Hi, my 22re has not been running great this winter. Engine has 318xxxkm & had a head/timing chain/head gasket/fuel filter change at 245xxxkm. Fuel consumption sky-rocket from 11L/100km to 13-14L/100km, has been burning 1-2qrt oil every 5000km (no leaks), on startup especially exhaust smells like rotten eggs, moreover, now I step all the way to the floor & i can barely maintain speed at 65mph. Lack of power for sure. I did time the truck correctly to 8btdc with the jumper (or 5btdc, I forgot which one exactly...). My Sparkplugs looks like white with white-ish deposits that can be chipped off with my nails from the tips & insulator. They are gapped at .035" if that's the right gap adjustment. O2 sensor should be original. I do have have an exhaust leak at the back side of triangle flange but I cannot address that problem until end of apr with an exhaust manifold swap)

For now, other than putting new plugs & clean air filter, what can I do maintenance/test to check what's wrong with my engine? piston rings? valve seal?

And what explain this oil mess by my pvc valve? (yes, I've been trying really hard to get that pvc valve out but I just can't without breaking it. It's so jammed in there that my prybar didn't even really help!


Thanks a lot,
chris

Sounds like blow by = oil consumtion with no leaks and the mess on/around the PC valve due to high crank case pressure.
Basicaly, it's rebuild time.
I,m not sure about the bad smell though my 85 Runner has blow by and does smell bad. I just figured it was an EGR problem.
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />
Dan

what's blow by?

Oil getting past the piston rings into the cylinder, or air fuel mix going the other way I think.

It's a little of both. Under power the fuel/air mixture gets forced past the rings on the compresion stroke. Witch also explains your power loss due to the fact that the rings are leting some of the mixture and the force from the combustion into the crank case. Hence the high crank case pressure. The oil is getting pushed into the cylinders, past the worn rings/cylinder walls, by the high pressure.
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Dan

One quart of oil burned every 5000k (3106 mi) is not too bad at all. Even two quarts in that distance is no disaster. But seeing your fuel consumption go from 21.4 mpg to 16.8 mpg is a sure sign that something is wrong. With 152,xxx miles on the odometer and an original O2 sensor perhaps a new 02 sensor is in order.

I think a quick test for excessive blow-by can be made by taking your oil filler cap off while the engine is running. If you can place the cap on the filler opening and let it rest there, with the engine running, but not screwed in and it doesn't blow off you can figure that blow-by is not the problem.

When a PCV valve has been in a 22RE valve cover for 10 - 15 years the rubber bushing/seal becomes as hard as a rock. maybe they don't seal the oil well when they are like that? It sure makes it hard to pull the PCV valve out too. Most auto parts stores have a replacement for the PCV rubber bushing/seal. -- Matt

and if you go for the new 02 sensor, which you should need, go to sparkplugs.com. Buy an NGK or Denso, and nothing else.

Rotten eggs and no power tell me the cat is plugged up and not working.
May be time to replace these, oil will kill the cat <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Cat has only 67000km on it. I changed it when i bought the truck 3yrs ago.

If you are indeed burning a lot of oil, you may have plugged up your new(ish) cat. Sounds like you need to do a compression check. If that's OK, then I'd start looking elsewhere.

I've been burning a lot of gas in my '86 for the last few months. I had some stuff apart for other maintenance and noticed that one of the rubber intake tube elbows had a crack in it. I repaired it with some Household GOOP (aka Liquid Nails, Shoe Goo, etc.) and it runs a lot better now. Check those intake parts pretty carefully. The crack was pretty tough to spot unless you pulled it apart to open it up.