Running On 2 Cylinders After Fuel System Overhaul

[Van Allen]

My van, Red Stripe, is running on 2 cylinders after a fuel system overhaul. She sat for 17 years before I bought her, and fouled the fuel pump i installed after only 6,000 miles. Actually, the pump was still running, but failing--or who knows, maybe the sock was just clogged. Anyway, a week after she was running better than ever before, she would run no more. At one point, the pump stopped running altogether and when I started probing the Circuit Opening Relay (COR) with my multi-meter, it started working intermittently, and I found some corrosion on the terminals (probably from rat piss, but that's another long, ugly story). I cleaned 'em up and no more problems with COR. Pump would kick on, then strain, and I was only getting 14psi at fuel rail.


I decided to tear things apart and had injectors tested and cleaned (passed with flying colors), replaced Fuel Pressure Regulator (FPR) and Fuel Pulse Damper (FPD). Of course I had already replaced fuel filter, so when I was still getting 14psi, I figured it was the pump. I dropped the tank and took it to my radiator shop and had it cleaned and lined with some high-tech rubber coating developed for the aircraft industry (this is Everett, WA after all). It may just be Flex Seal ("completely woorderproof!") with a fancy price tag… Anyway, I put the tank back on with a new fuel pump. Everything else was cleaned and reassembled and a new Throttle Position Sensor (TPS) installed. The list of new parts is much, much bigger, but I'll try not to bore everybody too much… I did NOT however replace slightly damaged injector connectors. They all seemed good enough and I was tired. But I was sure that if there was a problem, it would be with #3 and/or #4...


Anyway, 38psi at the rail now, but running on 2 cylinders. No change when I remove spark plug wires on #3 and/or #4 (of course). All have spark and good compression. checked injector circuits at Electronic Control Unit (ECU) and Solonoid Resistor. Everything is within specs. Stabbed wires to injectors with volt meter and they are energized. Swapped out ECU from my other van--no change.


Anything else I'm missing before I tear it all apart AGAIN to get at injectors 3 &4? :wall:


Oh, and now there's a spontaneous leak of brake fluid (I assume) on the front driver's side floor. :swear: Haven't investigated that yet… Fortunately, I had already pulled out the carpet.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I think I've scratched my head right down to the skull… :dizzy:

[djshimon]

I bet your injectors are clogged from the dirty lines. Pain because you have to separate the intake manifold-If only Toyota had made our injectors easy to get to. I would guess your tank is clean but your hard lines are dirty. So far no one has put a fuel filter before the rail but I think that would help out a ton with old vans that haven't been used in a while.
As for the brake fluid leak...your master cylinder is leaking and it's a huge pain to replace, but not as much as splitting the intake manifold because you have to cut/separate the hose of death for that.

[Van Allen]

I bet your injectors are clogged from the dirty lines. Pain because you have to separate the intake manifold-If only Toyota had made our injectors easy to get to. I would guess your tank is clean but your hard lines are dirty. So far no one has put a fuel filter before the rail but I think that would help out a ton with old vans that haven't been used in a while.
As for the brake fluid leak...your master cylinder is leaking and it's a huge pain to replace, but not as much as splitting the intake manifold because you have to cut/separate the hose of death for that.

Thanks for the reply!

The good news is I already cut an access panel for the Hose Of Death (HOD)! The sad part about the master cylinder is that I had the whole dash torn apart about 2 months ago, cleaning out a rodent-tropolis :( I sure wish the leak had shown itself then!

As far as the injectors go, I suppose they could be clogged…but when I took them in for cleaning, they were actually in really good shape--and then they made them even better. It seemed that it was just my fuel pump that was clogged, and that the fuel filter had been doing it's job… It's no doubt possible that they are clogged, but I would be more inclined to think it's the connectors or that the injectors are stuck closed/damaged…I wasn't impressed with the packaging job they did when they mailed them back to me :(

I suppose either way, the next step is to tear it all back apart… or maybe first try to sound-scope or pulse-test the injectors (not exactly sure how to do that yet) to make sure they are not firing. Although, everything seems to point to no fuel in #3 and #4...

[djshimon]

Try the scope test first because tearing it apart is a pain.