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

Heading out on bunches of errands soon. Not worried at all, will just prove what I already see - my old truck is finally back!!

Best stop today will be: delivering victory cookies to favorite dealer parts guy at closer dealer!! Been calling with questions/stopping in there almost daily for months now, guy kept track of our VIN for me and everything. Always found answers to even my dumbest questions with a smile! Even listened to me complain about it more than I care to admit! Been telling him since day one that cookies will be delivered ONCE IT'S FIXED. No sooner. He sold us that starter a few weeks ago, and when he found out it didn't fix it, it was very depressing. Kind of a "probably no cookies ever happening" moment. But guess what I get to go do now??!?!?

 

I'm surprised her first words weren't cuss words.

 

Hey!! You smart ass!! Err, I mean, smart aleck?

 

Long day of running many errands. Many "heat soak" periods of time in between. Tried my hardest to duplicate the problem, but I just couldn't do it. Firing up exactly the same every time guys. It's officially over. I'm ready to swipe that poor overworked Visa one more time, and it will be the most satisfying purchase yet.

Dealer parts guy was stoked for us. Came out to admire the Taco for a bit. He used to have a '98 too, and has kicked himself daily for getting rid of it. He told me that one of the first times I called him way back when, and it was exactly what I needed to hear at that point - that we are not insane for replacing the engine and sticking through this for as long as we have. He finally got those cookies I have literally been promising every time we spoke over the last 4+ months. Pretty satisfying to hand those over!

And today's errands were the best kind, all fun ones! Went shopping for some seriously fun stuff, related to baking and dogs, what could be better! Found this awesome little baking supplies store - they have damn near every kind of cookie cutter imaginable (of course except the one I was looking for!)!! New cookie cutters = I found a cowboy hat, cowboy boot (with a spur on it even!), little cowboy dude, dog bone, and the best...........wait, I can't tell yet. It's a secret for now. Will post pics soon.........

So freaking happy. Can't believe it's fixed. Really truly cannot stop smiling. I think other drivers must think there is something wrong with me, because I just keep driving around and grinning literally like this: We have our lives back you guys, and it is so freaking cool. I have not been this happy since pre 11/30/14. Cannot stop gushing with joy and gratitude, I feel like I am floating. I think we need to throw a party. Who's up for a road trip to Oregon?

 

Spit Coffee all over.

Give her some time,,those will fly at the most inopportune times and SCREAMING loud like a Army brat,,lol.

Cute vid.

 

Good morning!

In case anyone forgot, guess what?

My Taco's starting issue is FIXED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are now arguing over who gets to have the Taco today. Who do you guys think will win this one?

 

Never fails now your fighting over it.

Go buy a 4Runner with a hitch to pull your trailer to deliver your baked goodies.

 

Wyoming, definitely in the long term plan to do exactly that. The 4 Runner part at least. Not sure about the other, but still thinking it over.

TW, one very cool thing right now is that I keep thinking of more stuff I get to "cross off the list" to conclude this misery, and all the stuff we can do again that we couldn't all this time. Thanking people for their help, telling people the good news, being able to haul stuff, being able to get outta town, being able to take the back roads again woot, and this morning, I realized I can now go on the 5 billion other forums that I started threads on 3-4 months ago and report the conclusion!! That makes me very happy, because that was one of the most frustrating parts of this process. You figure if you read enough, maybe you'll get lucky and figure something out on your own. So you read, and read, and read..........and it seemed ~75% or more of the threads, there was never a conclusion posted. So you didn't know if they fixed but didn't update, or gave up or what. So in my opening post on all of those threads, I promised to post the conclusion if I ever found the culprit. And now I get to!!! I was so grateful to the handful of people who did post their conclusions (that dude with the charred fuel pump wires, that gal with the FJ Cruiser with dripping injectors - BINGO!, the TW guy that said MAF was his prob, a few others). Even if you don't wind up having the same problem, at least you are learning something when you take the time to read it because you got to see the conclusion. And for the first time, I get to be the one giving advice on the threads!! Yikes, that's a little scary OK, no comments on that guys But seriously, the advice I am giving to those with an undiagnosed hot start that they've been fighting forever is to ask their mechanic to borescope their injectors

Just updated a few of my other (but way less fun and exciting than TW!) hot start threads, telling them our fix. Pretty satisfying. And now? Now it's time to give the Taco a bath!! Just told another neighbor the good news, and that I was about to wash her. He goes, "but she's not even dirty!" I'm like, dude, would you NOT be washing your truck right now after what we went through? Especially on a beautiful day, when you suddenly no longer have to spend all of your time trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with it? OF COURSE YOU WOULD! He agreed There was a little smudge somewhere, I know I saw it, I will find it

PS, kinda ironic that the same tool (a borescope) diagnosed the piston hole to help us be sure we indeed needed a new engine, and that same tool was the one and only method capable of accurately diagnosing the hot start. Thinking if I ever buy my own borescope, it might be worth investing extra $ in a nice one

And not to get all sappy and stuff, but I sincerely want to thank everyone who has hung in there with us on this very long, often miserable thread. I honestly think, nope, I KNOW we would not have been able to hang in there as long as we did looking for the fix, holding out hope it would be worth it in the end, if it wasn't for all the support we got from all of you guys. I have learned SO MUCH MORE than I ever expected when I signed up 5 months ago, thanks in large part to my TW buddies answering all my questions on here. And I ask a lot of questions, right? And making us laugh when things were looking seriously grim, that was huge. And now I get to start way more fun threads, like arguments about best shocks/struts, how to paint your topper, and other dumb shit. SWEET!!!!!!!!! Life is good y'all!!!

