Engine Flooded by Fuel, will not run

I have a 2002 v6 automatic SR5 TRD double cab, 120K. When I started it up yesterday it ran like it was missing. I had no issues with it the day before when I parked it. While it was running rough I tried to clear it out buy revving it up. Motor acted real lazy and as I looked in the rear view mirror it was starting to smoke ( white in color) and continued to run worse to a point where it stalled.

It had a real strong odor of fuel. It would not start again until I tried it the next day, with the same results. I did manage to get it in the garage. I pulled all the plugs and they where wet. I cleaned plugs, disconnected the battery for a short while and started it again with no change.

I was told it was the fuel regulator, I order one, had it delivered overnight, installed it along with fresh spark plugs. Same thing, engine starts smooth for a second, and goes downhill from there, runs rough, heavy white smoke, fouls spark plugs, stalls, will not restart.

I am told that the excessive fuel is washing the oil off the cylinder walls and that is causing the white smoke. Oil smells like gas.

Engine does not have a blown head gasket and has never been overheated. Something is telling the injectors to dump extra amounts of fuel into motor. I did get a P303 code from the original CEL.

Looking for some feedback if this has happened before and what was the issue? Repair?

 

whats the p303 code?

 

Thanks, I am sure it is not coolant. It is unburnt fuel.

 

Truck ran fine when I parked it, Never had overheating issues (Never). Engine is flooded with fuel (Gas). I can pull plugs, dry out cylinders and it will start up, thens runs rough and then stalls from to much fuel (flooded).

 

Blown head? Weather it over heated or not Toyota had those issues. But to be safe check your coolant. Remove oil cap and look underneath the cap for thick fudge like substance.

 

Not always true. White smoke is also a sign of incomplete combustion. Unless there is a loss of coolant then I would say it's fuel he is seeing.

Edit: Also did some searching since I'm not 100% familiar with that engine, but aren't 2 cylinders fired by one coil? If so you probably have that one bad coil causing two cylinders to not fire and just dumping raw fuel into those cylinders.

 

Good Ideal,Thats the type of thinking I was looking for. However had to leave town for a few days and will continue troubleshooting when I return. Other suggestion I got where:
Possible faulty TPS sensor. Stuck in the WOT mode and immediately dumping fuel into motor during start up.
Possibly faulty coolant temp sending unit. Causing engine to run extremely rich upon start up while engine raising to operating temperature ( while still in open loop mode )
Possibly faulty or dirty injector(s) stuck in the open mode. Causing raw fuel to be dumped into cylinder(s).

I will try to restart it in a few days. If problem still exists I will pay close attention the condition of each plug after they are removed to test the coil theory.

I will also keep this post up dated with results

 

You could also try hooking up a Scan Gauge or similar scantool to the OBD2 port to check the TPS reading.

Even if the ECU thinks your coolant is sub zero, I don't think it would be rich enough to stall the motor.

A stuck injector (especially if it's pinpointed to a specific cylinder) could also cause this. Is the plug for the fuel injector reachable? You could try unplugging the injector and seeing if it would still run.

Do you have spark on all cylinders?

 

Yes.

 

this is a good, informative thread

 

X2

 

x2

 

If the injector is stuck in the open position it wouldn't matter if you unplug it or not, fuel will pour into the cylinder once the fuel pump kicks on...

If im right, a injector is kinda like a switch, there's a positive and negative, when you put power to it, the injector will open, take power a away and it'll close.

 

You're right, I didn't think of that.

 

Thanks And that's a big thanks coming from you.

 

Any update op?

 

Returned home yesterday evening and picked up where I left off. First thing I did was pull all the plugs and cleaned them, some were still wet with fuel even after setting for 6 days

With all the plugs removed and the fuel relay out I cranked the motor over quite a few times to dry out the cylinders. Once this was done I reinstalled the plugs and fuel relay.

Opened the garage door and started it up. It started smooth and ran good but all the while smoking up the neighborhood. The longer( 10 minutes) it ran the less smoke can out the exhaust. After about 15 minutes it would finally idle. It did give me a p0172 code while I was running it. I cleared the code and drove it to work and back today (115 miles round trip ) and it ran perfect and no codes came back.

The parts that were changed were the plugs and the fuel regulator. Not sure what it actually was but it is good now. Stuck injector in open position? Fuel regulator?