SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

I'm convinced it's the problem, not worried about that. And I get it about the PM side of it. My concern was how the hell do you verify 100% that your ECU isn't wacky since no CEL during piston hole/plug issue. But I am now convinced that our ECU is fine, and feel GREAT about my BRAND NEW HEAD TO TOE fuel system!!!!!!!!!!! Although, I suppose there is one more hurdle here........will not jump for joy completely til I hear the words, "there's no rust in your gas tank, crazy missing electrode lady!"

He's gonna look at our wheel bearing for us too!! He recc' Timken brand bearings (thanks Bama! I knew right away that this was something I could trust, thanks to your advice!) and will give us a quote on that. He's gonna also inspect the boot seep on the bellow boot and advise us whether whole new rack and pinion or just bellow boot. The guy has a freaking lift in his garage! I know some of you probably have that too, but to me, it's like, HOLY CRAP THAT IS COOL! JEALOUS!

 

OK guys, one more burning question. Knuckle took a stab at it, and it sounded logical to me, but he asked for opinions on his theory, so I'm curious what you all think. Never got the chance today to ask mechanic this - I did ask him yesterday, and he said it was a good question, he wasn't sure. I'm trusting him and we're doing this damn pump finally, but still curious -

Why good cold starts if fuel pump is failing?

 

because when pumps fail they can and sometimes do lose pressure as they warm up when things expand from heat and friction and when they are cold they shrink and it tightens up and has better compression. most pumps fail electrically so that's the most common failure but yours may just be worn out and losing its ability to pump. you see this a lot in things like aquarium air pumps and vacuum pumps.

a pump is just an engine running on electricity so just like any worn out weak engine, it loses power when its warmed up

 

Makes sense, thanks Keakar!

Have a good night all!

 

Question of the morning:

Do you guys think a dying fuel pump contributed to the failing injectors, which led to the lean condition, which led to the exploding spark plug, which led to the piston hle?

It seems unlikely that our fuel pump went from working awesome immediately prior to the engine swap, then suddenly coincidentally decided it's moment to give up should be immediately after new engine was in, right?

But then, the new engine with better compression put greater demand on it, right? So symptoms of it dying before with a much more tired old engine went unnoticed, whereas now more was expected of it and it was like, "I'm old and tired, and it's not fair, you replaced the rest of my system so now they're all fresh and young and expect me to keep up but I can't!" Right?

And maybe, just maybe, those 2 injectors that weren't flowing properly had A WHOLE LOT to do with masking the dying pump before - they were like, we don't need a lot, really, we're dying too, you get some rest, fuel pump. Right? Hmmm....although, the FPR should be the one intercepting between the pump and injectors - regulating the flow between them, right? Wait, me thinks ya'll lurned me sumthin!!!

I realize this all sounds a bit loony, but I'd love to hear you guys' thoughts on these theories. For the record, I don't ACTUALLY believe that fuel system components talk to each other and have feelings....so no calling me a crazy lady DP! Just makes it easier for me to visualize how they work if I assign them little lifelike roles, I guess....

There'd be some satisfaction in tying all the nasty aspects of this together into one nice, neat little package - to be put away forever!

And who else wants to take a stab at why good cold starts if pump is dying? Knuckle and Keakar went for it, what they said sounded good to me. Curious what everyone else thinks.

Such a great learning experience this has been! Thanks for lurnin me ya'll!!!

 

I think you got it right here:

the regulator maintains pressure only and has nothing to do with the pump operation as far as how it gets that pressure to start with so it may have not even been kicking in unless you had too much pressure.

as to why it did it after the engine? well maybe the engine trouble you were having before it went (all that fuel cleaner stuff) was a sign it was dying

 

Wait, what do you mean by that bolded part Keakar? We weren't aware we had engine trouble at all before the piston hole - we just started the cleaner to increase MPG, and on a hunch that it could be helpful to a truck with that many miles......not sure I understand what ya mean........

By the way, I think it's pretty incredible that our engine mechanic hasn't even called us to find out how everything is going.......I last spoke with him Mon AM, and told him we were running out of options (this was before we knew about our fabulous new mechanic being an option) - told him we were thinking of doing a last ditch drive to a dealer for diagnostics, or maybe selling the truck. He told me, "that sucks, that's sad, I'll try to do some research and see what I can think of before you head for the dealer." I asked him to please call me if he thought of anything......apparently that moved down pretty low on his priority list, now that he's been paid.......and we're left with a stripped bolt on our fuel rail, a $300 FPR that we probably didn't need, a repaired fuel hose that was SOMEHOW leaking after the engine swap, a new fuel pump that he REPEATEDLY INSISTED we didn't need, and a bill for repeating diagnostics that he assured us time and time again he had already correctly completed. Very nice. Maybe he didn't volunteer to recheck our fuel pressure because he knew about a stripped bolt that wouldn't be fun to tackle again?