Thanks again @noahpete and @Jayman!! Are we still on for Monday injector swap - meaning, our fancy brand new shiny set of OEM injectors going in, then noahpete's 4 Runner can run again? Your 4Runner has some seriously good karma coming it's way, Taco says thanks for the loan, buddy, it was just what I needed

And @noahpete, when do we get to see a pic of that sweet '85 El Camino you mentioned???

 

We all have stories about hard to trouble shoot truck/motorcycle issues...I kept burning points in my 68 dodge utiline...and kept changing the points, and condenser. I even tried a couple rebuilt distributors. Finally found it was combination of three events: accel flamethrower ignition coil drew a bit more power, I had wired the ignition hot to the wrong side of the ballast resistor, giving more voltage to the coil and the main culprit? poorly made imported condensors that would short almost instantly from hot coil and the 12 ignition signal.

But once the condenser would fail closed, the lifespan of the ignition points went from 6k miles to 60 miles, and the big problem was hard warm starts To change the points, the distributor was located at the BACK of the engine, so the best technique was find TDC, mark the distributor hold down, pull the distributor and change points on the bench, and reinstall.

Heaven help you if you rotated the motor with the distributor out. However, once upon a time, I used to install bus motors another worker would rebuild, and he was terrible about losing the pointer for the timing mark...I got REALLY good in timing by ear.

And we could go on that the only reason a ballast was need is that dodge NEVER changed the coil design from the 6volt electrics, and the flamethrower coil was LABELED as having a built in ballast...

But it is these combined failures that drive you crazy.

Enjoy the weekend, it is going to be nice here...

Howard

 

Don't forget all of us who followed your story hoping for a successful outcome. I'm happy your truck is fixed!

 

Thanks man!! Thanks for following the thread and offering advice, appreciate it!! Happy pics of the Taco coming soon

 

Thanks hetkind! Looking forward to getting some hiking in hopefully (going to be nice here too!), and plenty of this

 

Now I am a spark plug reader. Why is it like way back when No one working on this ever pulled the plugs when it was in the beginning of a long crank??

Wet plugs needed to dry before it started

I need to get me one of those bore scopes !!

 

Taco is shiny clean and ready to hit the road! Happy Friday TW!!

 

Add soft serve ice cream and call the trailer "Death by sprinkles" to go along with the cinnamon rolls and become either a millionaire or obese and happy!

 

That turned out great! Black trucks always look the best after a good wash. As for the Hog...WTF!

 

I don't have any advice beyond I'd change/build my own engine. I've done it before and was most satisfied. I learned a few things from this thread.

I have a Harbor Freight inspection camera/borescope. We last used it to recover a fork that bounced under the refrigerator. Most useful.

 

I beez down here in south Texas,, just south of Houston,,, I was just thinking of you yesterday, you missed you calling lady,,,, you are relentless in your pursuit of what ever the problem may be. You should have been in some kind of law enforcement,,, good job on the taco and I'm glad you got it fixed, I'll be checking my injectors.

Oh yeah, got one of my best friends lives right outside Adrian, Oregon on his farm.

 

OMG, are you kidding? We went through there on our Leslie Gulch trip!! Such a cute little tiny town! What a small world.

Been thinking about you, hoping you are doing OK/feeling well. So cool that maybe my fix could lead to some answers for you! Thank you for sticking with us pulldo, best to you!

 

K, yes, she really looks purty right now. And I just washed the topper too! Even that old beast looks purty snazzy! It's crazy you guys, we are putting the topper on RIGHT NOW for the first time since Labor Day!! Road trip!! We are out there cleaning up/setting up, partying with the neighbors and celebrating, it's so cool. I've only had one or two Hefe's......unless you count those Taco washing ones......hmmm.......

Then we are packing! Then leaving tomorrow morning! Thought about bagging the plan this afternoon, because we have plenty to do with our appraisal coming up this Thursday. But I NEED to get outta here and go for a long drive and just totally relax for one WHOLE weekend. I've earned it, dontcha think TW? Nice hike in the Ochocos, lots of purty driving, some BT and J & B (don't worry, we are politically correct and agree with ALL whiskey taste preferences!). Totally doing this. Just a tad bit

EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did I mention this is our FIRST ROAD TRIP SINCE LABOR DAY?!?!?!?!?!??!