made sure they were all connected properly so That is not the issue.

 

simplest is to swap a wire, but are you sure your timing is correct?

 

I’m not sure my timing is correct, would that cause one of my cylinders to not fire I don’t know much about timing.

 

possibly...id say try to swap a wire and see what it does. Im pretty sure you have to take the timing chain off to change the head gaskets, But if you are unsure if you got your timing correct you could have other major problems.

 

I replaced the timing chain. So ues I had to take it off, I’ll try swapping wires tomorrow thanks!

 

Okay. I tried swapping injectors and cylinder two still not firing. I also looked for vacuum leaks and found none. I don’t know what to try next

 

Also I have new plugs and wires. I tried swapping them and still no luck...

 

Swap coil packs. See if problem moves. Could be a faulty connector as well.

Oh, just realized you probably don’t have coil packs. Check for corrosion or damage to distributor cap and stator. Also possible your injector is clogged from sitting. Check contacts on connector to injector to make sure no wires may have damage.

 

So I’ll check distributor cap today. If my injector is clogged how do I fix that. I got all the gunk out of the end with the cap that isn’t injecting the fuel and I’m not sure the proper way to clean them. They were pretty dirty and I also replaced the o rings in them

 

Check the compression.

I assume you checked and/or adjusted the valve clearances while you did the head gasket replacement?

 

You don’t really clean an injector. Either send it out or replace. Witchhunter does a great job of renewing injectors.

 

Right. I didn’t clean it’s internals but there was a lot of dirt in the cups and where it plugs in the head I’m guessing from when my valve cover leaking it was oil build up and stuff. I actually found out some more stuff.
The previous owner was running the fuel injectors with no O-rings what so ever on the cap or on the injector itself and I am amazed it wasn’t leaking before I took it apart but now I’m going to pick up a new o ring kit and injector cups and see if the leaks stop.
Something else I discovered was a decent size crack in my distributor cap so I replaced that as well, I’m hoping that it was arcing out improperly on that crack and the rotor and distributor is fine. Fingers crossed later today after I repair the injectors I’m gonna throw it back together for the hundredth time and see what happens.

 

@DrZ yes the valves were in spec I checked that before I sent the head off to get resurfaced. If this doesn’t work I’ll take the valve cover off and see if I have a stuck valve or something but I just don’t see how that would be the case because nothing was bad when I took the engine apart. When I had a noticeably bad head gasket leak and decided it wasn’t time I took videos of the truck running and it still ran great. Started right up and idled fine no misfire.

 

Did the shop disassemble the head to resurface it? I'd think that you'd have already put new cups in the injector holes with the new o-ring behind it.

Then there is another o-ring on the injector and 2 grommets.

 

The shop didn’t disassemble. I got the injector seal kit and got that all fixed and now of course I have a new issue. I’m not getting any power inside my cab except for the battery dash light and my tach will be on very dim. I had the battery tested and it is good. It makes a rapid clicking noise when I turn my lights on but they don’t actually turn on. I tried turning my hazards on and got a loud squealing and clicking noise. I just replaced the starter it has like 50 miles on it. I’m completely lost and this truck has become a nightmare. Any help would be appreciated

 

It doesn’t crank over at all when I try and start it. I just replaced the distributor cap but don’t see how that would affect it at all. @DrZ

 

Trace your wiring. Definitely seems you have something connected up wrong or is shorted out. Check grounds. Seems far fetched, but could a rodent gotten into the wiring harness and chewed up something?

 

It could be possible, that happened to my brothers pickup a couple months ago. But from all the visible wires I would say that is not the case. I have been wondering my grounds could be bad which ones should I check and what should I look for? Thank you

 

Check the contact areas of both battery terminals and battery posts for corrosion, and make sure they are both firmly tightened. Recently someone here had weird electrical problems and they had forgotten to tighten one.

Follow the negative cable down to where it is attached to the engine or transmission. There should also be a smaller wire from the negative to the body near the battery. The positive goes to fuse box, and another positive goes directly to the starter.

The wires can also be corroded inside the insulation. You'd have to cut that back a bit if you see signs of green corroded wires. I think the sudden change would indicate something simpler like a bad connection somewhere.