BuffNStuff

I forgot to mention that my air/fuel ratio during the surging is really lean. Like around 17-18. But in gear it is around 13-15.

BuffNStuff

Here is a video I took of it going lean. According to my obdII scanner, the timing is at around 18* BTDC, and the idle is around 700rpm. As I said, the surging is gone, but the lean issue is till there in park/neutral with the A/C off.

BuffNStuff

Here is another video. I set the timing between 8 and 10*, which put the distributor rotated all the way to the right. Seems odd to me that that is as far as I could get it.

Since this video, I took it for a spin around the block and I have a problem. The car will not boost at all. As soon as it gets into boost with any aggressive throttle, the car will break up and miss badly. Just will not pull hard at all. There are some very audible popping from the exhaust as well when trying to boost. Driving normally seems fine, except it takes a second for the car to realize I have let off the throttle and am breaking. It kind of pulls harder than it should when off the throttle. I would assume this is because I have adjusted the throttle stop screw.

I also noticed that my headlights do not work. The high beams are fine, but my regular headlights do not turn on. I don't know whats going on with that. I can live with the headlights for now, but the main issue is the breaking up under boost. I was told that the shop checked the gap on my spark plugs when they put the coil packs on, but that seems like the most obvious answer to me. I REALLY don't wanna change the spark plugs again. I did that when I first started this build and it was a pain. Any thoughts?

BuffNStuff

Checked the spark plug gap on the cylinders that were easily accessible (1,2,5,6) and my suspicions were correct. The shop had the plugs gapped at .044. I gapped them down to about .027. I will gap #s 3 and 4 tomorrow...UHHHhhhhgghgh.

Also, on another negative note, there was oil all over the spark plugs in cylinders 5 and 6, and there was oil in the valley where they sit. This engine only has 50k miles on it, and it didnt seem like there was any coolant in the oil, so I dont think the headgasket is gone already. My guess would be the valve cover gasket? maybe when one of the VSVs was not working it built up pressure and forced oil past the gasket. What do you think? Do I need to remove all the vsv stuff for this to not happen? I would have liked to keep it if they were to pop my hood to look for emissions equipment.

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

In that second video the AFR's are reacting as they should just like mine do, a little rich for a sec when you turn on the a/c then stabilize, a little lean when you turn it off then stabilize. the car will also tend to go a little lean on a hot start, as in the engine is warmed up but you turned it off and then later turned it back on, this is nothing to be convrned about it should go back to normal in a minute or so. In 96 plus they added that blue vsv on the fuel pressure regulator just for hot starts but a little lean at idle never hurt a 2jz ever so I usually just take that stupid thing off and know its normal.

so it looks like you solved whatever it was. Idle rpm is a touch high but nothing to be that worried about. I think maybe the timing is still a little off, lets go through setting it up again so we are sure that's good, cause I think that could be the last issue.

Wait are you saying the crank is showing one timing and the scanner is showing another?
They should always read the same. before you adjust the distributor you have to jump the pins in the diagnostic connector, so the ecu will lock the timing at 10, then you set the distributor to match. you cannot just go out and set the distributor to 10 otherwise when the ecu thinks its at 18 you will actually be at 10 on the crank where you want to be at 18 on the crank when the scanner says you are at 18.

If you cannot get to the desired timing just by turning the distributor, then you have to reinsert it but if you did not jump the pins and the ecu thinkgs its at 18 and you set it to 10 on the crank you will always be 8 degrees off = very bad.

With the plugs, thats a bit large of a gap, I would run a .028-.032. the .043 you can get away with on low boost but everything will need to be working just right.

oil on the back is usually the valve cover gaskets. when they installed your coils they had to remove the stock plug holder and its held in by the inside gaskets, sometimes you can reuse, sometimes you cannot. I would clean the area and see if it seeps out again maybe you will have to go in there and replace them, or if they are failry new as you mentioned ensure the bolts are tightened down snug, do not overtorque them as its easy to crack the valve covers, but if you can snug them up a little more that might be all they need to make a seal again. its definately not the headgasket or anything important. Do not shoot water into that area to clean it either or you will have more problems.



When the dizzy wont give you the timing range you need, you need to take it out and reinsert it.
In your case I think its just the mismatch that landed you on the edge of the adjustment region so I wouldn't jump to doing this before checking as I said above first, but if you do need to re-stab the dizzy here is how.

BuffNStuff

I did jump the diagnostic terminals T1 and E1 when I was checking/setting the timing. Unless somehow my jumper did not work. I will recheck today.

BuffNStuff

How can I know if my jumper is working? I had a single wire as my jumper. When it was jumpered, it did not change what my scanner says for timing. My scanner says I'm at 25* and when it is jumpered, it will not change. I don't know how much I can trust my scanner because it is an android application that I mainly just use for code reading.

BuffNStuff

Am I doing this wrong?

187

I think mine made an audible change when jumpered if that helps. Also look inside the cap to confirm Te1 and E1



*edit just looked on my car looks like the jumper in in the right position. Maybe your shop messed with the distributor or the wiring on the diagnostic port?

