Help anyone

I've got an 86 SR5 4runner with the 4 cylinder 22rec engine. I am getting about 13-14mpg in town and 15-16 (If im lucky) on highway. It is burning rich...real rich... but i am unable to find where to adjust the air/fuel mixture and i am unable to set the timming correctly (playing it by ear) because the connector (T-E???)that you are suppost to ground out to take out the advance cannont be found in any of the places that the book tells me to....(comming off the distributer, next to the passenger side wheel well or on the passenger side firewall. None of these areas have a connector that fits the books descriptions and a couple of backyard mechanics cannot find the connector. Any help with the connector or the air/fuel mixture would be appreciated!

Stop faulking around Tony and call Toyoya service dept. and ask them procedure for timing...an overly retarded engine will run rich...


If yours is carbed,your diaphram may have a hole in it requiring carb overhual...do a compression test..clean plugs,inspect inside of dist. cap and rotor,and make sure each cylinder is hitting good by removing or grounding out each sparkplug wire with testlight( if you know how)one at a time and listen/feel for difference in motor(no difference=dead hole for whatever reason),check water level and oil for cross contamination.

Forest grump, VERY good advice!

The problem is that mine is fuel injected and that it is getting alot of carbon in the spark plugs and in the exhaust.... real black exhast pipe. Im not losing oil or water although when i was checking the engine to try to figure out what was going on i found in the oil cap a small amount of oil/water mixture...none in the oil none in the water but just a small amount in the top of the inside of the oil cap. i was told this might be because the #2 cylinder had been tapped with a new thread and just found out today that the new thread was cracked and my #2 spark plug could be just pulled out be hand....Dumb mechanics...

Then you are indeed lucky to have an easy to work on 4 banger....that small amount of water mixture on the underside of oil fill cap tells me of a very likely blown headgasget....either way you will need to remove head with stripped sparkplug hole and have a machine shop repair it using an insert if possible(I do NOT mean heli-coil ) or weld up and recut threads in head...pull vacum on head to see if it needs a valve job,check for cracks and warpage(don't want to have to pull it back off to do these things later...now's the time)

I believe once this is done and new plugs are installed you will find it has more power and MPG's will return