Diagnosing Toyota 2RZ-E engine problems

[elipsoid]

ehb: yup, I did register just to ask you that I am researching different models and even manufacturers, so I perfected my fan-forum signup routine. It takes about 20 seconds to register now
I might eventually get the newer model, but I found an interesting deal on this older cab-forward model, but it is a 4x4 petrol. This consumption would make the deal less interesting, but still worth considering. Thanks anyways and good luck fixing your van

[Fred]

Nope, talking about my Clubman Estate I posted somewhere here in the forum.

Hmm, injected? Or carb? If it's carb, then yeah, no ecu = pump comes on and stays on, if electric :-)

All that combined, fuel consumption is around 15-16l/100km (that's around 15mpg too). It's only RWD though, not 4x4.

Not bad! About the same as I got in my 152hp NA skyline :-) You have more weight, a less well breathing engine, worse aero, and get the same mileage. I guess this reflects solely upon my driving ;-)

I'm hoping expecting FreeEMS will affect this positively in the future. :)

That depends upon how it's running now and tuned by the OEM.

LOL @ attracting van buyers! :-)

Fred.

[ehb]

I'm six months past inspection with that car now. Still runs as described in the first post, nothing has worsened, BUT I'm busy welding up all the holes. Will post pictures these days.
Looking through the toyodiy.com parts catalog, I noticed that engine has something called a "Cold Start Injector Time Switch", which is a bi-metal type switch that enables a fifth injector on the throttle body for some time. This has lead other Toyotas with exactly the behaviour I'm experiencing when the car is cold: Never starts the first time cranking, mostly start the second time.
I'm reluctant to buy a new switch as it's 180€ and I'm looking forward to FreeEMSing that car. I guess I won't need it then anymore, along with the fifth injector, am I right?

Finally, some progress

Stefan

[Fred]

Depends how cold it gets. It's perceivable that if the injectors are small and the power is low, then they could fail to produce sufficient fuel inside a single 52ms pulse at start up. Unlikely, but possible, depending on how cold.

[ehb]

Sounds sensible. Not planning on traveling to Siberia, but starts at -15°C (max. -20°C) are possible around here. Winter's coming!

I tried to look up the flow rate of these injectors (Toyota part# 23209-79035), to no avail. on the internet. Then I remembered I've got the engine repair manual, which states 40-50 cm³/15s for testing, so only 160-200cm³/min.

Can you deduct anything from those figures, considering the engine has 2.438cm³ displacement?

[Fred]

Yes, it doesn't make much power! But that's expected :-)

It'll probably be fine, so don't worry too much. Also you could doctor a 5th injector feature in quite easily I guess. Especially if you can figure out how it currently works/should work.

[ehb]

Today, at 5°C, it started up just fine on the first turn. That's very good news, it hasn't done that in a while! What I did do was: Pull all plugs from the cold start devices (switch and injector) and put them back on. We'll see if it was just a fluke or a very simple fix.

I've repaired all rust on the left side. Took me 13 pieces of sheet metal, about 8 litres of argon and quite some nerves hammering it all in place. I'm pleased with the result, as I've never mangled sheet metal this way before, nor TIG welded in such awkward positions (welding to rusty metal, without foot pedal, is quite challenging). The welds that are hidden, shouldn't be looked at anyways, the outside welds turned out just fine.

[ehb]

Some more parts pictures.. Yes, it was a PITA.

On another note: While crawling around under the car, I removed the protecting shield for the fuel tank inlet hose. The trapped mud in there smelled of fuel, because the filler pipe is really rusted out. After driving around yesterday, fuel that has sloshed around in the tank was dripping from the pipe.
So THAT's where the high fuel consumption comes from.... maybe a little, the mud might have sealed it some, lol. :/
Today I removed the pipe and will weld in a new piece, without holes in it.

Also, I discovered a leaking heater pipe with similar damage, rust where hose is fitted over pipe. The whole pipe is rusted, need to figure that one out too..

[Fred]

Nice work on that centre piece in the second to last post! Looks pro! :-)

[ehb]

Well well, 4 1/2 years later and problems arise again. Last time I made it through inspection, but it's now due again.

Anyways, that's not priority #1 right now, because the car isn't running properly. It broke the 200.000 km mark behind a tow rope. Very sad, for a Toyota of this kind...

The symptoms started last friday, when I drove it about 15km, parked it, tried to drive away 1 hours later. It started, then died 200 m further. Had a 10/90 chance of starting it again a couple times, only to have it die 15 seconds later.

I towed it home, replaced the distributor cap and finger because they looked very bad and it started right up, however still had hickups now and then. Today I took my chances and drove to work. Again, stumbling from time to time, but on the way home, it died on me entirely again.

Those intermittent problems are the best... I opened and closed pretty much every connector in the engine compartment, but they all looked pretty alright.

So what would you guys say it is? Ignition coil that strikes when warm? Ignition capacitor old/broken? Ignitor module?
The coil is mounted inside the distributor and will get engine heat pretty quickly.