clacking noise from 1991 Corolla

[Diminished29]

I'll try to make this short as possible. Power washed the engine on my 1991 Corolla. Engine was warm/hot (I've done this many times before without a problem, however) After driving about a mile she started losing power and I pulled off to the side of the road.

After trying to turn it on again it would fully start but would idle very rough and eventually die out on me. I waited a day and then came back and sprayed a little WD40 inside the distributor, plugs and plug wires and then even took off the distributor a few hours to let dry.

I put everything back and while the car did finally start back up and run, it now has a clacking noise (sounds like the valves clacking when accelerating) and runs terrible...doesn't have much power!

I've also had to adjust the idle a bit higher just to keep it from stalling out, but I'm not wanting to drive it right now at the present time for risk of doing serious damage to the engine. A friend suggested that it may be possible that the power washing could've raised up the timing and thats the reason for the valves clacking and that it just needs to be readjusted.

Can anybody shed any light on this?

[Diminished29]

Also, I need to know the firing order for a 1991 Corolla friend said it was 1-3-4-2 and then later said that he read that was for a 1994 Camry and then told me the firing order was 1-2-3-4, but that just doesn't sound right either. I thought if any of these we're out of order, however, that the car wouldn't even start..? Though, It would be nice to know if this may be causing the clacking noise as well?

[SCT]

Firing order is 1 3 4 2.

Have you tried adjusting the timing?

[SuperRA]

The Cylinder numbers should be molded onto the distributor cap. It's somewhat hard to mess up if so.

[tashirosgt]

What engine is in you car? 4AFE?

Are you sure all your cylinders are firing? Could it be one bad plug or plug wire? You could check for spark in each of the wires.

I can see powerwashing affecting the timing if you got the timing belt wet and it slipped. But it would have be pretty loose for that to happen. How tight is your timing belt? (As far as I know, there's no easy way to inspect it without removing some of the timing covers and if they are installed "properly", you can't get the top one off without taking off the valve cover. So you'll probably want to check simpler things first.)

I can't tell whether you meant that the clacking occurs at idle or only when accelerating. If it occurs at idle, listen with a mechanics stethoscope ( a non-electronic one will do, Harbor Freight sells an inexpensive one) and find out where the clanking comes from. You also can listen and (perhaps) tell if each of the injectors is working.

A very powerful powerwasher could knock off an already loose vacuum line. I think powerwashing a hot engine risks cracking something, but let's hope not.

[REN69]

you probably got water in the spark plugs and this is causing a misfire... let it dry up for a day or two.

I did this before, lol... those with 4AGE's know what I mean.

[Donald]

Power washing an engine should be done with great care. Wrap the distributor, coil and ignitor with plastic to help prevent water inclusion where you don't wan't it.
Power wahsing will only affect the timing if the distributor is loose, and the water pressure turns it. It will not affect the timing belt.
Check down in the spark plug holes to see if you got water in there. Check the cables for spark leakage (best done at night by running the engine in the dark and looking for sparks jumping from the plug leads to the head, or accross the distributor cap)