96 3rz issues continued.. mid-range misfire

So my issues with my old taco are continuing... Recently had the rad blow up and (I assume) something got wet.. she's always had an issue with going through puddles and as soon as the rad started spewing coolant it was falling flat on its face. After replacing that I had zero spark and had to take it in. They wound up replacing the coil and said I also had a MAF code coming up, so I replaced that also. She's running now but not well.

The symptoms: fires up and idles fine, runs good up to around 1800 rpm under load, then it starts missing and stuttering real bad til around 3200.. then it snaps out of it and runs fine up to redline. Kind of like it would do when wet...

The mechanics have looked through everything, checked the harness for breaks/shorts. They've been through all the vac lines and sensors but have hit a wall. The only thing left they can think to blame is the ignition control module.. but it's not cheap and non-refundable.

Anyone had issues like this where it misses badly, but only in a certain RPM range? I feel like this has got to be something simple... It was running just fine until the rad let go so it doesn't make a ton of sense that all these other issues came up at the same time. Other than the idea that something got wet, shorted out and possibly fried.

Thanks for any ideas ya'll can throw my way.. I'm at a loss and I just want my truck back lol

 

damn thats sucks. im assuming they ran a compression test and the leakdown?

 

You might want to consider getting a bluetooth or WIFI OBDII scanner + the Torque pro app on your phone. You can monitor any sensor or engine param that's on the OBDII. It's odd that most mechanics can't do this and just throw parts at a problem.

Does it miss revving in neutral or just under load?

 

Ya compression is good, headgasket seems to be intact.

Ya they hooked it up and checked through all that, no red flags... It has a little bit of a lag if I stomp on it in neutral but the missing is pretty hard to notice as it's such a narrow range where it happens I just kinda blast right through it when I rev in neutral. But it does seem worse the more load it's under. Second is worse than first gear kinda deal.

 

You get it figured out? Having same symptoms even backfire at times during mid rpm missfire

 

Solved it on my end. Distributor coil was cracked and bad. Hence why when wet it was having issues. Also mid range it needs more spark.

Never a reason to buy a distributor on these things. $600 from Toyota but they are serviceable. You can replace the individual parts. Just replaced my coil in the distributor for $40 and problem solved.

I know it's an old thread but figured maybe it will help someone someday.

 

So glad you reported back!!!!

 

Yea thanks for the update

 

I had similar problem. I put a new set of plugs in it one had gotten smashed