brycap Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Last weekend i was driving home from Vermont and all of a sudden my truck felt like it was running a cylinder short. I stopped and checked all that i could on the side of the road and had to continue my drive home. The next day I filled her up with fresh gas just in case the gas I had bought in Vermont was bad. Still stumbling so I replaced the plugs, rotor, distributor cap and PC valve. One of the plugs was badly fouled this seemed to fix the problem but the next day on the way to work it started happening again not as badly as before but still missing a lot mostly when its working going up hills. Additionally this happened at all RPMs and only really once the car warms up and goes into closed loop mode I assume. Yesterday I checked the timing it was closer to 20 degrees so i backed it down to about 15-17 since it seems to jump around a little. This helped on the drive home but it was still stumbling every once and a while going up hills. When I got home I tried adjusting the timing further to like 14-15. On my way to work today it was still stumbling maybe a little worse than on my way home yesterday. My fear is that I skipped a tooth on my timing belt but I'm not sure. I have checked all of the vacuum lines and the air filter is clean. And there are no codes (just 55) on the ecu right now. Sorry for the long post I want to give you guys all of the details. If anyone has any ideas of what to try next that would be greatly appreciated she's my daily so I really don't want to have to take her to the shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I would set the crank pulley so that it reads top dead center and pull the upper timing belt cover to see if the marks line up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Which cylinder was it that was badly fouled? It could be that there is an issue with the injector. If you can get to it, check the wiring condition, the connector to make sure there isn't a loose element or any corrosion and test the injector for resistance, both hot and cold if possible. It should be 8-10 ohms IIRC, but the info is in the FSM. B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brycap Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 I think the fouled plug was cylinder number 3 (middle cylinder passenger side) I should have been paying closer attention. Do I need to pull the intake plenum to check the injectors? If so I assume I need to replace the gaskets? I'm going to change the wires and preform a compression check tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Start with the passenger side that you can get to without removing the plenum. Sorry the resistance is 10-14 ohms, not 8-10. Also, in the FSM starting around EC-50 there are diagnostic procedures for hunting, stumbling, lack of power, etc. They are worth looking at, and that whole section is a good read to help you understand how things tie together and where to start for certain symptoms. Odd that you do not have any codes yet... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brycap Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Thanks for the reply. I was looking at the FSM and realized that I could get to those without pulling the plenum I'll check them after work. I'm going to try replacing the wires tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 You are welcome. When it gets dark tonight, pop the hood and fire it up, see if there is any arcing from the wires, it is usually obvious... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brycap Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 Turns out it was a bad wire. It's running much better now and I think I'm getting better gas mileage thanks to the tune up and using NGK plugs instead of the mismatched set of autolites that were in there. Thanks for your help. Hopefully I can keep her going for another 100k miles or more I'm at 193k now and drive about a 1000 a week. Next project new radiator and change the timing belt while I'm in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Glad you got it figured out without too much trouble/expense. With proper maintenance you should be able to get another 100k, especially if it is freeway miles. Make sure to change the tranny and differential fluids as well. B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madhakish Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 FWIW, mines at 240k miles and I'm hoping for another 100k from her. Runs like a top, too. Good find on the wire and not diving straight into timing belt/injector swaps.. Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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