Issue with my 3VZE

New member - first time posting. First off very little mechanical experience but have been learning.

Picked up a 95 4runner (3VZE - 180k miles) about 6 months ago. Everything has worked completely fine until about a month ago. It has started to splutter and lags power. The issue started about 200miles after I almost ran the fuel dry if that has any relation.

When I start the engine cold there is no issue until its warmed up after about 10 minutes. It idles very low with A/C on (500RPM wish) and the issue is definitely more noticeable when in gear between 1200-3000RPM. When the windows are up it almost sounds like you are in a helicopter. In stead of a brrrrrrrrrrrmmm sound its sounds like a very quick ba-ba-ba-ba-ba sound.

I was able to determine the issue with the 1st cylinder (distributor test - no difference in rpm’s when I disconnected the 1st cylinder form the disti) so I replaced the spark plug and the lead - no difference.
I replaced the fuel filter and still no difference.
I did a compression test on the cylinders and all are right around 140 PSI.

I took it to a mechanic for a look and they confirmed the spark is good and that it could be the fuel injector or air flow sensor - didn’t have experience withe the 3VZE.

Has anyone had this issue? Im trying to see if there is anything else I can do or test before taking it to a Toyota mechanic. Im not against doing this at all, just really enjoy the troubleshooting and fixing shit on my own.

I also have a bonus question. When I was underneath replacing the fuel filter I noticed that the cable connecting to the manual transmission was unplugged. I plugged it back in but it blew the fuse to my gauges (A/C, speedo, power windows, etc). I unplugged the cable to the tranny, replaced the fuse and everything worked fine. I went back underneath, reconnected the cable and fuse blew again. Anyone have any clue as to what this could be?

 

@RedRunner87

 

@Kyle11863 get your ass in here

 

I hear that it is very bad to run our runners low on gas because the fuel pump uses the fuel as lubrication so if that is the case it is possible you damaged the pump, though I have never had a problem with this. I'm not sure how running low on gas would cause an injector to go out but it could be a coincidence and it did go out. I doubt its the air flow meter as ours don't do a whole lot like the mass air flows do on modern vehicles and if it was it would affect the whole engine. Since pulling plug 1 doesn't change anything I'd guess your missing either fuel, air or spark and it sounds like fuel to me.

As for that wire I have no clue. Toyota wiring is weird. I used to have my radio fuse blow when I closed my driver door. Why my radio is anyway connected to my door is beyond me. My best guess would be is it has to do with your reverse lights as that is the only wire that should be related between your tranny and lights. Hope this all helps

 

Why'd you tag the mall crawler? He's never had a 2nd gen

 

Change the fuel injector from cylinder 1 - cylinder 4 or 6 can't remember which one is considered front opposite lol. See if the issue moves with the injector.

Now - I have had multiple 3v's, I would recommend deleting the EGR and blocking it - it is VERY intrusive as it's a long metal pole that goes down into the intake manifold doesn't take long to delete and I saw both a power and mileage increase doing this.

Air Flow sensors are known to go bad on these - however they are rebuildable - and you can also open it up - and forward the spring a bit - plenty of write-ups on it this from older forums, yotatech, trailtalk, maybe even on t4r.org but it's overall a newer site ~ 2004 it came live - I'm talking older sites, Pirate4x4 has write-ups on it as well because well, you have an old truck.

Seafoam, I have saved injectors by running around 4 cans of seafoam over the course of 4 tanks of gas through my tank. After those 4 full tanks with seafoam in the tank I replaced my fuel filter again as it will loosen up some sludge in the tank. Seafoam through the top of the engine is good as well but with 198k you may clog your cats up with all the gunk that will be comning out however I still recommend it.

The individual above talked about the fuel pump - he's spot on - older tank, older lines, older fuel pump - starvation is BAD for the older pumps, IIRC they are not that expensive and not a complete nitemare to replace - personally I would replace it - and I would probably buy all new injectors as well or remove them and clean them - check youtube as there are plenty of ways - and then replace the O-rings on the injectors after the cleaning and rebuild.

Now - the inevitable question is coming up from you - more power the 3.slow is a dog.... The Dough Thorley headers were the only mod I did to the 3vz that made any kind of difference on power. When I added thorleys it honestly made it feel like a 3.4, I should note I converted the old school mechanical fan to electric which made it a lot quieter and added a little bit but that coupled with the Thorleys made me love that old engine. I also put in a dynomax full exhaust at the same time so it wasn't' too loud and the dynomax was under 100 for a mandrel bent exhaust - this last paragraph is just heading your questions off before they happen;-)