Any chance you disconnected the AFM (air flow meter - on the top of the airbox)? If so, did you remove the screws and pull the wires? You may have damaged the AFM...

Also, hopefully lesson learned: No need to ever check valve clearance on most Toyota motors...

-Charlie

 

I couldn't find any tabs to push to take it off without unscrewing it, so I just left the wire plugged in and the screws in and just moved the air box around as I needed. Guess it's suppose to come off with the screws?

I checked them since there was a loud tapping sound that was consistent with the RPM and didn't just come and go like a busted rod. It's good the valves are good, but now I'm a little more worried what the noise could be. One problem at a time though given what's going on now.

 

Make sure all your injector plugs are seated fully on the injector, first time I removed the plenum I forgot to reinstall my number 4 cylinder injector clip and had a dead miss. you might have two back there not seated properly and it will die unless you wide throttle the car.

 

That sounds likely dem, and the loud tapping would be the cylinders that are not receiving gas is my guess

 

Unfortunately never had noise when I had the dead miss.....I would stethoscope the oil pan while the engine is running, there is still a chance you have rod knock.

Only other thing I have had knock on my 2vz is an alternator and the AC compressor and the occasional bearing noise from the timing belt side

 

I'm kinda curious about the fuel idea though for the knocking. When I was back there the injectors could turn really easily, but it seemed most of them could so I left it as normal, but the injector on cylinder 5 is a little wet looking compared to 1 and 3 at the gasket leading into the intake. If I remember right, the knocking did come from that side of the engine and it wasn't anything down below, even tried the "Shove a ratchet extension in and see if there's play in the rods" trick, no obvious culprits for a rod knock.

 

I think the knock is either the piston reaching tdc with nothing to compress, or as always timing timing timing

 

Does it sounds anything like this?

 

It's a different engine but, sounded closer to this but way quieter. It would only get that obnoxious if it reved over 3700 ish RPM and sometimes on a cold start.
https://youtu.be/TR_JFmVQx_w

Also, found a lot of the plastic tabs to hold the electric connection to the injectors brittled up and no bits to hold it. I found replacements for the plastic tabs somewhere that I'm just gonna get a full set for. I'll also get a picture of the seat for that one injector when I get back from work.

 

If the injector clips are bad I'd say that's part of the problem. My clips are also broken/brittle and I've had one wiggle off while driving. In a 4cyl you notice it big time when it comes off, but my 95 camry (1mzfe?) I couldn't tell so quickly, but it would accelerate slower and not respond to throttle input as fast.

As far as them "twisting" it's common as long as it's not soaked with fresh fuel.

Timpy

 

Check your plug wires too, I heard the similar sounds on a 5s that had bad wires, they were arcing inside the plug tubes.

 

One more thing I wanna make sure on. So this ground wire (Pretty sure it's a ground, it's the one that has a plug in the center to the other side of the wire) from the manifold to the strut tower broke at the manifold side. Tried jerry rigging the connection to see if it'll still work, sparks and dies. So I got a replacement from my dealership and the wire they got me is too short to get to the original spot it was in. I'm considering just splicing the box side of the old to the ring side on the new to get the right length again. I also already tried having the ground on another bolt of the manifold an inch away from the original spot, no sparks but still no start.

 

So this ground wire (Pretty sure it's a ground, it's the one that has a plug in the center to the other side of the wire) from the manifold to the strut tower broke at the manifold side.

Definitely a ground connection. It is one of the secondary grounds and shouldn't stop the engine from starting. You'll want to repair it, but it isn't causing this problem.

Since the engine runs for a short time, you are getting fuel and spark (at least at the beginning) so that rules out a lot of the basics. Hopefully some other 2vz guys can chime in with more ideas.

-Charlie

 

Measuring AFM output voltage will give you all data needed to fix in 5-minutes

 

I was just about to ask how to check if it's the MAF that's gone bad too. Where should I measure the voltage?

 

Measure voltage output at VS line (air-flow volume).
Measure continuity to ground of FC line (air-flow yes/no).

Quick test, test-jumper the FP line and try running car.

 

The starting and fuel pump control system on the I4 motor is almost exactly the same as the V6...

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/1...-camry-1st-2nd-gen-1983-1986-1987-1991/1570498-1990-camry-starts-then-dies.html

-Charlie

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being the same issue as that thread

 

pictures are worth a thousands words

Timpy

 

Remember you need to also test VS and FC at ECU and COR connector as well. A lot of times, AFM is perfectly fine (like in that other thread), but wiring in between is bad.

 

Sorry for the delay on the updates, been a bit busy with possibly getting a new job. Anyway, I've tested resistance on the air flow meter, getting resistance where it needs it and none when it doesn't. I'm also testing the EFI relay to be sure, it calls for resistance between 20-60 but getting about 69-71 ohms, hopefully that's alright.

The resistance from the wires in the harness had one weird reading. One of the E2 slots looked empty (pretty sure it was like that before I went digging in the valves) and hooking the other E2 (by VC) to the VS came back with 0.3 ish ohms.

Also, I wanted to clarify more on the whole ground thing I mentioned and make sure I'm in the clear about that. The new wire was too short so I attached it to a bolt on the manifold but it's not sharing the same bolt as another ground coming out of the wiring harness, where it originally was, as it's too short to get there. Sorry for the bad doodling, I used my phone to draw and write.

 

Get a wire to run between those two bolts if your worried about the ground.

 

Wanted to pull out the Necronomicon and revive this thread with the answers I found to my problem just in case someone in the future finds this thread. Short Answer: Really dumb oversights.

Long Answer: After taking little peeks around the engine bay every other day, I just decided to have someone else come look so I can have a second pair of eyes (and brain) to look at what might be the problem. Turns out, there was a little bit of the old intake manifold gasket on the Driver's side that I didn't notice. To add insult to injury, after I got that mended, turns out I also got two spark plug wires mixed up on the Distributor. It really showed that this was my first time doing a bigger job like this as my daily driver is a 4 Cylinder with a lot of room to work.
Still have the knock so I'm gonna probably pull the oil pan at a later point to play around with some rods.

The good news? My car hasn't had it's cruise control working for the longest time, and I tried looking up the Morse code message the car would give me at start up with no solutions. Turns out whoever owned it last (or their mechanic) had the whole module unplugged for some reason. So I came out of all of this with new gaskets installed and a working cruise control. Gotta take the positives as they come I suppose.