You guys think we should call to tell him the outcome? Not sure if there's any point, he's obviously not losing any sleep over it......

Post #340, his words via email: "I will test the fuel pressure regulator and the bleed back on the pump and get it dialed in to fix the issue." Thanks for fixing the issue, really appreciate it.

 

ok after 800 posts things get blurry, I thought you said hubby was running cleaner in the fuel system because it wasn't running smoothly.

and its not unusual the engine guy didn't call. as far as he is concerned he is done with your truck and is paid so unless you show up looking for warranty work he hasn't given you a second thought, that's just normal business to move on to the next issue at hand and forget the last job. all but a very very few ever really care so they just act nice while you are their customer and as soon as the bill is paid in full they don't even wave at you at walmart.

no one who worked on it is going to be thinking about your truck but you and truthfully why should they? once they do their work and the truck leaves, 5 minutes (or seconds) later they no longer think about it.

 

What? Blurry after 800 posts? That's just crazy talk man! Clearly you need to do your sad thread homework Keakar!

Actually, you may be semi right - I think I may have misspoke early on about that. At one point I thought he was doing it cuz he suspected some kind of issue, so I may have said that on here. But, after we talked about it more, I am certain that he was only doing it because it was something Costco sells (we love that store), he'd heard it could increase MPG, and he figured not a bad idea on an older rig like Taco.

 

Post #340, his words via email: "I will test the fuel pressure regulator and the bleed back on the pump and get it dialed in to fix the issue."

That's why he should be thinking about it, IMHO.

EDIT: That's why someone who takes pride in their work and stands by their word should be thinking about it.

 

well its good to run a can like once a year just to be safe but its not required and some people never use it so its one of those recommended things that can help if the gas you get is dirty.

by dirty gas I mean it has a lot of additives and may contain things other then gas mixed in it that can form a film or residue on things

 

Doing this after we get 'er back.......thanks Bama! Now I'm hunting down your specifics on the Timken bearings and advice on other things to look at.....

 

Wheel bearing advice. Doing this too. Thanks Bama!

 

Wheel bearing link, sweetness!

 

Will be tackling this soon too. Thanks again DP!

 

I thought your new mechanic was taking care of all that for you?

for $50 an hour I would let him do it all, he has the tools and experience to do the best job of it.

seriously, I can do all that myself but if an ex Toyota tech offered to do it for $50 an hour I would throw my tools away and adopt him as my new brother.

bearings and steering are not things to learn on as a novice.

 

He is probably going to do the bearing for us, exactly for the reasons you said - the savings we'd get DIYing it is not even worthwhile, when his rate is so low. But, we'll order parts, so I wanted to review the specifics on what/where to order....

He might deal w/boot seep for us, he was going to look at it and tell us his thoughts on whether just boot or whole R & P is needed, so I'm reviewing all the advice I've received here, to help me be slightly more capable in discussing this stuff with him when he calls. Thanks guys! But pending cost on this, and what he recc', we might delay it, to spread the costs over time......

Shocks/struts will definitely wait til summer.

Never thought I'd say this, but damn does it feel good to be worrying about wheel bearings and rack and pinion stuff!! We're graduating to the next level of fun!

Yes, agree totally Keakar, want to be his bestest friend til the day I day. Poor guy's probably worried - yesterday I excitedly asked him if he could be our mechanic forever, and also if he could NEVER EVER move away. Wonder if he's regretting his decision to help us yet? That's the best part of this whole thing - clearly our Taco won't be getting any younger, so I'm sure even when all the stuff that's broken now is fixed, we'll have a steady stream of stuff to patch together here and there over the years - and to know that this guy will be there for us, and keep us from going bankrupt? Truly a miracle.

Will be baking some kind of EXTRA special something for this angel. Gonna have to put some thought into it. Just any old choc chip cookies are not good enough here. Husband's bday is this weekend, so baking for that too. And will be starting to bake truck cookies soon also! Will be quite nice to move on to fun stuff like that, hurray!

 

Just reread this post again - thinking this answers lots of the questions I posted this morning. Thanks Mod!

 

better ask him whats his favorite kind, never know whos allergic to nuts or hates a certain cookie or maybe he prefers brownies to cookies or he may just prefer a pie or a nice bottle of hooch.

its not like at the shop where there is always someone who will enjoy it, your doing it for just one guy so its better to take requests in cases like that.

 

Agree. But earlier this week I asked him what he likes to eat/drink, and he laughed and said, "don't thank me yet, let me finish my tests and get your truck fixed first!"

https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1118080&cc=1317633

Bama advised getting the "seal" along with the wheel bearing - this is the kit I'd order, can you guys tell if the "seal" is included, or if not, which one I need for that?

Thank you!