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

Yes when you jumper it you will hear a very noticeable audible change when the motor goes from 25 degrees to 10 degrees. When you pull the jumper out it will make another very noticeable change in running. I think the scanner should readout the 10 when it is jumped . Perhaps the timing set jumpers are different on odb2. maybe we need to find an odb2 diagram or something.

There is always trying to make the crank read what the scanner is currently reading without jumpers, but only problem is your crank doesn't have marks that high, so anything above 15 will be a total guess when trying to make them match. you could get it much closer this way though if for some reason the newer gte ecu won't go to 10 when you do that, I know the aristo ecu does it like the 2jzge ecu but havent done it on a odb2 gte ecu before.

If you don't hear the audible change something is wrong, you can't miss it. likely your timing is off some right now and will probably fix it once we get it right. maybe its an issue for all the odb2 users? worst case make the crank match to the current timing as close as possible without going above what the scanner says.

I am going to look it up in the 97 manual to verify, but typically the pins to jumper are listed on the diagram under the hood for checking the timing, its standard to list it there for emissions along with the number of cats and o2 sensors all on that 1 sticker with the vac lines.

edit* Just checked the 97 manual it is te1 and e1:
"Warm up engine to normal operating temperature.
(b) Shift transmission into ”N” position.
(c) Keep the engine speed at idle.
(d) Using SST, connect terminals TE1 and E1 of DLC 1.
SST SST 09843-18020
(e) Using a timing light, connect the tester to check wire
(See page EM-10 ).
CHECK:
Check ignition timing.
OK:
Ignition timing: 10° BTDC at idle"


If you have to set the timing without the jumper, use your scanner and your best bet is to do it while the motor is cold as the ecu will give the lower timing reaadings then so you might be able to match the scanner value to the crank before it warms up and gets 16+ where there are no more marks. let me know if any of this doesn't make sense. you should only do it this way if you cannot get the audible change in noise when doing the jumpering.

BuffNStuff

Yes I just tried again. Warmed the engine, shut engine off, connected the timing light, started the car and put in neutral, connected the jumper wire(no audible sound), rotated distributer until the line was at 12*, checked my scanner and it says 26*, shut car off.

That is what I just did. Nothing I do seems to affect what my scanner says about the timing.

187

I have a similar style scanner just works off blue tooth, I think its called obd car doctor or something along those lines and I can see a live chart of my timing. So if you are using the jumper you should see a dip in the value.

on a side note I didn't think you had to shut it off to use the jumper I always did it while it was running.

BuffNStuff

I shut the car off to attach the timing light. The instruction manual on it says to never connect it while the car is already running.

Maybe there is a fuse that goes to the diagnostic block? Maybe this also explains why my headlights don't work. I'll have to check wiring diagrams to see if everything matches up because nothing happens when I jump TE1 and E1.

If I were to put a multimeter on the jumper, what kind of numbers should I be seeing? Because I see 0v with key on engine off?

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

on the simple on off timing lights I just connect mine while the car is running always seems to work.

you should hear an audible sound so something is wrong. The ecu always puts out a certain timing it wants and the scanner will show that same timing. Its up to the installer to make sure the crank reads the same as the scanner. Since you can't jump it into locking at 10 degrees, you will have to set it on the fly for now.

the ecu is confused to be idling at 26 from all the changes. go ahead and fully reset the ecu not just clear codes. on the next cold start have the scanner ready to go and the timing light on. as soon as you start it read whats on the scanner hopefully its under 16, and then go match that to the crank. it may move around a few degrees thats the nature of a cam driven crank sensor and it will slowly increase as its warming up, but just keep checking the scanner and the crank and try and average 1 degree or 2 degrees less on the crank reading then what it says on the scanner and that will set your timing pretty well. Its just harder to do when you can't lock it in cause it moves around a little, still pretty easy.

maybe the headlights and that is related. E1 is basically the chassis ground so you can also try putting one end of the wire in TE1 and touching the other end to chassis ground or the engine block/head/.intake manifold is all grounded. I think you can also jump the te1 and the e1 on the odb2 connector and achieve the same thing except I dont know which pins they are off the top of my head. Maybe your friends left off a chassis ground on the intake manifold when putting it back on. There is a reason why I hardly let anyone work on my SC, I just end up redoing it most of the time.

BuffNStuff

Is it possible that obd2 ecus will not respond to the dizzy timing change? I am trying to find a direct answer to this but all I have found is that other toyota engines that are obd2 have the timing locked and it will automatically reset if it is changed.

I believe the pins at the ecu are b69 and a20.

I will try and reset the ecu and manually dial in the timing as close to what the ecu says. But the more I rotate the distributor counterclockwise, the leaner it runs which scares me.

When I first started it up, my scanner read like 14-16* timing. I will leave the jumper off and manually set timing with what my scanner says and then connect jumper and try adjusting it again.